Cabinet has urged striking security guards and their employers to resolve their differences and end violent protests.
Briefing the media after Cabinet’s meeting at Parliament on Wednesday, government communications head Joel Netshitenzhe said Cabinet once more condemned in the strongest terms the acts of violence and vandalism by some demonstrators.
”These actions are not only inimical to the interests of the workers, but also undermine the freedoms enshrined in our Constitution,” he said.
Government welcomed the firm action taken by the law enforcement agencies to deal with the violence and urged them to ensure that those responsible for the violence and vandalism were brought to book.
”We cannot allow a situation, however genuine the grievances might be, you cannot allow a situation in which people break the law, destroy property, threatening …
”But we also need to make the point that the mechanism has been put in place for the employers and the union to negotiate this issue. The Council for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration is dealing with it and we hope that by Friday the matters on the table will have been resolved,” he said.
Violence was not in the interests of the workers themselves, because it undermined sympathy people might have with their demands.
Netshitenzhe said Cabinet had also noted the plans for a national strike on Thursday around the issues of unemployment and poverty.
As was common knowledge, government was working with all social partners to implement the accelerated shared-growth initiative strategy, AsgiSA.
”It is therefore government’s firm view that such strike action is not only unwarranted, but also counter-productive.
”With government, the standard principle of ‘no work, no pay’ will apply,” Netshitenzhe said. — Sapa