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Strike shuts down schools
13/06/2007 10:51 - (SA)
Cape Town - Many schools have remained shut on Wednesday ahead of a public service mass rally and a sympathy strike by municipal workers in Cape Town, according to the provincial Department of Education.
Spokesperson for the department of Education Gert Witbooi said "a considerable number of schools" had sent parents a letter advising them that they could not guarantee the safety of the learners on Wednesday.
"When there's a mass rally out there it does create anxieties," he said.
Witbooi said school control bodies were worried about possible intimidation by strikers at schools and possibly "other criminal elements".
Witbooi said as a result many schools, especially in the peninsula area would remain closed on Wednesday.
He said the department was "extremely concerned" that schools had lost so much time and that exams had been affected during the strike.
Provincial Department of Health spokesperson Faiza Steyn said there appeared to be "no major decline" in staff turnout on Wednesday morning ahead of the day's planned mass rally to parliament.
Steyn said the department was using army medical personnel at Khayelitsha's Site B clinic during strike action on Wednesday.
She said there had been an incident outside Groote Schuur at around 07:00 on Wednesday where 150 people were blocking the entrance.
Steyn said after a warning by police the protestors had dispersed from the entrance but were still at the hospital.
Steyn said the Department of Health could not comment on what the outcomes of Wednesday's protest might be as they were just "Tak[ing] it as it comes".
Western Cape Cosatu secretary Tony Ehrenreich said he expected about 25 000 people to join the march to Parliament on Wednesday afternoon, including members of the South African Municipal Workers Union who were holding a sympathy strike in Cape Town.
- SAPA
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