SAFTU to stage protests outside Parliament

The South Africa Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) is on Wednesday expected to stage protests outside Parliament and across the country over increasing unemployment and economic instability.

SAFTU says the strike demonstrates their frustration against employers for imposing the burden of the pandemic onto the workers through mass retrenchments, wage freezes and brutal austerity measures.

Statistics South Africa released the country’s unemployment figures on Tuesday.

The video below, discusses SA’s unemployment rate increased by 1.7 percentage points to 32.5% in Q4 of 2020:

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The stats show that seven-million people are officially without jobs and there’s more than 60% unemployment among the youth.

SAFTU general-secretary Zwelinzima Vavi says, “The call to workers is that they must stay at home in their millions but we have a select few who within the regulations are asking to stage demonstrations and pickets in Johannesburg. There are a number of places we will march to including Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital this [Wednesday] morning, going to the Commission for Conciliation‚ Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) to protest the fact that the CCMA is no longer allowing walk-ins,” adds Vavi.

The video below is Vavi’s full interview on Morning Live:

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