Thousands of workers belonging to the country’s largest union federation, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), have embarked on strike action in the Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal provinces to protest against issues such as job losses, casualisation and racism in the workplace.
Cosatu’s Limpopo representative Jan Tsiane said on Monday that the union expected 8 000 workers to converge in Polokwane.
”We will be handing out a memorandum of demand to the local department of labour and Edgars. From Edgars we are demanding that it source 75% of its stock from South African clothing manufacturers in order to boost them,” Tsiane added.
Cosatu president Willie Madisha was scheduled to address workers in Polokwane.
Workers in the Northern Cape, Free State and Mpumalanga last week embarked on strike action to protest against job losses.
This follows similar strikes in the Eastern and Western Cape, Gauteng and North West provinces since the beginning of the month.
The daylong strike action has been called to protest mass retrenchments and the failure of businesses and industries to stock locally produced goods.
In KwaZulu-Natal, said Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven, marches would take place in Durban, Pietermaritzburg, Newcastle, Port Shepstone, Vryheid and Richards Bay. Memorandums on various topics would be delivered to different offices.
Cosatu’s KwaZulu-Natal representative Zet Luzipo said the union expected between 15 000 and 20 000 workers to march in Durban, depending on the weather.
”We will be converging at the Durban City Hall to hand over a memorandum of demands to the MEC for transport, safety and liaison, Bheki Cele, and the KwaZulu-Natal Chamber of Commerce’s Lucky Moloi,” Luzipo said. — I-Net Bridge, Sapa