COSATU Today, Monday 23 November 2009

The Southern African Clothing & Textile Workers' Union (SACTWU) is saddened to announce the passing away of Mrs Harriet Bolton. She was a previous general secretary of one of SACTWU's founding trade unions, the KZN-based Garment Workers' Industrial Union (GWIU). Mrs Bolton passed away peacefully in the early hours of this morning at Bill Buchanan Park frail care section in Morningside, Durban. Her sons Micky and Peter and her daughter Pat were with her when she passed on.

Harriet Bolton was born in 1927 in the then Transvaal. He first job after college was at the Typographical Union, as a bookkeeper. She first became general secretary of the Garment Workers' Industrial Union in 1964 and served in this capacity for ten years, until 1974. The Garment Worker's Industrial Union was one of South Africa's oldest trade unions. It was formed on 2 August 1934 under the leadership of Mr James Bolton, whom Harriet later married. During its early formative years, the GWIU drew its membership mainly from indentured Indian labour who made up the bulk of the industry in KZN at the time.

The GWIU -of which Mrs Bolton was a previous leader- had previously merged with the Cape-based Garment Workers' Union (Western Province), in November 1987 to form the Garment Workers' Union (GAWU). SACTWU was launched 20 years' ago, in September 1989 at the University of the Western Cape. It was formed out of a merger of the Amalgamated Clothing & Textile Workers' Union of South Africa (ACTWUSA) and the Garment Workers' Union (GAWU)

Mrs Bolton also served as secretary of the Furniture Workers' Industrial Union and the Textile Worker's Industrial Union. She also previously served as a member of the general council of the International Textile, Garment and Leather Worker's Federation (ITGLWF) and of the Trade Union Council of South Africa (TUCSA).

The GWIU was one of the first trade unions in South Africa to win May Day as a paid public holiday, in 1944.

Harriet Bolton was 82 years old when she passed away this morning. We will remember her for her steadfast refusal to succumb to apartheid security branch pressure to abandon non-racial unionism and to split the Garment Workers Union along racial lines, as well as the practical support rendered for the formation of other sister trade unions, such as the more militant National Union of Textile Workers Union (NUTW) which emerged out of the 1973 Durban strikes.

Mrs Bolton's family will make the final funeral announcements in due course.

1.2 NUM refutes former Murray & Roberts workers complaints

Lesiba Seshoka, NUM’s Head: Media & Communications, 23 November 2009

NUM has noted with regret the incidents that are taking place at Aquarius Platinum mine in Kroondal outside Rustenburg in which police officers and other workers were injured whilst other former workers conducted an underground sit-in.

The NUM has repeatedly encouraged those workers to return to work prior to their unprotected strike action. They however vowed to continue with the action even though a settlement agreement was reached and the majority had accepted it. Murray & Roberts then dismissed them and as a union we intervened on their behalf to be reinstated of which the company agreed. On reinstatement, they went on another illegal strike action. The NUM further renegotiated with the employer after their second dismissal and got a reinstatement of which they later went on another illegal strike and were then finally dismissed.

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is an organization for disciplined cadres and a progressive force involved in the genuine fight for workers rights. We therefore call on the law enforcement agencies to ensure that those who are involved in all these irregular activities are arrested and no one disguises criminal activity as labour matters. We further call on the company to ensure the safety of its workforce and its operations. Although the NUM has taken their matter legally, the union will review its stance with regard to those who are implicated in criminal deeds.

1.3 NUMSA congratulates Zanoxolo Wayile

Castro Ngobese, NUMSA’s National Spokesperson, Monday 23 November 2009

NUMSA leadership and its entire membership has congratulated its Eastern Cape Regional Secretary, Zanoxolo Wayile on his new deployment as the Executive Mayor of Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality.

For Numsa the deployment of Wayile as the Executive Mayor of Nelson Mandela Metro marks the significant and important role Trade Unionists and Communists continue to play in building a strong, united, vibrant and focused ANC-led Alliance. With this deployment the ANC membership is sending a strong message that Trade Unionists and Communists can be entrusted with responsibilities of leadership within the movement and other organs of state power.

Wayile assumes office against the backdrop of an emerging new tendency that is anti-trade unionists and anti-communists advanced by remnants of the partially defeated 1996 class project within our broad movement as led by the ANC. They went to Polokwane with us and they rejoiced with us when we installed the current leadership led by President Jacob Zuma. Instead of building from that unity of purpose as displayed in Polokwane they are opting to plot against trade unionists and communists for narrow and sectarian agendas. This must be nipped in the bud!

Numsa reiterate its commitments to continue to be on the ground to mobilize the working class in particular, and the poor in general, to build people’s power in order to ensure that indeed the priorities as encapsulated in the ANC-led Alliance Manifesto are realized working together with government and civil society.

Numsa wishes also to take this opportunity to congratulate Cde Mphumzi Maqungu on his new role as the Regional Secretary of Numsa in the province of the Eastern Cape.

1.4 SATAWU elects new Acting General Secretary

Deputy General Secretary, Nelson Lamityi, 23 November 2009

SATAWU held its Central Executive Committee meeting at Birchwood Hotel from 19^th - 21^st November 2009. On 18^th November 2009, prior to the Executive Committee meeting the organisation celebrated in a special way the departure of the former general secretary, comrade Randall Howard, who on 1^st October 2009 joined the Honourable Minister comrade Richard Baloyi’s office.

This celebration was of a special type the Union had to deal with given realities of departing ways with the former general secretary after twenty three years in the Labour movement as well conducting processes to replace him with an acting general secretary until the National Congress in 2011. This was a most challenging period of our times, which was a call to the Union to accept and take the organisation towards our limitations.

In recognition of these challenges, the Union committed to resuscitate its efforts on keeping its commitments to members, accept his departure and conduct bi-elections for the acting general secretary position until the National Congress. The Union through its Central Executive Committee committed to smooth running of the Union, whilst noting that the departure of the former general secretary has left the Union with grave political vacuum and various challenges, however committed to address and deal with these challenges in a matured political way as to advance our struggle and the mandate of the National Congress.

On 21^st November 2009 the Central Executive Committee conducted bi-elections for the position vacated by the former general secretary, that being to act in the position for the remaining term until the National Congress in 2011. In all honesty, the Central Executive Committee, irrespective of different views that were expressed by delegates, sufficed and raised above political challenges and elected North West Provincial Secretary, comrade Zenzo Mahlangu as the acting general secretary of the Union. Such a process, facilitated by the Independent electoral Commission, showed the maturity of the CEC delegates, hence a blessing and support the CEC showed to the elected acting general secretary and further commitment by the National Office Bearers to give support where and when even the elected general secretary would require performing his new role and responsibilities.

Comrade Zenzo Mahlangu has workers for number of Security Companies as a security officer from the early 1990s. Such Companies included S.S.H that changed to S.F.H. and later became Bayete Security Holdings. During all these years and through by means of his commitment, comrade served as a shop stewards from one company to the other and ultimately became a full time shop steward at Bayete Security Holdings, a position he held until he join the then Transport and General Workers Union in 1999 as a local organiser. Subsequent to the merger between Transport and General Workers Union with the then SARHWU in the year 2000,comrade Zenzo Mahlangu was later elected as the North West provincial secretary a position he held until elected to the acting general secretary position on the 21^st November 2009.

The Union through all its formations has committed to support the newly elected acting general secretary on delivering his new role and responsibilities, also given the fact that he will be working with the most tested and responsible National Leadership of the Union.

2. South Africa

2.1 COSATU’s input on the launch of the ANC Veterans league

Dumisani Dakile, COSATU Gauteng Provincial Secretary, 21 November 2009

We are proud and honored as the proletariat in the Gauteng Province to address, send a message of support, and also to be part of this historical gathering of the veterans in the Gauteng Province. It is a moment of renewal and also a moment of rededication for all of us to the cause of our struggle.

We are gathering today to mark an important part of our revolution in decades. It is this generation of leaders and cadres that have revolutionaries the movement from an organization of the few and elite to an organization of the people that is mass based. It is this generation of leaders that demonstrated that there is no contradiction between the national, class and gender struggle.

It is this generation of leaders that ensured that the regime is shaken through 1949 Programme of Action. It is this generation of leaders that had ensured that our Congress movement adopts the Freedom Charter. It is this generation of leaders that contributed to the adoption of the strategy and tactics by the ANC in 1969 in Mogorogoro. It is this generation of leaders that ensured that the ANC clarify its ideology and character. We owe it to you as workers and toilers of the land.

We are also meeting today when our country and the world at large is facing a serious economic crisis. It is a crisis of capitalism which perpetuates greediness and inequality in the world. Our country has been confirmed through recent reports that it is most unequal society in the world and we have even past Brazil as the most unequal society. We do not believe that this is what you fought for and sacrifice your life and families for.

Transformation of our Economy

Veterans there are number of challenges that are confronting our movement in the current phase of the National Democratic Revolution.

The proletariats always remember very vividly your warning in the Mogorogoro Conference when you said “In our country-more than in any other part of the oppressed world-it is inconceivable for liberation to have meaning without a return of the wealth of the land to the people as a whole. It is therefore fundamental feature of our strategy that victory must embrace more than formal political democracy. To allow the existing economic forces to retain their interest intact is to feed the root of racial supremacy and does not represent even the shadow of liberation”

It is also a fact that you had also warned in the same document about what the new government might face at the time of liberation when you said “We do not understand the complexities which will face a people’s government during the transformation period nor the enormity of the problems of meeting economic needs of the mass of the oppressed people. But one thing is certain-in our land this cannot be effectively tackled unless the basic wealth and the basic resources are at the disposal of the people as a whole and are not manipulated by sections or individuals be they White or Black”

We hope that your Conference will have an opportunity to reflect as to whether have the movement and the alliance in general headed to your warnings given our current conditions and if not where have we went wrong and what it is that that can be done?

We are of the view that this global economic crisis presents our country with great opportunity for the ANC lead revolutionary alliance to really deal with the transformation of the features of our economy which still resembles the colonialism of a special type.

The apartheid economic structure and accumulation path still remain intact 16 years after the 1994 democratic breakthrough. We hope that as proletarian we can bank and rely on you in this struggle.

National Question

We have also witness in the recent past a serious challenge to our noble goal to build South Africa that is none racial. We have gone some steps back on this question and such does not argue well for our objectives as the country. The race relation in our country and in our Province in particular is a matter of concern.

The 2009 April election has demonstrated this question quite very well. The level of support for the ANC in these elections from the whites, Coloured and Indians is a matter of concern that needs your guidance and leadership.

Equally so the manner in which some of us have been dealing with this question post the 2009 general election leave much to be desired. The 1969 strategy and tactics have also warned us on this question when it said “Whatever instruments are created to give expression to the unity of the liberation drive, they must accommodate two fundamental propositions:

Firstly they must not be ambiguous on the question of primary role of the most oppressed African mass and

Secondly, those belonging to the other oppressed groups and those few White revolutionaries who show themselves ready to make common cause with our aspirations, must be fully integrated on the basis of individual equality. Approached in the right spirit these two propositions do not stand in conflict but reinforce one another.

This approach is not a pandering chauvinism, to racialism or other backward attitudes.

We are revolutionaries not narrow nationalist. Committed revolutionaries are our brothers to whatever group they belong. There can be no second class participants in our movements. It is for the enemy we reserve our assertiveness and our justified sense of grievance.

The enemy will feed on the insecurity and dependency which is often part of the thinking of minority oppressed groups. They will try to raise a doubt in their minds about whether there is a place for them in the future liberated South Africa. They have already spread the slander that at best for the Coloureds and Indians White domination will be replaced by Black domination.

It is therefore more important, consistent with our first principle, that the Coloured and Indian people should see themselves as an integral part of the liberation movement and not as mere auxiliaries.”

We hence plead with you our veterans that as we approach the most difficult battle on the 2011 local government election this structure that we will emerge in this Conference will assist the ANC lead alliance to respond appropriately and correctly to this question.

It is a very critical and important question. The developments in the Soviet Union have demonstrated very clearly on the importance of this national question. The recent events in Georgia vs. Russia have also demonstrated to all and sundry as why this question is very important.

National Planning Commission

We also have this matter that has dominated our public domain for some time. It is a new phenomenon in our country. All the partners of the revolutionary alliance have agreed on the need for the establishment of the NPC. Our recent alliance summit has also agreed that the commission will be based within the highest office in the land.

We however need to further fine tune some critical aspects of this commission in relation to our developmental agenda as the country and in particular as the question of expects that should constitute the commission. The question that requires the attention of the veterans is in relation to the question of these so called expects given our recent history. We believe that you are these expects in these revolution and these commission should afford yourselves a space to develop a plan for our government.

It is our view that when we drafted the Freedom Chapter which our shared vision as the country and the alliance we did not require these so called experts and the Freedom Charter has stood the taste of time.

Cadre Development

We have agreed that there is a serious need for the movement to develop its cadre to face the current challenges. We hope that this league will also play a vital part in cadre development. We are also going to rely on you as the proletariat in terms of our political education so that we build well grounded cadres for the movement.

Conclusion

We hope that this Conference will be able to achieve its objectives and when you emerge from this Conference our expectation is huge for the collective that be elected to shape the direction of the movement and the alliance as a whole.

All Power to the People

2.2 Address by the COSATU General Secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi at the funeral of Abe Nduru , 21 November 2009

Lindani and your two kids as well as to your family and friends

The parents, brothers and sisters and the family of Abe Nduru

His colleagues and employees

Friends and Comrades

Today as we gather to bid farewell to

Our friend, comrade and confidant!

A husband to Lindani

A father to his kids

A son to his parents

A brother and a family member of the Ndurus and Nogxina family

A Pioneer,

A towering intellectual,

A warrior for the rights of retirement funds members,

An agent of change,

And a man of purpose,

An unassuming man who freely interacted with workers and their bosses without adjusting his manners and or attitude to fit these different classes

A man who broke the glass ceiling in South Africa by becoming the first Black person to qualify as an Actuary. This he did with honours.

His entrepreneurial flair which started when he was young, and he kept on growing and blossoming. Those who worked with him in the former Southern Life will testify to his thick voice of an assuming intellectual equal to his task.

I have known him since the early to mid 90s. He started working with COSATU during the negotiations on a legislation to distribute pension fund surplus to former and existing members of retirement funds. He was part of our negotiating team during very tough negotiations in NEDLAC.

He further worked as a member of the trustee of the Metal Industries Provident Fund, assisting them in dealing with the distribution of the Surplus in that Fund. The experience proved invaluable for future progress in the Employee Benefits Industry.

August 1996, Abe at the insistence of Graham Kerrigan, joined Alexander Forbes Negotiated Benefit Consultants as the Chief Actuary of the Negotiated Funds and Financial Director of the Division.

He was pivotal in establishing NBC Holdings as an independent and autonomous company in April 1998 and ensured with his team that all clients had the best service.

He retained the confidence of all clients who were in the main union negotiated funds and became a pillar of this Black owned and managed Employee Benefit Company.

Abe showed his great concern for the interests of the members when he highlighted and exposed the subtlety with which reserves were hidden in actuarial reporting during the transfer of the employees from Colgate Palmolive to CINPF which is a CEPPWAWU Fund.

Our own union team worked with Abe in this fight and ensured that the correct benefits were transferred for members.

During the period 1999 to 2000, Abe was part of another change in South Africa, The Pension Funds Amendment Act.

This Act dealt with the surpluses that were due to members and former members. He and Nicky Howard from Cheadle Thomson & Haysom worked tirelessly as advisors of COSATU team led by our policy unit, in formulating Labour’s input into this new Pension Amendment Act of 2001. This Act changed the landscape of the retirement funds industry completely.

I may add that they did so at no cost to the Federation.

In 2001 changes in NBC led him to resign. He operated for while out of Veon Bock’s office from where he launched SA Quantum in September 2002.

He then, with a few staff members and against all odds developed a vision that created a successful business with a staff compliment in excess of 100.

Abraham was a fighter who did not know the meaning of taking risk. He was bold and had guts to always take new initiatives. No one can dare contradict us when we call him a pioneer. As an African, Abe has gone where no one in the Employee Benefits Industry in South Africa had gone before.

He introduced self insurance in the Mining Sector Funds. Through this he saved members and trustees hundreds millions of Rands. He was a true innovator. No problem was too big for him and with Abe there was always a solution.

Abe commanded the respect of his clients, his peers and his staff. He was a person whom especially workers could relate to because of his ability to talk in simple language to everyone. Never did he boast about his accomplishments.

He was an extraordinarily capable man, extraordinarily unique. The idea that all people have value profoundly influenced him.

The death of Abe few days ago is a hard blow, to his family, the labour movement, his friends and the retirement fund industry. Without any doubt it deprived us of one of the most gifted and capable person.

One of Abe’s most wonderful and striking qualities was his capacity to think “Out of the Box”. He had a way of turning the problems of this world around and examining them from what was often the most unusual perspectives.

It was as if he had the gift of seeing things in ways that most us simply didn’t.

How must we face this loss? What would be Abe’s opinion if he had to make a judgement on this matter? I guess he would rather want us to celebrate his life and not mourn.

He would want us to move forward to a “Better life for all!”

I am saying so even though I have no clue how we would move ahead confronting new battles without this young giant. It was too soon and completely unfair on all accounts. We’ve lost a friend; we’ve lost a champion, and it is going to take some time to adjust to this reality.

Abe your presence will be missed!

HAMBE KAHLE ABE!

2.3 YCLSA Disgusted by Malema's Racism and Insults

Gugu Nima, YCL National Spokesperson, 21 November 2009

The YCL is disgusted with the insults and racist labels from Julius Malema under the guise of criticism of the Deputy General of the SACP, Jeremy Cronin. The YCL believes that Malema has sunk to the lowest ebb of being racist and hurling insults, instead of engaging with profound debates that Cde. Cronin was raising.

We view the labelling of Cde. Cronin as a "white messiah" not only as racist, but as an insult to the principle and ideology of the National Liberation Movement, that of non-racism. We are confident that the majority of members of the ANC Youth League do not share these racist and insulting labels. We also view the racist and insulting labels as a lost opportunity for Malema to engage with the all important debate on "nationalisation". We must emphasise that the "call for nationalisation" is not the preserve of Malema, and that invitation to debate should not be a trap to lure people into a racist, insulting and senseless room.

Why invoke Nelson Mandela to justify Racist and Insulting Labels

The YCL notes that Malema substitute a sensible debate for insults and racist labels, and bravery for disrespect; but we believe that we can disagree on any issue and still maintain respect as comrades. What is worse is that Malema invokes the names of respectable leaders of the ANC, including Nelson Mandela, to justify this nonsensical insults and racist remarks.

The fact that Mandela was not a communist at the time and used to disrupt Communist Party meetings does not give Malema permission to act in such backward fashion. Mandela has recorded these auto-biographical facts so that we learn from it, and not repeat it like headless chickens with the hope that we (including Malema) will one day be like Mandela. If we do that, it means that we should follow every little act and statement that Mandela made like parrots, even when the conditions do not allow. We now know more about the need for the Alliance and the relationship between the SACP and the ANC than Mandela did, and we should follow his latter day example of respectfully engaging with Alliance leaders.

Alliance Protocol

The organisation is also disappointed that the call from the ANC President and the Alliance Summit for a "cease of fire" in trading insults is being undermined by Malema.

The YCL will in the coming week ask for a meeting with the leadership of the ANC Youth League to discuss this and other matters.

2.4 ANC YL’s response to SACP’s statement on Cronin

Floyd Shivambu, ANC YL Spokesperson, 21 November 2009

The ANC YL has solemnly requested the SAPC to point at insults it claims are part of the response we issued against SACP Deputy General Secretary, Jeremy Cronin. The ANC YL has openly engaged with the reactionary views of Jeremy Cronin and not convinced that our open engagement represent any form of insult. It can never be correct that whenever we engage the leaders of the Communist Party, we are subjected to labels and characterisations as anti-communists and dishonest people.

The statement of the SACP also does not clarify whether the reactionary views expressed by Jeremy Cronin represent the official positions of the Communist Party, because we strongly believe they do not. If the SACP agrees with the views of Jeremy Cronin on Nationalisation, it must say so and we will then be able to expose the inconsistencies that characterise the entire input in relation to what the Communist Party and General Secretary Blade Nzimande have been saying.

It is also not true that the ANC Youth League did not respond to the invitation of the SACP to attend the Political School. The ANC YL attended the SACP Political School and made the only presentation in what was initially planned as a panel discussion with SACP DGS, Jeremy Cronin. Jeremy Cronin could have used the opportunity to thoroughly understand the Youth League’s call for nationalisation had he attended the SACP Political School and participated in the panel discussion, but he was not there.

The ANC YL holds the Communist Party in high regard, but will never be co-opted to reformist programmes of protecting and defending the status quo in terms of property relations, with a false hope that simply transforming the system will better the lives of our people.

Mluleki Mntungwa (Communications Officer)

COSATU ICT Unit

1-5 Leyds Cnr Biccard Street

Braamfontein

2007

P.O.Box 1019

Johannesburg

2000

South Africa

Tel: +27 11 339-4911/24

Fax: +27 11 339-5080/6940

E-Mail: mlu...@cosatu.org.za

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