CWUpng.png CWU Press Statement, 4 February 2016 INTRODUCTION "The year of Advancing People's Power" was the message in the January 8th statement of the African National Congress on its 104 anniversary held in Rustenburg on the 9th of January 2016. This message ignites the beacon of hope for our people that are firmly based on the foundation of the "Freedom Charter". The Freedom Charter is the centrepiece that outlines avenues for meaningful transformation and growing our economy to fight the triple oppression of unemployment, poverty and inequality. We believe that such a message "The year of Advancing People's Power" should not be rhetoric but must find its expression amongst our people in particular the downtrodden. The recent developments in the country suggest the opposite. ON TAXATION LAWS AMENDMENT ACT Communication Workers Union rejects the Taxation Laws Amendment Act which was passed by Parliament in December 2015. We note that the 2009 Alliance Summit discussed issues arising from its Social Transformation Committee and came with clear recommendations and there was convergence on the issue of developing a comprehensive social security and retirement reform proposals for discussions at NEDLAC. As an affiliate of COSATU, CWU is of the view that as a federation has always been at the forefront of finding solutions to the issue of ensuring that workers do not struggle to make ends meet after retirement. The federation has made submissions to the Committee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africa. This includes but not limited to a security system, existing social grants; and making recommendations for reforms. As such the final report was submitted to the Minister of Social Development and amongst other many challenges, the commission identified the following: . Minimum Contribution . Low cost National Savings Scheme (National Social Security) . Investment (Local & International) . Passive Investments . Fragmentation of Funds . Administration . Tax on Retirement Funds . Exclusion (Lack of Compulsion for retirement funds) . Basic Income Grant And the department of Social Development as the leading and the custodian of social security matters subsequently released a number of papers that were never tabled at NEDLAC for comments because this matter affects a number of departments across government. However the ANC led Government disagreements played themselves out in the Inter-Departmental Task Team (IDTT) and the National Treasury continuously killed any paper that was not their product. Therefore we view Tax Law Amendment Acts as a nationalisation of workers savings. The Act in our view benefits the state as opposed to workers and their immediate families. We must emphasise that these are hard earned workers' monies that they spend their employment's lives sweating and in the end the ruling elites stand to benefit. CWU'S POSITION ON THE MINISTER OF COMMUNICATION On the 18th of December 2015 we've made a call for the removal of the Minister of Communication Faith Muthambi, and we had promised the public that we will take our battle to Luthuli House should our call not be heeded. Amongst others she had demonstrated to be a supreme power to an extent of undermining the ANC and the labour movement. Under her leadership we've seen job losses in the industry and costly decisions. This will include us as a country missing the deadline for digital migration in June last year. This led to millions of Rands wasted in the Dual illumination which is an interim period in which both analogue and digital terrestrial television signals are allowed to be transmitted. As we speak the National Treasury is not allocating funding to SENTECH for Dual illumination which could have serious impact at the SOE. PUBLIC PROTECTOR'S REPORT ON THE SOUTH AFRICAN POST OFFICE As we record the 4th of February 2016 Communication Workers Union will like to remind the public that in November 2015, the Public Protector Advocate Thuli Madonsela promised CWU that by mid December 2015 she will release the report. However on the 22nd of December 2015, again the Public Protector told the reporters that the South African Post Office's report on maladministration that led to over R200 million debts, and a sum of R2.1 Billion unaccounted for, will only be released in January 2016. The Public Protector argued that the reasons of her delay are because she's unable to publish the report before the Post Office people have commented on it. And further emphasised that they are in a process of sending a Section 79 notice so that SAPO gets an opportunity to indicate should they find something that they may think is missing in the report. Since 2011 when the matter was handed over to the Public Protector to date, we (workers) the victims of the mismanagement and maladministration have not received the reports. We have an SOE that is collapsing, workers that go home in some months unpaid, we have an established infrastructure deteriorating and a community that needs services. It's now 5 years of this state of affairs and no one has been held accountable. We therefore believe that the Public Protector is not serious in finalising the matter. Ours now is to make sure that we make the offices of the Public Protector unworkable as we will be flooding to their offices with thousands of workers to demand this report. Furthermore as CWU has been granted certificate of non resolution by the CCMA this will enable members of this union to go on a protected strike. Our members are agitated and cannot wait to take it to the streets to demand what is rightfully theirs. And we are in a process to gather a mandate with regards to this matter. It is our view that, without the state intervention there could be no immediate solution to rescue the SOE. Therefore the government has a moral obligation to fund Post Office and also to support the current administration (SAPO's executives) to execute their duties. OUTSOURCING IN TELKOM We are taken aback by the decision of Telkom to outsource Cybernest to BCX whereas BCX is wholly owned by Telkom. We don't understand what kind of outsourcing is this. We instead advise Telkom to amalgamate the two divisions. Furthermore we have written a letter to the Competition Commission requesting a meeting which will unpack and clarify relations between BCX and Telkom. Already outsourced companies such as WNS and Barloworld are retrenching workers through offering voluntary severance packages which undermines the Act that protects employment for a period of a year after the outsourcing has commenced. RETRENCHMENTS IN BIDVEST We are disturbed by the ongoing retrenchments in Bidvestfm, which is dependent on Telkom for survival, given the conditions of unemployment in the country. We believe that it is the responsibility of Telkom to ensure that this company survives for the sake of jobs of our members in this company. The sooner Telkom is again wholly owned by government the better. UTTERANCES BY ZWELINZIMA VAVI The Communication Workers Union (CWU) would like to dismiss with the strongest contempt remarks made by Zwelinzima Vavi at a media briefing on Monday 1st February 2016. Zwelinzima Vavi is on record as having said that CWU has disengaged from the Nine Plus group of unions because their leadership is wining and dining with the political establishment, insinuating that they have been bought by politicians. As a union, we take this fallacious and unsubstantiated statement in serious light. In his attempt to play to the public gallery and remain relevant, Vavi unfortunately went too far by making wild allegations against our union in full glare of television cameras. We therefore challenge him to furnish proof that indeed CWU has been bought by anybody whatsoever failing which he must withdraw these spurious remarks which are an affront to our good name and public image as a tried and tested trade union. His remarks are misleading to say the least. Our decision to withdraw from the 9 group of unions was taken by our decision-making body which is the National Executive Committee (NEC) and was formally communicated to everybody, including Zwelinzima Vavi himself. CWU has always been and remains a worker-controlled democratic trade union representing the interests and aspirations of its members through its legitimate constitutional structures. We are fully part of the giant labour federation COSATU and active in its various structures or forums. For the record, there is no CWU constitutional structure at the moment that has resolved to walk out from COSATU or join any other federation. We remain an affiliate of the COSATU family and only a properly convened CWU national congress can resolve otherwise. CONCLUSION On the 4th of March 2016 the day of elections registration, we are going to use our democratic right to air our views. We will be marching to Luthuli House demanding all what we have mentioned with regard to Taxation Laws; Minister of Communications; Public Protector's Report on the South African Post Office; Outsourcing in Telkom & Retrenchments in Bidvest should be addressed. Issued by Communication Workers Union For more information, please contact: Aubrey Tshabalala, General Secretary, 081 740 8921 -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. 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