Can South Africa afford a nationwide strike?

South Africans have been warned by trade unions in the country to expect services including transport, schooling, and government departments to be shut down from tomorrow.

In a historic show of unity, the two biggest labour federations in the country - the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) - who collectively represent close to three million workers, will be embarking on a national strike against corruption and unemployment.

While Cosatu’s protest action and stay-away would take place tomorrow only, Saftu leaders unveiled a programme of mass action that would last until the end of November.

At a time when 2,2 million jobs were lost during the second quarter of this year, largely due to the covid19 pandemic, what impact will this strike have? And is it too little to late?

Welcome to Burning Issue this evening:

In the show tonight, we chat to:
-Cosatu provincial secretary Melvin De Bruyn
-Shaheed Mahomed from the Social Workers Revolutionary Party
-Mametlwe Sebei from the C-19 People’s Coalition
-And lastly, chief Economist at Efficient Group, Dawie Roodt