Two buses were set on fire by a mob and about eight others damaged by stone throwing in Cape Town’s Khayelitsha before dawn on Thursday as the Congress of South African Trade Unions’ (Cosatu) national strike got under way.
Golden Arrow Bus Services spokesperson Vuyisile Mdoda said the incidents were reported to the company at 6am.
He said the motive for the attacks was not clear ”but we gather those who were responsible were wearing Cosatu T-shirts … it surely has a connection to what we see happening in Cape Town.”
He said windows in the stoned buses were shattered. Though there had been passengers in the vehicles, there were no reports of injuries.
Mdoda said it was too early to say whether passenger volumes had been affected by the strike.
”We’ll only be able tell this afternoon when we assess the situation,” he said.
A spokesperson for the Cape Town Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Colin Boyes, said it was a little early in the day to establish the effect of the strike on businesses.
However he understood some industrial companies had made compromise arrangements with shop stewards for groups of workers to participate in strike actions.
He said the chamber was more concerned about workers’ ability to get to their places of employment in the face of the continued suspension of key Metrorail services on the Cape Flats, than about a stayaway.
”This is probably more of a problem than the strike at the moment,” he said.
He said being asked to give up a day’s wages to take part in a strike was a ”tough call” for a worker, and that in any case, the planned Cosatu march through the city centre would now not happen.
The Cape Town municipality withdrew permission for the march after Tuesday’s violent rampage through the city centre by striking security guards.
”If that’s not taking place, it begs the question, why stay away?” Boyes said. ”We don’t believe there will be a great deal of absenteeism.”
Metrorail Western Cape spokesperson Riana Scott confirmed that services on three lines, including the one serving Khayelitsha, remained suspended on Thursday.
The services were suspended after a carriage on a train carrying passengers was set alight at Philippi station on Wednesday morning, and arsonists attacked the Heideveld station ticket office.
Scott said Metrorail was monitoring the situation, and would restore services as soon as it appeared prudent to do so.
She said train services had not been disrupted by Thursday’s strike action.
”Predominantly our drivers belong to other unions, not Cosatu affiliates, so our staff position is quite good,” she said.
Johannesburg hospital staff at work
The Johannesburg hospital said the strike had not kept any staff away from work on Thursday morning.
”We are monitoring the situation, but all staff are on site,” said hospital spokesperson Lungi Mvumvu.
The Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA (Denosa) had called on its members to participate in the national stayaway.
”The effects of joblessness and poverty have a direct impact on us as nurses and that automatically spills over to the community,” Denosa spokesperson Siphokazi Phillip said earlier this week.
Planes, trains on schedule
A spokesperson for the Airports Company South Africa, Solomon Makgale, said there had been no reports of disruptions in schedules as a result of the strike.
”Nothing has been reported that I am aware of,” he said.
Metrorail spokesperson Thandi Mlangeni said commuter trains in Gauteng were running as normal.
Cosatu will hold protest marches in various cities and towns on Thursday. These include George, Port Elizabeth, East London, Mthatha, Brits, Rustenburg, Johannesburg, Lephalale, Polokwane, Nelspruit, Durban, Newcastle, Bloemfontein, Kimberley, and Upington.
Cosatu spokesperson Siphiwe Mgcina said people were already gathering at Library Gardens in Johannesburg ahead of a march later in the day.
Workers stay away from mines
Harmony Gold mines were affected early by the strike, with most workers staying away from its Free State operations.
Spokesperson Philip Kotze said on Thursday morning mine management at that stage expected between 50 and 60% of their workforce to support the strike.
Most workers were on strike at Harmony’s ”big operators” at the Sepong, Bambanani and Masimong mines in the Free State.
However in the Evander and Klerksdorp regions, most people had reported for work.
The mine expected quite a loss from the strike, but Kotze could not yet comment on the financial implications.
Durban Roodepoort Deep Gold mine spokesperson Ilja Graulich said he would comment on the effects of the strike later in the day.
On Wednesday, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) called on its 300 000 members to take to the streets to show solidarity with other workers and ”demonstrate their disgust at insensitive and heartless capital”.
NUM general secretary Gwede Mantashe said on Wednesday the mining industry had laid off between 40 000 and 50 000 workers over the last two to three years, under the pretext of a strong currency and a weak dollar price of gold.
No bus drivers in Qwa Qwa
Hundreds of commuters in Phuthaditjhaba in the eastern Free State were stranded on Thursday morning due to a total stayaway by bus drivers of the Maluti Bus Service.
”All the buses are still here [at the company],” said a company worker who declined to be named.
A march by striking workers in the area was expected to start by 9.30am.
The chairperson of Cosatu in Qwa Qwa, Moya Mokwena, said the march would stop at the Phuthaditjhaba Hall and move from there to the council offices of the Maluti-a-Phofung municipality.
Maluti Bus Service has about 56 buses and transports hundreds of commuters everyday in the Qwa Qwa area.
In Bloemfontein most buses from Interstate Bus Lines, the biggest bus transport service in the area, were operating.
Company spokesperson George Mokgothu said only five bus drivers of the more than 200 did not arrive at work on Thursday.
”The five drivers who did not report to work are union leaders,” Mokgothu said.
Striking workers in the Free State were also expected to take part in a march in Bloemfontein later in the morning. – Sapa