Municipal workers plan strike

Municipal workers throughout the country may down tools next week in solidarity with 91 Metsimaholo municipal employees in Sasolburg who were dismissed, Samwu said on Thursday.

"If the on-going talks fail, municipality workers will go on strike next week. As from tomorrow [Friday] we will issue out a call to all of our provincial structures throughout the country for workers to begin formulating solidarity campaigns," SA Municipal Workers' Union spokesman Tahir Sema said in a statement.

This was to ensure the 91 "improperly dismissed" workers were immediately reinstated.

"If the management of the Metsimaholo municipality does not revoke the dismissals and the trumped up charges against employees, then the provincial solidarity campaigns will culminate into sympathy strikes, which would cripple the delivery of services to communities."

The 91 were sacked for participating in last year's public sector strike. They were informed of their dismissal via fax on Tuesday.

"The municipality has claimed that the dismissals are as a result of the 2010 Samwu national strike. As the largest local government union we cannot understand what is meant by the above, as our last national strike was a legal and protected strike action, of which every South African has a democratic right to participate in."

Sema claimed the workers were being victimised.