CWU exasperated by SABC management

22 January 2021

Communication Workers Union (CWU) is not only shocked but it is equally irritated by a desperate move by SABC to discredit the strike and workers who are exercising their constitutional rights to embark on the industrial action. This follows a malicious and misleading statement released by SABC, citing incidents of victimisation and harassment. CWU dismiss these allegations with the contempt they deserve.

The Public Broadcaster’s insensitive management firstly wrote a legally misleading statement saying that the strike is only open to CWU members, after they realised that workers were not easily intimidated and were in their numbers, supporting a call for the strike.

We are persuading all workers including freelancers, not to allow their exploiters who are going to dismiss hundreds of workers during a time where we are dealing with the COVID 19 pandemic, which in itself is inhumane; to intimidate them. We further want to reiterate that we are using legal and peaceful means to persuade those who are participating in the strike, to participate it well documented and legally acceptable.

These efforts demonstrate that the employer felt our first day of action. There will be more actions to put pressure until our demands are met. We were excited that SABC management has gone out of their way to put measures in place to avoid a complete blackout. It shows the magnitude of the strike impact. We want to encourage workers to do more in terms our planned action. We are going to have meetings in order to update workers.

We are waiting for the State President to swiftly respond to our memorandum of demands that we handed over yesterday at the Union Building. We further want to applaud the support from all political parties, artist organisations, traditional leaders and healers, trade unions and union federations. Their support is critical and it gives us strength till we defeat our class enemy.

Issued by Aubrey Tshabalala, General Secretary, CWU, 22 January 2021