The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) president Andrew Chirwa has demanded an end to the country's appalling levels of inequality which continue to divide the country along racial lines, more than 30 years since the advent of democracy. Chirwa said the country's economy cannot continue to favour white monopoly capital while it reduces the poor working class, most of them black South Africans into a life of poverty and squalor.

Chirwa, speaking on Monday at the union's three-day National Bargaining Conference at the Sandton Hotel said that the recent poor electoral showing of the ANC has allowed AfriForum, the DA as well as Donald Trump's administration and other forces to become emboldened in their supremacist agenda against South Africa.

He said this had resulted in diplomatic tension which recently resulted in the expulsion of former ambassador to the U.S, Ebrahim Rasool.

"The sector is changing very fast and a union that uses 1990 strategy will be surpassed. The world we live in will become uncertain. We see it when supremacists like Donald Trump and Elon Musk as well as AfriForum and the DA have become emboldened.

"Trump is now working with racist supremacists. We now hear Madam Zille always ready to talk. Just now she wants to force President Cyril Ramaphosa to appoint Tony Leon as our ambassador after the firing of Ebrahim Rasool. This has defined new levels of democracy that we become accustomed to where complete right-wing organisations appoint themselves and visit the US and spread propaganda," Chirwa stated.

Chirwa said that more still needs to be done to move the struggle of the poor working class who are suffering due to the high cost of living and the reversal of gains of the past 30 years since the start of democracy.

"We as the working class must also enjoy cities such as Cape Town and Sandton because they were built on the sweat of the workers. We are gathered here to ensure that we narrow the gap between rich and poor and the levels of inequality that are appalling as only 10 percent of the country's population control the economy," he said.

Minister of Trade and Industry, Parks Tau emphasised the need for South Africans to debate critical issues that face them, saying this would help resolve some of the policy challenges in the country.

"This calls for us to contribute to the discourse about where we are and our policy choices on what direction to take. I have no doubt in my mind that there should be a national dialogue on our policy direction.

"We acknowledge that as the leadership of the ANC, we have seen democratic stagnation, and our efforts of transformation have not reached the levels we anticipated. Progress has stagnated and sometimes it has regressed. We now need to redefine ourselves and the direction that we need to take," he added.

siyabonga.sithole@inl.co.za