{"id":1017,"date":"2019-12-09T15:41:53","date_gmt":"2019-12-09T13:41:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marxistworkersparty.org.za\/?p=1017"},"modified":"2019-12-09T15:42:32","modified_gmt":"2019-12-09T13:42:32","slug":"interview-midrand-workers-reinstatement-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/?p=1017","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW: Midrand Workers’ Reinstatement Campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 2018 a 24 year campaign for the reinstatement of Johannesburg\nmunicipal workers ended in an agreement for their reinstatement. Today the\nMidrand Workers are all members of the Democratic\nMunicipal Workers Union of SA<\/em><\/strong> (Demawusa). We spoke with STENA MOLEPO, convenor of the Midrand Workers,\nfor an update on the reinstatement process and other issues facing the workers.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the interview was first published in <\/em>Izwilabasebenzi the incoming Johannesburg mayoral committee has committed to the immediate absorption of the 224 workers still awaiting new posts. In addition, the forensic report mentioned in the interview has been completed and will be released shortly.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q. The last time Izwi<\/em> spoke to you<\/a>, you were expecting the 280 Midrand workers to be absorbed by the municipality before the end of July 2018. Did that happen?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A.<\/strong> Things are difficult. Only 56 of the 280\nworkers have been absorbed so far. We thought everyone who sat around the table\nto reach the settlement between the workers and the metro would be hands-on. But\nwe found out along the way that there were endless futile meetings, mess-ups\nand delays \u2013 until last month, October 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I emailed the City Manager to complain, and copied other officials and\nthe Midrand workers themselves to outline and complain about the slow process\nof absorption, the lack of communication and information. I even named some of\nthe officials who seemed to be deliberately delaying the absorption process. But\nin informal meetings, one director has disclosed that R44 million has indeed been\nallocated to settle the dispute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q. Where are the 56 working?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A.<\/strong> The metro\u2019s offer was that we must surrender\nour qualifications \u2013 as artisans and everything \u2013 and come on board as general\nworkers. All of us are employed as general workers under different departments,\nCity Parks, museums, libraries etc. I am working at Group Human Capital\nManagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q. Has the metro given any\nupdates on when the remaining workers will be absorbed?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A.<\/strong> I\u2019ll be meeting them on 11 November and submitting\nthe list of names of those still without work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q. Please tell us about the\nforensic investigation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A.<\/strong> There are two parts to this \u2013 the first is our\nunfair dismissal, and second our pension money. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were told by [the DA\u2019s Joburg mayor] Mashaba that we were heroes\nbecause we didn\u2019t submit to corruption. We declared we would rather die poor\nthan kneel down to a corrupt system. So they said in one meeting that we should\nbe given the dignity we deserve and compensated for being unfairly dismissed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the pensions, someone has signed for our pension funds somewhere and\nwe want to know who. We ended up being told that the metro has no jurisdiction\nover people who are no longer their employees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the whole investigation has been slow. Slow! The first assigned\ninvestigating officer dumped the project and went looking for greener pastures\nas Chief Director of Dept. of Transport. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q. The Midrand workers are\nmembers of the Demawusa union. In fact they founded it. What is the latest?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A.<\/strong> We are fighting for recognition across the\nmetro. But whether we are recognised or not we are there in the workplaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q. We have heard that Demawusa may\nbe merging with another Saftu affiliate, Matuswa.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A.<\/strong> According to me the union is a non-entity.\nWhy? Remember, we were all municipal employees and members of Samwu. But when\nwe were dismissed many years ago Samwu unionists didn\u2019t care about us. We\nwarned them there was an epidemic of corruption in local government and a\ncomplicit trade union bureaucracy that needs to be\nchallenged on this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matusa\u2019s story\nstarts only when the issue of Samwu workerss \u2018missing millions\u2019 came up. When\nworkers, shop stewards and officials requested audited statements to check how\nmany members Samwu has and how much money is in the coffers they were\ndismissed, suspended and expelled from the union. Only then we started to gain\nground. We told them that Samwu leadership was compromised many years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But we regrouped\nwith them and embarked on a Save Our Samwu campaign in 2014\/15. We took the\nNOBs and their \u2018consultant\u2019 to court. He was arrested and\ncharged with extortion of money. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the course of that campaign, whilst we were in an out of court, the\nworkers decided that there is nothing to save in Samwu. When workers reached\nthat pint we said why don\u2019t we find a new home and start a new union. This is\nwhen these non-entities found their way. One of the core founders of Matusa met\nsome lawyers and registered this union with the intention to impose it on the frustrated\nworkers. But workers are not fools. Workers became aware that there was a\nunion, but they said \u201cno, we need to meet and discuss the way forward\u201d. We held\na meeting at Museum Africa in Newtown. To the proposal that we just join\nMatusa, workers said \u201cno, we need to start a union, that union [Matusa] has no\nmandate from the workers\u201d. Workers took the democratic decision to found Demawusa.\nWe are worried that these methods are just business unionism. So it is\ndifficult. Right now though, I would say those frustrated Matusa members should\njoin Demawusa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q. The government is talking\nausterity. It seems inevitable that the ANC government will take the axe to\npublic spending and that will likely fall hardest on municipal workers. Are\nworkers prepared to fight government austerity?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A.<\/strong> Workers are leaderless. We need a revolution\nfrom below, especially in local government. Everyone can see that these elites,\nthe ANC \u2013 the ruling party \u2013 has lost touch with reality. Workers will fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q. As you indicate, the question\nof political representation is decisive. The Working Class Summit process seems\nto have stalled. What is your view on hesitations of Saftu leadership?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A.<\/strong> As I have said, the working class is\nleaderless. Its high time to avoid blame game mentality. As a member of the MWP\nI say that we push for the implementation of the WCS resolutions. Remember,\nthere was sanity around the question of a workers party. Only to find out there\nwas this thing that was going to be imposed on us \u2013 the Socialist Revolutionary\nWorkers Party. Everybody rejected that. That is why they performed so badly in\nthe last elections. We were supposed to go for a second Summit, but now we hear\nthat rather we are going to a Symposium next year. Ok, let\u2019s push for\nengagements on the workers party and socialism there. But we don\u2019t want petty\nbourgeois socialism we want real socialism and internationalism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2018 a 24 year campaign for the reinstatement of Johannesburg municipal workers ended in an agreement for their reinstatement.
\nWe spoke with STENA MOLEPO, convenor of the Midrand Workers, for an update.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1018,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-workplace-struggle"],"aioseo_notices":[],"acf":[],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1017"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1020,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017\/revisions\/1020"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}