Ten protesters were injured, two seriously, in Germiston and over 40 arrested in Pinetown in clashes between police and protesting municipal workers on Monday.
Ekhurhuleni metro police spokesperson Superintendent Vusi Mabanga said that protesters marching in central Germiston started breaking traffic lights with knobkierries, and littering.
Metro police and the SA Police Service tried to confront the marchers, who began throwing stones and ”it turned nasty”, Mabanga said.
”The police started shooting rubber bullets and 10 people were injured, two of them seriously.”
The injured were taken by ambulance to Natalspruit and Tambo Memorial hospitals for treatment. It is not clear which division of the police had fired the rubber bullets.
In Pinetown, outside Durban, police arrested 43 striking municipal employees after a crowd of 300 marchers went on the rampage and overturned rubbish bins in the streets.
”They were charged with public violence, malicious injury to property and with illegal marching. Three of them were also charged with contravening the Firearms Control Act for carrying legal [licensed] weapons during a public march,” said police spokesperson Captain Rani John.
The SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) said it had paid R24 500 bail to release protesters and Samwu lawyers were still trying to bail out others late on Monday afternoon.
In Westville two men were arrested for illegal marching and damage to property as marchers overturned bins.
John said in Amanzimtoti that 200 people also overturned bins but police managed to calm them down and disperse the group.
Earlier, North Rand police warned that union leaders would be held responsible for any damage caused during the marches. This was after the traffic lights were damaged.
No arrests had yet been made but police were studying video footage in a public violence investigation, Superintendent Eugene Opperman said.
A Samwu statement said that workers were also arrested in Lydenburg in Mpumalanga.
The Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union (Imatu) participated in wage talks with the SA Local Government Association (Salga) on Monday afternoon, but not in the renewed strike action.
”There is a proposal on the table. We cannot speak about it until it goes back to the parties, which will send it to the structures,” said Imatu general secretary Clive Dunstan.
Salga has put in place a six percent wage increase against the unions’ demands of a R3 000 guaranteed minimum wage or an eight percent or R350 increase, whichever is the greater.
Samwu spokesperson Roger Ronnie said that the pay grievance had been marked by a series of countrywide actions including sit-ins and protests, and would continue on Wednesday with marches in Johannesburg, Cape Town and the Chris Hani Municipality in the Eastern Cape.
The strike would be indefinite, he said.
”From Musina in the north to George in the south of the country, members are holding meetings, picketing or staying away from work. This is despite intimidation and disinformation from some of the municipalities, who are claiming that this is an illegal strike.
”We have also had numerous reports about management trying to prevent workers striking, on the basis that they are essential, when this is not the case,” Ronnie said.
He did know the outcome of further negotiations with Salga on Monday.
The number of strikes across the country made it clear that workers were desperate and were being forced to fight in order to survive.
”We are told that inflation is low — but this is not the reality confronting workers every day when they must shop for food, buy clothes for their families, pay medical expenses, and pay for water and electricity,” Ronnie said.
The union is already holding its own investigation into the death of a man in Pretoria last week, allegedly after he was rounded up by union members seeking people defying a strike call.
Pretoria police said their investigation into Lucas Monahane’s death were continuing. Police would not release any further information for fear of jeopardising the investigation. – Sapa