Cosatu marches begin across the country

Thousand of workers are expected to hit the streets in mini-marches and motorcades across the country as part of the nationwide strike against poor working conditions and wages on Wednesday morning.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), who organised the national socio-economic strike will be joined by rival group, South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu), in calling on all workers from the public and private sector to be absent from work on Wednesday. Most of the workers have been urged to stay at home rather than join the marches.

Groups of no more than 500 people were expected to embark on socially distanced marches starting starting at 9am from Braamfontein, Johannesburg, Everton Mall in Sedibeng and Ekurhuleni where marchers would be taking their protest to the mayor’s office in Germiston. There will also be a motorcade in Germiston destined for council offices.

Meanwhile, Mpumalanga workers were expected to embark on mini-marches and motorcades in eMalahleni, Ermelo and Mbombela. In the North West, pickets would be held in Klerksdorp, Wolmaransstad, Mahikeng and Rustenberg.

In KwaZulu-Natal, a march and a motorcade was planned in Durban. Kimberly in the Northern Cape and Bethlehem and Bloemfontein in the Free State would also see action in the streets.

But Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla was adamant that Covid-19 safety regulations would be first priority and marshals were deployed at every march to ensure that the groups do not grow larger than the 500 crowd limit and that social distancing and mask wearing is maintained.

“We have agreed that (Saftu) will support us, but we have also encouraged workers to stay at home. That is the issue we are focusing on because we don’t want another outbreak of Covid-19,” said Pamla.

“We have just lost 2.2 million jobs, it would be suicidal to now force government to impose another lockdown as we go towards December where we are expecting the festive to boost the economy.”

Several government services, including schools, were expected to be affected as a result of the national strike. In Gauteng, teachers were warned that there the no-work-no-pay policy will apply if they are absent from work on Wednesday and schools were not instructed to close operations.

Simnikiweh@citizen.co.za

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