Waste management workers embarked on a three-day strike by blockading the municipal buildings, protesting about the Cachet Park City Improvement District Non-Profit Company (CIDNPC).
The strike, which entailed the disruption of services at the municipal buildings started on Thursday, proceeded to Friday and ended on Monday.
Washington Ncongolo, the spokesperson for the waste management workers, says the main reason for the strike was a fear of job losses that the initiative currently in operation in the Bult area might cause.
Ncongolo says the workers were aggrieved that, every time they went to clean the Bult, they found the area has already been cleaned.
He says they met with the municipal manager (MM) after the illegal strike. The MM promised to terminate the partnership with the CID NPC.
“That is why we stopped the strike and went back to work,” he said. Ncongolo warned that, should the private company continue to clean the Bult, the workers would embark on a legal strike.
Willie Maphosa, the J.B. Marks spokesperson, explained that the municipality had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Cachet Park CIDNPC.
The organisation will supply services and conduct activities above and beyond the current municipal services and enhance such services. These services include refuse removal, fixing potholes and street lights, and other services.
“The NPC provides these services through its fundraising initiatives. The municipality does not lose any money, but it rather benefits as the resources that could have been spent in that area are better utilised elsewhere,” he said.
Maphosa further clarified that the strike was primarily caused by a misunderstanding of the relationship the municipality had entered into with Cachet Park CIDNPC. The latter is a voluntary, non-profit association of people living in and around the Bult.
*Read more on this story in Thursday’s Herald (9 May)
