/ 1 January 2002

Messy municipal strike set to end

The three-week municipal workers’ strike looks set to end after the SA Local Government Association announced on Tuesday night it had reached a tentative agreement with two trade unions.

Salga’s Don Seemise said the parties would gather on Friday at 9am to sign the deal if they had obtained a mandate from their constituents.

He said negotiators from Salga, the SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) and the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union (Imatu) had until then to convince their members of the need to sign.

”At negotiators’ level we are comfortable with it,” he said.

Thabo Mokoena, one of Salga’s senior negotiators, earlier told Sapa a deal had been signed.

”We are in the process of signing a deal. We have offered Samwu a new reasonable, affordable offer which they have accepted”.

While Mokoena would not reveal the figures, he said Salga would increase the employees’ basic salary.

Samwu’s Anna Weekes denied there was any deal. However Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana’s representative on Tuesday night congratulated the parties for coming to a provisional accord.

”The parties who met yesterday and today have concluded an agreement which still has to be ratified by their constituencies. The minister is confident that the three week strike will be resolved by the end of the week,” Snuki Zikalala said.

Mdladlana said the strike was costly to Samwu, Salga and the community.

”Constructive negotiation and dialogue are indications that South Africa’s labour legislation is working,” concluded the minister.

He thanked the parties for having heeded his call for dialogue and that parties should sit around the table and resolve their disputes amicably.

Meanwhile the apparent failure to resolve the strike took an unexpected turn earlier in the day with a growing number of protesters illegally occupying municipal offices around the country.

At 3pm about 100 Samwu leaders in Johannesburg had joined the fray by invading the city’s civic centre and vowing to stay there overnight.

They left around 6pm when unidentified parties released teargas which made the situation inside ”unbearable,” according to Samwu Johannesburg branch chairman Caleb Mokoena.

The action was one of the number of invasions reported during the day as the strikers became increasingly frustrated by Samwu and Salga’s apparent inability to find a solution to the strike despite the union having lowered its demands.

In Witbank, Mpumalanga, about 100 employees of the Emalahleni municipality occupied the offices of the mayor and town manager, vowing to remain there until the strike was over.

Similar actions were also reported in different areas of the Free State.

Samwu’s general secretary Roger Ronnie said on Tuesday that while the union had not instructed any of its members to stage the invasions, the actions were an indication of the workers’ frustration with Salga’s apparent lack of will to negotiate for a solution.

”It’s a tactic by our members to try to bring home the message to Salga. Our members’ frustration is now manifesting itself in this kind of action,” he said.

The strike has been marred by violence, intimidation and the littering of city streets.

In one of the most recent incidents, SABC radio reported that a Mangaung municipal official who had been badly burnt in a petrol-bomb attack on her home in Botshabelo, east of Bloemfontein, was recovering from her injuries.

Mateboho Meloane, who was said to be a former Samwu shop steward, was now an assistant to the chairman of the ANC caucus in the Mangaung Municipality.

Meanwhile, Salga has condemned the death of a striking worker and the wounding of two others in a shooting at Louis Trichardt.

They were allegedly shot by a senior Makhado municipal official. Hopes of a breakthrough to the strike were first dashed on Monday when the two parties deadlocked yet again during a meeting to discuss Samwu’s reviewed nine percent wage increase and a minimum wage of R2 100, as against earlier demands of 10% and R2 200.

Salga has remained steadfast on its eight percent offer which led to the strike on July 2, and has been accused by Samwu of raising entirely unexpected demands, including the setting up of a single pension fund for workers. – Sapa