South Africa: Jobs, Crime and Cost of Food, Transport and Electricity Top Marchers' Litany of Woe

Kimberly Mutandiro/GroundUp
Masibonge Makhanya is a community health worker from KwaMbungulu in KwaZulu-Natal. He says he works in a rural community and earns a low salary though his contract is renewed yearly. He wants a housing allowance and medical aid.
24 August 2022
Daily Maverick (Johannesburg)
analysis By Victoria O'regan

National shutdown activities on Wednesday saw about 300 workers affiliated with the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) march through Cape Town, calling for a reduction in food, electricity and fuel prices. Daily Maverick spoke to several protesters about their reasons for taking to the streets.

When Daily Maverick arrived at Hanover Street in Cape Town at 9am on Wednesday, only a few South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) members had begun gathering in preparation for the day's march as part of the national shutdown.

By 11.30am, the group of Saftu-affiliated workers had grown into a few hundred protesters, albeit a much smaller group than the 1,000 the trade union had predicted. The protesters marched to the Cape Town Civic Centre, then to the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, the Western Cape Legislature and finally to Parliament. They presented a memorandum detailing a list of demands at every stop.

Saftu's demands dealt with, among other socioeconomic woes in South Africa, the rising cost of living, unemployment, rolling blackouts and crime.

High living costs and poor pay: what led to the call for a national shutdown?

[IN PHOTOS]#NationalShutdown today pic.twitter.com/tSAxkgnH1t -- SAFTU (@SAFTU_media) August 24, 2022

Mzimasi Nama...

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