Tshwane slams workers ‘appalling behaviour’

Municipal workers went on the rampage on Tuesday, trashing Tshwane metro headquarters after wage talks collapsed.

Protesting members of the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) broke into the municipality’s head office, Tshwane House, damaging it.

Tshwane head administrator Mpho Nawa said they emptied wheelie bins and filled the CBD streets with litter. He strongly condemned this “appalling behaviour”.

“The right to strike is entrenched in the constitution, but no one has the right to damage the property of the municipality and trash the streets with litter. This borders on criminality.”

On Tuesday, a special local labour forum meeting was held between the administrators and the representatives of Samwu and another union, Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union.

Nawa said the purpose was to conclude two agenda items: the implementation of the 6.25% annual wage increase and implementation of the benchmarking collective agreement.

He said Samwu leadership walked out of the meeting, which then collapsed as there was no quorum.

“The main issue disputed by leaders of both unions was around the metro’s request to make a proposal on how the 6.25% pay rise could be structured.”

“The city’s revenue has been declining and this problem was compounded by undercollection due to the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Actual average collection for April to June 2020, was 68%.

This was a loss of income for the three months of more than R2.8 billion.

Employee costs increased from 30% of operational expenditure to 31.5% of operational expenditure in the 2020-2021 financial year. In the 2020-2021 budget, R931 million (12%) had to be cut from materials, contracted services, transfers, and general expenditure.

“If nothing changes, the metro is likely to have a shortfall of R5 billion by the end of the 202021 financial year, thus running a risk of not being able to honour its financial obligations.

“It is against this background that the administrators took a decision that while they appreciate the existing agreements, they cannot be reckless and make decisions that could bankrupt the metro,” Nawa said.