The South African Federation of Trade Union (Saftu) says government’s Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan does not fully address job losses and economic revival.
President Cyril Ramaphosa launched the Recovery Plan to rebuild the economy and to provide jobs through, among others, an infrastructure development programme and relief for vulnerable households and individuals.
Ramaphosa presents SA’s Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan:
Speaking at a media briefing in Mahikeng, in the North West, Saftu Deputy General Secretary, Moleko Phakedi, also called on government to grant the SABC another bailout in light of looming retrenchments.
“It does not necessarily address the job losses issue. It does not address the economic revival that we seek and we believe it is not going to take us anywhere. As far as we are concerned as Saftu, central to it is to ensure that workers are cared for in our economy and provided with necessary reliefs through the TERS and the basic income grant,” says Phakedi.
Link between corruption and job losses
Meanwhile, labour federation, Cosatu, says there’s a direct link between state capture, corruption and job losses.
This as various state-owned entities are either retrenching workers or unable to pay salaries, resulting in thousands of workers facing a bleak future.
Cosatu’s Parliamentary Coordinator, Matthew Parks, says a decade ago, these state-owned entities were profitable, but corruption ran them to the ground and workers are paying the highest price.
“All these SOEs were profitable. They were all in good standing. They were all international examples of excellence. They were all driving the economy 10 years ago. What we are seeing in the last decade of state capture and corruption, they were ran to the ground and many of them are in complete collapse and workers have lost jobs.”
On Thursday, Statics South Africa announced a 7.5 percentage points increase in South Africa’s unemployment rate – putting it at 30.8%.
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