Tshwane service delivery gradually restored
“The good news is that services are gradually returning to normal.”
The Tshwane metro says services have been restored, following a strike by municipal workers marked by service interruptions over the past three weeks.
Workers went on strike over a salary payment they said they were promised by the metro.
“The good news is that services are gradually returning to normal,” said Tshwane metro spokesperson Selby Bokaba.
“Last week Friday, the city leadership tabled a proposal to labour unions Imatu and Samwu aimed at breaking the logjam. The parties undertook to seek a mandate from their members yesterday whether or not to accept our offer,” said Bokaba.
He said the metro remained confident workers would accept the offer and return to work to expedite service delivery to communities.
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“Impressive progress was made during the long-weekend to reduce the backlog on service interruptions. Services will be ramped up in respect of water and electricity distribution, water interruptions, sewer blockages as well as refuse collection as the week progresses.
“There won’t be any special or additional capacity for collection to clear the backlog. This means that normal schedule for collection will happen on the day scheduled for collection,” said Bokaba.
He said residents were thus advised to take out their bins as per their normal schedule.
“The teams are currently clearing up the backlog at various garden sites, starting from the inside to the outside. We urge our communities to start using the garden waste sites and refrain from dumping outside.”
Bokaba said the A Re Yeng bus services resumed operations on Tuesday morning, and a decision was still pending as to when the Tshwane bus service would be back on the road.
“It is expected that the Tshwane buses will be operational soon.”
The South African municipal workers’ union (Samwu) Tshwane regional secretary Mpho Tladinyane said the union had agreed to the proposal by the Tshwane metro.
Tladinyane said Samwu members had since accepted a one-year payment to be effected immediately, latest by Friday; to have all municipal workers covered by the collective agreement paid; and lastly, for the second payment to be effected before the end of December.
Samwu met with the Tshwane administrators on Friday to engage on the impasse between the union and the metro on the payment of benchmarking monies.
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Tladinyane said the meeting came after the metro reneged on a collective agreement on benchmarking.
“In pursuit of addressing the impasse, the employer made some proposals for consideration by ourselves. In processing our response, Samwu as a worker-controlled organisation engaged its members in various constituencies, shop stewards and regional executive committee to process the proposal.”
Ward 59 councillor Shaun Wilkinson said Sunnyside had been facing a stream of sewerage streaming in streets near Barclay Square for a while now.
Wilkinson said this had frustrated residents as it smelt badly and the sewerage was running past old age homes, primary schools and other residential flats in the area.
“It has been left running for days. Some of these pipes have been leaking for weeks.”
He said he was aware that region 3 had been servicing residents with skeleton staff; however, the metro was not doing enough to service residents.
He said this backlog had been occurring since before the protest action began in the metro.
“If the administration cared about the residents in the metro, we would not have these issues in the metro.”
According to Wilkinson, Tshwane had a budget to hire outside contractors to assist with backlogs such as the current one.
Wilkinson also pleaded with resident of Sunnyside to stop illegal dumping and flushing down materials that blocked the sewerage.
He said residents needed to act responsibly when the city faced such chaos.
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