More than 60,000 municipal workers around South Africa on November 15-17 staged strikes and marches to oppose the privatisation of local government services being pushed through by mainly African National Congress-controlled councils.
In Johannesburg, members of South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) and the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union picketed the city council's offices on November 16. An estimated 25,000 workers marched through the city the following day. SAMWU and IMATU members also went on strike and marched in Pretoria, Durban, and Northern Cape and Northern provinces.
In Cape Town, rival ANC and Democratic Alliance councillors suspended campaigning for the December local government election and united to apply to the Labour Court to ban the strike.
Workers were extremely angry when they heard that the water multinational with the worst track record in the world, Suez-Lyonnaise, had announced in Paris on November 16 that it had won the contract to privatise Johannesburg's water. SAMWU said that unless the contract was withdrawn, strike action was likely.