![]() Cape strike 'no worse than a bad flu day'
By Andy Shlensky, Caryn Dolley and Karen Breytenbach
Ehrenreich said: "The strike was overwhelmingly supported by all of our sectors with an average participation rate of about 50 percent ... in the public sector and the private sector." He also cited an overall total of 300 000 strikers in the Western Cape, including a participation rate of over 80 percent in clothing-related sectors. Only two violent incidents were reported on Thursday. Two Golden Arrow buses were torched and eight stoned in Khayelitsha.
Mdoda said a bus driver on his way to pick up passengers had been pulled out of the bus and beaten up. He was taken to hospital with minor injuries and discharged later in the morning. Mdoda said there had been no further reports of injuries. The National Council of Trade Unions issued a statement condemning the attack on the bus driver, a member, "in the strongest terms". In the other incident, three people among a group of 50 demonstrators were arrested for stealing cellphones from commuters who were robbed and assaulted outside the Middestad Mall in Bellville. According to a chamber survey, there was an absentee rate of about 10 percent on Thursday, only slightly higher than the four percent to five percent absentee rate experienced on an average day. Boyes suggested that poor weather, transport difficulties and the ban placed on the march were all factors in minimising the strike's impact. Paddy Attwell, spokesperson for the department of education, said 316 of the 30 260 Western Cape teachers had taken part in the strike. He said no schools had been closed. "Teaching and learning continued uninterrupted in most schools, there were no problems," he said. City spokesperson Pieter Cronjé said, by 4pm on Thursday, 290 municipal staff members were reported to have been absent out of a total staff complement of over 23 500. "This really is a small stayaway and had no impact on service delivery," Cronjé said. "We also know many failed to come to work due to problems with public transport." Nowellen Petersen, Metro police spokesperson, said 212 additional police officers had been deployed in the metropole, 90 in the city centre. Police spokesperson Randall Stoffels said due to a high police presence in the city centre, no incidences of violence were reported. "Everything is under control and it's very calm." But Cosatu regional organiser Mike Louw decried the measures: "This city has been turned into a police state. They are doing everything possible to keep working people out." Over 100 armed police officers were deployed on trains in groups of 10 and 20 from Cape Town station to Khayelitsha, Kapteinsklip, Mitchell's Plain and Bishop Lavis. However, trains on the central line to Mitchell's Plain and Khayelitsha were suspended on Thursday night for a second time in two days following arson attacks.
Published on the Web by IOL on 2006-05-19 02:53:00
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