COSATU set to strike on Thursday regarding socio-economic issues facing South Africans

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and all its Affiliated Unions is set to embark on a nationwide strike on Thursday, 6 July 2023, regarding socio-economic issues facing South Africans.

PICTURE: ARCHIVE

In a statement, COSATU said Thursday’s strike is in protest of the high unemployment rate, wage cuts, poverty and inequality affecting the workers and the working class in general.

‘’It is in defence of workers’ hard-won rights to bargain and attempts by employers in both the public and private sectors attempts to undermine this constitutional right,’’ said Matthew Parks, COSATU’s Parliamentary Coordinator.

‘’It is a demonstration by workers that government needs to do more to end the current levels of load-shedding, cable theft, crime and corruption, wasteful expenditure and austerity cuts crippling the state, suffocating the economy, and further plunging workers into high levels of indebtedness and misery.  This is also a signal to the government, the Reserve Bank, and the commercial banks, that the working class can no longer afford to bear the burden of rising levels of inflation, electricity tariff hikes and relentless and reckless increases in the repo rate. ‘’

‘’We demand that all employers pay workers a living wage if they are to survive and buy the goods that the economy produces. It is not acceptable that 29 years into democracy, South Africa remains the world’s most unequal society, added Parks.

COURTESY: COSATU

The strike is protected under Section 77 of the Labour Relations Act. The National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) has granted the union a certificate to strike, guaranteeing all workers protection if they join the strike.

‘’The Federation is pleased with the overwhelmingly positive response from the workers. Most workers have expressed full support for this strike, and we urge all workers, unions, and federations to join it,’’ said Matthew Parks, COSATU’s Parliamentary Coordinator.

According to COSATU, Government has fallen on deaf ears, as they have expressed their frustration what South Africans are going through.

‘’COSATU has consistently and continuously raised the frustration of workers with the government and the private sector with minimal response coming from them. Workers are losing hope and patience. The levels of frustration, despair, anger, poverty, indebtedness, unemployment, crime, and corruption are a ticking time bomb that the government and businesses need to deal with fast.’’

‘’The government has become oblivious to the socio-economic challenges and continues to promote neo-liberal policies advancing the capitalist system while people live in poverty and suffocate in an ailing economy. Due to a lack of clean water, lives have been lost to an outbreak of cholera. Despite the deaths, communities were offered meek platitudes of clean piped water by March 2024.’’

COSATU says more needs to be done to ensure that the country’s railway infrastructure is fully back, ‘’and collapse in municipalities, 36 of which routinely fail to pay their employees. Companies are closing in many rural towns as basic services deteriorate.’’

The trade union has offered ways on how Government can alleviate the socio-economic issues:

·        Raise the SRD Grant to the food poverty line in the October MTBPS.

·        Extend the Presidential Employment Stimulus to accommodate 1 million active participants in October 2023 and 2 million in February 2024.

·        Ensure the implementation of the 2 pot pension reforms on 1 March 2024.

·        Unblock the delays in the rollout of the public infrastructure programme.

·        Intervene in the 36 municipalities routinely failing to pay their employees.

·        Repeal the Municipal Systems Amendment Act clause banning all 350 000 municipal workers from holding office in a political party at any level.

·        Urgently intervene to rebuild and modernise Transnet and Metro Rail.

·        Urgently intervene to prevent the collapse and liquidation of the Post Office.

·        Allocate additional resources to ensure the SAPS, NPA, SIU, Hawks and judiciary are sufficiently resourced to win the war against crime and corruption.

·        Allocate further funds to SARS to tackle tax evasion and customs fraud.

·        Fill out all funded public service and sector vacancies by December 2023.

COURTESY: COSATU

‘’The current situation must not be normalised, and the state must act to rescue the working class and the economy from this quagmire.  Decisive action is now needed from the government because workers are running out of patience,’’ said Matthew Parks, COSATU’s Parliamentary Coordinator.

 

Done By: Mitchum George