About 50 Pick ‘n Pay employees at one of the retailer’s flagship stores on the V&A Waterfront were arrested and later released for riotous behaviour and trespassing on Friday, Western Cape police said.
The arrest and release came as the retailer sought an interdict to stop striking workers from shutting stores down and preventing people from entering them.
Police spokesperson Captain Elliot Siyangana said the group at the waterfront was singing and chanting peacefully outside the entrance of the outlet at about 10am.
An unnamed store manager apparently ”felt very uncomfortable” at the protest and summoned police.
Siyangana said the protesters were asked to disperse when it became clear that they did not have the necessary legal documents for the protest.
”In that period, the boss of the V&A Waterfront appeared and demanded that they be arrested for trespassing,” said Siyangana.
He said the protesters were arrested but released on condition they do not resume their activities without the necessary documentation.
Siyangana said the matter was referred to the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions.
He said no major damage or violence was reported.
”At the moment, the scene is clear and quiet,” said Siyangana.
Pick ‘n Pay chief executive Sean Summers said earlier that the retailer would seek a high court interdict to stop protesters’ ”illegal behaviour” to shut down stores.
”They clearly have a right to withhold their labour, but this is patently illegal.
”We’ve got members of the union on radio inciting people to commit illegal acts, such as trying to lock the stores and block people from entering,” said Summers.
The national strike action has been precipitated by a deadlock in wage negotiations between Pick ‘n Pay and various affected unions.
‘It’s a shame’
About 50 employees of the Pick ‘n Pay outlet in Victory Park, Johannesburg, on Friday blocked the store’s entrance, sang and blew whistles and vuvuzelas while customers fought to get inside.
”Sean Summers, you earn R12-million but you don’t want to give us R400. It’s a shame,” read one placard.
Only a few customers had braved the shrill gauntlet of whistles, shouting and bodies.
One protester blew his whistle into two-year-old Gabrielle Dekind’s ears, prompting her mother, who was carrying her, to turn back.
”It’s fine to strike, as long as it is peaceful. They don’t have to barricade the entrance,” her mother, Melody, said as her bewildered daughter covered her ears with her hands.
One elderly gentleman wheeled his empty trolley out of the store.
”Somebody kicked my wife. Then somebody kicked me. We thought it better to leave so as not to antagonise anybody,” the man said.
”With the cost of living being what it is, you can’t blame them,” he added.
Workers, meanwhile, lay across the entrance, then took to dancing around the tills in a circle, still singing and chanting.
”We are fighting, you ask the manager,” one clearly angry worker said.
A bakery manager who was still on duty looked at his colleagues and shook his head.
”They are striking for R90,” he said.
Three other managers manned two tills and escorted customers back through the throng of strikers to the doors.
Another bemused woman who had completed her purchases and identified herself only as ”a Christian” said: ”I don’t mind them performing, but not in my ears.
”There are other ways of negotiating. South Africans must be more grateful for their jobs.” — Sapa