Press Statement dated 25 July 2019
Less than 24 hours before the nationwide protest for a safe working environment for members of the United National Transport Union (UNTU) and safe and reliable trains will commence, the managers of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) continued to intimidate members of UNTU by calling them into an office one by one to hear if they will participate tomorrow.
This comes after the newly appointed Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula mislead the media and created havoc amongst trains crews and train control officers by announcing that they won’t participate in the protest action as they are “critical staff.”
Steve Harris, General Secretary of UNTU, wrote an urgent letter to Dr Nkosinathi Sishi, Acting Chief Group Executive of Prasa, to ask for the proof of when and where any employee of Prasa has been declared as “critical staff” or essential services as described by Section 213 of the Labour Relations Act (LRA).
Harris says the Union checked the latest declaration of employees who are deemed to be essential services by the Essential Services Committee (ESC) that was published earlier this month. No provision is made to include employees of Prasa.
“It is clear that the newly appointed Minister has not been correctly informed by his advisors. The result of his misleading statement however has a devastating effect on our protest action as our members now believe they will be fired if they were to participate in the protest action,” says Harris.
To make matters worse, Prasa went so far as to send out a circular letter informing all train crews that its services will run as normal tomorrow. (Find attached).
“UNTU considers these blatant intimidation tactics of Prasa coupled to the Minister’s misleading press briefing as deliberate sabotage of a protest action aimed at creating awareness for Prasa’s inability to provide safe working conditions in terms of the Occupational Health and Safety Act to our members and a safe and reliable service to commuters.
“UNTU will be reporting this deliberate action of Prasa and the Minister of Transport to the National Economic Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC) as this is also a deliberate attempt to undermine the spirit and reason why the Section 77 application was granted in FEDUSA’s favour,” says Harris.
The nationwide protest action with marches in Pretoria, Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town will commence tomorrow, 26 July 2019, at 10:00.
Issued on behalf of United National Transport Union (UNTU) by Sonja Carstens, Media and Liaison Officer