25/11/2015: Joburg condemns lawlessness by striking Pikitup workers
The Johannesburg Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Environment and Infrastructure Services, Cllr. Matshidiso Mfikoe on Wednesday, 24 November 2015, condemned the ongoing lawlessness displayed by striking Pikitup workers this week.
“It is not acceptable for the workers to go on an illegal strike, ignore a court order to return to work and continue to trash the streets of the city when they have not communicated their grievances to the city’s leadership,” says MMC Mfikoe.
“I have not been approached by the workers about their grievances. Even though the workers marched to the Joburg Executive Mayor, Cllr. Parks Tau’s office on Tuesday and today, they did not hand over a memorandum on arrival at the Metro Centre to give us an opportunity to try resolve their grievances,” she says.
The MMC was speaking out after workers on Monday this week illegally downed tools and took to the streets of the city and begun emptying rubbish bins onto the streets to express their grievances. This continued again on Tuesday and Wednesday.
MMC Mfikoe says: “The city’s leadership is sympathetic to workers’ legitimate concerns and efforts are often made to resolve them when brought to us. In the recent events, nothing has been communicated to us.”
She encouraged workers to return to work and use channels within the law to express their grievances.
“Breaking the law and trashing the city without bringing forward their grievances to the leadership is not going to resolve anything, but compound problems for workers - both with the employer and legally. We therefore appeal to workers to engage with us to resolve their grievances,” MMC Mfikoe says.
Tomorrow morning, at 7am, the City’s leadership will undertake a walkabout of the Inner City to assess the extent of the damage caused by the striking workers.
ENDS
Issued by the City of Johannesburg
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