Service delivery in the Sol Plaatje municipality was brought to a total standstill when employees staged a sit-in at the municipal chambers yesterday.

The workers, who are members of the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu), prompted the speaker of the municipality, Vincent Diraditsile, to postpone the proceedings of a special council meeting.

Hundreds of the workers, who are believed to be contract employees, wanted the council to address their concerns.

Last week, the workers marched to the municipal offices demanding that employees who were on contract be permanently employed.

Samwu branch chairperson Mane Moremi said they had given the municipality seven days to respond to their grievances. “Instead of dealing with our issues, they held their own special council meeting to protect their interests,” he said.

Moremi said they also demanded the reversal of a decision to dismiss their shop steward, Gilbert Gaolelelwe.

“That is why at our last protest march we requested the executive mayor, Agnes Ntlhangula, to review labour cases within the municipality, and to intervene on the issues, giving a political instruction to the administration to put all cases in abeyance until an internal review is completed”.

The spokesperson in the office of the speaker, Thakadu Sebeela, said the council’s meeting had been postponed until further notice.

“There were a couple of issues which were supposed to be dealt with, such as the reinstatement of the mayoral committee members who were fired by the mayor last week,” he said.

The New Age understands that the executive mayor was asked by the ANC in the region to reverse the decision because it was seen as “purging” those who did not support the current leadership of the Frances Baard region.

The ANC could not be reached for comment as they were locked in a meeting with the mayor

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