{"id":167979,"date":"2020-10-07T17:36:44","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T15:36:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/you-looted-r5-billion-and-told-us-to-dance-to-jerusalema-say-striking-workers\/"},"modified":"2020-10-07T17:36:44","modified_gmt":"2020-10-07T15:36:44","slug":"you-looted-r5-billion-and-told-us-to-dance-to-jerusalema-say-striking-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/you-looted-r5-billion-and-told-us-to-dance-to-jerusalema-say-striking-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cYou looted R5 billion and told us to dance to Jerusalema\u201d say striking workers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SAFTU members protest next to the Gauteng Legislature in Central Johannesburg as part of the nationwide strike by unions on Wednesday. Photo: Zo\u00eb Postman<\/p>\n

Thousands of workers and union supporters downed tools in support of a nationwide strike on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

In Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth memorandums were handed over to government representatives (protests reportedly took place in other cities, but these were the ones our reporters witnessed). The largest union federations participated in the strike, including the South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU), the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), the Federation of Unions of South Africa (FEDUSA) and the National Council of Trade Unions (NACTU).<\/p>\n

Some of their demands related to Covid-19 corruption, the failing economy, gender-based violence, and the government\u2019s proposal<\/a> to freeze public servants\u2019 wages which means they may not receive a salary increase in the next financial year.<\/p>\n

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Hundreds of workers and union memers marched to city hall in Port Elizabeth. Photo: Thamsanqa Mbovane<\/p>\n

In Port Elizabeth, about 500 people gathered outside the city hall where they were addressed by Fikile Desi, a senior ANC official.<\/p>\n

But during Desi\u2019s speech, protesters kept shouting \u201cThief! Thief! Thief!\u201d and booed him from the podium.<\/p>\n

Lunga Nombexeza, the South African Communist Party (SACP)\u2019s regional secretary and councillor in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality said: \u201cEven if we are going to be taken out of office we are not afraid \u2026 The Premiers and Ministers salaries are increasing, yet as the working class we are not treated fairly. This is not only an attack on the workers, but also their children.<\/p>\n

In Johannesburg, over 100 people protested next to the Gauteng Legislature. Members of the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (NUMSA) and Young Nurses Indaba Trade Union (YNITU) also joined the day of action.<\/p>\n

Some protesters held signs that read: \u201cYou looted R5 billion and told us to dance to Jerusalema\u201d and \u201cYou can\u2019t plan for a future if there isn\u2019t one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zwelinzima Vavi, General Secretary of SAFTU, said the decision to freeze wages was a declaration of war not only on nurses who assisted the country through the worst of the Coronavirus pandemic, but also on the working class.<\/p>\n

Treasurer of YNITU, Portia Maskeo, said health workers were tired of \u201cbeing played for a fool by the government.\u201d She claimed some health workers had died from Covid because of inadequate protective equipment.<\/p>\n

While SAFTU was protesting, scores of COSATU members marched down Simmonds Street in central Johannesburg in a separate protest over corruption and job losses. SAFTU members later decided to join the COSATU march.<\/p>\n

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SAFTU members marching from the Civic Centre to Parliament in Cape Town, mostly to call for safer public transport. Photo: Marecia Damons<\/p>\n

In Cape Town, more than 200 SAFTU workers marched from the Civic Centre to Parliament. Some of their demands called for safe trains, increases to social grants increased, the introduction of a basic income grant and that a moratorium be placed on job losses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Covid-19 pandemic has starkly exposed South Africa\u2019s inequalities at a time our country was already falling apart. We will not just fold our arms while our economy crumbles and communities suffer,\u201d said SAFTU deputy general secretary Moleko Phakedi.<\/p>\n

COSATU\u2019s provincial Gender Coordinator, Lumka Tamboer, said the country\u2019s workforce was not being taken care of because \u201cof fat cats that just want to make themselves rich through the workers\u201d.<\/p>\n

Chairperson of the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) Eleanor Roberts said: \u201cThere should be justice for workers. The government must acknowledge us as public servants. They cannot say that there isn\u2019t money for us because we also form part of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deputy Minister of Justice John Jeffery accepted the workers\u2019 memorandum at Parliament.<\/p>\n

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COSATU members outside the Durban Central police station on Wednesday. Photo: Nokulunga Majola<\/p>\n

In Durban, scores of workers marched from Curries Fountain to the Durban Central police station to hand over their memorandum. The protest was joined by members from Port Shepstone, Pietermaritzburg, Empangeni, Richards Bay, and Mandini. Other protests were also held in different parts of the province including Newcastle.<\/p>\n

COSATU\u2019s KZN general secretary Edwin Mkhize said their picket aimed to shine a light on corruption, job losses and the high rate of gender-based violence. \u201cWe are happy that there are some individuals who have been arrested [for corruption] but we are calling for more arrests. People who stole from the government during the lockdown have to be brought to book,\u201d he said. Mkhize said they would also give petitions to the provincial premier, Business Chamber, Labour Department and CCMA.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a9 2020 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and GroundUp, and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source: GroundUp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAFTU members protest next to the Gauteng Legislature in Central Johannesburg as part of the nationwide strike by unions on Wednesday. Photo: Zo\u00eb Postman Thousands of workers and union supporters downed tools in support of a nationwide strike on Wednesday. In Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth memorandums were handed over to government representatives […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":167980,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9928],"tags":[28001],"class_list":{"0":"post-167979","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-groundup","8":"tag-groundup","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/you-looted-r5-billion-and-told-us-to-dance-to-jerusalema-say-striking-workers.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}