Samwu warns against undermining JMPD strike

The South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) is sending a “strong warning” to substitute employees from provincial licensing centres to not undermine the Johannesburg metro police department (JMPD) strike.

Samwu Gauteng spokesperson Dumisani Langa said on Wednesday his union “wants to send a strong warning to those people brought in by the city to take over the functions of members engaged in a legally protected strike; they would be insane to undermine the strike action”.

Thursday will see strike action by the JMPD enter its fourth day.

Samwu’s list of grievances, presented on Monday to Johannesburg city excutive mayor Amos Masondo, included that a licensing official, known only as Ms Essau, be suspended; that the deputy director in the internal affairs unit be suspended because he is allegedly an accomplice in a case involving a “Sergeant De Beer”, who is an employee at the same unit; and that the JMPD should not re-engage retired cops.

Edna Mononyane, JMPD spokesperson, said: “The JMPD’s senior management was in discussion with provincial officials requesting them to bring in examiners from provincial licensing centres, but were awaiting confirmation from the provincial director ...” She added: “It would not be undermining anyone; we are trying to ease the heavy backlog on our licensing centres and help the members of the public who require the services at our licensing centres.”

Democratic Alliance (DA) community safety spokesperson Darren Bergman warned that the current backlog had the potential to “collapse the system”.

However, Mononyane dismissed this, saying it was mere politicking on Bergman’s part, but acknowledged that the licensing centres were experiencing immense pressure from the backlog.

On average, licensing and testing centres in Johannesburg process an average of 206 driving license tests, 257 learner’s license tests and 2 000 vehicle registrations each day.

Samwu has called on the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the African National Congress (ANC) to try to help resolve the negotiation deadlock. Langa told Mail & Guardian Online that Samwu “has secured a meeting for tomorrow [Thursday] with the ANC’s provincial and branch leadership to discuss ways of resolving the impasse…”.

Patrick Craven, spokesperson for Cosatu, told the M&G Online that “the ANC’s provincial office was best suited to break the logjam because they are not directly involved in the running of the city”.

He added that Cosatu “fully supported Samwu ... and strongly condemned provincial officials who are releasing staff members to the city’s licensing centres”. Craven said city management must honour and implement the agreements on wage increases reached after last year’s JMPD strike.

Meanwhile, Langa also warned that if “—the outcomes of the meeting tomorrow fail to resolve issues, members from other [essential services] departments would be called on to join the strike”.

He said that the strike would be suspended with immediate effect should their grievances be addressed.