Metro police block roads in protest over working conditions

Protesting EMPD officers want higher salaries, overtime compensation, and better working conditions. Photo: Silver Sibiya

More than 300 officers from the Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department (EMPD) blocked major highways in eastern Johannesburg on Wednesday. They are demanding salary adjustments, overtime compensation, and improved working conditions.

The protest caused significant traffic disruptions on busy routes, including the R24 westbound, N3 northbound and the N17.

The officers marched to the OR Tambo Civic Centre in Germiston, where hundreds of public order police from the South African Police Service monitored the protest.

A memorandum of demands was presented to the City’s member of the mayoral committee for community safety, Sizakele Masuku. Protestors are demanding a response within seven days.

Upon receiving the memorandum, Masuku implored the protesting EMPD officers to return to work. “We are not going back to work,” the protestors shouted in response.

“[Johannesburg Metro Police Department] officers work 16 days per month, four days on, four days off, with higher salaries than EMPD officers. EMPD officers work 24 days per month with less rest and lower salaries, placing us at a disadvantage,” one of the protestors told GroundUp.

Chris Mabunda, chairperson of the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) in Ekurhuleni, told GroundUp that the primary concerns are salary adjustments and the lack of danger allowances, which are provided to the officers’ counterparts in other metros and the SAPS.

Similar concerns were raised in 2020, but none of the issues have been addressed, Mabunda said. He said the officers will only return to work when their key demands are met.

City of Ekurhuleni spokesperson Zweli Dlamini condemned the protest as unlawful, stating that it compromises public safety and disrupts commuters on the roads.

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