Disgruntled out-of-work labourers who had been working for the City of Tshwane under contractors appointed by the municipality over the years, marched to the City’s waste management offices situated in Sun Valley, Mamelodi West on Tuesday morning.
The labourers lost their jobs after the company contracted to the municipality for the purpose of removing waste in Tshwane had its contract terminated by the City last month.
The name of the company whose waste management contract has been terminated is not known to Tshwane Talks as the municipality and the ANC have so far both refused to divulge its name after this newspaper asked both parties to do so for several weeks now.
The name of the new company that has replaced the one whose contract has been terminated is also unknown to Tshwane Talks as both the municipality and the ANC have refused to divulge information in this regard too.
The marching labourers explained to Tshwane Talks yet again that as much as they understand that the contracts of the previous waste removal company has been terminated by the City of Tshwane, they as ordinary labourers should not have been affected at all by the termination of the contract; that they should have been allowed to carry on with their duties irrespective of who the company contracted to the City of Tshwane is.
“During Covid-19 when many people stayed at home for fear of being infected by the dreaded disease, we continued to do our jobs as waste removal labourers,” said one of the labourers.
“Each time there was a strike by municipality workers we risked our lives to make sure that waste is collected from the households of the residents of Tshwane, but today the municipality has forgotten about all the sacrifices that we have been making over the years,” said another marching labourer who indicated that he and some of his fellow labourers have been working for the City of Tshwane for over fifteen years now, yet the City still doesn’t recognise them as its workers.
Two weeks ago, the City of Tshwane released a media statement wherein it indicated that there was nothing it could to re-employ the out-of-work labourers, as they had been hired by the waste removal company whose contract has recently been terminated, and not directly by the City of Tshwane.
The labourers are of the opinion that the City of Tshwane is using the “divide-and-rule” tactic as it has re-employed some among them while the vast majority of them are still jobless
They are demanding to be hired permanently by the City of Tshwane.
At the aforesaid waste management offices of the City of Tshwane, where the marchers went to on Tuesday, there was no senior City of Tshwane official to listen to their demands.
The only recognisable City of Tshwane official who was there was Charlie Magoka, who told Tshwane Talks that he and his colleagues who were at the offices didn’t have any powers to employ anyone as their positions were that of inspectors.
“Our positions entail that we monitor progress or lack thereof regarding waste removal activities, and though the labourers may blame us for losing their jobs, we don’t have powers to reinstate any of them because the process of employing labourers is done at a higher level and not by us waste removal inspectors,” said Magoka.
Asked whether those who have since been re-employed are the ones who were performing well, while those who have not been re-employed are the ones who were performing poorly, Magoka responded as follows:
“Let me respond by saying we are not part of that process, we are not part of hiring service providers nor are we part of hiring labourers.”
Meanwhile, the out-of-work labourers have vowed to go back to the waste management offices on Thursday in demand for the City of Tshwane to reinstate them with immediate effect.