Angry government workers – whose contracts recently expired – torched a building Tshwane‚ on Monday morning.

According to the Tshwane municipality‚ at about 8am‚ 45 Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) workers descended upon its waste management depot in Block A‚ Mabopane‚ and broke down the security gate‚ burnt waste bins‚ an asbestos office and a kitchen.

“They also damaged the security cubicle and the toilet windows. The Rosslyn Fire division was quickly dispatched to the depot to extinguish the fire. The former ‘Vat Alles’ employees have been responsible for a series of disruption of services and causing chaos across the city since the beginning of this year after the expiry of their contracts.

“We call upon law enforcement to take action against those that have been vandalising the city’s assets and intimidating our employees. No amount of intimidation and thuggery will deter us from continuing to deliver services to our people. A case docket has been registered with the local police‚” the city said in a statement.

EPWP is a national initiative aimed at reducing unemployment and poverty through the creation of short-term‚ usually manual labour-intensive‚ work opportunities.

The city said the reformed EPWP recruitment policy framework was passed by council on September 28‚ 2017‚ as a principle of good governance. The city embarked on a recruitment campaign late last year and registered more than 120 000 potential beneficiaries on a central database and renamed the programme “Gata Le Nna”‚ which means “Walk with me”.