THE South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) said it will participate in the national shutdown planned for Monday, 20 March.
Saftu Secretary General Zwelinzima Vavi informed the media on Friday, 17 March.
He said the reasons for participating in the shutdown is to demand jobs for the unemployed and the end of loadshedding. Fight for basic income grant of R1,500 to combat the level of poverty among the unemployed and low paid workers.
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Vavi said they will also deliver their own memorandum of demands to the government, but that does not mean they will ignore the complaints of those who started the shutdown movement.
Other demands are the lowering of food, fuel, electricity prices and interest rates.
“We also demand a minimum living wage of R72 per hour for all workers,” he said.
Vavi said the shutdown is one of many efforts to hold the government to accountable for the state of the country.
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He said that anyone who believes that South Africa is unsustainable and that it has reached a point where it is a failed state knows where stand on the 20th.
"We're not going to do a once-off demonstration and we go back to peace and normal. No, this is one of many shots we have been firing.”
Vavi assured the public that the shutdown will be peaceful without any form of violence or intimidation.
“We are not the products of violence. We do not advance violent agendas against society. We are not products of any kind of intimidation of robbing other people of their right to exercise [their freedom] accruing from the constitution of South Africa,” he said.
