Umamah Bakharia

Trade Union, Cosatu is calling on workers across the board to embark on nationwide strike on Wednesday, 24 August, on the country’s high unemployment rates, increased fuel prices and loadshedding.

The union states that this is the only way to get the government to act on the unaffordable cost of living prices that South Africans have been facing.

“The national strike is in response to the ongoing load-shedding, fuel price hikes and escalating food prices. This socioeconomic strike also represents a pushback and a response by the workers to the ongoing class warfare directed at them by both public and private sector employers,” Cosatu says in a statement.

The announcement comes just a week after the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) indicated that it would embark on a strike on the same day.

Speaking to eNCA, Saftu spokesperson Trevor Shaku says South Africa’s working class have been sidelined and disregarded, therefore a strike is becoming.

Meanwhile, Members of the National Union of Public Service and Allied Workers (Nupsaw) are set to take to the streets of Pretoria on Tuesday in what they term as “an unprecedented march” over grievances including widespread corruption and poor governance.