Cape Town - On Saturday afternoon, Cosatu confirmed that its plans for a march on August 4, were still in place.
Following the provincial shop stewards council meeting, the federation confirmed that it was prepared to confront the government’s lack of accountability and viability in combating violent crime.
Malvern de Bruyn, Cosatu’s provincial secretary, declared, “enough is enough”.
“They must begin accepting responsibility for the way they are responding to violent crimes.
“We want to make them responsible for carrying out their existing obligations,“ he said.
“They have 14 days to respond. We will go back to them if they don’t provide us with a thorough plan of how they intend to handle this,” he continued.
Provincial chairperson Motlatsi Tsubane, said it was obvious that resources were available to handle violent crimes, but they were improperly managed.
“They need to effectively utilise all resources.
“They keep on playing the blame game and shifting responsibility from national to provincial,” he said.
“We are saying they should pool their resources so that they can contribute significantly to the fight against crime,” he added,
De Bruyn said they anticipate a 10 000-person turnout on Thursday.
“We intend to bring Cape Town to a standstill on Thursday.
“Our workers are angry and they are being subjected to violent crimes daily,” he said.
“Whether it is at home, in the community, the workplace or even in transport, they have had enough,” he added.
Following violent crimes, De Bruyn said their second point in their memorandum is the constant petrol price increase.
“The government needs to come to the party, we want them to reveal how they plan on dealing with this,” he said.
“Whenever petrol costs rise, workers are the ones who are most impacted.”
The march will start from Hanover Street at 9am.
From there, it will move to various locations in the city to hand over the memorandum to the mayor, the premier, the speaker of parliament and the SAPS’ provincial commissioner.
Tsubane said the council meeting helped anchor the readiness of affiliates for the march on the day.
“We have received a very positive response.
“We are engaging other stakeholders who we want to be part of the march,” he said.
“We have the SACP on board.
“Other community structures have agreed to come on board, like the Khayelitsha Development Forum for example,” he added.
Tsubane said they can confidently say they were ready for August 4, following the successful council meeting.
“This has helped us reflect on our issues as workers,” he said.
De Bruyn added: “Civil society will join us in their numbers and have indicated that they will be there to support.”