Cosatu marches with memo but Oscar isn’t there

Business came to a standstill  in Engcobo on Wednesday morning  with only fuel stations operating as hundreds of Cosatu and affiliate union members joined the national protest.

 Marches were also held  in Port Elizabeth, Komani and Bhisho.

The unions were protesting against rampant corruption and looting of Covid-19 funds, as well as the government’s failure to honour a 2018 wage agreement in the public sector.

Sanco  Ngcobo sub-regional secretary Tando  Tunce said businesses were told to close as early as 5am on Wednesday. ''Some shops were open in the morning and when we arrived we requested all the businesses to close operations for the day.” 

No commercial enterprise was spared, with all hawkers and local traders instructed to close up shop as well, he said.

Cosatu Ngcobo chair   Lwazi Mditshwa said they had written to all businesses in Ngcobo prior to the strike.   ''The closure of businesses was to allow employers to release workers and it was not a malicious act. All the businesses in Ngcobo co-operated by closing operations and releasing workers, there was no fighting,” Mditshwa said.

However, he was disappointed when businesses opened later in the afternoon.

He said, ''In future it will be stronger and bigger. There is a lot of worker exploitation in Ngcobo and even shoppers and other clients feel it.''   

In Bhisho, about 300 people from various unions marched to Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane’s office  to hand over their memorandum of demands.

However, there was drama outside Mabuyane’s office when the protesters were told that their memorandum would have to be accepted by provincial finance MEC Mlungisi Mvoko on Mabuyane’s behalf.

A staff member of Mabuyane's office, whose name the Dispatch was unable to obtain by print deadline on Wednesday, told protesters Mabuyane was attending to “another matter”. 

Initially protestors would not budge and insisted they would sleep over at the premier's office until they saw him.

Eventually they handed the memorandum over but protest leader and provincial Cosatu deputy chair Zodwa Gqirana called for a quick response from Mabuyane.

“We are disappointed. We communicated this march as early as last week, yet today we get a report that the premier is not here. We are told he tried to call us while we were marching. He said he had to attend to another matter,” Gqirana said.

“If we are not answered in a few days then within no time we will be back, because the workers of SA are frustrated, and this makes us angrier to have him absent when we wanted to bring our memorandum.”

Asked why the premier could not attend, Mabuyane’s spokesperson, Mvusi Sicwetsha, who was standing at the entrance, asked the Dispatch to talk to Mvoko. Mvoko said: “I have signed the memorandum and we will reply.”

In Pretoria, Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi led the march and handed the memorandum to labour  minister Thulas Nxesi and his transport counterpart, Fikile Mbalula. They promised the government would address  their demands.

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