'City broke pledge on firing staff'

Executive mayor Solly Msimanga. Picture: Thobile Mathonsi

Executive mayor Solly Msimanga. Picture: Thobile Mathonsi

Published Jan 25, 2017

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Pretoria – The South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) in Tshwane has accused executive mayor Solly Msimanga of breaking his promise that the DA-led administration would not fire workers.

Its secretary Mpho Tladinyane said the union had learnt with shock that 305 finance department contract workers had received letters of termination of their contracts. “This is unfortunate given that the city has a 50% vacancy rate with more than 10 000 posts still unoccupied.”

Tladinyane said other workers were informed about the city’s decision to absorb only 3 000 workers into the system.

The union called on Msimanga to reinstate the 305 workers and to provide clarity on the 3 000 to be absorbed.

Tladinyane said the city was negotiating in bad faith with regards to the permanent absorption of contract workers, because the matter was still under discussion in the local labour forum.

The union had been engaging the city on the matter since since February 2016.

Workers resorted to protests recently when their proposed meeting with the city was not honoured by officials, Tladinyane said.

The city committed to finalising the matter on December 7 last year, but that never happened.

The union also had a bone to pick with Msimanga for protecting Frans du Toit, a director at the Centurion electricity depot, accused of calling black workers baboons and the k-word.

Tladinyane said racial incidents were reported by workers to the regional executive director Tebello Masehe, who took no action against Du Toit.

Efforts by Samwu to engage Du Toit failed after he told them that they were not recognised at the department, said Tladinyane.

“Instead of addressing the real issues, the city went to court to force employees to submit and continue to report to the same racists they complained about; this equates to institutionalised racism."

Mayoral spokesperson Samkelo Mgobozi said the manner in which Samwu raised issues was unacceptable. “While the substantive matter of their grievances is still to be interrogated further, it is entirely unacceptable and not in the spirit of our constitutional order to conduct protests in this fashion, at the expense of millions who need services,” he said.

Samwu-affiliated workers were demanding permanent jobs within the municipality, he said.

Some disgruntled contract workers held city officials hostage at the city building in Pretorius Street seeking to pressure the city to absorb them as permanent employees.

“The city strongly condemns the wholly unlawful manner in which these disputes have been handled.”

Unprotected and interdicted protests by a minority of disgruntled employees under Samwu continued in blind service to their narrow party political agenda, he said.

Pretoria News

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