COSATU message for Freedom Day 2009
On Freedom Day 2009, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, and all South Africans, celebrate both the 15th anniversary of our historic first free and democratic elections on 27 April 1994 and the equally historic elections on 22 April 2009.
In 1994 we crossed an historic milestone in our country's history. After more than a century of racist tyranny, that election demonstrated to the world that South Africa was now a democratic society. In 2009 we proved that we continue to live in a non-racial democracy where the will of the people is sovereign.
For the fourth time, this week's elections demonstrated that the African National Congress (ANC), the revolutionary movement which led our liberation struggle, is still the party of the overwhelming majority of South Africans.
The people have rejected the cry by all the opposition parties that the ANC, under the leadership of its President Jacob Zuma, represents a threat to our democratic constitution. They declared that, on the contrary, the ANC is the organisation best able defend the democratic revolution which was confirmed on 27 April 1994.
They are right! The ANC's record over those 15 years have seen democracy entrenched, through a democratic constitution and many progressive laws, which enshrine the human rights that the majority was deprived of for centuries.
Workers are protected by laws which compel employers to adopt fair employment practices and minimum standards. Millions of previously oppressed people have moved into new homes, their children are in school; they have access to social grants, health care and receive running water and electricity.
While celebrating these achievements on freedom day, however, we must never forget the price that was paid for the achievement of our freedom, by the thousands of members of the liberation movement who dedicated themselves to the struggle, made huge sacrifices and even laid down their lives to help free our nation from apartheid and tyranny.
In particular we salute the memory of two of our greatest leaders, Oliver Tambo and Chris Hani, both of whom passed away in April 1993 and thus narrowly missed the opportunity to witness the democratic breakthrough that they did so much to bring about.
We also remember Solomon Mahlangu, the Umkhonto we Sizwe guerrilla brutally hanged by the apartheid regime on 6 April 1979. His blood and that of hundreds of thousands of others truly watered the tree of freedom.
We also mourn the passing of Violet Seboni, COSATU's 2nd Deputy President, on her way to campaign for the latest ANC victory, which sadly she is not here to celebrate, but whose spirit will continue to inspire us.
We have much to commemorate but also much still to achieve before we can truly say that all South Africans are free. We cannot ignore the 22 million South Africans living in poverty who cannot really benefit from political freedom, as they face a daily struggle to survive.
The close to 40% of the working population who are unemployed and the millions still living in shacks cannot fully celebrate their 'freedom' as they wait for the chance to earn a decent living and live in a proper home.
We also have to reduce the huge levels of inequality which are amongst the highest in the world and make a mockery of our efforts to create a fair and equitable society. Neither can we celebrate freedom when our society is scarred by such high levels of crime and corruption.
We must also eradicate racism and exploitation, which are still rife, especially on farms, where many employers seem to imagine that they still live in pre-1994 South Africa. They treat their workers no better than slaves, ignore the labour laws, abuse and even murder workers who stand up for their constitutional and legal rights, evict families from their homes and even refuse to allow workers to bury their family members on farms where they have toiled for decades. There is no 'freedom' for these citizens of the new South Africa.
Also denied the full fruits of our freedom are the millions who suffer from HIV/AIDS and other deadly diseases - many of them diseases of poverty.
So whilst we celebrate our victories and our freedoms we must get down to tackling our urgent outstanding tasks. In particular our priority now is to make sure that the ANC's commitments in its progressive elections manifesto are driven forward and turned into a programme of action.
We must take vigorous action to protect workers from the impact of the global economic crisis, create new, decent jobs, transform the lives of the poor majority of South Africans and ensure that we all share in the fruits of our labour.
The 2009 elections campaign saw an incredible mobilisation of the people. This momentum must not be lost; the thousands involved in the election campaign must be kept going and turned into a vibrant mass movement to implement the policies that the people voted for.
As COSATU always says on Freedom Day, laws alone will never win us freedom. The key to winning real and full freedom for workers and their families is for them to have strong, active trade unions, a strong tripartite alliance and civil society formations. We must organise and involve all those workers in low-paid, insecure, dangerous and unhealthy jobs and transform our own organisations, so that they recruit more members and give them better service.
COSATU urges every worker, and all South Africans to celebrate Freedom Day actively, by attending the many events around the country. Then on Friday 1 May, we urge workers in their thousands flooding into the May Day rallies that COSATU is organising around the country.
Statement issued by COSATU, April 27 2009
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