Speech by Zwelinzima Vavi to the Founding Congress of MATUSA, held on the 18 February 2017, Worcester

Thank you for inviting me to address this launching congress of the Municipal and Allied Trade Union of South Africa. We bring greetings and best wishes from the Steering Committee and all the unions who will soon to meeting to launch our new workers’ federation, a momentous event which will set the South African working class on a new path to freedom, justice, dignity and equality.

We do want to say a few words about the Municipal Sector that you all belong to, and your experiences over the last few years. 

Firstly let me say that the leadership of MATUSA and their sister Union DEMAWUSA, who are both in the New Federation, waged a magnificent struggle against corruption when they were still in SAMWU. Let me remind you that the provinces that demanded a forensic audit in SAMWU were an overwhelming majority. The response of the leadership who had reason to fear a forensic report was swift. In a short period of time, 186 of the most senior and experienced provincial, regional, local leaders and staff were suspended and dismissed from the union without a hearing. 

It is worth reminding ourselves, that the MATUSA and DEMAWUSA comrades worked incredibly closely together when they formed SOS, Save Our SAMWU. You challenged each of the dismissals. You challenged the setting up of parallel structures in court countless times winning all of the cases against the SAMWU leaders. But the SAMWU leadership fearing arrest used your very subscriptions to frustrate every victory you were scoring by just appealing of just refusing to comply with court orders. 

You were not involved in a narrow factional activity. You were not making wild and unfounded allegations against the SAMWU leaders. As we speak four senior SAMWU officials including the Deputy General Secretary are on trial for theft of R176 million of union subscriptions. 

Let me also remind you that it was only when every door was shut and when every avenue closed that you finally decided to form an alternative union. The attempts to win back your union SAMWU included marches to COSATU and SAMWU offices, meetings with COSATU leaders, petitions and memorandums, sit-ins, demonstrations and threats to withhold subscriptions, etc. 

Let me also emphasize that a decision to form an alternative union was truly a last resort and was not taken lightly. You even had tactical differences on the timing of setting up of an alternative municipal workers union with some going all the mile to win SAMWU back but as I have said all those gallant efforts came to nought. 

This means is that you are the champions of worker unity! Those who dismissed you did all that to destroy workers unity. Let me repeat you are the ones who fought to maintain the unity of the municipal workers but you were defeated not for lack of trying but because those driving the campaign to divide workers had all the advantages you did not have, including occupying your offices and holding your subscriptions.

So as you gather in this inaugural congress of MATUSA remember that this is still part of pursuing unity of municipal workers. That’s why it can’t make sense that MATUSA and DEMAWUSA are not speeding up processes to form a single union in pursuance of that strategic goal to unite municipal workers. We reiterate our call that the priority can’t be to entrench divisions but to unite municipal workers and the starting point is to unite MATUSA and DEMAWUSA. 

We are gathering here as a testimony that it is SAMWU that divides workers not MATUSA. COSATU divides and the New Federation unites! The ANC and SACP divides workers as part of efforts to domesticate organs of people’s power. We are uniting working workers. 

The lessons that you have learned about fighting corruption and defending internal democracy are going to be invaluable to the New Federation. Equally important is what you have learned about how corruption takes hold in organisations, and what the signs that show that all is not well. 

In SAMWU for example, union bank statements were suddenly hidden away, and not made available to the Finance Committee, which was made up of many of those who were later expelled. Finance Committee meetings were less frequent, and financial reports to leadership structures were either truncated, or dropped altogether. 

These happenings should be regarded as alarm bells. When meetings are cancelled without an explanation, and paperwork for meetings is incomplete or just not prepared, then alarm bells must be rung, and very loudly, because these are indications that someone, somewhere does not want to subject the management of union’s finance to workers control, and accountability. 

So thank you comrades for helping us to understand, and guard against the erosion of workers control. You will be pleased to know that both the principles that are the bedrock of the New Federation, and the Draft Constitution that will be tabled at the Congress, are very clear about the need not to allow corruption to take hold in any of our unions, or indeed in the New Federation. So thank you for that too. 

I also want to say a few words about what is happening in the Municipal Sector. Firstly the last time there was a mandate or collection of workers demands for wage negotiations in the sector was when you were still in SAMWU. Pickitup workers have fought battles without leadership support. Workers who protested outside SAMWU offices over this state of affairs were shot at by the bouncers and one breadwinner of his family died. Democracy has but all dried up and the dictatorship of the leadership entrenched. 

We all know that there have been literally tens of thousands of service delivery protests throughout our country, and most of them are isolated without any national coordination. Some in the ANC Government, and actively supported by the SACP have branded these protests as a third force, as a group of disgruntled losers, and even as agents of imperialism! 

Let me tell you who these people are. They are ours! They are ordinary working class people who are absolutely sick of empty promises, and having to live in sub standard areas because or neglect and at times corruption and its bed fellow, neoliberalism, has denied them the basic necessities of life. 

Now we might not agree with some of the tactics that have been used, like burning down schools and municipal property, but that is surely an indication of their chronic frustration at not being heard, of being ignored, and being treated not like constituents but criminals. 

Comrades, we have to make common cause with all of those who are challenging austerity policies and corruption. They are our allies, and we have to reach out to them so that they are not isolated and marginalised. Our New Federation supports all those struggling for our class, and we have to put that into practice.

Finally, the municipal sector is on the front line of service delivery to our people, and has suffered by being continuously under-funded, and subject to the manipulation of local tenderpreneurs, who deliberately undermine the capacity of council workers to deliver services, so that they can then argue for the utilisation of private companies, and surprise, private companies that are often linked to councilors! 

We need your insights comrades. How can we fight for our municipalities to be placed back under the control of our people, so that their input is not just tokenistic as it is with the Integrated Development Plans (IDP)? How can we democratise municipalities and water boards to give our people a real say in how they are operated? How can we ensure that resources that are allocated for priority developments is not misused and redirected? These are critical questions that I hope you will find time to discuss comrades. 

Municipal workers know their communities, and they have the skills to develop services, and they have knowledge, that is practical and learnt from years of experience and is one of our most valuable resources. When we talk about Worker Control, we do not just mean inside our unions, but also inside our workplaces – in communities. We want Municipal Workers to build workers control of how municipalities are run, and working very closely with communities with other interested partners to begin to rebuild a government by the people, for the people! 

Workers have been increasingly impatient for this new dawn and we cannot wait any longer, given the hardships and challenges facing all workers and the poor majority of South Africans.

As we made clear in our statement on 07 February 2017 we were under no illusions that the State of the Nation Address (SONA) would respond to the deepening crisis faced by South Africa and its working class in particular, and we were proved absolutely right. We summed up the crisis facing workers, as:

• 35.6% of the population of working age is unemployed, if we include those who have stopped looking for work. 
• 47% of all workers earn below the proposed national minimum wage of R3500.
• 26% of South Africans are hungry every day; half do not have sufficient access to affordable, nutritious and safe food to meet basic health requirements.
• Malnutrition is the major underlying cause of 64% of deaths of children under 5; one in five children are stunted because of malnutrition; many more are deficient in the minerals and vitamins necessary for optimal development.
• The total net wealth of 3 South African billionaires is the equivalent of the total combined wealth of 50% of the population; the richest 1% of the population has 42% of the country's wealth; and the wealth of South Africa's top 10% grew 64% in first 17 years after 1994, whereas the wealth of the poorest 10% did not grow at all. 

This situation is made far worse by the political chaos we see unfolding daily:

• Constitutional institutions which are there to protect our freedoms and rights are in disarray; even our Parliament was taken over by police and soldiers; 
• Government ministers and state officials are literally getting way with murder as we have seen with the death sentences imposed on over 100 mental health patients, an example of the poor and defenseless being treated with utter contempt; 
• Institutions which are supposed to be independent - the Judiciary, Hawks, intelligence services, SAPS and IPID are embroiled in costly legal battles as factions fight to defend their power and privileges;
• A predatory elite of thieves and their cronies are turning our country into a kleptocracy where public funds are corruptly stolen to enrich a greedy few;
• Our economy is still in the hands of a still mainly white and male monopoly capitalist class, which uses the wealth created by workers’ labour to enrich themselves to the point that we have become the world’s most unequal society. 
• The government and ruling ANC are paralysed and divided, hiding behind empty words about radical economic transformation while continuing with the neoliberal economic policies which take us further and further from the ideals of the Freedom Charter.
• The disgraceful chaotic scenes when Parliament was taken over by the police and army, which the whole world was watching, are a symptom of the underlying political crisis South Africa has been enduring for more than seven years now. 
• We have now learnt that the disgraced Saxonwold blue-eyed boy is on his way to become the ANC Member of Parliament. The rumour mill is turning fast that he will either replace the current Minister of Finance or become the head of a super economic cluster of all ministers. If this turns out to be true, this will give the Guptas the total control of the Treasury. Calls are intensifying within the ANC to give him and Hlaudi Motsoeneng Cabinet posts. This is the ANC today - far removed from the memory of OR Tambo.

In the eyes of the growing number of citizens, including members of his own party, the President enjoys no confidence or respect. Anyone listening to his SONA speech could believe that the ANC had just won an election last week and that its new President was now outlining his programme to fix the mess left behind by his defeated predecessor. 

He entirely ignored the 23 years in which the ANC has been in leadership, as if this brand new President had just discovered that Blacks only own 10% of the JSE, that 70% of senior management positions are occupied by white males, that the economy is still in the hands of the same white, male elite as in the days of apartheid, that land ownership still broadly in line with the 1913 Natives Land Act, etc. All of the frightening statistics he read out in the SONA were actually an indictment of the ANC government that has tolerated that situation for so long. 

The ANC’s, January 8 statement - that South Africa was making rapid strides in eradicating poverty, joblessness and inequality which was unfortunately disrupted by the 2008 economic crisis - was a blatant lie, an attempt to pull wool over the eyes of the people. 

This SONA was not a programme of radical economic transformation at all, but behind a facade of slightly more radical rhetoric, a promise of more ‘business as usual’ which will do nothing to end the misery of high unemployment, deepening poverty and widening inequality.

His performance was a reflection of a movement that has not only run out of ideas but also that is in complete denial.

Of special concern for workers are the threats to our own movement and our democratic human rights:

• Labour brokers and outsourcing are still being used to undermine secure jobs and push down wages;
• Collective bargaining is under attack by employers and their mouthpieces in the Free Market Foundation who want to make negotiated agreements optional for employers;
• Strike ballots are to be made mandatory, regardless of a union’s constitution;
• There are plans to impose “compulsory arbitration” in strikes which government believes are going on for too long;
• Now government, business - and scandalously COSATU, FEDUSA and NACTU - have agreed to a national minimum wage of R20 an hour which will keep millions of workers living in poverty;

Workers have never had a greater need for the protection of a strong, united and democratic trade union federation, yet all the existing union federations have proved to be incapable of uniting, leading and defending their members, and 76% of the most vulnerable and marginalised workers are outside the organised working class altogether.

This is why it so vital that our new federation does not let them down.

But this means that we must not spare ourselves from criticism when it is deserved, and we have to be honest to ourselves. The strength of the new federation will be determined by the strength of its affiliates, some of which are very small and others are failing to manage even the most basic tasks - recruiting, collecting subs, keeping members informed and taking up cases. 

So today’s Congress is a perfect opportunity to give a lead to all the other affiliates, something MATUSA has already done by adopting founding principles, which are a model for the new federation:

• Worker controlled

• Mandate driven

• Democratic

• Non aligned and independent

• Militant

• Corrupt free and accountable leadership

• Non racial and non sexist

• Primary focus on workplace issues

Now the task is to put these principles into action, in the campaigns, which the Steering Committee has adopted.

Central to all the campaigns is the demand for an end of job losses and for the restructuring of the economy on to a new growth path that will benefit all instead of a small minority, whether black or white. 

The government must stop its austerity programme, including plans to cut 25 000 jobs in the public sector and it must take concrete steps to stop the job-loss-blood in the manufacturing and other sectors of the economy. Our people have suffered enough! 

We are organising human chains and pickets around the Johannesburg Stock Exchange to force faceless investors whose speculative dealings impact on the livelihoods of millions, to look the exploited workers in the eye!   

We will target all gatherings of the representatives of white monopoly capital in South Africa, especially those who are part of the 1% that controls the world economy. We will demand that they negotiate with us a package of measures that will at the very least cut the salaries and bonuses of their fat cat CEOs, scrap their tax-dodging schemes and instead increase workers salaries to close the apartheid wage gap. 

We will link up with students at tertiary and secondly level to demand free, compulsory, decolonised and quality education for all. Education is a right not a privilege and it must not be commodified and sold to those who can afford it. Government must take practical measurers to ensure that all educational challenges, from preschool to tertiary levels are addressed decisively, including the exploitation of the Grade R educators and the leakage from education system that sidelines up to 50% of learners who leave the schooling system without any skills.

Most importantly, we are launching of a nationwide Recruitment Campaign to reach out to the 76% of workers outside unions - workers in the metro areas, small towns, farms, taxi ranks, the hospitality, retail and all sectors where exploitation is an everyday occurrence. 

To help achieve this every union in the New Federation must work with sister unions in the same sector and build united, democratic, independent and campaigning workers’ structures. We must make sure that when workers are recruited, they will also be given information and education to make sure they are activated, and that shop stewards and organisers will properly service them.

A ground-breaking agreement on union scope has been constructed in advance of the founding Congress, so that unions can immediately and energetically engage in recruitment campaigns prioritising the 76% who are in no union rather than competing with each other. It embodies a plan for the mutual harmonisation between unions in the same sectors, which is already visibly strengthening mutual cooperation between unions in the same sectors.

In conclusion, the new federation is committed to give workers a voice, which has been stifled for many years and a vehicle to mobilize them in action. We will engage the government and business on all of the issues, which I have raised, but if they ignore us we will make, them hear the voices of workers in the streets across the length and breadth of our country.

Than you, and have an excellent congress!

Amandla ngaweth

Matla ke a rona