DEMAWUSA is the new home for all municipal and allied workers in South Africa. DEMAWUSA recruits all municipal workers and other related services within the local government sector. It has risen from the ashes of the old. It is a genuinely democratic, independent, militant and campaigning trade union deeply committed to the principles of accountability and worker control.
Membership of DEMAWUSA is open to all workers employed, directly and indirectly, in local government, water boards and allied undertakings whether in the public, private or voluntary sector. DEMAWUSA believes that all workers falling under local government and its allied services must be organised under its banner. DEMAWUSA believes that no worker must be left un-unionised because such a worker is vulnerable to the employer’s cruelty and abuse. DEMAWUSA is not only for low-earned workers or commonly known as general workers, but for front line, office bound professionals and managers alike, permanent and non-permanent workers, young and old.
The Covid-19 pandemic has starkly exposed South Africa’s inequalities, at a time our country was already falling apart. We in SAFTU will not just fold our arms while our economy crumbles, our communities suffer and the future of our children stolen!
The battle against the pandemic did not unite South Africans, “all in this together”. It divided us further. In what is already the world’s most unequal country, rich capitalists have gotten richer, while the working class is now much poorer.