Unhappy crowd challenges ANC’s Mashatile at Workers’ Day rally

ANC deputy president Paul Mashatile was met by a tough crowd as he delivered his first Workers’ Day rally at Saulsville Arena in Pretoria yesterday.

The Workers’ Day event usually attracts thousands of workers, but yesterday, the 4 000-seat hall had rows of empty seats.

Workers’ Day rally

After the event, Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi refused to speak to The Citizen about the plight of Gauteng workers.

“I won’t speak to you because you are a publication of boers. Even if I were to comment, you will write whatever you want. You can write that I waived my right of reply,” Lesufi said.

Cosatu members have had enough

Members of the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu); National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu); South African Communist Party (SACP); and other ANC-affiliated organisations disrupted the programme multiple times, drowning out Mashatile and Lesufi.

As Mashatile took to the podium, a large crowd stormed the venue in song, forcing him to stop his address for a while.

Last year, President Cyril Ramaphosa was booed and forced to abandon the rally, after angry Sibanye-Stillwater workers disrupted the proceedings and refused to allow him to speak.

Ramaphosa was then whisked away in a police nyala.

Cosatu Gauteng chair Amos Monyela said the working class was under siege under the current leadership.

‘Waging war against government’

He threatened to collapse the government if it continued to ignore the plight of the workers.

“We are waging war against our government. We are giving you six months to fix the state of our country,” Monyela said.

“We are tired of being told lies, we want action today, not tomorrow. We are tired of seeing you on TV changing municipalities.”

Mashatile said they had heard the cries of the workers and would take their concerns to the president and the party’s highest decision-making body, the national executive committee (NEC).

“It is very important that when workers have challenges, the organisation of the people, the ANC, listens,” Mashatile said.

“I have listened to your messages. It is very clear and simple; when I analyse it, it says the workers are not happy and you want your leaders to hear you and understand your challenges.

“Where will you complain if you can’t complain to us? When we are here we want to hear exactly your message and we heard it loud and clear.”

‘Not just a false promise’

He said the top seven of the ANC attended rallies around the country and would compare notes at their next meeting.

He said the promise to deal with the plight of the workers was not just false a promise ahead of the 2024 national elections.

“We want the workers to have better lives,” Mashatile said.

He also said the ANC would deal with load shedding quickly as workers and the poor were the ones who were most affected.