---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Patrick Craven <[email protected]> Date: 15 February 2010 14:52 Subject: [COSATU Press] COSATU response to Sowetan To: [email protected] Cc: [email protected]
The following letter was today sent to the Editor of the Sowetan by the General Secretary of the Congress of South African trade Unions. Patrick Craven (National Spokesperson) Congress of South African Trade Unions 1-5 Leyds Cnr Biccard Streets Braamfontein, 2017 P.O. Box 1019 Johannesburg, 2000 SOUTH AFRICA Tel: +27 11 339-4911/24 Fax: +27 11 339-5080/6940/ 086 603 9667 Cell: 0828217456 E-Mail: [email protected] 15 February 2010 The Editor The Sowetan The Congress of South African Trade Unions strongly condemns an article in the Sowetan of 15 February 2010, under the headline: “*Zuma same as Mbeki – Cosatu” *by Zakile Majova. It is a gross distortion of COSATU’s views and the federation demands an apology. * * There is not a word in any COSATU statement about the State of the Nation address, or in comments by COSATU representatives to Zakile Majova, *or even anything in the article itself*, that in any way justifies that headline. COSATU’s views on the SoN Address were fully explained in its statement, which is attached below. That makes it very clear that the federation welcomed many of the President’s proposals, while expressing concern about others. It expressed a worry over what we regarded as serious omissions from the speech, notably the unemployment crisis and the decent work agenda. Most media coverage unfortunately, focussed exclusively on the critical comments and ignored the positive comments. Majova’s article was typical, only selectively quoting critical remarks. We would obviously have preferred a more balanced coverage of our views on the SoN address from the Sowetan and the media in general, but our main complaint is that the article went on to interpret COSATU’s views as amounting to saying that “Zuma is the same as Mbeki”, which is absolutely false, and for which Majova cannot produce a shred of evidence. No-one interviewed by Majavu said that COSATU had “cried foul that President Jacob Zuma is treating workers the same way former president Thabo Mbeki had treated them”. There is nothing in any COSATU statements, both written and verbal, that workers are being treated no better under President Zuma than under his predecessor. That is an invention of Majavu himself, which is not backed up by anything in his article. On the contrary, the federation has repeatedly praised the advances made, at the ANC 2007 Polokwane Conference and subsequently, under President Zuma’s leadership, in adopting and implementing policies which will benefit workers and the poor and take forward the national democratic revolution. The same applies to improvements in transparency and openness. Those comrades whom Majavu interviewed were not complaining but carefully explaining to him that it is normal practice for the contents of speeches like the SoN and Budget to be kept confidential until delivery, and that this practice did not amount to keeping “his allies in the dark about the content of his State of the Nation Address on Thursday”. COSATU has on the contrary welcomed, and benefitted from, the much more open and transparent atmosphere under President Zuma’s government, and its much greater willingness to consult allies and civil society. The federation will remain vigilant in calling for even more such consultation, including around policies which are announced in the SoN and Budget speeches. And COSATU will definitely object if there are any moves towards less public debate. There are however absolutely no grounds for interpreting that as suggesting that things are comparable to the lack of consultation during the Presidency of President Mbeki. Indeed Majavu quotes the COSATU spokesperson insisting that “in the past we were kept even more in the dark” in those days, which directly contradicts his headline and opening paragraph. COSATU demands a retraction and apology, failing which we shall not hesitate to lodge a complaint with the Press Ombudsman. Zwelinzima Vavi General Secretary Congress of South African Trade Unions COSATU’s fuller response to State of the Nation Address The Congress of South African Trade Unions has studied President Zuma’s State of the Nation Speech and analysed it in more detail. We are reassured that the government is still guided by the priorities outlined in the ANC election manifesto, which were to achieve major reforms and improvements in the following areas: - Creation of decent work and sustainable livelihoods - Education - Health - Rural development, food security and land reform - The fight against crime and corruption. In pursuit of these priorities, COSATU therefore warmly welcomes, among others: · The recommitment to the Expanded Public Works Programme · The extension of social grants to two million more children aged 15 to 18 years · The reaffirmation of preparations to establish a national health insurance system · The allocation of over 6 000 hectares of land for low-income and affordable housing · Support for the teachers’ unions commitment to quality learning and teaching · Ambitious targets for skills development · Continuation of support measures to protect vulnerable sectors, contained in the 2009 Framework Agreement. COSATU only cautiously welcomes the new initiative to provide R1 billion to incentivise the private banking sector to provide housing finance for those with no access to it. We believe however that the banks should not be discriminating against poorer households in the first place, and should not have to be ‘incentivised’ to provide them with loans. We fear that the banks, rather than the householders could be the chief beneficiaries. The Federation was disappointed that there was no appreciation of the full extent of the massive crisis of unemployment, poverty and inequality. The employment statistics for the last quarter of 2009 certainly do not provide evidence that we are getting back on track to create new jobs on the scale required. The number of new jobs is small and many are casual jobs. Unemployment remains far higher than in any comparable country in the world, and as a consequence poverty is widespread, and we now have world-record levels of inequality. Government policy must be based on the understanding that our economy was in crisis even before the recession hit us, as a result of the legacy from colonialism and apartheid of over-dependence on the export of raw materials and capital intensive sectors. That is why is essential that we urgently adopt a completely new growth path to transform our economy into one based on labour-intensive manufacturing industry and one that meets the basic needs of our people. We regret that the President did not indicate when such a new economic growth path to tackle this national emergency will be announced. COSATU was particularly concerned that the President said nothing on the creation of decent work, the spread of casualisation of labour and the scourge of labour broking, and nothing to explain how he intends to implement the 2009 manifest commitment to “avoid exploitation of workers and ensure decent work for all workers as well as to protect the employment relationship, introduce laws to regulate contract work, subcontracting and out- sourcing, address the problem of labour broking and prohibit certain abusive practices.” The rapid casualisation of labour is wreaking havoc with the lives of thousands of workers, as relatively secure and well-paid jobs are being replaced by casual, temporary, insecure and low-paid forms of employment. Labour brokers are the chief drivers of this process and we shall continue to demand that labour broking has no role to play in a decent-work economy and that government must legislate to ban it. COSATU is totally opposed to the suggestion that privatisation has a role to play in the electricity generating sector, through the participation of independent power producers and an independent system operator. COSATU remains convinced that moves towards privatisation will ultimately wreck a crucial public national service and we shall continue to campaign vigorously to prevent the sell-off of a vital public asset. While welcoming the commitment to stepping up the fight against corruption, the federation was worried that the emphasis was on corruption at the lower levels - of fraud, in the issuing of social grants, drivers’ licences and ID cards - rather than the critical problem of senior public officials abusing their position to amass private wealth and the inevitable conflict of interest of public representatives who continue to be involved in private business. COSATU repeats its insistence that all public representatives must be forced to choose whether they want to be servants of the public or in business to make profits. They cannot be both at the same time. The succession of corruption scandals and the spread of the capitalist culture of greed and self-enrichment are threatening to unravel the fabric of society and undermine all the great progress we have made in a democratic South Africa. That is why the federation has called for a ‘life-style audit’ of all the Cabinet Ministers, Director Generals and Deputy Director Generals, to establish how some have some afford more than one mansion, holiday homes, expensive holidays, etc. -- 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] .
<<image003.jpg>>
