Municipal workers were on Tuesday preparing for a nationwide march over a pay dispute, the SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) said.
Spokesperson Roger Ronnie said that an early survey showed that both Samwu and Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union (Imatu) members had turned out for the strike.
In Limpopo’s Greater Letaba District council workers were allegedly prohibited from taking part in the strike because their jobs were seen as essential services.
”That started yesterday [Monday], but we have told the managers to take it up directly with the union, and not with individual workers,” Ronnie said.
Johannesburg City spokesperson Nthatisi Modigoane said that the human resources department was still doing checks, but it appeared that ”not too many” office workers had stayed away.
The city’s metro police have granted permission for up to 15 000 municipal workers to march through central Johannesburg in the morning.
The public are asked to phone the city’s call centre at 011-375-5555 if any service failures are encountered. This will allow the municipality make contingency plans.
There were no municipal disruptions in Durban and in Cape Town, and the police said their crime combating unit had put a policing plan in place to cope with the march.
The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality in Port Elizabeth said it expected the strike to have little impact.
Casual workers will be employed to remove rubbish, and emergency workers may not strike.
The strike pits the Cosatu-aligned Samwu and the Fedusa-affiliated Imatu against the SA Local Government Association (Salga).
Cosatu (Congress of SA Trade Unions) said on Monday the two unions were right to reject Salga’s ”farcical” three-year wage offer of R2 300 per month.
Spokesperson Paul Notyhawa urged the union federation’s members to join the protest marches.
”Cosatu backs the demand for an across-the-board increase of nine percent or R400, whichever is greater, and a minimum wage of R3 000 per month,” he said. – Sapa