The events of Wednesday, August 17, at the Steve Tshwete local municipality's building at Middelburg, Mpumalanga, are another reminder that our democracy has descended into a pit of shame.
Just a day after commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Marikana Massacre, protesting municipal workers are shot on the premises of a state institution. For the record, two workers died, two others were severely injured and dozens more traumatised by what happened around them.
It is disturbing that the shooting was done by a private security company in the presence of police. This is the same company that municipal union Samwu was complaining about in June, stating reasons that came to happen on August 17.
The barbaric act is also an exposition that the local municipality is not capable of dealing with labour disputes and security matters.
The call for the in-sourcing of such services should be heard because outsourcing doesn't do justice to building a capable developmental state. The municipality should have capacity to deal with these kinds of issues in a professional manner.
We hope that more arrest will be made and that the perpetrators will be brought to justice. Moreover, the municipality must stop hiring people who are not capable of doing their jobs resulting in outsourcing of important services.
Tom Mhlanga, Braamfontein
READER LETTER | Shooting of workers exposes council's inefficiencies
Image: Antonio Muchave
The events of Wednesday, August 17, at the Steve Tshwete local municipality's building at Middelburg, Mpumalanga, are another reminder that our democracy has descended into a pit of shame.
Just a day after commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Marikana Massacre, protesting municipal workers are shot on the premises of a state institution. For the record, two workers died, two others were severely injured and dozens more traumatised by what happened around them.
It is disturbing that the shooting was done by a private security company in the presence of police. This is the same company that municipal union Samwu was complaining about in June, stating reasons that came to happen on August 17.
The barbaric act is also an exposition that the local municipality is not capable of dealing with labour disputes and security matters.
The call for the in-sourcing of such services should be heard because outsourcing doesn't do justice to building a capable developmental state. The municipality should have capacity to deal with these kinds of issues in a professional manner.
We hope that more arrest will be made and that the perpetrators will be brought to justice. Moreover, the municipality must stop hiring people who are not capable of doing their jobs resulting in outsourcing of important services.
Tom Mhlanga, Braamfontein
'Why did they have to shoot them?', asks family of slain municipal worker
Second person shot during municipal protest in Middelburg dies in hospital
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