The past few weeks have been unbearable for communities around the City of Tshwane after the municipality embarked on a campaign to recoup millions of rands owed due to non-payment of services.
The Tshwane YaTima revenue collection campaign switched off electricity and water to some government buildings, households, estates, and office parks. Even one Gautrain station was not spared.
As if that was not enough the residents, many of whom claimed to have settled their municipal bills, were forced to spend the long weekend in the dark because workers affiliated to the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) went on strike.
The Tshwane municipality said the strike is related to its application for an exemption from pay increases.
The strike action, which the municipality says is illegal, has now put hundreds of jobs on the firing line after Tshwane mayor Randall Williams said the municipality had started issuing job termination notices.
“As the City continues to face some service disruptions due to the illegal strike, we have now begun issuing notices of intention to terminate employment of workers who have been involved in the unlawful and unprotected strike since 15 March,” said Williams.
The strike is also said to have been marred by incidents of intimidation and violence after a non-striking municipal staff member was attacked for attending to power outages in Soshanguve, outside Pretoria at the weekend.
Williams explained further: “They [workers] have until Thursday to provide written reasons why their services should not be terminated. The City will thereafter take a decision on whether to terminate their services or not.
“We will not allow the work of the City to be derailed by small groups of individuals who seek to prevent their fellow colleagues from carrying out their duties.”
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