Protests batter city’s image
Samwu warns other municipalities to restructure salary scales following Tshwane agreement
SHAUN SMILLIE and RAPULA MOATSHE
THE recent unrest in the CBD of Tshwane, which saw buses being used to block roads, might move to other municipalities if they did not recategorise their payment structures, warned the SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu).
Late on Thursday night, the City of Tshwane and Samwu reached an agreement, ending days of protest that left the capital city gridlocked and strewn with rubbish.
The agreement, which has been called a victory by Samwu, will see workers being paid a once-off ex gratia payment, called an equalisation allowance. Workers who earn less than R20 000 per month will be paid a once-off payment of R15 000. Those who earn above R20 000 will be paid R10 000, and those who earn more than R30 000 will be paid R7 000.
The union said payments would be made on Monday.
The 18% increase – which was the main grievance of the strikers – to be paid to top executives is to be scrapped. The city had said the top executives’ packages could be restructured like that because the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs had recategorised the city from category 9 to 10.
Samwu general secretary Koena Ramotlou said other municipalities across the country had undergone such a negotiation process, including Ekurhuleni, Buffalo City and the City of Cape Town.
Others were still to go through the process, including the City of Johannesburg. He said if the process wasn’t followed properly they would take to the streets.
“This could have a ripple effect through the country,” he said.
Tshwane has, as part of the agreement, agreed to embark on a benchmarking exercise to compare its salary scales with those of other metro municipalities.
This exercise is to run over 60 days, to assess whether employees are being paid fairly.
Meanwhile, Dr Jakkie Cilliers, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies whose work covers issues related to African futures, economic growth and development, said the rioting and acts of vandalism by protesters could be attributed to the Pretoria CBD’S state of decay, and had created a negative perception about the country’s capital city.
The trashing of dustbins in the streets and the blocking of intersections were part of the tactics used by protesters to vent their anger against the municipality.
Before the agreement was reached with Samwu the protesters’ actions had led to businesses experiencing huge losses. At the height of the mayhem businesses said it would take a long time to overcome the impact of the unrest.
Chief executive of the Capital City Business Chamber, Fanie du Toit, said the strike had negatively affected business in general.
He said: “First of all, it is very unpleasant for people to do business in town. No client goes anywhere where the situation is perceived to be dangerous.”
Cilliers shared that sentiment, saying the city centre had systematically become “a lamentable sight to locals and international community”.
“Over the years, we have seen the deterioration of the inner-city to the point that Pretoria has become quite an embarrassment,” he said.
He said the degradation of the CBD had led to businesses and government departments deciding to relocate from the city.
Regarding the international community’s perception of the country and its capital city, Cilliers said: “I travel quite extensively and I have a fairly good understanding of how the embassies and governments view South Africa, including Pretoria. Their views of South Africa are overwhelmingly negative.”
However, he said diplomats and ambassadors in the country “are generally very much informed so they would have data that supports their interpretation” of the country.
While the international community had expressed its disappointment about the situation in the country, Cilliers noted that “they have fallen in love with the country” and would like to contribute towards its improvement.
“The new dawn has delivered very little .... The investor confidence in South Africa is generally turning increasingly negative. Ambassadors try to do their best to fight this negative perception. They want to help.”
Cilliers said negative media reports about rioting and vandalism were among factors contributing to the country’s bad image.
“The impression of South Africa is that of a country that is sadly going downhill,” he said.
But is everything all doom and gloom?
Cilliers holds the view that it is never too late for all of us to reverse the battered image of country.
“Nobody can do it for us. We can do it ourselves,” he said.