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Johannesburg - The SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) will look at getting legal advice after reports that police fired rubber bullets and water cannons at protesting Pikitup workers in Johannesburg on Thursday.
"We are disappointed in the manner police have been acting to this protest and the consistent shooting of our members simply demonstrate that the police did not learn anything from what happened in Marikana," Samwu deputy general secretary, Simon Mathe, said on the sidelines of the Cosatu national congress in Midrand, Johannesburg.
"We will see as to how we approach this violent and arrogant behaviour because our members are demonstrating peacefully," he said, adding that police could not just shoot workers if they were not provoking them.
Just hours after Pikitup management, city councillors and Johannesburg Mayor Parks Tau, went to Braamfontein on Thursday to clean up trash littered by the striking workers, they returned to the streets in protest.
Chief Superintendent Wayne Minnaar told News24 that traffic officers had closed the Nelson Mandela bridge to traffic as well as Juta and De Beers roads as a result of the protest action.
"It's just not safe because they are becoming unruly," he said.
Mathe accused Pikitup's managing director Amanda Nair of being arrogant and refusing to meet with Samwu. "We have been making attempts since Monday to meet with her but she is refusing," he said.
He said among other things workers were unhappy with salary adjustments, the abandoning of certain policies and lack of protective clothing.
