THE Cry of the Xcluded movement, comprising several social movements and trade unions, have launched their 2023 mass action against the government in Auckland Park on Tuesday, 7 February.
The members of the movement are planning to protest from Thursday, 9 February until Budget Day on 22 February.
The movement said they’ll be protesting the budgets that are destroying the working class and poor communities.
“This February when President Cyril Ramaphosa delivers his useless State of the Nation Address and
when the Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana, announces another budget which steals from the poor
to give to the rich, we will be protesting,” said the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) general-secretary Zwelinzima Vavi.
He said they’ll be making clear to the government that they have lost touch with the people. He said they want to protest the national budget and the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement which they said destroys jobs by destroying South Africa’s productive economy.
REGISTER TO COMMENT
“Mass unemployment, where almost 13 million people are denied work and a decent livelihood, is the foundation on which an unequal South Africa is built. Budget cuts to health, education, welfare, police and all the services that poor people depend on, have created a wasteland,” he said.
Vavi said the country is not just collapsing, it is hurtling towards the cliff face.
“We have had enough. We are calling on our people to rise. Our uprising is not to loot and destroy. Our call is for the people of our country to unite in solidarity and care. We are not rising to attack other vulnerable groups. We are not attacking members of the LGBTQI+ community, foreign nationals, or people of different languages and skin colour. We are rising as poor and working people regardless of colour, language, religion and gender,” he said.
Cry of the Xcluded member Princess Majola said they recognise that everyone is struggling to have a home, to afford transport and electricity and to put bread on the table.
“For the rest of 2023 leading to 2024, we will be organising and mobilising for the Year of Mass Action campaign,” she said.
She said they will start by protesting outside Parliament in Cape Town ahead of the State of the Nation Address.
