Siyavuya Mzantsi and Sandiso Phaliso
THE South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) has temporarily suspended its strike after Metrorail obtained a court interdict late on Wednesday to prevent workers from embarking on a protest.
Satawu members lashed out at Metrorail, accusing the parastatal of using “sneaky tactics” by approaching the Labour Court overnight without serving them with an application so they could defend themselves.
Yesterday, more than 200 Satawu members protested outside Cape Town train station. Their demands included permanent employment for fixed-term contract workers and the change of local management, starting with regional manager Richard Walker.
They said Metrorail was responsible for causing division among workers.
Satawu members reacted with anger and frustration when their leaders told them to report to duty today.
Satawu provincial secretary general Thembela Dakuse said the granting of the court interdict was being handled by their legal team.
She said they became aware of the interdict yesterday morning and they were not able to defend themselves.
“The strange thing is that we did not get the application, because under normal circumstances we would have got the application they forwarded to the Labour Court so that we could go and defend ourselves,” she said.
The final ruling on the matter will be made on April 20, but they will continue with their demands.
“On their basis, they said we did not reach a deadlock. I don’t know how they manage to explain the issue of the certificate that we have and they did not even tell us.
“They work underhandedly. The matter is being handled by our legal department at the moment,” she said.
Addressing the crowd, Dakuse said Metrorail’s argument was that Satawu was embarking on a strike prematurely and negotiations between them had not deadlocked.
“We are not ending here today or else they will continue exploiting us. There is going to be another hearing at the Labour Court to decide if the interdict is final or not,” she said.
Walker said in a statement that the legal recourse was requested to prevent the backbone of public transport in the Western Cape from being affected.
“The region’s contingency plan was activated and security remained on high alert to ensure order in the system if the strike action had gone ahead,” he said.
“We are privileged to transport the bulk of public transport users and every effort will be made to prevent them from being inconvenienced further,” said Walker
Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Janine Myburgh said: “The chamber has long argued that Prasa (Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa) should be declared an essential service, making strikes illegal. Bringing the city close to a stand- still to settle a dispute between a union and state-owned employer is not acceptable.”