The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has high expectations for President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) on Thursday.
It said that workers and society at large were battling to cope with a 43% unemployment rate, rising levels of debt, and an economy struggling to emerge from a deep recession and a global pandemic.
The trade union federation said that these issues were exacerbated by load shedding, a deteriorating passenger and freight rail network, rampant levels of crime and corruption, and dysfunctional municipalities that were unable to provide basic services.
Cosatu’s parliamentary officer Matthew Parks said that to restore hope, the address needed to present a clear programme and set clear implementation benchmarks and timeframes.
“The economy cannot grow with this level of load shedding. The president needs to give a sense of a plan to the nation at large [to show] that government understands the depths of the crisis and has a plan to turn things around.
“Clear accountability lies when a society can hold government into account. The government needs to declare a state of disaster to ensure that Eskom has every bit of resources and powers it needs to reduce and to end load shedding.”
Parks said that the 2023 Sona will have political consequences.
“The ANC and the president must appreciate that they no longer have unlimited time. We have elections in 15 months.
“Workers and society at large will be judging government on the next few months [on] what they do to turn this ship around to restore South Africa to the nation of potential that it once was and that it, once again, can be.”
-EWN
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