Please read this - Satawu Strike - Page 5 - Stormfront
06-21-2006, 10:35 AM #41
Cops close in on guard killers
Johannesburg - East Rand police are closing in on a gang of 12 to 15 striking security guards believed to be responsible for the deaths of 25 of their non-striking colleagues in Gauteng since the end of March.
Two of the alleged ring-leaders had already been arrested, said detective-inspector Gerry van der Merwe.
Another two guards had been taken in for questioning.
Van der Merwe is the officer investigating the death of David Napo Selwane, who was recently found dead next to a railway line between Dunnottar and Sharon on the East Rand.
The officers investigating each of the 25 murders were collaborating with each other and the East Rand serious and violent crimes unit to solve the crimes.
"We are working 24-hours a day to make more arrests," said Van der Merwe.
A man arrested on June 16 would bring a bail application in the Dunnottar magistrate's court on June 29.
Another man was arrested on Tuesday. He will appear in the same court on Thursday where he was expected to bring a bail application, Van der Merwe said.
Two women - suspected of being "pointers" who identified non-striking guards in civilian clothing to members of the gang - were still being questioned.
The gang, operating only in the Springs area, had been linked to the deaths of three guards found shot, handcuffed and tied to each other in a veld near Vlakfontein Village, Tsakane, on June 7.
The guards had been taken by force to the spot where they were shot, said East Rand police spokesperson Andy Pieke.
All three had worked for Afri-Guard security.
Apart from the murders, members of the gang are also thought to be behind the intimidation, assault, and robbery of working guards.
06-22-2006, 04:42 AM #42
Wagte terug op hul pos
Verreweg die bloedigste en mees uitgetrekte staking in die geskiedenis van die nuwe Suid-Afrika eindig môre wanneer 23 000 veiligheidswagte vir eerste keer sedert 23 Maart vir werk sal aanmeld.
Die staking het minstens 60 lewens geëis van veiligheidswagte wat wreed vermoor is omdat hulle nie daaraan wou deelneem nie.
Werkgewers in die veiligheidsbedryf verwag egter dat die dodetal tot meer as 100 gaan styg namate meer besonderhede van gruweldade in die komende weke aan die lig kom.
“Ons sal môre (vandag) die ooreenkoms met werkgewers onderteken en dit dan aan julle kom voorlê,” het mnr. Randall Howard, hoofsekretaris van Satawu, gister op ’n saamtrek van etlike duisende veiligheidswagte op Beyers Naudé-plein in die Johannesburgse middestad gesê.
Die ooreenkoms maak voorsiening vir loonverhogings van 9,25% pleks van 8,35% waarop die werkgewers in die bedryf in Maart met 14 ander vakbonde ooreengekom het.
Die ooreenkoms sal op lede van al 15 vakbonde in die bedryf van toepassing wees.
Dis egter ’n skrale troos vir die prys wat die stakers in terme van verlore inkomste betaal. ’n Staker verloor 0,4% van sy jaarlikse inkomste vir elke dag wat hy staak – en die veiligheidswagte het 62 werkdae en 5 vakansiedae (waarop hulle dubbel betaal word) gestaak.
Elke staker het dus minstens 24,8% van sy jaarlikse inkomste prysgegee vir ’n verhoging wat minder as 1% meer is as wat voor die staking belowe is.
“Ek weet ons mense het baie swaar getrek tydens die staking, maar dit was alles die moeite werd,” het Howard gesê.
Volgens hom was die grootste mylpaal dat die E-posvlak, die laagste vlak in die bedryf wat ’n minimumloon van R1 050 per maand verdien het, nou tot niet gemaak word. Satawu het dié loon herhaaldelik as ’n skande bestempel.
Wagte in dié kategorie sal voortaan R1 171 per maand verdien – ’n verhoging van 11,5%.
“Ons grootste bekommernis was die laags besoldigde werkers. Ons is baie tevrede met hul verhoging,” het Howard gesê.
Die huidige kategorie E-werkers skuif nou oor na Kategorie D.
Mnr. Willie Madisha, president van Cosatu, wat Maandagnag die onderhandelinge bygewoon het, het op Beyers Naudé-plein belowe dat die veiligheidsbedryf sal verander.
Ontleders van die arbeidsmark sukkel egter om te verstaan waarom ’n staking deur minder as 10% van die bedryf (daar werk sowat 240 000 geregistreerde veiligheidswagte in die land) soveel geweld kon ontketen en waarom die staking so lank uitgerek is.
Openbare verhore deur die Kommissie vir Diensstandaarde word op die oomblik gehou om diensvoorwaardes te ondersoek.
“Die polisie het ons soos diere en misdadigers tydens die staking hanteer en dit moet aandag kry,” het Howard gesê.
Sowat 1 500 stakers is verlede week deur die polisie verhinder om van Johannesburg na Sandton te stap.
Die vakbondleiers sal vandag om 12:00 met die werkgewersvereniging in Johannesburg ontmoet om die finale ooreenkoms te onderteken.
Howard het gesê: “Ons sal vir julle die ooreenkoms kom wys en dan kan julle met rustigheid werk toe gaan.”
06-22-2006, 04:48 AM #43
Rowers laat spat toe man hom nie laat intimideer
Durban. – ’n Geldwabestuurder wat geweier het om boedel oor te gee en hulp wat vinnig opgedaag het, het ’n bende goed georganiseerde transitorowers se turf in die Drakensberge laat sit.
Die bende het die geldwa van Stealth Security eergister om 10:20 halfpad tussen die Drakensberg Gardens-hotel en Underberg by ’n skerp draai in die pad agter bosse voorgelê.
Volgens mnr. Steve Cloete, eienaar van Stealth Security, het die geldwabestuurder daarin geslaag om verby die bakkie te skuur wat die pad versper het.
Toe nog vyf rowers hom in ’n motor agternasit en na die geldwa se bande begin skiet, het die veiligheidswag besluit om stil te hou en sy man te staan, het Cloete gesê.
Met dié onverwagte weerstand het die rowers in verskillende rigtings laat spat.
Die geldwabestuurder, wie se naam om veiligheidsredes weerhou word, het die rowers se bakkie agternagesit.
Die polisie, weermag, nog ’n veiligheidsmaatskappy én boere wat aan die plaaswag behoort, het uiteindelik gehelp om die rowers se ontsnaproetes te versper, het supt. Zandra Hechter, polisiewoordvoerder, gesê.
Die rowers het te voet probeer vlug, maar al ses is aangekeer.
06-22-2006, 06:01 AM #44
Satawu boss rattles sabre at ANC
A defiant Randall Howard, head of the SA Transport and Allied Workers' Union, has accused the police of treating striking guards like animals and criminals, and warned that workers would "redirect" the ANC in the 2009 elections
The Union will sign a pay agreement on Thursday with security employers.
Howard was addressing a large number of striking security guards who had gathered at Beyers Naude Square in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
Plans to sue Nqakula
Howard said Satawu intended suing Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula for the police's reaction during the strike. He said police had treated striking security guards like animals and criminals.
Howard condemned last week Thursday's incident when police fired stun grenades at security guards.
He said Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana had complained about the language he (Howard) had used while addressing the striking guards.
"He didn't like my language"
"When I first addressed you, there are two words he (Mdladlana) did not like, **** and masimba (****)."
He said union leaders were expected to be diplomatic and sound nice to people from Sandton, Rosebank and other rich suburbs.
"I do not give a **** what they think. I am here to defend you... I am not a priest, I am the general secretary of Satawu."
He criticised parliamentarians and provincial legislature members for only discussing the violence attached to the strike.
Don’t take support for granted, ANC warned
"In 2009 there will be another election. They should not take for granted the support we have given them because we can change that support."
He said workers should not blame the African National Congress for the actions of individuals.
"The ANC is our movement. We must claim it back and redirect it in 2009."
Howard said if President Thabo Mbeki continued condemning their strike then workers should also condemn him.
"No president of a movement can do what he has done... It is his right as the state president to condemn crime in the country but not in a one-sided manner."
Hoped employers had learned lesson
Howard said he hoped that employers had learned a lesson that Satawu would never tolerate low wages and poor working conditions.
He said the new offer was accepted by all regions of Satawu.
"Tomorrow we will continue with operation intensify by signing the agreement."
The Satawu leadership told the crowd to gather at the square on Thursday to be shown the agreement.
"Because if you go back to work tomorrow the employers might not come (to the CCMA offices) to sign the agreement," said Satawu's co-ordinator for the security industry, Jackson Simon.
The striking guards dispersed in a jovial mood as they marched from Beyers Naude square to Johannesburg's Park station.
How the numbers run
Guards represented by Satawu and the Transport and Allied Workers Union of SA (Tawusa) went on strike in March in pursuit of an 11 percent pay rise.
A deal signed in April by 14 other unions for an average 8.3 percent increase has been replaced by another thrashed out at the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).
Satawu and Tawusa were canvassing members for permission to accept the new, three-year deal which offers a 9.25 percent increase in the first year and 7.25 percent in the second and third years of the agreement.
The unions have until Thursday to accept or reject the deal.
06-22-2006, 06:17 AM #45
'I refused to strike' - a guard's story
The national strike by security guards has become one of the longest-running in post-Apartheid South Africa. More worrying for a young democracy has been the string of murders, intimidation and damage to property perpetuated by the strikers as they vented their anger over low wage packets and the inability of the representative unions and employers to come to an agreement.
At last count 58 people had lost their lives in incidents connected with the strike, after being thrown from trains, shot, beaten and, in the latest incident, stabbed before being hanged from a tree.
Yet, amid all this, Carel de Wet has returned to work religiously by train from Mitchell's Plain — sometimes to work double, and even triple shifts — to honour his commitment to protect the assets and lives of those who employ him.
"When the strike started I still came to work in uniform," says Carel. "Then people started dying. Just because they wanted to work."
"You see, when I go home, people look at me as if to say, 'where are you going or coming from?'"
One particular incident saw Carel being followed from the train station in Cape Town all the way to his workplace.
"I just walked in like I worked inside the building. You can't let them find out you're a guard — you'll be killed."
Of course, it would be easy for Carel to simply stay at home, and blame the strike for his fears about his safety and that of his family.
"But it's my responsibility to protect what I said I was going to protect and serve the company. I can't let anything bad happen here because if it does, I will feel responsible. Even if I have to work myself to death."
Not too long ago, that company took on a temporary worker to relieve the overworked de Wet, on the recommendation of the security provider he worked for. But things didn't turn out as planned.
"They (the security provider) just picked up anyone off the street. This guy was supposed to work from 6.00pm till 6.00am. He came in a little after I left," says Carel, who had worked a straight 72 hours before being relieved.
"We have video footage of him leaving the building at 11.00pm and returning from God knows where at around 2.00am. Then he just walks around like he owns the place before leaving at around 4.00am — taking two laptops and a couple of office phones neatly packed in a box with him.
"They should have had some sort of screening process. Or I could have met him before he started working. I could have seen he was a skelm."
Whether or not Carel would have been able to stop this, the hiring of extra people had been necessitated by the lack of security staff willing to work.
When asked why Carel did not join the strike, his reply was simple: "I don't agree with it.
"I believe that something needs to be done about the peanuts they pay us, and I am also very upset that we have been largely forgotten in the wage rise department for so long, but there are better ways to solve issues."
The trade federation Satawu (South African Transport and Allied Workers' Union), which represents the striking guards, is currently in wage negotiations with the employers and the CCMA. But Carel feels that no matter the outcome, it will not heal the scars left by the strike.
"They are just going to waltz back into their jobs without punishment. The murders, the fires, the riots — all that will go unnoticed when they go back. What about the faithful few that sacrificed so much to keep the (security) profession's name clear? What about us. It's not fair."
Carel fears having to work alongside any of the guards who had been involved in violent outbursts during rallies, marches and even during impromptu gatherings that have ended in chaos.
"Now they mustn't come tell me 'oh, don't come tell me that s**t, I fought for a better pay-packet for you while you slaved away'. They mustn't come turn this into another struggle."
In any event, the wounds left in the hearts of South Africans by the fact that a group of people whom they had trusted to protect them and their assests were capable of such rampant destruction and murder, may not heal for some time.
And a 9.25 percent pay rise for the guards may not be enough to fix it either.
06-22-2006, 09:36 AM #46
Security guard found 'lynched'
19/06/2006 20:30 - (SA)
Johannesburg - The body of another murdered security guard was found hanging from a tree at Springs on Monday, said Gauteng police.
Superintendent Andy Pieke said: "He was found hanging from a tree and had a wound, possibly caused by a sharp object, to his head. His legs had been tied.".
They were found by police and allegedly had two firearms and a number of cellphones. ...
58 murdered during strike....
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