BY NOMALUNGELO BOOI
Commuters were left stranded at the weekend as a confrontation between Integrated Public Transport System (IPTS) drivers and the Spectrum Alert board reached boiling point, leading to armed security closing down the depot in Cleary Park on Friday.
On Monday, drivers protested outside the depot while burning tyres after the board allegedly tried to get new drivers in to have the system up and running for the week.
The fight between the directors and the employees emanates from December bonuses which are yet to be paid out.
According to the drivers, talks collapsed when they were told last week that the bonuses would no longer be paid despite a commitment to do so earlier in the month.
“What must we do now?
“We come to work but at the end of the month there is no payment,” one of the drivers, Tyran Markman, said.
We have no money for school fees, shoes, and our families are suffering.
“I do not understand what they want us to do.
“Must we come here and burn buses or kill someone?
“Really, they need to tell us what we must do.”
The workers were adamant the depot would remain shut and no new drivers would be allowed in.
“They must be grateful for us as workers,” another worker, Jerome Stuurman, said.As things stand, they are forcing us to do this.
“We just want them to give us what belongs to us.”
Numsa shop steward Jerome Krisjans said talks broke down after the board members reneged on commitments made by the previous board.
“At the beginning of the year, we had a meeting with HR and management and they committed to the bonuses being paid on January 4.
“That did not materialise and instead the new board members came to the depot and told the workers there would be no bonuses,” Krisjans said.
After the stalemate on Thursday, Krisjans said private security was brought in to shut the depot down on Friday.
In addition to the bonus woes, workers alleged that there were also repeated problems with late salary payments and failure to pay provident fund contributions despite monthly deductions.
On Monday, safety and security political head Lawrence Troon called a stakeholder meeting at the City Hall at which both the new and old board members, along with the employees, were supposed to discuss all the issues.
The meeting, however, failed to materialise when none of the board members showed up.
The IPTS Cleary Park route is operated by Spectrum Alert, founded by the Northern Areas Taxi Operators’ Association (Natoa) and Algoa Taxi Association (Ata) in 2017An impasse at an annual general meeting in October led to a battle over who is in charge of the board.
Songezo Mpanda, chair of the new board, declined to comment, saying they were in talks with the municipality about the matter.
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