A City of Tshwane employee was shot and injured during what appears to be a hijacking.
The man was shot shortly after completing his shift on Saturday evening.
The employee is a standby team member from the Water & Sanitation Section, according to Tshwane spokesperson Selby Bokaba, and was confronted after responding to a water outage in Montana.
The city has been operating with a skeleton staff since workers affiliated with the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) downed tools in July.
Municipal employees are concerned with a variety of issues, including the failure to pay salary increases.
Employees are requesting 3.5% and 5.4% raises, which Tshwane Mayor Cilliers Brink says the city cannot afford.
The city suspects Samwu members were behind the incident after their strike “degenerated into thuggery and wanton criminality.”
According to Bokaba, the team was confronted by a group of men who intimidated them and told them to stop working.
“The team ignored them and continued to render a service. On completion of the shift, while on his way home, the standby team leader was shot and hijacked. He was rushed to hospital,” said Bokaba.
Johann Mettler, City Manager, has ordered law enforcement to bring perpetrators to book.
“This incident is deplorable, and we plead with law enforcement to find the suspects, lock them up and throw the keys away. We will not cower in the face of intimidation by thugs. If the perpetrators are found to be our employees they will be booted out of the employ of the city,” said Mettler.
The city has fired 93 striking workers thus far.
According to Bokaba, the city gave the final deadline for strike participants to return to work on Friday, failing which they will be fired.
“The city hopes that the employees will heed the ultimatum and return to work immediately.”
