Pretoria - A Tshwane water and sanitation employee was shot and wounded in an incident believed to be linked to strike action.
Tshwane staffers affiliated with the SA Municipal Workers Union have been on strike for more than three weeks, demanding salary increases.
The Pretoria News understands that the employee ignored threats to stop responding to call-outs from the metro by fellow employees.
According to city spokesperson Selby Bokaba, the worker was with a team from his department when they were attacked in Montana on Saturday evening.
Bokaba confirmed that the attack was linked to the strike action.
The city was recently granted an interdict by the Labour Court to declare the strike unlawful.
Bokaba said: “The unlawful and unprotected strike by employees affiliated to labour union Samwu has degenerated into thuggery and wanton criminality after an employee was shot and hijacked shortly after completing a shift on Saturday evening.”
He said the team was responding to a call in Montana when they were confronted by a group of men who reprimanded them and told them to stop working. However, the team continued working.
“On completion of the shift, while on his way home, the standby team leader was hijacked and shot. He was rushed to hospital.”
City manager Johann Mettler urged law-enforcement to find the perpetrators of the crime.
“This incident is deplorable, and we plead with law-enforcement to find the suspects, lock them up and throw the keys away.
“We will not cower in the face of intimidation by thugs. If the perpetrators are found to be our employees they will be booted out of the employ of the city,” Mettler said.
The city has already issued dismissal letters to more than 90 employees who took part in the strike action.
Mettler had initially given the striking workers three ultimatums to return to work during the illegal and unprotected strike, but the workers ignored the call.
They were summarily dismissed for failing to comply with the Labour Court interdict.
Mettler has also warned the striking workers to stop intimidating co-workers and damaging city property.
“Last week, I issued ultimatums to employees who had engaged in the unprotected strike to cease and return to work immediately; subsequently, I approached the Labour Court on an urgent basis interdicting the strike and the court ruled in my favour and declared the strike illegal and unprotected,” Mettler said.
“All my efforts to end the strike were disregarded and the continuous strike action is in contempt of the court interdict.”
He added that he had released non-essential workers to work from home for their safety while calling for the essential municipal workers to report any intimidation.
City mayor Cilliers Brink has described the situation as an assault on the metro and called on residents to understand why there was disruption to services.
He said: “The city is under assault by unprotected strike action with the use of violence and intimidation.
“We are seeing the disruption of services, the delay in attending to water and electricity outages. Waste collection is likely to be affected and our most vulnerable attending clinics are being targeted while the personnel are being chased out and the clinics are being closed.”
Brink accused the workers of trying to force management to agree to the salary increases with violence and intimidation.
He insisted the municipality could not afford salary increases.
“We will be looking at mitigation. But there will be disruption and residents must know what is at stake. What we are fighting for is the future of the city and to secure the jobs of officials and to make sure we have a future in this city,” he said.
Pretoria News