Business lobby group Sakeliga says it has sent letters of encouragement to the DA mayors of Cape Town and capital city Tshwane and their officials, to commend them for opposing “gangsterism and intimidation” from those intent on using chaos and violence to advance their demands.
Cape Town is in the throes of a violent taxi protest that erupted last week when the SA National Taxi Council (Santaco) abruptly halted all minibus taxi operations in the Western Cape following an impasse with the Cape Town metro officials over the impounding of their vehicles.
In a statement to residents on Monday afternoon, Cape Town metro mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said the metro would not negotiate with “a [literal] gun to our heads … the rule of law is not up for negotiation”.
While he said most road closures and blockages had been cleared, the mayor warned: “If Santaco does not choose to end their strike, then we will need to be prepared to stay the course. We are prepared to do so.”
Meanwhile, in Gauteng, the Tshwane metro dismissed 38 employees for participating in an unlawful and illegal wage strike on Monday.
Tshwane metro spokesperson Selby Bokaba said the industrial action, which was declared unlawful and unprotected by the labour court two weeks ago, has affected service restoration turnaround times.
“The dismissed employees disregarded the court interdict and multiple ultimatums issued by the city manager to return to work. More dismissal letters will be issued to the striking employees,” Bokaba said.
“The city has also issued 89 letters to the electricity switching teams to all the regions over the weekend, except in Region 7, for failure to perform their duties."
“The electricians claimed that the reason they failed to execute their duties was due to intimidation by their striking colleagues. They were given a deadline ... to give written responses in relation to alleged acts of intimidation, and to identify those that have allegedly intimidated them.”
The illegal strike began with a march by SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) members on July 26 to municipal headquarters Tshwane House, demanding that the metro implement a 5.4% pay increase reached in the SA Local Government Bargaining Council (SALGBC) in 2021. But the municipality has repeatedly said it does not have money and would apply to be exempted from implementing the wage deal.
Sakeliga CEO Piet le Roux said on Tuesday: “Sakeliga supports all appropriate efforts in towns and cities across the country that aim to restore order and oppose gangsterism, extortion and sabotage in the public interest, regardless of which political parties or organisations initiate such actions.”
Samwu, the biggest local government union representing about 160,000 of the country’s nearly 300,000 municipal workers, said it was still studying the dismissal letters.
In July 2020, the Tshwane metro implemented a 6.25% pay rise that increased the city’s wage bill by R45m a month. The 6.25% increase was part of the last leg of a three-year wage hike agreement signed at the SALGBC in 2018.
In August 2020, the capital city bowed to pressure from unions including Samwu to implement a benchmarking agreement aimed at putting Tshwane municipal employees’ wages on par with those of other top municipalities.
It was said at the time that the decision was likely to put extra strain on metro finances already under pressure as residents, companies and government departments struggled to pay for services during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Samwu later opposed a vetting process to remove ghost employees from the payroll. The decision to withhold pay of more than 7,000 workers came two weeks after Tshwane agreed to implement the benchmarking agreement, which was set to cost the city R300m.
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