The Congress of South African Trade Union in the Northern Cape is concerned at the statement by Floyd Shivambu of the ANCYL in responding to the speech of the General Secretary of COSATU in the NUMSA Bargaining Conference.

All the issues that he is raising of the provision of water, electricity, roads, houses, sanitation to the millions of South Africans are a reality that COSATU has acknowledged in every platform we occupy. We were the first ones to commend the ANC for a job well done in improving the lives of our people. That is why we are on the ground as we speak campaigning for the ANC to win the forthcoming local government elections.

However it will be very mischievous for us to bury our heads on the sand and ignore the realities of outsourcing and privatisation of the provision of basic services that has led to the job loss blood bath over and above the global economic crisis.

Workers know and understand the global economic crisis and its damage to their jobs and need no education about its effects. It is therefore unacceptable for Floyd to insult the intelligence of the workers and imply that they need education.

His definition of the global economic crisis is very narrow and selfish. Will he blame the deepening inequalities to the global economic crisis? Why does the crisis badly affect the poor while the rich continue to get richer? We expected the argument of Shivambu from a branch member of the ANC who has just heard about the global economic crisis and is excited at the terminology.

It is not alarmist for the General Secretary of COSATU to raise issues that have a direct bearing on the working class and the poor. For as long as we ignore the realities of individuals who use our organisations for narrow selfish accumulation of wealth, undermining the plight of the working class and the poor, we will always have to go and explain to our people why certain things have not happened.

Statement issued by COSATU N Cape Provincial Secretary, Anele Gxoyiya, April 8 2011

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