Reserve Bank angers union

The National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (Numsa) on Wednesday expressed disappointment at the South African Reserve Bank’s failure to take delivery of a protest memorandum.

The union had marched to the Reserve Bank’s offices in Pretoria to protest against high interest rates.

Numsa spokesperson Alex Mashilo said they were disappointed by the bank’s attitude.

“[The Reserve Bank] initially agreed to allocate someone to receive the memorandum. The bank has now done an about-turn and has refused to accept it,” he said.

Earlier, angry protesters broke a police barrier and threatened to storm into the bank, but police were quick to restore order.

Union members vowed to not leave their post outside the bank until their memorandum was accepted.

“We are not going to leave until the bank takes the memo,” spokesperson Alex Mashilo told about 1 000 protesters gathered in front of the bank.

“Ha re ba tle sepe, re ba tla Tito fela,” the crowd shouted in seSotho, meaning “we don’t want anyone else, we want Tito,” referring to Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni.

Mashilo said the bank had taken part in preparatory meetings for the march.

“The bank chief security officer was nominated by the bank to sit in those meetings.

The last meeting was this Monday.”

The memorandum was finally handed over to police commissioner David Mbambo. He was expected to hand over the memorandum to the presidency.

In the memorandum, Numsa demanded a cut in interest rates and that the Reserve Bank must regulate the banks, scrap the policy of inflation targeting and prioritise employment, growth and sustainable development.

Mashilo said high interest rates had resulted in the metal industry losing about 30 000 jobs and a further 40 000 workers were temporarily laid-off, meaning they had to take a cut in their salaries.

Jimmy Nkuna from Klipgat in Mabopane said he participated in the march because high interest rates were making life unaffordable.

“When interest rates are high, we cannot afford to buy food, our houses are repossessed and we lose jobs,” he said.—Sapa