COSATU’s 2017 SONA expectations
7 February 2017
The Congress of South African Trade Unions is looking forward with anticipation to the State of the Nation Address (SONA) to be delivered by the President of the Republic of South Africa, Jacob Zuma on the 09th of February 2017. We expect the SONA to set the tone for government's work this year, with the aim of addressing the serious challenges facing the country and also in improving the lives of the struggling majority.
This year’s SONA comes against the background of a subdued economic performance and the downward revision of the economic growth over the last couple of quarters. We expect a bold, decisive and inspiring stance from the president on how to stop job losses and stimulate economic growth.
COSATU expects the president’s SONA statement to reflect the Alliance and the ANC NEC’s positions on the need to move the national democratic revolution onto a second and more radical phase of our transition. We expect to hear about government’s concrete programmes to address poverty, create jobs and grow an inclusive and productive economy.
We need a radical overhaul of our macro-economic policy in line with the radical economic shift which we all agree needs to happen. To this end we expect government to send a clear message to the National Treasury, which institutionally constitutes the biggest obstacle to the government's economic programme that it’s time for change and a move away from the overplayed and ineffective neoliberal policies.
The federation expects the president to sketch out urgent steps to reverse the current investment strike and the export of South African capital. We demand more effective deployment of all state levers to advance industrialisation and the creation of decent work on a large scale. This should include state intervention in strategic sectors including through nationalisation. The government should ensure that we have a state pharmaceutical company and a state mining company as soon as possible. We want to see some deliberate action on the side of government to nationalise Sasol and Arcellor Mittal and the conversion of Post Bank into a state bank. We need a state bank that will ensure easy access to finance for most small businesses. The best way to do this is by ensuring that government institutions start banking with the Post Bank.
COSATU wants the president to outline a vision that will introduce a strong developmental state committed and ready to address unemployment, inequalities, and that is prepared to transform the State Owned Entities in line with the developmental agenda of the ANC government.
We want to hear how government plans to use state-owned commercial entities as powerful instruments of economic transformation. There is already a convergence within the Alliance structures that SOE’s should remain firmly within the control of the state, in order to increase their capacity to respond effectively and efficiently to government’s developmental agenda.
We remain adamant in our position that the task of fundamental transformation of our economy, the creation of decent work and the provision of basic services to the majority of our people cannot be outsourced to the private sector. The president needs to outline how his government plans to introduce an activist culture that will deliver on the promise , by the ANC NEC , of ensuring that every cent spent by government creates jobs.
We want to hear about the government’s job protection and creation programme. We do not expect to hear about the creation of cheap labour through the EPWP/ CWP and of job opportunities but we want to hear about real jobs. Government has been found badly wanting on the ongoing jobs blood bath in the poultry and mining sectors and we need to hear what is the government’s plan to stop this crisis. We also need the president to account on the number of jobs that have been created by the Jobs Fund that was announced by President Jacob Zuma during the State of the Nation address in 2011.
We call on the government to show decisiveness in the implementation of industrial policy. One of the objectives of the government’s nine point plan is to revitalise agriculture and agro-processing value chain, advancing beneficiation adding value to our mineral wealth, and implementation of Industrial Policy Action Plan. The failure to urgently address the poultry sector job losses, which is one of the labour intensive sectors and is important for food security, is an indictment on industrial policy failures. In this regard, COSATU calls for government to review trade agreements to ensure that they do not expose SA factories to risk of liquidation and loss of jobs, and to ensure that the IDC among others intervenes in these sectors to save jobs, and skills.
We expect the president to tell the nation how his government plans to move with speed to provide farm workers with land and equity. Government must act with speed to protect jobs in the farming sector. The land reform issue is very central if we are to bring the more than 9, 2 million unemployed people to the mainstream economy as a way of building an all inclusive people’s economy.
The federation wants government to reject the sugar tax proposal ,as it is likely to result in job losses, increase taxes on the poor ,who buy these sugary drinks because their labour surplus has been appropriated by bosses through slave wages. It will also cause high prices for food products including transport. Even if the sugar tax is imposed it would not result in the reduction in consumption of sugary products. If the treasury wants revenue it should impose taxes on financial transactions and not on productive economic activity ,such as sugar industry in particular, where it is estimated that there is likelihood of loss of at least 5000 jobs. The government should rather come up with sugar standards that would apply to not only beverages but also to other food products.
COSATU wants to hear the president outlining how government plans to move with speed to end Eskom’s blockages of renewable energy expansion. We expect government to intervene to ensure that electricity price increases are inflation based and that all municipalities are helped to pay their electricity bills on time.
The president also needs to tell the nation about government’s plan to deal with our water crisis and to also establish a water war-room to overhaul our water regime. The centre of this must be water conservation, rain water and grey water usage and desalination. Municipalities must not be allowed to make water unaffordable as Eskom has done with electricity. We need to ensure that high users of water pay higher tariffs, not the working and middle class families.
Government needs to move fast to ensure free and accessible tertiary education for working and middle class students; and we also want to hear clear plan of how government will deal with the never ending backlog of school repairs and infrastructure.
The federation expects government to give a clear and decisive programmme on how to rollout the NHI and also to deal with the never-ending chaos in our public health institutions. We urgently need an efficient, well-resourced, well-staffed national health system ,which provides the best possible service to all South Africans. The President should provide a progress report on the filling of vacancies in public health facilities. We also want government to account on the role and the effectiveness of the Office of Health Standards and Compliance.
We need the government to present a clear and decisive programme on how it plans to deal with our ever growing rampant crime and corruption that threatens to undermine all our achievements.
The president will also need to be clear and instruct his government to begin honestly engaging on the comprehensive social security with earnestness this month at Nedlac. Government must not delay engagements and try to ram through compulsory annuitisation again as it did in 2016 and 2015. The government should regain its lost fortitude by scrapping labour brokers, doing away with the e-toll system and also introduce the National Minimum wage.
Government should also focus on the wastages incurred by the state in the public-private-partnerships and tenders. There is a need for curtailment of the use of consultants by government departments and this must be extended to include the restriction of out-sourcing of the public service functions to the rent-seeking private sector, a phenomenon that also undermines effective public service delivery.
The president also needs to account on the Presidential Commission on the Remuneration of Public Servants that was appointed in August 2013 to look at the remuneration and conditions of service for public servants.
Overall, COSATU expects the SONA to rally the nation around the goal of economic development and also provide the much needed courageous and critical interventions and leadership. Government should know that it cannot outsource its developmental role to the private sector and also that the status quo is unsustainable.
Issued by, Sizwe Pamla, National Spokesperson, COSATU, 7 February 2017
