The South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) has threatened to strike in protest over the Municipal System Amendment Bill. This week the Mail & Guardian spoke to Samwu’s general secretary, Mthandeki Nhlapo, about the union’s objections to the Bill.
Are you still planning to go on strike in protest over President Jacob Zuma’s signing of the Municipal System Amendment Bill?
The programme is dependent on a number of activities, which include seeking legal advice and engaging with Cosatu and our members.
Why did the Samwu leadership decide to announce strike action before it engaged its members?
We didn’t announce a strike. What we announced before the local government elections was mass rolling action. That’s protests — not strike action. We are aware that we might be interdicted if we decide to go on strike.
Why are you so opposed to the Bill if it doesn’t even affect your members directly?
If you have seen the Act, there are two [key] issues: the unfair limitation on senior politicians holding senior positions in local government and that it requires the minister to regulate things such as medical aid and the retirement funds.
The process will undermine fair bargaining. It will mean the employer body will have to consult with the minister every time decisions need to be taken.
Will this not assist in addressing issues of service delivery in local government?
At the time of conception it was thought it would deal with corruption. But now it is clear the intention was to depoliticise local government or professionalise municipalities.
Why should Samwu have a problem with the signing of the Bill if the ANC does not have a problem with it?
The ANC is the majority party. It can’t express its objection in public. It is extraordinary to expect the ANC to do that.
But do you agree that cadre deployment is partly to blame for poor service delivery in a number of municipalities across the country?
That can’t be the reason. If you go to the Bill, you don’t find [a clause about] cadre deployment. It can’t be that whenever there are problems within the organisation [ANC] you say let’s go and seek state intervention to deal with the problem.
The Bill misses the point. Senior political leaders might work for municipalities without holding senior positions and still influence positions. If the Act were dealing with corruption, that would
be something.
By signing the Bill into law Zuma has acknowledged cadre deployment was to blame for poor service delivery in the past years.
At the time he signed the Bill there was supposed to be an engagement with the union. Our position is that we should introduce an amendment Bill to remove the dangers that are in the Act.
Do you have any alternative?
What we are saying is: Let’s have organisational means to deal with internal problems before state intervention. The organisation must be strong to influence the state. It’s what happened before Polokwane. Luthuli [House] was not strong.
We are not surprised opposition parties are supporting the Bill. They hold different interests. They want to remove politics from the municipal level.
Strike fever has once again hit South Africa with fuel employees, metal and chemical workers among others promising to cripple the country’s economy if their demands are not met. For more news click here.
