The EFF has accused the DA of launching a direct attack on workers’ dignity with its proposal to reduce the national minimum wage.
The DA argues that raising the minimum wage would only worsen South Africa’s already high unemployment rate.
The EFF says that this action is an intentional attempt to sabotage the accomplishments of the working class and could return the nation to colonial exploitation.
Leigh-Ann Mathys, the EFF’s national spokesperson, stated that the DA’s push for lower wages aims to entrench poverty in South Africa.
“Their opposition to the Employment Equity Act is equally insidious,” said Mathys.
“By attempting to remove affirmative action and scrap transformation policies, they are undermining any effort to dismantle the entrenched racial inequalities in the labour market.
“Their goal is clear: [to] preserve the white-dominated corporate structures that continue to benefit from the exploitation of African labour.”
Modern-day slavery
She said the DA believes that the country’s labour laws unfairly favour workers, highlighting that they claim these laws give workers more rights than employers, which contributes to high levels of unemployment.
Mathys opposed the idea that there would be more jobs created if the unemployment rate was reduced, referring to the notion as modern-day slavery.
She said: “The DA’s position exposes their complete lack of interest in creating real, sustainable jobs or fostering state-led industrialisation.
“Instead, they want young black people to be so desperate for work that they are forced to accept whatever crumbs are offered.
“They seek to strip workers of their rights, favouring corporate profits over human lives.
“In their desperation, their leader, John Steenhuisen, even appealed to coloured and Indian communities, exploiting racial division by falsely claiming BBBEE [broad-based black economic empowerment] policies only favour African people in what they consider to be ‘reverse racism’.”
