The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) expressed support on Monday for a countrywide strike by more than 200 000 municipal workers to take place on Tuesday.
The two unions representing municipal workers were right to reject their employer’s ”farcical” three-year wage offer of R2 300 per month, Cosatu spokesperson Paul Notyhawa said in a statement. He urged the union federation’s members to join the countrywide protest marches.
”Cosatu backs the demand for an across-the-board increase of 9% or R400, whichever is greater, and a minimum wage of R3 000 per month,” he said.
He said Cosatu hopes sanity will prevail and that the South African Local Government Association (Salga) will make a ”serious offer” and restart negotiations.
Salga on Monday defended its 6% offer and expressed hope for a speedy resolution to the stalemate.
Cape Town city officials warned motorists and the public that certain roads in the city centre will be closed off from 9am to 2pm on Tuesday due to the protest march.
The march will start in Keizergracht and proceed along Darling Street to the Civic Centre.
”We appeal to the public to bear with us, and contact our call centre at Tel: 021 424 7715 to report any major disruptions in service delivery,” city manager Wallace Mgoqi said in a statement.
Salga’s deputy chairperson, Obed Mlaba, said on Monday in Pretoria: ”We will seek to ensure that there is as little disruption or inconvenience as possible to our ratepayers.”
Considering that some municipalities are so cash-strapped they are unable to deliver even basic services, a bigger pay rise is ”completely unaffordable”, he said.
Earlier on Monday, the Johannesburg municipality said essential services in the city won’t be affected by Tuesday’s strike, as it is putting contingency plans in place to minimise disruptions.
”In terms of the Labour Relations Act, employees in the essential services can’t embark on a strike action. As the municipality, we want to assure our clients that we will do everything to make sure that disruptions are minimum,” Johannesburg municipality spokesperson Nthatisi Modingoane said.
He added that the municipality will be applying the ”no work, no pay principle. — Sapa, I-Net Bridge