Chris Gilili
Hundreds of workers, trade union members and civil society organisations marched in Pretoria on Wednesday before handing over memorandums at the Union Buildings.
But the protest fell far short of its goal of achieving a national shutdown akin to the one in 2018, in which tens of thousands of workers went on strike to bring the economy to a standstill.
This was in part due to non-participation of the nation’s largest taxi union, Santaco, which meant that commuters had the means to get to work.
The protests were organised by the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) to protest against the worsening cost of living crisis.
The two union federations held separate marches in Pretoria but joined up afterwards in the Union Buildings Park for representatives to address the crowds.
One of the marchers in Pretoria, Zile Tshabalala from Soweto, told Scrolla.Africa, “The government has failed to hear our voice as workers, that is why I am here. As workers we have lost all hope in the current government.”
Treatment Action Campaign secretary general Anele Yawa said they also joined the national mass action because their own members are directly affected by the state of the economy.
“We cannot fold our arms; we also felt that it’s about time we take our struggle to the streets. Our members are affected by petrol hikes. We have observed corruption going unpunished in this country. This is not enough.
“We are tired of pointless marches,” added Yawa, though it remains to be seen how much impact these protests will have, as overall turnout was low.
The march started at the Burgers Park, and proceeded to the Union Buildings via Jeff Masemola Street in Pretoria. At Steve Biko Road in Arcadia, emotions flared up, as the marchers shouted and called for the Sunnypark Shopping Mall to be closed off.
Saftu secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi addressed the workers at the Union Buildings Park.
“We’re the second most depressed nation in the world. Almost 50% of our people are unemployed, we cannot keep quiet,” said Vavi.
He read out the Saftu memorandum to the crowd. Among their demands is an 8% wage increase for all public servants, and for every security and cleaner working in government offices to be insourced as soon as possible. The Cosatu memorandum was also read out.
Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele received and signed both memorandums.
“We thank the workers for how they have conducted themselves. We will go back and seriously look at the issues in the memorandums,” he told the marchers.
