The South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) on Wednesday said thousands of municipal workers were beginning to gather in different cities across the country in preparation for their three-day wage strike.
Samwu spokesperson Chichi Selepe said the union expects between 150 000 and 200 000 workers to heed the strike call across the country.
There was chaos at Johannesburg taxi ranks on Wednesday as council bus drivers joined the three-day strike.
At the Bree Street rank, passengers going to Randburg, Emmarentia and other areas in the city’s north-west had to wait for hours before they could get a taxi.
”The queues were very long … I was there from 6.45am and got a taxi only after 9am,” said Miriam van Oordt, an administrative clerk in Greenside. ”There was also a lot of pushing and shoving as people grew more impatient.”
She said she normally takes a bus to work as they are ”regular, reliable and safe”.
Johannesburg city authorities on Wednesday said they have put in place contingency plans to ensure minimal disruption of services during the strike.
More than 30 000 municipal workers were on Wednesday expected to down tools in Gauteng alone, according to Samwu.
Selepe said workers in Johannesburg would gather at the Library Gardens on Wednesday morning and march from there to the South African Local Government Association (Salga) offices in Braamfontein to deliver a memorandum.
Cape Town contingency plans
Contingency plans to ensure minimal disruption of services have been put in place by the City of Cape Town, ahead of the national strike.
City spokesperson Mandla Tyala said in a statement that while the city respects the rights of employees to strike, its first duty is to ensure service delivery.
Tyala said workers in essential services — such as health, traffic, fire and emergency, city police and those providing water, electricity and sanitation — may not go out on strike.
”Residents should treat Wednesday as a normal collection day for refuse removal … The city will ensure that refuse is removed,” said Tyala.
Coincidentally, the city is hosting municipal leaders from across the country for a national local government conference to ”enhance managerial expertise for better service delivery”.
The 2005 Institute for Local Government Management conference started on Wednesday morning, with about 270 delegates, including mayors and municipal managers expected in town to focus on ”people-centred municipal governance”.
Andre Adams, Samwu’s provincial secretary, said marches would be taking place across the Western Cape where memorandums would be handed over to all executive mayors.
Adams said members are aware of the conference, and would march to the civic centre later on Wednesday to demand that managers listen to workers’ demands.
”They can’t sit in conference while the city is burning,” he said.
Wage deadlock
The strike follows a deadlock in wage negotiations between Salga, Samwu and the Independent Municipal and Allied Workers’ Union.
The unions want a wage increase of the greater of 9% or R400. The demand for a new minimum wage is R3 000 per month.
Salga is offering 6%, which the unions said is ”ridiculously low”.
On Tuesday, Salga said it would go ahead and apply the 6% salary increase across the board.
Samwu general secretary Roger Ronnie said the ”provocative step” would only make a settlement more difficult. — Sapa, I-Net Bridge