Last week, thousands of workers from the public and private sector began a strike across eight provinces as a call to government to account for job losses. The protests were organised by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), which has organised another strike for tomorrow, Tuesday, February 19, that will cause major delays in Cape Town.
The protest will display the trade union’s disapproval of the impending unbundling of Eskom, and the leadership of the union previously swore to mitigate this.
Cosatu reportedly left the Western Cape out of its protests, but noted that protests in Cape Town would be taking place in the lead up to the approaching Budget Speech.
Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni is expected to touch on the Eskom bailout, and how the unbundling process will be handled.
The Eskom unbundling comes after President Cyril Ramaphosa informed the National Assembly there is no single solution to “fix” the public utility, adding that several interventions would be put in place to stabilise the country’s biggest energy provider.
Cosatu maintains that the Western Cape protest will be a peaceful one and workers will assemble on Keizergraght Street at 9am, and will likely occupy the central parts of Darling Street, Adderly Street and Plein Street.
It is probable this will cause heavy traffic volumes on Tuesday. “We are looking into this. We will contact you as soon as we receive information,” the City said to SA Breaking News.
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