POLOKWANE – Members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) members took to the streets in the city on Thursday in a protest march to the office of the premier where they handed over two memorandums to treasury MEC Rudolph Phala, who stood in for premier Stanley Mathabatha.
Cosatu provincial chairperson, Essop Mokgonyane, said that, while Cosatu did have internal problems, they were united in Limpopo.
He said a group of Cosatu members who called themselves Boko Haram wished to oust Mathabatha, but that this group would be exposed and dealt with internally.
Mokgonyane said the first memorandum was about the final marching orders to the section 100 (1) (b) intervention team in the province who, according to him, had overstayed their welcome.
The memorandum demanded that the team leave the province within 30 days.
The second memorandum dealt with various issues.
Mokgonyane said workers were “irritated” by a wide range of issues which were not addressed by government, including e-tolling, labour brokers, the high unemployment rate, training, failure to fill vacant posts in government, outstanding payments and other money owed to government officials, long waiting periods at hospitals, racism in the police service, the reopening of nurses’ and teachers’ colleges, infrastructure delivery at schools, payment required for parking bays at government buildings and transparent recruitment processes.
Cosatu further demanded that the issues with the post office be resolved and the victimisation of shop stewards be stopped.
They demanded the removal of the chief executive officers (CEO) of the Mankweng and Pietersburg Provincial Hospitals as well as the CEO of the Gateway Airport Authority Limited, the board, which should also be dissolved.
“Municipal managers who receive poor audit opinions year after year should be ousted and a government lekgotla should be called to appoint a special investigation unit to investigate corruption in municipalities.”
The provincial government was given 21 days to respond to the memorandum.
