COSATU's 2015 SONA expectations statement
The Congress of South African Trade Unions regards the State of the Nation Address (SONA) as one of the most important events in the government's calendar. It sets the tone for government's work, which will aim to address the challenges facing the country and change the lives of the majority of our people for the better.
The country is still confronted with triple challenge of unemployment, poverty and inequalities. We therefore expect that President Jacob Zuma's 2015 SONA will be set in the context of the 60th year of the people's programme, the Freedom Charter, which the ANC has declared will be the basis for the government's priorities for 2015.
The address also comes a week after the release of horrifying poverty statistics by the Statistics SA which shows that more than one in every two South Africans lives in conditions of poverty. Coupled with stubbornly high rates of unemployment at over 36%, with young people constituting the majority of those who are without jobs, the country is facing serious challenges and needs extraordinary measures to address these challenges.
COSATU's 11th National Congress resolutions call for a decisive break with the growth path we inherited from the colonial and apartheid era. It called for the abandonment of the neoliberal approaches to development and accordingly called for the National Planning Commission to be given a new mandate that will be consistent with the call made by all alliance formations - for a second phase of radical economic transformation.
Our Congress called for the NDP to be aligned to the concept of radical economic transformation. We expect that the president will respond seriously to the campaign for radical economic transformation. (See below for more details of the Congress decisions)
Some of the key issues we intend to take up in coming months include:
1. Ending poverty, through a national minimum wage, defence of collective bargaining and comprehensive social security
2. Defending workers' right to strike
3. Resolving the crisis at Eskom
4. Transforming the lives of vulnerable workers
5. Eradicating racism and sexism in the workplace
6. Opposing e-tolls and campaigning for better public transport
7. Fighting corruption, particularly in the union and their investment companies
While major strides have been made by government to ensure that more people have access to housing, electricity, healthcare and education, the economy remains untransformed, with a few rich, mainly white business people controlling the economy. The attainment of the Freedom Charter's clause: "The people shall share in the country's wealth" remains a distant dream, as the triple challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality persist.
The ANC's election manifesto in the 7 May 2014 poll promised a radical transformation of the economy - in the "second phase of the democratic transition" - which the ANC and its allies all agree has to be the centrepiece of government policy over the next five years.
COSATU therefore expects "business unusual" from the 2015 SONA by President Zuma. While we fully appreciate that the global economy is not recovering at a pace that will help the South African economy to grow faster to help to address the challenges of unemployment and poverty in particular, it is therefore of critical importance that government should stimulate economic growth and job creation.
This among others requires the government to spend and invest more, particularly in the infrastructure development programme, and in capacitating the public service and all state institutions. This runs counter to the current fiscal stance taken by Treasury, which is one of austerity, or cutbacks in real terms.
In the 2014 SONA, the President committed government to "investigating the possibility of a national minimum wage (NMW) as one of the key mechanisms to reduce income inequality". COSATU is pleased that the Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa convened a meeting of Nedlac social partners to discuss among others the introduction of the NMW, and has stated now that the principle of an NMW is no longer under debate, merely the modalities of its introduction.
Discussions are continuing at Nedlac on this and COSATU would like reassurance from the President that government is committed to ensuring that the NMW is introduced before the end of 2015. This has become even more important in the light of the poverty statistics referred to above.
For many years COSATU has been calling for engagement on a comprehensive social security system for the country. We note that the Minister of Social Development, Bathabile Dlamini, has indicated that a discussion paper on comprehensive social security would soon be tabled at Nedlac for engagement. COSATU therefore expects the President to reaffirm this commitment as part of government's programme for 2015.
For as long as there is no comprehensive social security system, and given the high levels of unemployment, COSATU will remain opposed to any policy that seeks to prevent workers from withdrawing all their pension benefits before they retire.
COSATU also needs reassurance from the President that all efforts are being taken by government to address the precarious electricity situation in the country. Despite a commitment the President made in his 2014 SONA that government would "respond decisively to the country's energy constraints", rolling electricity blackouts have become a norm rather than an exception.
This is a matter of grave concern to COSATU because ‘load-shedding' has the potential to result in job losses. The President should reassure the nation that the assets of Eskom will not be sold to the highest bidder as an option to get more funding for Eskom.
Further we need to know in the context of this crisis why the aluminium smelters continue to be allowed to consume such massive amounts of electricity (up to 7% of total electricity consumption), at taxpayers' expense, and without adding any significant value to the economy. Government urgently needs to look at how to close the remaining smelters down.
The President should outline an implementation strategy for the expansion of the renewable energy sector, which must take into account the importance of developing social forms of ownership, localisation, job creation and enhanced energy access to the working class.
We reiterate our opposition to the expansion of nuclear energy generation based on costs and safety considerations in particular. We note that government is steaming ahead with shale gas extraction and our concerns in that regard include water contamination, health effects, green-house gas emissions and the destruction of the political economy of the Karoo.
At the ANC's 103rd birthday celebration the President highlighted the important of a fight against the scourge of corruption when he said: "We cannot ignore the scourge of corruption that eats at the fabric of our society and constraints economic development. The ANC must continue to lead in ending corruption in the state, the private sector and amongst our own membership". COSATU agrees fully with the President but wants to hear that more stringent steps being taken to root out corruption and bring those responsible to justice.
COSATU also expects to hear what the government is proposing to end the continuing crisis in education. The poor's children remain trapped in inferior education with inadequate infrastructure and over-sized classes. Yet South Africa spends more money per head than other smaller, poorer countries which nevertheless achieve better results.
We therefore urge the President to announce a ‘zero budget' for education, so that there can be an urgent investigation to account for every cent that is spent on education to find out why this expenditure is not leading to better results.
COSATU also expects the president to allocate more resources to expand and improve the FET sector, which will in turn reduce the youth labour force, by extending their stay in the education and training system, so that they acquire basic and high-level cognitive skills.
The President should also provide a clear indication on when the National Health Insurance (NHI) White Paper will be released. The publication of this document is long overdue. We further expect to get an update on the functioning of pilot projects, including a report on the challenges and successes, especially those related to infrastructure and the status of community health care workers.
According to our affiliates, there is evidence that the health sector is in a total mess. There is a crisis, including shortages of staff, equipment and medicines, which does not inspire any confidence that the promised transformation is on track. We urgently need an efficient, well-resourced, well-staffed national health system which provides the best possible service to all South Africans.
The President should provide a progress report on the process of upgrading nursing colleges, and give an assurance that the necessary funding has been allocated. This is important for the successful introduction of primary healthcare, and the decentralisation of healthcare provision. Furthermore, we would like to receive an update on the filling of vacancies in public health facilities.
There is a need to expand the upgrading of public facilities (especially in rural and poor urban areas) so that these meet the criteria of the Office of Health Standards and Compliance.
On land and agrarian reform COSATU re-affirms its support for the moratorium on evictions. However, we believe that land ownership is the ultimate solution for security of tenure. Government should finalise the land ownership audit, which includes figures on foreign ownership.
We also want to get an indication of when government will finalise the stakeholder engagement process on the "Strengthening the relative rights of those working the land" proposal. We need information on progress being made on providing support to land redistribution beneficiaries, particularly in relation to inputs provision, funding, access to markets and training.
On transport, COSATU expects the President to provide an update on rolling out of the improved public transport system and plan on how to enhance safety on public roads. There is an urgent need to find alternative model for funding expansion and improvement of road infrastructure. COSATU remains opposed to e-tolling and hopes that the President will respond to the outcry against e-tolls by scrapping this expensive system.
COSATU's 11th Congress Declaration
COSATU's expectations for the SONA 2015 are based on the policies spelled out in the Declaration from the 11th National Congress in 2012, which resolved to embark on a programme of action to drive the radical economic shift in line with the demands of the Freedom Charter, including:
Decisive state intervention in strategic sectors of the economy, including through strategic nationalisation and state ownership, and the use of a variety of macro-economic and other levers at the states disposal, which can be deployed to regulate and channel investment, production, consumption and trade to deliberately drive industrialisation, sustainable development, decent employment creation, and regional development, and to break historical patterns of colonial exploitation and dependence.
Radical overhaul of our macro-economic policy in line with the radical economic shift which we all agree needs to happen. To this end we will engage with our alliance partners in the run-up to the ANC Mangaung conference, on the macro-economic policy review; this requires that institutionally the Treasury, which constitutes the biggest obstacle to the government`s economic programme, needs to be urgently realigned;
A new mandate to be given to the Reserve Bank, which must be nationalised;
The National Planning Commission to be given a renewed mandate, to realign the National Development Plan, in line with the proposed radical economic shift
Aspects of the New Growth Path to be realigned in line with the proposed new macro-economic framework.
All state owned enterprises and state development finance institutions to be given a new mandate.
Urgent steps to reverse the current investment strike and export of South African capital.
Capital controls and measures aimed at prescribed investment, and penalising speculation.
The urgent introduction of comprehensive social security.
State intervention in strategic sectors including through nationalisation;
Measures to ensure beneficiation, such as taxes of mineral exports;
Channelling of retirement funds into productive investment;
Comprehensive land reform, and measure to ensure food security; and
The more effective deployment of all state levers to advance industrialisation and the creation of decent work on a large scale.
The 11th Congress noted lessons derived from the Brazil and from progressive developments in Latin America, which are part of the resurgence of left alternatives throughout the Latin American Continent, characterized by: a rapidly expanding role of the state in the economy, pursuit of expansionary macro-economic policies, active promotion of social ownership, particularly through a huge increase in cooperatives, progressive interventions to transform the labour market by formalising employment, combating atypical work, raising wage levels and promoting collective bargaining.
In the case of the more left governments, such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Argentina, governments have actively promoted popular participation, and the growing assertiveness of the working class and peasantry. This has led to new forms of popular democracy.
Congress agreed that we should forge a national agreement which sets South Africa on a more radical and transformative path. This agreement would have the following elements: Measures to ensure representivity and integrity of the new leadership collective, at national provincial and local levels, and to combat social distance:
Legislation to govern conflicts of interest in the state and the movement;
Policies to prevent those convicted of certain types of offense from holding certain leadership positions;
A package of interventions to combat corruption.
Interventions to advance a radical economic shift, including specific commitments to align macro-economic policies and all institutions of state to the agenda of promoting decent work and interventions to dramatically scale up the state's role in strategic sectors of the economy.
A commitment that appointments to strategic positions will be reviewed to effect these changes in strategic ministries, including Treasury, the SARB and key SOEs and DFIs, and that their mandates be changed accordingly.
A more focused mandate to be given to the NPC to realign the planning process to reflect this radical shift. Implementing proposals to promote a more effective, coordinated developmental state, including the Alliance agreed proposal to implement a Council of State.
A coherent labour market, wages and incomes policy, including a legislated national minimum wage, linked to a minimum living level, and comprehensive collective bargaining and social protection measures.
Special intervention programmes to address crisis situations in public health and education, and other identified areas of service delivery.
Agreement on a protocol for the Alliance and Governance to ensure effective implementation of ANC and Alliance policies, and co-ordination with the work of government.
Statement issued by Patrick Craven, COSATU National Spokesperson, February 10 2015
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