POLITICAL NEWS - The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has warned the ANC that voters will punish them at the polls if the high cost of living continues to increase.
“Our people are not going to go out and vote when their needs are not being met,” said Bheki Ntshalintshali, Cosatu’s general secretary.
What will happen is that supporters of reactionary parties are going to vote and, before it is too late, the democracy and revolution will be gone.
Ntshalintshali was speaking in Durban, where Cosatu and other affiliate unions were marching against the high cost of living in South Africa. Billed as the “national shutdown”, the march did not live up to the phrase, as taxis and major roads continued operating as normal.
The South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) had announced ahead of the march that their members would not be participating. However, Njabulo Ndlovu, Cosatu’s provincial co-ordinator, said they were happy with the turnout in Durban.
Over 2 000 people march in Durban
Well over 2 000 people showed up for the march to paint the Durban streets red. Ndlovu said workers had sacrificed a day’s worth of pay to attend the march.
Ndlovu was referring to a memorandum released by the Department of Public Service and Administration that instructed all state organs to initiate a “no work no pay” policy against all government workers who did not show up for work on Wednesday.
That is the law, if you don’t work, you don’t get paid, we respect that.
For workers to come here, under those circumstances, shows how tired they are and how desperately they want things in the country to change.
Ndlovu said it was workers who were bearing much of the brunt of living in a country where everything is expensive.
The workers are sick and tired of the high inflation rate. Food, electricity and petrol going up, while the wages of the people on the ground are going down.
The march started off in King Dinizulu Park and, when it reached the busy Dr Pixley Kaseme (West) Street, almost all the shops temporarily closed their gates and garages. One security guard at a clothing shop told The Witness that they were afraid that “criminal elements” would use the march as an opportunity to loot the stores.
However, under a heavy police presence, the march was peaceful and reached the Durban City Hall without any incidents.
Memorandum of demands handed over to the government
At the hall, Cosatu presented their memorandum of demands to the government. The five-page memorandum talks about the high cost of living in the country, the price of basic necessities going up and budget cuts in critical government sectors.
This capitalist system has been propped up by government policies for more than a quarter of a century and the state must play a critical role in ensuring economic development that will advance a radical socioeconomic transformation.
Cosatu also demanded that elected officials thwart any efforts to privatise state-owned enterprises, particularly Eskom and Transnet, in their memorandum.
The looming privatisation in Transnet, which has a negative impact on our Durban Port in Kwazulu Natal, is a serious problem. We know that privatisation has never served the interests of our people, but only that of profit maximisation.
In all areas where it occurred, there are job reductions, and jobs of poor quality are created [while] service delivery is sub-standard.
Vusi Dube, ANC MPL, who received the memorandum on behalf of the ANC, said the organisation was a “listening party” and would elevate the workers’ concerns to relevant structures.
We are well aware that workers are the [backbone] of the ANC’s existence. Without the workers, Cosatu and the alliance, there is no ANC.
Cosatu said they were giving newly elected KZN Premier, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, 14 days to formally respond to their demands.
