The City of Cape Town’s MMC for Economic Growth, Alderman James Vos, on Monday urged unions to return to the negotiating table and work towards a resolution.
This follows the decision by the Transnet workers represented by United National Transport Union (Untu) and the South African Transport and Allied Workers' Union (Satawu), to go on strike last week in the middle of negotiations that were ongoing with CCMA.
The City of Cape Town said that it had been in constant communication with the port management team to stay appraised of the situation and to advise and support where our mandate as a local government allows it.
Statement by Alderman @VosJames
— City of Cape Town (@CityofCT) October 10, 2022
City urges Transnet unions to return to negotiating table.
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“We want to acknowledge that the port management is implementing a business continuity plan while the strike is ongoing which is enabling some activity to take place in the port. However, it is unable to operate at full capacity,” a statement reads.
The statement further said: “We have also formed a working group consisting of, amongst others, officials from the Enterprise and Investment Department within the Economic Growth Directorate, the Western Cape Exporters’ Club, the provincial Department of Economic Development and Tourism, and Wesgro wherein port challenges are identified and answers sought.”
“The strike only adds to Transnet’s existing woes which have cost billions of rands in lost revenue for exporters with the mining sector estimating that it has already lost R50 billion this year because of the state-owned company’s worsening performance. Early estimates suggest that the strike could further cost the economy between R6bn and R8bn each day,” City of Cape Town said.
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