Pretoria - Cracks have started to show between the DA-led coalition government and ActionSA in Tshwane as the municipal strike continues to cause havoc across the capital city.
ActionSA, part of the coalition government, has threatened to take the matter to the management committee to intervene and call on mayor Cilliers Brink to go back to the negotiation table with the striking workers.
The party is accusing Brink of going back on the 2021 agreement between the city and the workers that pay increases would be implemented.
Employees affiliated to the SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) have been on strike, demanding a wage increase, for the past three years.
The action has left service delivery in the city non-existent with uncollected refuse and other service delivery issues.
Visiting communities affected by the strike yesterday, ActionSA’s national chairperson Michael Beaumont and Gauteng chairperson Funzi Ngobeni assessed the extent of service delivery breakdown arising from the strike action.
Ngobeni said the party was planning to take the matter to the coalition committee and called on Brink to go back to the negotiation table with the workers.
He said: “Refuse has not been collected, grass has not been cut, power station repairs are taking longer and we are nowhere close to a solution.
“Throughout this period, ActionSA has called on the City and the workers to return to the negotiation table and find a solution for the current impasse,” he said.
Ngobeni said their position was often misconstrued, with many criticising their stance on the strike.
“Many are saying we are destabilising the current coalition government or even defending the vandalism of public property … that is simply not true.”
The City and the unions signed a three-year wage agreement and the municipality has not honoured that agreement.
The first year of that agreement was 2022, and the City implemented the wage deal for the second year.
“We don’t believe the City can simply break agreements if signed, therefore placing workers in a difficult position.
“We are asking that instead of ignoring workers, mayor Brink must come to the negotiating position to find a solution.
“That’s why we have escalated our concerns to the coalition management committee,” he said.
“A school where children are meant to be educated and play sport with one another has become a dump site; this community has only had their refuse collected once in the last five weeks.
“This is not good enough for the school. These are serious problems that we need to take back to our coalition,” he said
He further accused the ANC of attempting to frustrate service delivery in the community.
Pretoria News