About 50 Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) members on Sunday shackled themselves to railings at Parliament in Cape Town to highlight their jobs and poverty campaign.
”We have come to tell government that policies in place are hurting the manufacturing industry,” said Cosatu spokesperson Tony Ehrenreich.
He said the government’s growth, employment and redistribution policy around free-market funding has seen all other sectors of the economy foster decent levels of growth.
”We want the government to put in place safeguards against imports, especially from China and India, and we want government to put in place measures that will reduce the strength of the rand and contribute to export opportunities,” Ehrenreich said.
In June, the government agreed in principle to these problems, but the union feels the government is not moving fast enough to put measures in place to fix them.
”Every week, factories are closing down and soon we will see instability following on the back of huge levels of unemployment,” Ehrenreich said.
Protesters also want big retailers to be forced to procure 75% of their products locally to help create more jobs.
The protest, by the union federation’s Western Cape executive committee, lasted just less than two hours and was to be followed on Monday by marches in the Western and Eastern Cape.
Cosatu’s Eastern Cape provincial secretary Xola Phakathi said marches would start at 10am on Monday in East London, Port Elizabeth, Mthatha and Queenstown.
”Cosatu is expecting a complete stayaway while we march to the business centres in all four towns.”
Phakathi said Cosatu would hand over memorandums at 1pm to business representatives.
Demands in the memorandums include that attention be paid to job losses, that businesses procure 75% of their goods locally, that a stop be put to racism and that farm workers not be evicted when their work ends.
”It is the same campaign in Cape Town,” Phakathi said. ”Our people are marching there.”
Phakathi said Cosatu is not satisfied with the Eastern Cape government’s ”lack of response” to the June 27 march.
”The government promised us a job summit, but that process has not taken place. There is a crisis of unemployment in this province. Half the people don’t have jobs, and the rural areas are economically inactive.”
Phakathi said the bulk of the Eastern Cape is rural and there is ”completely no economy”.
”Look at Butterworth and Dimbaza, where the textile industry has collapsed.”
Workers in Gauteng and North West will strike on October 10, followed by the Northern Cape, Free State and Mpumalanga on October 17 and KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo on October 24. — Sapa