Province to NUM: prove your allegations

This follows a meeting between the department and NUM on Tuesday 19 May. Head of department, Jacqui Gooch, said this was the first time NUM had raised the allegation with government.

About 170 employees of GHC, a company that builds schools in the Western Cape, have been on an unprotected strike for five weeks. NUM, the employees’ union, is demanding:

• provision of personal protective equipment;

• an end to the alleged hiring of gangsters;

• an end to layoffs that don’t follow procedure; and

• payment of R1.4 million of workers’ pension money to the Building and Industrial Development Council, the bargaining council that administers the workers’ pensions.

Yesterday the striking workers who are facing disciplinary action from GHC for alleged gross misconduct, marched to the provincial government offices to the state to intervene.

NUM regional organiser Benson Ngqentsu read a memoranumd that said that the strike is a result of a “reckless and greedy employer violating labour law and the freedom charter.” Ngqentsu said they are asking the provincial government to intervene because GHC “seemingly survives on the public purse”.

“Reality is [that] 99% of GHC sites are funded by the provincial government,” said Ngqentsu. He asked Gooch to consider the matter very urgently as workers are now prepared to go back to work.

But Gooch in a statement titled, “Department of Transport and Public Works has already engaged with NUM representatives in good faith” said her department has already held a meeting with NUM representatives on Tuesday. She said representatives of her department have requested proof of NUM’s allegations, which NUM was unable to provide at the time of the meeting and are yet to provide. “However NUM opted to proceed with their march despite the fact that my department acceded to an urgent meeting request, by NUM representatives to discuss their grievances.”

She said that her department will facilitate engagement between NUM and GHC to address the issues of contention. “The Department of Transport and Public Works remains committed to addressing issues that hinder the timeous delivery of essential facilities that we are mandated to deliver. The delivery of these much-needed facilities remains a main priority of the Western Cape Government,” her statement said.