Statement of the COSATU Central Executive Committee held on 22-24 November 2010
The Central Executive Committee (CEC) of the Congress of South African Trade Unions held a scheduled meeting on 22-24 November 2010, attended by National Office Bearers, and representatives of its affiliates and provincial structures.
On 1 December 2010, COSATU will be proudly celebrating its 25th anniversary, a quarter of a century of battling for workers' rights, democracy and liberation, 25 years of unbroken struggle with and for the working class and the poor.
On 4th December 2010 we will hold the mother of all birthday parties - a rally and a workers' festival - at Johannesburg Stadium. As well as top speakers from government, our allies, and of course COSATU itself, there will be music from the finest South African artists, including Jonas Gwangwa, Letta Mbulu, Vusi Mahlasela, DL Cleo, Big Nuz, Ntando, Rebecca Malope and Ihhashi Elimhlophe. And that is less than half the list!
At the event COSATU will also launch its 2011 Local Government Election campaign in support of the ANC.
Transport has been laid on from all over the country and we want workers to come there with their partners and families and enjoy this historic festival of workers, and we urge the media to publicise this momentous event to your readers, viewers and listeners.
The CEC meeting was addressed by three government ministers - Ebrahim Patel, Minister of Economic Development, Mildred Oliphant, Minister of Labour, and Nathi Mthethwa, Minister of Police. Collins Chabane, Minister in the Presidency, had to tender his apologies and will be invited to a future meeting.
1. Political situation
The CEC recalled that in its last session held in August it issued a discussion paper titled "The Alliance at a Crossroads- the battle against a predatory elite and political paralysis"
The August CEC had concluded that:
"The post-Polokwane period has been highly contested. On paper, Polokwane promised key advances in its commitment to an economic policy based on decent work, proposals for a new growth path, a new high impact industrial policy, national health insurance, comprehensive social protection, comprehensive rural development strategy etc. But progress on these areas has been very mixed, and on the whole disappointing. The centrepiece of the new economic policy, the Growth Path document couldn't be adopted at the July Cabinet Lekgotla, and has been referred to a Cabinet Committee. There are no time frames set for this process suggesting that it may hang in there forever."
The CEC analysed a number of political events that took place since we made this conclusion as follows:
ANC NGC
The CEC agreed that for COSATU the ANC NGC in September 2010 was a huge success! The members of the ANC took the opportunity to assess progress in implementation of the ANC 52nd National Conference resolutions and took a number of progressive resolutions including on the following:
1. It reaffirmed all the economic resolutions of Polokwane as summarised in the five ANC manifesto priorities. It adopted the framework for the New Growth Path which emphasised the need for transformation of the economy to achieve the goal of creating decent work and eradication of poverty.
2. Further, the Declaration reaffirmed "the ANC's approach that the transformation of the South African economy should always be holistic and comprehensive, covering all sectors of the economy. In this regard, the ANC should ensure greater state involvement and control of strategic sectors of the economy, such as mining, energy, the financial sector and others."
3. The NGC moved decisively to state that "the implementation of NHI should be fast-tracked... The ANC must lead the implementation of the NHI and its promotion amongst the general populace", adding that "the involvement and support of the Alliance is crucial."
4. The NGC categorically stated that it must go down in history as "the gathering that marked a decisive turning point in tackling, arresting and reversing the negative tendencies that have eroded and threaten to erode the political integrity and moral standing of the ANC among our people. The NGC "went beyond condemning sins of incumbency and other misbehaviour such as ill-discipline and factionalism" and promised that decisive action will be taken "against any tendency to erode the character, principles, core values and culture of the ANC."
COSATU totally agrees.
The ‘new tendency' of tenderpreneurs was isolated and exposed and their programme completely disrupted. Just like the 1996 class project it does not mean that they have been defeated. It will however take blunders and a series of own goals by the leadership to allow a return to the pre-2010 NGC political environment.
In our view the NGC on the whole constituted not only a defence of Polokwane but significant pro-worker pro-poor advances, even though there remain some worrying elements.
The overriding lesson we have however learnt throughout our 25 years of existence is that paper accepts anything written on it. It will all depend on consistent and decisive leadership to take forward the clear pro-poor and pro-working class policies that emerged from the NGC. Our challenge is to use a combination of strategies to continue to push for fundamental transformation.
Overall the framework emerging from the NGC should have ended paralysis emboldened the leadership and brought the alliance formations closer to one another.
Strategic Political Centre
An area of disappointment emerging from the NGC was resolutions on the Alliance. COSATU has long said that the ANC leads the Alliance, which, as OR Tambo said, "is not an elite pact signed in conference tables but an organic and unique entity born out of struggle and cemented with blood of our people". COSATU fully agrees with this theoretical perspective, and that "each Alliance component enjoys political independence from one another".
COSATU has not contested the fact that the ANC is the strategic political centre precisely because it leads the alliance and the rest of the democratic forces. COSATU however insist that since the ANC has formed a strategic and not tactical alliance with SACP and COSATU, it goes with without saying that since the ANC is the strategic centre, the alliance as a whole under the leadership of the ANC is also a strategic political centre.
To find a solution to unblock this stalemate, we must spell out what we mean by a strategic political centre. This has already been spelt out in a detailed May 2008 Alliance Summit resolution that agreed that we must develop a joint programme driven by Alliance leadership structures at all levels to mobilise our membership and society as whole behind the demands of the Freedom Charter and for implementation of the manifesto commitments.
There should be maximum levels of consultation including on key government programmes and deployment of cadres. In short the Alliance must not return back to the marginalisation of other components, including ANC members and our people.
The ANC-led alliance must drive transformation, and government leaders and bureaucrats cannot continue to be the strategic centre of power, as they have been over the last 16 years.
Disagreement on this critical matter including the fact that there is no programme to mobilise our people behind the manifesto priorities and for transformation means that the alliance is still at cross roads.
Bilaterals with the SACP
The CEC received a report on successful bilateral meetings with the SACP. The CEC concluded that:
1. It would be an exaggeration to suggest that all our problems that have caused uneasiness have been resolved. Both COSATU and the SACP have the responsibility to act decisively to close the gaps and ensure that maximum unity amongst these two biggest socialist formations. The biggest loser in the deterioration of the relationship between COSATU and the SACP is going to be the working class and the struggle for socialism.
2. In the past the CEC has expressed the CEC view is that the SACP General Secretary must return to SACP Head Quarters and lead the party on the full time basis so that it can confront the challenges facing the working class. The CEC reiterated that view. This is a plea not a command!
3. COSATU will be discussing a formula that can ensure that the SACP develops resources that can help it develop human resource capacity and is help to run campaigns effectively.
Bilaterals with the ANC
The CEC expressed concern at the tone of the ANC responses to COSATU, which are adopting an increasingly antagonistic and paranoid posture, and questioning of bona fides, which is slowly, if not faster, taking us to the pre-52nd Polokwane conference era, where all were under scrutiny and suspected of being manipulated by the imperialists and or other forces hostile to the NDR.
A trend is developing where COSATU is subjected to ridicule, caricatured, dismissed and misrepresented, to advance an argument that the Federation is being oppositionist and generally problematic and not loyal to the Alliance. The CEC called for this to stop.
Personalisation of the role of the General Secretary
The COSATU General Secretary concedes now that his announcement that he will not stand in the next congress was a mistake, more so his statement that he would now make himself available for the NEC and Central Committee of the ANC and the SACP, even though not for the position of the secretaries of these organisations.
This has unleashed speculation about where he is going and what role he will play. Already he has been attacked by some in the ANC as having launched the succession debate through this announcement. The ANCYL has also not missed the opportunity to ridicule, suggesting that he wants to jump straight to the top leadership instead of first joining a branch of the ANC and making his way up.
The media, with the help of some faceless persons within the affiliates, launched a COSATU succession debate and named possible candidates. The union officials behind this debate for their own reasons sought to profile and rubbish their preferred candidates and those they did not prefer.
This forced the May 2010 CEC to announce that there is no succession debate in the federation until the right time. This has however not stopped some in the media from continuing to conduct this debate. Regrettably this may destabilise the unity of the federation by undermining personal relations between comrades, who are pitted against each other by faceless people.
Secondly the media, which has its own agenda, have sought to present the COSATU General Secretary as some kind of Messiah, writing editorials and articles praising him outside the collective that he represents when articulating the federation's positions. Regrettably there is now in some quarters a fear of "his agenda".
In a co-ordinated whispering and gossip campaign it is suggested that:
1) He aims to be in the top six of the ANC
2) He is positioning himself to be the next General Secretary of the SACP
3) He wants to use COSATU to form a new workers or a South African ‘MDC' political party as it has happened in Zimbabwe, Malawi, Namibia and Zambia.
The truth is that the General Secretary is no individual operating outside the discipline and policy of the federation. COSATU is committed to the Alliance and has no agenda whatsoever to form an MDC. This does not mean that COSATU must give in to the blackmail and refuse to discuss the political environment it finds itself operating in.
The reaction of COSATU to this can't be to say that it must close all discussions because that would be playing to the agenda of the paranoid sections of Alliance leaders. The General Secretary is the chief spokesperson of COSATU and the CEC will not give in to the agenda of isolating and destroying him. He will remain the public face of COSATU. COSATU will defend its General Secretary and all its leaders against unwarranted attacks.
The General Secretary has stated his preference with regard to the next congress. What will ultimately happen there remains an issue that the affiliates and their members will discuss at an appropriate time. The General Secretary will not, because of paranoia, issue a declaration that he will not stand for this and that position for fear that this is compromising relationships with paranoid individuals.
Civil society conference
Successive COSATU National Congresses have called on the federation to work more closely with other civil society formations. Informed by this, COSATU has convened two major civil society conferences to broader its jobs and poverty campaign in recent years.
The August 2010 CEC adopted a programme which said: "The COSATU post-World Cup Declaration is gaining broad support. We need to create a bigger profile for this, and convene a platform of organisations to focus on the issues raised in the Declaration. We can use this to unite South Africa around a positive campaign of social renewal".
This led to the Civil Society Conference on 27-28 October 2010. Close to 60 community based organisations, NGOs and the mass democratic movement, including SANCO, attended the highly successful gathering.
The CEC expressed shock and regret at the reaction of the ANC NWC. The ANC has never attended any of the three previous major summits convened by COSATU and in fact refused to attend at least one of these when it was invited to observe. Today, informed by an uninformed insecurity and paranoia it suddenly smells a rat and develops all manner of conspiracy theories.
COSATU in particular is angered by a baseless accusation that it is fomenting a regime change in South Africa. There is no difference between what the NWC of the ANC is accusing COSATU of, and what the late James Nkambule accused three prominent leaders of the ANC, Cyril Ramaphosa, Tokyo Sexwale and Mathew Phosa of plotting a regime change.
Comrade Jeremy Cronin, DGS of the SACP, has also felt it appropriate to launch his own tirade against the Civil Society conference in Umsebenzi Online.
It is regrettable that Comrade Jeremy's contribution to the debate on the role of civil society is full of ideological confusion, baseless insinuations and self-contradictory assertions. More worryingly the SACP DGS did not once engage COSATU to indicate that he has a problem with mobilisation of civil society.
It is based on total misconceptions of the nature of the Civil Society Conference, which have already been clarified in COSATU's response to the ANC National Working committee which raised similar, and equally unjustified, charges, a response which Jeremy presumably has not read, since he repeats the NWC's false assertion that SANCO was not invited to conference (they were and did participate.)
Ironically much of Cde Jeremy's introductory paragraphs, dealing with the nature of civil society, justify COSATU's stance and contradict his own. He is quite right to identify the different tendencies within civil society. Some, which he describes as "centre-left leaning, NGO/ social movements", veer towards the side of the national democratic revolution, and others, who are right-wing, free market, anti-majoritarian liberals, tend to align with the counter-revolution.
This reflects the pressure exerted on civil society groupings by the two dominant classes, the capitalists and the working class, each competing for their allegiance. That is why for years, as Jeremy concedes, it has been the policy of not only COSATU and the ANC, but also the SACP in particular, to build broad alliances with civil society organisations, in order to create and strengthen a hegemony of progressive forces within civil society and weaken the counter-revolutionary forces.
As Cde Jeremy says, "the SACP in practice has also always sought to work with a wide range of social liberal forces - whether within the ANC and our broader movement... Over the past ten years with our successive Red October campaigns we have, likewise, worked with and learnt from active campaigning together with a wide range of forces, including many NGO/social movements and faith-based formations, around transforming the financial sector, or land reform, or dealing with the scourge of corruption."
The ANC adopted the same strategy with its Alliance with SANCO, and its leadership of the former mass democratic movement.
October's Civil Society Conference was located squarely within this tradition and was indeed a classic example of the same strategy. It was attended by 56 organisations represented from a wide range of church, community, NGO and special interest formations.
It is worth repeating some of COSATU's response to the ANC NWC:
"COSATU remains firmly committed to its alliance with the ANC, SACP and SANCO, mandated by many National Congress resolutions. It has however also always been, and will remain, a trade union federation, independent of the ANC, the state and capital, with the right to meet and interact with any organisation, as long as this advances the interests of the working class.
"COSATU has no need to seek permission from anyone to meet and work with friendly organisations. We are not an anti-ANC and anti-government coalition. We are not here to begin a process to form any political party, nor to advance the interest of any individual".
"Contrary to the impression given by the ANC statement, speakers at the conference went out of their way to heap praise on the ANC government's achievements. COSATU, and the overwhelming majority of civil society organisations, are fully committed to working with, not against the ANC and the government. United together, the liberation movement and civil society are an invincible force for change and national liberation. Let us unite and work together to achieve our shared aims!"
The CEC agreed to continue to organise provincial civil society conferences next year and called on the leadership of the federation to move with speed to organise the Conference of the Left of all forces committed to the goal of socialism in conjunction with the SACP.
COSATU CEC reiterated that COSATU is an independent organisation free to pursue it congress resolutions.
Cabinet reshuffle
The CEC noted that on 30 October 201, the President announced the biggest cabinet reshuffle in the history of our democracy. We welcome his comment that "Given the fact that we still face serious challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality in the country, government has to work at a faster pace to change the lives of the poor. Our people need to see a visible improvement in the delivery of water, electricity, health care, education, social security, civic services, safety and security and a host of other basic needs."
COSATU reject totally the suggestion by some in the media that the President sought to cement his position by packing the Cabinet with people from one province KwaZulu Natal. COSATU totally rejects tribalism and will fight this and other divisions whenever they rare their ugly heads.
COSATU commits to working closely with all the new ministers and deputies, and has already begun to do this at this CEC meeting.
Preparations for the Alliance Summit
The Alliance Secretariat has set the date for the next Alliance Summit - 29-30 January 2011. Whilst we still have to finalise the agenda, the following will feature prominently:
1. Alliance programme
2. Conceptualisation of the alliance including the strategic political centre
3. 2011 local government elections
2. Towards establishment of Corruption Watch
Since the decision was taken to build a powerful anti-corruption institution of civil society - Corruption Watch - involving a team of lawyers, accountants, auditors, etc,
The meeting discussed in detail the formation of a Section 21 company and the balance of power between the directors and members. It was noted that there must be a proper gender and race balance on the board of directors and that a person of exceptional integrity needs to be identified as a candidate for the position of Executive Director/CEO.
COSATU and its affiliates will hold a majority of the legal membership of the company, with civil society organisations holding the balance. The legal requirement is 7 members, but the CEC decided to have 15 members, 10 of which would be COSATU members, the others would represent civil society organisations.
The CEC considered the political challenges of ACU and affirmed that this is an initiative intended to support government's efforts to combat corruption, that it will aim to enhance the effectiveness of statutory bodies such as the NPA and work within the framework of the UN Convention against Corruption, which SA has ratified.
It was agreed that it would be important to meet with the Minister of Justice and other key Ministers and that ACU will only have the confidence of the public if it is seen to be effective in fighting corruption. It will have to find ways of protecting whistle-blowers and the information they provide as well as those individuals involved in the ACU.
3. Amendments of legislation dealing with labour brokers
The CEC recalled that in its August meeting it expressed concern at both delay in addressing the pressing matter and the content of the draft Bill rejected by Cabinet which sought to ensure that the ANC commitments to workers are taken forward.
Subsequently little progress was made to it taken this forward.
Since then Mildred Oliphant a former SACCAWU shop steward from Northern KZN has since been appointed as Minister of Labour. She addressed the CEC. COSATU hopes that the Minister will move with speed to introduce amendments to ban the labour brokering identified as a problem by the ANC manifesto.
4. Special Courts Bill
The CEC discussed the revised Bill which was gazetted in May 2010 for public comment. The revised Bill appears to address many of Labours concerns including:
1. Ensuring that NEDLAC has a role in determining judges appointed to the Labour Division
2. Trade union representatives retain their right of appearance in these courts, thereby allowing them to continue representing workers.
3. Separate arrangements are provided in respect of labour appeal matters, which will be heard by Labour judges.
4. Labour judges would be appointed for life.
However, the following serious concerns remain:
a) The definition of the substantive jurisdiction of the Labour Courts is narrowly limited to matters arising from Department of Labour (DOL) legislation. Yet there are a number of pieces of legislation that have direct implications for labour rights but which are not the responsibility of the DOL. Similarly business rescue provisions in the new Companies Act, which is the responsibility of the dti, would allow for the renegotiation of employment conditions as long as this is in compliance with the LRA. Accordingly the jurisdiction of the Labour courts should be sufficiently wide enough to take into account relevant non-DOL legislation.
b) A key objective of the Bill is to create a single High Court system made up of specialist divisions (including the Labour Court) and the general division, control and management of the High Court is centralised under the Judge President of the High Court. This means that in future there will merely be a "head" of the labour division as opposed to the full position of a Judge President, amounting to the downgrading of the position. Labour Judges would be unlikely to be allowed to consider ordinary non-labour matters unless appointed to the general division in respect of which they would have to show adequate generalist legal experience, and which most specialist labour lawyers often do not have.
This raises the concern that in the long-term the quality and sustainability of the proposed Labour Divisions will be brought into question since labour judges will not have the option to progress further including through appointments to the Supreme Court of Appeal and Constitutional Court. The Labour Court Judge President (Mlambo) has already given indications that he would leave if this is implemented.
COSATU CEC called for a resolution of the remaining two areas with the Minister of Justice, Jeff Radebe.
5. AARTO
COSATU supports measures that will end the carnage on our roads by punishing offenders and ending the culture of impunity. Workers should however not be punished for the non-roadworthiness of the vehicles that do not belong to them. The demerits system must punish owners and not workers.
SATAWU appealed for support for their campaign against AARTO, especially its impact on truck, bus and taxi drivers who face the possibility of losing their licences and therefore their jobs under the provisions of the demerit system. Many employers impose time limits for journeys, which can only be met by speeding.
The CEC expressed support for SATAWU but decided to unpack the provisions of the new Act, some of which seek to crack down on speeding and the use of unroadworthy vehicles, and streamline the collection of fines, which aim to reduce the number of accidents and save lives.
COSATU welcome the postponement of the implementation of AARTO until all legitimate concerns have been addressed.
6. The New Growth Path
The CEC was addressed by the Minister of Economic Development, Ebrahim Patel, on his proposed New Economic Growth Path strategy, which he tabled in Parliament on 23 November 2010.
The CEC has welcomed the tabling of the document which it will now engage with. COSATU affiliates will study the document a workshop will be held on the 14-15 December. COSATU will measure the document against its own proposals published in September, the ANC NGC resolutions, and the ANC 52nd National Conference resolutions that call for restructuring of the economy, decent work, eradication of poverty and an end to monopolies. We shall also check if the New Growth is capable of creating the type of society envisaged by the Freedom Charter.
The CEC noted the new growth path framework document and has raised concerns about some aspects of the framework, including but not limited to, the macroeconomic policy framework that supports the new growth path and the proposals relating to wage moderation.
Issued by COSATU, November 25 2010
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