The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) has noted the none announcement of President Cyril Ramaphosa. Basically, he told the country that the government is “preparing for a further easing of lockdown and a gradual opening of the economy”. The President further told the nation that “we will make further announcements after the completion of consultations with relevant stakeholders on a proposal that by the end of May, most of the country be placed on alert level 3, but that those parts of the country with the highest rates of infection remain on level 4”

While this is important indicative information, most South Africans were expecting a more decisive announcement and information.  For example, based on the figures announced by the President, only 0,5% of the population has been tested. There is no breakdown presented to see where the hotspots per every ward are, town, workplaces, sectors in the economy are. We need to know the percentage of tested people per each province as a percent of the population in each province.

We need to know why Western Cape has become the epic centre of the virus. For example, we need to know if the Western Cape high numbers are in any way linked to the levels of testing of citizens as some have argued. We wanted to hear the impact of the lack of capacity in government and private sector laboratories on the spread of the virus in the provinces such as the Eastern Cape wherein its biggest metro, Nelson Mandela, people are spending more than two weeks waiting for the results.

We needed to know what is the government advise from the scientists in this regard. We needed the confusing and often contradictory statements made by the government and scientists to be better clarified. For example, we demand to be clarified if the government has come to the conclusion that whatever number of South Africans will die and therefore all we must prepare is the graveyards. We need a government to say we are moving towards alert level 3 because based on scenarios that relate to the testing results and the spread of the virus. 

The government must lead but it must give us an assurance that it continues to rely on the advice of scientists instead of responding to the pressure of interested parties which we suspect it would like to appease at the expense of the lives of the working class. 

The announcement of today without that detail seems to be a government pandering to the pressure that big business which has been relentless pilling. 

We, however, agree with the government that the lockdown has produced good results. In particular, we are pleased to know that the rate of infection remains low at 181 per million when others in Europe have more than 2400 infection per million. Equally the numbers of recoveries are impressive so is the number of people dying quite low. 

SAFTU is however extremely worried by the spike in numbers since the softening of the lockdown. SAFTU is extremely concerned that many employers are not complying with the return to work regulations announced by the Minister of Cooperatives and Traditional Affairs and later detailed by Minister of Employment and Labour. We fear that this may be the main reason why we are seeing a spike of infections in alert level 4. 

SAFTU is extremely concerned that the unions are battling and simply overwhelmed by workers complaints about lack of Personal Protective Equipment, lack of social distancing measures and other hygienic steps, etc. The Department of Employment and Labour is equally overwhelmed and with no capacity to enforce the regulations. In the situation where unions only represent 24% of the working population, inevitably workers in particular from the most vulnerable sectors are at the mercy of the unscrupulous employers who are cutting corners prioritising profits at the expense of the lives of the working class. 

Lastly, President wrongfully commends his government for being consultative and promises to consult even more. Nothing can be further from the truth. Our experience is that the government is not only failing to consult but it is actually adopted a factional approach. 

SAFTU is the second largest federation in the country. SAFTU is the home of the biggest union in the country organising the industrial proletariat, NUMSA. Also, the second-biggest union in the manufacturing sector, FAWU is affiliated to SAFTU. All of these workers represented by these unions plus more are not being consulted and will not be consulted. 

SAFTU has been kept out of the National and Provincial Centers. Our letters of protest are being ignored. SAFTU forms part of 140 working-class formations and the ‘cry of the excluded’. Further SAFTU has worked with 190 civil society formations in the COVID 19 Coalition. Nearly 150 economists also wrote a letter to the President calling for decisive steps to avoid what is already happening today in the economy. President promised these economists a meeting which he simply later did not honour. All of these multitudes remain locked outside and are not being consulted and sidelined because they are not the praise singers of the government. 

We call on the government to liberate itself from factional politics of the tripartite alliance and accept that the government must work with all citizens of the country during the pangamic crisis such as we face today.

Issued by SAFTU