CAPE TOWN, April 18 (ANA) – For the third year in a row, former employees and widows of ex-workers made redundant by the Ciskei Transport Corporation (CTC) and the South African Railways and Harbours (SARH) in the 1990s, on Monday staged a sit-in outside of Parliament in Cape Town.
This, to again request assistance from Parliament with their claim for wages, Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) cards, and pensions.
“We are struggling,” said one of the group’s spokespeople and a widow of a former employee, Doris Dweba.
“We are struggling in educating our kids, in feeding our kids, we’ve got to clothe them. We are really struggling, that’s why we are here,” she said.
In October 2015, a task team, led by Thandi Modise, was established to deal with the group’s grievances, all of whom had worked for – or whose husbands had worked for – CTC and SARH, which were either dissolved or absorbed into Transnet. However, most of the men were made redundant.
Along with Modise, the group had also previously handed over a memorandum of demands to Speaker Baleka Mbete. This time, they handed a memorandum to an official of the president’s office.
Prior to this latest protest at Parliament, government had assured the group they would deal with the matter “on an urgent basis”.
“They [government] did give us a delegation to attend to our problems but I don’t think it’s helping,” said Dweba. “They have not paid anything despite everyone having filled in UIF forms.
“They did try to solve the problem, but the people are getting impatient because it’s been 28 years we have been waiting,” she said.
So, the group – roughly 100-members strong – travelled yet again to Cape Town from the Eastern Cape, a single trip costing R500 per person.
With them, many of whom are the elders in their communities, were bags filled with their belongings as they did not know how long it would be before government responded to their plight.
While waiting quietly outside, a local man assisted them in finding empty boxes on which they could sit.
“We are going to sleep right where we are sitting if we have to,” said Dweba. “We will sleep here and die here if we have to,”
– African News Agency (ANA)
