/ MEDIA STATEMENT / The content on this page is not written by Polity.org.za, but is supplied by third parties. This content does not constitute news reporting by Polity.org.za.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions held a scheduled meeting of its Central Executive Committee from 23-25 May 2016, attended by the national office bearers, and representatives of its affiliated unions and provincial structures.

The meeting discussed and resolved on a number of organisational, political, international and socio-economic issues affecting the workers and the working class.

International Balance of forces

This CEC acknowledged the fact that this meeting took place a time of persistent economic downturn of global capitalism, to which semi-peripheral and developing countries, such as South Africa are particularly vulnerable.

Capital continues to manoeuvre its way out of the crisis by shifting its burden to the working class, whilst at the same time opening more policy and political space to deepen their accumulation agenda.

Around the world, monopoly capital has successfully shifted the blame of ideological and economic failures of capitalism to nation states, in the process leaving national governments trying to explain their failures to the angry masses.

Developing countries are experiencing the level of social instability, not seen in years.

Those countries that have been pursuing a developmental agenda have seen their progressive left governments experiencing some electoral losses. This loss of elections represents a strategic setback, which merits a deep analysis by the left and revolutionaries, from which important lessons must be learnt. The BRICS countries have been subjected to an onslaught, with many of them experiencing social instability and economic turmoil.

Our own government is under serious threat from a population that has seen deepening poverty, rising inequality and the growing unemployment.

In response to this, our government has already succumbed to the temptation of adopting regressive and contractionary policies by cutting social expenditure. Our economic growth in South Africa remains subdued and grew by a meagre 0.6% in the fourth quarter of 2015.

We have also seen some troubling developments with the burning of schools in Vuwani, Limpopo, the torching of factories in Mandeni, KZN, the killing of people in Hammanskraal, Tshwane and the trashing of parliament by the EFF members in Cape Town.

The CEC sharply condemned these incidents and made it clear that while, we all have a right to protest, the violent nature of our protests is unacceptable.

These acts of vandalism like burning of schools and factories, thrashing of parliament and killing of people are not just anarchical, but they are reactionary and treasonous.

They undermine the foundation of our democracy and attack the very fabric of our society. We expect the law enforcement agencies to do their work of investigating and arresting the perpetrators. This is deeply worrying because we consciously chose the path of peaceful protests and dialogue as a country and turned our backs away from violence.

Whilst the situation looks bleak with employers on the offensive against collective bargaining and worker rights, we have been emboldened by the legal victories that workers have scored recently.

The most recent was against the Free Market Foundation that has been trying to dismantle collective bargaining, as we know it. We are also encouraged by the decision of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in Bloemfontein that denied the five directors of mining company Aurora Empowerment systems, the right to appeal the high court judgment that ruled that they are personally liable for economic vandalism at Aurora.

The Johannesburg High Court also allowed silicosis sufferers to institute class action against South Africa’s gold mining companies. This is huge victory for the thousands of former mineworkers, who contracted silicosis and pulmonary tuberculosis in the mines. This week also saw President Jacob Zuma signing into law the Revenue Laws Amendment Act.

This Act represents a major victory for workers and COSATU because it means that government has agreed to COSATU and workers’ demands to stop the Taxation Laws Amendment Act’s compulsory annuitisation of provident funds. While these victories are very important, we remain vigilant and ready for the numerous battles ahead of us.

The CEC acknowledged that recently the nation celebrated a huge milestone of the centenary celebrations at Fort Hare University.

Building the organisation

The federation emerges from its CEC meeting more confident, united, and ready to confront its organisational challenges, the workplace challenges facing the workers and the socio-economic challenges facing the working class in general.

This meeting took place in the context of the generalised intensification of the attack by capital against trade unions. The broader labour movement is facing some very serious challenges- both internal and externally. Some are self-inflicted, and some are being pursued by our class enemies, to weaken us.

The meeting noted that there are attempts to divide the unions and the workers by people, who are not elected by any workers structures but are funded by monopoly capital.

This further splintering of the trade union movement in South Africa is taking place at a time ,when only last year Statistics SA’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey showed that unionisation has now gone down to 29% of the workforce.

The message from the CEC is that workers cannot afford to fight amongst themselves and to be defocused away from real battles by inconsequential sectarian squabbles.

We are very happy though with the report that showed that our membership remains stable, despite the economic downturn. Our CEC report showed that our recruitment campaign is yielding results and unions like Limusa are growing.

The CEC reaffirmed that the only weapon workers have to improve their wages and conditions of employment is their unity and also made it very clear that we have a responsibility of stopping the degeneration of worker organisations.

The meeting reiterated the federation’s commitment to building a united, growing, militant, independent and fighting federation that will continue to be a major factor in the political and economic life of our country.

What came out very clear is that our federation and its affiliates are now regrouping and steadily regaining their focus and strength. Going forward we have resolved to strengthen our fight back against employers through mass mobilisation.

We plan to rediscover our disciplined, militant and unapologetic political voice and make sure that the Back to Basics concept is not just a slogan. We shall intensify our recruitment programme that is targeted at organising the unorganised workers. We are also going to ensure that our unions heighten their solidarity work and support each other’s struggles.

The meeting acknowledged the work that has been done by the COSATU NOB’s in helping build unity amongst unions and also within our unions that are currently experiencing internal turmoil. The leadership has met with many affiliates and will continue to consolidate that work with the help of the CEC to ensure that we build a family of unions who are going to fight and defend each other.

The meeting also agreed to convene the Special CEC meeting of COSATU that will deal with organisational issues only. This meeting will focus on resolving affiliates issues across the board.

We also call on our unions to prioritise unity and deal with all foreign tendencies that are likely to divide and weaken their unions.

In the Special CEC we will review our organisational operations, build the capacity of our personnel and strengthen our engines of coordination.

On education, the meeting acknowledged that we are not doing well in terms of education and going forward we shall convene an education conference to discuss how to implement the resolutions from the 12th National Congress.

Campaigns

We have resolved that the best way of rebuilding the federation is to have a campaigning federation.

Our ongoing campaigns like the recruitment campaign, the banning of labour brokers, opposition to e-tolling, Anti corruption, anti –privatisation, and the demand for an integrated public transport system will be strengthened and consolidated.

The in-sourcing campaign will continue to be our priority as we focus on the vulnerable workers.

Farm workers continue to be under siege and the latest labour inspections have exposed horrendous living conditions for the workers.

We are ready to launch a campaign focusing on farm workers and their working conditions.

The federation’s last congress made it very clear that the Expanded Public Works Programme workers need to be permanently employed by municipalities and that the Community development workers need to be absorbed to the public service. We will organise and fight for these workers to ensure that this happens.

The position taken by the National Treasury with regard to public service vacancies, means that vacancies in hospitals at the level of administrative staff, potters and gardeners are going to be closed and eliminated. We are ready to campaign in opposition to Treasury’s austerity measures.

We also shall campaign for the restructuring of the mining industry, with government taking 50% ownership of all mining companies in the country through a state mining company. This is why as workers, we cannot afford to focus on peripheral issues.

Our campaigns shall incorporate the fight against racism because workers are the ones, who are dealing with racial bigotry every day, especially vulnerable workers like domestic, retail, services, security and farm workers.

Unemployment and the economy

The CEC expressed alarm at the latest unemployment figures that show that South Africa’s unemployment rate increased to 26.7% of the labour force, in the first quarter of this year.

We are still concerned by the government’s indecisiveness and vacillation in the face of massive retrenchments that are affecting all sectors of the economy.

With the real unemployment sitting at 36% , it is no wonder that we are seeing rising popular discontent, a growing sense of alienation, frustration and sometimes despair amongst a significant section of the youth, the unemployed, and the working poor.

The CEC resolved to lobby for a NEDLAC Summit, whose priority will be about jobs and the economy.

What is coming out very clear is that SA cannot rely on foreign direct investment and foreign direct investment also cannot be a panacea to the problems of jobs in South Africa.

We are worried that Treasury has only spent its energies on pacifying foreign investors that have so far done nothing to rescue our economy.

The meeting expressed concern that the second radical second phase is stillborn, and there is no real visible effort from government to fundamentally shift the economic trajectory, and also transform the structure of our economy to address the triple crisis of poverty, unemployment and inequality.

The workers lives have not been fundamentally transformed and as a result of the structural fault-lines of the economy that we inherited from colonialism and apartheid, the disastrous neoliberal policies perpetuated by our government and the worldwide crisis of capitalism, most working people face mass unemployment, widespread poverty and widening inequality.

The CEC reiterated the federation’s call for decisive state intervention in strategic sectors of the economy, including through strategic nationalisation and state ownership. We are worried that the state is refusing to use a variety of macro-economic and other levers at its disposal, to regulate and channel investment in the job intensive areas of the economy.

We need more effective deployment of all state levers to advance industrialisation and the creation of decent work on a large scale.

We condemn the Treasury for refusing to radically overhaul our macroeconomic policy in line with the radical economic shift, which is very necessary at this time.

The CEC reiterated its position that Treasury and the Reserve Bank constitutes the biggest obstacles to the government’s economic programme and they both need to be urgently realigned and given a new mandate.

We are very clear that if beneficiation is properly applied it can be used as a leverage to help our ailing economy and benefit the workers and people of South Africa. The CEC wants retirement funds to be channeled into productive investment, including helping workers access affordable housing finance.

We are tired of seeing workers retirement monies invested in vanity projects and sectors that only create few millionaires and billionaires, while workers starve.

We need government to fast track and strengthen comprehensive land reform process, because the agricultural sector has the potential to create millions of jobs.
The CEC also called for the exploration and the implementation of the wealth tax that will ensure that rich people pay their fare share of tax for the common good. We also want a moratorium on wage increases for senior executives in both the public and private sectors.

Government needs to move swiftly to stop the billions of rands that are illicitly flown out of the country, dwarfing capital inflows, and stifling economic development.
There is no difference between investor strike and capital flight because these companies take their profits off shore and the country loses revenue.

The CEC calls on government to do a lot more to support local industrialisation and manufacturing including the use of incentives to grow the textile, leather, automotive sector industries. We also need to promote investment in rural areas and townships economy.

Minimum Wage and Labour Relations

The meeting condemned lack of progress in the negotiations with regard to the Minimum Wage after nearly eighteen months of frustrating negotiations, where business negotiated in bad faith.

It is totally unacceptable that two years after the ANC committed to implementing a National Minimum Wage, there have been little significant progress in the negotiations.

The South African business community that is still benefiting from the legacy of the apartheid cheap labour system, is being very short-sighted by frustrating the implementation of a meaningful National Minimum Wage.

To avoid strikes and improve labour relations they need to address the extreme levels of inequality and poverty wages they pay workers.

A meaningful National Minimum Wage will also make a significant contribution to stimulating equitable economic growth and development.

The CEC endorsed the view by labour at Nedlac that we need to declare a formal dispute, to break the current deadlock. Going forward we shall be mobilising workers and society in order to embark on a protected mass action in demand of the national minimum wage.
Political situation

Politically the CEC reflected deeply on the current state of the Alliance and concluded that decisive leadership is needed to navigate the current period that is characterised by turmoil, disunity, factionalism and ill-discipline.

The meeting agreed that the current political crisis faced by the African National Congress is the crisis of the entire movement and it reflects our collective weaknesses.

The present situation is untenable and unsustainable for the African National Congress because we risk entering a new phase of decline and deterioration that will only get worse if things remain the same. The movement needs to take responsibility to resolve this degeneration and that also goes for all its components.

It is now clear that some amongst our people believe that our revolution has taken a detour, that in neither tactical nor strategic.

This has emboldened counterrevolutionary forces ,comprising white-monopoly capital, bourgeois media and political opposition supported by western imperialism.
The narrow focus on internal factional battles, by the movement and the growing social distance from the people and the never-ending scandals risk gradually eroding the high moral ground of the movement and weaken its political capacity to lead society.

The meeting expressed concern that opposition forces seems to have gained confidence and they are prepared to take the movement head on and defeat it in the streets and in the courts. This means that we all need close ranks as workers and take responsibility for the revolution.

Workers need to anchor the Alliance and carry the burden of defending the gains of the revolution and also shaping its future.

COSATU will convene a bilateral with both the ANC and the SACP that will be preceded by an Alliance meeting, to discuss the state of the Alliance and also the direction of the National Democratic Revolution.

The CEC also agreed that in those bilateral we need to make it clear that the movement needs to reaffirm its biasness towards the working class through actions, like dealing with those, who choose to ignore or deliberately misinterpret the progressive policies of the movement, when implementing them.

COSATU will remain principled and shall at all times speak out and embark on campaigns to ensure that the revolution stays on track.

The CEC also expressed deep reservations about the developments in the ANC KZN, including the decision to recall KwaZulu-Natal Premier Cde Senzo Mchunu, without consulting the alliance partners.

This was an unnecessary decision that was carelessly handled and does not serve the interests of the ANC. COSATU urges all alliance partners to avoid decisions that will likely sow divisions and compromise the unity of both the ANC and the Alliance.

We call on the ANC NEC to provide decisive leadership to keep the ANC united and focused on local government elections.

The national leadership has an obligation to ensure that something like that does not happen again.

The meeting also discussed the ongoing fights between Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and the Hawks and reiterated the federation’s principled position that we are totally opposed to the use of state agencies to fight political battles.

The federation is unambiguous in its denouncement of this phenomenon and we will not sit idle, when agencies are running amok and used to settle political scores.

Local Government elections

The meeting agreed that the municipal elections campaign remains an integral part of our 2016 programme of action. We are ready to campaign for the ANC as mandated by the 12th National Congress and will ensure that it gets a decisive election victory.

We reiterate our position that we will not support candidates, who have not been endorsed by communities but have been imposed unprocedurally to the movement.

Workers have to vote for the ANC to defend the gains of the revolution.

NHI

The federation is extremely concerned that National Health Insurance is departing from its original framework that was developed by the Alliance and endorsed by the electorate in the 2014 National General Elections.

The CEC is calling on the country’s, president, Cde Jacob Zuma to intervene and take the lead in the implementation of NHI.

The NHI is the only programme of the ANC government, since 1994 that proposes to radically redistribute resources on a mass scale to the poor, directly from the rich, ensuring access to all and also breaking down class differentiation in the quality of access.

We can understand the threats coming from outside government but we are more worried about the sustained threat inside the government, mainly from the Treasury and vested interests at provincial government level.

SADTU and the Ministerial Task Team report

The CEC condemned the detestable attacks that are directed at our affiliate, the South African Democratic Teachers Union by the DA and other civil society organisations over the Ministerial Task Team report, when the report made it very clear.

SADTU as an organization was not guilty of selling any posts.

We strongly condemn the department of Basic Education for succumbing to the pressure and colluding with those, who have political scores to settle with SADTU.
We are going to engage both the department of Basic Education and the ANC to sharply raise this political agenda and offensive directed at our affiliate with the connivance of the department.

The attacks on COSATU unions are systemic and consistent especially targeting our bigger affiliates. We view this as an attempt to weaken and liquidate the federation and we are ready to close ranks and defend the federation.

SABC as a public broadcaster

The meeting noted the decision of public broadcaster, SABC to play 90% local music across its 18 radio stations.

This is long overdue because the federation has been calling for this for a long time.

Our affiliates CWU and CWUSA have been at the forefront of this campaign and we hope that this will not just stop with music but will spread to other work of the SABC.

The Board of the SABC should be at the forefront of leading this campaign because they are a public broadcaster and have a mandate to look after the interests of South Africans in general.

We congratulate the Communication Workers Unions for achieving the 7% increase for the workers at a time when the economy is struggling.

Ministers vs COSATU unions
COSATU wants to strongly denounce the emergence of a troubling pattern of behaviour by some cabinet ministers, who are targeting COSATU unions in public. Mineral Resources Minister, Mosebenzi Zwane went to the Free State and lied about the NUM and has since refused to engage them and declined their invitation.

He has been very reckless and divisive in the manner that he has been dealing with stakeholders in the sector.

Basic Education Minister, Angie Motsekga has joined opposition parties and colluded with them to engage on a misinformation against SADTU. COSATU views these attacks as an attack on the federation itself and will not allow itself to be victimised.

Finance Minister, Pravin Ghordan has not been helpful to the cause of the working class and he is one of the ministers, who is guilty of reviewing and misinterpreting the policies of the ANC.

He has continuously used public servants as a scapegoat for the country’s economic woes and his austerity measures are hitting the working class hard.

Oakbay employees vs Banks

The CEC reiterated its full support for Oakbay employees who have been battling the major banks following their decision to cut ties with their employer Oakbay Investments.

The meeting reiterated the federation’s position that workers should not be victims of corporate conflicts and should not be made to pay for the sins of others.

The federation calls on all workers in general to offer support to the Oakbay employees because workers are their own liberators and with unity nothing is impossible.

International solidarity work

The CEC has reiterated its continued commitment to support of the people of Palestine including contributing to the BDS campaign.

We pledge our unwavering solidarity with the struggling peoples of Swaziland, Cuba, Western Sahara, Basque and Kurdistan, and we undertake to step up our internationalist solidarity protest actions in their support.

The meeting also rejected the ongoing coup in Brazil and we find it unacceptable that when the majority of the Brazilian Senate and House of Representatives approved the admission of the impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff, they ignored 54 million that voted her in power in the October 2014 election.

We denounce this coup by the conservative forces that are serving monopoly capital.

We offer solidarity to the Brazilian workers and call on them to continue to resist the attacks on their labour rights.

They must unite and close ranks against those opposed to the minimum wage, pro-privatisation and also advocating for reduction of public investment in social policies, including education and health.

Issued by COSATU