The countrywide strike by members of the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) is likely to end on Saturday, a KwaZulu-Natal union representative said.
”On the balance of probabilities it will be over by Saturday afternoon. All the symptoms are there,” provincial spokesperson Jaycee Ncanana said on Friday.
He said most union members in the province had returned to work by Friday. Only a handful of workers in Durban wanted to continue their industrial action because ”there is no significant move on the employers’ wage offer”.
He said union leaders will hold a national teleconference on Saturday before making a final decision on the strike.
Meanwhile, the City of Cape Town has been granted a court order to prevent Samwu strikers from intimidating and harassing city employees and members of the public.
The order was issued by the Labour Court in the city on Friday morning.
The city said in statement that it applied for the order because of ”increasing acts of violence, intimidation and lawlessness” by strikers.
Samwu was ordered to pay the costs of the court action.
The court ruled that strikers should not threaten or prevent any person from entering or leaving any of the city’s premises and depots.
They may not intimidate, assault or harass city employees who are not participating in the strike, and they may not cause damage to property.
They are also prohibited from picketing or demonstrating within 50m of any access gates of any of the city’s premises.
Earlier, Samwu said it had cancelled a march and picket planned for Friday morning outside the Cape Town Civic Centre.
Western Cape provincial secretary Andre Adams said the picket was cancelled because the union was still consulting its members about a proposed wage-settlement agreement offered by the South African Local Government Association.
In the Free State, only a handful of striking municipal workers picketed in front of the Bloemfontein municipality on Friday, Mangaung municipal spokesperson Lele Mamatu said.
Mamatu said the municipality is considering a claim against Samwu after a monument at the building was damaged during this week’s protest.
”Part of the monument was trashed,” Mamatu said. ”We will, however, consult with the provincial government on the matter, as the monument was erected by the provincial government in the past.”
He said senior officials would also visit the Thaba’Nchu and Botshabelo areas, 60km west of Bloemfontein, to assess the situation.
Thaba’Nchu, Botshabelo and Bloemfontein form the Mangaung local municipality.
On the North and East Rand outside Johannesburg, where protesters clashed with police earlier this week, all appeared to be calm.
And in Pretoria, police spokesperson Inspector Lucas Sithole said: ”They are there, they are picketing, but it is very quiet.” — Sapa