Johannesburg
- The organised rail workers' strike by the SA Transport and Allied
Workers' Union (Satawu) was a failure, Metrorail said on Monday.
"Overall,
Metrorail was able to run an 85% train service in all its regions,
which indicates that the strike was a dismal failure," spokesperon
Lawrence Venkile
said.
A group within Satawu had promised a total shutdown of train services across the country, he said in a statement.
However, Satawu national spokesperson Mamokgethi Molopyane denied this.
"We will not get into a public dispute as to who is right about the turnout. The stations in Gauteng were heavily affected."
Metrorail
said operations on Monday morning were only marginally affected by the
strike, but that there had been reports of intimidation of drivers
arriving for duty,
particularly at the Scheiding Street depot in Pretoria.
"We have dispatched our protection services to monitor the situation in this area," said Venkile.
Striking
rail workers were calling for the suspension of Passenger Rail Agency
of SA (Prasa) Group CEO Lucky Montana over alleged tender
irregularities.
"The
Prasa board must commission a forensic investigation into the
allegations raised against Mr Montana, and pending that outcome he must
be placed on special leave
or suspension," Molopyane said.
"Our
members will regroup on Wednesday to assess the impact of the strike.
They are planning a mass march to the department of transport in
Pretoria on March 5 to
highlight the serious issues within Prasa," she said.
Prasa
CEO Mosenngwa Mofi said: "It is rather unfortunate that this strike is
premised on unsubstantiated allegations, which have been rejected as
unfounded, spurious
and without any basis.
"We
are pleased that our employees have remained vigilant and not allowed
themselves to be used in a campaign to discredit the business."
Metrorail
appealed for commuters' patience during the strike and said it would
keep them informed of the developments throughout Monday.