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INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND

The purpose of this media briefing is to give an update on the prolonged strike by the Ethekwini Municipal employees, which largely we are told involve the Water and Sanitation Unit and Durban Solid Waste department.  The strike which started last week has not only become disruptive but has in some instances turned violent with trucks blocking roads to the city causing major gridlock in addition to the disruption of essential services such as water.

As members of the media will recall, on Monday this week, 29 April 2019, following the meeting of the Provincial Executive Council, we announced the appointment of a government intervention task team, led the MEC for Public Works and Human Settlement, Hon.  Ravi Pillay, to facilitate discussion and ensure a speedy resolution to this impasse.

Since Monday the task team has been engaging with unions and all key stakeholders.

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CRISIS

The origin of the crisis seems to stem from a decision by the municipality to advertise 60 grade 10 task posts.  In May 2018, recruitment was finalized, of which 145 candidates deemed to have been unsuccesful lodged a grievence over what they termed selective promotional appointments. The  grievance  started as an  informal protest with workers slowly leaving workstations unattended and gradually impacting on service delivery.

On the 26th April 2019 the disgruntled employees downed tools following what they perceived to be a  lack of response and explanation on the city decision to promote employees especially MKVA member.  Of course this has now graduated to the state of dramatic visuals and events of lawlessness that we have come to witness in recent days. 

IMPACT OF THE CRISIS ON CITIZENS ECONOMY AND INFRASTRUCTURE

This crisis has had a crippling effect not only on infrastructure and economy but it has also inflicted serious reputational damage on the city, the province and the country.  Currently we are hosting the annual tourism indaba which is intended to keep and generate new job opportunities and inject much needed money to the economy.  We now have a situation where hotels housing international guests are without water.  On Wednesday, the Metro escorted water tankers to various hotels across on the beach front, as well as various areas across Ethekwini such as KwaMakhutha, KwaMashu, Folweni, etc.  This will have huge repercussion for us in the long term.

SECURITY

A Joint Operation Center, has been established by the intervention team.  It comprises of the law enforcement and support service agencies from the city and the province.  The report we have received is that this team has had to bring in additional capacity to respond to the escalating crisis. To date this team has thwarted numerous attempts at sabotaging infrastructure of the city as well as safeguarding very areas of Ethekwini.  As of yesterday, when workers started attacking their shopstewards, at a feedback session at city hall, police had to intervene to disperse the crowd.  In the process one of the persons, we are informed tripped while attempting to run away from the scene, unfortunately he fell hitting his head on a concrete pole.  Sadly we are informed he later passed away in hospital.  We extend our heartfelt condolences to the family.  A police investigation in this matter has been opened.

To date the security team has made a total of 31 arrests, which vary from attempted murder, public violence, road traffic infringements, illegal use of council vehicles in the commission of crime and serious damage to business property.  We want to send a clear message that while the right to engage in any industrial action is a right enshrined in our supreme law, the Constitution, but anarchy and lawlessness will not be tolerated, in fact this undermines the purpose of the actual points of disagreement currently being negotiated.

We must also indicate that a court order has been obtained declaring that the strike is an unprotected strike, interdicting and restraining the unions and their members from participating in the strike.  We ask of every stakeholder involved in this crisis to respect court decisions while negotiations are still on-going.  Any violation of the court order, will lead to contempt of court proceedings including criminal sanction, civil liability and disciplinary action.

COST TO ECONOMY

The cost of the damage to date is over R3, 5 million on the Ethekwini municipal infrastructure, this excludes impact on the economy which is still being quantified and the cost of hiring privately owned water tankers where reservoirs and valves have been tampered with. We are informed that 90% of the water services have been restored.

EFFORTS TO ADDRESS THE UNION CONCERNS

We categorically state clear that the concerns from labour are not baseless.  As part of efforts to get to the bottom of the union concerns we have taken the following decisions:

We have appointed an independent Attorney by the name of Mr Martin Potgieter to investigate the allegations of assault against union officials. 

We have advised the city to consider the reviewing and setting aside of the decisions which may have been improperly made, these include the amendment to the staff establishment and the grading and recruitment processes.  The city has informed us that they are in the process of implementing this advice.

The demand of the union regarding certain position in the city has been referred to the Bargaining Council for negotiations.  We want to specify that in terms of our legislation all collective wage agreements must take place within the recognised legal framework.  We will keep the doors open for negotiations and implement decisions in line with the law.

GOVERNMENT RESPONSES

As government we want to caution any one against embarking on any illegal action that borders on undermining our democracy.

We have since called for consequence management on how the decisions that led to this crisis were implemented, by the same token we will ensure that the unions are held accountable and liable for all the damages that have been caused to the municipal infrastructure and property.

We condemn any opportunistic attempt to exploit the prevailing crisis for political and personal gains.

CONCLUSION

We wish to re-iterate our call to all stakeholders to put the welfare of all the citizens first.  We can disagree in a patriotic manner without being insensitive to the lives of our communities; it is an immoral act to use an essential service such as water as a bargaining chip against our people.

 Water is life as enshrined in our Bill of Rights which says that all South Africans have a right to life. When we are still trying to recover from the devastation caused by floods, we cannot engage in such immoral behaviour of denying residents water. We once again, call on everyone involved in this practice to pause and think of the consequences of their actions for people who have already suffered enough.  

We call on workers to return to work, stabilise the situation and work urgently on the recovery plan.  Our legal framework provides clear channel for communication and dispute resolutions.

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