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The Star reports that Cosatu has drawn a line in the sand over government’s plans to trim the public sector and unbundle troubled power utility Eskom.
The trade union federation, an alliance partner of the governing ANC, came out guns blazing on Wednesday against some announcements made by Finance Minister Tito Mboweni in his maiden Budget speech. Mboweni said the government would cut the public sector wage bill by R27-billion over the next three years; and this year freeze salary increases for members of Parliament, provincial legislatures and executives at public entities. “The public wage bill is unsustainable. We must shift expenditure to investment. The first step is to allow older public servants, who want to do so, to retire early and gracefully,” Mboweni said. In the face of stiff opposition, Mboweni said the government was going ahead with the unbundling of Eskom, and it had also attached strict conditions for a R6.8bn guarantee for the SABC, including a restructuring of the state broadcaster - a move that is seen by some unions as a way of cutting jobs. On the cutting down of the public sector, the federation said in a statement: “These soothing words hide a plan to butcher jobs in the public service, at a time when there is a desperate shortage of teachers, doctors, nurses, community health workers and staff in all the other public services.
- Read the original of the report by Siyabonga Mkhwanazi and Siviwe Feketha in the above regard in full at The Star
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