*NUMSA RESPONSE TO THE STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS* * *
*12 February 2010*** The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) notes the gist of President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation Address (SoNA) delivered on the occasion of Nelson Mandela’s 20th Anniversary freedom from apartheid jail. President Zuma’s overall thrust of the State of the National Address was located within the context of persisting challenges of service delivery, rampant corruption, ballooning unemployment, mass poverty, widening income inequalities amongst the rich and poor as permeated by global capitalism and domestic recession. We welcome his condolences that at least 900 000 jobs have been shed as a result of the recession - in the face of denial by the then Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni and the then Finance Minister Trevor Manuel. Those who grew sassy during the 2000s, as ‘growth’ appeared to reach 5%, did not acknowledge that our economy was increasingly based not upon manufacturing, but mainly upon speculative construction and financial industry froth. Untenable consumer debt, imported goods and the export of profits and dividends to London and Melbourne together created a trade deficit and large payments outflow in 2001-2008, and severe currency vulnerabilities due to exchange control liberalization caused yet another rand crash in late 2008. When Mboweni raised interest rates in 2008 – for which he is condemned by all parties – the result was an extreme overreaction in our economy, and by early 2009, the loss of 24% of steel and 27% of auto production from a year earlier, left Numsa workers amongst those suffering the most. This is the crucial economic context for the State of the Nation Address by President Zuma, which as a result turned to the key priorities as encapsulated in the ANC-led Alliance Elections Manifesto, namely: - Creation of decent work and sustainable livelihoods - Education - Health - Rural development, food security and land reform - The fight against crime and corruption. We welcome and support the following commitments made by President Zuma which are in sync with the ANC-led Alliance Elections Manifesto and electoral mandate bestowed to the current administration by the overwhelming majority of our people; 1. The allocation of over 6 000 hectares of well-located public land for low income and affordable housing; 2. Ambitious targets for skills development, to produce additional engineers and technicians, and to increase the number of qualified mathematics and science teachers; 3. The allocation over the next three years of R846 billion on public infrastructure, although this must be allocated much more to housing, water/sanitation and electrical system roll-out, clinics, schools, affordable public transport, and a transformed economy powered by renewable energy with green jobs; 4. The allocation of R6 billion through the Independent Development Corporation to help companies in distress*;* 1. The extension of social grants to two million children from poor households, aged 15 to 18 years; 2. The reaffirmation to establish a national health insurance system 3. Continuation of support measures to protect vulnerable sectors, contained in the 2009 Framework Agreement. Numsa is concerned about the mild attention given by President Zuma to ongoing problems with corruption, service delivery, and the creation of decent work. While we have opposed the way some activists engaged in community protests have degenerated into xenophobes, this is a small minority, and instead of stronger policing and deployment of political leaders to temporarily quell unrest, our President must get to the core of the problems creating grievances. This means major changes in policy so that water and electricity are affordable, good quality houses are built, land is reformed, the children are fed and educated, the ill and elderly are properly cared for, and our society moves into a new stage of social growth with environmental responsibility. These values must be continually restated because too many in the state and private sector expect to continue with business as usual. We face too many overlapping crises to allow petty distractions, corrupt methods and greed by individuals and business empires to halt the National Democratic Revolution. We are of the view of that President Zuma should have been bolder in fomenting a persistent struggle of the citizenry and patriotic officials against political patronage and the practises of parasitic capitalism, where government office is used to create a network of patronage and access to business opportunities for private gain. These practises undermine our struggle to fight poverty and under development. We are vehemently opposed to the suggestions by President Jacob Zuma that the private hands have a strategic role to play in rebuild our public health system, through the private – public partnership. We strongly believe that through this disastrous intervention, it will reproduce the racialised and unequal health system and undermine our efforts of building peoples health-care system that puts people first as opposed to profits. Our biggest disappointment with President Zuma’s State of the Nation Address is its failure to commit government to a radical and thorough review of our monetary, fiscal and inflation targeting policies. This is the most serious and pressing problem facing our country. In essence this undermines the various Alliance Summits resolutions and shared perspectives on the strategic economic perspective of our country post Polokwane honeymoon. In fact President Zuma’s deliberate omission of the economic path confirms that our government is restoring the current economic path, which is responsible for persisting high levels of unemployment, continuing retrenchments and destruction of quality jobs. Simply we are going to be pursuing a strategy of restoration of capitalist profitability as opposed to rolling-back the markets geared towards meeting people’s needs and demands. We need a clarion call from the Presidency that the wealth of our country shall be restored back to the people as a whole to replace the remnants of the colonial character of the South African economy. Contact: *Castro Ngobese*** *National Spokesperson – 073 299 1595* * * -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
