{"id":470634,"date":"2021-02-24T12:33:15","date_gmt":"2021-02-24T10:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=470634"},"modified":"2021-02-24T12:33:15","modified_gmt":"2021-02-24T10:33:15","slug":"strikes-start-in-joburg-and-cape-town-ahead-of-mbowenis-budget-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/470634\/strikes-start-in-joburg-and-cape-town-ahead-of-mbowenis-budget-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Strikes start in Joburg and Cape Town ahead of Mboweni&#8217;s budget speech"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Members of the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) embarked on strike action on Wednesday (24 February) in response to a number of economic problems in the country.<\/p>\n<p>The strikes, which have been timed to coincide with finance minister Tito Mboweni&#8217;s budget speech, involves protest marches in major cities around the country, including at the home of the National Assembly in Cape Town.<\/p>\n<p>Saftu is the second largest of the country\u2019s main trade union confederations, with 21 affiliated trade unions organising 800,000 workers.<\/p>\n<p>Responding to the country&#8217;s poor unemployment data on Tuesday, the trade federation said that workers should heed the call for a stay-away or take part in the marches.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A strong statement has to be made that the current situation is simply not sustainable. We are risking a civil war: a bomb of social anger continues to tick.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;To some extent this is reflected in the 6% increase in crime announced by the Minister of Safety and Security; even before this increase, the murder rate was 58 a day on average.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Saftu continues to insist that in order to defuse the timebomb, the entire architecture of our economy must be overhauled.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">March to JHB police station<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SAFTUStayAway?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#SAFTUStayAway<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SAFTUStrike?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#SAFTUStrike<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/VhgCd5QTyL\">pic.twitter.com\/VhgCd5QTyL<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 SAFTU (@SAFTU_media) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SAFTU_media\/status\/1364517652966895617?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 24, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SAFTU_media?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@SAFTU_media<\/a> protesters now being told to leave the city. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/q2YyHg406f\">pic.twitter.com\/q2YyHg406f<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Amandla! (@AmandlaMedia) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AmandlaMedia\/status\/1364520277749735425?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 24, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"tl\">Asinamali&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SAFTUStayAway?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#SAFTUStayAway<\/a> at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/CCMA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#CCMA<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SAFTUStrike?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#SAFTUStrike<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/t2zb50Spwa\">pic.twitter.com\/t2zb50Spwa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 SAFTU (@SAFTU_media) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SAFTU_media\/status\/1364511809827450887?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 24, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The trade\u00a0 federation has published\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/saftu.org.za\/saftu-press-statement-on-the-24-february-2021-general-strike\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">dozens of grievances<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0which primarily centre on a few key points:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The construction of a new economy \u2013 including a minimum wage of R12,500 a month for all workers, and a moratorium on all job losses;<\/li>\n<li>The improvement of living conditions and the redistribution of land;<\/li>\n<li>The cutting of greenhouse gas emissions;<\/li>\n<li>Raising the social wage and providing public healthcare finance;<\/li>\n<li>Free, decolonised and high-quality public education;<\/li>\n<li>An end to corruption and crime;<\/li>\n<li>A non-racial, non-sexist, democratic, socialist society.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This is the first major national strike action undertaken by unions since the country relaxed level 3 Covid-19 lockdown rules.<\/p>\n<p>However, analysts have warned that action will likely become more frequent in 2021 in response to government wage negotiations and upcoming elections.<\/p>\n<p>In a January research note, BNP Paribas said that the government\u2019s public sector wage deal is likely to remain a major point of contention in 2021, and could lead to further strike action.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe see a good chance of widespread strike action as early as February, possibly tempered by Covid-19 restrictions and existing high levels of unemployment,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n<p>The deal could also impact the tripartite alliance between the ANC, Cosatu and the South African Communist Party.<\/p>\n<p>BNP Paribas said that trade federation Cosatu has lost a large number of members in recent years, however, it said that the wage deal is likely to dominate the agenda.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/470270\/south-africa-unemployment-hits-highest-point-on-record\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">South Africa unemployment hits highest point on record<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Members of the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) embarked on strike action on Wednesday (24 February) in response to a number of economic problems facing the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":470636,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-470634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470634"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":470646,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470634\/revisions\/470646"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}