COSATU to embark on a national strike over increasing wages

THE Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) has announced that they will be embarking on a strike on Wednesday, 24 August to take action against the economic crises faced by workers. According to the Unions, the strike is to hold policy and decision-makers accountable for taking drastic steps to avoid a life-threatening economic collapse. 

Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said the country is embattled with various issues that are affecting everyone’s well-being – they listed a number of issues and their demands. “Currently, half the country lives in poverty, with many families forced to live without adequate food, and many of them cannot find jobs. Workers are dealing with wage stagnation with their wages rendered inadequate by inflation and punishing debt,” stated Pamla. 

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COSATU blamed the country’s order naming it capitalism, saying authorities have implemented budget cuts that have left workers compromised. 

“There has been a blatant attempt to erode workers’ hard-won rights and reverse the gains of democracy. At present, the lives of the working class and the working poor have become one long emergency, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only made things worse. The growing frustration in the country is mainly being fuelled by policies that favour the elite and that are coloured by hostility towards the poor. 

“To fix this, there is a need to dispense with the illusory assumption that the state is above class conflict. The current socio-economic situation reflects the class character of the policies that have been implemented by the state since 1996.” 

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The Union said the current problems cannot be fixed by the private sector but by the state working with the private sector. They said the country needs a new public sector model that will refrain from commodifying public services like health, education, and that does not treat citizens as ‘customers’ or ‘clients’ in the practice of the delivery of public services.

“We are going on strike to demand the reversal of budget cuts that have led to an unacceptable wage freeze in the public service, the disintegration of the State-Owned Companies, and the collapse of public services.  We will also be calling on the private sector to abandon its investment strike that has seen many companies either hoarding or exporting cash out of the country, despite receiving generous tax cuts and other incentives to invest back into the economy,” they stated. 

COSATU warned the government and demanded that they take action. “Failure to act will see these huge social divides, that are largely built around race, being used by populist demagogues to divert a legitimate rage by a betrayed working class to set neighbour against neighbour. We have already seen the emergence of social movements that are fomenting xenophobia and divisions,” they said. 

Pamla said the details of the strike will be issued by the end of Monday, 22 August.