If it doesn’t make a significant dent on our consciousness, what are we to think of both Malema and the EFF. The party and its leader are passing the point of no return.
What may have thrown a spanner in the works, depending on where you sit, is the breakthrough in the impasse between the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union and the state. At the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council, they reached an agreement to return to the negotiating table. This strike has been deadly over the past couple of weeks as it has potentially led to deaths at our public hospitals, affecting the most vulnerable in our society.
“We call on all our members and workers at the picket lines to prepare for an orderly return back to work,” the union said in a statement covered by the Mail & Guardian. An end to this strike, does defuse some of the tension with the President Cyril Ramaphosa administration. Furthermore, the day of the national shutdown comes on Monday, a day before a public holiday — it’s a long weekend for most industries and schools. For the most part, it’s an economy and a country at large not at work.
These factors may serve to dampen the effect of the shutdown, which is also supported by Zwelinzima Vavi, the general secretary of the South Africa Federation of Trade Unions. I’ve focussed on Malema and the EFF as the strike being a “rubicon moment” but I could have said the same for Vavi as well, who faces a call by Irvin Jim of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa to step down from his role. The union is the biggest member of the federation.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
LIVE | EFF shutdown: Malema says no memorandum will be delivered | News24All the latest news, analysis and updates from the EFF's planned shutdown that is expected to take place on Monday 20 March.
Read more »
LIVE | ANC thanks those who did not join EFF shutdown as Malema, Shivambu claim victory | News24All the latest news, analysis and updates from the EFF's planned shutdown that is expected to take place on Monday 20 March.
Read more »
LIVE | 'Be ready South Africa, Ramaphosa will fall' - Malema as he thanks EFF protesters | News24All the latest news, analysis and updates from the EFF's planned shutdown that is expected to take place on Monday 20 March.
Read more »
EFF leader Malema calls ‘national stayaway’ a success; state says it floppedEconomic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema pronounced its “national shutdown” a success on Monday, but the government maintained it was a flop.
Read more »
A handshake between cops and Malema concludes EFF's national shutdown marchThe day EFF's national shutdown on Monday ended in handshakes outside the Mahlamba Ndlopfu presidential residence in Pretoria as EFF leader Julius Malema and EFF MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi thanked police officers who marched with them peacefully.
Read more »