Mboweni waging war against unions – lobby groups

The government is waging a war against unions and sending the country straight into recession, unions and lobby groups have warned.

This was in reaction to massive budget cuts including the Public Sector Wage Bill announced by Finance Minister Tito Mboweni in his medium-term budget policy statement on Wednesday.

“Mboweni is sending South Africa from recession to depression and squaring up for a clash with public sector unions,” said the group of far left organisations under the banner, Cry of the Xcluded.

In a joint statement with lobby groups Assembly of the Unemployment and the Alternative Information & Development Centre, the group has criticised Mboweni for effectively planning three years of “extreme” budget cuts – R60 billion in the first year, R90 billion in the second and R150 billion in the third, adding up to more than R300 billion over three years.

The biggest share of these cuts, the group said, will be coming from cuts to government workers’ wages. This in order to ostensibly meet the demands of creditors, credit rating agencies and the so-called investors, “to whom we have to bow down to”.

As Mboweni delivered his speech on Wednesday afternoon, thousands protested around the country against budget cuts and retrenchments under the banner of Cry of the Xcluded.

Anticipating the government’s harsh austerity, the group warned of inevitable bitter fights to come over economic policy.

“Such is the level of attacks on workers and the poor that we can expect the streets, not the boardrooms, to be the main battlegrounds,” it said, calling the plan a mockery of any ideas about economic recovery and government stimulus.

“The result will be more unemployment, which the government in its delusion thinks can be offset by 800 000 short-term jobs at expanded public works programme wages. Some economists are now predicting an official unemployment rate of 35%, meaning a real unemployment rate of well over 40%.”

Simnikiweh@citizen.co.za

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