NUMSA warns VAT, electricity hikes will cripple working class

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) says the proposed two percent VAT increase, in the soon-to-be-tabled budget, is likely to cripple the working class, coupled with the 12.7% electricity tariff hike that takes effect in April.

This came under the spotlight in Bloemfontein, where more than 400 members of NUMSA in the mining, security, motor, plastics, energy, and bus sectors met for the NUMSA shop stewards council meeting.

The meeting looked into challenges facing the sector in order to come up with strategies to tackle them.

NUMSA shop stewards held engagements to seek a new mandate as another fresh round of wage hikes is about to begin.

Kganyago warns VAT changes are economic shock amid budget delay:

NUMSA general secretary Irvin Jim says it’s important to seek a new mandate from different sectors of the union as they will soon embark on a new wage negotiations cycle.

Jim says workers affiliated with NUMSA will look for better pay despite the hard economic times. “We have reached that stage once more where the three-year agreement that we have signed with the employers in the auto industry, in the tire industry, and the plastic sector is coming to an end; therefore, we are negotiating a completely new agreement. We have gone to the basics of going back to workers to consult them about bargaining strategy for this round of negotiation.”

Jim says the union is also opposed to the government’s proposed VAT increase.

“And we can see everything is breaking asunder at the level of de-industrialisation and collapse of infrastructure, and it points to one thing. You can’t replace a state that intervenes in the economy. We obviously reject VAT that is added to the poor because you’re basically—people who are taking from nothing must now fund a program that is not helping them. Our people need jobs, our people need food, our people need land, and the ANC government must move very quickly to address those issues; otherwise, it will be voted permanently out of power.”

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Jim adds that the country must not be bullied into stopping the use of fossil fuels to generate energy.

“Coal is strategic because those countries’ base load is on coal, nuclear, and gas. We are the only ones who are expected to braai meat by a torch. Where have you seen anything like that? In other words, if you are going to rely only on wind and the sun, you are not going to have a source of energy that is reliable. That is why we said we need to, as an independent country, allow ourselves to determine what energy mix we need to power our communities to power our economy, and that energy mix, in fact, that transition, must take place at a pace and at the cost our country can afford.”

Workers have been encouraged to support the National Health Insurance in order to see universal access to health care being realised in South Africa.