BARBERTON – A number of members of the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) at Umjindi Local Municipality downed tools yesterday morning and picketed outside the municipal offices.
The strike ensued after members of the union discovered the office of the municipal manager, Mr Pat Msibi allegedly issued suspension letters to four municipal workers and dismissed two of them.
Mpumalanga News learnt that this comes after the municipality decided to take further action against the workers after the Sunday incident of cutting water supply.
It’s alleged that the workers at the water purification station closed the water supply on reservoir as it’s allegedly that they were complaining that they are not paid Sunday shifts .
Speaking to the chairperson of the union Mr Vusi Mahlalela he indicated that it’s not true that their members closed water supply on Sunday which affected residents very badly .
“It’s not true what they are saying, the pumping machine is broken and now it’s working manual so our members decided to go and sit outside and at the later stage they went home and the machine went off because no one was around to turn it on since it is manual .We decided to put down tools to support our members because the municipal manager didn’t follow the right procedures in terms of issuing the letters ,as the mayor Mr Lazarus Mashaba gave instruction .”he explained .
He went on and stated that the Msibi was supposed to follow the right procedure instead of taking decision due to political interference .
“We don’t have a good relationship with our leaders as a union we have noticed that every time when we have problems as workers and we want to take further steps our members are receiving intimidation and threats which is total wrong we are living in a free country and workers have rights to voice out their problems .Msibi is the one who an accounting officer of the municipality he was supposed to investigate this matter to find out exactly what happened before taking decision,”he concluded .
