Samwu maintains its members are not on strike in Tshwane

The South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) says the City of Tshwane has wrongfully accused its members of embarking on a wild cat strike and intends to prove this to the metro.

This after the City of Tshwane on Tuesday said it had served about 19 employees, based at the Mayville Depot, with letters of intention to terminate their services for being involved in an illegal strike.

The workers, who want to be moved from contract employees to permanent staff, have until Thursday to provide written reasons to the city on why their services should not be terminated.

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However, Samwu in the Tshwane region maintained on Wednesday that none of their members had called for a strike as of yet.

“We place it on record that Samwu has not called for a strike in the City of Tshwane as of yet. The union is not led by amateurs who do not know the procedure to be followed when embarking on a strike action.

“When the time comes for us to call for a strike given the decision by the City to deny workers their salary and wage increases, we shall do so following the correct procedures,” Samwu said in a statement.

Disruption of services

The union said the ongoing strike, which has resulted in water interruptions and electricity blackouts in many parts of Tshwane, led to community members turning against municipal workers due to the city’s claims that Samwu was leading the strike.

Last week, a municipal worker from the city’s electricity department ended up in intensive care after being severely beaten up by community members while attending to a power outage in Soshanguve.

“This was not the first time that workers have been attacked by community members, especially in  Soshanguve, we have on numerous occasions pleaded with the City for the safety of workers following the increase in such attacks.

“Before we are municipal workers, we are members of communities and as such we too want to benefit from service delivery,” Samwu said.

The union called on Tshwane’s acting city manager and Mayor Randall Williams to desist from driving a wedge between workers and community members.

“We further call on our members and municipal workers in general within the city to remain disciplined as they have been and not to allow themselves into these shenanigans that are being amplified by the city.

“We equally urge community members to not fall into the trap set by the city of driving a wedge between them and workers.”

Compiled by Thapelo Lekabe

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