The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in the Free State is shocked yet unsurprised by the Matjhabeng Municipality’s ill-conceived decision to suspend COSATU shopstewards under the banner of the South African Municipal Workers(SAMWU).

The mayor was able to temporarily keep up a false portrayal of himself as the messiah however, workers have seen through his ill intentions of masking his true self. Despite his connections to Luthuli and Sebothelo Houses of the ANC National and Free State Provincial Offices that have empowered him with the right to ‘walk on water’, workers have exposed him. The Executive Mayor has blurred the lines completely and has normalized overreach in the municipality which includes getting directly involved in administrative matters.

Evidently, the mayor is at the core of creating factions within the municipality and among workers. He is on record as dividing the workers between those appointed before his tenure and those that were appointed by him. Whenever issues concerning workers would arise, he would be found convening the cohort of workers appointed during his term of office to threaten workers who have presented grievances. This practice is completely uncalled for, and the mayor is deliberately confusing the municipality with the factions that he is currently nurturing within the movement. We reject this with the contempt it deserves.

Despite claiming to be a revolutionary and a uniting leader, he has been in the frontline dissuading municipal workers from joining SAMWU. The workers who have borne the brunt of his brutality are those in the political office who he has told on several occasions that he did them a favour by appointing them and that they should submit to being his slaves, threatening them with dismissals should they reject his directive. All this has been cloaked by frequent positive media coverage and the name-dropping practice which projects him as very close to the powers that be. Workers spend time we with him for more than eight hours a day at work and know who he really is. We have thus realized that he is a fraud and has misled everyone except us as workers!

As COSATU Free State we will not tolerate any action by the employer which seeks to exploit, harass, divide, and marshal the municipal workers to fight political battles and nurture personality cult, even if the employer may be one of us and coming from our movement.

We will stand against such anomalies even if as COSATU and SAMWU we are the only one’s swimming against the tide, for we know that we are correct.

We stand by our members and municipal workers in general. We reject the politically motivated intention which is clearly being orchestrated by the Executive Mayor to silence and push SAMWU out of the system. He is supposed to be politically matured and yet can’t stand being told when he is wrong! It is a disgrace that a person holding such a high political position can behave in this manner!

The struggle continues!

Issued by COSATU Free State

For more information please contact:

Monyatso oa Mahlatsi(COSATU Free State Provincial Secretary)
Tel:051 447 5499
Cell: 076 115 9923