Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) contractors have been paid following the protests that disrupted Pikitup services on Friday, 7 February.
The workers who were hired by Pikitup over the 2019 festive season in order to deal with the backlog that the waste management entity had been experiencing, were fed up with not receiving their wages since being hired on 17 December 2019. Subsequently, the workers decided to voice their rage through protests.
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EPWP workers protesting in Robertville
Trucks and employees were unable to enter or exit Pikitup facilities throughout Gauteng when the angry EPWP workers blocked off the access gates, hindering the entity’s service delivery.
One of the protests took place outside of the Pikitup facility on Anvil Road in Robertville. What began as a peaceful protest, with the workers chanting outside the branch, ended with road closures and burning tyres. The EPWP workers promised the entity that they would not cease their actions until they were paid.
Within an hour, Pikitup spokesperson Muzi Mkhwanazi responded to the provincial-wide protests, assuring the workers that special arrangements had been made for the payments.
In his statement, Muzi addressed the reason for non-payment saying, “The non-payment of the stipends is as a result of EPWP employees not submitting all the required documentation to allow for the facilitation of payment on time. This is despite Pikitup requesting the documentation from them on numerous occasions.”
He continued his statement by saying that the relevant documents had only been received after the January payroll closure.
A new statement was sent out confirming that the outstanding wages of the 1 596 contracted workers had been paid for the period from 17 December 2019 to 30 January 2020. “Both Pikitup and the City of Johannesburg have stringent quality assurance and controls in place. It was necessary that the payments were done following due process,” read Mkhwanazi’s latest statement.
Mkhwanazi apologised to all residents who were affected by the lack of service delivery due to the strikes. He assured residents and businesses that the entity did not condone Friday’s actions, especially after several areas were trashed during the protests. He has appealed to the EPWP workers and other Pikitup staff to go about voicing their disgruntlement without vandalising the city.
Urgent contingency measures were put into place on Friday to catch up on the collections and other services that were disrupted by the protests.
