Media statement of the COSATU CEC held on 23-25 February 2009
The Congress of South African Trade Unions held the first scheduled meeting of its Central Executive Committee of 2009 from 23-25 February. The CEC, as per the constitution, was attended by the Presidents and General Secretaries and/or representatives of 21 affiliates and the chairpersons and secretaries of all the nine provinces. Amongst the many issues discussed were:

Resolution of the CEC on the job-loss bloodbath arising from the global economic meltdown

The CEC adopted the attached resolution, which should be read in conjunction with this statement. (See below)

This is a historic victory for the people of South Africa, probably unique in the world, in which constituent organisation to the social dialogue structure - Nedlac, have come together jointly to produce a strategy to deal with the impact of the crisis and protect jobs and livelihoods.

Elections

The CEC recalled the discussion paper it drafted to prepare for discussion for the COSATU 9^th National Congress held in September 2006. The paper analysed the economic and political environment we faced at the time. At the time we observed that the "post-apartheid socio-economic order could be characterised as one in which there is positive economic growth and opportunities for amassing wealth for a limited few. This growth is not equitably shared .... While there is a formal break with the apartheid racial ordering of society the dualistic development path continues, albeit with new features. Fundamentally the accumulation regime has not changed hence development and under-development continues to coexist."

This did not have to be, and neither was it inevitable. Of course no one can claim that it is possible to root out more than 300 years of colonial legacy in 12 years. Similarly, it cannot be argued that what is taking place in South Africa is entirely in line with the National Democratic Revolution, as historically conceived by the liberation movement. The NDR is about thoroughgoing transformation of social and property relations. There have been numerous warnings against the danger of superficial change, or put another way, the dangers of simply replacing a white ruling oligarchy with a black one but leaving the social and property relations unchanged. The ANC's 1969 Morogoro Strategic Perspective in particular was scathing on this as an acceptable for our NDR."

COSATU went further to ask itself profound questions "Has democracy failed the workers and the poor? Have we reached a tipping point where the post apartheid state could be defined as one acting on behalf of the affluent in our society? How do we account for the sharp differences in the perspectives about the economy and our society as if we were coming from different planets? What is the weight of the working class politically in South Africa and how has this allowed for the apparent pro-capitalist bias? What steps do we need to take to asset working class power that is proactive in determining a readjustment of resources in our society? Finally what is the value of our democracy to the working class?

Our mood has changed from this following the historic 52^nd national conference of the ANC. A contested leftward shift in the ANC economic policies has taken place. Precisely because we played such a historic role in delivering the shift, we recognise that the responsibility to win elections for the ANC on this left platform is particularly on our shoulders because we stand to benefit most from the pro-worker and pro-poor manifesto and ANC policies.

The challenge of the working class is to defend the Polokwane gains, the defence of which is not going to be a once-off event. Given that the gains are being highly contested we have adopted a long-term, more systematic strategy to defend them. These include adoption of the Walking through the open doors project and the drafting and adoption by the Alliance political centre of the framework for the Alliance programme of action enunciated in the Seizing the moment - building the post-Polokwane consensus discussion document.

We emphasize - the biggest challenge COSATU and the working class face, as the primary motive forces of our revolution, is to defend the gains we have achieved in the recent past. The defence of the ANC that retains its historic bias to the working class includes ensuring a decisive elections victory. That is the only way we can cement the left shifts and defend the alliance that will drive a fundamental transformation to address key demands of our people. The adoption of a new and more detailed government five-year programme based on the manifesto and informed by the Polokwane resolutions and the Freedom Charter is a critical objective we must achieve. Failure to do all these things means a defeat not of the ANC but of the NDR itself.

This is the background that informs our approach to the 2009 elections. To us they are as important as the 1994 elections.

The CEC assessed our state of readiness and our efforts to ensure a decisive ANC victory. We are convinced that the ANC will win these elections decisively. We are however warning our structures and the alliance against complacency and over-confidence. We call on COSATU structures and the structures of the Alliance formations, in the remaining 54 days before elections, to redouble their efforts to ensure a victory of the democratic forces. Every house, every workplace, farm and every village must be visited, door-to-door, and turned into a firm support base for our revolution. Moreover we must ensure that our support base does exercise its right to vote on the day of elections.

The battle lines have been drawn. On one side is the minority elitist grouping that occasionally unite behind a shared objective to weaken and ultimately destroy the ANC, and yet who are deeply divided by their historical origins, ideological orientation, struggle credentials, quest to be the best opposition and delusions to be governing parties.

This grouping historically has been led by the DA and now contests this leadership position with the dissidents who left the ANC. Both are implacably opposed to the demands of workers for decent jobs, better wages an end to casualisation and labour broking, and the DA even wants to make it easier to fire workers.

On the other side is the majority reflecting the spectrum of the South African population and class forces led by the ANC, a people's movement which enjoys moral credibility and with an impeccable and unmatched track record of struggle credentials, which has been earned since its formation 97 years ago and which was consolidated when the ANC assumed office following that historic April 27 1994 national and general elections.

The CEC condemned the outrageous and shameless personal attacks in the media on Comrade Kgalema Motlanthe and declared its unequivocal support for the President. COSATU is angry that sections of the media continue to form unholy alliances and/or get used by some faceless political scavengers hell-bent on destroying other comrades to pursue their narrow factional political ambitions.

The meeting also passed a resolution calling for calm and peace throughout the country in general but in KwaZulu Natal in particular, where there has been a disturbing rise in intolerance, threats and violent attacks, even murders. It is essential that everyone unites to prevent any repetition of the political violence that plagued the province and the country before the 1994 elections.

There is a degree of disappointed expectations within the working class that must not be ignored by COSATU and the alliance. Certain communities are very angry at real and perceived lack of service delivery, in particular by the local government. The message "nothing has changed" since 1994, untrue as it is, certainly is a formidable challenge. Door-to-door campaigning is the only effective weapon against the despondent feelings amongst our people. Direct engagement will expose that the "nothing has changed" syndrome is definitely caused by disappointed expectations but is not true.

No South African, in particular a black South African, has not been touched by the changes introduced by the ANC government since 1994. As an example certain communities may still not have water and houses but they definitely do have access to social grants and/or education, health and other services. In the face of the opposition parties' propaganda some of our people do forget or ignore the profound nature of the challenges in the face of disappointed expectations on the specific localised demands and anger against their councillors.

This small degree of despondency is the challenge we must face and turn around - we have only 54 days to do so! We will release as many stewards, organisers and leaders as we can, without abandoning other union responsibilities, such as the need to defend our members' jobs in the current global economic turmoil. We will engage with our people and show that there are real possibilities and good reason to be hopeful about the future moving forward. Our challenge we emphasize is to defend the gains of Polokwane on the policy front, in particular during the implementation of the manifesto phase.

Presently mobilisation programmes include sector meetings, workplace and industrial meetings; door-to-door work has proven to be the best tool for mobilising communities. Mass distribution of the ANC Manifesto is ongoing, together with the COSATU booklet - Defend our movement - expose the Black DA, which is very popular and in high demand. We have produced 3 million copies translated into 5 languages.

The CEC was also addressed by the ANC elections tasks team, led by Manne Dipico and Tony Trew, who presented some of the ANC's research. This showed an increased level of voter registration - 23.3 million - a higher intention to vote, and thus a likelihood of a high turnout. Voters show growing appreciation of the progress made by the ANC and support for its policies. The research confirmed COSATU's view that jobs is by far the biggest issue in voters' minds.

The CEC confirmed plans to set up structures to co-ordinate the campaign, in addition to the work being done in ANC election structures. Affiliates and provinces are to submit weekly progress reports every Friday.

The CEC endorsed the following key messages of the campaign:

1. We will show that the past 15 years demonstrate that the country has made huge strides led by the ANC government
2. We will acknowledge the huge challenges that remain
3. We will reassure voters that the ANC has workable plans in its manifesto and policies to tackle these challenge, and
4. We will call our people to action: "working together we can do more"

COSATU sends it best wishes to its four leading members on the ANC's national list for Parliament - Alinah Rantsolase, COSATU National Treasurer, Crosby Moni, NUM Deputy President, Tulas Nxesi, SADTU General Secretary and Noluthando Mayende-Sibiya, NEHAWU President - and the many provincial COSATU officials on the provincial lists.

Transition process

The ANC has set up a team, headed by the ANC President, to manage the transition to the new administration. COSATU has been represented on a secretariat team to manage the detailed work, consisting of 3 members of the NEC and 1 each from COSATU, the SACP and ANCYL. It began operating in November 2008. The programme of the transition team covers a host of areas, including:

1. A strategy to guide key appointments in government departments and parastatals
2. Assessment of handover reports from government departments
3. Parliament transition planning
4. The budget
5. Management of the economic crisis
6. Approach to 1st 100 days of government
7. The 5 year programme for governance
8. Aligning ANC, Alliance and government processes
9. Participatory processes and involvement of broader MDM in preparing for governance
10. Reconfiguration of cabinet, departments and the planning commission
11. Public Services human resources plan
12. Procurement and tender procedures
13. Arresting abuse taking place during transition
14. SABC
15. Managing potential ‘trigger issues'
16. Studying comparative international experience
17. Capacitating the work of the transition team.

COSATU will engage the transitional team so that the following issues are prioritised for action and resolution:

1. Ensuring that the ‘Framework for South Africa's response to the international economic crisis' is implemented without any delays. Jobs preservation is the immediate challenge we must face. The dti in particular as well as all other departments has a critical role to play in this regard.
2. Ensuring that we address the inconveniences workers are experiencing in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Council as the result of the disputes between the government and sections of taxi operators on the Bus Rapid Transport System.
3. Addressing the crises developing in Free State and Limpopo where exhausted provincial resources won't allow new enrolments of our people to the government's antiretrovirals programme.
4. Ensuring that the government does intervene and address the big service delivery problems that our people will identify. COSATU provinces will provide a list of areas where in interventions must be made immediately or even before the next ANC government takes over.

Analysis of ANC and government policy positions

The CEC considered a report on Policy positions of the ANC and government: Audit of the ANC Elections Manifesto, State of the Nation speech and Budget against the Polokwane Conference Resolutions.

The full document will be distributed later today.

The document's starting point is that one of the concerns raised sharply at Polokwane was that government had ignored a number of previous ANC conference resolutions and policy positions, and this has also been raised in the Alliance. That message from the ANC Conference was that this would no longer be tolerated, and clear positions were taken asserting that there is only one centre of power, and that government would be expected to advance ANC policies.

However, the overall impression in the audit of these three documents is that a wide gulf remains between the ANC and government, massively so with the budget speech, and much less so with the State of the Nation speech. It is clear that there has been no systematic process of integrating the policies and priorities agreed at Polokwane, let alone the elections manifesto, into government programmes.

This audit therefore strongly underlines the need for the ANC, and Alliance as a whole, to elaborate a detailed 5-year programme for government, if the resolutions of Polokwane and the manifesto are to become a reality. The alternative is to allow government to continue charting its own course. The experience of the Alliance transition team clearly demonstrates that government will not of its own accord implement the ANC's mandate.

Criminal Justice system

Deputy Minister of Justice, Johnny de Lange, gave the CEC a report on the state of the criminal justice system (CJS), which faces massive problems in improving the detection and prosecution of criminals and the conviction and sentencing of criminals.

He argued that crime was a critical concern to all South Africans, which if not solved could derail the national democratic revolution. That was why it has been identified as one of the ANC manifesto's key issues. The new government will need to prioritise implementing a seven points plan to:

1. Unite all the arms of the CJS - police, NPA and courts - with a single view and mission with the same objectives and priorities;
2. Create one overall CJS structure and end the overlaps between different government departments, legal and police units and agencies;
3. Create a single database of information on all criminal cases;
4. Modernise all the technology and link IT systems, etc.;
5. Streamline the way courts are run so as to avoid constant postponements;
6. Conduct far better forensic examination of crime scenes;
7. Change people's mindsets towards crime and restore public confidence in the system.

SABC

The CEC noted that the Broadcasting Amendment Bill, which was passed in 2008, was referred back to Parliament for reconsideration owing to concerns regarding the lack of explicit provision for requirements for Parliament to initiate a due process of inquiry before removing any members of the SABC Board.

The national assembly has since done this. The amendment merely contains a statement requiring that a due process of inquiry be undertaken but does not set out in detail what the process will entail.

The CEC calls on the President to sign the Bill into law without any further delays. We reiterate our call that the SABC Board be disbanded and a more representative board constituted by all classes and sections of our population be put in its place.

Bargaining trends: "Collective bargaining at a time of economic crisis"
 
The CEC received a report from NALEDI on bargaining trends. It noted that wage settlements in 2008 averaged 8.7%, with the best settlement of 15% having been negotiated between the NUM and the Chamber of Mines. Yet inflation (CPI) doubled to 11%, which was well above the average wage increase. The position is much worse for the poorest workers, for whom the effective rate of inflation was 15%, as a result of huge increases in the price of basic foods. 52% of workers still earn less than R2500 a month.

It was agreed to resist attempt by employers to use the global international crisis as a justification for lower wage increases than justified on the basis on inflation increases.

During 2008 a small number of new jobs were being created, but the CEC cautioned that Stats SA's definitions of ‘formal-sector' jobs included many in sectors with a high level of casualisation. The drop in the expanded figure for unemployment, down to 29%, which includes those who have given up seeking work, is more a result of Stats SA redefining them as ‘discouraged workers' and excluding others.

It was agreed that we must prepare for solidarity action, and convene a Living Wage Committee. Affiliates must submit timetable of bargaining so that we prepare for more effective solidarity within the Federation. Affiliates who have not submitted their 2008 agreements should do so.

Labour brokers

The meeting reaffirmed the federation's opposition to labour broking, which is a multi-billion industry, which covers manufacturing, wholesale and retail, transport, construction, local government, health-care, banking, information technology, cultural and entertainment industry and communication sectors of our economy. The services sector alone has more than 3000 private employment agencies and more than 55% (408 616 of 902 350) of the daily average temporary staff assigned.

According to research work done by NALEDI, workers not only face precarious working conditions but there are also early signs of the emergence of sweetheart unionism in the industry.

Little has been done to stem the tide of labour broking, but workers' resolve to deal with the monster has been bolstered by the ANC's election manifesto's commitment to decisively deal with labour broking and the Minister of Labour's public agitation against the phenomenon.

It was agreed to demand that the labour law review process puts the matter high on the agenda.

COSATU will have a meeting early in March 2009 to ensure that the issue is on NEDLAC Labour Market Chamber agenda. But the process may take a long time because of the scope of this approach. Accordingly, we propose that while the labour law review process takes its course, we check with our lawyers the prospects of challenging labour broking provisions in court under the LRA and to see if there might be lessons from the Namibian court case on labour broking
 
Section 77 Notice on food and electricity prices

On food prices, the CEC noted some significant successes. There has been an agreement on the following issues:

1. Social assistance, including extension of school nutrition programme to high schools;
2. Dedicated food market enquiry
3. Price monitoring committee
4. Investment in agriculture, including reinvestment of additional VAT collected as a result of high food prices into agriculture

The 'Framework for South Africa's response to the international economic crisis' also proposes important measures to protect the poorest consumers. We salute the COSATU members and the millions of other workers and communities who participated in the COSATU led programme of mass mobilisation to protest against high food prices. This is a victory to members, which must be acknowledged by our society and be celebrated by workers who delivered it.
 
Fishery strike solidarity

The CEC declared its support for striking FAWU members in the fishing industry who have been on strike for six months, in protest against a commission-only system of payment. It was agreed to approach the Minister of Labour to follow up on his suggestion that the sector should be covered by a Sectoral Determination, and to check whether decent working conditions can be made a condition of granting fishing companies their quotas.
 
May Day Rallies

COSATU noted that this year's May Day celebrations would take place immediately after the 22 April 2009 elections, which we see as being about the defence of our gains and revolution and in the context of job loss bloodbath as a result of the international economic crises. The theme of this May Day celebrations shall therefore be: Consolidating working class power in defence of our revolutionary movement for decent work!

The following venues were confirmed:

Eastern Cape: (National Rally)

East London @ Sisa Dukashe Stadium, Mdantsane

Gauteng

1. West Rand
2. Tshwane

Limpopo

1. Thabazimbi
2. Polokwane
3. Palaborwa
4. Tubatsie

Mpumalanga

1. KwaMhlanga Stadium
2. Mpumalanga College Auditorium, Bushbuckridge

North West:

1. Moses Kotane (Mogwasi), Phela Stadium
2. Schweizer-Reneke Stadium
3. Klerksdorp, Brazil Stadium in Joubertina Stadium (Kenneth Kaunda)
4. Mafikeng, Montshiwa Stadium

Western Cape

1. Cape Town
2. Oudtshoorn
3. Vredendal
4. Worcester

Free State

1. Ficksburg
2. Brandfort
3. Heilbron
4. Koffie Fontein

Northern Cape

1. Kimberley
2. De Aar
3. Springbok / Upington

KwaZulu Natal

1. Durban
2. Pietermaritzburg
3. Portshepstone
4. Newcastle
5. Dundee
6. Vryheid
7. Umzimkhulu
8. Ladysmith
9. Kwa-Dukuza
10. Mkhuze

The meeting endorsed the following proposal from the Eastern Cape:
"This year is the 30th anniversary of the South African Allied Workers Union (SAAWU). A gala dinner is being suggested on the 30th April 2009 wherein the stalwarts of SAAWU in particular the late comrade Thozamile Gqwetha will be recognised and awarded for their contributions in the worker struggle in particular and the broader struggle for the liberation in general. These awards should also be conferred to other trade union leaders who have passed on."

Resolution of the COSATU Central Executive Committee, 25 February 2009, on the job-loss bloodbath arising from the global economic meltdown

1. The CEC received reports and warmly endorsed the 'Framework for South Africa's response to the international economic crisis'. The Nedlac constituent organisations in partnership with the Presidency, following the Presidential Economic Joint Working Group meeting held in December 2008 negotiated this framework.

2. The CEC congratulated the COSATU National Office Bearers and the Labour Convener and other negotiators for ensuring that the ‘Framework for South Africa's response to the international economic crisis' was produced, negotiated and adopted by government, business and community constituent formations in Nedlac.

3. The CEC calls on all affiliates and other unions to ensure that the ‘Framework for South Africa's response to the international economic crisis' is translated into an effective tool to fight job losses and cushion the poor from the effects of the crisis, as envisaged in the agreement. In this regard every union must build capacity to use the agreement to maximum effect. All COSATU unions must initiate the convening of meetings in their sectors with the employers and relevant government departments and relevant state-owned enterprises to ensure that all the aspects of the framework are implemented in all affected sectors of the economy.

4. The CEC calls on all provincial Premiers to call meetings with labour and business to develop provincial stimulus packages based on this framework and to convene stakeholder forums to develop the plans in more detail.

5. COSATU will produce copies of the documents for all shop stewards and will produce a summary of the ‘Framework for South Africa's response to the international economic crisis' for distribution to members.

6. The CEC endorses the principles that we need urgent action now to address the crisis in the short-term but that we also need to change the basic foundations of the global economy to make it serve people, to combat the greed and inequalities that characterise the system and to ensure government again plays its rightful role as regulator and protector of the public interest. Decades of declining income for workers, of ruthless free trade that builds on exploitation of Asian, especially Chinese workers, of surges in executive pay, of corporate corruption in many cases, of governments that were captured by corporate interests, of speculative capital that was unregulated, are the foundations of the current crisis.

7. The CEC received reports from the affiliates and discussed the scale of the current and the envisaged job losses in all the sectors of the economy. The primary industries and manufacturing sectors are bearing the brunt of the international economic crisis. The NUM estimates that between 20 000 and 50 000 jobs may be lost in the mining industry. According to Statistics South Africa, the manufacturing sector is not only entering a recession but also dropping at rates last seen in 1960. According to official data, manufacturing dropped by 21, 8% in the last quarter of 2008.

8. NUMSA informed the CEC that 11 000 jobs were lost in the automobiles and components sector in 2008. This year a further 29 700 jobs are at risk. SACTWU told the CEC of factory closures and 10 000 job losses in the clothing, textiles and footwear industry in 2008, with large looming retrenchments this year. All unions were urged to collate information and forward it to the Federation.

9. Workers employed by labour brokers as well those workers have been subcontracted, who fall in the category of the most vulnerable, carry the burden of much of the job losses. This underlines the importance of ensuring that Nedlac immediately convene its labour market chamber to look at how the commitment made by the ANC in its 2009 elections manifesto "to regulate contract work, subcontracting and outsourcing, address the problem of labour broking and prohibit certain abusive practises" can be achieved on an urgent basis. The ‘Framework for South Africa's response to the international economic crisis' also commits that organised labour's concerns about labour broking and outsourcing should be addressed.

10. The CEC endorsed the call for solidarity amongst affiliated unions and amongst workers in general. No trade union movement worth its salt would just fold arms at the time when its members and workers in general are paying the price through losing their jobs and livelihoods, for a crisis they did not create, a crisis in fact caused by inequities in the global economic system and corporate greed in many parts of the world. In this regard, the CEC called on all unions to monitor very closely the ongoing carnage of job losses and discuss whether COSATU and other federations should consider filing a Section 77 notice with the intention of protesting against the job-loss bloodbath. A special campaigns committee will be convened once all information has been collated. If in the view of the campaigns committee the Federation must file in a Section 77 notice the NOBs will convene a special CEC to consider this and other recommendations of the campaigns committee.

11. We record that workers in employment provide the social safety net for the unemployed through sharing their often meagre wages with unemployed family members and friends. The CEC - through affiliates - call on members in employment to consider what additional measures of social solidarity it can show to the unemployed and to those whose jobs are at risk. It recalls the historic efforts in 1999 to donate one day's pay to a Fund to create new jobs. Unions will now go back to workplaces to hear from members how they will respond with solidarity to those most affected.

12. The CEC noted with concern that in some cases, companies are opportunistically using the international economic crisis as the excuse to embark upon previously conceived plans to cut jobs and maximise profits. For example it does not make sense that the gold mines are jumping at the bandwagon of cutting jobs when the price of gold remain stable.

13. The CEC calls on all the affiliated unions and indeed on all unions in the country to fight relentlessly, using every means in their disposal, to resist job losses. In this regard, unions must aggressively utilise the provisions of Section 189 of the LRA and in the case of the mining industry, Section 52 of the Mineral Petroleum Resources Development Act.

14. COSATU calls on all companies to do everything in their power to avoid retrenchments. No company that makes profit should retrench under current circumstances. Companies making losses should explore all alternatives to retrenchments.

15. The principle outlined in the Framework for South Africa's response to the international economic crises that ‘the risk of unfairly placing the burden of the downturn on the poor and the vulnerable must be avoided" must be adhered to and practicalised. This pain must be shared! In this regard, the COSATU CEC calls on the corporate sector to urgently and seriously review the perks and the extraordinary high salaries paid to CEOs and senior management. These should be cut to the bare minimum as part of companies preparing to meet the economic downturn. Retrenchments must be used only as the truly the last resort when everything else including elimination of wasteful expenditure and high executive pay, has been tried.

16. The CEC noted with regret that some shop stewards and workers mistakenly seek to address their short-term cash flow and debt problems by taken voluntary retrenchment packages. Regrettably, some employers knowing the extent of the debt levels amongst workers, use voluntary retrenchment packages and additional monetary incentives to lure workers and shop stewards to accept job losses. Some affiliates in response to these crises had to remove the right from some shop stewards to negotiate retrenchments and placed that responsibility to the provincial and regional offices of their unions.

17. During these difficult times workers who are highly indebted are even more vulnerable. COSATU calls on the financial sector in particular the banks not to further jeopardise the bleak economic future of workers through this reckless and greedy borrowing practises that is largely responsible for the global crises in the first place.

18. The CEC noted with deep concern the news that the economy shrunk by a massive 1, 8% in the last quarter of 2008. This is entirely consistent with the news we have been receiving last year from factories, mines and other workplaces about the downturn in the economy. Whilst we recognise that this is linked to the international economic crises, we at the same time believe that South Africa would have not been so direly affected had we adopted appropriate macro-economic policies and implemented an industrial policy to restructure our economy and placed it on a new labour-absorbing developmental path.

19. In the regard, the Reserve Bank and its conservative monetary policy committee must take much of the blame for the massive decline in economic growth. At the time when all industrialised economies were aggressively cutting rates in response to the global economic crises, the Reserve Bank bucked the trend and maintained extra-ordinary high levels of interest rates and a holier-than-thou attitude to price stability. They dismissed our concerns and our calls for aggressive cutting of interest rates, but now today workers are paying the price for their short-sightedness. We have warned repeatedly that pursuing the goal of inflation targeting was not only misguided in the context of South Africa, but would hurt our economy badly. The toxic chickens of job losses have come home to roost indeed.

20. The fiscal policies of the government, including the current budget, do not adequately respond to the challenge at hand, in the light of the latest economic data. The budget will not sufficiently cushion workers and the poor from the job losses and resultant poverty disaster staring them in their eyes, and further fiscal measures will need to be considered.

21. The delay until 2010 of the implementation of the royalties' fees in the mining industries, which amounted to R1, 8 billion should not be unconditional. In fact, state support to all ailing sectors (including the APDP for the auto sector) should be based on conditions that require undertakings that the companies concerned:

I. Will save jobs and will take special measures to avoid retrenchments

II. Will ensure modest pay packages for their CEO and senior management

III. Will introduce additional training and retraining for workers

IV. Will develop rescue packages in partnership with trade unions in their sectors

V. Will have a record of full compliance with all the provisions of labour laws and collective agreements

22. We note that government (at all levels) at times fail to adhere to agreements to support the ‘buy local' campaign, such as the commitments made at the Growth and Development Summit of 2005. Government procurement policies and its sourcing policies leave much to be desired and have directly led to loss of local jobs and factory closures. The following examples illustrate the problem but it is by no means limited to the sectors mentioned:

a. The Johannesburg Metropolitan Council sourced its busses from Marco Polo in Brazil leading to the closure of Durobuild and Busaf bus manufacturing companies with 1000 and 600 job losses respectively.

b. Transnet cancelled its contract with Scaw Metals and sourced the wheels of locomotives from China. Now 200 workers who were engaged by Scaw Metals stand to lose their jobs.

c. Gauteng government sourced carriages for the Gautrain in Britain, leading to job losses at Union Carriage, which used to produce carriages for Transnet.

d. All the cranes working in the Gautrain have been sourced oversees whilst crane-producing companies are closing their factories.

e. Government can help stop the carnage of job losses if it has a political will to do so and we look forward to an urgent review of procurement to address this.

23. We acknowledge with gratitude the gallant efforts of the South African Receiver of Revenue, which has launched a campaign to combat illegal imports.

24. The scale of job losses in the mines may lead to the total collapse of the small mining towns in that the municipalities that relied on the taxes and levies from the mines will lose their revenues leading to poor service delivery and loss of jobs at local government level.

25. The CEC has noted with deep concern the reports that large South African banks are withdrawing credit to the real economy. We call on banks and financial institutions to avoid plunging the country into crisis through such actions. We will meet with large banks to make the point that they need to act responsibly to help the country to come through the crisis with our economy reasonably intact.

26. The CEC welcomes the commitment to maintain and possibly expand the planned public investment programme of R787b. It calls on affiliates to use their influence to ensure that resources are made available for a government-backed development bond, through resources from retirement funds and from companies.

27. We believe that funds that are available through the UIF, SETAs and the National Skills Fund should be utilised for a national fund to help workers in vulnerable sectors with training and other active labour market measures to attempt to avoid retrenchments.

28. We call on all South Africans to stand together to weather the economic storm and we call on government to ensure that appropriate changes are advocated at global level to make sure that the deep-seated inequalities and lack of regulation in the global economy are rectified so that the world that emerges from the crisis is one founded on social justice, fair labour standards in all countries, equitable development and decent work for working women and men across the world. In this regard the forthcoming G8 summit will provide an opportunity for these matters to be addressed.

Issued by COSATU, February 26 2009

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