Strikers give government six days to reply

As much as half of South Africa’s workforce, alarmed at plunging post-apartheid employment levels, joined a 24-hour nationwide strike for jobs, the South African Chamber of Business (SACOB) said on Wednesday. Reports said that workers wearing red Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) t-shirts and caps gathered in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town and close to mines and car factories elsewhere. Willie Madisha, Cosatu president, on Wednesday told protest marchers in Johannesburg that the government had six days to respond to Cosatu’s memorandum on retrenchments and unemployment, South African news reports said. Madisha was addressing thousands of people, who marched through Johannesburg in support of Cosatu’s one-day strike, outside the offices of SACOB. He warned that if Cosatu did not get a response to the demands within six days, further action would be taken. “If you don’t listen we shall be back after six days and fight until we win. This strike is about poverty, joblessness and the greed of capitalism. These are issues we as workers are confronting. The workers will not sit down and say we are tired. We shall fight until we win.”