SAMWU Joburg angered at Labour Court ruling

By Celeste Ganga
11 October 2007

The Labour Court judge who granted the City of Johannesburg’s request last week for an interdict against the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) strike has to date failed to give her reasons, despite promising these last week.

“The judge, when (granting) the interdict last Thursday, said she would give her reasons the next day (Friday) at 2pm,” says SAMWU Johannesburg Branch Secretary, Dumisani Langa.

Langa adds that on that day, she apologised and said she would give the reasons on Monday, 8 October 2007.

“On that Monday, she then said she was to busy and would only give the reasons next week. SAMWU finds this completely unacceptable.” says Langa.

He adds that they want to know how the judge arrived at her very serious decision to interdict their strike without having any reasons.

“If she had reasons, then why the failure to provide them?” asks Langa.

SAMWU demands that the judge provide reasons for granting the interdict without further delay. Failure to do this, the union says, will result in strike action.