JOHANNESBURG - There could be mayhem on the streets of Joburg next week, if the NGO sector follows through on its threat to shut down the city.
More than a thousand members representing about 60 organisations marched to the Premier’s office.
They are lamenting the plight of community caregivers and auxiliary workers who fall under the Social Development Department.
Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi has until next week to respond to demands made by hundreds of workers from various NGOs around the province.
On the list is a call for better working conditions.
Some have been working as contracted workers for more than ten years and among their demands is to be absorbed as permanent employees within the Department of Social Development and better pay.
SUSAW secretary-general Mmeli Gebashe said, "we demand that they give workers their backpay, they give the organisations the money that is due to them, so that they are able to pay back the workers, secondly, we’ve seen that the government is failing to regulate the NGOs that are working in the Department of Social Development."
"We are demanding that all these auxiliary social workers, all these workers that are in the EPWPs, be permanently absorbed by the government.”
Some of those affected have not been paid since the end of March when their contracts ran out, but they've continued to work without pay, as they await promises of employment from the province.
Protesters had initially given the Premier a week to respond, but that has been revised to Tuesday, with workers threatening a shutdown should their demands not be met.
Gauteng Civil Society Forum chairperson Oupa Shumeni said, "premier pronounced on 4 May, that all the organisations we are leading, the 262 organisations supported by Social Development must go back to work, and unfortunately we are not getting along."
"We don’t find justice from the utterance of the premier where officials have withdrawn the advert for 62 organisation, 25 in the City of Johannesburg and 62 in Ekurhuleni.”
Sipho Handula, the premier's office's rapid reponse member said, "my commitment was seven days, they say three days, but my commitment was three days, so I think we’ll have to find a way, how do we deal with it, between us and the DSD.”
Meanwhile, the group will also need to find common ground, with a split between the politically neutral organisers and those accused of hijacking the action for political motives.