WATCH: Sacked Ekurhuleni workers municipality demand jobs back

The dismissed workers of the Ekurhuleni metropolitan municipality showed up in numbers to protest outside the Labour Appeal Court on Tuesday where a case against the council was heard.

William Gondwane, one of the workers, said he showed up outside court to support his colleagues and to find out when they would be reinstated.

“Our main issue and question is when will we be reinstated back to work because the Labour Relations Act allows us to be permanent workers at the municipality. We are tired of being unemployed,” said Gondwane.

“The pandemic hasn’t made our situation any easier because we don’t qualify for the R350 government grants as we are still regarded as employees of the municipality.”

Lungile Mtshali workers workers protest outside Labour court in Johannesburg, 23 February 2021, after their case against City of Ekhuruleni has taken 5 years to resolve because of corruption due to the municipality. Picture: Nigel Sibanda

Another worker, Lawrence Madonsela, said being dismissed unfairly has had a negative impact on him financially as he had to find other ways to make income.

“I sometimes do my neighbour’s garden because that’s how I can make money at the moment,” Madonsela said.

The workers, represented by the Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) were semiskilled and formed part of the Lungile Mtshali Development Plan project – a “job-creation programme” which promised them practical and theoretical training, as well as the formation of cooperatives.

This, they say, never happened.

Instead, they worked for Ekurhuleni municipality, fulfilling the municipality’s obligations of, among other things, cleaning streets and drains, but without the benefits of full-time employment.

While working for the municipality, the workers wanted to be recognised as permanent employees because the work they did was not temporary in nature and there was no justifiable reason for fixing the term of their contracts.

As a result, they referred their case to the South Africa Local Government Bargaining Council (SALGBC) to be declared permanent employees of the municipality in terms of section 198B of the Labour Relations Act.

Shortly after this, they were dismissed.

Lungile Mtshali workers workers protest outside Labour court in Johannesburg, 23 February 2021, after their case against City of Ekhuruleni has taken 5 years to resolve because of corruption due to the municipality. Picture: Nigel Sibanda

Following the applicants’ dismissal, the municipality engaged a company called Hlaniki Investment Holdings to recruit, provide, and manage the employees to do the same work for the municipality that they had done previously.

The Gauteng Enterprise Propeller was also engaged by the municipality to coordinate a “job creation programme”, in which the employees were supposed to be involved.

On 14 December, 2015, the workers signed a further contract with Hlaniki and the Gauteng Enterprise Propeller.

In terms of this contract, they continued performing the same work for the municipality, but without the benefits promised in terms of the “job creation programme”.

Jessica Kaye Lawrence, the lawyer representing the workers, said the matter was postponed due to the judges not having enough documentation before them, but a time frame was set for the next appearance and for when the documents were expected.

– asandam@citizen.co.za

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