BL Premium reports that President Cyril Ramaphosa stood down at the last minute from addressing worker representatives on Monday, leaving ANC chair Gwede Mantashe to face the wrath of delegates at Cosatu’s national congress in Johannesburg.
Mantashe was booed off the stage by the angry workers irked by the high cost of living, low salary increases, poor service delivery, load-shedding, high unemployment and what they regard as the ANC’s intransigence towards corruption. According to the programme, Ramaphosa, not Mantashe, was supposed to deliver the ANC’s message of support at the congress. Mantashe – who has been criticised together with Eskom management as being responsible for the rolling blackouts choking economic growth – had barely taken to the podium when delegates stormed the stage singing, “Asinamali (We don’t have money)” and “Hamba Gwede (Leave, Gwede)”. The Cosatu delegates waved placards calling for inflation-beating increases and an end to austerity measures. Mantashe is a former general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers, a Cosatu affiliate. He later commented: “The issue [of the booing] is to send a message [to government] but the anger is not anger, it’s stage-managed anger. They were saying they want their increase and I’m not in the bargaining council.” The labour federation is still angry after Ramaphosa’s administration refused to honour the last part of a three-year wage deal signed in 2018. Mantashe’s booing on Monday came moments after Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi had called on workers to defend the ANC, which she said was still the best option to advance the workers’ struggle.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
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