COSATU Special CEC statement
The Congress of South African Trade Unions convened a one day Special Central Executive Committee meeting yesterday, to discuss the Taxation Law Amendment Act. The meeting also reflected on the Border Management Agency and a briefing on the recent leaked interim Basic Education Ministerial Task Team Report.
The SCEC took place at a time when the economy is shedding jobs across all sectors and the level of real unemployment has reached an alarming rate of 35%. The deepening levels of poverty are exacerbated by the emergence and an increase in the rate of the working poor, where more that 60% of workers are earning less than R5 000. The rate of exploitation is increasing with big business consolidating their profit maximisation manoeuvres at the expense of the working class. The rate of precarious employment is reflective of the growing levels of exploitation.
The meeting also took place in the context of sharpening class contradictions that have coincided with the increasing control of the South African economy by international monopoly capital. The economic downturn, which comes with capitalist manoeuvres and the incoherence of our revolutionary alliance, has reinforced the power of the domestic counter-revolutionary forces.
The recent SAB Miller /AB Inbev merger, the arrogance and boldness of the Free Market Foundation and the big business’s approach or reluctance to take seriously the discussions on the minimum wage are clear signs that capital is emboldened.
Big Business is putting a spanner on the wheel, with regard to the processes that are meant to finalise an agreement for the legislated national minimum wage. We will be heightening our campaign against the Free Market Foundation and their attempt to undermine workers rights. We are also mobilising against the Eskom electricity tariff hike application.
There is an obvious class polarisation taking place in our society and unfortunately it is also finding expression within our movement and it is increasingly becoming the dividing political line.
Whilst we have seen the convergence within the ANC-led Alliance, on the national content of the national democratic revolution, including consensus on the radical phase of our transition, there is however a chasm on the policy content, which is being driven by the state. Government is clearly undermining this consensus in practice. There are too many policies that are being pursued by the state whose content is meant to hollow out and erode the hard-won rights of the workers.
It is also patently obvious that some of these developments are a reflection of the weaknesses in the organisational power of the working class. This weakness has emboldened the class enemies and they feel confident that they can unleash an offensive against COSATU without repercussions. We have no illusions about our weakness but neither must our class enemies and detractors be overconfident and exaggerate their strength.
We want to make it very clear that this offensive will receive an equal response from the workers and all the progressive forces. We want to see all the progressive resolutions and policies that have been adopted by the Alliance and the 52ndPolokwane ANC Conference and the 53rd Mangaung ANC conference implemented.
The SCEC therefore located this unilateral enactment of this law by government, without a Comprehensive Social Security paper, as not only the provocation of workers but as the worrying rejection and an abandonment of Alliance and ANC positions by government.
The subject of the release of the Comprehensive Social Security paper is a decision of several Alliance summits and numerous ANC conferences and NGC’s.The meeting also characterized the desertion and deliberate ignoring of the government commissioned Taylor Commission report, and its recommendations as wasteful expenditure. Government cannot ignore or allow the recommendations of this paid for commission to gather dust.
The SCEC reiterated its rejection of this law and called for it to be scrapped. The meeting rejected the myth that workers do not want to save but pointed out that they do not earn enough to save. It also reminded government that workers all around the country participate in stokvels and savings scheme everyday, to try and save from their meagre wages and all they need are incentives not a patronizing law.
The meeting expressed concern that NEDLAC is being made redundant and undermined and also that parliamentarians are sleeping at the wheel. They should have insisted on a NEDLAC report first before passing the law. The NEDLAC Act has been abandoned by both parliament and cabinet and the parliamentarians must know they are the custodians of the NEDLAC Act. COSATU therefore shall wage a serious battle to revive and defend the integrity of this institution of our democracy.
The context of this struggle was also located to be beyond just provident fund laws but to be about a case of a classical neoliberalism offensive, from a government that preaches austerity measures and also expects workers to pay for the sins of others. This offensive is represented by the government’s emerging call for cuts in social spending and the unilateral moderation or even threats to cancel workers wage increases to please foreign rating agencies.
This law will deny workers their right to use their money, in order to improve their lives, while allowing pension fund managers and consultants to continue living in opulence, using the same workers money. The recent reports pointing to the mismanagement of pension and provident funds and the Unemployment Insurance Fund has widened the trust deficit between workers and government.
Going forward, the meeting called for the escalation of the campaign through the mobilization of COSATU members, workers in general, Alliance partners, progressive civil society and communities against this law. We know ,as proven by history, that workers are their own liberators and will liberate themselves from these laws. They will not plead for the scrapping of this law but will fight for the scrapping of this law. They will do what they have always done in these situations; they will not beg but will demand; they will fight for their rights and defend their hard-won gains.
The meeting appreciated that the ANC NEC instructed that there be a meeting between the federation and Treasury. This political intervention is as a result of the pressure that has been put by the federation on all affected parties on this matter.
We are appreciate that as soon as this matter was brought to the attention of the ANC , they convened a meeting between us and the officials , which was followed by the ANC NEC Legotla that instructed Treasury to meet us.
We will continue to engage with all stakeholders especially government, but the SCEC was very clear that COSATU should defend its resolution ,and cannot afford to rely on the goodwill and the benevolence of government, especially considering the trust deficit that has developed between us and government.
Going forward, we shall act urgently to mobilize and galvanize workers, starting with the lunchtime pickets and a protest action at NEDLAC offices tomorrow, during the section 77 notice engagements.
Between now and COSATU’s ordinary CEC ,which is taking place between the 22nd 24th of February 2016, we expect all our affiliates to organize protests at Treasury Offices and also convene workplace meetings and report back sessions in the workplace. There will also be lunchtime pickets, town based meetings and that mobilization process will be assessed by the COSATU ordinary CEC later this month.
The nationwide shopsteward councils and protest will continue after the normal CEC and will also include provincial marches. This will be in preparation for a massive general strike that is planned to coincide with the implementation date of this law, which is the 1st of March 2016, subject to NEDLAC engagements tomorrow.
The message coming from the CEC is very clear; we will only stop this campaign if the law is scrapped. We want the whole process of social security and pension reform to be restarted at NEDLAC. Retirement’s savings belong to workers and they will decide what they want to do with them and no one else. The tactics to divide the workers and the misinformation campaign from the state has not worked. Workers are united on this issue and the federation is ready to lead them to battle.
Workers should not resign because that will weaken our organizational power and is tantamount to cowardice and giving up. Some of our struggles are already yielding results, we are happy that government has concluded the sectoral determination for farm workers, but we are also concerned that they are delaying the promulgation of sectoral determination in the Wholesale and Retail Sector. We are also happy with the content of the UIF proposals.
Border Management Agency
The SCEC also received a report about the planned Border Management Agency by the department of Home Affairs, working with other departments. This agency is allegedly meant to police our porous borders. Another law is also planned to formalise the formation of this border agency. The SCEC overwhelmingly and totally rejected this agencification of the state. It noted that our government is slowly legislating all South African problems instead of dealing with them.
Our experience as the federation is that, these agencies do not solve service delivery problems but they create an elite force of workers, who are overpaid to do what can be done by workers in government departments. They are also looted and abused by the political interest and are more expensive to the taxpayer.
Some of the proposed aspects of this agency will also undermine the binding nature of collective bargaining and will allow ministers to unilaterally determine salaries and recruitment outside of bargaining processes. Agencification in general takes our right to strike, destroy collective bargaining and their proposed enforcement of the confidentiality clause in the contracts of the workers, will undermine the workers’ rights. There are enough laws already in place dealing with information management in this country.
Agencies have been abused in this country, and are not accountable, as we have seen with many of them. This proposal also goes against the ANC position of strengthening the capacity of the state. The ANC clearly stated that one of the identified reasons for an unresponsive state was outsourcing and the emasculation of the state.
The ANC and the Alliance positions are unambiguous in that we need to increase the capacity of the state, so that the state can drive the movement’s developmental agenda. This is a deviation from that understanding and we will vigorously oppose it, if it is unilaterally imposed on the workers. All of these goals can be achieved under the umbrella of the departments themselves, if they are working together and also improving their level of efficiency.
Ministerial Task Team report
The federation also discussed and condemned the leaked and sometimes political findings of the Basic Education Ministerial Task team investigating the selling of posts in schools. Firstly, the CEC condemned the leaking of this report and concluded that it is a deliberate attempt meant to smear, malign and alienate our affiliate SADTU in public.
Some of the leaked information coming out of this report is very troubling for the federation. The report goes on to even cite the ANC, SADTU and the SACP, as the corrupt parties colluding to corrupt the education system. It recommends the creation of staff associations to replace SADTU from organising principals; HOD’s and other office workers. It also recommends the isolation and exclusion of School Governing Bodies from the school recruitment processes. This goes against the ANC’s theme of advancing the People’s Power.
We call on the Minister to refrain from publicly using SADTU as a scapegoat and she must also stop the leaking of this report. The parties being smeared by these leaks were not even given an opportunity to respond and defend themselves. We shall escalate these issues to our upcoming CEC at the end of the month. COSATU is clear that it will not stand idly while a campaign is emerging and underway to undermine the federations and its affiliates through laws and leaks.
The message is clear in that workers are ready to fight for their rights and will not bow down to either state or business sponsored offensive.
Statement issued by COSATU, 4 February 2016
