Meanwhile, 39 more employees have been charged with offences alongside 12 others who’ve been suspended already.

The 50 employees will now all face disciplinary hearings for their alleged roles in perpetuating labour unrest, resulting in a number of sporadic strikes since the two-month-long strike last September.

Arrests are also expected this week still, following Sunday’s mob attack on the home of Mayor Mhlonishwa Masilela’s mother in Mhluzi.
Reports that Mayor Masilela’s home had been set alight was incorrect.

A mob of disgruntled municipal employees, however, descended onto the property of the mayor’s elderly mother, where tyres were set alight outside her home on Sunday.

Six municipal employees have so far been identified as part of the mob.

They can expect a knock on the door from the police soon, Mayor Masilela confirmed to www.mobserver.co.za.

Last week Mayor Masilela sat down with the Middelburg Observer for an exclusive interview, in which he strongly denounced the violence associated with the ongoing strike.

He urged all wards, from 1 to 29, to form community watch groups in order to protect infrastructure and contractors being targeted by unruly municipal employees.

Meanwhile, another criminal complaint of intimidation has been opened against one of the municipality’s most vocal female shop stewards, who allegedly threatened a local councillor directly, threatening that after the municipality had been burnt to the ground, strikers will be coming for the homes and families of unsupportive councillors.

Charged municipal employees will face disciplinary hearings from the 23rd onward.

It’s clear that desperation is sinking in fast among strikers who will not be paid for the days they didn’t work.

The financial implications will hit them with the next pay-check, as employees have been paid in full for last month.

Workers are still gathered outside the civic centre, which remains on lockdown.