IEC employees not allowed to strike
Following reports that the Electoral Commission (IEC) workers threatened to strike, the IEC asserts that its employees cannot go on strike because they are barred from protesting.
JOHANNESBURG – According to media reports, the commission’s workers threatened to strike if chairperson Pansy Tlakula was not removed before the May 7 elections.
IEC spokesperson Kate Bapela was reported to having said that IEC workers are barred from embarking on any strike, since their services were declared essential services by Parliament.
According to the report, organisers of the unprecedented strike said it was supported by more than 90 per cent of IEC employees, who mandated the national negotiating forum, a worker’s structure led by the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu), to enter into talks with IEC commissioners.
Tlakula has been fingered in an independent forensic audit as well as public protector Thuli Madonsela’s report into the leasing of the IEC’s R320-million head office in Centurion, Pretoria.
Some opposition parties have also called for Tlakula resignation.
However, the ANC has come out in Tlakula’s defence, saying her issues don’t affect the credibility of the elections.
