Cosatu ‘disgusted’ by wealth report, calls for international action

A call for drastic action has been sounded after a shocking report revealed that the eight richest men in the world owned the same wealth as half the planet’s poorest population and that three billionaires in South Africa had the same amount of wealth as the bottom 50% of the population.

The report prompted trade union Cosatu, campaigning against the exorbitant salaries of CEOs that came at the expense of the low wages of workers, to call for international action against this problem.

Cosatu expressed disgust at the revelation in the latest report released on Monday in Johannesburg by international non-governmental organisation, Oxfam.

The report, titled An economy for the 99 percent, details how big business and the super-rich are fuelling the inequality crisis by dodging taxes, driving down wages and using their power to influence politics.

Oxfam described the situation as “obscene” and called for a fundamental change in the way economies were managed, so that they work for all people and not just a fortunate few.

“Such inequality is a sign of a broken economy and lack of government will to change the status quo,” Oxfam South Africa director Sipho Mthathi said.

READ MORE: Oxfam slams runaway inequality 

“Governments can act to help everyone. They can build an economy where businesses pay their taxes and contribute to the wider good; where everyone is able to be healthy and educated, and where poverty wages are a thing of the past.”

The study indicated that the poorest half of the world had less wealth than had been previously thought, particularly in India and China.

Winnie Byanyima, Oxfam’s international director, said: “It is obscene for so much wealth to be in the hands of so few when one in 10 people survive on less than $2 (R 27.23) a day.

Byanyima said inequality was trapping hundreds of millions in poverty; fracturing society and undermining democracy.

“Across the world, people are being left behind,” Byanyima said.

“Their wages are stagnating, yet corporate bosses take home million-dollar bonuses; their health and education are cut while corporations and the super-rich dodge their taxes; their voices are ignored as governments sing to the tune of big business and wealthy elite.”

Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said governments had allowed the private sector to do as it pleased.

He said the world had to act immediately to reverse this.

As far as South Africa went, Pamla said the implementation of a development state based on a new model and the establishment of a development bank to enable easy access to affordable funding for the masses was a must.

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