Komani joins national Cosatu march
Hundreds of Cosatu affiliated workers, including school teachers, joined in the national march against unemployment, corruption and the privatisation of state-owned entities, among others, to attract the attention of the national government.
The march started from the Thobi Kula Indoor Sports Complex where a litany of speakers addressed the masses about the event and its purpose, before they marched to the town hall where a memorandum of demands was handed over.
Cosatu provincial educator Mkhawuleli Maleki said the purpose of the march was to put pressure on the government and private sector to try to curb the country’s economy from dwindling further, caused by population growth.
Maleki said many people, especially the youth, were discouraged from finding jobs because they did not get responses when they submitted applications.
“There is also a high rate of retrenchments in state-owned companies and the government intends to privatise them. We have experience of this and it is a bad decision because it leads to job losses and government services which citizens received at a low price would increase, thus marginalising the poor. When other countries look at the state of our economy and the electricity situation at Eskom, they are discouraged from investing here.”
He said if the government implemented the decision to privatise Eskom and other entities, it would lead to many people losing their jobs.
“If there are a few employed people in a country and the rest are unemployed, a large portion of tax would go to paying grants. This will lead to tax increments.”
ANC provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukaitobi said the party supported the cause of the workforce because unemployment was the starting point of problems faced by society and the country as a whole.
“The president made many commitments during 2019’s job summit and we need all partners to come on board and support the cause to end unemployment. The ANC aims to firstly get rid of all persons who have been proved to be corrupt and squandering government money. We were the first to support the Zondo Commission into state capture and we say people need to be arrested so as to set a precedent.”
Komani labour office director Ntsikelelo Ramncwana received the memorandum, indicating he would take it to the provincial office where it would be dealt with by department heads.