Fired labourers demand jobs back
JOHANNESBURG – Mashaba cautions individuals who partake in these protests not to be used by political parties for the narrow political benefit.
While ejected workers from Pikitup demand their jobs back, the City of Johannesburg’s Mayor Herman Mashaba has blamed politics for the disruptions rocking the waste management entity.
This is the feeling that many protesters have expressed outside Selby’s Pikitup depot while picketing outside the facilities.
According to Mashaba, the disruptions that have plagued waste collection across the city, are nothing but a ploy by his detractors.
Contractors have been picketing outside the Selby depot since 3 September demanding that they are given their jobs back.
According to their leader, Busisiwe Ntuli, 82 of their members affiliated to Retladira Civils and Sula Smart companies, working for Pikitup, were left without work after their contracts were terminated.
Ntuli said in 2010, there were about 269 people employed as contractors working for Pikitup and in 2011 their contracts were not renewed without any explanation.
“We then took Pikitup to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) and we won the case,” said Ntuli.
“Pikitup was ordered to re-employ us but they did not abide by the ruling. We have been fighting to get our jobs back since then but when we come here we always see new people being employed and we have been sidelined.”
We suspect there is corruption here because many of the people we see here are not known to us and we are aware that there are those who have been sold our jobs for R10 000,” she claimed.
“This is not about politics and we are not fighting anyone but only want our jobs back,” she said.
Mashaba said when this decision to insource contract workers was announced, it was clear that the City could only insource a defined number of people.
He said a clear criterion was agreed to through engagements with key stakeholders in the organised labour and contract worker spaces.
“We have received intelligence from individuals that former temporary contract workers are being approached by political forces in an effort to instigate instability within the City’s cleaning services.
“For political forces to exploit this tragic situation for their narrow political ends is sinking to new depths of moral bankruptcy,” said the mayor.
A full-scale investigation has begun and Mashaba said organisers of these protests face arrests adding that Pikitup has obtained a court order against any further disruptions of their operations.
Details: www.joburg.co.za
