Why it’s in our interest to support initiatives like the Cosatu national march

The recent Cosatu national shutdown march is in our interest as the citizens of this country. It is a march against corruption, job losses and privatisation. With the current problems that Eskom is facing, one cannot rule out privatisation and job losses, and we can’t allow this to happen on our watch. We would not be wrong to argue that the challenges that the power utility is facing are by design and there is a deliberate sabotage to lead us to privatisation of this entity.

We are also not fully convinced the unbundling of Eskom will yield positive results – not when we have people who don’t pay their electricity bills like the residents of Soweto, whose current bill is sitting at R17bn. Eskom is not the only state-owned enterprise that is facing problems, all of them are. Workers who work for them are not at ease. They are not sure if their jobs are safe. This is one of the reasons why we must support Cosatu on this march.

It is also our responsibility as citizens.

We also need a private sector that does not just care for profits but also the wellbeing of the workers, and one that plays a role in creating jobs.

It can’t be left to the government alone to create jobs while they make profits.

We must work together as a nation because by working together we can do more.

Tom Mhlanga, Braamfontein