'Dismissal threats' cripple Popcru strike turnout

Intimidating late-night e-mails carrying threats of dismissal kept tens of thousands of disgruntled police administrative workers at their desks and off the streets.

Nearly 50000 police clerks and administrative workers, many of whom man the 10111 emergency call centres, were set to down tools across South Africa yesterday.

The strike was called by the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union and will continue today.

The protest was fuelled by police management's refusal to incorporate 48000 administrative staff into the police service as per the 2011 Safety and Security Sectoral Bargaining Council agreement.

Currently, administrative staff are employed under the Public Service Act. Popcru demands that the agreement be honoured and this would see administrative staff earning R20000 more annually.

SAPS management says it cannot afford the extra R900-million required for additional salaries.

A circular from the SAPS deputy national commissioner, Lieutenant-General NNH Mazibuko, sent out on Tuesday night claims the strike was unprotected.

It says participants would face disciplinary action and have their salaries docked. About 500 protestors in Cape Town sang scathing songs about national police commissioner Riah Phiyega.

"We took Phiyega and put her on the gravy train but now she is mismanaging us - voetsek!"

Popcru president Zizamele Cebekhulu said: "Our members are dying on the street, [management] are keeping quiet . as if those members died in vain."

Popcru's KwaZulu-Natal chairman, Jeff Dladla, said intimidation would not stop them from fighting for their rights. Western Cape police spokesman, Captain Frederick van Wyk, said the protests did not compromise service delivery.