Rietvlei Nature Reserve - Information

[Flutterby]

Posted on the Rietvlei FB page today:

Johan van der Walt
2 hrs
What a shock and tragedy. I went to Rietvlei this morning in great anticipation. Upon arriving at the gate it was locked and the workers brigade were standing inside the locked gate. They locked it and all other entrance gates to Rietvlei. Outside the gate I encountered 3 staff members of the city council whom, as one explained to me, will now commence negotiations with the workers after listening to their demands. At this stage gates remain locked and no visitors are allowed in by the workers. Visitors that are inside are also not allowed by the workers to leave the Reserve.

[Mel]

Not to leave the reserve either?! Disturbing as the whole matter may be but that is unlawful detention

[Flutterby]

Exactly Mel! And there has been no official statement from Rietvlei as yet.

[Richprins]

Ok, got the info.

The staff at Rietvlei have been on slow go strike for a year and a half. The white manager cut their salaries to half a year ago, whereupon the staff went to arbitration and got full pay back! But continued on slow go strike...

Why it has come to a head today is probably due to the ructions after governing party lost control of the city, so desperate times, as the new people in charge will not condone this...

[Flutterby]

And I was planning on going tomorrow!

[Flutterby]

Posted this morning on FB:

Riaan Marais:
Please warn everyone the Rietvlei workers are on strike again and locking public out of reserve. No access today with threats of violence. Even students were chased away.

[Flutterby]

Posted this afternoon:

Allison Thomson: The workers (protesters) apparently clocked out at 3.30 this afternoon. The issue has been escalated to those in the Municipality but as you can imagine with handovers and swearing ins etc things are not quite operational at the moment but we are putting a lot of pressure on them to expedite the resolution of this situation.

[Richprins]

Thanks, Flutts and Allie!

The workers are going to get fired...times are a-changing!

[Lisbeth]

If the workers are going that far, they most likely have a very good reason. There is no doubt that many salaries in South Africa are far below "decent"

[Flutterby]

Tension at Rietvlei

Tension reigned in the Rietvlei Nature Reserve on Monday when employees protested over the reinstatement of a manager.

An employee, who asked not to be named, said the manager, Riaan Marais, had been suspended after calling workers names last year.

“The lifting of Marais’ suspension has resulted in employees blocking patrons from entering or leaving the reserve.”

Employees started protesting on Monday, demanding the removal of Marais. They continued their action on Tuesday.

Children were stopped from going to school and motorists were threatened and restricted from entering the reserve.

Marais suspension has since been contested since April 2016, culminating in city council instructing his reinstatement.

Lyttelton police spokesperson said Hero Gumbu said no reports had been made to the station by Tuesday.