Two of South Africa’s largest trade unions will down tools on Wednesday, 24 August 2022, in what’s been titled a national shutdown against impending economic collapse.
Here’s what to expect on Wednesday, 24 August 2022
As reported by IOL News, thousands of members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) will embark on a nationwide picket.
During a media briefing held by on Sunday, COSATU president Zingiswa Losi confirmed the national shutdown was a stern message from the country’s ‘oppressed’ labour market.
“The intention of the strike is to demand urgent action from policymakers and decision makers to take drastic steps to avoid an economic collapse that is threatening the lives of millions of workers and the poor,” Losi said.
SAFTU general-secretary Zwelinzima Vavi explained that all members of both trade unions, with the exception of essential workers, are expected to down tools on Wednesday, 24 August 2022.
The trade union protest, Vavi added, aims to address six challenges:
- the escalating standard of living;
- loadshedding;
- petrol prices;
- rising interest rates;
- rising unemployment; and
- rising job losses.
South African police have yet to release a state of readiness report on preparations being made to monitor the protest.
Who is behind the national shutdown?
Rumblings of a trade union-led national shutdown first surfaced in early July 2022. In fact, at the conclusion of SAFTU’s two-day national executive committee meeting, the second-largest labour organisation confirmed it had plans to go on a nationwide strike on Wednesday, 24 August 2022.
At the time, spurts of unrest were seen in areas like Mbombela in Mpumalanga and Richards Bay, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). The protests, led by community organisations and taxi groups, were a direct response to Eskom’s darkest loadshedding period and the record-high petrol price increase for July 2022.
“This crisis cannot be addressed, as it always is, by half-baked, ill-conceived measures. It cannot be tackled through expression of anger, by xenophobia or by rushing ahead of other sections of the working class. We need action that will be appropriately match the scale of the crisis we face,” the union wrote.
Apart from the demands listed above, it’s believed trade unions also want Eskom Chief Excecutive Officer Andre de Ruyter to resign, and the “the entire government of the ANC to step aside.”