The Western Cape Education Department has refuted claims that schools in the province will be closed for the next week due to the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu)’s marches.
Workers are expected to march on Wednesday against the minimum wage and other new labour laws.
The Department’s spokesperson, Jessica Shelver says a message doing the rounds on social media that schools will be closed on Wednesday until the 2nd of May is untrue.
Shelver says schools will remain open for the duration of the ongoing bus strike and Saftu’s intended mass action.
Meanwhile Labour union Saftu, will hold four marches in the Eastern Cape on Wednesday as part of the national strike. The marches will take place in Port Elizabeth, East London, Mthatha and Queenstown.
Saftu’s provincial convenor Mziyanda Twani says: “First thing we are rejecting the minimum wage. Secondly we are marching against value added tax that has been introduced by government to the rest of the poor working people. Thirdly, we are marching against what government has proposed in a bill in a labour relations act to introduce further limitations to our rights to strike as workers.”
“We are marching to demand more jobs to make sure that people are employed in decent well paying jobs,” says Twani.
Twani has also urged the public to join the action.
“We are calling on all workers in the rural villages, towns and everywhere else where people are exploited. They must come join the march to basically reject the current proposals by government and the sell out unions. They must be on the streets and paint them red to show anger and disapproval of what the government is proposing.”
Watch below for more on the strike
Minimum Wage App
The National Minimum Wage Act, 2017 is set to be implemented in May 2018. However, according to the Department of Labour, the process could be delayed by one or two months.
SABC Digital News and OpenUp (formerly Code for South Africa) has partnered to develop a Minimum Wage App that will give answers to the question: “Can South Africans survive on R3 500?”
Where does the information come from?
OpenUp has used the following data sources:
- Stats SA “Poverty Trends in South Africa” report
- Pietermaritzburg Agency for Community Social Action (PACSA) “Food Price Barometer“
- Stats SA “Income and Expenditure of Households Survey”
How is it calculated?
The money available for food is calculated by subtracting the money used for other expenses from household income. It could be said that it comes after these expenses, though they are actually in conjunction with each other.
