Cape Town - A group of more than 100 former employees of the now-defunct Ciskei Bus Transport Company on Friday morning blockaded the entrances to Parliament to protest against unpaid pensions.
The pensioners, who have been protesting almost daily for almost three weeks, many times sleeping out in the open near Parliament’s gates, say all they want is the money that is due to them from the time they worked for the company, then part of Transnet’s railway division.
Cars and people going into Parliament had to turn back on Friday morning as the determined pensioners braved strong winds and the cold to lie or sit in groups in front of all entrances to the complex.
Some of them covered themselves in blankets and others wound scarves around their heads.
Parliamentary spokesman Luzuko Jacobs said the issues brought up by the pensioners were being dealt with by the Department of Labour. Spokesmen for the department did not respond to calls and e-mails by the time of going to print.
The issue of alleged unpaid pension payouts dates back to 1990, when the company was dissolved and a new company formed in its place. At the time the employees were locked out during a strike and not allowed to return to work, even though they had not been officially fired.
Pensioner Milton Maweni, 85, this morning said after weeks of sleeping outside Parliament in protest, they had decided to close the institution down. He said they decided to block the entrances because they felt they were not being taken seriously by the authorities.
Maweni said the Department of Labour has signed what they needed to sign and passed the matter on, but it was now being delayed. He said they were promised they would be paid on Thursday, but this had not happened. “No one is going inside this building today because all we want is our money, money we worked hard for,” said Maweni.
Nobuntu Tyityi, 64, the wife of a former worker, said life was hard for her and her family back in the Eastern Cape.
“My husband died before getting his money. I’m an unemployed, single mother who only gets an old age grant to support the family,” she said.
Tyityi said her children were unemployed and depended on her grant.
Mgcini Sijila, 73, said they depended on donations for food in Cape Town because they didn’t have any more money after leaving the Eastern Cape weeks ago to take their long-held grievances to Parliament.
Sijila said officials had refused to let them use the Parliament bathrooms, making it hard for them to carry on with the protest.
Cape Argus
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