The Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) is concerned about the escalating acts of violent intimidation and damage to property of non-striking employees, and the resultant impact on its ability to maintain the city’s road infrastructure.
The South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) JRA employees embarked on a strike on 27 February 2015 due to a dispute on three main matters that the JRA and SAMWU had not been able to reach consensus on.
“Despite agreements for a peaceful strike, free of intimidation, we have over the past week, noted a significant increase in intimidation of JRA workers and contactors out on site attending to road maintenance as well as those fixing traffic signals,” says JRA MD, Skhumbuzo Macozoma.
“Acts such as petrol bombing homes, damaging property; and injuring and threatening employees at work is criminal behaviour and cannot be tolerated in a constitutional democracy in which the right to safety of every individual is protected by the constitution.”
Since the beginning of the strike action, the following acts of intimidation and damage to property have been reported:
* A traffic signal technician was assaulted at Malibongwe and Witkoppen yesterday by four people who had vandalised the controller and were waiting for his arrival whereupon they attacked and hit him with a sjambok;
* A non-striking shop steward’s home was petrol bombed in Bramfisherville on 18 March 2015;
* Three employees sustained minor injuries after they were attacked by stick-wielding assailants while attending to road maintenance in Mayfair;
* Technicians re-cabling a traffic signal intersection at Marshall and Mooi streets on 18 March were intimidated by four men – JRA has camera footage of this which will be used in prosecution
* A number of acts of intimidation of employees at JRA regional depots has been reported, including assaulting a general worker and threatening an employee with his life should he not stop performing his duties; and
* Two employee vehicles have been spray painted as well as a house in Bramfisherville; and another two vehicle windows smashed.
“Stemming from yesterday’s incident we are also in the process of investigating allegations of illegal tampering with traffic signal controllers causing the traffic light to malfunction, which is increasing the number of faulty traffic signals across the city. This is done to alert non-striking technicians to the site for repairs whereupon intimidation takes place.
“Close to two thirds of the JRA’s 1 600 workforce is currently on strike, and we are reliant on the good work done by non-striking staff as well as contractors appointed as part of the strike contingency planning,” Macozoma says.
“Additional security has been solicited through security contractors and the JMPD who are placed at all JRA depots and patrol workers out on site.
“However we cannot place lives at risk, and with these increased levels of violence and intimidation of staff and contractors, our ability to attend to all road related issues and faulty traffic signals reported within the agreed Customer Service timeframes is compromised, and to this end we thank the community for their patience and understanding until final resolution on the strike can be reached.”
