JUST IN: Avoid Licensing Department
Ongoing protests forces Licencing Department to close until further notice. Here's why ...
Since Thursday,16 March, the Randfontein Traffic Department’s Licensing Department has been closed due to ongoing protests, and now a number of other departments, including those of Roads, Water and Sanitation, Electrical, Waste and Parks have also been closed.
Also read: Violent protest flares up in R’fontein
Today, 29 March, an employee of the Department told the Herald that he had been chased out of his office with a hosepipe. He also said that there is a lot of intimidation going on, and that the protesters are threatening to burn vehicles.
The Herald went to investigate, and on the way there, noticed rocks and burnt objects lying in the road. The protesters spoke freely to the Herald, one of them being their spokesperson, Eric Horegang, 25, who has been employed at the department for one and a half years.
According to Horegang, “This [the protest] is about contracts of the employees working on the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP). On Friday, 24 March, some of the contract employees’ contracts came to an end and they were not renewed as promised by the Mayor.”
Also read: Truck set alight in protest action on the R28
Horegang added that the Mayor had promised them in a meeting attended by all contract and permanent employees that the contractors would be made permanent employees once their contracts expired.
“The Mayor turned his back on us,” said Horegang. He added that the police had fired rubber bullets at them on Thursday, 23 March.
The protestors handed a memorandum to the Mayor’s office on Thursday. They were told the Mayor was unavailable as he was allegedly out of the country on a visit to Japan. They also alleged that the spokesperson for the municipality had told them (last Thursday) that the municipality had given them [the employees] skills, which they should now go use elsewhere.
Horegang continued by saying that this is not job creation. The protesters also alleged that there are a number of vacancies on the staff of the Licensing Department.
The Herald contacted the office of the Mayor, who will respond in due course.
Meanwhile, some of the refuse in Randfontein has not been collected, and the Department remains closed.
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