'Amoral and simply unacceptable': Cosatu wants decision to terminate CWP contracts reversed

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has condemned the co-operative governance and traditional affairs department's decision to terminate contracts of Community Work Programme participants aged 55 and above by January 31.

The department said this move, which will affect more than 60,000 workers, was influenced by budget cuts from the National Treasury for the 2024/2025 financial year.

“This must be rejected with the contempt it deserves by all progressive organisations. If needs be, parliament must intervene to halt it,” Cosatu parliamentary co-ordinator Matthew Parks said.

“This is amoral and simply unacceptable. Nor should politicians delude themselves into thinking voters will forget such cruel actions as we head towards local government elections.”

The programme rolled out in 2008 is a government-funded initiative designed to cushion the poorest of the poor by providing regular low-skilled work opportunities such as road maintenance, home and community-based care work, planting trees and maintaining food gardens and fixing classrooms.

Parks criticised the decision, arguing cuts should instead be made to ministers' and mayors' expenses rather than targeting vulnerable members of society.

“Where cuts must be made, they must be done to the wealthy who can afford it, not to the poorest members of society who have no resources to fall back on, provide a lifeline to on average seven dependents each and are unlikely to find work in a stagnant economy burdened by a 41.9% unemployment rate.”

He said Cosatu will seek a meeting with the Cogta minister, finance minister and President Cyril Ramaphosa to reverse the decision.

“Government, led by the ANC, needs to do better and to show the working class who elected it to office, that it understands their plight, is responsive and caring. Actions such as this will leave a bitter taste in the mouths of thousands that the nation simply cannot afford.”

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