DA ditches council intervention in Tshwane municipal unrest

The DA-led multiparty coalition in Tshwane has reportedly ditched the intervention by council during ongoing unrest as a result of an impasse between the municipality and its workers.

This is according to the South African Municipal Workers' Union (Samwu), who said they are dismayed by the multiparty coalition's attitude towards resolving the tensions politically.

A special council meeting called by speaker Mncedi Ndzwanana, boycotted by the DA, ActionSA, FF+, IFP and ACDP, sought to intervene in the state of affairs in Tshwane.

Samwu provincial secretary Mpho Tladinyane said the mayor and his party are on record as saying they need calm and stability restored in the city, but their absence from the meeting proved otherwise.

“If the mayor is genuine about restoring calm in the city, why does his party and its coalition partners refuse to honour intervention by council, the highest decision- making body in the municipality, to find a solution to the service delivery crises?”

Ndzwanana said apologies started pouring in about an hour before the scheduled start of the the meeting from councillors in the DA, FF+, ActionSA, IFP and ACDP.

“The reasons were mostly that a virtual meeting had not been granted and they were unable to attend the meeting physically.”

The speaker said the possibility of continued instability would persist considering the council's biggest political parties are not seeing the matter from the same perspective.

“This is likely to spill into the ordinary council meeting this week when it could have been managed at the special council meeting.”

Tladinyane said it was suspicious that the city manager’s timing of taking leave the same day appeared to be a deliberate move to boycott the special council meeting.

“It has been four weeks of service instability caused by arrogance of the leadership of the city, who at every opportunity run to the media to seek public sympathy but refuse to listen to others who want to offer solutions to the impasse,” he said.

He said the challenges faced by workers and residents seemingly do not concern the mayor and the DA-led coalition.

“If workers and residents’ plights were of concern to this multiparty coalition, all councillors would have attended the sitting and fulfilled the purpose for which it was called.”

Tladinyane said the challenges faced by workers in the city were as a result of decisions taken by council and therefore required the same council to redeem themselves and restore sound labour relations and service delivery to workers and residents respectively.

“As a union we have been on record that our members are not on strike and that everyone should be at their work stations and serve the residents of Tshwane. However, it is very concerning that the employer doesn’t allow workers an opportunity to execute their duties.

“Drivers can’t access buses to ferry residents, maintenance workers and technicians can’t use work vehicles to respond to outages, and meter readers can’t do their work as they rely on city transportation which is locked in by the employer. As a result of these actions, many residents of Tshwane are likely to receive incorrect billing and will reject paying inaccurate bills and worsen the financial state of the city.”

The worker's union said they enjoyed backing received from opposition parties in council and commended their efforts to try to intervene.

“The union will work with any party willing to ensure the city of Tshwane works for its people. The DA-led coalition has missed an opportunity to service residents. Samwu remains open to all proposals that will lead to solutions that address issues faced by workers and residents.”

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