Contract waste collection workers have gone on strike over unpaid wages that haven’t been paid since January.
As reported by Daily Maverick, workers from Khayelitsha, Strand and Sir Lowry’s Pass have blocked roads with rubbish, coming into conflict with law enforcement, who have responded by dispersing the protests using rubber bullets.
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The protests have occurred randomly over the past two weeks, with the City confirming that informal settlements in Wards 95, 96, 97, 98 and 99 in the Khayelitsha, Strand and Sir Lowry’s Pass areas were affected.
In an interview with Daily Maverick, Dumsani Bongwana from Strand told the publication that most of the workers had to resort to borrowing money from loan sharks who ‘charge 50% interest over a month’, and failure to pay back in time results in another ‘50% interest for every missed month’.
‘We have families, we were getting paid every fortnight when we were contracted under the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP). Challenges started when we were transferred to this contractor,’ said Bongwana.
Workers in Khayelitsha confirmed that they only received half of their salary, with a promise that they would ‘get the other half’ by the end of the month. They have subsequently returned to work.
In Strand, only a few workers have returned to work, with the rest demanding their full salaries.
The City of Cape Town has stated that they are ‘working to resolve this in the interest of the communities as expeditiously as possible’, adding that they have ‘not released any payment’ to contractors who are not paying workers.
In addition to the ongoing debacle, the executive director of the Urban Waste Management Directorate, Luzuko Mdunyelwa, was suspended and is facing disciplinary action because of this issue.
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