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Cosatu to continue with strike following unemployment figures

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Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) says the new unemployment numbers have given them more reason to continue with their planned march next week.

The union believes unemployment will get worse because of an increase in the number of section 189 applications expressing companies’ intentions to retrench.

On Tuesday, Statistics South Africa reported that according to the expanded definition of the unemployment rate,  the number of people without jobs has increased by 2.3% to 42% in the second quarter compared to the first quarter of 2020.

In the video below, reaction to decrease in SA’s unemployment rate: 

However, the official unemployment rate decreased to 23.3% in the second quarter from 30.1% in the first quarter of the year because people stopped looking for jobs during the lockdown.

Cosatu’s spokesperson Sizwe Pamla says, “These numbers are proof that the working class is under siege. So we are going on strike on October 7. The fact that we see a raise in unemployment, the fact that the economy is declining at a rate that it is.”

“It is also a fact that 10% of our budget is linked to corruption according to the Auditor General. If we don’t tackle issues  of corruption which are suffocating this economy, the situation is only going to get worse from here.  So we are urging all workers to draw their names from here.”

 

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