Video Protests in South Africa

The BBC has video of another round of protests in South Africa. Garbage col­lec­tors are now strik­ing, demand­ing a %15 increase in pay. The work­ers say that they have not been able to afford food since the large jump in food prices last year. An arti­cle from the BBC is included after the jump.



This arti­cle from the BBC has fur­ther details on the strikes.

Strik­ing South African munic­i­pal work­ers have emp­tied piles of rub­bish onto the streets dur­ing a march to demand a wage increase.

Police fired rub­ber bul­lets to dis­perse pro­test­ers in Limpopo Province, who police said had become “disorderly”.

The rul­ing ANC has report­edly con­demned the work­ers’ behav­iour. Recent strikes and unrest are seen as the major chal­lenges for Pres­i­dent Jacob Zuma.

About 150,000 work­ers have stopped work demand­ing a 15% pay rise.

Work­ers say they are unable to make a liv­ing from their cur­rent wages because of high food prices.

Pres­i­dent Zuma has called for under­stand­ing from work­ers, but the BBC’s Jonah Fisher in Johan­nes­burg says crowd-pleasing promises he made dur­ing his elec­tion cam­paign are prov­ing hard to keep.

Our cor­re­spon­dent says a pledge to cre­ate 500,000 new jobs has already been retracted.

This article is from Poverty News Blog: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/EOch/~3/EVh44_C6frs/video-protests-in-south-africa.html




Leave a Reply

Login with Facebook