South Africa

South Africa, Maverick News

Desperate plea to Godongwana for jobs, housing, healthcare and education as cost of living crisis bites

Emma Magnusson from Sweden came to Capetown to fight for the rights of under paid workers on Wednesday. (Photo:Lisakanya Venna)

By Lisakanya Venna and Siyabonga Goni

30 Oct 2024

The message from the streets of Cape Town was clear on Wednesday, and somewhat desperate: unions, job seekers, and civil society groups agitated for increased spending in the public sector for job creation and more capacity in schools, healthcare centres, prisons and more.

Economic growth, job creation and service delivery. These were key priorities for people who took to the streets of Cape Town on Wednesday to coincide with the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement by Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana, in Parliament.

Also on the wish list of unemployed people, unions and organisations who came together were funds for job creation, protection for teachers’ posts, poverty eradication projects, and health sector improvements.

In a lively march that was led by multiple unions including the Congress Of South Africa Trade Unions (Cosatu), South African Democratic Teachers Union, and Commercial Stevedoring Agriculture and Allied Workers Union, people came out in numbers with a memorandum submitted to Parliament.

Daily Maverick spoke to the protestors during the march to Parliament.

Read more: Cosatu calls on workers to strike against ‘crippling economic crisis’

Find alternatives to generate revenue

Jamie Rasengarten, a member of the Western Cape Education Crisis Committee and part of South African Jews for a Free Palestine, is calling for the denunciation of austerity budget policies.

Jamie Rosengarten, a member of the Education Crisis Committee, denounced the austerity budget cuts. (Image: Siyabonga Goni)

Natalie Johnson, a single parent, demanded funds for jobs and houses. (Photo: Siyabonga Goni)

Luzuko Ntsika from Delft called for funds for permanent jobs. (Photo: Siyabonga Goni)

“I think that we recognise there are significant financial shortfalls, (however) I think the message is, quite simply, increase taxes on the rich or find alternative ways to generate money. Poor and working-class people can’t be expected to pay for corruption and the government’s failure and the effects of these austerity policies in terms of education.

“In the Western Cape alone, almost 2,000 teaching positions will be cut from next year. That means that if you’re averaging about 40 students per class, there will be about 100,000 students next year who are losing a teacher,” said Rasengarten.

Read more: Call to action against Western Cape teacher job cuts, while MEC Maynier says situation is ‘critical’

Job security and grant increase

Natalie Johnson, who joined the march, said she was a single parent and needed a job. According to her, there must be money put towards job creation and housing.

“I don’t have a proper place to stay and it’s difficult raising my children. I need a permanent job to ensure that my children have a great education and I can provide them with food, and also a proper place to sleep. Poverty allows gangsterism,” said Johnson.

R370 is not enough

Luzuko Nstika, from Delft, another unemployed person, is calling for permanent employment because the Social Relief of Distress grant is not enough.

“The most painful thing is that in South Africa job opportunities are scarce. Even R370 is not enough to cater to someone for the whole month, — toiletries cost more than R100, so that money is already gone. We want job security, not to work today and after five months you sit down again. For example the Expanded Public Works Programme, jobs, they give us jobs only for six months and after that you go back to being unemployed,” said Ntsika.

Ettiene Claasen from the Housing Assembly Movement on Wednesday. (Photo: Lisakanya Venna)

Asiphe Songca and Zuziwe Mvumbi from Capricorn joined the March in a quest for 'equal work'. (Photo: Lisakanya Venna)

Emma Magnusson from Sweden came to Capetown to fight for the rights of underpaid workers. (Photo: Lisakanya Venna)

Echoing Ntsika, Asiphe Songca and Zuziwe Mvumbi, residents of Capricorn, an informal settlement in Muizenberg, joined the march to demand job opportunities and increased grants, citing the struggle to support their families.

“We depend on the R370 grant, which sometimes declines without us knowing what the problem is. We want the government to increase the children’s grant as well as the R370, because the money is not enough for our needs.”

Early this month, workers from multiple unions painted the streets red in a day of national strike action, with a memorandum handed over at Parliament in Cape Town that called for the creation of more jobs, a decrease in electricity prices, and safe working conditions.

Cosatu’s Malvern de Bruyn said that teacher posts must not be cut amid budget pressures as this would aggravate the unemployment crisis.

“The DA government (in the Western Cape) wanted to dismiss over 2,400 teachers. We say no to that, because… if those people are dismissed, those 2,400 teachers will be affected,” said De Bruyn.

Read more: Workers take to SA city streets to call for rethink on austerity measures, job cuts and price hikes

Business as usual

Despite people demanding funds for job creation, housing, and good health services, Dominic Brown from the Alternative Information and Development Centre said he expected the minister would continue with business as usual.

“We disagree with this because we think that budget cuts and privatisation creates more unemployment and more inequalities and deepens the crisis of service delivery.

‘Tax the rich’

“We’re actually demanding a complete alternative way of organising the economy that prioritises redistribution, that prioritises increasing spending to the public sector, including spending for enough teachers, enough healthcare workers, enough people in correctional services. We are also saying that we need to tax the rich, there’s a lot of money in this country,” said Brown.

‘Our people don’t have food’

With the Western Cape Department of Health and Wellness facing a R807-million shortfall, Marian Kinnes, a member of the Manenberg Health Forum, urged the government to halt the budget cuts, particularly on the health system as those who were less fortunate relied on government healthcare.

“The people are already struggling financially, and in terms of our facilities there’s already a staff shortage, and I feel that people are really going to struggle, and people are really going to not make it when we have this process in place… because if our people don’t have food to eat, they must stay on tablets, so how can they sustain their bodies?”

Waiting forever on the housing list

Ettiene Claasen from the Housing Assembly Movement voiced his concerns over the housing processes in the province.

“We are campaigning against the waiting list campaign… There are people who are 20 to 30 years on the waiting list (housing list) and the government never gave those people houses, but young people who have been on the list for two years get houses. Our campaign is here to make the Western Cape people aware of the waiting list… We want to see who are all the beneficiaries that got houses and how long does it take for one to get a house,” Claasen said.

Enoch Godongwana tabled his Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement today at 2pm. DM

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