Samwu workers hold Nelson Mandela Bay official hostage
Image: Yolanda Palezweni
The Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB) acting corporate services executive director, Nosipho Xhego, was held hostage for hours by members of South African Municipal Workers' Union (Samwu) at Kwantu Towers on Thursday morning.
She was barred from leaving her office on the fifth floor while a council meeting was underway.
The Samwu members demanded that the municipality stop transferring the union subscription payouts to Samwu's national office, saying they should be transferred to the regional office directly instead.
Samwu regional secretary Melikhaya Kortjan told HeraldLIVE that it was agreed that the payouts would be transferred to the regional office as the members had problems with getting the money from their national office.
"On the 22nd of February, they transferred the subscriptions to the national office [because] payday was on the 26th. That raised suspicions that our employer may be collaborating with our national office," Kortjan said.
He said the regional office was struggling financially to pay it's bills and the national office, at times, failed to assist them.
"Our members are losing their jobs on a daily basis and we not able to help as we cannot afford lawyers," he said.
In an interview Xhego said that the Collective Agreement did not state that the payouts should be directed to the regional office but rather the head office of Samwu.
She said her office received their request on the 25th and she wrote to them that it was too late as the transfer was already made three days prior.
"As the employer, we had to intervene but unfortunately they came with the issue too late. But in the meantime we agreed that we would organise a meeting with the national office," Xhego said.
"As the middle man we would convene a meeting between the two to discuss the challenges faced."
The police were there to monitor the situation.
Kortjan denied holding Xhego hostage, saying their plan was just to stage a protest at any office and prevent the daily running of the business until their grievance was sorted out.