JIMMY MOYAHA: We kick things off with a conversation with Matthew Parks of Cosatu [Congress of South African Trade Unions] around the latest resignations and the announcements that we’ve heard out of the Transnet stable.
You also say in the same statement that you’ve been in conversation with government, and you’ve made numerous calls to government to make these adjustments. But what decisive action are we talking about here? There’s a need to expand the support of the private sector security companies among industry [and give to] Transnet as well. We have seen some good progress, for example, in the Richards Bay coal line, coal corridor, just collaborating because the police itself doesn’t have enough foot power, personnel, it’s got a limited capacity to patrol huge, thousands of kilometres of railway networks.
MATTHEW PARKS: Ja, look, we appreciate that government doesn’t just listen to trade unions, they must listen to other parts of society, businesses and so forth. But the point I think is that when we raise issues, government must move at much greater speed. We raised the crisis at Transnet, Eskom, Metro Rail, Denel, SABC [South African Broadcasting Corporation], municipalities, in 2019 when it felt the warning signs were bad.
JIMMY MOYAHA: So are we saying that in the 2024 elections you’re still going to, as Cosatu, stand by the same leadership that you’ve been frustrated by all these years? We also appreciate that if we look at the other political parties, most of them have no track record. Some of them are one-person parties. Many of them are just simply anti-trade unions, anti-workers’ rights. Many of them seek to slash the labour laws, gutting the minimum wage and so on.
Finance Finance Latest News, Finance Finance Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
South Africa: Cosatu Statement On the Rise in the Price of Fuel and ParaffinPress Release - The massive projected increase in the price of fuel on Wednesday will be yet another painful further blow to an already battered economy and struggling working class. We expect government to act decisively to intervene on behalf of workers and poor households. The increase of petrol by 75 cents, diesel by R1.60 cents and paraffin by R1.50 spells bad news for all South Africans and especially the working class.
Source: allafrica - 🏆 1. / 99 Read more »