Hundreds to march to Parliament for jobs

HUNDREDS of workers and unemployed people are expected to march to Parliament today under the banner of the Cry of the Xcluded, calling for Finance Minister Tito Mboweni to present concrete plans for job creation.

In a statement, Cry of the Xcluded said it was rejecting the government’s austerity budget, which would deepen job losses and mass unemployment.

“Before marching to Parliament we will target local government and its employment practices with a focus on the City of Cape Town’s use of outsourced and insecure workers, especially workers in the Expanded Public Works Programme.

“We will also target the SA Reserve Bank, given its central role in locking in neo-liberal monetary policy and Eskom, given the utility’s threat to the economy.

“To communicate both the urgency and the despair of most poor and working people, it will be disruptive in nature,” the movement said.

It is hoped that the action will lead to engagement with the National Treasury as an advocacy tool in the ongoing campaign.

“There are solutions to our economic crisis that the government refuses to hear.

“The march will conclude with the delivery of a People’s Plan for Socio-Economic Justice delivered to the national government.

“The People’s Plan – developed at our Real Jobs Summit – covers a wide gamut of areas that the Real Jobs Summit focused on.

“Specifically the Plan offers proposals on comprehensive social security, the macro-economy, climate change and jobs, and the land and housing crisis.

“The Plan, unlike minister Mboweni’s past and future budgets, offers a needs-centred proposal to deal with South Africa’s economic crisis,” the movement said.

Mhlaladuma Lucky Shabalala, of the Sisonke Environmental Justice Network, part of Cry of the Xcluded, said they also demanded that the government recognise farm dwellers and farm workers.

“We demand a R12 500 living wage for farm workers as they contribute with their power by providing labour in many farms, most of them owned by parliamentarians.

“We also demand the allocation of land to rural women for them to provide food and sell to the market. Farmworkers are workers… they deserve to be represented by unions of their choices.”

Shabalala added that Mboweni should look at funding the Department of Mineral Resources as they promoted and regulated mining that could destroy land, the environment and cause climate change.