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SAMWU urges new City of Johannesburg Mayor to prioritise workers and service delivery

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SAMWU urges new City of Johannesburg Mayor to prioritise workers and service delivery

4th October 2022

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The South African Municipal Workers' Union (SAMWU) in the Petrus Mashishi (Johannesburg) Region notes and welcomes the elections of Speaker and Mayor of the City of Johannesburg following a passed motion of no confidence in the two DA predecessors, Cllr Vasco Da Gama and Cllr Mpho Phalatse respectively. We welcome the elections of Cllrs Collen Makhubele and Dada Morero as Speaker and Mayor respectively. 

As SAMWU, we have on previous occasions made known our displeasure of the political leadership in the City of Johannesburg. We have always maintained that both Cllrs Da Gama and Phalatse were not acting in the interest of service delivery or that of workers. It was under the leadership of these two that workers were dismissed for not being cheerleaders of the DA while service delivery in predominantly black communities deteriorated as they were neglected in favour of predominantly rich communities. 

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As a union, we are of the view that all residents of the City should be serviced equally without giving preference to any class in society. It is for this reason that we call on Cllr Morero to ensure that residents of the City receive quality services which they deserve from the City. We further call on Cllr Makhubele to ensure that the Executive that will be announced by the Mayor is held accountable in Council. As SAMWU, we are interested in seeing accountability, fairness and transparency from the Executive. 

We have also noted that the former Mayor has rushed to the courts to challenge the outcomes of the Council sitting that voted her out. As SAMWU, we will be keeping an eye on this development and hope that Cllr Phalatse is not using any ratepayers’ resources in taking a frivolous case to court. We urge the new administration to seek a cost order against Cllr Phalatse in this case as we cannot allow money that should be used to service residents to be funnelled to lawyers.  

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In welcoming the new administration, we call for the speedy return to work for the 130 workers that were illegally and unlawfully dismissed by the previous administration. If Cllr Morero is a servant of the people, he will ensure that these workers are reinstated with immediate effect and that they are compensated for the loss of income, pain and suffering that they were subjected to by the previous administration that saw nothing morally and illegal in sending over 130 workers and their families to poverty and starvation. 

We also want a City that is free from fraud and corruption. As such, we demand that the City pursue the former Director in the Office of the City Manager, Mr Mesuli Mlandu who also acted as City Manager for the irregular, unlawful and fraudulent expenses that the City incurred as a result of Mr. Mlandu increasing his own salary and the appointment that he irregularly made and increased the incumbent’s salary too. 

We further urge Cllr Makhubele to act against Cllr David Tembe whose appointment as Chief of the Johannesburg Metro Police was found to be unlawful by the Public Protector. The R5 million that the Public Protector found to have been unlawfully paid over to Cllr Tembe should be recouped and redirected to servicing residents of the City of Johannesburg. 

As we have previously said as a majority union in the City of Johannesburg, we do not care which political party governs the City, we will work with any party or administration, provided that workers’ rights are not trampled upon, there is increased service delivery and labour laws are adhered to. We, therefore, demand that the new administration ensures that all workers’ issues are immediately attended to, including the consistent sitting of the Local Labour Forums. 

We look forward to working with the new administration, we trust that the union will be given an audience with the political leadership to iron out many issues which could not be dealt with as a result of the previous administration which did not meet with unions not even once. Our support for this administration should however not be taken for granted, workers will revolt should their grievances not be addressed.  

 

Issued by SAMWU Petrus Mashishi (Johannesburg) Region

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