Cosatu wants conditions put in place for firms applying for relief funds

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has called on government to put in conditions on companies applying for the relief stimulus package.

In a virtual address to mark Workers’ Day, the labour federation’s president Zingiswa Losi called for a moratorium on retrenchments from businesses’ government is bailing out during the coronavirus pandemic.

For the first time in decades, the majority of the working class in South Africa celebrated the day under lockdown.

Losi says the country cannot return to high unemployment post the pandemic.

“We will not allow the relief and stimulus package to be freely given to employers as a federation we are saying all stimulus investments and loans to companies must be conditional upon them protecting and creating jobs. There can be no free lunches we cannot return to a 40% of unemployment in our country,” she said.

Unity in the workplace

President Cyril Ramaphosa has expressed his delight to have been a part of the country’s trade union movement before and after democracy was realised in South Africa.

In his capacity as ANC president, Ramaphosa told the millions of workers as he delivered the Workers’ Day message through a live stream in Johannesburg, that the rights that they exercised in the workplace were a result of the unity that the ANC and Cosatu had forged in 1990. He says to this date, Cosatu and the alliance partners share the same manifesto, which always sees the ANC win the elections.

Ramaphosa says more still needs to be done, through unity to make sure that employees are protected in the workplace. “We were united in drawing up one of the most progressive constitutions in the world. A constitution that protects the fundamental rights of South Africans and the workers. The ANC and Cosatu worked together in drawing up the labour relations and workers rights act, the employment equity act and many other laws. South African workers are free to join trade unions of their choice.”

In this video below, the President gives his Workers’ Day address: 

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