Pretoria - Cosatu has called on all workers to join its national shutdown against the rising costs of fuel and food in the country.
The shutdown is planned for next Wednesday, and Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said the intention was to demand urgent action from policymakers and decision-makers to avoid an economic collapse that was threatening the lives of millions of workers and the poor.
“This is a legally protected strike that is meant to pile pressure on both government and the private sector to fix the economic mess that the country finds itself in.
“Currently, half the country lives in poverty with many families forced to live without adequate food and many cannot find jobs. Workers are dealing with wage stagnation with their wages repealed by inflation and punishing debt.”
Pamla said the ruling elites had implemented reckless budget cuts and imposed extreme sacrifices on the workers. He said there had been a blatant attempt to erode workers’ hard-won rights and reverse the gains of democracy.
“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 an animus towards the poor. For this to change, decision- makers will have to first acknowledge that poverty is not accidental, but it flows from the logic of the capitalist system,” Pamla said.
He said the current socio-economic situation reflected the class character of the policies that had been implemented by the state since 1996. “The current problems cannot be fixed by the private sector, but by an assertive state working with the private sector.”
He added that the country needed a new public sector model that would refrain from commodifying public services like health and education, and that did not treat citizens as “customers” or “clients” in the practice of the delivery of public services.
Pamla also said the country could not continue with a system of tender and procurement contracts between the state and private businesses that had spawned an industry of corruption and fraud. “This system has seen many senior leaders in government advancing their own narrow personal or some nepotistic interests.
“If we had a functioning judicial and legislative system, hundreds or even thousands of leaders in the public and the private sector would be in jail for plundering the country,” he added.
Pamla said more had to be done to rebuild the capacity of the law enforcement regime, including reversing the loss of 25 000 SAPS members over the past five years.
“We demand the appointment of competent persons to the NPA (National Prosecuting Authority) and the prioritisation of corruption cases. We reiterate our call for Sars (the SA Revenue Service) to conduct lifestyle audits for politicians and the senior management in the state.
“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 collapse of public services.
“The government and the private sector need to work with organised labour to accelerate the implementation of the progressive commitments of the economic recovery and reconstruction plan.
“The focus should be on unlocking resources to stimulate the economy, ramping up local procurement, fast- tracking the infrastructure investment programme, providing economic and social relief, and rebuilding the capacity of the state,” Pamla said.
Pretoria News