#SouthAfrica: employees #WildcatStrike over unsafe buses. Management dismisses strikers, later admits buses not roadworthy

https://sundayworld.co.za/news/gautrain-hauled-to-court-for-axing-bus-drivers-on-wildcat-strike/

#strike #strikes #union #unions #Gautrain #Samwu #KesageeNayager #capitalism #exploitation #ClassWar

People reading here can mainly afford #Gautrain and #MyCiti tickets. We can afford to live in gated communities whose roads, power, water and security are maintained by HOAs. Many of us live a weird point-to-point existence - shops, houses, schools, banks, holiday destination, even churches - all separated out and provided specially for we who can afford them.

But have you been to #Hillbrow?

I've been through Hillbrow to help my migrant friends get transport in and out of #SouthAfrica. It's a base for intercontinental taxis. Hillbrow has been abandoned by the city 'fathers'. Rubbish hasn't been collected for years, the roads are potholes filled with a soup of sewage. The people of Hillbrow live jammed twenty-to-a-room in the remains of early 20th Century flats. Many buildings don't have power or water, and are administered by ganglords. The police circle the streets looking for bribes and sexual favours. Most people don't have formal work, but everyone is selling something.

This is the cost of how we live in our fortress. It's a cost for everyone else: living outside. And it results in a specialised kind of police state in which #ZamaZamas are starved underground by the cops, who think that this is what their paymasters actually want them to do.

That's US, people. WE are the ones who pay for our security from the dispossessed. WE are the ones who 'pay our taxes' so that the #SAPS will keep the hoipolloi under control.

And I acknowledge that as a wealthy #white South African, I shouldn't be writing this. But then, who the hell will?

BREAKING: Workers at Gautrain to strike on Monday after wage negotiations deadlocked with Numsa.

•Workers demand 13% increase
•Company to contribute 60% on medical aid and 40% workers
•R2000 Housing allowance
•Payment for overtime work
•Bonuses for blue collar workers
•Numsa also wants the company to recognise shop stewards to represent workers in disciplinary hearings and grievances.

•The strike will start at 6AM, Numsa says #Gautrain services may be interrupted as a result. #GautrainStrike #Numsa #SouthAfrica #MastodonAfrica

「“Landed in #Joburg. The #Gautrain had just started. Jumped onto the Gautrain, whizzed through into #Sandton. World class. And then I walked across the road into the hotel and it was a Sunday afternoon and there was a pool party going on. Obviously no beaches, no mountains, no vineyards.
“There was a beautifully integrated crowd, not something we were always used to in the Cape. And I spent the afternoon talking to a young black architect by the name of Benedict, and it was just such a good energy. I didn’t even go for the interview, I just phoned the guy, Herman, and I said, ‘I’m in. I want to be in this city’.”

Higgs found, in his instant new home, “a vibrant city, an integrated city. It was the energy of the city. Talking to someone later on, I said, ‘I love the energy of the city’ and they said, ‘You must understand that Joburg exists because of the Gold Rush, and hasn’t really changed; there’s massive opportunity here, everything moves at 100 km an hour, there’s no real off time, there’s no real off season.’

“It’s not like #CapeTown where it ebbs and flows and so forth. And I feel that. I love this city and have made it my home, more than Cape Town has ever been.”
The Joburg that Higgs fell in love with is a melting pot of #Africa.

“How it relates to other cities, the Singapores, the Londons and the New Yorks, is that Joburg is a melting pot of African countries, west, east and southern Africa, and with that comes an incredible vibrancy: #art, #music, #food, #fashion.”」

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-04-05-how-joburg-stole-the-heart-of-a-top-cape-chef/

#Johannesburg #SouthAfrica

I heard a really heart-warming story on the #news this morning: #BafanaBafana is at O.R. Thambo International Airport this morning, having arrived back at around 04:00 after their #AFCON win.

And #Gautrain is offering free trips to the airport to go meet them, provided you're wearing your #soccer supporters' outfit, and you're not carrying any luggage (i.e. you're clearly going to meet them, and not going on a flight or anything).

I just thought that was a really sweet gesture!

#SouthAfrica #sport #football