Pretoria - The EFF in Tshwane has called for the reinstatement of at least 100 municipal workers fired for participating in the unlawful and unprotected strike by South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) members.
The workers, who engaged in a three-week strike over salary increases, were dismissed after the City of Tshwane gave them an ultimatum to either return to work or face termination of their contracts.
EFF regional leader Obakeng Ramabodu said the party was the vanguard of the working class and “stands in solidarity with both the workers of Tshwane and the residents of Tshwane”.
“We therefore call for the reinstatement of the workers who are breadwinners of their families. The inhumane treatment by the City needs to be contained before we put this city further into chaos,” he said.
The EFF caucus in council also asked Speaker Mncedi Ndzwanana to convene a special council meeting for the purpose of discussing the issues related to striking workers and the collapse of service delivery.
“It has been weeks now and almost a month since the residents of Tshwane have seen service delivery being carried out in their respective areas of residence.
“The city is filthy, the infrastructure has collapsed and there are pockets of protests or strikes in communities due to the non-responsive City and the lack of service delivery,” Ramabodu said.
He said there was an urgent need for the meeting to allow council to “have a debate which should come up with the solution needed, we need to provide leadership.”
“The City led by incapable Mayor Cilliers Brink clearly is just reactionary machinery that resorts to all manner of ineffective and desperate measures by dismissing employees.
“Even the courts have dismissed the application for contempt of court because it realises that there is absolutely no legal basis for it to grant any other order over a matter that needs leadership and not some pop-star approach,” he said.
Last week Samwu in Gauteng accused the municipality of having spent at least R3 million in legal fees in a bid to stop the striking workers demanding wage increases.
This was after the City took the union to the Labour Court on two occasions alleging that the union was in contempt of the rule issued by the same court.
The City said its urgent application to the court for contempt was dismissed on the grounds that the matter was not urgent, and not on the merits.
The ruling, he said, has no bearing on the interim interdict granted to the City on July 28.
The City, which threatened to dismiss more workers, said there has been a total of 100 employees dismissed so far for participating in the unlawful strike or for intimidating their colleagues.
Ramabodu said: “Well over 100 breadwinners have been dismissed by the City following its unlawful withholding of the increases of workers.”
The party requested an urgent council sitting with today or tomorrow because it could not afford to “sit and watch while the city is burning”.
“We need leadership to be provided now and the time is now. We hope that the speaker can process this matter and treat it based on its urgency,” Ramabodu said.
Pretoria News