LISTEN: SAMWU angry at Tshwane for roping in AfriForum to quell protests
Workers affiliated to the South African Municpal Workers Union (Samwu) have been protesting in the City of Tshwane over an array of issues, including salary increments.
The strike action, which the city has labelled as illegal, placed a strain on the municipality’s service delivery this week, include its battles with power outages.
“We have observed that over a number of days now, some workers within the city have been demonstrating indicating their unhappiness in the manner in which the city is handling it’s business,” says Samwu’s regional secretary Mpho Tladinyane
Tladinyane says at the center of some of these challenges is the city’s refusal to pay salary increases.
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“What really caused the rift between the city and employees now, was the fact that a group of employees had won an arbitration award and the city was delaying in implementing it.
“So they went and closed a number of depots demonstrating and trying to force the city to absorb them.
“Subsequent to that, the city said issued a circular that they would review the award and due to the standoff, the city then brought AFriforum into the picture.”
Tladinyane says the city subsequently sought AfriForum assistance during the protests.
“A lot of vigilantism was observed at that particular period intime, workers from other depots hearing how some of those particular some employees were treated by AFriforum they decided to take it upon themselves, to ensure AFriforum does not become part of the city.
LISTEN TO SAMWU BELOW
