Negotiations to suspend Matjhabeng strike fall through

The end to the seven week municipal strike was scarcely one day old when the senior management in the municipality, under directive of the mayor, rejected the agreement and chaos ensued.

The high-ranking officials of the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu), and the Matjhabeng Local Municipality, tasked by Minister Thembi Nkadimeng and Deputy Minister Parks Tau, met as part of the Matjhabeng Local Labour Forum from Wednesday, 6 March, to resolve the key issues highlighted in the memorandum.

Stones, bricks, branches, and fires were scattered around the municipal buildings on Tuesday, 12 March, after workers heard that the mayoral committee had refused to pay their back pay as agreed upon during national negotiations this past week. Photo: Supplied

Amongst them was the resolution that the municipality must pay the outstanding salaries before Friday, 8 March, so that Samwu can suspend the strike for a month pending the redress of the matters on the table.

The parties agreed that an agreement will be signed which will be presented to the members to suspend the strike.

On Tuesday afternoon strikers broke off piecez of cement of the holding walls at Central Park, which borders Sateway. Large chunks of brick and cement wetre strewn in Stateway hampering the flow of traffic.

Vista Supplied

The agreement could not be signed because the Matjhabeng delegation led by members of the mayoral committee (MMC) for corporate services, Cllr Mosoeu and executive director of corporate support services Dr Vuyo Adonis, could not commit on the payment of outstanding salaries citing the mayoral committee’s resolution on “no work, no pay.”

Service delivery has come to a total standstill and, among other issues including sewage spills, Bronville has been without water for 14 days now due to a major pipe burst that has not been fixed.