This news aggregator site highlights South African labour news from a wide range of internet and print sources. Each posting has a synopsis of the source article, together with a link or reference to the original. Postings cover the range of labour related matters from industrial relations to generalist human resources.
BL Premium reports that ahead of his debut budget policy statement and a week after the ANC suffered bruising electoral losses, finance minister Enoch Godongwana is facing pressure from the party’s trade union allies to boost spending.
Cosatu wants “a mass stimulus package” to revive an economy that had its biggest slump in a century and lost more than 1-million jobs in 2020. Spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said that the union federation wanted to see a medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS) “that will ignite the economy, stabilise the state and provide relief to workers and the unemployed. This MTBPS should be about saving and creating jobs.” The demands highlight the challenge facing Godongwana — who cut his political teeth as a unionist — between meeting demands for extra spending while convincing financial markets that the government will maintain the discipline needed to contain an increase in debt levels and prevent deficits from spiralling out of control. He is due to present his first policy statement on Thursday in parliament. The SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) and the Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa) supported the call for stimulus measures. Unions also want the government to reverse spending cuts announced in February. “Austerity measures will not help our economy to grow. You cannot cut public expenditure and reduce levels of investment and then hope that will lead to growth. SA needs a real stimulus package of R1-trillion to kickstart the economy,” Saftu said in a statement.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page