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The recent announcement by the newly elected mayor of Johannesburg, Herman Mashaba, that he plans to privatise Pikitup and outsource the municipality’s mandate to his friends in the private sector will be challenged and opposed by COSATU. We are ready and willing to collapse and shutdown the city of Johannesburg ,if Mayor Mashaba thinks that he is going to do the bidding of his friends from the Free Market Foundation by introducing their anti-worker and anti-union policies.

The federation is unwavering  in its opposition to privatisation of public services. Privatisation will detrimentally affect the socio-economic interests of the poor, which includes workers and the working class in general. It will lead to decreased and inferior quality services for the poor, since they won’t afford to pay for the services provided by or through private interests. It will lead to higher prices for the provision of basic services, which will adversely affect the poor and it will also limit the extension of basic social and municipal services to the poor.

Herman Mashaba’s plan will lead to significant job losses and will foster the casualisation of labour, with more and more workers being hired on limited fixed-term contracts of employment. It will remove workers from the bargaining units established over many years in the public sector, generally leading to a reduction in incomes, benefits and job security.

We will continue to fight to ensure that municipal services remain the core function of municipalities and that all municipalities do not outsource basic services they are able to render themselves.

Issued by COSATU