Workers' Day used to hit out at e-tolls

According to a Business Report report, the 'main' Workers' Day celebrations planned for Botshabelo outside Bloemfontein saw the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), President Jacob Zuma and the South Africa Communist Party's (SACP) Blade Nzimande join less than 2 000 workers in the Botshabelo Stadium.

Business Report reports that it was more of a political rally than a celebration of Workers' Day, as Nzimande used the e-tolling project to call on tripartite alliance members (Cosatu, the SACP and the African National Congress) to rally together and prevent the Democratic Alliance and "right-wing organisations" from exploiting e-tolling for political purposes.

Nzimande and Cosatu president S'dumo Dlamini scoffed at reports of a deepening rift among alliance members, instead pleading for greater unity ahead of the Mangaung conference in December. However, the National Council of Trade Unions (Nactu) issued a blunt statement to workers in Saulsville stating that the government has "lost its way" through e-tolling, national minimum wages, labour broking and social protection for workers, according to the Business Report report.

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