COSATU statement on Human Rights Day 2017
On Human Rights Day this year 2017, the Congress of South African Trade Unions wishes to highlight the plight of some of our most vulnerable workers and citizens in general. While it is fitting and opportune for us to use this day to honour the memory of all the martyrs of our liberation struggle, whose commitment, bravery and self-sacrifice won for us the human rights that we enjoy today; we also need to highlight the plight of those, who are still denied those rights.
We will never forget the 69 heroes and heroines that were slain in Sharpeville, on the 21st March 1960 in their quest to free South Africa from the shackles of apartheid. They exposed the evil apartheid dictatorship and rallied the international community behind the struggle to dismantle it. We also remember those , who perished at Langa Township in Cape Town in defence of the dignity of a black people and humanity in general.
Despite the advances made in the past 23 years, the high levels of unemployment, poverty and inequality remains unresolved and these affects blacks in general and Africans in particular. Combined with extreme landlessness, rampant mineral extraction, corruption and elicit outflows of billions of rands, more and more people in this country still find themselves trapped in sprawling slums and haunted by the spectre of avoidable diseases and death.
We still see severe exploitation and slave like conditions, where workers rights and human rights are violated with impunity and the plight of the workers is so severe that they are living in conditions that are a step above the grave. This is more so amongst the youth, women, community care workers, domestic workers and foreign nationals, who tend to make the bigger proportion of the vulnerable sections of the labour force. This also affects the sectors such as catering, wholesale, hotel, mining, farming, cleaning and private security.
Nowhere are Human Rights violated than on the farms, all across the country, where workers enjoy the fewest rights and are the most exploited and abused. Ruthless employers still pay poverty wages, summarily evict tenants from their homes, sometimes assault, rape and even murder their workers. They are also often forced to work on public holidays and have no chance to celebrate the rights which they are denied.
The domestic workers also remain outside South Africa’s Labour Law and its protection. While the abuse of domestic workers is prevalent, we have seen few prosecutions, convictions, or punishments for these violations. This more troubling and sad because South Africa has adopted the Convention on Domestic Workers by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), but there is very little by way of deliberate action to implement the convention.
While labour laws have formally given workers greater protection against unfair dismissal and discrimination, easier and faster dispute settlement, and more protection for trade union organising, the lack of enforcement has led to the new legal framework being honoured almost only in the breach. The Department of Labour should be given more resources to implement its mandate to enforce workers’ rights also to inspect and monitor, whether employers are complying with the laws.
The spike in the number of racial incidents and xenophobic attacks is a timely reminder that we must never be complacent about human rights. We need to fight back against the discourse of racial bigotry and extreme prejudice directed at the black majority, the LGBT community and foreign nationals that is especially prevalent on social media platforms. It is not just enough for the laws to just look good on paper; they must be consistently enforced and lead to real improvements in the lives of the majority of our people. The Human Rights Commission should take the lead in assessing the progress we have made in achieving our constitutional workers’ rights, particularly socio-economic rights.
The scourge of corruption in both the private and public sectors has left many of the poor workers and communities’ denied their rights to a decent living and basic amenities , while offenders ,especially in business sector to pay their way out and get away with murder as in the cases of collusion exposed by the competition commission. We demand the strengthening of the legal framework so that responsible company executives can face prosecution.
The Human Rights Commission has done very little to protect vulnerable workers and citizens from the modern day slavery working conditions and exploitation. This is the reason why the federation will be protesting the Human Rights Commission offices , TODAY, across the country to demand that they do more to protect the rights of our most vulnerable workers and citizens.
Statement issued by COSATU, 21 March 2017
