EFF, Tshwane Metro lock horns over contract workers
Tshwane deputy city managers, EFF representatives and the #OutsourcingMustFall movement engaged in a heated debate after contract worker staged a protest demanding permanent jobs.
|||Pretoria – Tshwane deputy city managers, Ndivho Lukhwareni and Frans Boshielo, participated in a heated meeting with members of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the #OutsourcingMustFall movement after scores of contracted workers blocked off the city’s Isivuno head office, demanding permanent jobs.
“We are engaging in this discussion with the aim of reaching a solution. You can say whatever you think is factual but it doesn’t help anybody to move anywhere. Do you want to go and exhaust the Blessing (Manale) option or you want this matter to be handled by the city manager?” Lukhwareni asked the leaders of the protesters picketing outside Isivuno building.
The workers alleged that Tshwane mayoral spokesman Blessing Manale had repeatedly lied to them and insisted that he must be called to the heated meeting on Thursday.
Lukhwareni turned down the request and told the workers’ representatives that they could walk out and finalise their deliberations with Manale or engage with the two deputy city managers sent by city manager Jason Ngobeni.
Obakeng Ramabodu from the EFF Tshwane regional elections taskforce insisted that the representatives of the work wanted to narrate the background of the protest.
“It’s just that we are hopeless and there is no way we cannot given you the background. These people are not alone. We received this complaint about four months ago and we have been trying to engage. I must advise you that…we will not have a choice but to mobilise the around 8 000 affected people that the city claims to have employed,” said Ramabodu.
“We are politicians but these workers are not politicians. They are your workers…”
Lukhwareni retorted: “They are not our workers. They are working for our contractors in the city. That doesn’t make them our workers”.
Ramabodu responded: “We want them to be your workers”, adding that the contracted workers were running out now patience.
“We are not threatening you but we want to say there will be a time when we lose patience. The time is coming when this thing will get out of control. It will not be us, but it will be the workers,” said Ramabodu.
#OutsourcingMustFall representative at the meeting, Decious Ramatabana, said the two options given by the deputy city managers were too limited and unacceptable.
“Now you are talking as if you don’t know what is going on. You are coming with the options of either dog or goat, we don’t want that. We want a cow. You understand what we want very well,” said Ramatabana.
The parties later agreed to reconvene in two weeks. The scores of protesters had briefly blocked the Isivuno House main entrance, standing in the way as luxury cars with blue lights tried to exit the venue. They later allowed the cars to pass.
After the meeting, Lukhwareni told reporters that the contracted workers were trying to strong-arm the municipality into hiring them.
“Indeed they are holding guns on our heads because first the people came into the city without asking to meet anybody. They blocked the entrance of the capital city (headquarters) and now we cannot conduct our business as usual. I had to rearrange my whole day,” said Lukhwareni.
“Even when I tried to discuss with them, they was very little suggestions in terms of suggestions on how we can resolve the impasse. They were talking history which never ends. I was trying to bring in deadlock breaking mechanisms but they were not interested in that. They were interested in detailing the injustices done to them, which I can’t confirm or deny.”
Lukhwareni said he felt that the negotiators were pressuring him to make a commitment on the employment of the workers, without giving him and Boshielo space to consult.
“When I say these people were holding the gun to my head, it is because I felt that they wanted us to make decisions in the absence of all the necessary information and consultation with all the stakeholders. We needed more time to go back to other stakeholders,” he said.
African News Agency