Numsa accuses government of breeding corruption
NEWTOWN - Workers will march to make concrete demands.
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) prepares for its national strike action to demand decent jobs and fighting against corruption on 14 October.
During the media briefing held at the Numsa head office in Newtown the day before, Deputy-General Secretary Karl Cloete said the main march will take place in Johannesburg because it is just not possible to contribute funds to take marches across all major cities in the nine provinces.
He said thousands of workers are expected to converge at Mary Fitzgerald Square in Newtown in the morning and they will march to Beyers Naudé Square, where national government representatives will receive their Memorandum of Demands.
From Beyers Naudé Square, they will proceed to the Chamber of Mines to submit the memorandum, then to the SA Reserve Bank.
Cloete said the union’s leadership has been addressing Shopsteward Councils (SC) to mobilise workers to be part of the national strike action.
“We are embarking in this struggle under the strategic theme ‘Capitalism breeds Corruption! Defend Jobs!'” said Cloete.
He said they are also expecting the ordinary South Africans, the unemployed, youth, women and members of various religions to swamp the streets of South Africa.
”The country is in the vicious grip of worsening mass unemployment, retrenchments, poverty. Working class communities have become war zones of violent crime, we need our government to know that we are not happy about this,” he said.
He said although they know that the system of capitalism is inherently corrupt, they do not think that they should wait for its demise before taking concrete steps to deal with the corruption that is taking place in front of their eyes.
Cloete said they demand a report by the National Treasury on all organs of state that do not comply with legislation that says that such entities should procure local goods and service.
He said they also demand that SARS and Finance Intelligence Centre (FIC) must investigate the problem of illicit financial flows and money laundering.
Among their demands he said is the release to the public of all forensic audits conducted.
”We also demand the strengthening of the Office of the Public Protector, the Office of the Auditor-General and the anti-corruption laws,” he concluded.
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