There is a heavy police presence at the Mary Fitzgerald Square in the Johannesburg CBD, in anticipation of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) nationwide strike.
Cosatu members have started trickling at Mary Fitzgerald for the march while police stand ready to manage the anticipated crowd.
The marchers are expected make their way to deliver a memorandum at the premier’s office at 11am.
The march is then expected to move through Anderson street, and turn into Pixley ka Seme Street to submit a memorandum at the mineral council office before marching back to Mary Fitzgerald square.
The one-day strike action is aimed at putting pressure on the government to change its current fiscal policy of freezing public sector wages and cutting budget allocations to social services including the dispute resolutions body, the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).
The union hopes that the strike action will apply enough pressure for government to change its policy stance ahead of Enoch Godongwana’s first Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement as Finance Minister.
In the video below, SABC reporter Mbongeni Muthwa gives an update from the march:
Earlier, Cosatu dismissed as baseless some political analysts’ suggestion that the labour federation’s national stayaway will only serve to expose its inefficiencies.
