The Elections are over but Our Workers Struggle Continues
16 May 2019
COSATU in KZN takes this opportunity to appreciate the role played by its members and workers at large towards a very successful National May Day Rally which KZN Province hosted. We further wish to thank all workers who have heeded the call by the Federation to go out in their numbers to defend, deepen and advance the National Democratic Revolution by voting for a resounding success for the African National Congress. Indeed workers have displayed an incisive level of political understanding of our background as South Africans and the way forward thereof.
During our May Day celebration, we made this observation, we said “while the democratic government struggles to transform our society and economy, it is obvious that it is coming under enormous pressure from capital both at home and abroad. Although the democratic forces have repeatedly won the elections, they are yet to establish their hegemony in the state machinery. At the same time, class differences among the formerly oppressed have grown dramatically, with a minority of black people joining the capitalist class as managers or owners, while most of our people face rising joblessness and poverty”. This, therefore, means that it is paramount for the Sixth democratic government to pursue transformative policies to change the status quo of the current ruling class for the economic emancipation of the majority.
Workers and people of South Africa have given the ANC an opportunity to self-correct and move South Africa forward. Part of the self-correction process should be to deal with corruption and to address the plight which continues to define the poorer people of the country.
So as we congratulate the African National Congress for the confidence shown to it by workers and South Africans, we must also caution the ANC not to take this trust as a “Blank Cheque” but the primary responsibility for our sixth democratic government is to work with speed to redress the imbalances caused by the capitalist system within our society. Building up to May 1 and whilst acknowledging our achievements as workers of South Africa, we also identified many campaigns we need to embark on as COSATU to further improve conditions of work in our country.