Cosatu has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to deliver a concrete State of the Nation Address (Sona) that will do away with load shedding, create jobs and bring down levels of unemployment.
The trade union federation has also called on Ramaphosa to fix ailing State-Owned Entities and grow the economy.
For the last few months the country has been battling load shedding, and Cosatu said this was not sustainable in any economy.
Cosatu parliamentary coordinator, Matthew Parks said load shedding must be addressed as the economy was struggling.
He said there are many social and economic challenges facing the country.
“These are made worse by 10 hours of load shedding a day, a deteriorating passenger and freight rail network under siege from criminal syndicates, rampant levels of crime and corruption, and dysfunctional municipalities unable to provide basic services. To restore hope, the Sona needs to present a clear programme and set clear implementation benchmarks and time-frames,” said Parks.
“The government also needs to account for the implementation of the 2022 Sona commitments as part of building society’s confidence. The economy cannot grow, and unemployment cannot be reduced with continuous load shedding. The lekgotla recommendation for the declaration of a state of disaster needs to be officially implemented.
“The government needs to ensure Eskom has all the resources and authority at hand to reduce load shedding, ramp up targeted high impact maintenance and bring on board new generation capacity. They also need to slash Eskom’s debt burden and plug its fiscal holes, and tackle the corruption and criminality crippling Eskom,” he said.
Meanwhile the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (Natjoints) said security measures were in place to prevent any disruption of the Sona.
It said they have deployed security officials in and around the Cape City Hall as a security measure.
It said the venue around the city hall will be a no fly zone and only the SA Air Force will be allowed to use that airspace during the Sona and the debate next week until Ramaphosa replies to the debate.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
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