The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Thursday confirmed its plan for a nationwide strike on Wednesday 24 August to protest against the rising costs of fuel and food and the continuing power cuts.
Cosatu general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali said action on the day would include stay-aways and rallies, which were expected to take place across the country.
The trade union federation said the strike was to demand urgent action from policy-makers to consider the country’s plight in the face of the high cost of living.
“Currently, half the country lives in poverty, with many families forced to live without
adequate food, and many of them cannot find jobs. Workers are dealing with wage stagnation with their wages repealed by inflation and punishing debt.
“Drastic steps need to be taken to avoid an economic collapse that is threatening the lives of millions of workers and the poor,” said Ntshalintshali.
The strike was also a pushback against the ongoing “warfare” directed at the working class by both the public and private sectors.
South Africa has been experiencing crippling fuel price increases for several months, and although mid-month data from the Central Energy Fund indicated that prices could fall by as much as R2.60 in September, the price per litre will still remain over R20.
Ntshalintshali said the constant increases in the fuel levy was a way for the government to feed the “bankrupt” Road Accident Fund.
“Four years ago, Cosatu raised the issue of a fuel price cap and presented a report to the minister of mineral resources and energy of South Africa. We have still not received feedback about what we raised in the report. We will be demanding a release of the report to implement a fuel price cap.”
In 2020, Cosatu launched a comprehensive debt recovery plan to recover the billions owed to Eskom whereby the treasury would deduct the money owed by departments, state enterprises and municipalities from their budget allocations and directly transfer it to Eskom.
Ntshalintshali said the union had put forward the Eskom Social Compact to address load shedding and power concerns but little had been done.
“We are demanding that the energy department revives its solar panel programme for
indigent households, as such measures can help ease the pressures of electricity
demand and cushion the poor from these steep price increases.”
The federation had also made a call for an investigation into price gouging in the pharmaceutical and retail sectors, which it said had been compounding inequality and poverty in the country since the start of the pandemic.
“Evidence emerged that there was price gouging in the pharmaceutical and retail sector. The union believes that retailers are now using inflation as an excuse to gouge prices further,” Ntshalintshali said.