South African workers are holding protests nationwide against the rising cost of living, as inflation hits its highest rate of since 2009.
Thousands of workers took to the streets in all nine provinces to demand, among other things, a basic income grant, a better minimum wage, and a cap on fuel prices and interest rates.
They also want the ongoing problems at the state-owned supplier of electricity, Eskom, to be resolved so that businesses stop losing work due to power cuts.
Azar Jammine, chief economist at consultancy firm Econometrix, said the July inflation rate of 7.8 percent was expected.
"The main causes obviously have been the steep increase in fuel prices at the beginning of July and the continuing rise in food prices as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the halting of food exports from the latter until recently, which pushed up commodity prices globally," Jammine said.
The $88 basic income grant demanded by of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (CPSATU) and the South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) is unrealistic, Jammine added.
"It's a path to total catastrophe in a very short space of time if we were to succumb to the kind of basic income grant that they're looking for, which would cost R400-billion extra per year," Jammine said. "Let us rather just live with the kind of social grants that we already have, which are more magnanimous and widespread than is the case with most other countries."
Economist Lebohang Pheko, a senior research fellow at the Trade Collective research group, disagreed.
"My question is, can we afford not to?" Pheko said. "I think the notion of a basic income which is able to deal with things like hunger at household level and at childhood level which has other impacts like stunting, cognitive functioning at a very crucial developmental age is quite important."
But can the protests force the government's hand?
"I do think that what these kinds of protests do is they are a challenge to the state, they are a reminder, a poll cast from the very poor and from the very angry of what is happening on the ground," Pheko said. "And what do you do when you receive something in the mail? You do well to read it."
Jammine, meanwhile, is optimistic prices will improve soon.
"Given the fact that fuel prices came down sharply in August and are likely to fall further in September and given that Ukraine has now started shipping food back abroad, exporting to Middle East and other countries, food prices could also start coming down," Jammine said.
Ironically, COSATU, which initially called for the protests, is an alliance partner with the ruling African National Congress party, which has been in power since 1994.
