Strike leaves path of destruction in Centurion

“There are several problems currently in my area,” former ward councillor for Valhalla, Ina Strydom, said.

Strydom said on Friday she had an incident in Clubview where the water valves were switched off by striking workers.

“This left the enitre Clubview area without water for the greater part of Saturday.”

Strydom said Thaba Tshwane and parts of Valhalla experience power outages after faulty panels were replaced but metro workers refused to switch the power back on.

Thaba Tshwane electricity has been off since Saturday and parts of Valhalla since Sunday.

“I am shocked at the callous murder of the waste truck driver. There is a difference between a legal peaceful protest and a riot. SAPS need to act now,” former ward councillor, David Farquharson said.

“More incidents involving service delivery sabotage and intimidation are being reported. Saboteurs are closing water valves and damaging infrastructure. Waste sites are being mobbed and waste truck drivers have been attacked.

Another former councillor, Gert Visser said an increase of incidents to create chaos by deliberate acts of sabotage were experienced over the weekend when the water valves to a complex in Thatchfield was closed which left approximately a 100 households without water from Friday to Sunday.

“Waste collection has come to a standstill on Monday with Irene residents being on the receiving end of the strike.”

The Rietvlei Nature Reserve has been closed to the public until further notice in lieu of the strike.

On Monday the Tshwane metro announced that it had obtained a court interdict against protesting workers affiliated to the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu).

Protesters recently took to the streets, burning rubbish bins and vandalising the Tshwane house demanding wage increments.

The metro’s spokesperson Selby Bokaba said the protest was having a devastating impact on service delivery across all the seven regions in the municipality.

“Provision of services in various regions in respect of water and sanitation, energy and electricity and re-gravelling of the roads have been severely affected,” he said.

“Other services severely impacted by the strike include the suspension of the bus services, closure of some of the customer care walk-in centres and a clinic.”

Bokaba said workers that reported for duty in certain regions have been physically threatened and their offices forcefully closed by the striking workers.

“Management has conceded to one of the workers’ demands of the payment of the annual wage increment, which would be paid on Wednesday, 29 July,” he said.

“The leadership of the municipality has made it abundantly clear to the labour union representatives that the City’s finances were in dire straits and thus cannot afford to pay the workers their outstanding benchmarking monies at this juncture.”

The court order granted by the labour court compelled protesters to immediately cease and desist from blocking or interfering with the traffic flow in the Pretoria CBD, without proper authority being obtained for a protest march.

It also compelled them to stop damaging any property of the metro, residents, or business owners in the City; as well as threatening, manhandling, or assaulting any employee or contractor of the metro.

Tshwane administrator Mpho Nawa urged striking workers to comply with the order of the court and pleaded with the parties to return to the negotiation table.

“We witnessed the destruction of property since last week in the CBD. This has now escalated to threats and intimidation of non-striking workers in various regions,” he said.

“Some of the striking workers have gone to the extent of switching off the lights at one of the City’s clinics which is providing a critical service during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“This is totally unacceptable. Workers have a right to protest peacefully and not to threaten, intimidate or destroy property. We hope the court order will be complied with and workers would return to work and provide the much-needed services to our communities,” he said.

“We humbly apologise to our communities for the inconvenience they have endured due to the strike,” Nawa said.