Striking metro employees get order to halt strike action

On Thursday striking Tshwane metro employees were immediately ordered to halt ongoing strike action that hampered the metro’s ability to deliver services across the city for over a week.

This after the labour court granted the Tshwane metro an interim court order on Thursday, March 24, against the striking employees and the SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu).

The striking workers were believed to be affiliated to the union.

The interim order states that, among others, Samwu (the first respondent) and all striking Samwu members (the second and further respondent) were interdicted and restrained from embarking on any strike action in contempt of the order of the labour court dated back February 10, 2021.

They were also interdicted and restrained from encouraging or engaging in any unlawful or violent action which was in contempt of the 2021 order.

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While the stipulations of the order were to be enforced immediately, it is an interim court order pending the finalisation of the matter on Thursday, July 21, 2022.

This meant the respondents had until this date to make submissions as to why the order should not be granted.

“The city has always maintained that this strike action is unlawful and unprotected. We welcome the court ruling and we look forward to restoring order and putting a stop to service delivery interruptions,” mayor Randall Williams said.

Strike action in the metro begun on March 15 over an alleged wage dispute.

Since then the Tshwane metro was plagued by predominantly an electricity supply backlog which led to several parts of Tshwane being left without power for prolonged periods.

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By Thursday, metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said the parts of Tshwane that remained without power were mostly in regions 1 and 4.

According to region 1’s Akasia Residential Forum chairperson Hannes Venter, they had been without power since last Monday, March 14.

“It is sad that you look out at night and see the neighbours across the road have power while we are suffering to save meat from rotting in fridges, but to no avail.

“Thousands of rands of meat, fruit and vegetables have already been disposed of and residents are also spending several more thousands of rands on fuel for generators to try and make ends meet,” he said.

The metro also said it had already issued at least 19 of its employees at the Mayville depot with letters of intention to terminate their services for their continued involvement in the strike action.

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Meanwhile, Samwu regional secretary in Tshwane Mpho Tladinyane – who reiterated that “we are not involved in the strike” – said they had made the necessary representations for those employees who were affiliated to Samwu and received notices of the metro’s intention to terminate their services.

He also said that it was not all of the at least 19 metro employees who were their members.

“Some of those employees are not Samwu members,” Tladinyane said.

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