The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) organized workers nationwide to protest corruption associated with president Jacob Zuma and his political party, the ANC.
COSATU published a statement on Wednesday saying that "workers are ready and willing to fight the cancer of corruption."
According to COSATU, South Africa loses an approximate US$ 10.9 billion from corruption and illicit transactions every year. The same report also states the country suffers from a whopping 38 percent unemployment rate, 13.8 million people live below the national poverty line and over 17 million citizens are on welfare.
The statement said that while South Africans are still struggling to buy homes , the president’s close associates, the Gupta brothers, have purchased homes in Dubai worth US$ 33 million with stolen money.
The worker’s strike coincides with a recent scandal involving the KPMG’s branch in South Africa. According to Reuters, the auditing company fired its local leadership after an internal investigation revealed the work they had done for companies owned by the Guptas "fell considerably short" of KPMG's standards.
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