George Rangwanasha, the task team’s public relations officer, said the march will leave from Alexandra Stadium on 17 July and head to Pretoria to the offices of the Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Ministry. A “memorandum of grievances” will be handed to the officials, and the CWP will demand that the Programme fall directly under the administration of the City of Johannesburg.
However, gates to the stadium, which doubles as the administration centre for the Region E component of the Programme, were closed and manned by community workers, who said they wanted to keep their bosses away.”We are not going to allow them into this stadium if they dare set their feet here,” the workers said. The fight has continued for the past five months, without an end in sight but workers said their salaries were still being paid as they are still working.
On 19 June CWP members marched from Alexandra Stadium to the Houghton offices of an agency appointed by the Johannesburg City Council to run the Programme, Imizamo yeSizwe. The offices were deserted and the directors’ phones were switched off.
Rangwanasha added that the CWP is “fed up with the Mickey Mouse running of the Programme” and that this matter must be settled “once and for all”.
The workers closed the gates of the stadium as it operates as the administrative centre for the programme and their employers have access to it. They do not want their bosses to gain entry or come anywhere near the administrative offices.
