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Att: The President of the Republic

Re: Planning and Coordination of Government Policy

Dear Comrade President Zuma

Please receive this memorandum from us in relation to the difficulties we have in realizing the promises we made to our people during the election campaign.

We come here today to support you in your stated ambition to ensure that we confront the twin scourge of poverty and unemployment in our beautiful country. We are the champions of the implementation of our movement's policy at a local level, and are encountering too many difficulties in making things happen for our people. We raise the following three areas of concern; with the plea that urgent consideration will be given.

The coherence and integrity of our Industrial strategy and our autonomy as a nation is something that we believe should be jealously guarded, even as we engage in a globalizing world that seeks to define rules that promote development and equity, as was the promise of the DOHA round of the World Trade Organization. The fact that the WTO negotiations has stalled is in no part due to the pursuit of a trade agenda that is neither free nor fair.

The outcomes of Global trade has been fundamentally unfair, where the tools that Developed Countries used to build and support their Industrial base is now being denied to the Developing Countries. The WTO is the institution in which the rules for the future will be defined, but these rules must be mindful of the need to undo the historic injustices of the trade regime. These institutions and their leadership must however be mindful and respectful of the autonomy and processes in the countries that are members. The recent visit by the WTO director was meant to present an opportunity for the Leadership of the Social Partners to engage with the WTO and give a sense of the sentiment of the country towards the present round of talks.

The WTO director had shown complete disregard and disrespect to the Democratic processes in our country by unilaterally changing the scheduled meeting with Nedlac. We are appalled at the high-handed manner in which the WTO chose to deal with SA this time round and see this as an indication of their general attitude to democratic participation, which is their historical weakness. We urge our Presidency to convey to the WTO that the institutions of SA are part of the democratic ethos of our country and as such should be treated with respect and consideration.

The need for a coherent Industrial strategy that promotes jobs creation and the expansion of the Industrial base of South Africa is a desire we share with Government. This is meant to be a central objective of the coordination of the policy within Government. We are really concerned that the provision as it relates to the TV industry and your pledge to the TV Industry workers in Atlantis is not being upheld by the ministries. The planning and coordination across the Ministries appear to not be effective in promoting the developments across the Industry in regard to the creation of South African jobs and manufacturing capacity.

There is a specific example where the set top boxes that needs to be put in place for the Digital migration program of government is not being prioritized for South African production. There appears to be a real danger in the separation of the Set Top boxes from the discussion with Trade & Industry, that the boxes could be manufactured in India, given that the board members from Industry have a manufacturing plant in India. We appeal to your good office to urgently intervene in this sector as already we have lost 3 major manufacturing plants affecting close onto 568 workers.

The next area of concern is the management of the fishing related matters across the ministries. We observe that it appears as if the fishing industry is across 2 ministries that would be responsible for the different areas. Both of these ministers have been having meetings with the communities and have been sending out mixed signals in respect of the management of this important resource that is the life blood of many communities and workers. We would appeal that the issue of where the fishing policy is located be addressed as soon as possible, so as to respond to the urgent needs of workers and communities in the fishing industries. The separation of the various aspects of fishing is difficult for our communities to understand, as it complicates the efforts to bring coherence in fishing policy and a seem-less response to all aspects of fishing, which are inter-related.

We gather here in the rain today, because despite correspondence to the various ministries we have not had an adequate response to the difficulties that could be solved through administrative decisions. The promises we made to our people during the election campaign is being undone by bureaucratic mismanagement or ineffective management. The Polokwane resolutions that spoke so eloquently to these matters, is again being frustrated by the inability to coordinate our efforts. These are not difficult issues requiring Billions of Rand, this needs political will and good management and we are not getting those responses with the urgency that we need from the Ministries.

We plea to your good office, comrade President, to crack the whip and ensure that the political action matches the political resolutions. The Ministries have to understand that no turf is holy when it retards the interest of our people. The need for collaboration, cooperation and accountability has to be instilled across the Ministries and society.

Signed on this day 31 July 2009

For Cosatu Monroe Mkalipi, Cosatu Western Cape Provincial Chairperson