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Dear friends and fellow South Africans,

Throughout the world, the first of May is set aside to remember the
historical struggle of workers and trade unions to achieve fair
employment standards and a culture of human rights in the labour
market. I am proud to be a part of that struggle.

In South Africa in the 1970s, black workers were excluded from trade
unions because the definition of "worker" in the Industrial
Constitution did not include Africans. This prompted me to form the
Institute for Industrial Education in Durban with the support of
Professor Lawrence Schlemmer.

The then KwaZulu Government was deeply involved in the big strike
which took place in Durban in 1973, which became a turning point in
labour relations in this country. This was before I founded the
National Cultural Liberation Movement, Inkatha Yenkululeko Yesizwe.

As the Chief Minister of KwaZulu, I sent my then Minister of Interior,
Mr Barney Dladla, to support the strikers in Durban. The then Minister
of Labour, Mr Marais Viljoen - who later became the State President -
resented the role we played. He said Durban was outside the area which
government defined as 'KwaZulu'.

I retorted to Mr Viljoen's attack by saying that when the government
set up the homeland governments, they stated that they were to
regulate the affairs of "Zulu people wherever they are". Most of the
workers in Durban were Zulu and their rights were therefore a matter
for my concern. In reality, my concern was for every black worker who
had no trade union.

In 1986, the Director of the South African Institute of Race
Relations, Mr John Kane-Berman, noted that: "Apartheid rests on the
fundamental absurdity that one can make use of blacks as labour, but
deny their existence as people."

Because of my efforts in support of black workers, I was awarded the
George Meany Human Rights Award by the largest trade union in the
world, the AFL-CIO in the United States of America. I received it
jointly with a trade unionist who worked for black industrial workers
in Johannesburg, Dr Neil Aggett. The circumstances surrounding Dr
Aggett's death remain suspicious.

We were the second recipients of the George Meany Award, the first
being Lec Walesa, the founder of Solidarity in Poland and perhaps the
most famous unionist of the last century.

My commitment to bolstering workers' rights has continued through all
the years of my public life. I believe that workers are at the
forefront of any development of a country.

When I was in government and President Thabo Mbeki announced the
macro-economic strategy of Growth, Employment and Redistribution - or
GEAR, as it was known - I was delighted, because the ANC had
previously believed in socialism. Government realised that our labour
laws were too rigid and wanted to pass a law to remove that rigidity
in the interests of investment.

But members of the Tripartite Alliance; the Congress of South African
Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Communist Party, revolted
against what the Government intended to do. They threatened to roll
mass action and that was the end of that. To this day, we still need
greater flexibility in our labour market.

When GEAR was announced, I expressed concerns that the economy cannot
be stimulated merely by virtue of making the correct policy
statements, and I pointed out that many of the actions of government
were moving in the opposite direction to the one espoused by GEAR.

Among such contradictions were the policies adopted in respect of the
entire construct of the labour market and labour relations. I was very
critical of the Labour Relations Act and the corporative-state-type
system it imposed on South Africa.

My criticisms were partially accepted by President Thabo Mbeki who
entrusted then Deputy President Jacob Zuma with the job of
investigating how to bring back flexibility in our labour market. But
this effort resulted in nothing and was somehow stillborn because of
the overwhelming opposition of the trade unions.

At times I am criticised as being against trade unions, because I
happen to agree with business that making it next to impossible to
hire and fire employees deters employers from offering jobs. But
history shows that I am one of the strongest supporters of workers'
rights, and this criticism is unjust.

What I am against is our Government basing economic decisions on
politics. Economic realities will not yield to mere declarations of
policy, just as workers will not be treated fairly just because
Government organizes a Workers' Day rally.

Leadership is about more than just words. It's about doing what is
needed, regardless of how unpopular it might make you. That is a
lesson the ANC still needs to learn.

Yours in the service of our nation,

Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi MP