Cosatu and other federations and trade unions are embarking on a strike on Wednesday.
A planned strike by trade union Cosatu has been condemned by various economists as being ill-timed, with the potential to cripple an already struggling South African economy, which has seen 2.2 million people losing their jobs, according to StatsSA.
Cosatu released a statement on Monday that it would lead protests against corruption and other issues across the country this week, with its leaders dismissing suggestions that the action will be detrimental to the economy.
“As trade unions, we can no longer keep quiet, or be reduced to voting fodders. We should guard against corruption in all sectors of the government and the economy. It is so bad that millions of rands allocated to address the country’s challenges are arrogantly misdirected by certain individuals for self-enrichment,” said the National Union of Mineworkers.
Cosatu said that protesters would observe lockdown restrictions by having socially distanced pickets and motorcades across all the nine provinces, and in many identified towns and cities.
“We are convening this action under the Covid-19 lockdown alert level one regulations. This means that we have a responsibility not to undermine the fight against this deadly coronavirus that has killed so many of our compatriots. This decentralisation of our activities will ensure that workers are involved and are all able to participate in all over the country, but also that our activities do not spread this deadly virus,” said Cosatu in a statement on Monday.
