Cosatu’s provincial general secretary, Tony Ehrenreich, had strong words for government and higher income groups as union members marched to Parliament on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want them to tax the people who live in Clifton and Sea Point,\u201d he demanded, saying workers should be exempted.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnemployment and poverty in this country is a tax on poor people in this country. We have to feed our brothers, our grandparents and our family when they are unemployed,\u201d he told the crowd, standing atop the portable stage outside Parliament.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe white people have great public transport, but our people suffer the most.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn our shops, they now want to move value added tax from 14% to 17%. We want higher tax, but not the taxing of our workers.<\/p>\n
Around 1 000 people joined Cosatu in the relatively peaceful march through Cape Town\u2019s CBD on Wednesday, coinciding with the International Day of Decent Work.<\/p>\n
They were joined by many members of the trade union\u2019s provincial and national branches, as well as the South African Communist Party\u2019s Thulas Nxesi, who also addressed the crowd.<\/p>\n
Ehrenreich handed the trade union\u2019s new workers\u2019 demands to a representative from the ministry of transport at the end of the march.<\/p>\n
Cosatu was joined by members from the National Union of Metalworkers (NUM), the South African Clothing and Textile Workers Union (Sactwu) and members of the South African Students Congress (Sasco).<\/p>\n
Demands<\/strong><\/p>\n Cosatu\u2019s demands were specifically stated in their \u2018Memorandum for Integrated Public Transport\u2019, which News24 has seen.<\/p>\n Ehrenreich suggested that there existed a viable solution that would help working class people of the country lower their transport costs.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to make sure that there’s an end to e-tolls, and we want a better public transport system.<\/p>\n \u201cSome people spend half their wages from jobs just to get from the outskirts of the city to the city centre. And they didn\u2019t choose to live there; they were forced there by apartheid,” he said.<\/p>\n Cosatu\u2019s demands included a moratorium on all retrenchments in all sectors while parties were looking for sustainable solutions, as well as the introduction of progressive taxations, including a wealth tax.<\/p>\n The trade union also demanded a national minimum wage be set to guarantee and to avoid \u201csuper exploitation\u201d.<\/p>\n Other demands included: – A secured energy\/electricity supply for households, economic growth and job creation;<\/p>\n – A rejection of a youth employment tax incentive.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are building this economy and we must celebrate that. But when things are wrong, we must challenge that,\u201d Ehrenreich concluded.<\/p>\n At this point, Ehrenreich called on a representative of Transport Minister Dipuo Peters and Cosatu national treasurer Freda Oosthuysen to co-sign the Cosatu memorandum.<\/p>\n “I am so tempted to join in the song. On behalf of the minister of transport, we accept the memorandum,\u201d the transport minister’s representative said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe appreciate the discipline you have displayed and we hope you can portray that same discipline as you go back to your homes and workplaces.\u201d<\/p>\n Fin24<\/a><\/p>\n Tax the rich in South Africa: economist<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n More taxes will help fight inequality: economist<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n
\n– A call for government to release a white paper on national health insurance, and urgent attention to be paid to the current health care system;<\/p>\nMore on South Africa<\/h3>\n