Cape Town - For wheelchair-bound Ashley Cornelius from Delft, it was important to join the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) protest to highlight the struggle to find employment when living with a disability.
Saftu and affiliates marched on Wednesday against the high cost of living, unemployment, soaring fuel prices and power cuts.
Amid the demonstrations Statistics South Africa announced annual consumer price inflation (CPI) had reached 7.8% in July 2022.
High consumer index inflation levels mean people will pay more for essential products such as bread and cooking oil.
Cornelius, a 46-year-old father, said he had been struggling to find a job for nearly ten years.
“I was involved in an accident and my life changed for good. I have been doing learnerships but the moment companies and other places know I have a disability they don’t hire me.
Some promise to get back to me and never do. My wife has been the breadwinner for a long time now, but she’s also struggling.
“When people think about unemployment they hardly consider people living with disabilities. Grants are also not enough. There seems to be no relief for us strained consumers. The country's economy is worsening, but salaries remain the same,” he said.
Saftu’s Ruth Ntlokotse said they had to take to the streets to voice the plight of the working class.
At the Civic Centre, Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis accepted the protesters’ memorandum and said they were trying to deal with some of the issues, including crime, unemployment and electricity matters.
“The statistics are terrible and every single crime is one too many. We have seen how the deployment of our Leap officers in many hot spot areas has brought change. That is why there will be an addition of 1 232 law enforcement officers in the 12 worst areas, as well as in the CBD. We are trying to buy power from independent power producers other than Eskom because we want to be the first City that is not load shedding, and it’s much cheaper.
“I also agree ‘down with bad service delivery’. There must be the same excellent quality of service delivery, and it is our commitment to build towards that,” he said.
Demands by Saftu to parliament included raising the national minimum wage to R72 per hour, a basic income grant of R1 500, and the scrapping of the government's 2% wage increase offer at the ongoing public service wage talks.
They also marched to the Western Cape Department of Mineral Resources and later to the provincial legislature and parliament.
Meanwhile Cosatu in the Western Cape embarked on its own march where they protested outside the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) offices calling for the rail agency to explain its failure to respond to a 2020 list of grievances.
Cape Times