Thousands of South African workers marched in several cities and towns on Wednesday in what was dubbed “National Shutdown” to protest against the high cost of living, crime, electricity load shedding and refusal by employers to adjust wages in line with rising prices.
The marchers, who were coordinated by the South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), handed over petitions to government officials in which they demanded government intervention in resolving rising prices, power shortages, unemployment and high crime rate.
The main march was in Pretoria where the SAFTU and COSATU handed over a “memorandum of demands” to Minister in the Presidency, Mondli Gungubele.
Among the demands handed over to Gungubele was for President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government to take decisive action to address challenges facing the national power utility Eskom.
South Africa has faced rolling power outages over the past few years, with some government advisers calling for the privatisation of Eskom.
“We will not support the privatisation of Eskom,” SAFTU secretary general Zwelithini Vavi told the marchers.
The workers called for a “living wage” and demanded a minimum of eight percent increment in wages and salaries this year to cushion them against rising prices of basic commodities.
They accused the Ramaphosa administration of being “a leadership that is aloof from the people” by failing to respond positively to concerns raised by the people, including on the issue of addressing high-level corruption and rising crime.
Gungubele promised to take the grievances of the workers to his colleagues in government and “seriously look at issues that are in the memorandum”.
JN/APA