Public order police have swooped into the nation’s capital to quell the riots that gripped Tshwane House on Tuesday.
Tshwane House chaos: What prompted the riots?
From what we understand, the violent clash between police and protesters stems from the City of Tshwane’s failure to honour its promise to pay workers salaries dating back to 2019.
As reported by Citizen, the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) has led the violent riots in Tshwane CBD. Reports from witnesses on the ground indicate that the city’s municipal headquarters was broken into and scores of rioters stormed into Tshwane House, pelting workers with stones and breaking windows.
Outside, roads were blockaded with waste removal trucks and municipal vehicles, and rubbish was purposefully strewn all over the street to accelerate the fires that came from torched wheelie bins.
Municipal workers demand R756 million
Samwu regional chairperson Nkhetheni Muthavhi made it abundantly clear that the unrest will not stop until a settlement was reached with the City of Tshwane.
However, this seems unlikely since the City stated that it simply could not afford to meet disgruntled workers’ demands.
We understand that in the negotiations, the City made a counteroffer of R300 million, which was met with a resounding “no.”
A silver lining, however, can be found in the fact that a settlement on a 6.25% wage increase has been reached with the workers. This, though, is far from satisfactory, as workers continue to roam around the CBD, awaiting the perfect opportunity to cause further destruction.
“The only money that we need is R756 million to cover our payments. Two weeks back they said they have R300 million to pay for benchmarking. On Monday, they don’t have millions; they don’t have anything. One wonders whether they want to steal from the poor workers. They seem to have an over-excessive appetite for stealing,” Muthavhi said.