The South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu), protests are expected to continue throughout the country today. The union are protesting a proposed R20 per hour national minimum wage increase. Schools and train services have not been affected in Cape Town. The bus strike, which has been going for a week today, has added to workers’ woes in the city. Talks continued late into Tuesday night, but no resolution was forthcoming.
In Cape Town, Saftu marchers will assemble at Keizersgracht at 10am today before heading to Parliament.
Messages spreading like wildfire on Whatsapp, claiming that all hell will break loose on Wednesday, are fake. The letter said to be from the South African Police Service is claiming the “main focus of this terror” would be Johannesburg‚ Pretoria and “all major cities in SA”.
The letter further talks about: “Land Grabs and riots/plunder will commence from tomorrow the 18th and escalate all the way to the 25th whereby all major unions will strike. People are being intimidated and threatened that in case the do not participate they will be sorry/hurt or killed.”
On Tuesday, Saftu’s acting spokesperson, Patrick Craven said any messages of violence are malicious and unfounded.
“People have nothing to fear. We’ll do everything we possibly can to make sure that the events we organise are peaceful and orderly. We don’t want these messages to distract people from joining the strike,” said Craven.
Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa) have distanced themselves from the strike on Wednesday, saying they are in favour of the wage increase and won’t be drawn into these matters.
Picture: Twitter @JacarandaFM