Pretoria - Former workers from the City of Tshwane’s waste department yesterday, marched to Tshwane House demanding to be reinstated.
Organisation team member Letta Aphane said they were fed up with the “ill-treatment” they had been getting from the metro.
“We have been trying to resolve this matter for years, since 2011. We have agreements and reports regarding our absorption, but they have not been enforced, and for all these years we have been taken from pillar to post.
“On Monday we got letters of termination. None of the agreements and reports have been enforced, and no one seems to know anything.
“What is worse is, the letter we received yesterday seems like a cut and paste. We were shot at by metro cops, and even a pregnant lady was shot.
“We just want permanent positions, our salary and for us to be deployed, that is what we were promised. The whole year we got paid, but they don’t want to give us work. Now they won’t pay our November salary. We do not know how we will survive.”
She said the termination letter was bogus as they were not given any notice and it was printed on November 5, but until yesterday they had not been informed of intention to terminate contracts.
“They only called us on Monday to come and take termination letters, we will not take this lying down. All previous mayors know of the issue but for some reason it has not been sorted.
“This has been going on for years, we have been promised so many times that they would take us into work but then here we are. We were never even given notice … How can we pay rent and the debts that we have?”
She said there were also discrepancies. “There are ghost employees, some have died, but are still being paid by the City.”
Kedibone Motala also received a termination letter, and she said she did not know how she would fend for herself and two children.
“This happens at the worst time possible, right before the festive season and January where we have to prepare for our children to go back to school, over that we need to worry about what we will eat this December.
“When we engage with different people, right up to HR we have no response from anybody. We got into debts knowing we are permanent but now they are turning on us.
“We have had enough of these stories from them, we cannot be sidelined when we have followed the right course and did nothing wrong, they must fix their issues and not terminate over 600 workers who desperately need this job.
“We are honest hard-working people but we are now subjected to rubber bullets for fighting for what is rightfully ours.”
They only left after receiving confirmation for a meeting on Friday, between their representatives and officials from the department to map a way forward.
Pretoria News