Cry of the Xcluded: Pre-MTBPS 2021 statement, 9 November 2021
Now that the local government elections have come and gone, we await to hear the announcement of the upcoming medium-term budget policy statement. As we had said going into the elections, the government and political parties continue to make empty promises. And we are tired of empty promises. After elections our pots remain empty and we are still hungry. Promises of jobs, houses, services and addressing climate change cannot be kept if we don’t spend the money needed to provide it.
The money put aside for local government is also being slashed. Local government is responsible for providing basic services to communities. Even municipal workers’ multi-year increments are being denied to municipal workers! With even less money provided to local governments from the national government, municipalities will be forced to increase the prices of rates, water and electricity. More people will be Xcluded, service delivery will get even worse, and we get closer and closer to a climate disaster!
Local government and municipalities get blamed for being indebted and facing financial crises. Corruption is a problem. But it’s not the only problem. Municipalities will invariably face this problem because they are forced to raise revenues from selling services to the Xcluded majority – who are unemployed, most of whom survive on below a measly R1335 per month (the upper bound poverty level). Water meter devices and prepaid electricity further Xcludes the majority from being provided with dignified services. These policies must be challenged and addressed as it impedes on people’s constitutional rights.
While the government has cut spending, it lowered taxes for corporations. This means the rich will get even richer, because they pay less taxes. This also means even less money for the government to spend on public services. We are tired of empty promises, we are tired of empty pots. There are alternatives and lots of resources that we can harness to pay for a budget that prioritises the needs of the people and the planet. There’s no reason the poor should be left to pay the check, and bear the bulk of the costs of the debt crisis, while the private sector and the rich will profit.
Our most urgent and pressing demand is an end to austerity. Cutting the budget in a time of economic stagnation will destroy the very tools and resources we need to jump-start the economy. This requires a huge mobilization of state resources that will pump life back into our economy. Alongside this is our demand for an end to casualisation and temporary work. EPWP workers must be insourced and given the benefits afforded to permanent workers. Decent work must be created at a living wage.
A Basic Income Grant
People are starving and without food, to end this, the state should look to progressively introduce an unconditional universal basic income grant. We need a basic income now for 18 – 59 year-olds who are without a stable income, to receive a basic grant from the state!
This basic income grant would boost the economy, creating demand for products and services, and thus creating many jobs. Government must focus on attracting the people back into the economy instead of just foreign investors.
We demand a basic income grant of R1500 that meets the immediate living needs of the unemployed.
We further reject the privatization and commodification that is creeping into every aspect of our lives. We cannot allow the provision of essentials of life to be driven by the pursuit of profit. Companies are accountable to nobody except investors and shareholders – they will not act in our best interest.
The Just Transition towards overcoming Climate Crisis
We the Xcluded recognise the existence of climate change as an emergency for our people and the planet which we are experiencing in our daily lives. We therefore demand that our government oversee a just transition from our current economy to a low-carbon economy based on 100% renewable energy by 2030 to avoid the crisis of a 1.5C° increase.
They must leave not one worker behind! Government must reject its ties to fossil capital and reject advances by businesses through the REI4P that wants to capture our renewable energy resources for private profit.
We reject and condemn all those who wish to privatise Eskom and who welcome its death spiral. We demand a new transparent and accountable Eskom, free from corruption, that moves to generate 100% renewable energy at the cheapest possible price.
We further demand that our government meet the climate crisis through these other areas:
- We demand the provision of fully public, quality, safe, affordable public transport! Specifically, the government must urgently intervene in the crisis at PRASA and deal with the looters.
- We demand a housing plan for well-located homes and that gives us dignity! These houses must be climate houses with solar panels, rainwater catchment and greywater systems.
- We want proper sanitation services! We are sick of living in shit, we want decent toilets and proper sewage and stormwater systems. All of this will help us adapt to the future droughts of climate change which will make the spread of disease more likely.
- We call for the creation of public parks and a mass tree-planting programme so we can thrive alongside our biodiversity.
- In all of these areas we are demanding of the government, put us to work and we will build these things as we have done for everything else in this economy that excludes us.
And when the voices of the ruling class say that what we demand is impossible and unrealistic, and when they rhetorically ask “who will pay for all this?”, we will give them our answer!
“Tax the rich and the big polluters so that the poor can live! Allow us to save our planet because the rich certainly will not!”
Finally, we say this: We are calling on our people to rise-up! We call on our people, the working class, employed and unemployed, to unite, to resist and, in their resistance, to show there is another way, a fair, just and righteous path – a path deserving of the sacrifices of those who have fallen in the struggle for a better life for all. We built South Africa and South Africa belongs to us, now is the time to make SA #WorkForUs.
For more information contact:
- Zwelinzima Vavi 0791824170
- Khokhoma Motsi 0734907623
- Bridgette Nkomana 0744840316
Action around the country are as follows:
Ggeberha March to City Hall
from Brister House @ 8:30
Vuvu Made (PE Amandla) 0733257009
Cape Town March to Parliament
from Hanover Street, formerly Keizersgracht, @ 9am
Bridgette Nkomana (Back To Work Campaign) 0744840316
Mbombela picket at Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature
Mbombela @ 10am
Matthews Hlabane (SAGRC) 0828957947
Bloemfontein March to Treasury
from Hofman Square @ 10am
Mooketsi Diba (Bothsabelo Unemployment Movement) 0732179686
Makhanda picket
Freedom Square @ 11am
Babalwa Budaza (Unemployed Peoples Movement) – 0786256462
Johannesburg Picket at Gauteng Provincial Treasury
75 Fox Street @ 10am
Princess Majola (AoU Gauteng) 0627842846
About the Cry
The Cry of the Xcluded was launched by South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU), the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) and the Assembly of the Unemployed (AoU) on 12 February 2020 to unite the working class – employed and unemployed – in the struggle for jobs, services, and dignity.