The South African Municipal Workers’ Union (SAMWU) along with Cape Town Communities have had enough of empty promises and abuse by the municipality, now they have taken the battle upon themselves to fight for what they believe is right and they deserve. 

On Saturday, the 14th December 2019, the union will be delivering its memorandum of grievances to the City Management at the Civic Center. Workers and community members will from 9am gather at Kaizergracht and begin marching to the Civic Center at 11am where the memorandum of demands will be submitted at 12.00.

This memorandum will consist of various grievances across the departments including the demands that are submitted every Monday at Civic Centre for permanent employment and to stop Extended Public Works Programme (EPWP) and labour broker exploitation.

The union demands that across departments, all disciplinary hearings be stopped immediately and that all dismissed employees be reinstated including all dismissed Shop stewards. This demand is supported by the fact that only employees at the lower ranks are subjected to disciplinary hearings and dismissed but all those in management are not disciplined when they conduct themselves seriously inappropriate with serious financial consequences to the municipality and consequently affecting the service delivery. For example, in the Safety and Security directorate, processes to appoint a director were flouted and hundreds of thousands had to be paid out by the City, but no one was dismissed for such a serious conduct.

The union demands real Jobs and insourcing of all those employed under labour brokers, subcontracting and EPWP. It is the union view that 100% of the municipality functions are of a permanent nature and if the City of Cape Town have a contrary view, an open debate on this view is welcome. 

The union demands that at least the municipality fill 10 000 permanent jobs at the lower level to correct the exploitation that has been happening in the disguise of the EPWP, outsourcing and labour brokers. The union has also noticed other labour broker companies that must be removed from the City like Top n Nos, Affirmative Action, those doing meter reading work for both water and electricity departments and all other labour brokers that are doing municipality functions.

In addition to the real jobs demand, there are workers in Departments such as: Informal Settlement, Water and Sanitation, Roads, Parks and Recreation, Safety and Security, Solid Waste, Clinics and in the City’s administration who are  working above their job descriptions and have not progressed in terms of promotion for about 10 years.

Over 10 years ago, the City had a staff complement of around 32 000 thousand but now in 2019 the same staff complement has been reduced by thousands, yet the population has grown, and the municipality has serious service delivery shortfalls. It is the union view that service delivery to the residents of this City can only be improved by employing according the growing size of the population.

The union is demanding the employer to seriously adhere and comply to the transformation agenda guided by the Employment Equity Act & Regulations. All departments are not reflective of the demographics as it should, and women representation is the worst affected, especially the previously disadvantaged groups. 

The union has also regrettable noticed the death of employees in the line of duty this year not on natural causes and demand the City of Cape Town to ensure that all employees are safe at work and that all risks are eliminated.

The union intends to pursue all the above demands into the new year, 2020 but its doors remain open if the City of Cape Town is open in amicable resolving them.

Issued by SAMWU Cape Metro Region

Mikel Khumalo

Regional Secretary

083 265 1519

Or

Mzoxolo Miselo

Regional Chairperson 

073 444 9684