As fuel shortages continued countrywide and panic buying set in, the Department of Minerals and Energy insisted on Friday it would not intervene in the strike by fuel workers.
”It is a huge problem and we are not happy with it, but our hands are tied. It is a very tough one … it is an in-house issue,” said spokesperson Sputnik Rantau.
”We are just hoping the two parties can sit and talk. If you don’t talk you don’t have hope.”
Fuel pumps across the country began running dry on Wednesday after the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood, and Allied Workers’ Union (Ceppwawu) downed tools on Monday after rejecting a 7,5% pay increase and resolving to pursue 9,5%.
Ceppwawu and the National Petroleum Employers’ Association would meet on Saturday in a further bid to resolve a pay strike that has seen countrywide fuel shortages and panic buying.
”This is kak,” said one motorist, queuing at a filling station in Johannesburg’s Greenside.
Another, Heidee Ross, said: ”This is terrible. I have been driving around Jo’burg looking for fuel.” She had tried unsuccessfully in Melville, Cresta, Randburg and Victory Park.
”The strike is a very good thing, although it inconveniences people. It warns the government that they are not taking care of their people,” said Zalmer Muir.
Earlier, South African Petroleum Industries Association director Connel Ngcukana warned that panic buying was setting in, exacerbating the situation.
”If you have got the petrol that you use in a week don’t worry, unless you are empty, then fill up as you would normally do,” said Ngcukana.
Engen spokesperson Tania Landsberg said that sites around the country were running dry, particularly in Gauteng and in the Eastern Cape, where the strike action was more concentrated.
The situation had been worsened by a run on stock when the fuel price dropped on Wednesday.
Gauteng, the Eastern Cape and Nelspruit in Mpumalanga were hardest hit, but the company was bringing in outside contractors and was trying to make up deliveries.
BP had secured contractors to fill in for the striking drivers, while Shell said that although the strike itself had had minimal impact on its operations, it was feeling the effects of panic buying.
”… Shell is already feeling some impact on supply as a result of increased demand by customers unable to get service from other oil companies directly impacted by the strike,” said spokesperson Dennis Matsane.
There would be further shortages if the strike was not resolved soon, said Shell.
‘Concerned’
Ceppwawu spokesperson Keith Jacobs said he was concerned about the use of contract workers, questioning whether they had the relevant Hazchem qualification to drive the fuel tankers.
”We are very concerned about that. They need special training to do that.”
The union had not received any new offer from the employers but had heard an unconfirmed possibility of a meeting between the two parties on Monday.
At a rally in Johannesburg on Friday, the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party expressed support for the strike, which includes Ceppwawu’s wood, paper, tissue, glass and board sectors.
”We want to express our support and solidarity for workers who are on strike,” SACP secretary general Blade Nzimande told several hundred people at the rally.
The Fuel Retailers’ Association questioned why oil companies did not make alternate fuel delivery plans ahead of the nationwide chemical workers strike.
”Why didn’t they arrange by Monday [the start of the strike] to have these drivers ready?” said association CEO Peter Morgan.
The Young Communist League also came out in support of the strike, while the Democratic Alliance said it would submit questions to the Department of Minerals and Energy to find out what contingency plans were in place ahead of the strike.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Ceppwawu members handed memorandums of demands to two separate bargaining councils on Friday afternoon.
Dressed in red T-shirts and black caps, workers in the chemical and wood sectors affiliated to Ceppwawu handed over identical memoranda to a wood and paper bargaining council, as well as to the chemical bargaining council in central Johannesburg.
”During the strike action we don’t have any intention to harm the public but it is important that we be treated with respect and dignity,” said Pasco Dyani, president of Ceppwawu.
”We are getting a raw deal,” he said.
Also speaking prior to the delivery of the memoranda, Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said that since 1994 workers had not benefited from the country’s growing economy and that instead ”wages were low and had stagnated”.
”The apartheid wage gap continues to grow,” said Vavi.
Workers are demanding a 9,5% wage increase while employers (who include Sasol, Nampak and Kimberly Clark) are offering between 6,5% and 8% increases.
The workers also want an increase in the number of maternal leave days, from four months to six months. — Sapa