JOHANNESBURG – Police fired rubber bullets at protesting guards after they apparently set alight a security van in Pretoria on Thursday afternoon.

Guards made their way to Church Square, trashing rubbish bins and causing havoc in the city centre. Shops were also set alight.

The violence came on the first afternoon of a security guard strike affecting seven provinces.

The guards were part of a march delivering memorandums bearing their grievances to the departments of labour and safety & security as well as the industry™s regulator.

The Private Security Regulatory Authority is headquartered in Beatrix Street.

Tshwane emergency services spokesman Johan Pieterse said fire fighters were sent to a blaze near the corner of Schoeman and Beatrix streets in the city centre. He said he could not comment on the incident as it was a police matter.

Police spokesman Inspector Paul Ramaloko said complaints about protesters vandalising property had been received.

œWe could only tell you at the end of the day if it was so, he said.
One report suggested that protesters tried to storm the FNB Bank on the corner of Vermeulen and Beatrix streets.

A police helicopter is monitoring the scene.

Security employers also reported increasing levels of intimidation, especially in Pretoria and Cape Town, where a march to hand over a petition was also held.

SA National Security Employers Association (Sansea) spokesman Steve Friswel said some uniformed guards were dragged from their workplace and forced to participate in the march in Pretoria.

There was also a report of a guard stripped of his uniform in the Cape and beaten.

Friswel said there was little absenteeism in Johannesburg and the East and West Rand.

Some Sansea members reported 100 percent attendance.

In the Cape and Pretoria, however, some companies had reported 80 percent absenteeism.

Sansea represents about 110 security companies that employ between 50 000 and 60 000 guards.

There are about 283 700 registered guards in South Africa, working for 4 200 registered businesses. Around 90 000 are unionised.

Sansea is one of five employer associations affected by a two-day strike that began in seven provinces on Thursday.

In Cape Town, several thousand guards marched on Parliament amid a strong police presence.

Satawu leaders addressed the large crowd at Parliament™s gates, threatening another strike if their demands were not met within seven days.

œWe are here to let them understand that we can make the country stand still until our demands are met, an official said over the public address system.

œWe strongly believe workers in this sector are getting a raw deal.
Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana was the only one able to make a decent sectoral determination for the industry™s workers.

œWe will use all tactics at our disposal (to have our demands met), the official said.

After a memorandum was handed over to a labour department representative, another was presented to Deputy Safety and Security Minister Susan Shabangu, herself a veteran trade unionist.

She promised to see the matter was given attention, and appealed to the sometimes restless crowd for discipline and to refrain from violence during their protest.

Satawu leaders repeatedly called on the crowd for order and calm, saying workers should not lose direction and needed to remain disciplined if they wanted their demands met.

Marchers dispersed peacefully in several directions following the handover of the memorandums.

The unions involved in the strike are Satawu, the National Security and Unqualified Workers Union, the Professional Transport Workers Union of South Africa, the Security Officer Civil Rights and Allied Workers Union, the SA Private Security Workers Union, the SA Cleaning, Security and Allied Workers Union, the United Private Sector Workers Union, the Protectors Workers Union, the Food, Cleaning and Security Workers Union and the SA National Security Officers™ Forum.

The industrial action in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, the North West, the Free State, Western Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal follows failed wage negotiations which started in October last year. Unions are demanding an 11 percent across-the-board increase and an additional four percent increase for the lowest paid workers.

Guards in the Northern and Eastern Cape provinces will strike on Monday and Tuesday, with KZN workers joining for a repeat strike.

Should a settlement not be reached by then, workers will strike indefinitely from April 3. “ Sapa.

Source: The Citizen
URL: http://www.citizen.co.za/index/article.aspx?p…/p>