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PM - Strike leads to riots in South Africa
[This is the print version of story http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2006/s1651335.htm]
PM - Tuesday, 30 May , 2006 18:46:00
Reporter: Zoe Daniel
MARK COLVIN: South African authorities are considering calling in the military to control a security guards' strike that's degenerating into anarchy.
The two-month strike has led to mass riots, and about 20 people have been killed, apparently by gangs of striking guards who've thrown so called "scab" workers off commuter trains for failing to strike.
The guards get paid about $300 a month and they say all they want is a pay rise.
Africa Correspondent Zoe Daniel.
ZOE DANIEL: South Africa, and particular Johannesburg are notorious for violent crime, yet security guards who risk their lives to protect property get paid, on average, less than $80 a week.
Union Spokesman Ronnie Mamba (phonetic) says their claim for an 11 per cent pay rise is only fair.
RONNIE MAMBA: The workers are saying, look, you know, the pay that they get versus the kind of work they do, do not correspond.
ZOE DANIEL: Security guards have been on strike for almost two months, yet employers refuse to countenance their wage claim for an extra $33 a month.
Frustration with the stalled negotiations is boiling over. A march in Cape Town, turned into a riot, resulting in serious property damage, and about 20 people have been killed by gangs of men who are prowling moving commuter trains, and throwing guards who are working, off onto the tracks.
Unions deny any involvement in such behaviour. Security guard Inisentia Tasana (phonetic) says that's not what the campaign is about.
INISENTIA TASANA: We know what we are fighting for, not violence. Violence is not with us.
ZOE DANIEL: Many security guards are women, like Inisentia Tasana, who gets up at 4:30am to work from six until six as a guard. Her 1,500 Rand, or $300 a month, supports her entire extended family.
INISENTIA TASANA: As for now, I'm having two kids and one of my sisters', who is depending on me. Then my parents and my brother who are not working, they are depending on this (inaudible) and it's not much.
It's very strenuous because at the end of the day I'm earning 1,500. On that 1,500 I have to see that I'm paying rent, transport, my kids are going to school and the other two are attending pre-school. It's very stressful.
ZOE DANIEL: It's the same for Nemonde Ngene (phonetic), who's the key money earner in her family. She says she can't get through a month without borrowing to survive.
NEMONDE NGENE: It is so difficult to live with that 1,500, in such that you have to go to get cash loans. There is no other way that you can survive without those cash loans. So every month you go to get cash loans to make your salary more, otherwise you cannot... you don't do anything about 1.5… so every month we are the big customers of the cash loans.
ZOE DANIEL: The guards are frustrated with the employers who they accuse of failing to recognise their contribution.
NEMONDE NGENE: Normally, we are carting billions and then we are earning peanuts.
ZOE DANIEL: The main employer group involved refused to speak to PM, and there's no doubt that the violent tactics used by some guards have eroded public and employer patients.
But Inisentia Tasana says the strike would be over if only employers would come to the table.
INISENTIA TASANA: This strike can be resolved if the employers can come to the table and talk with their demands. Then the strike can come to the end because the end of the strike is in their hands. That's all.
ZOE DANIEL: In the meantime, those who usually provide security are creating insecurity in a country where protecting life and property from criminals is the key preoccupation. In Johannesburg, this is Zoe Daniel reporting for PM.
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