Tens of thousands of protesters marched through South
African cities on Wednesday in a protest by the powerful Cosatu labour
body, the latest sign of tensions within the ANC-led government.
The
protesters were pushing the government to scrap plans for tolls on
major roads around Johannesburg and rein in the practice of employment
agencies that offer workers short-term contracts at lower pay.
But
the marches were another show of discontent with the African National
Congress-led government, which has ruled since Nelson Mandela became the
first black president in 1994.
First warning shot
“We
have come here to fire the first warning shot. And in our chamber,
there is still a lot of bullets,” Congress of South African Trade Unions
(Cosatu) chief Zwelinzima Vavi told a cheering Johannesburg crowd that
police estimated at 45,000.
Vavi drew a
line in the sand on tolling set to start at the end of next month,
threatening to shut down the highways of South Africa’s economic
heartland.
“If they say they will
introduce this, we will take everybody we see here and even more and put
them on the highways of Johannesburg,” he said. “We will make this
system unworkable.”
“That
is a form of privatisation of the roads. Instead of the (city) council
providing us with the services, the basic services, such as roads and
public health assistance, we must now pay for everything,” he said.
“The
government loses 30 billion rand ($3.9 billion) in a financial year to
graft or fraud,” he said, citing a report last year by official
investigators.
The embattled leader of
the ANC Youth League, Julius Malema, stood behind Vavi as he spoke —
just a week after the party moved to expel him for provoking divisions
within its ranks.
Malema, who has
vowed to appeal his expulsion, had become a leading voice opposing
Zuma’s re-election as ANC chief at the party’s elective conference in
December.
And while the protest
avoided overtly political tones, Cosatu’s underlying message was clear:
Zuma will still have to earn its support.
Cosatu organised marches in 32 towns and cities, with Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban posting the biggest turnouts.
Plans
for road tolls have provoked widespread anger across Gauteng, the tiny
province that includes Johannesburg and the capital Pretoria.
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