The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Wednesday welcomed the release of the long awaited Comprehensive Social Security Discussion Paper by the Department of Social Development.

Government had promised to release its Comprehensive Social Security Discussion Paper by July, but the release was postponed.

Cosatu spokesperson, Sizwe Pamla, said the subject of the release of the Comprehensive Social Security paper was a decision of several alliance summits and numerous conferences and meetings of the African National Congress (ANC), including many long meetings at the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac).

“We view this as a major victory for the federation as COSATU has been fighting for the release of this paper for a long time,” Pamla said.

“This is long overdue and it is an indictment on government that the paper is only released now after a relentless battle by Cosatu, demanding its release, when the Taylor Commission report and its recommendations on this issue were released in 2002.”

Pamla said Cosatu would study the paper, respond and engage with it at Nedlac to make sure that it helped workers and the country deal with poverty eradication and also put a Comprehensive Social Security System in place.

“This paper is coming out at an opportune time because we believe that the National Minimum Wage will not succeed if it is not accompanied by a Comprehensive Social Security System,” Pamla said.

“The release of this paper also represents a push against the classical neo-liberalism offensive from Treasury in particular, that has frustrated the release of this paper for many years in favour of a piecemeal and fragmented approach to Social Security reform.”

The Cosatu Comprehensive Social Security Discussion Paper will be discussed at Nedlac on Friday.