The Congress of South Africa Trade Unions (Cosatu) will stage the first of a series of protests against rising food prices in a march through Polokwane in Limpopo on Sunday, spokesperson Patrick Craven said on Friday.
The march, to be bolstered by alliance partner the South African Communist Party (SACP), will proceed to the Polokwane Magistrate’s Court, where a memorandum will be handed over.
Besides drawing attention to rising food prices, the protesters will also complain about the electricity crisis and demand the reopening of the investigation into the assassination of SACP leader Chris Hani 15 years ago.
They will also highlight relocations of communities in Polokwane for mining purposes by Anglo Platinum.
Cosatu has applied to the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) for permission to hold the protests without participating workers being fired.
While the application is being processed, it will start with smaller pickets and marches, said Craven.
The protests will also focus on companies who have been found guilty of price-fixing in Competition Commission rulings and demand that implicated company directors be prosecuted, not the companies themselves — as these fines are ultimately paid by the consumer, Craven said.
Cosatu will demand a reduction in the price of bread as a refund to customers for being overcharged and will ask for a zero value-added tax rating on basic foods, as well as subsidies for the poor.
Meanwhile, Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi has blasted the latest ”disastrous” interest-rate hike and accused sectors of the food industry of ”criminal price-fixing”.
Workers face crucial political challenges, he told the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa’s (Numsa) Eastern Cape provincial congress on Friday.
”There is clear evidence of criminal price-fixing in the bread and dairy sectors, by greedy companies acting together to make even bigger profits at the expense of their consumers,” Vavi said. — Sapa