Cii News | 03 October 2012

The South African Transport and Allied Workers Union, SATAWU, has distanced itself from a hoax electronic message claiming that there will be a mass strike on Thursdayinvolving acts of violence.

“We condemn charlatans trumpeting doom and chaos in our name,” read a statement by the union.

It said that the union leadership learnt with shock about the message that has reached a large section of South Africans through the BlackBerry Message system as well as other social media networks.

“We distance ourselves from such predictions of doom and chaos as spread out by the agent provocateurs whose aim is to tarnish our name and distort our cause. We urge all South Africans to ignore the message and further desist from circulating it to their friends and families”

SATAWU will also be taking the matter to the SAPS to investigate the origin of the message and expect action against its author for defamation and incitement to violence.

Negotiations to resolve the strike in the truck and freight industry continued on Wednesday.

“We strongly believe that today’s discussions will bring a solution to the current strike and our members can return to work and bring back the South African economy to normality,” the statement said.