Today marked World Day for Decent Work and scores of workers gathered at George Lea Park in Sandton to commemorate the day through a protest organised by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). The union is concerned about the cost of living and the inflation rate, while salaries are stagnant.

HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT RATE 

Cosatu emphasised that their main concern is South Africa's high unemployment rate, with over 11.3 million people in need of jobs. "Given this very high unemployment rate, Cosatu is demanding a moratorium on retrenchments because it doesn't make sense to say we have this high unemployment rate and then we are still cutting the little jobs that we have," said Zanele Sabela, Cosatu's national spokesperson. Sabela said the large-scale retrenchments that had taken place at the SA Post Office and metals group Sibanye Stillwater this year were a great concern. "The latest company to announce that it is going to be cutting jobs is Seriti, the mining company, and they're talking about more than 1100 jobs," said Sabela.

COST OF LIVING

COSATU provincial chairperson, Amos Monyela, said the government needs to address the crisis of the rising cost of living and also stop retrenchments. "We need them to cushion workers in terms of the high rate of local municipality utilities, for example, the electricity and water hikes, and the services the workers are paying for, are huge. Even some of the employers are trying to cushion workers, but all this interest rate is taking back what those employers have put into the pockets of workers," Monyela added. The workers ended their march at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, which they say is the seat of capital in the country.