Cape Town - The Law Enforcement Action Plan (LEAP) officers dismissed from the City staged a picket led by the SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) in Athlone yesterday.
The action was as a result of the 47 officers being served with notices of an incapacity hearing.
Around 20 disgruntled workers gathered at the corner of Klipfontein Road and Jan Smuts Avenue, with placards reading: “City must adhere to its own policy”, and “Stop the attack on black employees.”
The hearing notification was received as Samwu was still fighting to reinstate 108 LEAP officers who were dismissed after failing their driving and shooting assessments earlier this year.
One of those officers said she had been unemployed since January.
“I was dismissed for driving in January. I got the notification and I was told the following day I should return the uniform.
“I was fired because the employer was not satisfied with my driving.
“My life has not been good after that, I don’t have money any more, I can’t afford to pay rent and take care of my child.
“I have been unemployed since then.”
She explained that she tried to get back into the employment of the City, but her application was rejected because of the dismissal.
“I applied for a traffic warden job at the City and I was told that I couldn’t get employment after I was fired.
“I’m stressing, I have even lost weight. Clearly we are not going to be employed again, because if they say we are not good at firearms and also not at driving, who is going to want to employ us then?
“The firearms training took only five days – three days of theory and also two for shooting.
“If you fail on the second day, you are given a chance to shoot and then after a year, people are required to shoot again.
“Some of us had never held a gun before and are expected to learn that in two days and then back in a year.”
Samwu spokesperson Hlalanathi Gagayi said the purpose of the demonstration was to get the former employees back to work.
“Any employer has the duty to give the employee a chance to attain the required skill. Shooting and driving is a competence and the employer has that duty.
“These employees gave them bundles of evidence and then were told there would be no hearing at all.
“They must just say why they should not be dismissed, a new thing that this municipality is doing.
“The City is just saying they will not follow that process. We wrote emails to the City asking for fairness. This week three employees were dismissed from the recent batch.”
The City said the matter was still at the Bargaining Council.
mandilakhe.tshwete@inl.co.za
Cape Argus