Johannesburg - The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) accused government officials of stalling a strike for youth jobs, planned for the same day Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan would present his National Budget speech.
It said the strike, to demand jobs for the youth, will now take place next month. Numsa president Andrew Chirwa signed the notice for a strike to take place on March 19.
"This is the first of a series of rolling socio-economic strikes that the union decided on at its special national congress in December 2013," spokesperson Castro Ngobese said in a statement om Monday.
Numsa had originally applied to march on Wednesday, the same day Gordhan would present his budget to parliament.
"Realising that the proposed strike was to coincide with... [the] budget speech, government’s representative did everything in their power to stall so that the union does not meet the 14-day notice period required by Nedlac protocols," Ngobese said.
"Government’s bureaucrats and ministers realised that a national strike on budget day had the potential to blow away the ideological fog of 'we have a good story to tell'."
A demonstration would be held outside parliament on Wednesday, he said.