COSATU supports SACTWU’s march to SARS
The Congress of South African Trade Unions fully supports its affiliate SACTWU’s march to the South African Revenue Service (SARS) offices in Pretoria this coming Friday, 10 March 2017.
We agree with their argument that cheap illegal imports are having a negative impact on our clothing, textile and leather, and footwear industry. Despite rhetorical statements about the centrality of job creation and transformation of the economy, government has done very little to protect our most vulnerable industries from the influx of illegal and cheap imports from all over the world, especially Asia.
Government needs to move away from mere pontificating but should launch a ground campaign, where Sars, Saps and Metro police officers are deployed to go door to door searching all containers and harbours , including all the shops in our towns and CBDs to confiscate the billions of rands worth of illegal goods that are flooding our economy.
Government needs to go further by actively helping to find and arrange alternative markets for our local producers and developing an export strategy for them.
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NEHAWU SUPPORTS SACTWU MARCH TO SARS
Thursday March 09, 2017
The National Education Health & Allied Workers’ Union [NEHAWU] supports the march by the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (SACTWU) to the South African Revenue Services (SARS) tomorrow in Tshwane.
SACTWU will be marching to highlight the impact of the illegal dumping of clothing, textile, leather and footwear imports in the clothing and textile sector. The issues raised by SACTWU speaks directly to the issues that we have been raising as NEHAWU in relation to the handling of customs by SARS.
NEHAWU has been at the forefront of calling for the filling of vacancies in customs in order to deal with the work load and enforcement of the laws and tariffs. As NEHAWU we are now faced with a situation where the SARS section of customs is set to be taken out of the public service into the mooted Border Management Agency (BMA). The creation of the BMA simply underscores that despite the rhetoric around building the developmental state, in the absences of strategic oversights and discipline, departments are allowed to continue with the fragmentation and dismemberment of the state through the tenderisation and agencification of its functions.
The transference of customs to the BMA means that it run the risk of being outsourced to a private company, which can only means enforcement of the laws and tariffs is going to deteriorate in favour of profit-maximisation. Outsourcing also leads to the casualisation of jobs and poor pay; which in turn would expose workers to bribery and fraud.
Additionally, the creation of the BMA will lead to more illegal imports entering our shores which will result in job losses. Government has an obligation to build its internal capacity to undertake such key functions as outsourcing them has dire consequences for both workers and the people we claim to serve.
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DENOSA fully supports SACTWU in its march to SARS in Pretoria today
Friday, 10 March 2017
The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) fully supports today’s march by Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (SACTWU) to SARS offices in Pretoria to raise its concern over the negative impact of illegal clothing, textile, leather and footwear imports on the South African market.
The slackness by SARS to strictly impose import duties on these clothes result in the mass loss of jobs by South African workers. SARS also looks into further squeezing the already down-trodden South African workers in terms of tax whereas justice and fairness should be applying when imports gets into our shores.
DENOSA says SACTWU is fighting a good cause and must be supported by all those who are tired of seeing mass retrenchments in our clothing sector.
The towns of Salt River and Woodstock in Cape Town in the Western Cape, which used to be the thriving towns of booming clothing and textile sector, have since become the shadow of themselves as shop after shop gets closed down with hundreds of jobs.
Radical economic transformation should bring something to every South African; and it should also mean ensuring that South Africans do not lose jobs simply because the country is not efficient enough in controlling its borders, which threaten job security by bringing clothes, footwear and leather without paying a cent for them.
