intimidation
Murder, threats, violence and intimidation directed at the workers of the eThekwini Municipality are a serious issue that will undermine the municipality’s ability to function and deliver services, say staff members and labour unions.
Seven staff from the water and sanitation unit have been killed in less than two years, some murdered inside their offices.
Another issue is the hijackings of municipal vehicles that leave workers injured or traumatised, which has resulted in water, sanitation and electricity technicians having to rely on security escorts to attend to service delivery matters.
On Monday The Mercury spoke to staff, senior managers and a union leader about the attacks directed at municipal staff that had left them on edge, following the murder of Emmanuel Ntuli last Friday.
Ntuli had been under protection for almost a year because he had been threatened. He was the acting senior manager for plants and logistics in the water and sanitation unit.
Leader of the South African Municipal Workers’ Union in Durban, Xolani Dube, said the workers are fearful.
“The workers are getting killed, they are being hijacked regularly, and that is why we have called on the employer to intervene and protect the workers.”
One of the numerous sources The Mercury spoke to said there was an atmosphere of fear in the municipality as crime was making it harder to do their jobs. He told of a recent hijacking that allegedly involved one of his colleagues.
“My colleague was hijacked in a municipal vehicle and kidnapped, they withdrew his money and finally dumped him outside uMlazi township.
“City workers in uMlazi are hijacked daily and in broad daylight and the City does not seem to be doing anything to protect them,” he said.
A second source said apart from general criminality, City workers were threatened or killed while others were “forced” to take part in criminal activity regarding contracts.
“If you do not take bribes, you are seen as standing in the way and you get killed. For instance, take Amos Ngcobo, another water and sanitation employee killed in his office last year, that man was straight as an arrow, he tolerated nothing untoward.
“But there are crooked employees that take money from service providers promising something and when they fail to deliver, they find themselves in the cross-hairs of those that paid them.
“There is also a fierce competition for jobs in the city. Recently there was an incident in the Durban Solid Waste unit where a group of people stormed the offices demanding to meet with the acting head to demand work,” said the source.
In response, the municipality said it had stringent security measures in place and the safety of employees remained a top priority.
“All buildings and depots housing our employees not only have security personnel on duty, but visitors are searched and required to sign in at all times.
All council employees are members of unions and they attend depot or workstation structured safety and security meetings, which gives the council workers and their unions the opportunity to raise all their safety and security concerns. It is the duty of line management (unit departments) to attend to all council workers’ and unions’ safety and security concerns.”
It added that it could not comment on police investigations.
The Mercury