Christina Goldbaum
CHANTS of “we want our money” could be heard along Darling Street yesterday, as about 100 striking parking marshals marched to Premier Helen Zille’s office.
The marshals have been on strike since October, when their employer, Street Parking Solutions (SPS), raised the daily targets marshals must meet through collecting parking fees.
“Marshals are given a target for what they have to make in a day,” Nanandi Simone-Schafer, protest organiser, explained. “If they make over that target they keep the balance and when they don’t they must pay out of pocket.”
Targets vary depending on the number of parking bays and vehicles in a given area.
According to one protester who preferred his name be withheld, SPS also withdrew its contractual agreement to return 23 percent of the target – if it was reached – to the marshals and changing the contract so marshals would only earn what they make above the target.
Simone-Schafer noted that many of the marshals were immigrants.
Marshal Dannie De Lorilunga from the Democratic Republic of Congo said while the strike had been on for months,it had received very little attention.
“We’ve tried everything, approached everyone in the government, but no one cares,” he said.
Protesters waved R20 bills outside Zille’s office and yelled “SPS must go!”
At one point, the chanting symphony was interrupted by protester Kasai Ibaya who said: “We work like slaves on the street. We need a solution from the city.”
The marshals’ petition had 11 demands, including investigations into the finances of parking tenders issued by the city and into “the allegation of a buddy-buddy relationship between a city official and the contractor”.
Their petition stated that the city had not taken responsibility for the parking marshals’ grievances despite its awareness of “gross labour violations” taking place.
Protesters tried to deliver their petition to Zille, but she did not to appoint anyone to accept it. Instead the petition was handed to Captain Retief Krige, a police officer.
Prior to the start of the strike, the city had refrained from commenting on the issue – deeming it an internal matter between SPS and its employees. After receiving complaints from the marshals, the Department of Labour launched an investigation into the employment contracts which it found were lawful.
Brett Herron, mayoral committee member for transport who has been dealing with this issue, was unavailable for comment.
Striking marshals will meet this morning to file individual cases with the department. The department had told the aggrieved marshals that they must file complaints on an individual and not group basis.