Pretoria - Commuters were left stranded in the City of Tshwane yesterday as the metro’s bus services failed to resume due to the ongoing strike action.
The municipality, through its MMC for roads and transport, Katlego Mathebe, had announced at the weekend that buses would resume from yesterday, to no avail.
Bus users going to work and school waited at their stops, but the buses never came.
A video shared by Mathebe on social media yesterday morning confirms that the ongoing strike action disrupted the resumption of services.
“My name is Katlego Mathebe, MMC for Roads and Transport in Tshwane, and I’m currently at one of the bus depots of the city,” she said in the video.
“We have three bus depots in the municipality and I can confirm that of the three, the seven o’clock shift did not go out. We want to apologise to the commuters but we are going to continue to take disciplinary steps against the illegal strikers so that we can restore all our operation.”
Municipal employees have been in protest over a wage increase that may be going to court after the SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) defended an application by the municipality to the SA Local Government Bargaining Council seeking an exemption to paying the increase.
The municipality lost that bid and has expressed interest in taking the matter to the Labour Court for review.
Yesterday morning, the metro released a statement announcing that management had served seven bus employees with dismissal letters for taking part in the unprotected strike.
The seven are suspected of disrupting bus services set to resume yesterday.
Metro spokesperson Selby Bokaba wrote: “Seven employees at Tshwane Bus Services have been served with intended letters of dismissal this morning for furtherance and supporting the strike action which has been declared unlawful and unprotected by the Labour Court.
“The seven employees, dubbed the strike ‘instigators’, five of whom were Samwu shop stewards, are accused of preventing the buses yesterday from being prepared for operations which were expected to resume this morning.
“They allegedly intimidated their non-striking colleagues at the C de Wet Depot in the Pretoria CBD.”
The statement added that 12 drivers reported for work yesterday morning, while four called in sick.
“Only two buses went out for the 4.30am shift, but there were no commuters at the bus stations, and the buses returned to the depot,” he said.
He said the seven were given 24 hours to make representations as to why they shouldn’t be permanently dismissed.
Addressing the media yesterday at Birchwood Hotel, Samwu general secretary Dumisane Magagula blamed city management for workers not reporting for work, and vowed to defend those that have been “illegally” dismissed.
“The city withdrew several services, barricaded several municipal buildings with razor wires to prevent workers from accessing the workplace,” he said.
“This illegal lockout of employees resulted in a collapse in service delivery within the city and the unfortunate shooting of a Samwu member while on duty. It is these types of actions by the city that have made workers vulnerable to criminal elements who have used the stalemate between the union and the city to ensure that they keep getting contract work from the city, a city which deliberately refused workers to report for duty, compromising service delivery in the process.
“The city has also illegally and procedurally dismissed dozens of workers, while many workers have had their salaries withheld as the city claims that these workers have not been working.”
Pretoria News