PHUTI MOSOMANE
THE South African Municipal Workers’ Union (SAMWU) says it is concerned about a march by members of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) taking place on Wednesday.
The march will take place at the IFP run Alfred Duma Local Municipality and uThukela District Municipality, both located in Ladysmith.
uThukelaDistrict Municipality Mayor Inkosi Ntandoyenkosi Shabalala told Inside Metros that a memorandum of demands will be handed over to the municipality on Wednesday.
“I am aware that members of IFP will be handing over a memorandum to the District municipality on Wednesday. But I do not know as yet the contents of their demands,” he said.
Among other demands that the IFP will be marching for, is the immediate removal of SAMWU from the Local Labour Forum.
The labour union came out guns blazing says the IFP’s march in Ladysmith is an attack on municipal workers, collective bargaining, intergovernmental relations and service delivery.
The union said its presence in the Forum is legislated and as such, there is little that the local authorities can do to prevent participation of the union on issues affecting workers majority of whom are SAMWU members.
“We now know the reason why LLF meetings have not been sitting at both Alfred Duma and uThukela, seemingly a clear instruction has been issued to municipal management and IFP Councillors to frustrate unions in those platforms that are meant to ensure sound labour relations in municipalities,” SAMWU General Secretary Dumisane Magagula.
Shabalala dismissed the allegation stating that the labour forum meetings have been taking place.
“It’s not true that Labour Forums are not meeting, I have minutes of those meetings,” he said when asked to explain why the union believes meetings are not taking place.
Magagula said the union will not rest when rights are abused in attacking municipal workers for the sake of scoring cheap political points and making unnecessary political statements.
“We are agitated as workers when a political party, in a democratic country, seeks to suppress workers’ rights and undermine collective bargaining, in the name of politics These are antics that our forebears fought against during the apartheid era and cannot be expected nor tolerated in a democratic state,” Magagula added.
He said the IFP and its councillors do not have any power whatsoever to determine who sits in the Local Labour Forums, composition of forums are determined by the main collective agreement which governs labour relations in all 257 municipalities in the Country.
“The IFP should learn to separate political leadership and administration in municipalities. This is the same IFP which earlier this year pronounced that municipal workers will be fired to make way for IFP supporters,” Magagula said.
The union urged the municipality, run by the IFP-led coalition, to instruct councillors to attend to the genuine issues which have been raised by workers at both Alfred Duma and uThukela.
Magagula said the mayor must also focus his attention on ensuring that workers in these municipalities have an environment which is conducive for them to efficiently and safely deliver services to residents.
INSIDE METROS