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BL Premium reports that hundreds poured into the streets of Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria on Wednesday to demand that policymakers address the mounting cost of living.
The largely peaceful demonstrations coincided with the release of data showing consumer inflation surged to a 13-year high of 7.8% in July. The rallies, organised by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) were the first mass protests against the government of President Cyril Ramaphosa, whose efforts to lift the floundering economy have been dealt a blow by Covid-19 restrictions and the slow pace of pushing the structural reforms that economists say are critical to putting millions into jobs and reducing poverty. Singing and waving placards reading “No to high food price”, “Stop taxing basic food items” and “High electricity pricing kills the poor”, hundreds of people wearing red T-shirts descended on the Union Buildings to hand over a list of demands. Minister in the Presidency, Mondli Gungubele, received a list of demands from the leaders of Cosatu and Saftu. Saftu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, who co-led the march, called on the government to set aside at least R1-trillion, or one-fifth of GDP, to address the socioeconomic crises dogging the country. Meantime, analysts say the continued breach of the SA Reserve Bank’s inflation target of 3%-6% will raise even more pressure on the Bank to aggressively continue tightening monetary policy, which means it is likely to deliver another repo rate hike of 75 basis points (bps) at the next monetary policy committee meeting in September.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Thuletho Zwane & Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
- Lees ook, Regering ‘neem kennis’ van massastakers se eise, by Maroela Media
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page