Weekend Argus reports that the SA National Taxi Council (Santaco) and the Democratic Alliance (DA) will not be participating in Wednesday’s planned national shutdown by unions.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) and their affiliates will be striking across the country to call for government intervention in the cost of living crisis, load-shedding and joblessness. Cosatu's spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said the strike was legally protected and it was meant to pile pressure on both government and the private sector to fix the economy. Meanwhile, the SA National Taxi Council (Santaco) has snubbed the national protest saying its members would continue with their normal operations. “Santaco is not part of that shutdown. We distance ourselves from it,” Santaco's Bongani Magagula indicated. He said they were not necessarily in disagreement with the reasons behind the strike, but that its national executive committee did not see it necessary for them to participate in the action at the present time. In the Western Cape, the DA’s Ricardo Mackenzie advised: “The DA in the Western Cape does not support the national shutdown as it will not do anything to resolve rail challenges or fix the country's economic troubles, which have led to a severe cost-of-living crisis, rocketing fuel prices, mass unemployment and made it nearly impossible for the most vulnerable members of our society to travel in search of education, jobs and better opportunities.” He added that Cosatu must take the fight to its tripartite alliance partner, the ANC, instead of destabilising the country’s economy.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Velani Ludidi at Weekend Argus
- Read too, Taxi industry snubs looming Saftu ‘national shutdown’, at SowetanLive
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page