A 250 strong group of dismissed workers marched to the Avon peaking power plant on Thursday, October 8 to hand over a memorandum to Group Five management.
Group Five fired 697 workers on August 27 after they reportedly set fire to a key completed part of the plant and site offices, assaulted a site manager and caused damage to vehicles. This happened on the back of a protracted unprotected strike that saw workers dismissed on July 29 and re-employed on August 13.
Workers at the march made it clear that there would be destructive consequences if Group Five did not give in to their demands.
“This is the land of our forefathers, we have worked hard and if Group Five does not give us what we want they can pack up and go,” said shop steward Siyabonga Sokutu.
He also said that what has happened at the plant up to then was “nothing”.
Some of the demands include immediate reinstatement of workers, that site manager, Chris Willemse be removed from the site, and that Group Five stop all operations until the dismissed workers are reinstated.
They also demanded that Group Five stop hiring people from outside the KwaDukuza municipality (KDM) and that they honor KDM mayor, Ricardo Mthembu’s advice that workers should be re-employed.
Group Five was given seven days to reply and an answer is expected on Thursday, October 15.
“If the response is negative, we will go to KDM and apply for another march,” said Sokutu.
Meanwhile a court interdict still applies, prohibiting any protesting at or near the plant or on the Esenembe Road that leads to the plant and the pending case between dismissed workers and Group Five will appear before the Durban CCMA on Monday 26.
