'Attack on the working class': SAFTU threatens mass protests over proposed 3 percent Inflation target
SAFTU has slammed Treasury and the Reserve Bank’s reported plan to lower the inflation target to 3%
Image: Jairus Mmutle | GCIS
The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) has slammed Treasury and the Reserve Bank’s reported plan to lower the inflation target to 3% and has called for a mass mobilisation outside Parliament on Wednesday.
Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana is set to address the inflation target during his Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) on Wednesday in Parliament.
The country's current headline inflation rate is 3.4%, while the South African Reserve Bank’s official target range remains 3%–6%, with a midpoint of 4.5%.
This comes after media reports indicated the government was considering lowering the inflation target in an effort to curb rising prices. SAFTU said the move would hurt workers, increase unemployment, and worsen economic inequality, and described it as an attack on the working class.
"The Reserve Bank continues to insist that lowering the target is 'pro-poor'. But this is the logic of a surgeon who proudly announces a 'successful operation' while the patient lies dead on the table. It is the fiction of technocrats who congratulate themselves while the economy flatlines," the union said.
The union added that lowering the inflation target was not a neutral "technical adjustment" but a political decision that will deepen unemployment, suppress household spending, and undermine wages.
"Lowering the inflation target to 3% is not a neutral technical adjustment. It is a political attack. It will deepen unemployment, suffocate household demand, undermine wages, cripple small business borrowing, and justify yet another round of budget cuts. It will intensify the suffering of the working class while protecting the wealth of the elite," the union added.
"It is sold as 'helping the poor,' when in reality it removes the oxygen from an economy already gasping for air".
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