Cosatu march to go ahead as planned

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) says it is forging ahead with plans to bring the country to a standstill on Wednesday.

The biggest labour federation says it aims to bring government services to a halt and raise concerns over corruption, gender-based violence and the high unemployment rate.

The video below is reporting on the readiness of Cosatu march:

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Cosatu’s first Deputy President, Michael Shingange, says they are calling on employees from the public and private sectors to stay away from work on Wednesday.

“The plans that we have [for] tomorrow is a national stay away. We are going to have demonstrations and marches across the country in all the locals where Cosatu is organising. In other areas, we are going to be blockading some traffic in the big cities and main roads and we are also going to give memorandums to authorities like industry captains, premiers offices, the president and national treasury,” explains Shingange.

Cosatu in KwaZulu-Natal says people who will not be participating in their nationwide strike on Wednesday should remain at home.

Provincial secretary Edwin Mkhize says they want to fight government for not honouring the 2018 wage increment agreement.

He has warned that if government backtracks on this, the private sector will likely follow suit.

“We [will] be having various activities as part of this stay away. We are saying that workers who are not going to be part of those activities they must stay at home. We’re also challenging the government on what we call the withdrawal from the collective agreement,” adds Mkhize.

“They have signed with the public sector union and municipal workers union to pay workers their increase. Now the government is withdrawing [and] we are saying as Cosatu we are not going to allow that. Because if we are allowing that, even the private sector companies are saying if the government can do it why we can’t do it. We are saying that we must fight for the respect of our collective agreement.”

The video below explains why Cosatu will continue with its march:

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Source: SABC News (sabcnews.com)