COSATU calls on the ANC to reign in Tito Mboweni

28 March 2019

The Congress of South African Trade Unions has noted the statements by Minister Tito Mboweni condemning the decision by Sanral to stop pursuing legal action against e-toll defaulters. We are not surprised by his statements because he has been behaving like this since his appointment. Minister Mboweni has a Czar Complex and is also a potty mouth without any impulse control.

We know that Deputy President David Mabuza does take him seriously but his statements are not doing the ANC any favours.  He cannot be allowed to issue instructions to Sanral and also behave like a free agent.

What is troubling about these provocative and unhelpful statements is that they create an impression that the centre is not holding and the minister is operating outside of the mandate of the ANC. He is fast deteriorating like Former ANC National Chair Terror Lekota and it is up to the ANC to act to arrest this political delinquency.

President Ramaphosa and the Office of the Secretary-General should stop Minister Mboweni from undermining the ANC. The people of Gauteng and the workers will not be governed as the minister seems to believe but will be served by their public representatives.

E-tolls represents a right-wing ideological model of the public sector that wants to change the public service to operate along the lines of the private sector. It introduces private-sector practices in the delivery of services. We will continue to fight the user-payer principle (e.g. e-tolls) and campaign for a policy that will insist on the cross-subsidisation of the poor by the rich. The user pay principle promotes the commodification of public services rather than the promotion of constitutional or citizenship rights, and as such citizens become “customers” or “clients” in the practice of the delivery of public services.

Issued by Sizwe Pamla, National Spokesperson, COSATU, 28 March 2019