Thousands of South African workers staged nationwide demonstrations on Wednesday to protest against high unemployment and government policies they say have failed to create jobs and are deepening poverty. Workers dressed in red t-shirts, showing their loyalty to the trade union movement, gathered in the eastern port city of Durban, Johannesburg and other locations for open-air rallies three months ahead of the country's general election.
Companies in South Africa, notably in the mining sector, have shed tens of thousands of jobs in recent years in what unions have termed a "jobs bloodbath" as the economy of Africa's most industrialised nation struggles for growth.
South Africa has a near-record 27 percent unemployment rate, and trade unions say that 9.3 million employable people need jobs. Zingiswa Losi, president of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), led the march in Durban, which was attended by about 6,000 people. "Today's march is a national strike and we are marching to (say to the) government and the private sector, we cannot afford to lose jobs in this country," Losi told reporters.
About 2,000 people attended the Johannesburg rally. Singing anti-apartheid songs such as "Senzeni na" ("What have we done?"), workers marched through the city centre dancing and "toyi-toying", a protest move synonymous with the struggle against apartheid.