Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) Parliamentary Coordinator, Matthew Parks, says if South Africa could tackle the energy crisis which results in long hours of rolling blackouts amongst others, government could address the economic challenges facing the country.
President Cyril Ramaphosa met with unions this week to discuss economic difficulties.
The country’s weakening fiscal position has prompted urgent calls for cost-cutting measures by government.
Ramaphosa and labour agreed to find a solution to the challenges and grow the economy.
Parks outlined some of the proposals they have for government: “We have our own proposals on how to help government increase revenue, stabilise the fiscal position but more critically, sustainable ways to grow the economy because we’ve been in a crisis for a few years because we have not dealt with the fundamental issues of growing the economy.”
“Making sure there’s affordable electricity, making sure Transnet is working; mining, manufacturing, and agriculture sectors are working and of course, fixing local government and other SOEs. For us, it’s about tackling the hard issues and not looking for simple quick fixes which don’t fix a single thing.”
VIDEO | Labour unions engage President Ramaphosa:
