SAMWU STANDS IN SOLIDARITY WITH AUTONOMOUS UNION OF WATER WORKERS OF SENEGAL AND ITS LEADERSHIP

10 December 2025

SAMWU STANDS IN SOLIDARITY WITH AUTONOMOUS UNION OF WATER WORKERS OF SENEGAL AND ITS LEADERSHIP

The South African Municipal Workers’ Union (SAMWU), which organises workers in municipalities and waterboards across South Africa, stands in solidarity with our comrades in the Senegalese water sector, particularly Comrade Oumar Ba, General Secretary of the Autonomous Union of Water Workers of Senegal (SATES). We have learnt with deep consternation as the management of SEN’EAU has unleashed a campaign of intimidation and victimisation against workers who dare to advocate for fair public water services and the dignity of labour.

The bullying and unrelenting pressure mounted against Comrade Ba, a leader at the forefront of this struggle, is an affront to every principle of trade union freedom and human rights. SAMWU knows too well the cost of standing up for workers’ rights in essential services, and unequivocally condemns the double dealing and unacceptable divide-and-rule tactics employed by SEN’EAU to sideline SATES, a union vocal in its defence of workers.

This attack on Oumar Ba and SATES is not just industrial dispute but a directed assault on the democratic principles enshrined in Senegal’s own Constitution, particularly the guarantees of freedom of opinion, expression, association, and work. We find the complicit silence of the Senegalese government in the face of this injustice deeply disturbing, effectively allowing the management of SEN’EAU to trample upon the fundamental liberties of its citizens. No individual, organisation, or government has the right to prevent workers from exercising these sacred rights and liberties.

SAMWU therefore demands immediate action and that the government of Senegal must rein in the anti-people and anti-workers actions of SEN’EAU’s management and initiate an independent, detailed, and transparent review of its managerial practices to ensure accountability and justice. We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Oumar Ba and all victimised unionists, encouraging them to remain resolute. Their fight for improved work conditions and respect is our fight, and the struggle for dignity in the water sector in Senegal is a beacon for workers across the entire continent. We recall the timeless truth that “An injury to one is an injury to all.”

We call on all progressive forces to join us in demanding a stop to this repression! Now, more than ever, the cry echoes across the continent as Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels said, “Workers of the world, unite!” The spirit of Pan-African solidarity demands nothing less.

Issued by SAMWU Secretariat
Dumisane Magagula
General Secretary
076 580 4029

Or

Nkhetheni Muthavhi
Deputy General Secretary
082 526 5224

Or

Papikie Mohale
National Media Officer
076 795 8670