(THOUGHTLEADER SA) With an ‘oppositionist’ Cosatu, who needs a DA?
ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe is not so happy with the “oppositionist” posture that Cosatu and some unions within the federation take when dealing with the ruling party.
The veteran former unionist surely feels that “as comrades with same revolutionary parent (read goal), let us talk gently and say our opprobrium behind closed doors, not in the presence of our nemesis”. You can’t fault Mantashe for his concerns. In the last couple of months, the ANC has endured sustained attacks from within and without. The left nexus feels the party is shifting right while the right feels the party is not right enough. Some people feel this leadership is the weakest in the history of the ANC and has completely lost the radar. In the meantime, the DA has grown bolder and more assertive, believing it can even take Gauteng out of the ruling party. Once the DA used to engage in what others call “clicktivism” (internet or social media activism) but they are now bold enough to march to Cosatu house and even … wait for it … Nkandla. Why? Because they think the ANC is more vulnerable now than any time in history.
The ANC, on the other hand, feels that they are being blamed for everything under the sun. I assume that when the party’s head honchos meet for drinks they take a look at the political scene and the media’s offensive and conclude “those (the media) must be ignored, they never accepted us right from Polokwane anyways”. I can imagine my favourite secretary general, Mantashe, remarking to Cyril Ramaphosa somewhere in Sandton that “while the ‘white’ media, ‘white’ opposition and imperialists hated Thabo Mbeki, they could tolerate him because he was seen as an intellectual who they could sit up and listen to. With us, they can’t accept how we chose an uneducated man to lead Africa’s biggest economy and how we ousted their favourite ‘president’. So relax mchana, the media has a reason to hate us but the people on the ground love and will vote for us”. With this they sip their favourite whiskey and enjoy the day without a care in the world. Let’s be honest. The ANC, and just about any government that can take over in this democracy, is actually irritated with the media. It’s good, though, because where the media and the government are bedfellows then that’s a banana state. So in the eyes of our “revolutionary” leaders, the media’s criticism is easy to ignore and rubbish. After all, no leader of the ANC worth his salt would not have been taught that “counter revolutionaries use the media to subvert revolutions”.
And then there is the criticism from those who have a “post-Polokwane hangover”, as Blade Nzimande would call them. Those are dismissed as having sour grapes and refusing to accept they were defeated. Those are personified by the likes of Ronnie Kasrils. I am sure when his name pops up in conversations within the corridors of power, he is simply dismissed as just a rumble in the jungle. Even those who have genuine things to say about how the republic is run have cowed into silence because they know it will be difficult for them not to be seen as having sour grapes. Talking of which what happened to Joel Netshitenzhe?
Then there is the traditional opposition, whether Agang, Economic Freedom Fighters or the Democratic Alliance, those are just not taken seriously. They are just that: the opposition. What would be their relevance if they didn’t find fault in everything the ANC does anyway? So our dearest secretary general does not worry about them as much. They can criticise the ANC for all they like, it is like farting in water.
But try criticising the ANC from within and you rile up Mantashe. He could not take it when this was done by the Malema youth league and will definitely not take it when it’s being done by an important alliance member like Cosatu. That is why he emphasised at the Popcru conference that the federation needs to talk to the ANC gently and they will listen. He even suggested that there could have been at least 10 Cosatu leaders in the ANC NEC had it not been for the Cosatu “problems”. But what Mantashe misses is that with an “oppositionist” Cosatu who needs the DA?
To the average person, there is no need to vote for an opposition in South Africa because Cosatu raises the things the DA and society at large complains about … and the ANC listens. Or do they? The alliance is good enough with a strong and stinging Cosatu. With a lapdog Cosatu the DA would be riding at the crest of the wave on e-tolls, corruption and maladministration and people would rightly consider voting them. But with an “oppositionist” Cosatu people feel there is no need to vote for the opposition because Cosatu will raise the things they complain about and in a pro-poor way. Reducing Cosatu to a labour desk will therefore open space for the opposition and has long-term consequences for the ruling party.
It is better to have a troublesome child within the family than an outsider because no matter what he or she says or does, once an outsider joins in he or she defends the family wrongs and closes ranks. With the youth league officially silenced, Cosatu divided, an SACP too deeply embedded in the ANC, who will become the conscious of the once mighty revolution?
Labels: ANC, COSATU, GWEDE MANTASHE, NEOLIBERALISM
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Cosatu sets sights on the Reserve Bank
21 Sep 2012 04:54 - Charles Molele, Matuma Letsoalo
Cosatu is planning a nationwide strike to demand a radical economic shift on monetary policy and a review of the mandate of the SA Reserve Bank.
Addressing delegates on Thursday, Congress of South African Trade Unions general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said the federation would lodge a section 77 notice with the National Economic Development and Labour Council to allow Cosatu's 2.2-million members to go on strike to force the government to change the current economic policies.
Cosatu said the working class's patience was running out, and it adopted several resolutions that it will take to the ANC conference in Mangaung in December. They included a call for state intervention in strategic sectors of the economy, including nationalisation and state ownership, and an overhaul of macroeconomic policy.
The congress also called for a radical economic shift that would include the realignment of the treasury and a new mandate for the Reserve Bank, which it said should be nationalised.
It said aspects of the new growth path would have to be realigned with the proposed new macroeconomic framework, and all state-owned enterprises and state development finance institutions had to be given a new mandate.
It said urgent steps should be taken to reverse the current investment freeze and the export of South African capital – R1.2-trillion was lying idle, which employers were refusing to invest.
Collective bargaining
There was a call to launch a national bargaining campaign, and for an organising conference to be convened before the end of 2012.
It also said the apartheid wage structure should be transformed and a new national wage policy should be crafted. It proposed a national minimum wage and mandatory, centralised collective bargaining.
Irvin Jim, general secretary of National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, said his union welcomed the ANC Youth League's drive for nationalisation and said it would go a long way towards helping the country to redistribute wealth and put a stop to the plundering of the mining industry by oligarchs.
"We must take ownership and control of these minerals and redistribute wealth and champion industrialisation. That includes imposing tax on those minerals," Jim said.
"We also support the youth league's call for expropriation of land without compensation and the removal of the property clauses."
ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said the ANC policy conference in June discussed the issue of nationalisation and a decision would be taken in Mangaung. "We are inviting Cosatu to make their input in order to help us to understand what strategic minerals we are talking about," Mantashe told delegates.
The final day of the congress turned into a mini-Mangaung, with union delegates supporting Jacob Zuma's re-election as ANC president and those opposed to it competing to make their voices heard.
Vavi had to intervene and remind delegates of the house rules that prohibited showing any signs of support that would pre-empt the debate on the leadership of the ANC.
"We will not show signs," Vavi shouted.
But Zuma's supporters responded by singing a popular song about Zuma's detractors getting cold feet, as well as the the congress favourite, Thina Sihamba noZuma (We are going with Zuma).
Labels: COSATU, ZWELINZIMA VAVI
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Vavi wants clarity on economic policy
17 Aug 2012 14:09 - Matuma Letsoalo
Cosatu will lobby for radical policy changes during its national conference next month, including the abolition of land ownership by foreigners. Three months before the ANC's crucial elective conference in Mangaung, the outcome of policy discussions at the Cosatu conference will have a bearing on the ANC's policy resolutions. (M&G)
As well as scrapping of inflation targeting and the nationalisation of key sectors of the economy, such as mines and banks. Other agenda-dominating issues will be the federation's proposals regarding the state ownership of land and the Reserve Bank.
In his socioeconomic report prepared for the congress, which the Mail & Guardian has seen, Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi questions the government's failure to provide clarity on the roles of Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel and the Minister in the Presidency for the national planning commission Trevor Manuel.
"So far, there has been limited interaction between the national planning commission and the economic development department," Vavi said in the report. "This raises questions about the degree of co-ordination of policy and implementation that is taking place. The roles of the department and the commission in relation to economic planning remain unclarified.
"It therefore remains to be seen how the commission's national development plan will relate to the government's new growth path; whether the new growth path document will constitute the economic plan of the planning commission's 2025 vision, or whether the commission will develop another economic plan for the country.
"It should be noted that the government's new growth path sets 10-year targets, while the commission operates on a 15-year horizon. These two planning horizons are not significantly different, which means that there is a need to interrogate the relationship between the two structures in relation to the economic planning function."
Policy resolutions
Coming just three months before the ANC's crucial elective conference in Mangaung, the outcome of policy discussions at the Cosatu conference will have a bearing on the ANC's policy resolutions, including the burning issue of mine nationalisation.
Although President Jacob Zuma emphasised the need for radical policy shifts during the recent ANC policy conference, the party failed to take concrete decisions, particularly on economic policy issues.
Cosatu has made its frustrations clear regarding the government's current economic policies, which it says are unable to create much-needed jobs. In the report, Vavi criticises the ANC government's apparent reluctance to change policy despite the party's 2007 resolutions in Polokwane.
"Without sounding like a broken record, no shift in macroeconomic policy has taken place and the working class can no longer resolve year in, year out about this," Vavi said in the report. "The question is: What are we going to do next to resolve this impasse, without resolving [again]? The lack of movement on macroeconomic policy should by now be understandable, because the few that control economic activity in this country have a stranglehold over key policy levers and strategic institutions.
"For example, foreign-owned monopolies would resist capital controls because these would limit their ability to expatriate profits. The relaxation of these controls is directly in their interests. They will resist policies that prevent exchange-rate appreciation because that lowers the dollar value of their repatriated profits."
Vavi said the agreed 2009 government document, South Africa's Response to the Global Economic Crisis, had not yielded any tangible results. "This important document called for the maintenance of credit extension to sectors of the economy by banks, management of the exchange rate so that it supported employment, skills development and training of workers in order to prevent the increase in structural unemployment [and] support for distressed sectors so that firms are kept afloat and capacity scrapping is prevented during the crisis.
Distressed sectors
"These commitments were not met and most distressed firms laid off workers rather than access the distressed sectors' fund of the Industrial Development Corporation. Even the presidential assessment of progress regarding the implementation of the framework response to the crisis has not produced any tangible results," said Vavi.
"The problems in the relationship between the commission and the department are symptomatic of a bigger political problem. The working class has to take a step back and ask the question: What is the balance of class forces in the new structure of the state bureaucracy?" Vavi said.
"The capitalist state apparatus, while it is essentially a bourgeois institution, is nevertheless contested even within the parameters of capitalist relations of production. It is not clear how the commission is resourced; its budget is not yet finalised and its key programmes are yet to be tabled before the public.
"In its current state, the commission cannot be regarded as a suitable centre for government-wide economic planning because of its skeletal structure and its limited interaction with departments across all spheres of government.
Long-term implications
"On the other hand, departments have already formulated strategic plans for the rest of the term, which have serious long-term implications for the country. This further complicates the planning function of the commission," said Vavi.
Cosatu would call for state ownership of all the land in the country, he said "This will empower the democratic state to break the power of white capital, strengthen its capacity to regulate land use and to abolish speculation. Once the state owns the land, it can decide on a lease basis as to who should use it and for what purpose. Land should be the heritage of all South Africans, owned by the democratic state and shared in use, not in ownership, among those who work it. This is the best way in which the state can secure food security and reduce land underutilisation. Thus, the question of defining property rights regarding land ownership falls away.
"What remains is the administration of land use and allocation, including the determination of rent paid to the state for use. Consequently, Cosatu should consider reformulating its proposals and perspectives on land reform to distinguish between ownership and use. This would require that redistribution of land in Cosatu's perspective should be understood as redistribution of land among those who work it and not redistribution of land in terms of ownership, since to us land ownership should be vested in the state," Vavi said.
Vavi on the ropes: Send us your questions
Submit questions on Cosatu and Zwelinzima Vavi for our live video chat with M&G deputy editor-in-chief and politics editor Rapule Tabane on Friday August 17 at 11am. Go here to send us your question OR vote on an existing question. We will also take your tweets sent to @mailandguardian in real time.
You can also join us via video for the live chat using Google Hangouts – a technology similar to that of Skype. To do so all you need is:
1. A computer; a webcam, audio and mic facilities (standard on most laptops); and a reasonably good internet connection.
2. Set up a Google Plus account which you can do using your existing Gmail account.
3. Download the software here.
4. Email your name, contact details and questions here and we will get in touch with you to take part in our live chat via video.
See our live chat with Phillip de Wet last week about Zumaville.
Labels: COSATU, ZWELINZIMA VAVI
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This means war: Unions vow to stop DA march on Cosatu
13 May 2012 04:06 - Nickolaus Bauer
Unions, the ANCYL and YCL have vowed to disrupt a DA-led march on Cosatu's headquarters, warning it will mark the beginning of "open class warfare".
Numsa's Irvin Jim addresses the media on Sunday, announcing the intention of Cosatu affiliates and the youth wings of the ANC and the SACP to stop a march on Cosatu's HQ by the DA this week.
The Democratic Alliance announced its intention to march on the labour federation’s headquarters in Johannesburg after party leader Helen Zille accused Cosatu of working against the interest of unemployed people in her Workers’ Day address on May 1.
But at a press conference in Johannesburg on Sunday, Cosatu affiliates and political youth bodies promised to put a stop to the DA’s march, which the party insists will go ahead on Tuesday regardless of any efforts sabotage its demonstration.
“The DA march marks the beginnings of an open class warfare that will characterise the South African political landscape,” said Irvin Jim, the general secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa). “We welcome this provocation and will grab the opportunity to be frontal against white monopoly.”
Jim was speaking on behalf of a tacit coalition between Numsa, the South African Commercial Catering and Allied Workers Union (Saccawu), the Communication Workers Union (CWU), the ANC Youth League, the Young Communist League and the South African Students Congress (Sasco).
Following a meeting last week, the allies agreed to oppose the DA-led march, labelling it a “provocation” of the working class.
“This march is not for unemployed youths, it is a celebration of what it perceives as a victory over the popular forces of democracy in South Africa since 1994,” Jim said.
Bias against the unemployed
The DA is marching to protest against what it says is the labour federation’s bias against the unemployed and in favour of those who already have jobs, as well as to highlight its concerns with Cosatu’s opposition towards the introduction of the youth wage subsidy.
The opposition party claims the labour movement is “perpetuating unemployment” by denying young South Africans “a foot on the economic ladder”.
Negotiations over the subsidy have stalled at the National Economic Development Labour Council (Nedlac), the body facilitating policy discussions between government, labour, business and civil society.
The plan proposes a reduction in the cost of hiring and training inexperienced youth, with the government setting aside R9-billion for the initiative.
Jim said, however, that the DA’s push for the implementation of the subsidy was camoflaging its continued support for “white monopoly capital”.
‘Swimming in white capital’
“Those who own the economy have become arrogant,” he said.
“They dictate to the people whose labour has produced the wealth this economy, who they must be ruled by.”
Jim also said the DA represents a group of right-wingers, hellbent on “swimming in [the] capital” they gained during apartheid.
“We cannot allow the DA to mock us. Having plunged us into poverty, unemployment and extreme inequality; they now want to spit on the shield of the black and African working class,” Jim said.
Jim would not elaborate on how those opposing the DA march would prevent it from being going ahead, saying only that the opposition party would not be allowed to deliver any memorandum to a Cosatu official.
“The people who organise a march must be held responsible for what happens at that march. Comrade [Zwelinzima] Vavi can’t honour the DA by accepting any memorandum from them. They must hand it to the workers,” he said.
Neither would Jim comment on how many marchers are expected to oppose the DA demonstration: “Just know there will be more than DA.”
‘It’s going to happen’
Attempts to receive comment from Cosatu on the matter proved fruitless as the labour federation’s office bearers or spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment.
The DA’s national spokesperson, Mmusi Maimane, said Cosatu and its affiliates were “shying away from the real issues”.
“If they had a better economic plan for the future of this country they wouldn’t feel threatened by our march,” Maimane told the Mail & Guardian.
Accordingly, Maimane said the DA isn’t fazed by “intimidation tactics” and insisted the march would go ahead as planned. “We have the necessary approvals and have met all legal requirements. Rest assured: It’s going to happen.”
Labels: ANC, ANC YOUTH LEAGUE, COSATU, DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE (SOUTH AFRICA), DEMONSTRATION, HELEN ZILLE
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COMMENT - Tolling South Africa's roads. Welcome to privatisation. Also,
the Freeth and Campbell's lying lawyer, Jeremy Gauntlett, (Mugabe And The White African) works for the South African Treasury! If the MDC wins, Anglo-American, the largest corporation on the SA stock exchange, is going to own 20% of the world's known diamond reserves after privatisation, a definite boon for the SA Treasury. Gee, another fact they didn't mention in their Economist Magazine funded hitjob. (UPDATE May 2, 2012: Jeremy Gauntlett has more recently
defended Wal-Mart and Massmart against the South African government.)
Cosatu and ANC to plead for e-toll postponement
STAFF REPORTER JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Apr 26 2012 17:29
The Congress of South African Trade Unions and the ANC will ask Cabinet to postpone implementation of the e-tolls for a month. Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi tweeted late on Thursday afternoon, "ANC and Cosatu leadership agreed to postpone etolls by month to allow task team more time to explore alternative funding."
Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven told the Mail & Guardian: "A decision has been made to ask government to postpone the e-tolls for a month to allow more time for the task team looking for alternative funding [for the tolls] to continue their work."
The ANC said: "The leadership has collectively agreed to postpone the implementation of the e-toll collection system by a month. This will give the task team more time to explore alternative funding mechanisms."
Vavi said the mass protest action planned for Monday will also be delayed.
Meanwhile, a ruling on whether the e-tolling of Gauteng's highways will go ahead next week will be handed down in the North Gauteng High Court on Saturday, despite this announcement.
"I plan to give judgment at 11am on Saturday," Judge Bill Prinsloo said. "The matter stands until then."
If an interdict preventing e-tolling in Gauteng was granted, it could be in effect for the rest of the year, the High Court in Pretoria heard on Thursday.
"If the interdict is granted, in all legal reality, it must stand until the end of litigation, which would not be set to end any time soon ... maybe until the end of the year," said treasury lawyer Jeremy Gauntlett.
[I heard that name before. He was the lawyer who was lying on behalf of Mike Campbell and Ben Freeth, in Mugabe And The White African. So the lawyer for the Freeths and Campbells is also a lawyer for the South African Treasury! - MrK]
This was due to the time required for the review, as well as further court hearings and appeals.
He said if the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) defaulted on one month of its payment, the government would have to pay its entire debt.
"It does not mean that government would not be able to meet it [the debt], it has to, but at what cost? For this country to sustain R20-billion in unbudgeted capital is a serious matter," Gauntlett said.
He said the government would have to neglect other social and economic obligations to pay off the debt.
"The milk has been spilt with regards to the roads, and people are using them. The issue now is how to pay for them. It has to be paid for. You can say you don't like it, but you can't say that it is irrational."
He said the previous four delays to the e-toll system had come at a "great cost". -- additional reporting by Sapa
Labels: ANC, COSATU, PRIVATISATION, TOLL ROADS
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Miners starve as Aurora drags its heels on payout
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Mar 12 2012 12:55
Aurora mineworkers in the North West were told on Monday that the gold mine's owners had ignored a court order to pay them R4.3-million, unions said.
Nearly 700 miners gathered at the mine, which Aurora took over from liquidated Pamodzi Gold, where the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) told them the money they had been awarded by a high court order had not be paid.
Solly Nani Phetoe, Cosatu's provincial secretary, said the miners and their families were starving.
"The Gift of the Givers is coming on Tuesday to assess the scale of need for basic food."
This was an international disaster, he said. The affected miners were from Mozambique, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and South Africa. Five miners were known to have committed suicide since the mine stopped operating, he said.
"Children have stopped going to school, women are leaving their husbands, people have nothing to eat."
The mine also continued to be stripped of assets, he said, with an electric cable worth R2.3-million disappearing, despite the mine being guarded.
"We believe the directors are still scrapping this mine and the money is going directly into their trust account."
Phetoe said Aurora could still be a productive mine creating hundreds of jobs but had been "systematically dismantled".
"This is about individual enrichment," he said.
Aurora Empowerment Systems was owned by a politically-connected company, headed by President Jacob Zuma's nephew, Khulubuse, and former president Nelson Mandela's grandson, Zondwa Mandela. -- Sapa
Labels: COSATU, MINING, NUM (SA)
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'Far-fetched' dream to save SA economy slammed
NICKOLAUS BAUER - Dec 06 2011 07:22
South Africa's private sector and government must enter into more partnerships in 2012 if the country is to experience meaningful economic growth, Business Unity South Africa (Busa) said on Monday.
But the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and a leading economic analyst say the group's enthusiasm for such partnerships is sorely misplaced, emphasising instead the need for state-led and small business drives, respectively, to boost job creation and economic development.
Delivering Busa's economic outlook document for 2012, deputy CEO Raymond Parsons pointed to public-private partnerships (PPPs) as being a suitable vehicle to improve service delivery and drive economic growth.
"There is a universal concern about the challenge of delivery in the public sector and this is relevant to the R802-billion allocated to infrastructure over the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) period.
The business community remains concerned that the state is still lacking the capacity to deal with its basic responsibilities or to implement many of its policy commitments. Major service delivery backlogs at local government level -- combined with inefficient and costly state-owned enterprises -- are significant growth constraints that impact on job creation. It's a case of too much money and too little capacity in government," he said.
Left behind on the world stage
Busa indicated South Africa spent only 0.6% of annual GDP on PPPs in the past 15 years, while other countries with superior economic growth such as India spent up to 1.1%.
Busa believes the business community at large has already shown an interest in deepening PPP relations with government.
"There is real interest from the private sector in more PPPs and a strong official commitment in this regard would therefore be welcome. We believe that strengthening the flow and predictability would further improve this interest in assisting with, for instance, the expeditious roll-out of quality infrastructure," Parsons said.
Parsons also pointed to the successful hosting of the 2010 Fifa world cup as a prime example of how PPPs are beneficial.
"We must remember the 2010 World Cup was a PPP and look how successful that was -- we need to work together. We must be prepared to think outside the box to ensure we get the most out of our PPPs in order to drive collaborative growth," he said.
Hold your horses...
Cosatu sharply criticised Busa's suggestion of PPP expansion, describing it as a "far-fetched dream.
"PPPs won't help South Africa -- full stop," Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini told the Mail & Guardian. "The state must first and foremost take the lead in promoting economic activity and at most the private sector must play a capacity role that will help achieve that agenda. If the private sector is an economic partner with government, it will disable the drive of the developmental state and be counter-poroductive."
The labour federation found an unlikely ally in economist Chris Hart of Investment Solutions, who also discounted the feasibility of PPPs as an economic panacea.
"You can look at PPPs to supplement what government does but there is no model in the world where solely these partnerships provide meaningful economic growth," Hart said.
"Furthermore, PPPs are not sustainable in the long run. The real solution to creating jobs in South Africa is to utilise the small business sector by assisting entrepreneurs and getting them to bring people into employment, which will have a knock-on effect of economic growth."
Labels: COSATU, PPPs
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Zuma fires ministers on graft charges
Tuesday, 25 October 2011 00:00
PRETORIA - South African President Jacob Zuma yesterday fired two cabinet ministers implicated in graft and suspended the country's police chief in an attempt to dispel criticism that he is soft on corruption in his government.
Zuma's administration has been charged with endemic corruption most prominently by one of its closest allies, the labour federation Cosatu, which is a long-time backer of the ruling African National Congress and a governing partner.
Zuma told reporters that Co-operative Governance Minister Sicelo Shiceka and Public Works Minister Gwen Mahlangu Nkabinde will leave cabinet.
Shiceka was suspected of spending US$74 220 on unsanctioned luxury travel including overseas visits to a girlfriend imprisoned in Switzerland for drug smuggling.
Nkabinde and police commissioner Bheki Cele, who is not in the cabinet, were named in a government-sanctioned report for suspected illegal conduct in property rental deals.
Zuma said Cele has been suspended on full pay with immediate effect pending the outcome of a board of inquiry into allegations of illegal conduct.
There have been almost no major prosecutions for corruption under Zuma even though the president and ANC officials have made it a top priority to root out criminality eating away at the government of Africa's largest economy. - Reuters.
Labels: CORRUPTION, COSATU, JACOB ZUMA
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Nationalisation: It's how and when -- not if, says Cosatu
NICKOLAUS BAUER - Aug 04 2011 15:45
6 Comments and 26 Reactions
The African National Congress is researching how to execute nationalisation -- not merely its feasibility, its tripartite alliance partner the Congress of South African Trade Unions said in Johannesburg on Thursday.
"If business needs certainty on this issue, they should be certain that the ANC is not researching the feasibility of nationalisation -- it is researching models of implementation,"
Cosatu economist Professor Chris Malekane told the
South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (Sacci) discussion in Johannesburg.
Malekane said it was expected that the task team formed by the ruling party to study the viability of nationalisation in South Africa would produce a report advocating the formal adoption of nationalisation as an ANC policy.
The model of nationalisation to be implemented would also not be restricted to the mining sector, but also apply to agriculture, general production and banks, according to Malekane.
"We'll have to compensate in the interests of the public, but not in a way that will cripple the South African state," he added.
This included land being owned by the state outright, and farmers paying a fee for its use, as arable land was a natural asset.
Malekane maintained that support for nationalisation did not only come from the ANC Youth League, which had been the most vocal proponent of the policy, but also from ordinary members of the South African Communist Party (SACP), uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Veterans Association and the ANC itself.
"If you were in the ANC national general council last year you would have realised that everyone was supporting nationalisation from the floor," he said.
Policy confusion
The labour federation’s comments also fly in the face of recent comments from government ministers drawn into the issue.
Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba on Monday told a meeting of the American Chamber of Commerce in Johannesburg that the debate around nationalisation is hurting the economy.
While conceding that the debate was legitimate, Gigaba said talking about nationalisation "harms the good image and investments of the country".
Hot on the heels of Gigaba’s comments, Mining Minister Susan Shabangu on Tuesday reiterated this stance, saying reckless debate on the issue harmed job creation and deterred foreign investment.
Both, however, stopped short of dismissing the idea entirely.
However, the ANC’s other alliance partner, the SACP has been vocally opposed to the idea, with its general secretary Blade Nzimande arguing that nationalisation would be used to bail out failed BEE mining enterprises.
With the ANC’s next elective conference approaching in December 2012, the issue of nationalisation is seen as a major issue, and will likely form the basis of the platform upon which the next generation of ANC leadership will be elected.
President Jacob Zuma has always maintained that nationalisation is not government policy, but concedes the ruling party is currently debating the issue.
This has also been the stance of ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe, who had previously rebuked Shabangu and other ANC members who had appeared to pronounce on the issue while it was still being deliberated.
Killing the patient
All other commentators at Sacci’s debate, however, argued against nationalisation, advocating instead sustained economic growth as the solution to South Africa’s economic problems.
"Prescribing nationalisation as the medicine to cure South Africa’s economic problems is not going to work -- it will kill the patient," said Roger Baxter, a senior executive at the South African Chamber of Mines.
Baxter further argued that if nationalisation were to go ahead, foreign investment would be "off limits" and the country’s credit rating would collapse.
Growth and development
Frans Cronje, head of risk analysis at the South African Institute for Race Relations, told the audience two vacuums had been allowed to develop in the country.
"You have an economic vacuum, whereby people are shut out of the economy due to poor education and lack of access to the labour market; and a political vacuum where there is no party to represent the voice of the black youth," he said.
Cronje argued that this would only be rectified once South Africa could maintain a sustained growth rate of over 5% for at least five to seven years.
This was echoed in part by Krister Janse van Rensburg of the Federation of Unions of South Africa, who contended that there was "no easy way out".
"We must avoid shortcuts and expensive experiments and be careful of race-based and ideologically inspired arguments," he said.
Labels: COSATU, NATIONALISATION
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Malema deal outrages Cosatu
MANDY ROSSOUW - Jun 10 2011 00:00
Cosatu will "name and shame" corrupt politicians and government officials in Limpopo next week and hand over evidence of government corruption to the police, according to Dan Sebabi, the union movement's provincial secretary.
This follows allegations that a health department contract was awarded to a relative of Julius Malema to pump funds into his campaign for a second term as the ANC Youth League president.
Zwelinzima Vavi, Cosatu's general secretary, will be present in Polokwane when the names of those involved and details of their transgressions will be made public at a press conference. Afterwards Cosatu members will march to Limpopo premier Cassel Mathale's office.
Last week it was revealed that the health department awarded contracts worth R167-million without following tender procedures. They were for the provision of medical supplies to the department's medical depot in Polokwane, including labels for medicine bottles and patient referral forms. The contracts benefited a relative of Malema's, and Mathale and Malema are close political associates.
The Democratic Alliance said the process did not follow the treasury's prescribed procedure for tenders in excess of R500 000 and asked the treasury to investigate the matter. One of the tenders, worth R44-million, was awarded to Tshepo Malema, Julius Malema's cousin.
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Tshepo admitted that he was awarded the contract, but said he had not yet been paid. "Yes, I have contracts. I am a young growing businessman and part of my work is not to respond to newspapers. I didn't even know about the investigation.
"Anyway, I have not received any payment from them. Maybe you can ask them about that," he said.
Joe Maila, the health department spokesperson, said the department was looking into the awarding of the contracts because irregularities had come to the fore, which the department wanted to investigate before it paid for services rendered.
"We suspect somebody is manipulating the process and that there is a problem at our medical depot relating to this," he said. Phil Setsiba, the senior manager for pharmaceutical services, was suspended pending the outcome of investigation, Maila said.
Two sources told the Mail & Guardian that Tshepo Malema received a slice of the contracts to provide funding for Julius Malema's re-election campaign. Julius Malema called the M&G to correct a mistake in the initial story on the M&G's website, in which Tshepo was described as Julius's brother, but he did not deny that some of the money would be used for his campaign.
Last week when the treasury released a list of individuals and companies prohibited from doing business with the government, Limpopo businesses featured prominently. "Maybe it is because this is the poorest of the provinces and there is such widespread poverty," said Sebabi.
It is alleged that the premier's office issued an order to allow the contracts to go ahead, but Mathale's office denied his involvement.
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"The premier is not responsible for the awarding of contracts in government. Supply chain management issues are governed by the Supply Chain Management Framework Act. All departments are guided by this legislation when they deal with procurement matters and the premier does not play any role in this process," Phuti Mosomane, his spokesperson, said.
Insiders said the Limpopo government rushed through the contracts without following the normal procedure of advertising a tender and waiting for bids.
The department of health and social development has been dogged by corruption allegations. The provincial minister for health in Limpopo, Miriam Segabutla, was replaced earlier this year after news reports highlighted irregularities concerning the awarding of tenders. Her replacement, Dikeledi Magadzi, and the head of department have ordered an investigation.
Sebabi said that the trade union federation would demand the arrests of the people who would be named "irrespective of their positions in society". He refused to be drawn on who was on the list, saying that would be revealed next week.
The evidence in Cosatu's possession implicated provincial government departments, parastatals and municipalities, Sebabi said. "The masses of Limpopo are behind us on this. People are tired of these things happening all the time."
Labels: COSATU, DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE (SOUTH AFRICA), JULIUS MALEMA
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Cosatu leaders lock horns over Zuma
MMANALEDI MATABOGE AND MATUMA LETSOALO JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Jun 10 2011 09:28
Union federation Cosatu is expected to make a decision at its next central committee meeting on whether to back the re-election of Jacob Zuma as ANC president in 2012. This comes as Zuma's support within the alliance appears to be waning, with the ANC Youth League leading the charge to replace him with his deputy, Kgalema Motlanthe.
Although Cosatu was one of the key ANC allies to push for Zuma to replace Thabo Mbeki as ANC president in 2007, the federation has in recent months become one of the fiercest critics of Zuma's leadership style in both government and the ruling party.
In an interview this week the federation's general secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi, said Cosatu was unhappy with the ANC-led government because of its poor performance, particularly with regard to job creation and in combating corruption.
"That's why we're so critical of everybody. We want the movement, and the leadership in particular, to pull up their socks," Vavi said.
"When you look at the past three years, they have made mistakes, they put us on a back foot. But do those mistakes amount to abandoning the project? We want to have a decent discussion about that." Vavi insisted that he was not referring to Zuma as an individual.
Vavi and certain leaders of Cosatu's affiliates, including Irvin Jim of metal union Numsa and Thobile Ntola of teachers' union Sadtu, have been accused of opportunistically criticising the Zuma-led ANC and government.
Other Cosatu union leaders, notably National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) general secretary Frans Baleni and Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini, are seen as being closer to Zuma and his strong left arm, South African Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande.
Raising the issue
Speaking to the Mail & Guardian this week, Baleni launched a veiled attack on Vavi and Jim for wanting to push Cosatu affiliates to support Zuma's removal. "It can't be that when some are happy we must smile and when they are angry we must be the same," Baleni said, without mentioning names.
Baleni said NUM had raised the issue that Cosatu should be careful about how it chooses leaders. "Some who didn't understand us then are now changing their tune," he said.
The faction that was strongly behind Zuma in 2007 was now disintegrating, said Baleni. "People had certain expectations. They thought they would benefit. When they didn't benefit, they started changing. We don't want to mention names."
Said Vavi: "We won't be blackmailed into silence and being unable to discuss our challenges as the working class. Where we are wrong, we should be told that we are wrong." Cosatu, he said, would communicate fearlessly what it believed.
"When we think the leadership is not tough on corruption, as we believe now, we say it. We won't run around reassuring people that we have no plans to topple anyone. That would land us back in the Mbeki era, where people had to release statements distancing themselves from the leadership race."
Vavi called the current ANC leadership "our project". "We [workers] are the ones who made sure there was a Polokwane revolt and that the conference resolutions were absolutely progressive -- pro-poor and pro-worker." Those gains had to be protected.
"If that project fails, our political strategies have failed. We should push and push for these leaders to deliver. They must be beaten into it." While voicing support for the ANC leadership, Vavi said Cosatu needed "ammunition" to go back to communities in 2014 and campaign for the party.
"I want to go to people and say we've moved from A to B and they must be able to see it." There was no pressure on Cosatu to take a position on the ANC's leadership contest, he said. "That's opportunistic and far removed from the real issues of service delivery.
"The pressure should be about what we saw during local elections -- people not having water and electricity." Baleni said it was important that the ANC-led alliance invest in organisational programmes and policies instead of giving priority to the leadership race.
"We must assess serving leaders based on delivery. You can't choose leaders like it's a beauty contest."
Vavi has been criticised for communicating through the media instead of through alliance structures. But he defended himself this week. "The difference between me and some people is that I have no fear of talking. I fear no one in the world. For that I've got many admirers and I've made many enemies."
Every public statement he had made was backed by a Cosatu resolution, said Vavi.
Numsa's Jim said Cosatu would discuss the ANC leadership issue when the time was right. Numsa's position was always to defend the Polokwane resolutions. "Where there's a need to criticise, we've done that," he said.
He rejected allegations that he was part of the group that wanted to remove Zuma, calling them "malicious" and their politics "dirty".
Labels: ANC, COSATU, JACOB ZUMA, NEOLIBERALISM, THABO MBEKI, UNEMPLOYMENT
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Cosatu, ANC rift deepens
2010-11-02 18:59
Johannesburg - A civil society gathering hosted by Cosatu last week had taken an "oppositionist" stance toward the ANC-led government, party secretary general Gwede Mantashe said on Tuesday.
"We noted that the ANC, the (SA Communist Party) and (SA National Civics Organisation) were not invited, positioning the conference as an alternative block to the alliance," Mantashe told reporters at Luthuli House in Johannesburg.
"We call it oppositionist because there is a difference between political criticism of an ally or an organisation you are party member of and you position yourself opposite to that party.
"It's not an opposition party, but the stance is oppositionist. And we think it's a dangerous populist approach to disagreements and it is intending to create a crisis where there is no crisis."
He was speaking after a meeting of the ANC's national working committee on Monday. The conference last week was hosted by ANC ally, Cosatu, and included civil society formations.
At the two-day gathering, a labour breakaway from the ANC was mooted, but shut down.
Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi also denied suggestions the conference was testing the waters for a new political party.
Mantashe said the ruling party did not believe the majority of Cosatu's leaders intended to effect regime change in the country.
"... but we nonetheless caution that an action like the one of leading a charge for the formation... of a mass civic movement outside the alliance and the ANC might indeed be interpreted as initial steps for regime change in South Africa."
Vavi's attacks on "black political parties" and the "notable omission" of the Democratic Alliance further reinforced the conference being interpreted as a move toward a breakaway.
Mantashe said despite assertions the conference was not "anti-government or anti-ANC", Cosatu's failure to invite the ANC and to allow the government to respond to criticism levelled at it, pointed to the opposite.
Despite this, Mantashe said the ANC's relationship with Cosatu remained "working" and "workable".
There were disagreements, but in the end, the ruling party and its labour ally would talk to each other, he said.
Mantashe acknowledged there were problems, saying perhaps these could be attributed to an "ideological shift" within Cosatu.
"Many of these issues... old debates that were defeated in the 80s and in the 90s, and if they re-emerge now and they have the resonance in the federation, it may point to the ideological shift in the federation itself and the shifting of the balance of forces to the extreme.
"If that happens within the federation, it will also create difficulties in the working of the alliance."
No disciplinary action
A temporary cease-fire between the ANC and Cosatu emerged after the ANC's national general council (NGC) in September after months of tension over the country's economic trajectory and the ANC's perceived soft stance against corruption.
The fall-out prompted the ANC to mull disciplining Vavi, but the idea was eventually canned. Vavi remained vocal and critical over what he termed the "predatory elite" and "political hyenas" in the ranks of the ruling party.
ANC Youth League president Julius Malema urged the ANC to discipline Vavi over his "political hyena" comments, saying this went against an NGC resolution to avoid public spats.
Mantashe on Tuesday said the NWC was "appalled" over Vavi's "predatory elite" remark. He added that public spats were directed at a particular person, while Vavi's comments were "generalised".
"... when you generalise and say there's a smell of predatory elite here, you are not attacking a person... we can't go out and say 'listen you are attacking comrade so and so... therefore there is a public spat... therefore we must punish you'."
He however added that generalising was more harmful than being specific.
"... those generalised statements cause more harm than being specific... because when you throw generalised statements... actually you are casting aspersions and innuendoes that cause more damage then specific cases."
No disciplinary action could be taken against Cosatu as it was an "independent" body in an alliance with other independent parties, the ANC and the SACP.
"They are not a labour desk of the ANC, they are the trade union federation independent of the ANC, but in an alliance with the ANC."
The ANC would convene an urgent meeting with Cosatu to discuss its qualms.
- SAPA
Labels: ANC, COSATU, GWEDE MANTASHE, JULIUS MALEMA, MALE, ZWELINZIMA VAVI
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Cosatu calls for 'super-rich' tax
NATASHA MARRIAN | JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Sep 15 2010 08:02
Government should tax the "super rich" and play a more "aggressive role" in the economy, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) suggested in its new growth path for South Africa. Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said on Tuesday that the country was in crisis, and a new growth path was needed to rescue the "dysfunctional" economy.
"We continue to hang political freedom around our necks, but the reality is we have hardly touched the structural crisis at the economic level," he said launching the federation's discussion document at the University of Johannesburg.
"Unemployment has been worsening ... the cold reality is that we are sitting with a worsening crisis not an improving situation. A quarter of the population lives on social grants that the government provides ... we should move out of the situation where most of the people have to rely on government to survive ... it's a crisis pointing to the dysfunctionality at the core of our economy."
The document suggested "redistributive tax interventions" which included the introduction of a tax category for the "super rich" and a "solidarity tax" to cap the growth of the earnings of the top 10% and accelerate earnings of the lowest 10%.
It also proposed a higher tax on imported luxury items, a land tax to "aid" the process of land redistribution and a zero rating of basic foodstuffs, medicines, water, domestic electricity, and public education.
'Transformative taxes'
Export taxes on strategic minerals, metals and other resources to "support down-stream industries" and promote value, investment tax credits to encourage local procurement of machinery and equipment and tax on financial transactions including a capital gains tax above a certain minimum threshold were among the "transformative taxes" Cosatu proposed.
A transformative tax should also be imposed on companies who were "stubborn in closing the apartheid wage gap".
Fiscal and monetary policy should focus on employment.
"Employment will be the primary target of monetary policy, whilst price stability plays a subordinate role. Monetary policy will support industrial development," said Cosatu's fiscal and monetary policy coordinator, Christopher Malikane.
He said it was "urgent" that the role of the state in the economy be "reconsidered".
"We are saying that a state is developmental not by declaration but by what it does," he said.
The state should "mobilise national savings to fund development", have a progressive tax and levy system, it should "directly" employ people, play a leading role in stimulating industry, have aggressive targets and punitive measures for addressing transformation and should remove the "profit motive" in the delivery of goods and services such as water and housing.
Nationalisation
Cosatu in its discussion document proposed nationalisation be looked at in the context of the strategic role the state should play in key sectors of the economy.
"If you read the documents in relation to all the areas we propose the state must take a strategic interest in, they relate to the economy where there are existing monopolies which we need broken up," Vavi said.
Cosatu believed that through state intervention, resources could be "liberated" to be used in delivering services.
"In relation to the area of mining ... we are not necessarily calling for nationalisation of all the mines in South Africa. We don't think that's a realistic proposal. But we do say that we need a state that can have a company that can intervene in the strategic minerals."
He said the steel and platinum industries should be considered for state intervention. This had to be strategic and should not be aimed at complete ownership.
Malikane said South Africa needed a "mixed economy" with privately- and state-owned entities.
Strategic sectors where state intervention was necessary included mines, metals fabrication, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, forestry, construction and finance.
Cosatu's proposal included a state-owned bank, pharmaceutical company and construction company.
Vavi said state-owned entities should be viewed in terms of the benefits for South African society as a whole, instead of "narrowly from an investors perspective".
"This is not a mad document, it is a well-considered document."
Cosatu had long attempted to influence its alliance partner, the ruling African National Congress, on the country's economic trajectory.
Vavi himself said he was like a "battered woman" when asked what he would do if the federation failed to get buy-in from the ANC on its bid to radically transform the economy.
Using a medical metaphor, he likened the economy to a patient who had very successful "operation" but "regrettably the patient has died".
This was in reference to government's stance on its macro economic policies.
"We need a new direction and we need a comprehensive strategy that hangs together in order to ensure development."
ANC national executive committee member and deputy chairperson of the ruling party's economic development committee Enoch Godongwana sat in the audience. The economy was often at the root of the battles between the allies.
Godongwana was also deputy minister of public enterprises.
Cosatu president S'dumo Dlamini said Cosatu had always been chastised for failing to provide an "alternative". He said in launching the discussion document, that Cosatu was answering that call.
The federation would discuss the document with its partners in the ruling alliance and welcomed "engagement' on it among the civil society and the public. - Sapa
Labels: COSATU, TAXATION, ZWELINZIMA VAVI
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A brave new BEE dawn?
VERASHNI PILLAY | JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Sep 10 2010 17:28
Cosatu's joint venture with Indian mining parastatal trumpeted as true empowerment India's largest iron ore producer, the government-owned National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC), has joined forces with Cosatu's investment arm in a bid to exploit mining opportunities in South Africa, the two companies announced last week.
The deal with Kopano Ke Matla Investment Company, which is fully owned by Cosatu, has been 18 months in the making, Kopano chief executive Collin Matjila told journalists recently.
Indian parastatal NMDC is the eighth-largest producer of alloys in the world, producing about 30-million tonnes of iron ore and employing 6 000 people in India. This is the NMDC's second foray into Africa, following the acquisition of a gold mine in Tanzania in 2006. "This time our target is more coal, iron ore and manganese," NMDC chairperson and managing director Rana Som said.
With a portfolio of just R300-million and no mining experience, Kopano is teaming up with a company that had a 2009-2010 turnover of $1,38-billion. But Kopano -- which exceeds the government's black economic empowerment (BEE) requirements -- will enable NMDC to acquire mining assets in South Africa.
"Since NMDC has mining expertise, it was not necessary for its partner to have mining experience," NMDC's technical director, Narendra Kumar Nanda, told the Mail & Guardian.
The newly inked joint venture is being trumpeted as an alternative model to dubious South African BEE business deals that benefit elites.
The recent controversial R800-million BEE deal between mining giant ArcelorMittal and the politically connected Imperial Crown Trading (ICT) is a case in point. Talks to seal the deal, following the surprise granting of rights to ICT to prospect at the lucrative Sishen iron ore mine, were facilitated by the Guptas -- an Indian family who have increasingly aligned themselves with President Jacob Zuma. ICT is also 50% owned by Jagdish Parekh, a close associate of the Gupta family.
Kopano, on the other hand, is "a broad-based black company wholly owned by Cosatu, representing more than two million members", Matjila told the M&G.
"Kopano is genuinely broad based and is involved in the mining sector as a long-term strategy and not as a short-term opportunist move for quick profit-making," he said.
Whether the presence of labour interests will guarantee broad-based empowerment is yet to be seen. One of ICT's directors, for example, is Archie Luhlabo -- a former mine worker and trade unionist whose work in the Mineworkers' Investment Company led him into increasingly lucrative personal deals.
But Som constantly reiterated the ethical values of his company.
The pillars of NMDC's work, according to Som, are scientific mining -- or mining without wastage through beneficiation and blending -- environmental friendliness and a commitment to benefit communities where mining operations take place.
The company was not scared off by recent industrial action in the country. "Such situations occur in India also," Nanda said, adding that the company had to deal with a robust union culture in India, with strong alliances to both the ruling party and the opposition. "NMDC has been able to come out of this problem through continual dialogue, negotiations and by following a transparent policy."
Indeed, the promises to the company's future workers in South Africa are dazzling. NMDC pays for the education of every worker's child up to a postgraduate degree, offers lifelong medical care to workers and their spouses and provides all workers with family units. "We have finished our wage negotiations [in India] and our workers were awarded a wage increase of 27%, the highest in the country," Som said.
But NMDC acknowledged that the proof of the pudding would be in the eating-- when the two companies settled on a mine -- and said it welcomed journalists monitoring any coming deals. Much has been made of their shared values and the deal is also being punted by some close to the process as an alternative to the ANC Youth League's push for the nationalisation of mines.
But the spectre of nationalisation still looms over the deal. The powerful Cosatu-affiliated National Union of Mineworkers supports "strategic" nationalisation in the very minerals NMDC is targeting. While Kopano's Matjila would not comment, Nanda acknowledged it was an issue "we have to consider".
"We have to get more information about the issues raised and certain commitments from the government could be necessary to avoid the investment risk," he said.
Labels: ARCHIE LUHLABO, BEE, COSATU, INDIA, NUM (SA)
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'Inequality mocks our struggle to build a free society'
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA Apr 26 2010 17:29
South Africa still has a lot to achieve before all South Africans are really free, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Monday.
"We cannot ignore the 58% of South Africans who live in poverty, who cannot really benefit from political freedom as they face a daily struggle to survive," spokesperson Patrick Craven said in a statement.
He said massive inequality had made South Africa the most unequal society in the world.
"Such inequality mocks our struggle to build a free, fair and equitable society. Neither can we celebrate freedom when our society is scarred by such high levels of crime and corruption."
He said there was a continued restructuring of the working class into a two-tier labour market.
"We suffer from the gross exploitation of workers as capitalists seek new ways to enrich themselves at the expense of the working class and dodge around the labour laws."
He explained that the first layer of workers enjoyed most of the rights contained in the constitution.
"They are covered by collective bargaining and enjoy better work security and better pay."
The second layer was of super-exploited workers without any rights or freedoms.
"For them, joining a union is a personal risk and upward job mobility is an illusion. It is a large and growing army of workers employed in low-paid, temporary, casualised jobs or employed through the enslaving labour-broking system."
Poverty and under-development
He said the highest levels of poverty and under-development were still concentrated in the former Bantustans.
"The black working class, despite government provision of thousands of new houses, are still located far away from workplaces, forcing workers to spend a lot of the little wages they receive on ever-rising transport costs."
Workers bore the brunt of the recent capitalist crisis, caused by the greed of capital.
In the first nine months of 2009, the country lost 959 000 jobs, and workers lost R17-billion, worsening poverty and inequality.
This was the underlying reason for all the service-delivery protests in the country's poorest communities.
Craven said the only way for workers, their families and communities to win real and total freedom was for them to get organised in strong, fighting trade unions.
"Cosatu urges every worker, and all South Africans, to celebrate Freedom Day actively, by attending the many events around the country," he said. -- Sapa
Labels: COSATU, NEOLIBERALISM, PATRICK CRAVEN, POVERTY
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ANC backlash against the left
MATUMA LETSOALO AND RAPULE TABANE
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
Oct 09 2009
ANC national executive committee (NEC) member Billy Masetlha has become the first senior leader to express concerns publicly about the growing dominance of Cosatu and the SACP in the ANC. Anxiety has grown among party leaders in the past few months about the left's influence on key ANC policy decisions since the 2007 Polokwane conference.
Masetlha told the Mail & Guardian this week that a number of senior ANC leaders have expressed disquiet about the push by Cosatu and the SACP for a socialist agenda within the ANC.
He singled out SACP boss Blade Nzimande as the main architect behind the left's socialist agenda within the party, saying he found it strange that Nzimande had abandoned the SACP to join the Cabinet and was now trying hard to influence the direction of the ANC.
"I take serious exception to [his doing] that," Masetlha told the M&G. "I will have a problem with someone trying to impose a communist manifesto on the ANC. We fired a lot of [comrades] in the past who wanted to do the same thing."
He also took issue with President Jacob Zuma's silence regarding the left's agenda in the ANC, warning him that if he did not take a firm stand on the new tendencies, ANC members would revolt against him as they had against his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki.
Other senior ANC figures who spoke to the M&G on condition of anonymity echoed Masetlha's views.
Zuma has been criticised by some within the ANC for succumbing to leftist pressure on a number of key decisions taken since he became president. These include the removal of Tito Mboweni as Reserve Bank governor, the removal of the SABC board and the appointment of Ebrahim Patel as economic development minister.
Zuma has come under pressure for failing to defend Trevor Manuel, minister in the presidency for national planning, whom alliance leaders have been attacking for pushing the agenda of the "1996 Class Project," in the form of mainstream macroeconomic policies.
Said Masetlha: "If we have not pronounced our position on these new tendencies, this does not mean we are fools. The ANC was not founded on a socialist agenda. Socialism has no space within the ANC.
"The cause for our struggle has always been about national liberation. The day the ANC sings to the socialist agenda, it would be signing its death warrant."
One ANC provincial leader complained about an apparent double standard regarding the treatment of communist leaders and ANC leaders: "As we speak, Zweli Mkhize [ANC chairperson in KwaZulu-Natal] and Ace Magashule [ANC Free State chairperson] are being made to choose between being directly elected members of the NEC and being ex-officio provincial chairs. They are being told they can't be both.
"But people are quiet about Gwede [Mantashe], who is the chair of the SACP and ANC secretary general, Nzimande, who is general secretary of the communist party, an ANC NEC member and a minister in government, and Phumulo Masualle who is ANC provincial chair in the Eastern Cape and SACP treasurer."
ANC leaders were afraid to speak out against Cosatu and SACP leaders, the source said, because they were too close to Zuma.
"For example, on the issue of expensive cars for ministers, comrades wanted to respond to Cosatu but had to retreat because they are not sure of the backlash.
"The problem … is that JZ [Zuma] was carried so much by the alliance partners to … where he is.
"He initially had little support in the ANC itself but [the alliance partners] pushed for him. That has compromised the movement because now we have to carry them, whatever we do.
"You watch it, these guys will get what they want on the soldiers' unionisation and labour-brokers' issues. Their proposals will go through and no one will challenge them. Look at the contrast. Check the energy with which people are attacking anything that has to do with Mbeki because it does not affect their careers and prospects.
"They go for the kill on anything associated with Mbeki such as Trevor Manuel, the North West ANC provincial executive, SAA and the SABC, because attacking Mbeki is a soft option.
"We should be saying [to the alliance partners]: you helped us towards Polokwane but that has been achieved. When we go to SACP or Cosatu conferences you never find us saying 'we prefer so and so to lead them' -- [on the contrary] they dictate to us. Look at the Eastern Cape … where the SACP treasurer was elected chairperson. We need JZ to tell them to stop."
He also complained about the increase in the deployment of alliance partners to the public service.
"As the situation stands, you have a number of men who were just ANC members who did not make it back as MPs and MPLs because they could not be catered for when we made space for youth, women and alliance partners.
"You must check the number of people we have deployed as alliance members in our legislatures -- there are many. We understand why it's like that but JZ must now stand up and defend ANC principles.
"We are only left with [Julius] Malema to be the repository of intellectual debates because everyone else is retreating in the ANC."
But Malema appears to disagree with Masetlha and other senior ANC leaders: "I do not think there is any dominance of the left within the ANC," he told the M&G, saying rather that there is "openness among comrades".
He said Cosatu and the SACP were raising critical and substantial issues.
"What we need to do is to have more bilateral [interactions] in addition to the alliance summits with Cosatu and the SACP. We welcome the engagements.
The only thing we would not allow is when people try to take over the ANC."
Labels: ANC, COSATU, SACP
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S/Africa opposition leader in controversy over Zuma
Written by chama
Thursday, May 14, 2009 4:01:07 PM
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa's main opposition leader has angered supporters of Jacob Zuma by describing the new president as a womanising sexist, with some of his allies threatening to take strong action. The comments by Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille have dampened the mood in the country after Zuma's inauguration on May 9 as South Africa's fourth democratically elected president.
Former guerrilla fighters loyal to Zuma have threatened to make the Western Cape province -- the only region in the country controlled by the DA -- "ungovernable" while the powerful COSATU trade union federation threatened strike action.
Zuma's African National Congress said the comments made by Zille in a letter to a newspaper were "reprehensible" and showed she was out of touch with the mood of South Africa.
In the letter, Zille described Zuma as a "self-confessed womaniser with deeply sexist views, who put all his wives at risk by having unprotected sex with an HIV-positive woman".
Zuma was acquitted of rape in 2006 and also beat corruption charges when prosecutors dropped the case after eight years of investigation.
Zille wrote the letter in response to criticism that she herself was sexist after unveiling a male-dominated cabinet to serve in the Western Cape, where she is premier.
Her spokesman, Fritz de Klerk, said Zille would not apologise for writing the letter.
Veterans of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the ANC's military wing under apartheid, described Zille's comments as racist.
"Should Helen Zille not refrain from this anti-African and racist behaviour, we are not going to hesitate, but craft and launch a political programme aimed at rendering the Western Cape ungovernable," MK Military Veteran's Association chairman Kebby Maphatsoe was quoted as saying by the SAPA news agency.
Zuma has moved quickly to allay investor fears in Africa's top economy, saying prudent economic policy would continue, but many South Africans regard him warily because they perceive him as a flawed character.
It is unclear if the slanging match between Zille and Zuma's allies will dampen his initial enthusiasm to reach out to opposition parties, in marked contrast to his predecessor Thabo Mbeki, who enjoyed a frosty and at times hostile relationship with the opposition.
"It seems that the rapprochement only lasted a day and then the polemics went back to normal again," said Keith Gottschalk, a political analyst at the University of the Western Cape.
Labels: COSATU, DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE (SOUTH AFRICA), HELEN ZILLE, JACOB ZUMA
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‘Zambians have nothing to celebrate’
Written by Nicholas Mwale and Mutuna Chanda
Saturday, December 20, 2008 7:28:24 AM
PATRIOTIC Front (PF) member of parliament for Chimwemwe Constituency Willie Nsanda has said this year’s Christmas and New Year will leave Zambians with sad faces because they have nothing to cerebrate for.
And Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) president S’dumo Dlamini has declared a black Christmas for workers in the region in view of the job losses caused by the global financial crisis.
Meanwhile, Dlamini has advised the Zambian government to look at ways of buying back some of the key industries to enable it have control over workers’ job security.
In an Interview, Nsanda said it was worrying that even the President had lost hope in finding solutions to the problems the country was facing.
“How are people going to celebrate Christmas and New Year when they don’t have money? How possible is it to celebrate without food? Have fuel prices been reduced as we were promised in Parliament?” Nsanda asked.
He urged people to keep the money for their children’s school fees in January next year instead of spending it on Christmas and New Year’s celebrations.
“Zambians won’t enjoy Christmas and New Year in any way. This time, people should just mourn the sufferings and pray to God for the economic revival,” said Nsanda.
And Dlamini said December 2008 was not a festive season since many workers were losing their jobs while others were facing threats of job losses.
He cited the South African case which faced a threat of over 19,000 job losses.
“We’re not going to be spared from the recession in the economy,” he said.
Dlamini however said COSATU was engaging employers and the government in trying to save massive job losses.
He also suggested that employers needed to look at strategies that would not catch workers off guard.
“Instead of retrenching workers randomly, there is need to consider those who are willing to take early retirement and voluntary retrenchments,” he said.
And Dlamini urged Zambian workers to mount pressure on the government to buy back key enterprises.
“The major problem with Zambia is that almost the entire industry has been privatised making it difficult for government to act and also to suggest that the government should intervene,” said Dlamini.
Labels: COSATU, JOBLOSSES
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