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The South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) says the City of Cape Town is planning to dismiss about 500 firefighters currently facing disciplinary hearings for going on an unprotected strike in 2019.
But the City says no decision has been taken to dismiss the firefighters and that a proposal has been made to resolve the matter so that “any possible sanction of dismissal can be avoided”.
Samwu Cape Metro organiser Archie Hearne said the strike was over a demand for eight-hour shifts instead of the standard 24-hour shift for firefighters.
Hearne said the City was served notice of the grievance in 2018 but nothing was addressed. “In October 2019 the firefighters took a stance and started working eight hours. The matter was ultimately taken to court by the City and the strike was deemed unlawful.
The liberation struggle for South Africa from the clutches of apartheid was long and costly. On April 27 1994, black South Africans got their first taste of the freedom that was long fought for as 19.7 million citizens cast their votes in the first national democratic elections.
The election was won by the ANC with 62.65% of the vote.
The National Party received 20.39%, IFP 10.54%, Freedom Front 2.2%, Democratic Party 1.7%, Pan Africanist Congress 1.2%, and the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) 0.5%.
Here are top quotes from the country’s leaders and political figures over the years on what freedom for the country means and the struggles are still faced today:
Environmental activists want Cape Town mayor to declare a climate emergency
By Shakirah Thebus
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Cape Town - A small group of placard-bearing climate and environmental activists protested on the steps of the Cape Town Civic Centre on Wednesday, calling for the City to declare a climate and ecological emergency.
Extinction Rebellion (XR) Cape Town activists gathered to hand over a letter signed by 10 environmental organisations, calling for stronger, immediate action to be taken against the climate crisis.
XR action co-ordinator Cassi Goodman said: “We have three demands, namely that the government tells the truth about the emergency, calling it an emergency and declaring it an emergency; act on it because it s an emergency; and that the people decide - you have to have a citizens assembly because then there’s no vested interests and lobbying and corporates (but) for people to decide which is the best way forward.”