COSATU Central Executive Committee statement

1 December 2022

The Congress of South African Trade Unions held a scheduled meeting of its Central Executive Committee from 28-30 November 2022.The meeting discussed and resolved on several issues affecting the workers and the working class in the country and around the world.

This was the first Central Executive Committee of the 14th National Congress which was used for the purposes of accounting and planning for future programmes of the federation. The meeting made it very clear that we need to hit the ground running to rollout a campaign of engaging with and contributing to policy discussions that are geared towards the development of our country’s economy, and building the capacity of workers and the working class to defend their interests.

The meeting observed a moment of silence to remember the passing away of SAMWU founding General Secretary Cde John Henry Ernstzen, who passed away last week. The CEC also expressed its shock and sadness following the tragic death of six leaders of the NUM Youth Structure who tragically passed away in a car accident over the weekend. We send our condolences to the affected families and may all the souls of the departed rest in peace.

The CEC expressed its outrage at the decision by the Constitutional Court to grant parole to Janusz Waluś, the unapologetic murderer of comrade Chris Hani. This act of provocation was followed by the attack and destruction of the Chris Hani Memorial Site. We reiterate our call for this incident to be investigated so that the perpetrators can be brought to book. As stated previously, we intend to continue to advocate for the transformation of the judiciary.

Organisational

The CEC noted that we emerged from our 14th National Congress held on the 26–29 September 2022 as a robust and confident Federation. Over the next four years, we shall be guided by our theme: Build working-class unity for economic liberation towards socialism” to which our programme of action adopted by the first central executive committee of the 14th congress seeks to give expression. This programme of action is based on the resolutions of the14th congress of COSATU around the political and ideological work; socioeconomic priorities; organisational challenges and international solidarity.

At the centre of this programme of action is the task of building strong unions and improving their level of service to members at the workplace. This four-year programme of action shall be based on the framework of the following strategic priorities: Building strong unions, recruitment and service campaign, education and training, national political programme, worker unity and international solidarity.

The CEC mandated us to take seriously the task of growing the membership and work with unions to properly service our membership. The meeting also made it clear that skills development will also be prioritised because this is critical for members and workers in general. We also intend to explore and use all our options available in the legal framework to challenge the employers in terms of compliance with legislation dealing with national minimum wage, employment equity, skills development, occupational health, and safety, etc.

May Day 

The meeting resolved to continue with its decentralised May Day activities next year with the main activity planned for Qwaqwa in Free State Province. This will be an opportunity to honour and remember the victims of the Bethlehem bus crash, where 53 COSATU members perished on their way to QwaQwa, when their bus drove into a dam near Bethlehem, Free State on the1st of May 2003. This terrible accident remains a raw wound for the federation.

Strikes

Public Service– The meeting extended its total support to Public Service unions who are currently mobilising against their employer following the collapse of wage negotiations in the public service and the unilateral implementation of a 3% wage offer. We reiterate our call on the South African government to sit down with unions at the PSCBC and engage in good faith to find an amicable solution to avoid labour instability in the public service.

Makro-We also offer support to workers at Makro who are fighting for better pay and working conditions. We condemn the brutal attack on protesting workers by police at Makro Retail Store in Germiston over the weekend. This issue needs to be resolved because police cannot become an unaccountable paramilitary force used to crush protests and strikes.

Post office- The meeting expressed concern about the deteriorating state of the Post Office. Postal workers are facing wage stagnation and possible retrenchments. The CEC called on the government to intervene in the Post Office and extended its support to the workers who are fighting against retrenchments and for improved wages and better working conditions.

On Broad–Based Black Economic Empowerment-The CEC expressed concern that National Treasury is hellbent on gutting government’s Preferential Procurement Regulations or any measures to support local procurement and Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE).  This is an unmitigated disaster and a giant step backwards for South Africa’s painstaking efforts to support localisation and BBBEE since 1994.The objectives of BBBEE remain important and valid and more needs to be done to address the legacies of apartheid and colonialism that continue to scar our nation.

UIF– The CEC condemned the worsening corruption and wasteful expenditure at the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF). COSATU is demanding the institution to be put under administration and an investigation to be conducted by both SIU and NPA immediately to ascertain the facts, and for the responsible parties to be held accountable.

16 Days of No Violence Against Women- COSATU remains distressed by the shamefully high levels of gender-based violence that continue to affect countless women, children, the elderly, persons with disabilities and other vulnerable persons.  The South African Parliament has passed three (3) progressive GBV laws that significantly enhance the powers and responsibilities of the South African Police Service, the judiciary and other relevant government organs in the fight against GBV. 

We need to hear from government whether officials have been trained, has the public been made are of these new laws, and whether sufficient resources have been allocated to our courts and the SAPS?  If these are not done, and we continue to treat GBV as something we must mention once a year and outsource to a public relations campaign, then we must expect to continue to be an international outcast on the fight against GBV. Whilst government must play its role, so too must civil society, the religious fraternity, organised business, and labour, as well as parents and all other South Africans.

Medium Term Budget Policy Statement- The CEC reflected on the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement last month and expressed concern that it did not present any policy interventions to hep tackle the unemployment rate of 44% and stimulate a stagnant economy.

What is more disconcerting is that there seems to be no plan to fix the embattled State-Owned Enterprises and collapsing municipalities. The meeting calls on government to take drastic steps to resolve the problem of load shedding, rampant cable theft, deteriorating public services, and rising levels of poverty, crime, and corruption. We hope that government will honour its commitment to relieve Eskom of up to two thirds of its unsustainable debt burden. 

We appreciate the state’s new position on e-toll funding and the extension of the SRD Grant benefiting up to 10 million unemployed persons. We support the efforts to provide additional relief for Transnet to rebuild damages to the railway lines and trains, as well as DENEL to help it implement a turnaround plan. 

COSATU remains deeply concerned that government’s budgets are narrowly focused on reducing the debt (which is a matter of concern for all properly adjusted persons) by implementing reckless austerity cuts which will further weaken public services and by denying public servants the right to a living wage. The Federation believes that the only sustainable approach to resolving a numerous socio-economic and fiscal crises is to deal with their fundamental causes and not to outsource the bill for corruption and wasteful expenditure to nurses and teachers. 

Outcomes of the UNFCCC COP 27- COP 27 was dubbed the implementation COP, as negotiators were expected to make bold commitments to establish a fund for loss and damage. The governments from the global south have finally achieved this. The challenge is now to provide the necessary finance for the fund and to make it operational by COP28. The fund is expected to see developing countries particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of the climate crises supported for losses arising from droughts, floods, rising seas and other disasters that are attributed to climate change. COSATU welcomes the establishment of a work program on just transition. The “Sharm el-Sheikh Implementation Plan” asserts that Just Transition is founded on Social Dialogue.

The Just Energy Transition Investment Plan Investment Plan –The Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs) are a new form of climate finance. JETPs are country-specific and negotiated on a government-to-government basis. They mix bilateral, private, philanthropic, and sometimes multilateral finance. South Africa was the first country to negotiate a JETP and government launched its Investment Plan at COP 27. The Investment Plan is not final as the SA government agreed to consultations with trade unions and civil society after we protested being locked out of the negotiations. COSATU’s demands the following in terms of the investment plan:

Social dialogue

Transparency. The terms, conditions, and plans for JETPs must be public. 

Measures and funding for a Just Transition for workers

No privatization of the energy sector. Workers know this means job losses and worse job quality

Grants, not more debt

Get an insight into what’s happening on the ground

3rd Quarter Jobs Report

The CEC noted the decline in the expanded unemployment rate by 1% to 43%.  This follows a similar reduction in the unemployment rate over the past two quarters.  Whilst we cannot celebrate an unemployment rate of 43%, we welcome the 3% reduction in unemployment during the past nine (9) months.  It is critical that this momentum be supported by efforts to end loadshedding, tackle cable theft, arrest those implicated in corruption, mobilise resources to stimulate the economy. There is also a need to invest resources in SARS to tackle tax evasion, expand employment programmes and give support for the unemployed. The time has also arrived to seriously consider reducing the taxes on the record high fuel prices, and the campaign to support locally produced goods be intensified.

Legislative Advances

Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases and Employment Equity Amendment Bills – COSATU is pleased with progress being made on the legislative front at Nedlac and Parliament.  The Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases and Employment Equity Amendment Bills that will benefit millions of domestic, women and other workers, is now before the President awaiting his assent.  Parliament has incorporated COSATU’s proposals to tighten provisions in the Money Laundering and Anti-Corruption Bill requiring full disclosure of company and trust ownership as part of ensuring we build a society founded upon transparency. 

Copyright Amendment Bill -The Copyright Amendment Bill which will help make educational materials affordable and accessible is now before the NCOP.  The Expropriation Bill that will empower the state to expedite to land reform and restitution, including where relevant expropriation without compensation, has been passed by the National Assembly.  The Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill providing for key interventions including formalising Grade R as part of the school curricula is now before the National Assembly. 

Mine Health and Safety Amendment Bill -The Mine Health and Safety Amendment Bill addressing gaps in the existing Act is before Nedlac.  Substantial progress has been made at Nedlac in strengthening the Public Procurement Bill’s provisions supporting local procurement, ensuring transparency, and tackling corruption.

Revenue Laws Amendment Bill -Positive progress has been made on the Revenue Laws Amendment Bill that will allow financially struggling workers limited access to their pension funds.  This needs to be expedited so that it can come into effect by October 2023.

Christmas Special Holiday– The meeting reiterated its call for President Ramaphosa to declare the 27th of December 2022 as a public holiday in terms of section 2A of the Public Holidays Act because the 25th of December is on the weekend and thus workers would lose out on this public holiday as both the Christmas and Goodwill Days’ public holidays would fall on Monday the 26th.

Politics

In the period leading to the 14th National Congress, we argued that the National Democratic Revolution (NDR) is poised on the crossroads. Despite the gains of thirty years of democracy, the existing balance of class forces has kept the inherited social relations essentially unchanged, in fact inequality, poverty and unemployment remain extremely racialized, gendered, and spatial. 

So, the debate during the 14th National Congress was located around the strategic question on how the working class must respond to this reality. The overriding subject of discussion was around the historic resolution of the SACP’s 14th National Congress on “state and popular power”. This Party resolution directed the SACP to actively contest elections as one of the means to build working-class hegemony.

The Federation in its congress pushed for the implementation of this resolution. This was informed by the realization that the swelling-of-the- ranks campaign, alone, unaccompanied by a sustained working-class hegemony at the apex of the ANC has proven to have major limitations.

The federation appreciates and is aware that our approach to state power cannot be reduced to a mere call for the SACP to contest elections for its own sake or a reformist parliamentary road to socialism. We approach this issue appreciating and with the acknowledgement that working people need the state to suppress the resistance of the exploiters, only the proletariat can direct this suppression and can carry it out. The proletariat is the only class that is consistently revolutionary and the only class that can unite all working and exploited people in the struggle against the bourgeoisie, in completely removing it.

Indeed, the reflection of the state of the revolution confirms that the working class is on its own. It is therefore correct to argue that the exploited classes need a political rule in order to completely abolish all exploitation, in the interests of the vast majority of the people.

There is agreement across federation for the Party to contest State Power as part of the Alliance with the ANC and COSATU. The contention remains around political timeframes and the modalities. The decision by COSATU, in 2011, to support SACP leaders to be deployed in the State was an acknowledgement that the Party needs to contest State Power.

Whilst there are some prickly matters that are being discussed, the CEC has emphasised that the unity and cohesion of our unions and federation is sacrosanct. The meeting committed itself to combating any signs of a backward slide to tensions and divisions over this matter.

The Federation will continue to engage both internally and externally to make sure that it finds a harmonious position that preserves its unity that of its affiliates and the Alliance. We intend to build on the existing understanding and consensus, guided by material conditions and consultation outcomes, to reach a unifying position on when and how this resolution will be realised. 

We shall also employ tactical flexibility since we are operating within a rapidly and ever-changing political context. Our immediate task is to work with the SACP to build its organisational capacity amongst working class communities as primary sites of building working class power to lead a popular movement for socialism. It is our task as the organised working class, to ensure that the Party is capacitated to play its rightful role, carries out its identified tasks and meets its challenges.

This places the ideological and political orientation of our federation in focus, as the need for grounding our members, shopstewards, officials and leaders in the fundamentals of our ideology and political strategy become ever more important. Our ideological and political work shall be directed at raising the level of class consciousness and inspire political activism within the federation. This means that it will be based on the fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism and its application on the concrete South African reality of colonialism of a special type.

This ideological grounding is essential as a basis for deepening an understanding of our theory of struggle of the national democratic revolution, which itself shall be at the core of our ideological and political work. Therefore, working with the SACP we shall roll out the Political Education programme, which shall be undertaken throughout the phases of this four-year programme of action.

The ANC

The CEC wished the African National Congress well in its upcoming 55th National Conference. We hope that this conference will be used as an opportunity to reaffirm the core values and principles of the ANC – “unity, selflessness, sacrifice, collective leadership, humility, honesty, discipline, hard-work, internal debates, constructive criticism and self-criticism and mutual respect.” This Conference will also be a test for the ANC to prove whether it still has the capacity to be a leader of the Alliance, the MDM and of the country.

The Conference needs to address the chronic weak state of the ANC in terms of organisational cohesion and strategically, and the disarray of its leagues.  This organisational and strategic disarray of the ANC and the balance of forces that is decisively tilted in favour of our class enemy mutually reinforce each other in a downward spiralling of this crisis that threatens to derail the NDR. The uncontested reality is that this has generated a sense of demoralisation and disillusionment amongst the general constituency and activists of the ANC- led Alliance.

It is critical that the ANC’s Conference not only focus on the need to accelerate the renewal and cleansing of the ANC, but also on restoring its working-class bias.  The ANC needs to be united to focus on leading government so that it can effectively tackle the myriad of serious challenges affecting society.  The need to stimulate the economy, to protect workers and provide meaningful relief and assistance for the unemployed.

There is a need to invest in Eskom so that loadshedding can become a thing of the past, to secure and rebuild Transnet and Metrorail which are key to transporting workers and the nation’s products to their destinations.

There is a need to restore basic services in dysfunctional municipalities, to move away from reckless austerity budget cuts that hamper quality public services, and for corruption and wasteful expenditure to be tackled. The SRD Grant should be used to introduce a Basic Income Grant.

The Conference also need to reflect on the role that the ANC can play to build a united, effective, and secure Africa.

International

African trade union Unity– The CEC welcomed the election of our President, Zingiswa Losi for the 2nd term as the President of SATUCC, which places the federation at the helm of regional trade union movement renewal and programmatic leadership. The CEC reaffirmed its the decision to work with unions in Africa to respond to fundamental questions of political economy and grow and strengthen the class-oriented trade union movement in the African continent starting with SADC region.

President Lula-The meeting congratulated Cde Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for his victory in Brazil and this follows advances, electorally as in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, and others. These developments bode well for the renewed ideological confidence of left forces and working people and their struggles directed at the capitalist system. It is becoming clearer that with greater class consciousness, the working class has the capacity to pushback against the capitalist onslaught.

ITUC congress- Nearly 1,000 participants from over 120 countries representing over 200 democratic workers’ organizations participated in five days of debate and discussion to shape the next four years of action by the global trade union movement. Together with the Congress Statement on a new social contract, the Congress passed emergency resolutions on Iran and combatting the far right. Women delegates at the Congress increased to 50.8%, up from 46% in 2018. Luca Visentini was elected as the new General Secretary to lead ITUC along with:

Deputy General Secretaries Eric Mwezi Manzi, Jordania Ureña Lora, Owen Tudor.

President Akiko Gono.

Deputy Presidents Cathy Feingold, Antonio Lisboa.

Sharan Burrow stepped down as General Secretary after leading the ITUC for 12 years.

Issued by Sizwe Pamla, National Spokesperson, COSATU, 1 December 2022