Public transport top issue for crowd in Joburg
LABOUR broking, reliable public transport and e-tolls topped the agenda when Cosatu led a march across the Joburg CBD yesterday to deliver memoranda to organisations ranging from Telkom to the Gauteng provincial government.
Despite confusion about the starting location and the intense heat, about 3 000 people marched, according to the Joburg metro police.
Most attendees wore red T-shirts representing their unions or previous demonstrations with slogans like “Back to the basics, members first.”
Among the members were SACP, SATWU and Sanco who sang in unison, Amandla ethu mawas’khokhele, igazi lethu malis’khulule. (Let our strength lead us, let our blood free us.)
The vibrant crowd delivered the first memorandum to Telkom and Prasa (Passenger Rail Agency of SA).
Then they moved on to the Department of Labour, where they handed their documents to Kenny Fick, chief director in Gauteng.
As he signed for the memorandum, the crowd chanted: “Ho signer mo ha se morabaraba, Ho e pofa mo hase morabaraba.” (Signing here is not a game. Binding yourself is not a game.).
The next two stops saw an increase in security. Both the representatives for FNB and Standard Bank and the representative for the Gauteng provincial government had guards who moved the crowd back from the flatbed truck that carried the leaders of the march.
Elizabeth Zandamela and Sylvia Zungu attended with the textile workers’ union. Better public transport was their top issue.
They said that when transport was unreliable, it made employees late for work, and they got fired.
Zandamela said she was dismayed that some of her coworkers had still gone to work yesterday.
Still, the leadership seemed pleased with the turnout.