State of the Nation address: COSATU's expectations
The Congress of South African Trade Unions is looking forward to President Jacob Zuma's fourth State of the Nation Address on 9 February 2012. We congratulate him and his many achievements so far, and expect him to continue to roll out the policies in the ANC election manifesto, which prioritised the following areas:
- Creation of decent work and sustainable livelihoods
- Education
- Health
- Rural development, food security and land reform
- The fight against crime and corruption.
We are sure that Comrade Zuma will acknowledge the four ground-breaking accords signed last year by government, business, labour and civil society, on some of the biggest challenges we face - basic education, skills development, local procurement and green jobs. We look forward to hearing how government plans to play its part in taking them forward as quickly as possible.
a). Job creation
Although there was a small fall in the number of unemployed in the second half of 2011, the levels of unemployment are still intolerable. By the more realistic expanded figure which includes discouraged workers 7 504 000 people (36%) are still jobless.
It is estimated that 40% of the unemployed are new entrants into the labour market, who are almost likely to be young people. Statistics further show that 41% of the unemployed are between the ages of 25 and 34. In addition, 62% of the unemployed have less than secondary school education and 33% have completed secondary education but have no tertiary education. In short, 95% of the unemployed do not have tertiary education.
In addition the long-term unemployed, i.e. people who have been unemployed for more than a year, account for 60% of the unemployed. This means that most of the unemployment in our economy is structural in nature. Furthermore it is highly possible that what appears initially as cyclical unemployment quickly evolves into long-term structural unemployment. The fact that job losers and new entrants command a large fraction of the unemployed shows that our economy is not absorbing labour.
Part of the problem with youth unemployment is the continued apartheid networks that hinder African youth from gaining a foothold into employment. A study conducted in 2002 found that being African reduces the odds of being employed by 90%, in comparison to being white.
Despite similar qualifications, whites are on average 30% more likely to be employed than Africans. Furthermore, being female reduces the chances of being employed by 60% compared to being male and the chances of a female being self-employed are 93% less than being male.
COSATU hopes the President's speech will contain good news on progress in implementing the plans contained in the New Growth Path and Industrial Policy Action Plans. These plans - restructuring the economy from one dominated by mining, heavy chemicals and finance, to one that is labour-absorbing and environmentally sound - remain the key to reaching the government's goal of creating five million decent, sustainable jobs by 2020.
In particular we hope to hear concrete measures to expand manufacturing industry, and the beneficiation of our own resources. These must include substantial cuts in interest rates and the depreciation of the rand to encourage new investment in job-creating industries, and to make South African exports globally competitive.
b). Decent work
While the unemployed suffer most from the poverty that still stalks our land, the army of the working poor also continues to expand, with the growth of casualisation and labour broking. About 60% of all workers employed in the formal economy earn less than R2500 a month, 34% earn less than R1000 and a staggering 15% earn less than R500 a month.
The federation urges Comrade Zuma to recall the 2009 manifest commitment to "avoid exploitation of workers and ensure decent work for all workers as well as to protect the employment relationship, introduce laws to regulate contract work, subcontracting and out-sourcing, address the problem of labour broking and prohibit certain abusive practices."
We urge the President to reject the demand of business to relax ‘inflexible labour laws' so that they can exploit their workers even more ruthlessly. On the contrary we hope to hear how the government will strengthen these laws - so that workers are better protected from exploitation, poverty pay, unfair dismissal, and are able to work in a safe and healthy environment - and to enforce these laws more effectively to spare workers from the most extreme forms of exploitation.
We also hope to hear the scrapping of plans floated by the Minster of Labour to impose draconian restrictions of workers' constitutional right to strike.
We are sure that the president will have noted our intention to take to the streets on 7 March to demand the banning of labour brokers, these human traffickers who hire out casual workers. These workers generally have no contracts, no fixed hours, and no employment benefits such as sick pay or maternity leave. It would be great news if we were to hear the president announce that labour broking is to be banned!
The federation once again looks forward to the President rejecting the idea of a youth employment subsidy, a policy rejected by the ANC's NGC in 2005, which will lead to a further erosion of wages and conditions and mass retrenchments of workers once they reach the age limit for the subsidy.
c). Sustainable livelihoods
The expansion of social grants is one of the ANC government's finest achievements, and we look forward to hearing that the level of these grants will rise at least in line with inflation. It is intolerable that 50% of the South African population live on 8% of national income and that millions of the poorest South Africans are kept alive only because of access to grants, which now account for 58% of household income for those in the lowest income quintile.
As well as fighting for improved wages and better conditions for workers and the poor, COSATU calls on government to join our fight to curb the exorbitant pay for executives, which has made us the world's most unequal society, something which an ANC government should not be prepared to tolerate.
The government should ignore advice about ‘excessive' wage settlement from employers like Shoprite CEO Whitey Basson who last year took home the highest-ever monthly earnings ever recorded in a single year - an unbelievable R627.53 million in salary, perks and share options. In 2008 his total remuneration was R16.64 million and R24.13 million in 2009, so his 2010 income represented an increase of 2501% over two years.
d). Education
COSATU is sure that the President will congratulate the learners and teachers on the improved matric pass rate but trust that this will not lead to any complacency. We expect the President to back his Ministers of Education on their efforts to improve the quality and availability of education, so that we can produce the skilled and qualified workers which we will need if we are to meet our job-creation targets.
The crisis in education persists. The poor's children remain trapped in inferior education with wholly inadequate infrastructure. 70% of (matriculation) exam passes are accounted for by just 11% of schools, the former white, coloured, and Asian schools.
12-year olds in South Africa perform three times less than 11-year olds in Russia when it comes to reading and 16-year olds in South Africa perform three times less than 14-year olds in Cyprus when it comes to mathematics. Yet white learners perform in line with the international average in both science and mathematics, which is twice the score of African learners.
It is estimated only 3% of the children who enter the schooling system eventually complete with higher grade mathematics, 15% of grade 3 learners pass both numeracy and literacy, 70% of our schools do not have libraries and 60% do not have laboratories, 60% of children are pushed out of the schooling system before they reach grade 12.
In 1997, approximately 1.4 million learners entered the system in Grade 1. The matriculation pass figure of 334,718 learners in 2009 means that 24% were able to complete matriculation in the minimum of 12 years. Lastly, 55% of educators would leave the profession if they had an opportunity to do so. This is symptomatic of an ineffective and dysfunctional education system.
That is why COSATU has resolved to campaign to adopt the worst performing schools, which we have been visiting and will continue to monitor, and we are mobilising support for the teachers, learners and administrators in their efforts to turn the situation around. We call on the government and all alliance formations to coordinate this campaign and ensure maximum benefit.
We hope that Comrade Zuma will welcome and support the firm commitment made by teachers' unions to ensure that teachers must be at school at all times, teaching, and not abusing the learners, in particular the girl children.
The federation also hopes for good news on the rapid implementation of the commitment in the ANC 8th January 2011 statement that "in line with the vision of the Freedom Charter, and the resolution of our 52nd National Conference, we are committed to progressively introduce free education up to undergraduate level.
The federation also hopes to see progress on the construction of the two universities in the Northern Cape and Mpumalanga, which will create more opportunities for higher education and could also create around 20 000 much needed jobs.
e). Health care
COSATU expects Comrade Zuma to spell out his total support for the excellent work of Health Minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, particularly his determination to press ahead with the National Health Insurance Scheme, despite the rantings of all the vested interests in the private healthcare sector.
Most of our public health facilities are a disaster - derelict, under-staffed, under-resourced and short of essential supplies of drugs and equipment. Nothing less than a root-and-branch transformation of the entire system will start to provide the poor majority with the quality of service presently available to the rich minority. The NHI is the only way to achieve this goal.
We also continue to support the government's excellent HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment programme.
f). Rural development, food security and land reform
Two years of flooding in parts of the country have highlighted the potential threat to food security. This makes it more vital that the President commits the government to accelerate land reform and assist the new farm owners to use their land productively, which can create jobs and produce food.
Rural development must focus on building rural institutions, social and economic infrastructure, skills development and the promotion of non-farm activities, especially agro-processing, with particular emphasis on rural women and youth empowerment
On land reform, COSATU opposes the process by which the state relinquishes publicly owned land in order to make up for land redistribution, whilst racial, gender and class concentration of ownership of land still persists. Instead, we call for the productive use of state-owned land by co-operatives and a policy to deal with expropriation of unused or unproductive land, including land currently used for game-farming, golf-estates and land held for speculative purposes.
A key element is the maintenance of adequate balance between industrialization on the one hand and agriculture and rural development on the other.
g). Crime and corruption
COSATU has warmly welcomed recent bold steps by the Minister of Finance to take over the Health Department in Gauteng, the Departments of Police, Roads and Transport in the Free State, five departments in Limpopo, and the earlier takeover of the Eastern Cape Department of Education.
The evidence that Comrade Gordhan has produced to justify his takeover in Limpopo has provided the clearest possible proof of a massiveproblem of mismanagement of public money, fraud, and corruption.
It is a cancer which is eating away at the heart of our democracy, driven by the capitalist culture of ‘me-first' and ‘get as rich as possible as fast as possible', which is now invading our democratic institutions and liberation movement.
We also welcome the many other initiatives from government, including the sacking of two ministers and suspension of the head of the SAPS. But are worried at the slow rate at which perpetrators of corruption are being brought to court and convicted. We hope to hear more good news of successful investigations, arrests and prosecutions of those alleged to be involved in this looting of our wealth.
COSATU also looks forward to a firm assurance from the President that the Protection of State Information Bill will be radically redrafted to ensure that it can never be used to classify evidence of crime and corruption as ‘secret' or to criminalise whistle-blowers who expose such information.
Through its launch of Corruption Watch on 26 January 2012, COSATU is playing its part in the national campaign to end this scourge and we are confident that it will provide workers and all South Africans a safe haven to report corrupt activities in confidence, without fear of victimisation.
One important policy which we hope to hear the President supporting is provincial and municipal authorities employing their own workers to carry out public works, rather than putting them out to tender, which creates more opportunities for corruption and shoddy work by tenderpreneurs.
h). Walmart
COSATU hopes the President will back his three ministers who are insisting on the Competition Tribunal imposing more stringent conditions on Walmart's take-over of Massmart. The world's biggest company has a terrible industrial relations record and its entry into other countries has led to massive job losses, as it compels all retailers to adopt its own cut-throat tactics in order to compete and survive.
We fear the loss of jobs not only in retail stores but manufacturers, service providers, and small businesses, arising from the company's procurement practices, whereby they secure the cheapest products from anywhere in the world, regardless of how badly the workers who make them are treated.
The Local Procurement Accord which aims to accelerate the creation of 5 million new jobs by 2020, and the attainment of the goals of the Industrial Policy Action Plan (IPAP 2), by promoting local procurement. Yet the Walmart-Massmart merger will have exactly the opposite result - more cheap imports produced in poverty-pay sweatshops and more factory closures and retrenchments in South African manufacturing.
i). E-tolling
The federation hopes to hear the president announce that the government is going to completely scrap the Gauteng e-tolling system and quash rumours that it is going to do no more than reduce the price of the tolls. We are utterly opposed to the commodification of more and more public services and believe that our roads are a public asset, not a commodity to create massive profits for private companies.
These tolls will have a particularly devastating effect on workers who have no alternative but to drive to work because of the lack of a proper public transport system. They will lead to big price increases in the shops to cover the increased cost of transporting goods, and some companies may even be forced out of business and have to retrench workers because of their increased transport costs.
j). COP17 and Climate Change
The Green Economy Accord aims to create 300 000 new jobs by 2020, in economic activities such as energy generation, manufacturing of products that reduce carbon emissions, soil and environmental management and eco tourism and we look forward to the President outlining how the government is going to take its plans forward.
k). Conclusion
As COSATU said in its 2011 end-of year statement: "Unless we embrace radical economic programmes, and in particular develop the capacity of the state to intervene in the economy and drive development, we are doomed. Unless we can build the capacity of local governments to take back areas they have outsourced, whilst increasing funding so as to discourage the use of more tenders and use their resources for service delivery and job creation, we shall not realise the dream of many for a better life.
"Unless we mobilise citizens to be more active, led by a conscious working class that can drive campaigns against corruption, and to transform education, in particular to get all dysfunctional schools to work as learning institutions, and unless we can defeat HIV and introduce the NHI to fix our hospitals, we are doomed."
We are now urging the president and his government to join us is this drive to stop the rot and get back on course to implement our national democratic revolution.
Statement issued by COSATU, February 7 2012
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