eThekwini metro police officers are planning to stage a picket against their boss outside the Durban city hall on Friday.
|||Durban - eThekwini metro police officers are planning to stage a picket against their boss outside the Durban city hall on Friday.
By Thursday evening, the SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) had not yet been officially informed whether permission had been granted for this latest protest against unpopular police chief Eugene Nzama.
Both police officers and taxi drivers have been calling for him to stand down. Nzama returned to work last Monday after being placed on special leave earlier this year.
Metro spokesman Superintendent Eugene Msomi confirmed that the unions had applied for permission and had met all the necessary requirements, but that the application was with the City Manager's office for final approval.
eThekwini metro spokesman Thabo Mofokeng said he had not been informed whether the city manager, Sibusiso Sithole, had approved the application.
Samwu regional secretary Nhlanhla Nyandeni said he was aware that the union had fulfilled all the conditions for a picket, but they had not heard anything.
“We are told that the city manager has issues,” he said.
However, he said the union would go ahead with the picket, which he said was a reinstatement of a previous picket that had been suspended.
The picket was scheduled to take place between 11am and 2pm.
Union members held a meeting at the city hall on Wednesday.
In June, Sithole announced Nzama was put on special leave for three months while the allegations against him by the union and taxi drivers were investigated.
The city's disaster management head Vincent Ngubane replaced Nzama.
Nzama, however, approached the Durban Labour Court to challenge his special leave and resumed his duties in July.
In May, taxi drivers went on a violent strike, claiming the eThekwini metro officers were unfairly targeting them.
Sithole said another reason for the special leave was to give the city time to assess what had caused the “instability” under Nzama's leadership.
“The third reason relates to serious security concerns against Mr Nzama, which have come to our attention. We believe as a city that we should take appropriate steps to protect him as our employee.”
Sithole did not outline what these security concerns were. - Sapa