Johannesburg braced itself on Thursday for the next in a series of South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) pay protests which have so far been characterised by clashes with police.
Two hundred Metro police members would line the route of the march from the city centre to municipal headquarters in Braamfontein. Metro police spokesperson Wayne Minnaar warned they would not tolerate unruly behaviour.
”The Johannesburg Metro police will use maximum force if necessary for people to obey the law.”
He urged motorists to avoid the city centre between 11am and 2pm.
At the same time, Gauteng community safety MEC Firoz Cachalia would hold a meeting with police leadership to discuss the policing of the strikes.
”The MEC has taken an active interest on the issue to ensure that the law enforcement agencies act resolutely and firmly to maintain the law and protect public spaces whilst at the same time upholding the constitutionally entrenched right to hold a demonstration, picket or present a petition on any issue of concern,” his office said in a statement.
So far almost 150 municipal workers have been arrested in countrywide clashes with the police that have included the use of rubber bullets and stun grenades.
The strike is to highlight workers’ demands of a R3 000 guaranteed minimum wage or an eight percent or R350 increase, whichever is greater.
The South African Local Government Association has offered six percent. At negotiations with the SA local government bargaining council earlier this week, which included the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union (Imatu), all parties conceded that their current mandates allowed no room for negotiation.
Imatu is not participating in the current strike, although it is part of the pay dispute.
The mediator proposed shifting all parties’ mandates slightly, and this has so far been accepted by Salga. The unions are still considering the proposal.
Police say they have been forced to use stun grenades and rubber bullets to quell public violence, which has included damaging traffic lights, but Samwu said that the strikers only reacted when set upon by police.
The media have also been targeted by angry workers with a South African Press Association (Sapa) reporter being kicked and a stone thrown at a photographer in retaliation for a poster calling council workers ”pigs” at Wednesday’s Cape Town march.
In a previous Johannesburg march, a Sapa reporter’s notebook and cellphone were briefly confiscated by marchers.
Municipal services remained unpredictable. – Sapa