Following the installment of opposition candidate Herman Mashaba as the new mayor of the City of Johannesburg, one of his first orders of business was to inform a Sunday Times journalist of his intentions to privatise the City’s waste collection service organisation– Pikitup – breaking it up into seven parts and selling these on to private businesses.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), hit back, saying it will, “fight any attempt by the City of Johannesburg to privatise Pikitup.”

Further, COSATU stated, “We are ready and willing to collapse and shutdown the city of Johannesburg, if Mayor Mashaba thinks that he is going to do the bidding of his friends from the Free Market Foundation by introducing their anti-worker and anti-union policies.”

Privatisation debate

Mashaba made his fortune and his name as the founder of the Black Like Me hair products empire. He went on to become chairperson of the The Free Market Foundation in 2012; on its website, the organisation states its mission as, “progress through freedom … foster[ing] an open society, the rule of law, personal liberty, and economic and press freedom”.

The Pikitup incident is likely to be the first of many times Mashaba’s instincts towards free enterprise and privatisation chafe against established unions.

COSATU is already mobilising against the trend, saying, “Privatisation will detrimentally affect the socio-economic interests of the poor, which includes workers and the working class in general. It will lead to decreased and inferior quality services for the poor, since they won’t [be able to] afford to pay for the services provided by or through private interests. [This] will lead to higher prices for the provision of basic services, which will adversely affect the poor and it will also limit the extension of basic social and municipal services to the poor.”

COSATU, which is also the largest trade union in South Africa, has also voiced fears that Mashaba’s plan would lead to job losses, a greater trend towards the use of casual labour and wider use of fixed-term contracts. The union warned that knock-on effects would include reduced incomes and benefits and lower levels of job security.

Pikitup’s fate

While Mashaba has promised that “not one of the 4 500 Pikitup employees will lose their jobs,” it’s hard to tell what lies ahead for Pikitup. The organisation could not be reached for comment regarding the Mayor’s comments.