By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Trade union federation Cosatu and its affiliates will hit the streets on Thursday to protest against the state of the economy, poor governance, and the falling living standards of workers.
“The strike will occur under section 77 of the Labour Relations Act (LRA), for which the federation has received a strike certificate from Nedlac. The strike is therefore protected under the LRA, and no one can be dismissed for participating. However, the no work, no pay rule will apply,” the federation said in a statement on Monday.
Cosatu had received “overwhelmingly” positive response from workers supporting the strike.
“We are embarking on this nationwide strike in protest of the rising levels of unemployment, wage cuts, poverty and inequality affecting the workers and the working class in general, the federation said.
“It is in defence of workers’ hard-won rights to bargain and attempts by employers in both the public and private sectors to undermine this constitutional right.
“It is a demonstration by workers that government needs to do more to end the current levels of load shedding, cable theft, crime and corruption, wasteful expenditure, and austerity cuts crippling the state, suffocating the economy, and further plunging workers into high levels of indebtedness and misery.
“This is also a signal to the government, the Reserve Bank, and the commercial banks, that the working class can no longer afford to bear the burden of rising levels of inflation, electricity tariff hikes, and relentless and reckless increases in the repo rate,” said Cosatu.
It said the government could intervene in these areas by “extending the presidential stimulus to accommodate one million active participants in October 2023 and two million in 2024.”
The federation also wants government to address the collapsing railway infrastructure, municipalities, 36 of which routinely fail to pay their employees with companies closing in many rural towns as basic services deteriorate.