By Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik on GroundUp
- The 31 safety guards who have been sacked after they disrupted a June examination gathered with their households at UCT to ask college students to forgive them and for his or her help to be insourced.
- The guards say they have been misguided by student activist Sibusiso Mpendulo, who claimed to be a lawyer and appearing of their pursuits, saying he had gained court docket orders and opened a Hawks investigation.
- The Hawks has denied this and confirmed that it doesn’t have him on file.
The 31 safety guards, who have been fired for disturbing a June examination at the University of Cape Town (UCT), have requested college students to forgive them.
The guards, their households, and Students Representative Council (SRC) members held a peaceable picket on the college’s higher campus plaza on Tuesday. They need college students to help their plea to be insourced by UCT.
On Monday, GroundUp reported on how former student activist Sibusiso Mpendulo had falsely claimed to be the guards’ lawyer, promising to struggle for them to be insourced. He then led them to disrupt the June exams, which resulted within the employees being dismissed.
In June 2016, the then Vice-Chancellor Max Price introduced that UCT would insource about 1 000 workers in July 2016. But none of those guards, who labored for the Groote Schuur Central Improvement District to patrol UCT, have been employed. They say they met the necessities, however UCT had employed guards from exterior as a substitute.
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More than 400 college students have been sitting on the plaza steps as employee chief Amos Qwabi defined that it was on Mpendulo’s recommendation that they went into the examination halls.
He mentioned Mpendulo had informed the guards that UCT’s SRC had permitted the disruption and so they believed him. He mentioned that they paid Mpendulo for years, together with paying for his journeys to Pretoria, the place he claimed he was assembly the Hawks on their behalf.
Qwabi requested college students in the event that they forgave them, and college students shouted “yes” and clapped their fingers.
SRC appearing president, Siya Plaatjie, mentioned that the SRC believed in guards’ battle to be insourced. She recounted the SRC’s unusual dealings with Mpendulo.
“To be honest we didn’t see it coming until later, when one of our members who is studying law kept on pointing out a few errors on documents Mpendulo was showing us. He would ask Mpendulo for certain papers and he would respond by saying he left them home or come up with an excuse,”
mentioned Plaatjie.
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Families of safety guards communicate of hardship
The guard’s households informed college students concerning the difficulties they face since their members of the family misplaced their jobs.
Nosidima Ndlokolo, 59, mentioned her son Masixole had been caring for her and three different siblings. “Things are really tough at home. I’m not working, I lost my job during [the lockdown]. My last born is doing grade 12 and was hoping to study next year but I don’t see that happening since Masixole is not working because no one is going to help her with registration money,” she mentioned.
Cebisa Nkumbi from Samora Machel is a mom of three. Since her husband misplaced his job, their household depends on social grants.
“Every day I pray that UCT does the right thing and hires them. My husband has worked here for close to ten years. He deserves to be insourced,”
she mentioned.
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Simthembile Qondo, a father of seven youngsters, mentioned all they need is for UCT to insource them, or at least inform them why that they had not been employed in earlier insourcing rounds.
“If they can tell us what requirements they are looking for so that we can get them. Because on what they posted we are confident that we do qualify,”
he mentioned.
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Holes in Mpendulo’s Hawks story
We requested Hawks Western Cape spokesperson Zinzi Hani concerning the case allegedly opened by Mpendulo on behalf of the guards in opposition to UCT. As reported, somebody purporting to be from the Hawks, a “Detective Tsiya”, contacted the guards and took statements from Qwabi at the Cape Town Central police station.
Hani mentioned denied that Mpendulo might have opened a case in Pretoria, as this matter would have been processed within the Western Cape.
“We do not have any detective by the name of Tsiya in the Western Cape,” she mentioned. It’s unclear if this individual works for SAPS.
UCT was contacted for touch upon Sunday and Tuesday. Their remark shall be added as soon as it’s obtained.
This article was first revealed on GroundUp
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