Samwu workers block the highway on Thursday. Picture: Kyle Zeeman
South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) has agreed to stand down and allow the M1 and M2 highways to reopen in Braamfontein and the Johannesburg CBD.
Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi said the roads were reopened on Thursday afternoon after Samwu’s leadership agreed to meet the local government.
Earlier on Thursday, about 10 000 City of Johannesburg employees affiliated with Samwu blocked off the highways due to a wage dispute and failed attempts to engage with the city’s leadership.
Samwu’s deputy regional chairperson in Johannesburg, Lebogang Ndawo has since explained to The Citizen the reason behind the strike.
“Workers are aggrieved,” Ndawo told The Citizen at the scene.
He said that in 1995, the city stopped salary progression in preparation for iGoli 2000, a restructuring and privatisation plan for the city.
Though this was only supposed to last a year, it continued, and Ndawo claimed workers have been stuck with entry-level salaries since then.
A five-month Pikitup strike in 2016 led to the government intervening and a politically facilitated agreement was formed.
This was meant to reinstate payment notches and “pay people according to the category of the municipality they are in”, Ndawo said.
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Ndawo explained that administrative workers in different departments received differing salaries.
In 2018 the city adjusted the salaries of its managerial boards but workers’ salaries were left unchanged.
“We have been patient with this issue. There have been multiple issues they have been trying to resolve,” Ndawo lamented.
He said in July, the city finally adopted documentation in line with being a category 10 municipality. however, it is yet to adjust worker salaries to reflect this.
Ndawo said Samwu doesn’t want the city to become bankrupt, but it must pay workers fairly.
He also said workers would protest and cause disruptions until they are heard.
He also alleged that some workers had been threatened not to strike. Therefore he was pleased to see the turnout of 10 000 workers.
“The leaders in the City of Johannesburg have been paid correctly, hence they can easily say they don’t have money,” he added.
Ndawo accused city leadership of focusing on paying contractors correctly because they received financial kickbacks through these.
When asked which sector is most affected by the payment dispute, Ndawo said almost all 36 000 workers in the City of Johannesburg were affected.
It was only the senior management who would not benefit from the salaries being increased to match the municipality category level. This is because their salaries had already been bumped up years ago.
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Additional reporting by Faizel Patel.
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