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BL Premium reports that organised labour on Tuesday read the riot act to the government over cost-cutting measures proposed by the Treasury due to unprecedented revenue and spending pressures.
President Cyril Ramaphosa met with leaders of trade union federations Fedusa, Saftu, Cosatu and Nactu virtually under the auspices of Nedlac to discuss the administration’s challenges in meeting its priorities and how to “fast-track economic recovery”. Fedusa’s Riefdah Ajam said austerity measures contained in a Treasury note have spread “much panic within the membership ranks, and at a macro level, create the risk of anarchy”. She added: “This latest move by government will most certainly hamper all forms of service delivery and the freezing of critical posts will have a lasting impact on crime and security, policing, the ability to move forward on the [National Health Insurance] and so on.” Saftu also rejected cost-cutting measures proposed by the Treasury “as they have dire impact on the quality of public service.” Cosatu said it was “shocked the Treasury has tabled proposals to close various departments and key government programmes, reduce the public service headcount by 200,000 and raise VAT by 2%, in addition to freezing vacancies and suspending infrastructure investments.” In a statement, the Presidency said it was agreed at the Nedlac meeting that tackling unemployment and poverty would improve social and political stability and lead to economic growth. Nactu advised that the unions requested a follow-up physical meeting with the government to further reflect on its presentation.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
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