A meeting between the Motor Transport Workers’ Union and security companies was postponed on Thursday, the union’s general secretary said.
Emily Fourie said the meeting, intended to discuss means of averting a nationwide strike by cash-in-transit security guards next week, would now take place at lunchtime on Friday.
It could not continue on Thursday as not all the parties were able to attend.
Before Friday’s meeting, union representatives would attend the funeral of one-year-old Khensani Mitileni, who was shot dead on her mother’s back during a shoot-out between robbers and security guards in central Johannesburg on Tuesday.
It was this event which led to the call for a strike.
Fourie said the union was busy setting up meetings with higher authorities, and would meet with National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi on Monday.
She said the indication from the security companies, Fidelity, Coin and SBV, was that they were in full support of some of the changes the union wanted.
”They need to tell us what measures can be put in place, without the normal jargon that it will cost too much money. We also have some ideas, like more manpower, better training and the redesign of vehicles,” said Fourie.
She said while it had not initially been an option, they needed to speak to government about the option of more firing power.
Overworked police were facing a tsunami, she said, and lashed out at those who thought security guards were dishonest thieves responsible for inside jobs.
”Ninety-nine percent of our members are honest, decent employees who want to do an honest day’s work. It doesn’t matter where you go, there will always be that [criminal] element.
”These guys also have families that worry about them every day when they go to work.”
Fourie said most of the heist syndicates were not even South African, and that they did not hesitate to shoot as the victims were not their people.
”I don’t want to start xenophobia, but that is the reality of where we are,” she told the South African Press Association.
Should the guards strike, businesses would have large amounts of cash in their stores for a prolonged period and ATMs would not be refilled.
”We cannot hold out later than Monday with answers; we are not going to be sent around the mulberry bush as we have been in the past,” she said. — Sapa