BUFFALO City mayor Zukiswa Ncitha was accused of jetting out of the strife-torn metro yesterday, leaving hundreds of SA Municipality Workers Union (Samwu) strikers fuming.
Samwu BCM local secretary Zolani Ndlela lashed out at city leaders for abandoning their posts.
CLEAN HANDS: Samwu BCM local secretary Zolani Ndlela blames political criminals, an unhappy public, trigger-happy police and the mayor for the trashing of the city Picture: MIKE LOEWE
Ncitha hit back, saying she had attended an “infrastructure” meeting in Johannesburg and would be back in the saddle today.
Speaking on her cellphone before her flight home, she denied the abandonment claim, saying that, as per the law, she had left deputy mayor Themba Thinta in charge.
Ndlela, speaking at the Orient Theatre ahead of the daily mass meeting of the union’s 3500 members, said: “Why has she left the city? Does she care about the plight of the workers and the interests of the city? Is she shopping?”
Samwu workers were yesterday seen driving in BCM trucks and bakkies in defiance of an instruction from Ncitha to municipal manager Andile Fani for strikers to hand in BCM vehicle keys.
Ncitha found this “shocking”, although city spokesman Keith Ngesi said most of the keys had been handed in.
Ndlela blamed the destruction of Buffalo City Metro tender and human resources data and documents on “criminal political elements who had infiltrated the union”.
He said the vandalism reeked of an attempt by tenderpreneurs to destroy evidence, especially with the May 7 general election looming.
He distanced the union from the actions and called on the police to investigate. But Ncitha said Samwu members were present during all the incidents and had a hand in the destruction.
Ndlela blamed the mayor for allowing tensions to spiral out of control by forcing strikers to congregate in the streets where they were also “infiltrated by political elements with their own political agenda”. He said people in the community who were generally unhappy had also joined in the fray.
He accused her of cutting off a call from a provincial Samwu official, and refusing to accept the union’s memo of grievances.
“If the mayor had come out of her office and accepted our memo, everything would have gone back to normal. But now we will meet every day until she accepts it.”
But Ncitha said it would have been impossible for her to abandon the council meeting last Friday to go out and accept a memo from Samwu. She conceded the metro was in a mess saying: “It impacts very negatively on the image of the city and the institution [municipality]. We apologise profusely to our citizenry and assure them that the matter is receiving urgent attention.” — mikel@dispatch.co.za
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