/ 25 August 2022

Gungubele asks Cosatu, Saftu to ‘relook’ at their demands raised in shutdown march

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Demonstrators march during a national strike day of action over the high cost of living, organised by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), in Tshwane, South Africa, on Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2022. Joblessness, rising food and fuel prices and an aggressive interest-rate hiking cycle pose a threat to social stability in an economy still reeling from several Covid-19 lockdowns and deadly riots in 2021. Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The government has called on trade union federations Saftu and Cosatu to “relook” at the demands that led to the national shutdown march on Wednesday to address the country’s “socioeconomic crisis”.  

In a memorandum handed to Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele after protestors marched to the Union Buildings, Cosatu and Saftu detailed their grievances and demands, including the need for a basic income grant of R1 500 and decreases in the cost of  food, fuel, electricity and interest rates. The unions also want any plans to privatise Eskom to cease.  

Also demanded was an increase in the national minimum wage to R72 an hour and the scrapping of the government’s 2% wage increase offer at the ongoing public service wage talks.

When accepting the memorandum, Gungubele asked the unions to “go back and seriously look at the issues that are in the memorandum”. 

“We agree with you, unless this government deals with inequality it will be irrelevant. We agree that unless we deal with poverty, unemployment we will be irrelevant. Unless we deal with the problems of women we will be irrelevant,” he said.

Gungubele said there was no government plan to sell Eskom and that the country’s frequent power blackouts were being dealt with through President Cyril Ramaphosa’s energy plan, which was announced in July. 

He assured the marchers that the energy plan was being monitored on a weekly basis and asked for assistance from the unions to oversee its implementation. 

Speaking at the march, Saftu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said the cost of living was affecting everyone and that many citizens could only afford one meal a day. 

“The unemployment rate amongst black is already at 50%. We cannot breathe, today it costs more than R4 700 to buy for a family of just four people. No, we cannot compromise when we know that yesterday and today, at least 14 million people are forced to skip a meal a day, not because they are in some slim programmes but because they simply cannot afford to buy a plate of food at supper,” he said.

On Tuesday, Statistics South Africa announced that South Africa’s unemployment rate decreased to 33.9% in the second quarter. Officially the unemployment rate decreased by 0.6 of a percentage point from 34.5% in the first quarter. This indicated an increase of 648 000 jobs.

Vavi said that because a large number of the country’s youth were unemployed and not studying, they were “roaming the streets”. 

“There is a crisis of alcohol abuse and drugs which is affecting young people in our country. We don’t want to speak about the high rate of sucide our young people face, especially amongst young men. For many … unemployment is the cause for these issues,” said Vavi.

He also made a call to the working class under all the organisations who attended the national shutdown to come together to hold the government accountable.

“We want unity of all those who are opposed to the system of capitalism. In particular we want those who are opposed to neoliberalism and to the austerity programme to hold hands with one another and fight a common enemy — the capitalist system from which all of the crisis we are thinking about flows. We want to unite with all formations that are opposed to sexism, racism, xenophobia, regionalism, and tribalism.”