Engineering News reports that Cosatu marched to Parliament on Tuesday – the day before Finance Minister Tito Mboweni was due to deliver his maiden Budget – to call for job security and an end to retrenchments.  

The trade union federation held marches in eight nine provinces last week, but scheduled its Western Cape march for Tuesday to be closer to the date of the budget.  Marchers on Tuesday called for VAT increases to be scrapped, and warned government not to consider privatising debt-laden power utility Eskom.  They also wanted Eskom workers to be protected from Independent Power Producer (IPP) agreements, which could results in job losses.  In a separate statement outlining its expectations around the budget, Cosatu said Mboweni must not increase the tax burden on working and middle-class families.  "Workers have been made to foot the bill for State capture for far too long.  The Minister needs to announce that there will be no further anti-worker tax hikes," it stated.  The federation called for tax hikes to instead be centered on the rich.

• Read the original of this report in full at Engineering News
• Read Cosatu’s press statement outlining its budget expectations at Cosatu News

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