Cosatu has given notice of its plans to embark on a nationwide protest action on October 7.
In its futile annual tick-box exercise, Cosatu’s primary demands are, once again, ‘the halting of the escalating retrenchment rate, addressing weakened economic growth and combating living costs’.
Ironically, Cosatu wants to achieve this by calling on South Africans to either join the planned activities across the country or withdraw their labour by staying at home on the day, thereby exacerbating the very issues they are protesting against.
It boggles the mind that Cosatu, now a mere marginalised worker representative body for government employees, is planning on embarking on this pointless and self-serving endeavour, harbouring under the delusion that it can impact any public discourse on any of the issues it allegedly wants to address.
What is even more ironic is that the tripartite alliance (the ANC, Cosatu and the SACP), with its inability to govern effectively, its business-hostile policies and its obsession with its socialist ideology, is responsible for the weakened economic conditions which causes the retrenchments and the rise in living costs they now protest against.
It would make more sense for Cosatu to protest against the real core issues causing the economic downturn and everything that goes with it, such as:
government-sanctioned corruption,
poor economic policies,
retention of unproductive workers,
crumbling infrastructure,
failing government departments and
cadre- and race-based employment.
However, this may be a bridge too far, as this would mean they are protesting against the very alliance of which they form an integral part.
Nevertheless, the protest action has been approved by Nedlac and is therefore protected.
Any employee who wishes to participate in the protest action may do so, and no disciplinary steps may be taken against such employee.
However, the principle of ‘no work, no pay’ will apply.
Judging by history, we expect that very few employees will actually participate in this pointless exercise.
GERHARD PAPENFUS
National Employers’ Association of South Africa (NEASA)
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