Cosatu condemns death of Samwu worker

Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Monday condemned the death of a South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) member who was allegedly killed by police while striking in Pretoria.

“Cosatu totally agrees with Samwu that this attack and killing is an attack on the working class,” federation spokesperson Patrick Craven said in a statement.

“We will not tolerate such brutality by the SAPS [South African Police Service] who are supposed to be protecting our lives and our democratic rights,” he said.

Union member Petros Msiza (43) died after clashes between striking bus and refuse workers, police and metro police at the city’s Church Street depot on Thursday last week.

The City of Tshwane confirmed Msiza was a municipal employee but could not provide details on how he died.

Cosatu said it backed Samwu’s call for the police officers responsible to be identified and brought to book.

It also agreed that a judicial inquiry should assess evidence of police violence and the application of policing methods.

“The federation repeats its call for the SAPS to adopt a code of conduct for dealing with protest demonstrations,” Craven said.

The federation sent its condolences to Msiza’s family and colleagues.

Samwu workers protested following disciplinary actions against their members in the city’s troubled bus services.

Over 900 members were fired for illegally striking last week.

Samwu said it would challenge the dismissals as well as a court interdict against them striking illegally.—Sapa