The statements reads as follows:

The Minister wishes to remind all stakeholders that the country’s Constitution guarantees the right of association and the protection of worker rights and industrial action.

The Department of COGTA has thus dispatched a team to work with all parties in assessing the situation and establish the facts which led to this incident and to resolving the impasse at the municipality.

The Minister sends condolences to the family of the confirmed worker who has been fatally shot. It is not acceptable that a worker was shot in a location where safety was supposed to be guaranteed. Minister Dlamini Zuma expressed sadness that this occurrence had caused a family to lose a loved one.

The Minister has urged the municipality’s leadership, organised labour, and the workers to urgently resolve their labour disputes through negotiation, particularly during this delicate time of high unemployment and nationwide retrenchments.