By Nangamso Mabindla
04 May 2007

MEMBERS of the South African Municipal Workers' Union marched to the East London City Hall to hand over a memorandum to Executive Mayor Zintle Peter on Thursday, 3 May.

Once at the City Hall, union leaders and their South African Communist Party counterparts read the memorandum to municipal officials who accepted it on behalf of the executive mayor. Some of the union's concerns included the privatisation of refuse collection, electricity and meter reading.

Specifically, it wanted water sanitation services management in Dimbaza, Mdantsane and Zwelitsha to be returned to the municipality as one of its competencies. This is outsourced to a private company at present.

The workers also wanted the municipality to handle employee disciplinary hearings swiftly, and they called for better refuse collection in areas like Duncan Village.

Accepting the memorandum, the City's director for corporate services, Amanda Magwentshu, said that the municipality would take the matter seriously.

"I am going to take this memo to the City's leaders and we will do everything in our power to ensure that we meet these demands to the best of our ability.”

After addressing the marchers Magwentshu acknowledged receipt of the memorandum.