Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) said while it’s disappointed with the finance minister’s budget, it is not surprised.
Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana tabled the medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS) in Parliament on Wednesday.
Several civil society organisations and trade unions, including COSATU, picketed outside Parliament on Wednesday ahead of the budget.
Some of their demands included a progressive budget that would stimulate economic growth and create jobs.
COSATU’s Matthew Parks said none of their demands were met.
“There’s nothing new in the budget. It’s a simple approach of cutting expenditure and somehow expecting the economy to recover. So, for us, it is disappointing because the economy is at 1% growth, unemployment is at 42%, public and municipal services are struggling, SOEs [state-owned enterprises] are struggling. We didn’t see anything new that’s going to change that scenario.”
Parks said while COSATU appreciated the good work at Eskom, more must be done.
“We’ve ended load shedding, but we need to get more support to Transnet and Metrorail to unlock the economy. We need to get more support to SOEs like the Post Office, Postbank, and SABC.”
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