COSATU Today 30 June 2010
Patrick Craven
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COSATU Today
Our side of the story
Wednesday 30 June 2010
Congratulations to Mluleki Mntungwa, Editor of COSATU Today, on becoming the proud father of a daughter, Khuthalani, on 29 June 2010. Best wishes to the new baby and her family!
Contents
1 Workers
1.1 POPCRU supports SACCAWU strike action against slave wages
1.2 YCL supports SACCAWU workers at Dis-Chem
1.3 Sun City’s notorious/racial falcon security does it again
1.4 POPCRU deplores undermining of Federation and National Spokesperson
2.1 North West economic crisis and the FIFA World Cup
2.2 Stop blackmailing politicians for super-inflated salaries
2.3 POPCRU wishes Ghana best of luck to be crowned world’s best in Africa
2.4 Poll on World Cup indicates that poor have no hope to benefit
2.5 SMYN to Mark its Début at Football for Hope Festival 2010
2.7 Ubhejane is not registered
2.8 MEC condemns attack on house of Municipal Manager
2.9 Letter to High Commissioner for India to South Africa
1 Workers
1.1 POPCRU supports SACCAWU strike action against slave wages
Norman Mampane, POPCRU National Spokesperson, 29 June 2010
POPCRU has joined the millions of workers and the working class in general to support the members of SACCAWU on their recent labour disputes against the management of Dis-Chem. We have noted how workers continue to be brutalized and arrested on the basis of pure labour disputes yet the captains of capitalists are wining and dining in the glory of the FIFA 2010 World Cup. Our Constitution has provided the tenacious freedom of association and the right to organizational rights and we call upon the Company to engage on the demands as tabled by our Trade Union.
It is unlettered that members of SACCAWU had to be treated in such horrific abuse by the employers and this relates to the touching stories of the working poor, who are subjected to extreme conditions of living from hand to mouth.
POPCRU supports the demand by workers for;
- R3 500.00 Minimum Wage
- 15% across the board increase
- Casuals to be made permanent after the three months service
- A Guaranteed 13th Cheque, and
- Parental Rights ,Medical Aid, Housing Subsidy, Long Service Awards and other benefits
As POPCRU, We maintain that workers have nothing to lose but the chains that bind them.
Aluta Continua!
1.2 YCL supports SACCAWU workers at Dis-Chem
Happy Molobye, YCLSA Linda Jobane (Johannesburg) District Secretary, 30 June 2010
The YCLSA in Linda Jobane District supports the ongoing industrial action by SACCAWU members working at Dis-Chem. This industrial action should be located and understood within the context of continued workers struggles for equal distribution of wealth.
The Dis-Chem company is still hell-bent on maintaining and reproducing the old, apartheid and racialised income inequalities as evidenced by their 10% wage increase. We support the 15% wage increase and R3500 minimum wage as demanded by workers. Our support is informed by the harsh realities faced by the workers and the poor in townships and informal settlements as a result of high cost living and deepening socio-economic inequalities amongst the vast sections of our society.
The outsourcing of the state’s developmental responsibilities such as housing, water, electricity and roads to the market has increased the poverty and desperation of the working class. This is of particular concern to us as the YCL as we consider workers as the bedrock for our organisation.
As we march towards the YCL National Congress in December, we will ensure that extra-parliamentary and workplace struggles become the key focus areas of the YCL. The working class in South Africa is yearning for leadership in the fight to improve their living conditions, public wage and to transcend the capitalist system.
We call on the working class and the poor youth to support the ongoing industrial action by Dis-Chem workers. Our support for this industrial action should also be about demanding decent jobs for the youth of our country.
1.3 Sun City’s notorious/racial falcon security does it again
Madito wa ga Molebalwa, COSATU Moses Kotane Local Secretary, 30 June 2010
COSATU Moses Kotane Local is more furious and aggrieved by what seems to be a culture in the security companies contracted to the most notorious and controvential world acclaimed resort Sun City.
COSATU Moses Kotane Local calls on the CEO of Sun International David Coutts-Trotter to immediately terminate Falcon Security’s contract after guards from the said racist security company repeated exactly what was done by 24/7 security company by undressing three black women/employees suspected of stealing about R400-00 from a guest at Sun City.
It is an open secret that to our culture it is an insult and a humiliation for women to be undressed more so as one of the victims was inhumanly treated so whilst on periods.
To add salt to the wound this matter was long reported to the resort’s management three weeks back and surprisingly to date no action has been taken against the perpetrators and not even counseling was given to these poor employees.
COSATU calls on Sun City to counsel the victims of these barbaric and satanic actions by Falcon security and demand that they be given leave and remuneration as compensation for their sufferings.
COSATU hereby gives Sun City and Sun International only 24 hours to act on this by terminating its contract with Falcon security.
COSATU also calls on the South African Human Rights Commission to act on all racial activities/matters concerning Sun City and Falcon security reported to it by the federation.
Failing which COSATU will mobilize all Sun City employees including those of other businesses around the resort to down tools on Thursday the 01st and Friday the 02nd of July 2010 in support of the three and it will further mobilize the community of Moses Kotane, North-West Province and the entire country to boycott everything that has something to do with Sun City and Falcon security.
COSATU Moses Kotane promises this to be bigger than last year’s marches and strikes at Sun City and that it will continue until its demands are all met.
POPCRU deplores undermining of Federation and National Spokesperson
Norman Mampane, POPCRU National Spokesperson, 29 June 2010
POPCRU has noted the outrageous attack on the revolutionary insurance in South African workers in particular and the working class in the African continent by an article penned by Stephen Mulholland in the Citizen Newspaper, 29 June 2010 titled COSATU Reality Check” on Another View, page 12. It is disingenuous for him to exploit the hard earned freedom of expression and suggest to readers that “Craven and COSATU are economically illiterate”, whilst having defended many victorious battles for workers of this country.
He further says “that whilst he agrees that trade unions protect jobs, however in their zeal one fears that frequently they produce unintended consequences”. The constitution of the Country through Section 23 provides a sound platform why it is important to protect labour rights as human rights.
Many will recall that South African labour force experienced job reservation through the Apartheid era and that was unlocked by vigorous and militant fights that were waged by the same workers, who are deemed illiterate by Stephen. It is these workers that have made the ANC do win all the general elections and yet have not benefited-Only big businesses benefited in the so-called economic growth.
It is candid of COSATU to continue to raise the bar to ensure that the majority of workers in particular and the working class in general are not compromised by allowing untold millions to be taken by captains of capitalist and capitalists when they never toiled to earn such. He cannot undermine the two million workers of this country to be undermined by a pen yet their brains and muscles are the ones that make a single wheel of their beneficiation move.
To suggest that our Unions must cease trying to defy reality is unlettered on the harsh realities that our workers in general have to face everyday-long queues to work with reliable public transport, having to change more than three to four transport modes to reach their workplaces with slave wages, waking up at three am, yet captains of capitals are still asleep and still going to attend morning gym before heading to their offices.
Enslaved masses must challenge an assertion that our spokesperson and COSATU remain utterly ignorant of economic realities because the article fails to unpack the gross inequalities that our masses continue to face. COSATU during the 2010 May Day celebrations said “ the key priorities of the ANC-Led Government is amongst others to deliver on decent jobs” yet the article suggest we must demobilize our membership by saying “it does not encourage potential employers to take on workers when they face militant unions”. And as workers through our exploitation, we have throughout the years waged a struggle to fight because we have nothing to lose but the chains that binds us.
A staggering 58% of Africans live in poverty, while a tiny majority controls most of the country’s resources and wealth. An average person earns in the region of R2 400 per month-And it is not surprising that majority of the working class are cramped in the FIFA 2010 World Cup within our shores. This purely made by a fact that is undermined by the columnist.
Our economy still displays pattern of apartheid era that is a fact. We must unashamedly continue to mobilize, organize and galvanize the working class to consolidate the struggle to root out the straightjacket of the colonial, apartheid economy, which depended on the export of our raw materials, towards an industrial and labour-intensive economy. To allow employers to chase capital than labour intensive means to maintain or increase production should not be our vocation. That is tantamount to dehumanization of our own people.
We must continue to build COSATU, nurture and preserve it to the future generations. Our young people, who are exploited in the majority, must understand that COSATU is our shield!
Such articles will not deter us from consolidating and deepening the working class power, and advance the struggle for decent work and call for the banning of the labour brokers.
2 South Africa
2.1 North West economic crisis and the FIFA World Cup
Solly Phetoe, COSATU NW Provincial Secretary, 30 June 2010
COSATU and its affiliates are seriously disturbed by the ongoing poor community service delivery and the poor response of the Provincial Growth and Development Strategy (PGDS) to the high unemployment rate which is increasing on a daily basis.
Now we are still told that there is no budget for water in the Setlagole rural community area. We are told that some of the developments or projects to create decent work are suspended for making money available to the FIFA World Cup.
At the time when the FIFA World Cup was coming to South Africa, we were told that its programmes will also play a central role to improve opportunities for SMMEs and creating some jobs for the poor working class, in particular for the unemployed and rural communities.
COSATU in the province is requesting the provincial government and all the municipalities to release a public report on who benefited from the FIFA World Cup, in particular the PVAs.
Creating decent jobs has been a theory in all the MEC budget speeches since 2009, no action, no sign of programmes towards creating decent work. The PGDS is also not able to respond to the economic crisis we are facing in the province. We are losing jobs in mining, manufacturing and agriculture due to the political agenda and personal interests of our deployees in the government.
Exposing corruption in all government departments and municipalities will continue regardless of threats, intimidation, victimisation and the plan to terminate ANC membership to some of members of COSATU who are whistle blowers.
Consolidating working class power in defence of the decent work and socialism!
2.2 Stop blackmailing politicians for super-inflated salaries
Anele Gxoyiya, COSATU N Cape Provincial Secretary, 30 June 2010
COSATU in the Northern Cape wishes to congratulate the hard working public servants who are committed to bringing a much desired turnaround in the public service. We specially appreciate those at the helm in the improving departments who have steered the ship in the right direction.
However, there is an emerging trend of some officials blackmailing politicians for super-inflated salaries. As the representatives of the working class and the poor we wish to state it categorically clear that we will never be impressed by this behaviour of greed and selfishness.
It is extremely unpatriotic and counter-revolutionary for an HOD (head of department) to demand that his/her post must be upgraded to a level of a Superintendent General and for a Chief Director to demand an upgrade of his/her salary to a level of the Deputy Director General or else they will leave the province.
This emerging tendency is not acceptable to us as the working class for it amounts to corruption and looting of state resources. Corruption is not only the awarding of tenders to pals or claiming for work not done. Greed is tantamount to corruption.
Any upgrading of an individual’s salary under the pretext of retaining skills is an insult to the ordinary workers who are prepared to sacrifice everything doing the actual work. It will further contribute to this grossly unequal society. This behaviour further exposes the brutality of the capitalist system where the law of jungle (survival of the fittest) applies.
We want to warn our political leadership not to succumb to this blackmail and that the workers will monitor closely these developments and our members will inform us of any mysterious developments in the salaries of individuals. If the upgrading is to be done to one head of department, then the rest of the head of departments in the Northern Cape must be made Superintendents General.
Our public servants in the Northern Cape must not be insulted as unskilled and useless. If individuals feel that the Northern Cape public service is not good enough for them let them ship out gracefully and stop creating unnecessary controversies that seek to plunge our province into a crisis.
The public service does not need selfish and greedy individuals. We need a cadreship that is committed to serve the needs of the poorest of the poor. We need patriots who find satisfaction in changing the lives of our people for the better and not in looting the already depleted resources. We have that cadreship in all departments it’s just that they have never been given an opportunity to showcase their skills. We want to state it categorically clearly that nobody is indispensible in the public service.
This behaviour reminds us of those individuals who left the ANC to join COPE, thinking that the ANC will be in a crisis only to find out that they were in fact a crisis for the ANC. These selfish individuals are no different from COPE.
Those that want to leave the province can leave and they will be replaced in no time. There is a first black Director General appointed in the province and all of a sudden there are demands for posts to be upgraded. If there are individuals who think that this is their opportunity to grab and run, then they are in the wrong province, they must go and exercise their greed somewhere else.
Departments do not have Employment Equity Plans. There are not Human Resource Plans and Strategies but people are already demanding that their posts be upgraded. What is the basis of that demand?
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of vacant funded posts that are not filled using an excuse of budgetary constraints. Many skilled people remain unemployed or get employed outside our province because of this, while selfish individuals are lobbying for their posts to be upgraded. Anyway there is no guarantee that those individuals will stay after their posts have been upgraded.
As COSATU in the Northern Cape we call on all workers to be combat-ready for any eventuality of this nature. Corruption is one monster that we cannot afford to live with under our ANC-led government. Service delivery has never been and will never be an individual effort. It takes a team of committed cadres to deliver quality service. We will fight corruption and greed with all our might.
We call on the ANC in the province, as a leader in government to reign over these greedy and selfish individuals in our public service. Let us join hands in cleaning our public service of corruption.
2.3 POPCRU wishes Ghana best of luck to be crowned
world’s best in Africa
Norman Mampane, POPCRU National Spokesperson, 29 June 2010
POPCRU joins the millions of South Africans and All Africans to wish the Black Stars, the best of luck to reach the finals of the global elite tournament.
Ghana is not immune to first things as they pioneered the realization of Pan Africanism that was spread in all countries including our own country. The nickname was actually created by Dr Nkwame Nkrumah himself to symbolize that as a nation that they must aspire to show light to all Africans against the scourge of colonialism. Many will recall that he became the first president of a black Africa. And this time all is possible to maintain the tenacity!
We are making a clarion call to all Africans to drum, sing and blow Vuvuzela for the stars to continue to shine more than before on their game against Uruguay at Soccer City.
Aluta Continua!
2.4 Poll on World Cup indicates that poor have no hope to
benefit
Norman Mampane, POPCRU National Spokesperson, 29 June 2010
POPCRU has noted the public opinion poll that was conducted on-line by SOWETAN yesterday in which readers were asked as to whether the World Cup has been beneficial to the poor people in South Africa.
And it was interesting to have observed that out of 5334 participants, around 66, 89% said “Only the rich have been reaping the rewards and only 18, 91% said “jobs were created and tourism brought money into the country and lastly around 14, 21% said “the benefit will be realized in the long run”.
Whilst we agree that not many of the working class have access to these technological devices to cast their opinions, we are content that such an assessment should be done to assess the impact of changing the lives of the ordinary masses. Many will recall that our working class were barred from selling pap and vleis around stadiums, and that might have created such no benefit.
The legacy of the FIFA 2010 World Cup must be celebrated and also humanization of mankind must be upheld.
Aluta Continua!
2.5 SMYN to Mark its Début at
Football for Hope Festival 2010
Thulani Njapa, Show Me Your Number, 30 June 2010
Show Me Your Number (SMYN), an HIV/AIDS flagship initiative by
South African Football Players Union (SAFPU), has teamed up with Streetfootball
World (sfw) to take part in Football for Hope Festival 2010 — the
official event of FIFA World Cup™— due to take place in Alexandra,
north of Johannesburg, on 8 July 2010.
SMYN seeks to leverage current and former professional football players’
respect and iconic status to mobilise and educate South African communities
around key health issues and wellness; to support national health objectives,
in particular HIV and AIDS prevention and awareness as well as HCT (HIV
Counseling and Testing) campaign.
“To have our work recognised by such a prestigious global network as
streetfootballworld (and by extension, FIFA), is absolutely remarkable, and we
wish our players, who would serving as ambassadors during the
festival—which runs concurrent to the World Cup in ™— the
best of luck… let’s take advantage of the current gees”
declared Mabalane Mfundisi, SMYN Campaign Director.
The Football for Hope Festival 2010 celebrates the power of football for social
change. 32 teams of young people from disadvantaged communities around the
world will come to Johannesburg, South Africa for a festival of education,
culture and football. The boys and girls are members of organisations which
tackle social issues using football – from homelessness in the UK and
landmines in Cambodia, to HIV/AIDS education in South Africa and integration of
refugees in Australia. This official event of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South
Africa™ is organised by FIFA, streetfootballworld,the 2010 FIFA World Cup
Organising Committee South Africa and the City of Johannesburg..
“In Zurich [in May 2010] the Football for Hope Strategic Development Team
(comprising Streetfootball World and FIFA CSR), discussed and considered Show
Me Your Number’s viable proposal and … we were in favour, because
Show Me Your Number has been perceived to bring about change for young people
and because the programme it offers is considered to be of extremely high
quality,” said Mike Geddes, from Streetfootball World South Africa.
“Through this initiative, we seek to demonstrate the SA football
players’ commitment to the fight against HIV and AIDS, and we aim to
raise awareness of our work through several unique and exciting events, as we
tap the iconic status of such athletes as Philemon Masinga, Thabang Lebese,
Bruce Ramokadi, Sibongile Khumalo, Arthur Zwane, Teboho Moloi, Fikile “16
V” Sithole, Molefi Ntsoelengoe, and Ronny “Mainline” Zondi,
whom we would refer to as "The Window of Hope”, as far as HIV
prevention is concerned. Their role will culminate in their undergoing HIV
testing, in the hope that the crowds in attendance at the festival would take
their cue from their heroes to follow suit,” said Thulaganyo Gaoshubelwe,
Deputy General Secretary of SAFPU.
About Show Me Your Number
Show
Me Your Number and its activities are in line with the National Strategic Plan
on HIV/AIDS 2007 – 2010, overseen by the South African National Aids
Council (SANAC) – the national government’s coordinating entity
responsible for HIV/AIDS, TB and STIs.
2.6 Well done South Africa!
Malesela Maleka, SACP Spokesperson, 29 June 2010
The Political Bureau of the SACP held its scheduled monthly meeting in Johannesburg yesterday, June 28th.
The meeting of the PB afforded the leadership of the SACP with an opportunity to evaluate the ongoing organisational and campaigning work of the SACP since our special national congress in December last year, and to discuss progress within our ANC-led alliance following a series of Alliance Political Council meetings as well as bilaterals. Also on the agenda of the PB was a “half-time” evaluation of SA’s hosting of the soccer World Cup.
At a time when many other political formations are in decline and are showing serious signs of factional degeneration, the SACP’s unity and membership continues to grow significantly. Current membership stands at over 105,000, making us by far the second-largest political party in SA, after our ally the ANC. Our membership growth is directly linked to our community-based activism and a range of campaigns spearheaded by the Party.
Our current campaign against corruption has clearly struck a powerful chord amongst a wide-range of South Africans. Together with a wide range of forces we will be intensifying this campaign in the coming months by focusing on the blockages to service delivery to poor communities – many of these blockages are directly related to “tenderpreneurship” and other corrupting practices.
Contrary to an impression sometimes created in the media, Alliance unity, particularly at the national level, has generally been considerably consolidated over the past two and a half years. Alliance unity is not about a shallow feel-good sentimentality, but about principled activism around a shared strategic programme.
Over the past year the SACP has consistently distinguished between the great majority of ANC leaders, members and supporters, on the one hand, and a small group of wreckers who do not want to see ANC, still less Alliance-wide unity consolidated.
The SACP believes that the narrow sectarian agenda of this small group has increasingly been exposed, as they have become more desperate and brazen. Their exposure and marginalisation bodes well for consolidating unity across our movement, and, indeed, for building the widest, patriotic, nation-building effort within our country.
In this latter regard, the PB noted with great approval the many positive achievements in evidence on the ground within our country over the past two weeks of the soccer World Cup. The South African government and the people of SA have united together, like never before, to host hundreds of thousands of international guests from other parts of Africa, and from third and first world countries alike.
Our international guests in their majority have also played their part, mingling with township communities and staying often in relatively modest accommodation. They are helping to remind us that they want to celebrate SA for what we are – a developing country with many challenges – and not for some illusory second-hand copy of the developed north.
The organisation of this World Cup has been different from most others in that government in all spheres has played a much more central role than, for instance, in Germany in 2006.
This was necessitated by the scale of infrastructural development – notably with new stadiums and a wide range of new transport-related infrastructure. The SA Police have also had to step in on an even large scale than originally planned as a result of private security failures (linked, of course, to labour brokering and casualisation).
What we have seen has been a developmental state in action, rallying the widest range of South Africans around a common vision and a common task. Of course, beyond mid-July the key challenge will be how to build on the momentum and experience gained. This, in any case, is not an issue that has been deferred to mid-July, from the start we have sought to ensure that we use the World Cup to lay down a transformational legacy in our towns and cities. This will particularly be the case with public transport.
But if government along with the Local Organising Committee need to be congratulated, it is, above all, ordinary South Africans from across the spectrum who we need to be saluted. What the last few weeks have once more demonstrated is that millions of South Africans, black and white, desperately want to feel part of a unifying programme of action. Let us build on this momentum by focusing our collective energies on the challenges we all face as a nation – jobs, transforming health-care and education, rural development, and fighting the scourge of crime and corruption.
We need the same focus in tackling the above priorities as we did with the FIFA World Cup – a state led action buttressed by mass activism.
Well done, South Africa! The SACP is proud to be a communist party, an internationalist party, AND, not least, South African!
2.7 Ubhejane is not registered
TAC Electronic Newsletter, 29 June 2010
Department of Health's Law Enforcement Unit must investigate Zeblon Gwala
MCC's recission of the 2002 notice must be given immediate effect
Ubhejane is marketed by a charlatan named Zeblon Gwala as a cure for AIDS. On 22 June 2010 it was incorrectly reported in Business Report that Ubhejane was registered with the Medicines Control Council (MCC). Ubhejane has not been registered as a medicine in South Africa. There is no evidence that it is of any benefit to people with HIV.
The Department of Health has stated that Ubhejane is not registered as a medicine. The MCC has not yet publicly responded to the article.
The Law Enforcement Unit of the Department of Health must immediately investigate the assertion made by Mr Zeblon Gwala that Ubhejane has been registered.
Reporting that Ubhejane was registered by the MCC without verifying this information with the MCC is irresponsible journalism by the Business Report. The newspaper should immediately print a correction.
The document referred to by the Business Report as a ‘MCC Registration Certificate’ is likely an acknowledgement of the submission of information relating to Ubhejane to the MCC in terms of a 2002 notice related to so-called complementary and alternative medicines (CAMS).
In an attempt to audit the nature and extent of CAMS on the market in South Africa, in 2002, the MCC issued a notice asking for information on CAMS to be submitted to the MCC. Marketers of such products continue to submit their products to the MCC under this notice. The number referred to by the Business Report as a ‘registration number’ is likely simply a reference number by the MCC acknowledging receipt of the submission. This does not indicate registration or intent to register.
The 2002 notice has been misused by charlatans to make false claims about the registration, safety and efficacy of their drugs. It is common knowledge that the MCC has taken a decision to rescind the 2002 notice but has not brought the decision into force.
Further, Mr Gwala’s conduct possibly constitutes a criminal offence for which he should be investigated. Mr Gwala claims that Ubhejane will increase one’s CD4 count and decrease one’s viral load. When Ubhejane is given to patients, it is claimed that it is a cure for AIDS. Since AIDS is caused by a virus, i.e. HIV, Gwala is consequently selling Ubhejane as an antiviral medicine. All antivirals must be registered by the MCC before they are marketed in South Africa. Section 14(1) of the Medicines Act prohibits the sale of medicines that are subject to registration and are not registered. In addition, section 29(b) makes it clear that “ny person who … contravenes or fails to comply with the provisions of section 14(1) … shall be guilty of an offence.”
TAC has previously lodged a complaint with the Department of Health's Law Enforcement Unit against Ubhejane but no action has been taken by the Department.
In summary, TAC calls for the following action to be taken:
- An investigation should be initiated against Mr Gwala by the Department of Health's Law Enforcement Unit. If he has acted in breach of the Medicines Act (and we strongly suspect he has), then he should be charged.
- The MCC must move swiftly to give effect to the rescission decision.
· The Business Report should print a correction.
2.8 MEC condemns attack on house of Municipal Manager
The MEC for the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Mr Norman Mokoena has condemned in the strongest possible terms the attack and burning of the house of the Municipal Manager of Dr J S Moroka, Ms Monica Mathebela, last night. He said that it was wrong for people irrespective of their differences to resort to any acts of violence.
“People can have different views on any matter but that does not give anyone the right to turn to vandalism and arson. As government we will not allow people to engage in criminal activities and intimidate people, vandalise and destroy public and private property.” said Mokoena.
MEC Mokoena also called upon the law enforcement agents to investigate and apprehend the perpetrators who attacked the municipal manager’s house. “I will be meeting with the law enforcement agents and amongst the issues that l will be discussing with them, is the need to investigate and make sure that the offenders are arrested and are brought to book and face the full might of the law.”said Mokoena
He further emphasised that this government has got an open door policy and at all times is willing to engage in dialogue with communities to address all problems. “We encourage community leaders and the community to engage in dialogue to resolve any dispute. We also urge the community to report those criminals who masquerade as community members and yet they have criminal intentions. ”said Mokoena
2.9 Letter to High Commissioner for India to South Africa
Vuyiseka Dubula, General Secretary Researcher, TAC & Nathan Geffen, Researcher, Section27, 30 June 2010
Dear Mr Bhatia
OUR CONCERNS REGARDING INDIAN TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH EU
Over a million people with HIV in South Africa are receiving antiretroviral (ARV) treatment. At least 100,000 additional people receive treatment via private or non-profit sources. ARV treatment is saving lives and stemming the decline in life-expectancy that has occurred due to the HIV epidemic.
One of the main reasons this has happened is because the prices of ARV regimens fell from over R3,000 per month in the 1990s to less than R150 per month for a standard first-line regimen used in the public sector today.[1] Even the private sector price of one of the best first-line regimens is R532 including VAT, a fraction of the lowest 1990s prices of far less optimal regimens.
If these prices were corrected for inflation, the drop would be even more dramatic. Lower prices have made the HIV treatment programme affordable for the state. Lower prices have also allowed medical schemes and non-profit private organisations to cover HIV treatment, thereby alleviating some of the public sector's treatment burden.
Without these massive price reductions, nearly a million additional people would be dead or dying now in South Africa. But these price reductions have benefited people far beyond South Africa's borders; there are programmes in many sub-Saharan African countries providing quality ARV drugs because they are now affordable.
As this letter explains, the prospect of making new ARVs available in South Africa at affordable prices is under threat because of events unfolding in India. In particular, pressure is being applied by the European Union on the Indian government to sign a bilateral trade agreement that will stifle competition on essential medicines still under patent. The problem goes beyond ARVs. It will apply to any new medicine that is developed, whether it be for cancer, diabetes, tuberculosis or a future epidemic. Undoubtedly, this will prove to be detrimental to everyone regardless of social class and geographic location. We should all be concerned.
How ARVs became affordable
Until the early 2000s, each ARV was marketed exclusively by at most one company in South Africa usually under patent or via an exclusive license agreement with the patent-holder. Consequently there was no competition on ARVs. There is a clear chain of causation that led to most of the price reductions. In general:
Generic manufacturers based mainly in India (but also in Brazil and elsewhere) produced dramatically cheaper generic versions of ARVs. They could do so because medicines were not patented in India. Previously, these drugs had not been available in South Africa.
1. Activists in South Africa, the rest of the African continent, and across the world forced patent holders to license generic manufacturers to sell their medicines in sub-Saharan countries and elsewhere. Such activism included protests, successful complaints at the South African Competition Commission and threats of litigation.
2. Following this pressure the companies manufacturing ARVs and other important HIV-related medicines under patent either dropped their prices substantially or allowed generic competition.
Many ARVs manufactured in India are now sold in South Africa at affordable prices. So too are ARVs manufactured in South Africa using active ingredients ordinarily imported from India. They are registered with the Medicines Control Council, the US Food and Drug Administration and approved by the World Health Organisation. Therefore they meet stringent requirements ensuring these are safe, effective and of good quality.
The Indian Patent Act
But in 2005, the Indian government passed legislation that allowed medicines to be patented, as it was required to do in terms of its World Trade Organisation (WTO) obligations. This means that medicines developed since 1995 cannot as easily be produced by generic companies operating in India.[2] This essentially breaks step one in the above chain of causation and makes it much harder to campaign successfully for lower medicine prices. Notwithstanding these new limitations, Indian patent law - as permitted by the WTO - still contains a number of flexibilities that allow for the market entry of generic medicines prior to patent expiry.
Since 2005, the AIDS Law Project (now SECTION27) and TAC have worked closely with civil society organisations in India to ensure the existence and use of such flexibilities. In early 2005, for example, we were part of a group of international activists who met with Indian parliamentarians in New Delhi during final deliberations on the Patents (Amendment) Bill, 2005. Our intervention sought to ensure that India's amended patent legislation took full advantage of the flexibilities permitted under WTO law. In early 2007, we supported an international call on the Swiss-based pharmaceutical company Novartis to drop its High Court challenge to one of the Indian Patents Act's key flexibilities - section 3(d). (See http://www.tac.org.za/community/node/2175). Although the challenge proceeded, it was ultimately unsuccessful, resulting in a key public health safeguard remaining on the s tatute books.
Despite these flexibilities newer drugs are being patented in India. For example, raltegravir is a relatively new and important ARV, especially for people who are resistant to standard ARV regimens, which has been patented in India. It currently costs R2,396 including VAT monthly. It is priced far too high for the South African public health system or for general use in the private sector. There is no generic equivalent of it in India or anywhere else, nor does it look likely that one will be made in the short-term. This makes it extremely difficult for activists to apply pressure on the pharmaceutical company Merck, which owns the patent on it. With no competition there is no downward pressure on the price, and it is extremely unlikely to be accessible to people in South Africa in the near future.
At least two new tuberculosis drugs are likely to be ready for registration in the next few years. These are urgently needed especially in light of the growing drug-resistant TB epidemic. It is a matter of deep concern that they might not be accessible where they are most needed: in poor countries.
Bilateral trade negotiations with the European Union
This is a bad situation, which is about to get worse. The European Union (EU) is conducting trade negotiations with the Indian government. A leaked draft of the negotiating texts has shown that the EU is pushing for the following in a bilateral trade agreement:
· Data exclusivity: Generic medicines are usually registered by showing that they are bioequivalent to the original medicine. This is a relatively inexpensive procedure. It means that a generic drug does not have to be put through expensive clinical trials since these were already conducted for the purpose of registering the original version of the drug. The EU however wants a period of data exclusivity to be enforced for new drugs. During this period the Drugs Controller General of India (the equivalent of South Africa's Medicines Control Council) will not be able to rely on available clinical data to register a medicine. Since it would be unethical and too costly to repeat a clinical trial during this period, this condition would essentially block the registration of a generic drug during the original drug's data exclusivity period. The length of the data exclusivity period being negotiated is fiv e to nine years. Of concern is that data exclusivity provisions apply even in cases where patents have not been granted or where licences have been granted to generic manufacturers, undermining the public health flexibilities and safeguards that currently exist in Indian patent law.
· Longer patent periods: Currently patents are granted for 20 years –at some point before the product is submitted to a drug regulatory authority for registration. The EU is pushing for patent periods to be extended by the length of time the drug regulatory authority takes to examine an application for registration, or by the length of time a patent office takes to examine a patent application.
· Border measures: The EU wants to be able to seize medicines that are in breach of EU patents at EU borders, even if these medicines are in transit on their way to a country outside the EU, such as a sub-Saharan African one, where their use would not infringe any patents. This is not a theoretical possibility. It has already happened where the EU seized a shipment of abacavir sulphate on its way from India to Africa. The shipment was procured by UNITAID and was funded by the Clinton Foundation. 17 such seizures took place until worldwide condemnation for the EU’s actions began. Now the EU wants to legitimise such laws by pushing them into the EU-India FTA. By doing so it threatens to stop at the Indian or EU borders the export of Indian generic medicines that most African countries rely on.
None of these measures are required by the WTO. All will critically hamper the prospects for generic competition on patented ARVs in sub-Saharan Africa.
We ask you to convey our concerns to the Indian government, in particular those responsible for the trade negotiations with the EU. We call on the Indian government not to limit the options available to it under the WTO Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights agreement.
Yours sincerely
3 International
3.1 Sri Lankan Tamils and South Africa
P.Selvaratnam, Women for Justice and Peace, 29 June 2010
I am writing on behalf of Women for Justice and Peace to appeal to you to urge your government to raise its voice at the UN and the Commonwealth to get justice for the Tamils.
Tamils have been oppressed politically and economically from the time of independence by government institutions. There has also been a series of state-aided pogroms unleashed on Tamils in the 50s/60s/70s/80s. Tamils struggled for justice peacefully in the first 35 years or so. As there has been no change of heart in the majority Sinhalese, the struggle began to be violent.
Instead of granting political devolution the successive governments used adraconian Prevention of Terrorism Act to subjugate the Tamils. There has even been bombing of Churches, Temples, Schools and Hospitals in the 80s and 90s. Over the last 5/6 decades nearly a million Tamils have been fleeing the country.
In the first three years of the present regime there have been thousands of extrajudicial killings of parliamentarians, journalists, aid workers and civilians and more than a thousand abduction-murders. There have been no serious investigations or punishment of the perpetrators.
Even the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons left the country saying that there is no political will to solve the crimes. Sri Lanka has been resisting UN's call for human rights monitoring of the country by the UN in spite of the sharp escalation of crimes. Journalists have been attacked and murdered for criticising the government. Many have fled the country.
In May 2008 three Nobel laureates including Archbishop Tutu appealed to the UN not to re-elect Sri Lanka into NHRC. Between January and May 2009 there have been heavy aerial bombing and shelling of the Vanni region resulting in tens of thousands of deaths. In May 2009, Sri Lanka succeeded in blocking a call by UNHRC for international investigation of war crimes and in bringing a motion to praise it for annihilating the rebels. 29 members including South Africa voted in favour of Sri Lanka.
In the last 13 months the promises in the motion were violated and severe atrocities have been committed. So far none of the signatories have questioned Sri Lanka on its serious human rights violations - detaining nearly 300,000 IDPs in terribly overcrowded camps with severely restricted supplies of food, water and medicine. Details can be found in the reports by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, International Crisis Group, etc
In the last two years Iranian leader, and Burmese leader were invited guests of Sri Lanka as was the South African Minister for Foreign Reations and Cooperation.
Tamils have been shocked to find that Ms Nkoana-Mashabane has been so misled as to speak of Sri Lanka as
i. a 'renowned democracy'
Please draw her attention to the fact that it has just been the opposite:
Democracy in Peril: Sri Lanka a Country in Crisis, Patricia Hyndman, Report to Law Asia Human Rights Standing Committee, 7 June 1985: ‘’There was a general consensus that within Sri Lanka today the Tamils do not have the protection of the rule of law, that the Sri Lankan government presents itself as a democracy under crisis, and that neither the government, nor its friends abroad, appreciate the serious inroads on democracy which have been made by the legislative, administrative and military measures which are being taken''.
Ethnic Conflict and Economic Development- a policy oriented analysis, John Richardson (1996): “Democracy alone cannot ensure ethnic harmony. Instead, it may allow freer expression of ethnic antagonisms and legalised persecution of minorities. In Sri Lanka, both S.W.R.D. and Sirimavo Bandaranaike won democratic elections by appealing to Buddhist-Sinhalese nationalist sentiments and denigrating the ethnic Tamils. Slobodan Milosevic, the former Communist Party Chief of Serbia and General Franjo Tudjman of Croatia won their presidencies by appealing to the most divisive aspects of Serbian and Croatian nationalism”.
ii. 'a country that has enjoyed democracy and universal suffrage since 1931'.
Please draw her attention to the fact that within months of gaining independence, nearly 80,000 Tamils were decitizenised and disenfranchised in Sri Lanka. When the world was frantically moving forwards in gaining franchise, Tamils in Sri Lanka have been trampled to move backwards and downwards.
William Clarance in his book, Ethnic Warfare in Sri Lanka and the UN Crisis, says that the international community has been ignoring the storm signals coming from the country from the time of independence. 62+ years of internal colonialism has been reducing once-hardworking and prospering people to destitution wilting and withering in detention camps and open prisons.
I am writing to you because South Africans struggled against the Apartheid to gain freedom and therefore would be able to understand the Tamils' struggle for justice.
4 Letters
4.1 IT Offshoring. What madness is this?
Alan Collins, sbzone IT consulting, 29 June 2010
This might not be squarely in the sights of COSATU, but I have to start somewhere. COSATU already does a great job about highlighting the offshoring of blue-collar jobs. The recent FIFA merchandise is one memorable example. There is another trend that, in my opinion, deserves equal attention.
I work in the IT sector. In the past couple of years there is a major trend to offshore IT jobs to India, Mexico, and others. This is starting to affect the IT sector quite badly. There are many young black dudes coming through IT training and within a short while being very capable IT workers. As juniors, they are on the lower end of the pay-scale - in other words, they are affordable resources. Yet we find companies that supply IT resources are offshoring IT skills because it's 'cheaper'. This angers me because it's just not true. We have seen time and again the offshore skills are incapable of producing the goods, with the result that local skills have to train them - yes, I'm serious - so the projects often run late and over-budget. But worse is the idea that our own skills can't get those jobs. It's just crazy.
IT workers might not be a target market for COSATU (pardon my ignorance if I'm mistaken) but the general upliftment of skills to include high-tech is surely a goal the country should have. Offshoring is just plain bad news for such upliftment. Ideally, we should be a target country for such offshoring, as has happened with call-centres.
In my opinion, companies who actively offshore IT skills are being irresponsible and should be called to account.
Regards, Alan.
