Cosatu leads march against youth unemployment to Union buildings

The Congress of South African Trade Union (COSATU) marched to the Union Building in Pretoria, demanding government’s urgent intervention on unemployment, rising costs of living, the energy crisis and fuel hikes on Friday.

The demonstrators met at 9:00 at an open space in Kgosi Mampuru Street and Madiba Street in Pretoria Central, before leading the march to the office of President Cyril Ramaphosa in Tshwane on international youth day.

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The Kgosi Mampuru street and Sophie de Bruyn Street were affected by the demonstration.

Cosatu’s list of demands

• End youth unemployment
• End fuel and electricity hikes
• Permanent employment of newly qualified doctors and nurses
• Scrapping of the last in first out rule
• Stop privatisation of SOEs
• Stop attacks on collective agreements
• End load shedding and load reduction
• Remove Andre Dr Ruyter
• Funding of postgraduate students.

“If we do not defend collective bargaining ourselves as workers, it will then have a negative impact on workers. But also have to ensure the issue of petrol hikes, youth unemployment in particular.

“If we look at the rate of unemployment in South Africa it is sitting at more than 40% and therefore, we must be able to reflect those issues,” said a Cosatu member.

The Cosatu members said they have decided to submit a memorandum of demands because of these prevalent issues.

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