According to Popcru Provincial Secretary, Amelia Mahlatsi, the union demands that the provincial government prioritise provincial budgets in improving the conditions of law enforcement officers. 

The union previously held a picket march in front of the Provincial Treasury premises to hand over a memorandum and to highlight issues besieging its members, including traffic officials, police and correctional officers. Mahlatsi tells OFM News that the Provincial Treasury should stop behaving as though it is a super-department by working against the objectives of building a developmental society for South Africans. Mahlatsi says that the department has been given 14 days to respond to the demands which also includes addressing austerity measures imposed by the Treasury in the Criminal Justice Cluster, which has an impact on the shortage of resources and human resources.

She says the union wants the government to strengthen and monitor procurement processes in the province to limit tender irregularities.

“As a progressive trade union, we shall never apologise for standing up for the poor and working class. We shall never apologise for asserting the constitutional rights of workers. We shall never apologise for demanding a better transformed Criminal Justice Cluster. We were established for this purpose and can never betray the mission of our existence. We are here as a matter of right in the full exercise of our constitutional right to protest the behaviour of this lethargic administration which appears oblivious to the deepening levels of poverty, inequality and unemployment. We are here to remind this administration of its immediate task to give effect to our constitutional rights.”

She says the Provincial Treasury has become a literal state within a state, dictating its own economic trajectory amidst a crisis against workers and the poor.

“We live in the midst of high levels of poverty, escalating crises of unemployment, and deepening income inequalities, mainly affecting the working class and the poor of our country, with the working-class youth at the receiving end of this triple crisis. We are committed to a system that will reflect cooperation between our members and the community in an effort to truly serve and protect all members of our society in line with our Constitution,” Mahlatsi adds.

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In August 2022, Cosatu members and its tripartite alliance members, as well as Nehawu and Samwu, handed over the memorandum of demands to the MEC of Agriculture at the OR Tambo House in Bloemfontein in the Free State. They had called for a national shutdown over issues, including the high fuel levy, high unemployment rates, and poverty.

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