The Johannesburg CBD has begun feeling the effects of the municipal workers’ strike, with most of the city’s busiest streets covered in a sea of rubbish on Wednesday morning.
Since litter collection and street cleaning traditionally takes place during the night in the CBD and the suburbs, Wednesday marked the first day of the resultant littering, with rubbish seemingly having been thrown deliberately into the streets.
The hardest hit were Commissioner, Market, Bree, Jeppe and Pritchard streets where motorists had a hard time evading litter bins blocking the way.
Rissik Street, where the Gauteng provincial legislature is housed, was not spared as a huge litter bin was lying near the main entrance.
Sauer Street which houses the ruling African National Congress headquarters and adjoins the Queen Elizabeth Bridge, was also affected but was clear towards Braamfontein. The streets remained clean in the neighbouring suburbs of Milner Park, Emmarentia and Greenside.
The 100 000-strong SA Municipal Workers Union opted for an indefinite national strike over the SA Local Government Association’s (Salga) refusal to review its final eight percent wage increase offer as against Samwu’s ten percent demand.
The striking workers were expected to gather on Wednesday morning at Beyers Naude Square in the city centre before marching to the Johannesburg metropole headquarters.
There are gatherings to be followed by marches to various municipal offices on Wednesday at Durban City Hall and Havelock Road in Pietermaritzburg, the municipal offices at Memel in the Free State, and Keisersgracht in Cape Town.
There are also marches scheduled for Kimberley, Paarl, Plettenberg Bay, George, Beaufort West, Saldanha Bay, Cedarberg, Umtata and Kokstad. – Sapa