Cape Town – Trade union federation Cosatu believes that the most important factor in Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba’s budget speech will be jobs and the eradication of unemployment.
Matthew Parks, Cosatu’s parliamentary deputy coordinator while speaking to Fin24 said that 4 out of 10 workers do not have jobs.
He noted that unemployment has increased from 15% in 2008 to about 38% in 2017.
It is South Africa’s number one economic crisis.
“You can’t talk about slogans or policy to someone who is unemployed. So he has to say how his government can spur on the economy and get things moving, and so on. If we don’t want to solve that, we can’t solve anything as a nation."
Parks went on to speak about corruption and challenged Minister Gigaba to address the issue.
"I think that the other issue they would want him to speak on is the state of corruption in the state, especially the state-owned enterprises, SAA, Eskom, SABC, Denel and so on which are basically imploding the state."
Parks also addressed the instability that is created when Cabinet is reshuffled and when board members are purged.
He believes that ministers are shown the door if they are not willing to loot fast enough
Cosatu does not have any "high hopes" about Gigaba’s statement, said Parks. "We’ve been let down by a president who is the champion of corruption. He has enriched his family, his friends, his girlfriends across the board and we’ve got a Cabinet which is so deeply compromised."