The South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) in Tshwane and Joburg has accused the DA-led municipalities of using private law firms with alleged close “political ties to the DA” to purge their members.
Samwu leaders Mpho Tladinyane, the Tshwane regional secretary, and Thobani Nkosi, the acting Joburg regional secretary, made the claims as 120 members who were formerly linked to the ANC political office challenged their pending termination of employment in the Labour Court in Joburg yesterday.
Both Tladinyane and Nkosi said the City of Joburg was using private legal services to defend its decision while leaving qualified professional lawyers “who are equally able to defend the City of Joburg” to remain idle at their offices.
Nkosi said the political administration of the DA-led coalition was using at least 12 such law firms while the different municipal entities were allegedly also using their own law firms but claimed all those firms had close “DA links”. However, he failed to reveal the names of the firms.
In its statement, the union said: “The City of Johannesburg dismissed 130 employees who were based in political offices. These employees were converted to permanent by the (outgoing) mayoral committee. (Their) only sin ... was that they were appointed by the ANC mayoral committee.
“It is our belief that the DA-led coalition is playing double standards given the fact that, in Tshwane, the DA-led mayoral committee took a similar decision in appointing 1 500 (employees) and such employees are still employed by the City of Tshwane,” it said.
Pretoria News