Workers marching for an end to unemployment and job losses warned the ruling African National Congress on Monday to ignore them at its peril.
”We cannot simply be election fodder,” Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) president Willie Madisha told protesters who converged at the Union Buildings in Pretoria — to loud agreement.
”You cannot remember us with elections and thereafter forget about us,” he said.
Thousands of Cosatu supporters held up traffic as they marched from Church Square to the seat of the government on Monday afternoon.
They were among thousands who stayed away from work in Gauteng and the North West on Monday in continuation of a countrywide Cosatu protest against poverty and unemployment.
The campaign started in the Eastern Cape and Western Cape last week and is to extend to other provinces in the coming weeks.
Cosatu president Willie Madisha said union members were willing to sacrifice a day’s pay to press home the plight of the unemployed.
”This action is hitting employers hard,” he said on the fringes of the protest. ”It is extremely successful.”
The Pretoria group, which stretched over several street blocks, was estimated at between 15 000 and 20 000 by metro police and at more than 40 000 by Madisha.
The marchers chanted protest slogans and carried placards reading ”Stop privatisation”, ”Stop racism” and ”Respect workers’ rights”.
In a memorandum addressed to the Department of Trade and Industry and Business Unity South Africa, the group demanded action from the public and private sectors towards job creation.
It urged the business sector to ensure at least 75% of stock is locally produced, and called on business people to invest their profits — made on the back of workers — locally rather than overseas.
From the government, Cosatu wants help to stop retrenchments and steps to ensure a competitive exchange rate for the rand to boost competitiveness.
The federation urged the government to hike import tariffs, claiming rising imports is costing the economy jobs.
”Government must also buy locally,” the memorandum states. ”Even now, government does not require its agencies to favour South African goods and services.”
The federation also urged the government to speed up the provision of basic services such as water and sanitation to all citizens, referring to a recent cholera outbreak.
Madisha started his address to workers gathered on the lawns of the Union Buildings by stating: ”An injury to one is an injury to all,” and ”We are angry.”
Unemployment, poverty and hunger constitute a crisis for South Africa, he said.
About 40% of South Africans are unemployed, Madisha claimed, and 57% are poor. Many of those who do have jobs are employed as casual workers, earning as little as R200 a week.
”Over the past 11 years … freedom has been stolen from our people who fought for the freedom of this country,” Madisha said.
”The people who fought and sacrificed are the people who don’t have any food today. Only the people who had money and who did not fight have continued to gain and gain.”
Workers also complained about racism on the job.
Madisha warned that strike action will continue until the union federation’s demands are met. If the business sector does not adhere, ”we will make it very difficult for them to survive”.
Madisha also used the opportunity to reiterate Cosatu’s support for ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma, who faces corruption charges.
The country’s newspapers have been used to prosecute Zuma, Madisha charged.
”We will support him, and we will make sure the judiciary is reformed.”
Referring to ”the harassment of our leaders”, he said: ”We cannot say we have freedom if that freedom is taken away from the working class and the poor by the capitalist class and through the use of a judiciary that is not transformed.”
Business and government representatives promised to take up the issues highlighted in Cosatu’s memorandum.
Police said the march went off without incident. — Sapa