SAFTU’s Vavi on expected fuel price hikes: Workers 'can’t breathe'

The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU)’s general secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi, said workers cannot breathe amid fuel price hikes on the cards from next Wednesday.

The Central Energy Fund estimates the price of petrol could increase by at least R5 per litre next week on the back of higher oil prices and a weaker rand.

ALSO READ: Government urges the public not to panic-buy amid expected fuel price hikes in April

This comes as the fuel levy is also set to rise by 8 and 9 cents per litre for petrol and diesel respectively.

The Road Accident Fund levy, incorporated into the petrol price, will go up by 7 cents per litre come 1 April.

Vavi was speaking at the labour school in Pretoria where labour federations - including the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), the National Council of Trade Unions (NACTU), the Federation of Unions of South Africa (FEDUSA) and SAFTU - are meeting in Pretoria to thrash out challenges facing workers in South Africa.

“We can’t breathe - that’s all we can say. We can’t breathe because wages of workers have been deliberately kept low. People blame us as too strong as unions, but the reality is that wages have been suppressed in South Africa since before 1990, basically. And the wages of the CEO continue to break world records. There is no justice. When we raise these issues, the minister of finance has the gall to tell us we don’t understand economics.”