Union steaming over City’s lack of response

THE SA Clothing and Textile Workers Union (Sactwu) has slammed the City’s unresponsive stance towards concerns about leasing the Good Hope Centre to private entities.

Sactwu members protested outside the centre in April, when the union handed the City a memorandum of demands and a petition signed by 5 811 workers from 49 clothing and leather factories.

The Good Hope Centre has for decades been the home of the union’s annual Spring Queen beauty pageant with more than 5 000 people attending the event every year.

Sactwu co-ordinator Fachmy Abrahams said the union contested the City’s decision to lease the centre to an international film company.

City spokesperson Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said the City lost more than R16m every year because the facility had become dormant. He said the centre was currently a waste of ratepayers’ money.

“We realise the City does not take our objections seriously,” Abrahams said.

He said the union had acquired legal assistance and had expressed “unhappiness” through correspondence and protest action.

“The City has ignored all correspondence with the union and our legal representatives,” Abrahams said.

Mayoral Committee Member for Tourism, Events and Economic Development Garreth Bloor said yesterday that a lawyer’s letter from Sactwu had been handed to the City’s Legal Services Department.

“Sactwu is claiming rights to access based on previous access over a protracted period of time. However, they have no right in perpetuity based on having access previously,” Bloor said.

Bloor said the Belhar Sports Complex, Tafelsig Sports and Community Facility and the Cape Town International Convention Centre had been mooted as alternative venues.

“In all instances, Sactwu refused to investigate or review these options,” he said.

Bloor said the City was eager to engage with Sactwu to find alternative venues and to find the best solution for the long-term benefit and overall growth of the Spring Queen beauty pageant.

“The City is proceeding with a block rental period of six months which will only be for the film industry participants,” Bloor said.

Abrahams said the union would meet with leaders of the Cape Malay Choir Board and other organisations today to discuss the matter.