Johannesburg - Cosatu says it will not give up the fight to have the Tax Laws Amendment Act scrapped despite government’s decision to postpone its implementation date by two years.
In a turn-about move, government announced on Thursday that it would urgently table a bill in Parliament to halt the implementation of the act which includes the controversial retirement reforms provision from coming into effect on March 1st.
Cosatu said despite this, it would march on with its plans to embark on a strike to protest the laws as they have not been repealed as they demanded.
‘The mandate from workers was not to secure a postponement but to get government to commit that they will expunge all the areas that prevent workers from accessing their money. What workers want to hear is; when is government going to expunge the sections of the law that stops workers from making lump sum withdrawals from provident funds,” said Cosatu spokesman, Sizwe Pamla in a statement.
The SA Communist Part (SACP) has also weighed in on the matter, saying the signing of the law in the absence of a comprehensive social security policy would have created new contradictions.
The party has also lambasted financial institutions which have criticised the government’s turn-about.
“The SACP notes that sections of capital in the predatory financial sector expressed concern against this democratic outcome which they claim would be costly for the “retirement industry”. What is this “retirement industry” because the money belongs to none other than the workers and whose interests do they represent?” queried the SACP’s spokesman, Alex Mashilo.
Labour Bureau