Durban - Thousands of Cosatu members have started marching through the city of Durban as part of its Workers’ Day celebrations amid tight security by police officials.
The Ethekwini municipality had earlier in the week cautioned a possible breakout of violence as the Metalworkers Union (Numsa) which was expelled from Cosatu last year, will also be taking to the streets, merely 3 kilometres away from where Cosatu members converged ahead of the march.
The demonstration is headed to the Curries Fountain Stadium, where Cosatu was launched in 1985.
Workers who have joined the march have told Independent Media that they hope that President Jacob Zuma will make pronouncements on reforms related to minimum wages when he addresses them later on Friday, as they could no longer afford to support their families with their meagre salaries.
According to Stats SA figures, 50 percent of SA workers were earning less than R3 300 a month.
Workers are mainly complaining about high costs of living and indebtedness.
Meanwhile, public sector workers belonging to Cosatu’s strongest union at the moment, Nehawu said they wanted Zuma to explain why the government could not grant them their desired 10 percent salary increase.
Negotiations in the sector were restarted this week after the Department of Public Service and Administration acting Minister, Nathi Mthethwa said they would present a reviewed offer to workers following 7 months of disagreements between parties.
Unions have rejected the new offer which according to Cosatu negotiators who did not want to be named sought to take money away from the housing allowance offer, and effect even further increases on medical aid fees.
The salaries of public servants were meant to increase at the beginning of the new financial year on April 1st, but a month later a deal is yet to be struck.
“How can government not have money when it collected about 940 billion from taxpayers,” asked a marcher who did not want to be identified.
All these issues and many others are expected to form part of the agenda today, when the President and his Cosatu counterpart, Sdumo Dlamini and the SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande address the thousands of people who have already begun to trickle into the Curries Fountain Stadium.
Zuma will also get an opportunity to speak directly to Cosatu members on the ground about the heightened tensions in the union movement. In the past, his critics from the Numsa side have blamed the instability in the federation on his party, the ANC.
Labour Bureau