Opening Remarks by COSATU President at the COSATU’s 13th National Congress
18 September 2018
The National Office bearers of COSATU
The members of the Central Executive Committee
The entire provincial and local leadership core of COSATU
The ANC delegation led by comrade Cyril Ramaphosa
The delegation of the SACP led by comrade Blade Nzimande
The leadership of the SANCO led by comrade Mdakane
The delegation of the SASCO led by comrade Avela Mjajubana
The COSAS delegation
Please accept warm and revolutionary greetings on behalf of the COSATU National Office Bearers and the Central Executive Committee
This year marks 37 years since the first reported cases of HIV and attempts started to be made to have an effective AIDS Response. Currently South Africa has over 7, 1 million people living with HIV and with the biggest treatment programme of more than 3.7 million on life saving treatment (ARV’s)
The current reality is that we have 270 000 new HIV infections, 450 000 new TB infections. We also have over 2000 new infections per week amongst Adolescent Girls and Young Women 15-24 yrs. These girls are not infecting themselves, it is men in our circles and outside our circles that infects the young women that also impregnate and violate their rights as well.
Linked to this is the intensification of abuse against the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender and Intersex people. LGBTI experiences high level of discrimination at work and while others are denied job opportunities. Many more faces victimisation, murder, corrective rape, and secondary victimisation when reporting incidents. This can only be stopped through visible work by all our organisations with COSATU playing a leading role. All these represent a struggle which needs to be mounted side by side with the struggle for a more radical second phase of our transition.
Comrades, as COSATU National Office Bearers we would like to express our sincere thanks to all the members of the Central Executive Committee for the support you rendered towards ensuring that COSATU’s programmes and campaigns were implemented successfully. Without your support the federation is nothing! Without you, no COSATU resolution could have been implemented. We want to thank you for keeping the flag of the federation flying high.
The leadership of the ANC, the leadership of the SACP, the leadership of SANCO, the leadership of SASCO, and the entire movement, we want to thank all of you for the continued support in building and defending COSATU. We heard you calling on workers all over the country to be organised under COSATU. We saw you working hard to unite and build COSATU and we also saw you participating towards the success of all the COSATU campaigns including our May Day events.
To our international friends, the leadership of ITUC , and the WFTU and to all our international friend in the African continent and abroad thank you for refusing to be confused by those who came to you under the pretext of fundraising whilst the real intention was to turn you against us. You refused and instead came back to tell us about their plots to liquidate COSATU. Thank you for your continued dependable friendship.
Comrade Delegates, coming from across the length and breadth of our country and from all the sectors of the economy , you the real owners of COSATU representing millions of workers at home both the organised and the unorganised , we salute your loyalty and commitment in building COSATU to what it is today.
Since the 2015 Special and the 12th National Congress, the federation had been involved in a relentless war against our class adversaries and our detractors. The war continues up to this day and both our class enemies and detractors intersect at one point which is fighting to own the soul of COSATU.
We have successfully defended the soul of the federation and we won that battle hands down , despite the books written against COSATU , ideologues and academics who have been unleashed against the federation, new organisations formed with the sole purpose to liquidate the federation, some sections of the media taking side against COSATU ; some bureaucrats in government working to destroy COSATU unions, we came out from that war with scars but with COSATU still remaining a leading, fighting , militant and uncompromising federation. The scars that we carry are not on our backs as if we were running away from the enemy. It is the scars of bravery in which we confronted our enemies chest to chest in a deadly and relentless class combat. This we could not have been able to do without the visible support from our members.
It is you the members who came forward and occupied the front ranks, drawing the red line on the sand saying COSATU can never be stolen or destroyed in your presence.
Through your principled firmness, you gave COSATU her deserving political credibility and stature. It is you who are in the coal face of employers’ merciless attacks and exploitation and therefore it is only you who understand the importance of a strong organisation. We want to thank you for your continued belief in the federation of Elijah Barayi, a home of all workers. Thank you for continuing to fight under the umbrella of COSATU. Thank you basebenzi for protecting and defending the founding principles and keeping the black, red and gold flag of the federation flying even higher.
Today we have come here to give you back your organisation. It is united , more intact , more stronger , more militant, more radical and even more sharper . Take it and continue to build it into a fearless instrument of class war in the hands of workers!
We come to this congress carrying victories on our shoulders. Since the 12th National Congress, through your conscious actions, your federation has leaped from one great victory to another.
Fresh from the 12th National Congress you stood up against compulsory preservation of your retirement fund benefits when you declared nothing about us without us! You forced government to finally release and table the discussion paper on the comprehensive social security and retirement reform.
It is workers organised under COSATU who have won our demand for a National Minimum wage .This struggle has been going on for many decades, and its aspirations got to be inscribed in many historic documents of our struggle including the 1943 African Claims and the 1955 Freedom Charter. Today through your relentless struggles, we have won it and now our focus is on heightening the struggle to achieve a living wage.
Your struggle for the transformation of the Unemployment Insurance Fund has born fruits. A new Unemployment Insurance Act has now been signed into law, coming with progressive changes which include an increase UIF benefits from 8 to 12 months. Increase maternity leave benefits from 54% to 66% of salary within the thresholds. Reduce time needed to accumulate UIF. Allow still born births and third trimester miscarriages to qualify for maternity leave. Allow the Minister to increase maternity leave payments up to certain limits if sufficient funds are available without amending the act. Separate maternity leave credits from UIF credits. Provide for reduced time workers under full time UIF benefits. Includes public service employees who would now be covered, e.g. if they are dismissed. Their inclusion will also significantly boost the UIF and provide space to increase further access to it by unemployed workers or mothers on maternity leave.
It is through your relentless struggles fighting side by side with students throughout the years that today South African democratic government has declared free education for students coming from the background of the working class and the poor.
It is through the struggles of COSATU unions that South Africa is today having a policy processes underway to introduce the National Health Insurance and a comprehensive Social Security System. Today very few people can stand in public platforms and condemn our policy proposals on NHI and our stance of outsourcing, because we will show them evidence of the death of more than one hundred psychiatric patients in Gauteng which stands as a monumental reminder of the dangers of outsourcing and agencification of the state. It is evidence of the dangers posed by the use of private healthcare providers in the health system.
When we say we are a fighting federation we mean it. We continue to fight both in the streets and in the boardroom with equal precision and political finesse. Ask any honest member of parliament they will tell you about our well researched and well thought out quality policy presentations which covers more than 20 sectors of the economy and our presentations and research work is quoted by various reputable academic institutions and scholars. Ask any employer they will tell you about the forever combat ready unions of COSATU who know how and when to draw a red line on the sand, when forced to that position. Honest employers who negotiate with COSATU unions will tell you about how COSATU unions can demonstrate tactical finesse, show calculated bravery, courageous leadership and can take the fight to the bitter end when the moment calls for it. When we say we are a fighting federation we really mean it.
We have just come from the ANC’s 54th National Conference in which your struggles has caused it to produce outcomes which are in line with many COSATU’s historical demands which were adopted as resolutions. These include the nationalization of the South African Reserve Bank, Expropriation of land without compensation and free education and to review the NDP in order to make it more consistent with the objective of radical economic transformation. Our tasks moving forward will be to heighten our campaign to fight the neo liberal offensive which has currently gained more confidence.
As we speak, through the financial sector campaign led by the SACP and COSATU parliament has recently signed into the debt relief bill. It will allow eligible highly indebted consumers to apply for such debt relief interventions as restructuring their debt repayment schedule over 5 years or if not possible then to; suspend credit payments for 12 to 24 months with regular reviews; and to extinguish the debt or a percentage of the debt if after 2 years the consumer is still not able to pay the debt; and empowering magistrates to reduce interests charges to as low as 0%.
When we say we are a fighting, and a militant federation we don’t just say it in words only by we show it in practice.
a) Ask employers in the security and bus sector about the deadly fighting capacity of SATAWU. Whatever the challenges in the union but this union continues to fight and secure victories for workers
b) Ask employers about the relentless struggles waged by NUM in the mines and in the construction sector they will tell you about the continued militancy of NUM and the properly researched proposals tabled by the NUM to transform mining and construction sector. Employers have tried to destroy NUM and they have even funded the formation of unions, but the NUM continues to survive the onslaught.
c) Ask employers about the uncompromising struggles waged by SACCAWU in the hospitality industry. We have seen how SACCAWU took up the struggle for workers safety and reliable transport using the case of Thandeka Khumalo, a non- fulltime worker employed at Shoprite checkers who was robbed from a late night shift. The company adopted extended trading hours, without consideration of its implications on workers who are expected to be at work to make such extended trading hours, including late night and very early morning. Shoprite Checkers only cared about maximization the profits inhumanely at the expense and to the detriment of workers.
d) We are not a reckless federation, we do not fight so that we can be covered by TV cameras but we fight for workers whether at the glare of the media or away from the media. Ask MTN, SABC and Post Office employers about the communications workers union who do not hesitate to take to the streets if the intransigence of employers stands on the way of workers ‘demands.
e) Just a month ago SACTWU undertook a 5 week strike and finally employers acceded to the demand for a 7.5% wage increase and the extending the scope of family responsibility leave to also cover spouses.
f) We came here to this congress with members of NEHAWU remaining on the streets.
g) Ask the minister of health or any member of parliament about a union which has the capacity to make things move or come to a standstill, they will tell you about HEHAWU and DENOSA. South Africa will not be having even a discussion on the transformation of health system were it not for the struggles of NEHAWU and DENOSA who have now been joined by SAEPU , our new fighting union.
h) Ask the minister of Police and the minister of Transport about the militancy and uncompromising battles waged by POPCRU.
i) If there is any doubt that COSATU unions are militant and uncompromising go to any municipality whether DA or ANC run and ask about the continued stubborn struggles waged by SAMWU , when it comes to workers’ rights they fight to finish.
j) When we say we are a fighting federation we mean, no just through rhetoric but also through practical struggles. That is why we are now being told that unions such as SADTU have too much influence in education; it is as a result of battles and struggles. Go to any provincial education department or national department for basic education and ask them about the transformation of education and who have improved the salaries of educators and helped to transform the apartheid education over the years, those who are honest will tell you about continued struggles led by SADTU
Comrades, we meet here today under the cloud of a deepening capitalist crisis and the rising confidence of the right wing . The larger capitalist states are retreating towards aggressive self-interest and intensifying global competition.
Governments all over the world in the aftermath of the world economic crisis continue to adopt policies that enhance possibilities for the rich to become richer whilst the poor sinks deeper into conditions of squalor and abject poverty.
In the last 11 years, governments in the epicenters of capitalism have deliberately engineered a vast transfer of wealth from the working class to the ruling elite by pursuing policies designed to pump up the financial markets.
This has resulted to the concentration of the planet’s wealth in the hands of narrow financial elite which continues to grow by leaps and bounds. Recent research reports have revealed that the total financial wealth of the world’s elite more than doubled between 2008 and 2017.
The total of $24.5 trillion owned by this “ultra-high net wealth individuals” is almost one-fifth of the world gross domestic product of $135 trillion. This is more than the combined GDPs of China, Japan and Germany.
The United Nations estimates that it would cost $30 billion a year to eradicate world hunger. That means the money currently controlled by the world’s ultra-rich could eliminate world hunger for 817 years.
The financial elite enforces its social interests through the wholesale buying of political parties and politicians, making democracy under capitalism nothing but a hollow shell.
Any attempt within the framework of the profit system to carry out a modest reallocation of resources to ensure that all people had the basic rudiments of nutrition, health care and education would provoke a furious response from the oligarchy, which has at its disposal not only the courts, politicians and mass media, but, even more decisively, the police and the army.
This is what has produced the reality of the vast majority of humans living under conditions of extreme poverty, hunger, homelessness, disease and, a decline in life expectancy, a surge in infant and maternal mortality, and record rates of suicide and drug addiction.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that more than 61 million jobs have been lost since the start of the global economic crisis in 2007/2008. This means, an estimated of more than 200 million people are currently unemployed, globally.
Further estimates indicate that about 500 million new jobs will need to be created by 2020 to provide opportunities to those currently unemployed and to the young people who are projected to join the workforce over the next few years.
These conditions have been worsened by the painful reality of governments all over world racing to implement austerity policies aimed at eliminating whatever is left of the social safety nets: the cuts to the National Health Service and public housing as it happened in Britain, the passage of punitive labour laws and the attacks on rail workers in France, new austerity measures in Germany, and the EU-dictated austerity regimes in Spain, Italy and Greece.
Linked to this is the reality of the changing world of work that is happening so rapidly that what is or was regarded as work a while ago, is no longer available. What we regard as work or otherwise translated into job, depends on the structure of the political economy that defines what, how and why is work regarded as work and by who?
These changes are impacted upon and impact on the whole of society, because this is linked to the profound structure of production and consumption and the relations arising from it. The 4thIndustrial revolution is a game changer in this regard. It has introduced a series of IT tools, applications (called apps), gadgets, and other means of artificial intelligence that have radically changed society, work and ways of doing things, including organising itself, in the case of the trade union movement.
It is in this context that the working class is increasingly faced with a profound reality, the urgent need for even more sophisticated forms of solidarity, organisation and tighter coordination as a class, on a global scale. The global system of capitalism is ever facing deeper crisis, but without an advanced form of working class organisation on an international scale, the crisis won’t be turned to workers victory.
This phenomenon of policy choices which favours the rich whilst sinking the working class into worse living conditions is also a daily experience of the working people in South Africa.
According to the latest Labour Force Survey released by Statistics South Africa, unemployment rate in the first quarter of 2018 stood at 27.2%. In gender terms, women suffer the worst brunt of unemployment, which is recorded at 28.8%. Whereas youth unemployment remains extreme – for the youth of the age of 15-24 years it is 52.4 %, which is a slight increase compared to the fourth quarter of 2017, where it was 51.1%.
This means many of our matriculants are unable to proceed to post-schooling education or to find jobs. Youth unemployment from the age of 25-34 years is currently at 33.0%, it has also increased by 0.04% relative to youth unemployment in the fourth quarter of 2017 which was 33.4%.
According to the World Inequality Report 2018, “income inequality has increased in nearly all world regions in recent decades”. This report states that “South Africa stands out as one of the most unequal countries in the world”, where “the top 10% receive 2/3 of national income, whilst the 1% receive 20% of national income”.
On the other hand, the recent report[1] of the World Bank on behalf of the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, which assessed poverty and inequality from 1994 to 2015 found that ours is the most unequal society in the world, in which about 40% of South Africans lived below the lower bound poverty line and where high wealth inequality and low intergeneration mobility inherited from apartheid saw the disparities being passed down from generation to generation, with signs showing that the situation was worsening.
The policy responses to these challenges facing the country are wrong and continue to favour the rich at the expense of the poor. As COSATU we have pointed to our comrades in the ANC and those on government that the economic and labour market sections of the National Development plan need to be reviewed. After a long battle by both COSATU and the SACP, the recent ANC 54th National Conference of the ANC agreed that indeed the NDP must be reviewed. But the process of doing so has not received urgent attention that it deserves.
Instead we have seen unilateral policies being implemented outside of the resolutions taken from NASREC and this includes an increase in the VAT.
We are currently preparing to go to the job Summit to address the jobs crisis facing the country but as we do so business is retrenching workers and we have been in discussion with the minister in the department of Public Service and administration regarding an emerging talk of government’s intention to retrench. The minister had flatly denied that there were such plans. Evidence we have shows, that there has been a reduction in personnel head-count in the public service as vacancies are closed and attritional retrenchments are effected. Hence, according to the report of the Public Service Commission assessing the state of the public service as at the end of 2017, there are over 11% (about 148 775) vacant posts out of a public service establishment of about 1.3 million posts.
At the national level the vacancy rate stands at 7.6% and the Eastern Cape has the highest vacancy rate of 23%. This massive vacancy rate is predominantly concentrated in administrative or operational level at 52%, followed by junior and middle management level at 47%. Government must fill these vacancies now!
We want to tell both business and government that , if there is no stop on retrenchments , than there is no need for a job summit and as COSATU we are ready to occupy the streets until everyone wakes up to the reality bad policy choices made including business choice to prioritise profits over the creation of jobs.
From this year’s Budget Speech we have even heard the privatisation of the state’s assets being brought back to the table. In fact, already Eskom seems to have been lined up as deliberations around the dismemberment of its vertically integrated structure are advancing. Already Eskom has committed to privatisation through selling off Eskom’s market share for generation of renewable energy to the private sector.
We woke up in the morning with the signing of contracts for Independent Power producers, which has been done without consulting labour.
As COSATU we support and actually lead the fight against corruption and state capture but currently the fight against corruption coexist with a clear policy programmes meant to create space for the heightening of a neo liberal agenda.
There is a continued Neoliberal policy trajectory which includes outsourcing and agencification, which especially at the provincial level has severely weakened service delivery.
We are even beginning to hear confident voices within the movement standing up in support of Neoliberal views attacking the NHI suggesting methods of financing that defeat the logic of introducing NHI. These include co-payments, financing through Value Added Tax (VAT) and multi-payer systems.
SA companies have been allowed to move much needed foreign capital to overseas jurisdiction whilst these savings could have been used to fund socioeconomic demands. Instead debt and incentives are used as mechanisms to liquidate the government coffers.
The current neo liberal policy paradigm allows South Africa mining companies to openly refuse to beneficiate the raw materials and government is not acting despite section 26 of the MPRDA which says that minister may initiate or prescribe incentives to promote the beneficiation of minerals in the republic. Neither has government acted against mining companies who do not comply with the MPRDA and yet there section 47, section 90 and section 93 of the MPRDA gives powers and procedures to the minister to cancel or suspend reconnaissance permit, technical cooperation permit, exploration right and the mining licence if it is found that the mining company has not complied with the law. Why is government not acting against the mining companies?
Instead the mining companies tax haven to hide money which should be paid as taxes and for beneficiation. For example Anglo American group structure includes 43 subsidiaries in tax havens (Bermuda,
British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Isle of Man, Luxembourg, Mauritius and the Netherlands. Petra Diamonds is itself incorporated in Bermuda and has subsidiaries in the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, Jersey and the Netherlands. Petra diamonds is involved in the mining, processing, sorting and sale of rough diamonds.
Lonmin has used its subsidiary to evade taxes by selling platinum at low prices in order to attract lower taxes. This conduct has been treated by financial institutions and the mainstream media as a non-issue. According to recent estimates from Global Financial Integrity, SA has lost more than 100.7 billion dollars over for the period 2002- 2011.
This money could have been used to increase salaries of teachers, nurses and police and to fund social grants and NHI.
The question is why is our government not acting against transfer pricing, why are our law enforcement officers including the SARB not asking the following questions to multinationals; how many employees these subsidiaries employ, what tax advantages the company receives by having subsidiaries in these tax havens and whether the company is willing to report its key financial figures on a country-by-country basis in all countries where it operates.[2]
We have seen KPMG using fraudulent financial statement to mislead investors and workers. As a result of their actions workers are in danger of being retrenched in Steinhoff companies. KPMG has set up an internal inquiry to self-prosecute itself. No bank has taken away their bank account and the SARB has not intervened.
The private sector remains immune from the long hand of the law. Even the chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng has expressed similar concerns that there are few cases that involve private sector thieves.
All these challenges points to the fact that the theme of this congress is correct. We need to “deepen the Back to Basic Campaign, Consolidate the Struggle for the NDR and Advance the Struggle for Socialism”.
These challenges and the commensurate fight we need to mount need a strong organisation which has an undoubted capacity to fight both in the boardroom and in the streets. We are a trade union organisation and our strength is on numbers and yet we are currently confronted with declining membership in our unions occasioned by factors which are outside of our control and our subjective weaknesses. We need to spend more time addressing our subjective weaknesses.
No one will respect us if we don’t have a strong organisation with the capacity to fight and not make empty threats.
The starting point is service to members and organisers and union leaders must spend their time in the workplace working with the workers. That is what we get elected for, to serve members. We need to consciously work to win the confidence of workers by fighting corruption inside our unions, building the capacity of organisers and shop stewards to represent members effectively, redirect our resources in union towards capacity building and political education for shop stewards and organisers. We must rebuild our unions to respond to the challenges of our time and refuse to be frozen in the 80s but develop new organising strategies. We must study closer the changing nature of work and develop appropriate strategies to organise workers. If we don’t do that our unions and COSATU will become irrelevant.
It is clear that the political environment in which we operate is highly contested both inside the movement and outside the movement. This means that we must review our strategies on how we have been contesting the political and policy space. The current NEDLAC Act needs to be changed. We cannot continue to be subjected to asking for permission to struggle through following long bureaucratic process of the section 77 notice. Workers must be able to go to strike if there is a need to do so without being hindered by long procedures.
We must be clear that even though we are in alliance with the ANC as a ruling party, but there is nothing we will win without a fight. This includes the reconfiguration of the Alliance. The alliance was not constructed in the boardroom and it will not be reconfigured in the board but it will be reconfigured through relentless struggles in the streets.
Linked to this is that, this congress will have to discuss the SACP resolution on state and popular power. This resolution must be discussed with the precision it deserves and to put our emotions aside. All its facets must be discussed. Amongst what should be considered is the lessons of Metsimaholo , our struggle to reconfigure the alliance and we should honestly ask a question , what happens if the ANC does not change course and continues in the current trajectory . We should discuss our struggle to achieve socialism under the leadership of the SACP, we have consciously prepared COSATU members and workers in general to get the SACP standing for elections, whether we have prepared society for a possibility of the SACP leading government and whether the SACP itself is organisationally ready for that eventuality.
As we discuss, it will finally be clear that all these challenges can be answered easily if we should listen to comrade Govan Mbeki popularly known as Oom Gov when asked and answered the question “what then must the oppressed and exploited majority do to turn things in their favour ? . His answer was “Our starting point is to direct our attention and efforts to the source of our strength by saying:” Go to the masses of the oppressed and exploited peoples of our land. Work among them, work with them to prepare the way for a takeover of power “.
Expressed briefly , this is to say : “Go . Organise “. Experience has taught , however, that a lot more requires to be known about organising if the product of our effort and activities i.e. organisation , is to be effective .
And if the oppressed and the exploited are to achieve their end, viz to take over power , they must build an effective organisational machinery. And to have such an organisational machinery there is no room for haphazard and half hearted measures . The task has to be tackled seriously and systematically “
Comrades our real strength is with the masses. This 13th National session of the workers parliament is opened.
Issued by Sizwe Pamla, National Spokesperson, COSATU, 18 September 2018
