Members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) are gearing up for a general strike on Thursday in support of the Jobs and Poverty Campaign.
“Levels of unemployment and poverty in South Africa are totally unacceptable, and the poverty this causes is inflicting misery on millions of families. We are repeating our call for the crisis of joblessness to be declared a national emergency and for the government and business to take far tougher measures to save and create jobs and to eradicate poverty.
“At a time when we are told the economy is booming, it is disgusting that so many of our citizens are living in abject poverty, primarily because they cannot find work, or have to survive in low-paid, insecure, temporary jobs,” Cosatu said on Monday.
“We shall also be highlighting the new threat to our jobs and living standards posed by the draft World Trade Organisation agreements on non-agricultural market access and services, which, unless drastically amended, will have a catastrophic impact on jobs and living standards in South Africa and other developing countries in the southern half of the world,” the union federation added. — I-Net Bridge