Municipal workers union distances itself from ongoing metro workers’ illegal strike
Service delivery in the Tshwane metro was hampered by its disgruntled employees as their illegal strike continued into its second day Wednesday afternoon.
The SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) has distanced itself from claims that its members were driving ongoing strike action across Pretoria.
Service delivery in the Tshwane metro was hampered by its disgruntled employees as their illegal strike continued into its second day on Wednesday afternoon.
“We just want to indicate that our members are not on strike,” Samwu regional secretary Mpho Tladinyane said.
This was after the Tshwane metro said the strike was being driven by city employees who claimed to be affiliated to the union.
“The ongoing unlawful strike action is being driven by members claiming to be affiliated to Samwu,” metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said on Wednesday morning.
He added that service delivery was hampered for a second consecutive day by the illegal and unprotected strike by some of the metro’s employees.
This, Mashigo said, led to prolonged delays in the metro’s ability to respond to some of the outages which affected parts of the city.
“The city has since activated a joint operations centre to respond to these disruptions with members of the TMPD and police deployed across the municipality,” he said.
He further said that an internal memorandum had been issued by acting city manager Mmaseabata Mutlaneng instructing employees to refrain from participating in the strike and to return to work immediately as their participation in the protest action was illegal.
“The city is in the process of systematically addressing the service delivery blockages to ensure that we adequately respond to the backlogs that we are experiencing,” Mashigo said.
He further said that the majority of the metro’s employees were performing their duties “while isolated groups are attempting to disrupt the work of the administration”.
“We wish to apologise to the residents for the delays that some of them may be experiencing,” Mashigo said.
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