The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has also entered the fray in the City of Tshwane and called for mayor Cilliers Brink to resign.
This comes as the strike by the metro employees belonging to Cosatu-affiliated South African municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) enters its fourth month.
The capital city has been plunged into disaster with service delivery mostly affected since the strike began in July.
Workers are demanding a pay increase of 5.4% however, the metro claims it cannot afford it.
Cosatu Gauteng Chairperson, Amos Monyela, elaborates.
“You would appreciate that this municipality has been under the Democratic Alliance since 2016. So, it is the failure of the DA and which has resulted in him failing and trying to reverse some of the things which have been approved before. So, that is what is causing his serious challenges and failures – so he must consider resigning.”
13th cheque proposal rejected
Meanwhile, the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union (Imatu) says the proposal by the City of Tshwane to pay all its employees their 13th cheques over three months, starting from next month unitl January next year, cannot be allowed.
SABC News understands that the Metro has also proposed a second option where entry-level workers will receive their cheques in November, followed by middle and top-level employees getting theirs in December and January respectively.
Imatu chairperson in Tshwane, Melita Baloyi says, “We are also being disheartened and disappointed in the fact that they’ve brought this in the last hour seeing that their bonuses are due be paid next month. We are currently consulting our members to inform them of the employer’s intention not to pay them as it has been agreed. Not to agree with them but also to reiterate on that so they see this coming and find together litigation on how we will protect members going forward, should this be the case come the day of November.”
