Security has been beefed up on South African trains to deal with possible incidents of violence following the ending of the nationwide security workers’ strike, Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana said on Friday.
Speaking to the media in Cape Town, the minister said that government is concerned that many security workers “are armed” and his department has worked with the minister of safety and security in “putting mechanisms in place” to ensure that there was not an outbreak of violence on trains.
Government is particularly concerned that security guards — who are now back in uniform — might become the targets of counter-violence.
Meanwhile, Mdladlana said that his department is looking “at the lessons” learn in the recent three-month strike — which ended this week.
Mdladlana, a former trade unionist and former teacher, said that the secretaries of the various affiliate unions in the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) needed to be brought together to talk about the problems around collective bargaining in the country “and the way we handle ourselves in strikes”.
He was referring to the high level of violence associated with the security strike, including innocent people being thrown off trains and township-focused violence against those who had not participated in the strike.
The minister, who took over from current South African Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni as labour minister in 1998, said that the violence associated with the recent strike and the beating up of people — particularly on trains — was “destroying trade unionism in the country”.
His ministry estimated that only about 10% of the 200Â 000 workers in the security industry had participated in the recent strike.
Mdladlana said his ministry had been briefed by the Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula and his deputy commissioner Andre Preuss on the mechanisms in dealing with possible post-strike violence.
Steps have been taken to beef up policing levels in recent weeks and following the recent court ruling that Metrorail should increase its security, he said. — I-Net Bridge