Silence. That is the only thing Allan Lord, a resident of Lindhaven, can hear since his Telkom landline has stopped working.
“I was away from 22–26 August, and when I returned home my telephone was not working,” he said.
He tried to contact Telkom’s call centre via his cellphone as well as by e-mail, but had no success. He also spoke to some of the other residents in the area and found similar complaints. “It appears that the whole of Lindhaven and Grobler Park is experiencing the same problem,” he said.
Another resident from Lindhaven, who would prefer to stay anonymous, said she is also having problems with her landline. According to her, she went to the Telkom store in Clearwater Mall on two separate occasions.
“The first time I went to the store to find out what is happening, one of the employees told me that there is a strike and they are sabotaging Telkom by removing the telephone cables and breaking the boxes.
On my second visit, another employee just smiled at my complaint and told me he thinks it will take a long time to fix,” she said.
Telkom workers affiliated to the Communication Workers‘ Union (CWU) downed tools on 1 August because of a wage dispute. The workers are demanding an 11 per cent wage increase, six months’ maternity leave and better transformation policies.
During the strike, it came to light that Telkom’s networks had been tampered with. It appears that the workers are doing this in an attempt to sabotage Telkom’s day-to-day operations. This is an attempt by the workers to pressure Telkom’s management into giving in to their demands.
Telkom and CWU scheduled a meeting for this week to try and resolve this strike. The CWU general secretary, Aubrey Tshabalala, said, “If the results of the engagements are not positive, we would call a special national executive committee meeting to consider possible secondary strikes.”
The Record has contacted Telkom’s spokesperson, Jaqui O’Sullivan, for comment and will update readers as soon as it is received.
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