Rubber bullets fly as Tshwane metro staff evacuated amid clashes between police and protesters

Staff members at the Tshwane House, were forced to evacuate the building in the CBD following a clash between protesters and the police on Wednesday afternoon.

At least 627 former contract workers, known as “Capacity employees” took to the streets claiming that their contracts were unlawfully terminated.

Tension escalated when protesters allegedly pelted police with stones, police then retaliated with rubber bullets. This led to staffers being rushed out of the building.

Tshwane spokesperson Selby Bokaba said the disgruntled group had staged a sit-in at the Tshwane House since the beginning of this week, intimidating and preventing employees and visitors from entering and exiting the building.

“They have also circulated video clips in which they made veiled threats against certain employees of the city,” Bokaba said, adding that the workers were employed on a fixed 12 months contract between October 2019 to October 2020.

He said when their employment contracts ended last year, the municipality sent each a termination letter on November 5, 2020, inviting them to visit their HR agent to complete a slew of documents, including the Unemployment Insurance Fund form, which formalised their termination.

“However, the former employees refused to heed the call to come forward to complete the forms, insisting instead, to be permanently absorbed into the employ of the city.

“The contract entered into between the city and the former contract workers in 2019, explicitly stated that it was for the duration of 12 months (one-year),” he said.

“The city made it clear that it had no intention of absorbing them as there was neither a need nor a budget appropriated for their permanent employment.”

Bokaba said the group was adamant that their contracts were unlawfully terminated, adding that the metro was of the view that these contracts were lawfully terminated at the end of October 2020.

He said the metro had already successfully defended its position at arbitration and was now awaiting the final outcome of the dispute from the Labour Court in Johannesburg.

“The workers have also alleged that ‘some people’ in the city promised them permanent employment, but they couldn’t adduce any documentation to substantiate their claim.

“Tshwane will strive to ensure that service delivery is not adversely impacted by the unfortunate occurrence of this afternoon, and will not hesitate to call on law enforcement to provide safety and security to the employees to enable them to perform their tasks free of intimidation.”