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The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) continues to intensify its national mobilization efforts in the lead up to the next national socio-economic strike that will take place on October 7, 2020.
The Federation has called on all workers and South Africans to join the strike next week. Cosatu is the largest trade federation in the country with an estimated membership of 1.8 million workers.
“South Africa teeters on the brink of collapse and it is time for all of us to stand up and demand urgent action from policy makers and decision makers,” the trade federation said in a statement on Monday (September 28). ).
While the strike action will focus primarily on wage dispute with the governmentCosatu said the federation also wants additional support for frontline workers and better governance.
“It is clear that the government expects our members to make sacrifices for an economic crisis that has been exacerbated by looting and mismanagement in government, state companies and municipalities,” the federation said.
“The biggest obstacle to solving South Africa’s myriad problems is state inefficiency and the scourge of corruption.”
Some of the other points raised by the federation include:
- According to government figures, corruption costs South Africa’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at least 27 billion rand a year, depriving the country of possible 76,000 jobs that would have otherwise been created;
- Annually, almost R80 billion are taken out of the country illegally, which places South Africa as one of the countries with high illicit financial movements. The South African economy has paid a huge price for transfer pricing and other forms of illegal capital flight by multinational companies;
- The cartels in this country have stolen billions of rand from businesses, taxpayers, and ultimately consumers;
- The Covid-19 FIU TERS Fund has been looted by many employers who have failed to pay the money to relevant workers, leaving many families struggling to put food on the table;
- The public transportation system is not safe and many workers contracted the virus from fully loaded taxis. The failure of the government to adequately regulate and support the public transportation system;
- The Auditor General’s office has been empowered to take action against officials and employees who waste taxpayers’ money, as well as those who know money is being stolen but do not act against the culprits. We demand more action from the Attorney General’s office to hold criminals accountable;
- The Federation also demands that families of politicians be prohibited from doing business with the state. Politicians who insist that their families do business with the government must resign from their political positions.
Read: 1 million jobs lost, and the worst is yet to come: economists
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