'Brink, if you can't rule, leave office': Cosatu wants dismissed Tshwane workers reinstated

Cosatu on Friday sent a stern message to Tshwane mayor Cilliers Brink: shape up or ship out.

With Friday marking International Day of Decent Work, the labour federation marched to Tshwane House in Pretoria to deliver a memorandum to Brink demanding payment of an increase owed to workers. It also demanded the city reinstate 123 dismissed municipal workers with immediate effect.

Tshwane sacked the workers after they took part in the ongoing unprotected wage strike in contravention of a court order to end the protests.

“We want the reinstatement of the dismissed municipal workers. We want the increase that is owed to the municipal workers. It is not a favour to you workers,” said Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi.

Losi called for Brink to resign.

“Brink, if you can't rule, leave the office. If you cannot govern this municipality resign with immediate effect.”

She warned the days of municipalities in the province being run by the DA were “numbered”. 

“We can't be treated as glorified slaves in a democratic dispensation in our country. We fought for this democracy as workers,” she said.

Losi has accused the DA government in Tshwane of segregating black people and insulting them by not giving them what is due to them.

The federal union is also displeased at allegations the city is planning to tamper with the 13th cheque of workers.

It is demanding the city honour a 2021 multi-term collective agreement. It also wants the city to open talks with organised labour to resolve the impasse.

Earlier on, Brink had announced that he would receive the memorandum from Cosatu, but tension rose when he sent city manager Johann Mettler instead.

Mettler left, however, citing safety issues.

The mayor's spokesperson, Sipho Stuurman, said Brink, who was ready to accept the memorandum at midday as prearranged, had to leave for another prearranged engagement as the marchers had not yet arrived at about 1.20pm.

“The city is committed to maintaining relations with organised labour, and the executive as well as the management of the city will apply its mind to Cosatu’s inputs. We implore the trade union federation and its affiliates to respect the provisions of the collective agreement and the rule of law,” said Stuurman.

He said Tshwane is taking the determination of the SA Local Government Bargaining Council, that Tshwane must pay R600m in salary increases, on review in the Labour Appeals Court.

“The simple question before the court is: can the city afford these increases? We have no doubt that had the bargaining council decided in the city’s favour, that we would still have suffered the violent attacks that are currently disrupting service delivery.

“There can be no negotiating over acts of criminality. The court must be permitted to resolve the salary dispute, and in the meantime, the city will engage with organised labour in mediation forums like the CCMA,” he said.

The city condemned the violence and criminality that have accompanied the strike over the salary increases, he said.

“These acts of criminality are in fact an attack on the state, and we ask that Cosatu joins us in condemning all acts of criminality directed against the municipality and the residents of the capital city.”

Meanwhile, Cosatu has denied that Mettler's life was ever in danger. The trade union crushed his reasoning that he left the marchers' site for a fear of his safety, saying he wanted to only taint their peaceful protest action. 

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