10 April 2015 R1-20/FREE
‘We are being made fools of by the management!’
Money issues erupt in Bela-Bela Bela-Bela municipality
Morris Maluleka and Lucas Nhlapo engaging with SAPS during a protest by municipal SAMWU workers. Photo: TK Mashaba
Municipal workers in full swing singing at municipal premises. Photo: TK Mashaba
TK Mashaba TK Mashaba SAMWU workers in the Bela-Bela municipality started a protest on Tuesday, 31 March, which saw the SAPS called in to intervene. The municipal employees who are SAMWU members started their protest when they were allegedly not paid the bonuses and increases that they had been promised after their protests in February. They blocked the entrance of the municipal offices with paper and opened water taps inside the building before the police were called in. According to Elliot Molala, the local SAMWU chairperson and a municipal
employee, the municipality is taking their workers for granted and it is high time that they pay what they had promised. “We are being made fools of by the management,” he said. “They keep promising, but they never deliver, and we are sick and tired of the management undermining us.” The workers sang revolutionary anthems, some swearing at the municipal manager Morris Maluleka and mayor Lucas Nhlapo. A meeting was held inside the municipality with the police present. The mayor and municipal manager allegedly refused to talk to the protesters. “They were pleading that we must go
and protest outside the municipal yard,” he said. One of the protesters said that he did not think that the police could tell them to protest outside the premises. “This is our place of work and we will protest in here anytime we want as long as we are not vandalizing the premises,” he said. The police mediated and calmed the protesters to allow Maluleka to address them. He told them that the matter would be revisited in June next year. The matter is being taken to the bargaining council for mediation. SAMWU has given the council 14 days to respond.