The PAC marked Workers’ Day labeling the R3 500 minimum wage agreement as ‘pathetic’.
PAC is backing Saftu on the minimum wage.
“The issue of minimum wage that has been recently pronounced is pathetic as far as we are concerned, and as PAC, we supporting the position of Saftu that there should be a living wage of R12 500. You will know that our people are living under poverty stricken lines,” said PAC president Luthando Mbinda.
Infighting is still stalking the party.
“All factions and so-called factions within the PAC they were in Sharpville. I can show you pictures where I was with former president Lethlapha Mphahlele, Mphethi and even comrade Gxabe who is current president of PAN. We gathered because we believe unity is critical.”
Mbinda says the governing party often forgets rural areas and only remembers them during elections. He says it’s disgusting that 24 years into democracy, rural people are still struggling to get basic services such as water.
Also in attendance was the Eastern Cape Educators’ Union, a Nactu affiliate. It wants disparities in the profession addressed.
Provincial secretary Mpendulo Gwesha says, ” Workers are still faced by lots of problems. The regulations of Labour brokers is not enough, they should be scrapped. Domestic workers are treated seriously badly. We’ve got some educators working in the private sector that are earning far less. Some of them get half of what an educator in the public sector is getting.”
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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.
