Pretoria - Workers affiliated to Cosatu and Saftu joined forces in Pretoria and other major economic hubs in the country during the national shutdown yesterday.
Their mission was to take the fight against the rising unemployment rate and high cost of living to the government’s doorstep. Cosatu and Saftu affiliates used different routes to the Union Buildings, having assembled at Burgers Park in the morning.
However, on their arrival union leaders saved the day when they agreed to use one platform to address the workers.
Traffic in the inner city was negatively affected as marchers walked past various road intersections on their way to the seat of government to hand over a memorandum of demands to Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele.
The SAPS and Tshwane Metro Police Department officers kept an eye on the march to maintain order and control traffic in all affected streets.
Chanting songs as they marched through the streets, the workers also brandished placards capturing socio-economic issues affecting the cost of living.
Some of the placards bore messages against the high fuel prices and called on the government to end the trend.
Many bemoaned the fact that the poor had to bear the brunt of the high electricity pricing, also saying that the scourge of poverty and inequality must be addressed urgently.
Addressing the workers at the Union Buildings, Cosatu first deputy president Mike Shingange called for workers to be united in their struggle and to reject the government’s offer of a 2% salary increase.
He talked at length about the problem of unemployment, especially among young people, who could not even afford transport costs to search for jobs.
He said the affordability of electricity was a societal matter and he condemned a move to privatise Eskom, saying the entity was not for sale.
“We are here because we are angry. We are here because unless we do this our future is doomed. The future of our young people is doomed,” Shingange said.
Saftu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said his federation would want to unite with Cosatu comrades, “but it is not a unity without principles”.
“We want the unity of all who are opposed to the system of capitalism. In particular today, we want those who are opposed to neo-liberalism and to the austerity programme to hold hands with one another and fight the common enemy – the capitalist system,” he said.
He said the enemy of workers was not the desperate workers, but “the government that will not hold the mining corporations accountable”.
Vavi was referring to illegal miners (zama zamas) in Krugersdorp who dug out minerals in the non-operational mines abandoned by mining companies.
“We cannot breathe when today it costs more than R4 700 to buy food for a family of just four people,” he said.
Pretoria News