Police were keeping an eye on striking private security guards in the Johannesburg city centre on Friday. About 100 guards had gathered at Beyers Naude Square by 9am, police spokesperson Superintendent Chris Wilken said.
They were not causing any disturbance, metro police Chief Superintendent Wayne Minnaar added.
The workers gathered ahead of talks between 13 striking security unions and five employer organisations under the auspices of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration. The talks were scheduled to start at 10am in Sandton.
In other centres, striking security workers were also expected to march in support of their demands for better wages and working conditions.
The South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union’s (Satawu) national sector coordinator for the security industry, Jackson Simon, said guards would march in Nelspruit, Bloemfontein, Mafikeng and again in Cape Town.
Meanwhile, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported Satawu general secretary Randall Howard as saying 11 marchers arrested in Pretoria on Thursday should be released on bail on Friday. But police spokesperson Inspector Paul Ramaloko said the men would spend the weekend in jail. Bail was also at the court’s discretion, he said.
Thousands of guards vented their anger on Thursday by setting alight vehicles and assaulting bystanders, including two uniformed sailors attached to the South African Navy office in Pretoria, during protest marches.
The violence was mostly in Pretoria, where police fired rubber bullets on unruly protesters in the afternoon.
A crowd overturned a Chubb security vehicle while a non-striking security guard was trapped inside. A witness said the man was then pulled out of the car by the angry crowd. He was rescued by a police officer who happened to be driving past.
Protesters then set the car alight. Plumes of black smoke could be seen from as far as the Union Buildings as the car burned on Nelson Mandela Boulevard. Emergency services were called to extinguish the blaze.
In the city centre, two sailors suffered injuries or bruises when striking security guards attacked them. A warrant officer was left with an open head wound that required hospital treatment and an able seaman was badly bruised when her insignia were ripped from her uniform.
The chief of the South African Navy, Vice-Admiral Refiloe Mudimo, expressed disgust at the attack.
The two-day strike in six provinces was called by unions representing about 90 000 of 287 300 registered security guards in South Africa.
The unions want an 11% pay increase and better working conditions — including the right to lunch breaks and to use a toilet without being charged with deserting a post on duty.
The industrial action in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, the North West, Free State, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal follows failed wage negotiations that started in October.
Guards in the Northern and Eastern Cape provinces will strike on Monday and Tuesday, with KwaZulu-Natal workers joining for a repeat strike. Should a settlement not be reached, workers will strike indefinitely from April 3. — Sapa