The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) in Mpumalanga has encouraged voters to go out in numbers and vote for the African National Congress (ANC) in the upcoming Local Government Elections.
This came out during the federation’s nationwide day of action to hand over a memorandum of grievances to the Premier’s Office in Mbombela.
Union members affiliated with Cosatu braved the chilly day and gathered at the Provincial Government Complex to hand over a memorandum.
Cosatu slammed the ANC-led government for corruption, failure to meet wage negotiations agreement, privatisation of State-Owned Enterprises, and retrenchments taking place in the public and private sector.
Cosatu’s provincial Treasurer Happiness Mnisi says despite these challenges the federation urges people to vote for the ANC.
“The ANC is in alliance with Cosatu hence we are able to sit down and deal with our issues, that is why I was speaking about the reconfiguration of the alliance, that we are always reconfiguring making sure that we are reviving our relationship between Cosatu and ANC. That is why we are encouraging our members to vote for the ANC because we believe there is no government without the ANC.”
Cosatu’s national strike against government’s budget cuts:
Cosatu’s Central Executive Committee member Nkoketse Sepogwane says corruption is the biggest challenge in government.
“The significance of this day, we are meeting government to raise our concerns regarding the current economic turmoil that is created by the pandemic and equal the conduct of the government officials deployed by the ANC which from time to time steals money from the government coffers, compromising the workers.”
MEC for Community, Safety, Security, and Liaison Vusi Shongwe received the memorandum. Shongwe promised to refer the memorandum to the Premier.
“We are here to receive the memorandum and there are issues that are on the memorandum that are national and issues that are at our level as the provincial government, that are going to be referred to our cabinet to look at them.”
The union has given the provincial government 14 days to respond to their demands.
