‘We want permanent employment’ – disgruntled workers
Protestors made their case heard outside the Germiston Civic Centre on Thursday.
While the February council meeting went on inside the Germiston Council Chambers on Thursday, protestors marched outside, demanding permanent employment from the metro.
Members of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP), especially those from the community response team and health, and members who belonged to a project entitled Lungile Mtshali, which fell under the solid waste department, want answers from the metro.
Thami Mbatha and Barrinton Makamba, two of the leaders from Lungile Mtshali, spoke to the GCN about their frustrations with the metro.
“We were hired by the metro for the project in 2014 and then we all received termination letters in late 2015,” said Mbatha.
“We have been trying since then to be reinstated.”
Makamba added they want to know who is doing the jobs in the parks now.
“We don’t see much work being done and we want to know what the metro has done with the money allocated to the Lungile Mtshali project.
“We want to know why the metro is giving tenders to friends,” Makamba said.
The protestors told the GCN their biggest problem is that they allegedly can’t be hired by other companies as the labour department says they are employed by the metro.
“We will continue with our protests until we have answers from Ekurhuleni,” Makamba said.
Mbatha added they are planning to do a mass shutdown in the near future and they have taken the matter to the labour court.
The protestors were met by representatives of the metro who listened to their grievances and confirmed to the GCN that the protest was about attaining permanent employment.
The memorandum will go through the normal council channels.
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