Cosatu's general secretary has thrown his weight behind Tony Ehrenreich's threat to strike in Cape Town.
|||Cape Town - Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi has thrown his weight behind provincial counterpart Tony Ehrenreich and the federation’s threat to strike if Premier Helen Zille refused to meet them to discuss crime and access to services in townships.
Ehrenreich threatened last week that Cosatu affiliates would take their 250 000 members on a one-day unprotected strike if Zille didn’t agree to discuss issues such as crime, gang violence, education, transport and health.
He claimed Zille and the provincial government closed off every means for Cosatu to raise workers’ concerns.
Zille’s spokesman, Zak Mbhele, reacted by calling Ehrenreich a hypocrite and a liar. He said Cosatu had not requested a meeting with Zille since 2011, while on other occasions Ehrenreich had refused to take part in meetings of the Economic Development Partnership (EDP).
The EDP is a government-funded non-profit company made up of 130 bodies that include business, civil society and research organisations. It aims to reduce unemployment, poverty and inequality by helping economic growth.
DA MP and the party’s labour spokesman, Sej Motau, said he would ask Vavi to educate Ehrenreich on the competencies of different spheres of government.
Vavi told the Cape Times that Ehrenreich was right to call for a strike because “it’s time that government was forced to take action”.
“Believe me, if gangs were to extend their activities to rich, former whites-only areas that government would have long acted decisively,” he said.
Vavi said gangs were ravaging the lives of the working class, particularly in the Western Cape.
Ehrenreich said the provincial government and the DA, in their response to his requests, had tried to deflect the focus from the crisis of safety in the townships by accusing him of being dishonest and grandstanding.
He said Cosatu had lodged a complaint with public protector Thuli Madonsela to investigate whether the provincial government was misleading the public by “unnecessarily botoxing the facts for the media”.
Asked if Cosatu had done its own research on the prevalence of killings, Ehrenreich said it was clear from newspaper reports that gang-related killings in townships had reached “crisis” point.
Asked about Cosatu’s complaint, Zille said: “I’m not going to give him oxygen, so that is my comment.”
Madonsela’s spokeswoman, Kgalalelo Masibi, could not confirm whether the public protector had received the complaint.
cobus.coetzee@inl.co.za
Cape Times