Samwu expressed disappointment after Joburg mayor Herman Mashaba said he would be withdrawing funding for the South African Local Government Association.
|||Johannesburg - The South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) has expressed disappointment at what it calls “yet another deliberate attack on collective bargaining and workers in general by the Democratic Alliance (DA)” and has warned the party to think the decision through.
This follows the announcement that the DA City of Joburg mayor, Herman Mashaba stating on Tuesday that he would be withdrawing funding for the South African Local Government Association (Salga), describing it as a “cadre deployment body for the ANC that has become top-heavy and wasteful in its spending”.
Mashaba said Salga should represent all local government councillors in a manner consistent with democracy.
Samwu general secretary Simon Mathe said: “We view this plan as a deliberate attempt to collapse Salga which relies heavily on the levy paid by municipalities which are party to the association. Currently, all the country’s 278 municipalities are members of this association whose mandate is derived from the country’s constitution which defines Salga as the voice and sole representative of local government,” he said.
Samwu, he said, views this as a direct attack on collective bargaining as the withdrawal would automatically mean that DA-led municipalities would no longer be party to the South African Local Government Bargaining Council wherein all salary and wage negotiations in this sector are done centrally.
“We are convinced that the DA wants to divide workers. This plan will mean that workers in DA-led municipalities would have no one to represent them in the bargaining council and as such will not be covered by the main collective agreement signed by parties in the bargaining council,” he said.
Mathe said the party had ulterior motives which includes the DA-led municipalities forming their own bargaining council with the aim of crippling the sector and giving workers as little increases as possible come salary and wage negotiations time.
He said Samwu was warning the DA to think “thoroughly” before taking decisions that would put workers’ jobs at risk as this would not be accepted by the working class.
This follows the withdrawal from a Salga conference on September 29 by the DA and EFF.
DA Gauteng chairperson Solly Msimanga said the DA, representing the municipalities of Midvaal, Tshwane, Joburg and Mogale City, withdrew due to “alleged, underhanded dealings by the ANC that have attempted to hijack control of Salga Gauteng.”
Msimanga argued that the DA controls governments in Gauteng which have more than a 50% controlling stake in Salga Gauteng, in terms of contributions, investment and interests, and the DA governs municipalities housing a vast majority of residents of Gauteng.
He said it was only ‘right and fitting’ that the DA holds significant representation on Salga Gauteng’s executive committee and negotiations to this end were finalised with all parties prior to the conference.
Yet when the Salga executive committee should have been elected, the ANC reneged on this agreement, “refused to see the rightful seats taken up by the DA, and underhandedly attempted to hijack control of Salga Gauteng”.
He said that as a result, the DA and EFF representatives had withdrawn and would not accept any outcomes from this conference as legitimate.
Former Joburg mayor Parks Tau was elected chairman.
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The Star