By Nangamso Mabindla
12 July 2005

EAST LONDON came to a standstill when hundreds of Buffalo City municipal workers marched down Oxford Street to hand over a memorandum to South African Local Government Association (Salga) representatives.

Members of the South African Municipal Workers Union and the Independent Municipal and Allied Workers Union went on a nationwide strike on Tuesday, 12 July.

This followed a deadlock over wage negotiations, with the unions demanding a 9 percent increase across the board and Salga offering 6 percent.

Handing over the memorandum in front of the East London City Hall, union representatives gave the association seven days to respond to their demands.

Chris Maqongqwana, Salga's Eastern Cape director, who received the memorandum, said, "We are going to study this memorandum and see if we can make a response inside the seven days. We will discuss it and look for possibilities of an agreement between us and the unions."

The City had made contingency plans for the strike, ensuring there was minimal disruption to services. Essential services, including emergency services and law enforcement departments, remained operational.

Darby Gounden, Buffalo City's communications manager, said staff from these essential services continued with their duties.

"The City would like to commend staff from [its] essential services for continuing to serve our customers during the strike," she said, adding that they kept to the law. According to the country's law, such employees had to continue working during strikes.

Staff complied with the terms of an agreement pertaining to essential services that ensures minimum manning levels during any strike.

"The staff kept to our motto of being a people-centred municipality," Gounden concluded.