JOHANNESBURG – Tshwane executive mayor Cilliers Brink said that the workers’ strike in the capital was no longer a labour dispute but a large-scale criminal assault on the municipality and its assets.
It has been more than four weeks since municipal workers affiliated with the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) downed their tools over the municipality’s announcement that it will not be increasing salaries this year.
Brink is set to hold a media briefing on Wednesday to give an update on the latest developments regarding the strike.
When councillors from the Democratic Alliance (DA)-led coalition and African National Congress (ANC) in Tshwane voted to pass the 2023/24 budget in April, there was a sense of optimism from both camps that the Tshwane Municipality had turned a new leaf.
However, for the past four weeks, the capital city has been engulfed in a violent worker protest, which the municipality believes is behind the recent torching of its trucks, infrastructure and the shooting of an employee.
The budget passed in April does not include a salary increase for the more than 20,000 of the municipality’s workforce.
Earlier this month, the city filed an application to be exempted from the salary and wage increase which was agreed on at the bargaining council.
Brink, said the formerly agreed-upon salary increase would cost the cash-strapped municipality R600 million, which it does not have.
Source : EWN
