Striking parly staff demand Mgidlana’s departure

The branch chairman of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union, Sthembiso Tembe, accused Mgidlana of inflating his own salary while illegally deducting the pay of hundreds of striking workers for the past week in which their labour action has seen portfolio committee meetings cancelled and the police fire stun grenades to break up protests.

“He’s greedy, he’s stealing from the public… he’s lost our respect and we are not going to respect anything he says because he does not respect us. He is not fit to the secretary of Parliament,” Tembe told hundreds of cheering Nehawu members packed into the Old Assembly chamber at Parliament.

“He has deducted our salary for the days that we have been involved in this,” he said, adding that in terms of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, Mgidlana had no right to do so.

Tembe said the striking staff would now demand to negotiate directly with Parliament’s presiding officers. He also accused Mgidlana of lying by suggesting that a series of meetings this week with Nehawu leaders had made progress towards resolving the labour dispute over salary and pension benefits.

There has been no progress, and Nehawu would continue the strike until its demands were met, he said.

More than a dozen police vehicles were stationed outside Parliament on Friday morning and gates were chained and padlocked. Parliament issued a statement saying it had learned with grave concern that Nehawu members were planning to commit violence against members of the institution’s management during the course of the day.

The statement reiterated that Parliament had obtained an interim interdict against staff during the week and that the strike had been declared illegal by the labour court.

Asked whether workers intended to assault managers, Tembe said no such plan existed but added with a smile: “If we get an opportunity, because we are so angry… they assaulted us.” - ANA

(File photo: Gallo Images)