Retrenched Ledwaba in solidarity with workers who seek justice

The on-going saga of retrenched workers of the old Germiston City Council continues, this time with a twist at the tail, as 63-year-old Matsobane John Ledwaba has revealed he is one of the few retrenched municipal worker who were later re-employed by a sub-contractor to work for their former employer.

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The municipal general worker who continues to works for the municipality in Katlehong, told Kathorus MAIL that despite being employed by the municipality, he will support his former colleagues to fight for what is owed to them. “I may still be employed by the municipality, but I was never paid what was due to me when I was retrenched in 1993,” explained Ledwaba.

A Kathorus-based human resources and labour activist who spoke on condition of anonymity due to “ethical reasons”, and whose offices monitors labour violation practices, confirmed that this was in fact the first “labour-broking” system introduced by companies that were “unbundling” their workers on to the newly introduced labour broking companies which he says were a “new and popular phenomenon” in the country’s labour-system.

Ledwaba said not only did he continue working as a sub-contractor’s general labourer for the municipality, but when his contract ended with the new Ekurhuleni Municipality two years later, he found himself being re-employed to his old job by the now new “democratic”municipality of Ekurhuleni in Katlehong, where he still works.

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He told Kathorus MAIL that he is due to go on pension at the age of 65, but added that like many of his 366 colleagues who were retrenched by the old Gemiston City Council in 1993, he too, was never paid his pension contributions in full after he was retrenched. “I am not a young person anymore, but I will stand alongside my former colleagues and fight for what is rightfully due to us,” vowed Ledwaba.