Metro official held hostage
Nelson Mandela Bay acting corporate services executive director Nosipho Xhego was held hostage for hours by members of the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) at Kwantu Towers on Thursday morning.
She was barred from leaving her office on the fifth floor while a council meeting was under way.
The Samwu members demanded that the municipality stop transferring the union subscription payouts to Samwu’s national office, saying they should go directly to the regional office instead.
Samwu regional secretary Melikhaya Kortjan said it had been agreed that the payouts would be transferred to the regional office as members had problems getting the money from the national office.
“On the 22nd of February, they transferred the subscriptions to the national office [because] payday was on the 26th.
“That raised suspicions that our employer may be collaborating with our national office,” Kortjan said.
He said the regional office was struggling to pay its bills and the national office at times failed to assist them.
“Our members are losing their jobs on a daily basis and we are not able to help as we cannot afford lawyers,” he said.
Xhego said the collective agreement did not state that the payouts should be directed to the regional office but rather the head office of Samwu.
She said her office had received the regional office’s request on the 25th and she had written to inform them that it was too late as the transfer had been made three days before.
“As the employer, we had to intervene but, unfortunately, they came with the issue too late.
“But we agreed that we would organise a meeting with the national office,” Xhego said.
Kortjan denied holding Xhego hostage, saying their plan had been just to stage a protest at any office and prevent the daily running of the business until their grievance was sorted out.