The Broadcasting, Electronic, Media & Allied Workers Union (BEMAWU) says its members will take to the streets over the ongoing retrenchment process at the SABC, if the public broadcaster does not conduct the process fairly.
The SABC has issued letters of redundancy and surplus this week. Around 300 employees will be affected.
Another union at the public broadcaster, the Communication Worker’s Union says it will initiate strike action within seven days.
BEMAWU President Hannes du Buisson says they are concerned about what is happening at the SABC.
Du Buisson says, “We got an opinion from members at this point in time and the majority of people who responded, members who’ve responded indicated that they want to proceed or participate in the strike. That is the only legal and Constitutional way in which employees can fend off retrenchments. It is in terms of the law, it is protected and that is what they are entitled to do. We not just going to jump into a strike right away, we are going to write another letter to the SABC Board where we are requesting an audience with them as we have done previously so that we can see if it’s not possible to avert a strike at the SABC.”
Below is the full interview with Hannes du Buisson:
CWU’s Aubrey Tshabalala says it is a somber moment at the SABC as members have been receiving letters from Monday:
Section 189
SABC Chief Operations Officer Ian Plaatjies says they are busy implementing the Section 189 process now.
He says they ended the CCMA facilitated session last year and the 30 days extention period that unions asked for to do consultations has ended:
