Transnet’s strike badly affected Metrorail in Gauteng but left the company’s other operations in the country unaffected, the firm said on Monday.
”It’s business as usual in major centres such as Richards Bay, Port Elizabeth, East London, Saldanha Bay and Cape Town,” said Transnet spokesperson John Dludlu.
He said Metrorail, one of Transnet’s divisions, was, ”as expected”, affected by the first of day of strike, which left only a handful of trains operating in central Gauteng during peak hour on Monday.
”Apart from limited impact on the central freight rail line, Transnet’s operations in the rest of the country have not been affected.
”We are working hard to adjust our contingency plans to help the business run as smoothly as possible during the strike action,” Dludlu said in a media statement.
He said Transnet, which has been embroiled in a dispute with unions over restructuring at the parastatal, was working hard to keep disruptions limited.
Metrorail has told commuters that they should seek alternative transport to work, college and school over the three days of the strike, he said.
”Management met with unions … on Friday to further discuss the unions’ dispute over the process of restructuring at Transnet.
”The unions are currently considering a proposal to introduce an external mediator in our efforts to resolve the dispute.
”Transnet is committed to ensuring that the jobs and benefits of those employees who will be transferred to other employers as a result of the restructuring plan will not be negatively affected,” Dludlu said.
Transnet workers — who are members of the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu), the United Association of South Africa, the South African Railways and Harbour Workers’ Union and the United Transport and Allied Trade Union — are opposed to the firm’s restructuring plan.
Metrorail workers, together with those of Spoornet, South African Port Operations, the National Ports Authority, Petronet, Transwerk, Autopax, Freightdynamics and a number of smaller business units at Transnet were taking part in the strike in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and the North West.
The strike, which left thousands of commuters stranded on its first day on Monday, will culminate in a march to Transnet’s head office early next month.
In the Wits area, which covers Gauteng from Vereeniging to Kaalfontein and Springs to Randfontein, Metrorail ran its service at a level of 14% of usual service.
”We are hoping that we will provide 25% of the normal service for the afternoon peak.
”This service will be augmented by buses in some areas where it is practicable to run buses,” Metrorail’s spokesperson for the region, Brenda Motau, said.
By 10am on Monday, Motau said most corridors in the West Rand were running, except the Soweto line between Naledi and Johannesburg.
”Problems were also experienced at Orlando station, where volumes of people, mostly from the Vaal areas, packed the station to capacity. The congestion was later relieved by the injection of buses and some train service,” she said.
In Tshwane, Metrorail’s plans worked better, said Thandi Mlangeni, Metrorail’s national spokesperson, adding that service levels in the area were at 40%.
Randall Howard, the general secretary of Satawu, said he would comment on the strike’s impact later on Monday. — Sapa