Media Monitor 2 November 2009
Patrick Craven
COSATU Media Monitor
Monday 2 November 2009
Contents
1.1 Don’t heed call to strike, Sadtu leader urges
1.2 Musina on verge of mass riots: Samwu
1.3 Analysis: Lessons from the clothing workers strike in South Africa
2.1 Cosatu calls for ban on security firm
2.2 Vavi slams dog-eat-dog capitalists
2.3 Cosatu: Protests are response to inequality
2.4 Vavi blames business bosses' greed for SA's corruption
2.5 Recovery will only help rich to get richer
2.6 Ministers caught between rock and hard place
2.7 The Left is not taking over, says Zuma
2.8 Analysis: Mini-budget a balancing act, but will taxes increase?
1 Workplace
1.1 Don’t heed call to strike, Sadtu leader urges
Witness, 30 October 2009
THE SA Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) in KZN has threatened to disrupt exams should the agreed payments for the Occupational Specific Dispensation (OSD) not be paid by the end of the month.
However, their president at the national office has advised all Sadtu members not to give the Education Department a reason to deduct money by embarking on an unprotected strike.
Provincial secretary Mbuyiseni Mathonsi was quoted in newspapers as saying they will not hesitate to “stop the writing of the exams completely” if the KZN department does not tell them when the money will be paid.
The Witness has a letter Mathonsi sent to Sadtu members on Wednesday, in which he writes: “We have learnt through the grapevine that the OSD monies have not been paid and that they are likely not to be … paid … by 31 October 2009”.
Mathonsi refused to speak to The Witness, but according to a Sowetan report yesterday, the anger over OSD non-payments was sparked by a letter from the KZN department informing teachers that the OSD payment would be delayed for administrative reasons.
Sadtu president Thobile Ntola told The Witness the OSD payments have been moved to November.
“I want to assure all Sadtu members that the money is there … The system was overloaded because of the increment payments. I’m asking for people to be patient. I’m their president and they can take my word for it. They will be paid retrospectively, but they must be at work.”
http://www.witness.co.za/index.php?showcontent&global%5B_id%5D=30181
1.2 Musina on verge of mass riots: Samwu
Times, 30 October 2009
Musina residents were "on the verge of a mass uprising" due to corruption and poor service delivery, the SA Municipal Workers' Union in Limpopo said today.
"Samwu members from the Musina local municipality in Limpopo province have discovered grave corruption and malpractice... these findings have emerged in cheques, bank statements and financial reports of the municipality," it alleged in a statement.
"The situation in Musina is tense and on the verge of a mass uprising."
Workers were "sick and tired of the lack of service delivery". Roads were riddled with potholes, municipal vehicles were poorly maintained and there was "blatant corruption" by municipal managers.
Citing "compelling evidence", Samwu said the municipality's finances were in the red.
"The municipality has incurred a deficit of R552,467.43 this year during an annual show hosted by the municipality, which was riddled with corruption," the union claimed.
Samwu had asked the ANC's regional executive committee to intervene "immediately", and would raise alleged corruption, unfilled vacancies, poor service delivery, political interference in the administration of the municipality and companies operating without proper contracts with the party.
"If these issues are not dealt with as a matter of urgency, we will find ourselves experiencing a situation similar to what the country experienced in Diepsloot and Lekwa municipalities."
After recent service delivery protests in Standerton, Mpumalanga, the ANC stepped in. As a result the Lekwa municipality mayor and a number of councillors were fired.
The Musina municipality could not immediately be reached for comment.
1.3 Analysis: Lessons from the clothing workers strike in South Africa
Shaheed Mahomed, Bikya Masr,1 November 2009
55,000 clothing workers in South Africa went on strike for 10 days in September this year. At a time other workers were demanding 15 percent wage increases and winning 13 percent, the leadership of theSA Clothing and Textile Workers Union (SACTWU) were only demanding a 7.9 percent increase. At the time, official inflation was at around 10 percent, while workers’ inflation was substantially more.
The biggest player in the clothing industry is the Seardel group which employs about 17,000 workers. The Seardel group has a 70 percent stake held by HCI, a company controlled by the clothing union, SACTWU. Despite this major shareholding, a company which was part of the Seardel group, called Frame Textiles, which was a huge player in the production of blankets and fiber for the local industry, was forced to close and 1,400 workers were retrenched earlier in this year. State-of-the-art equipment is now mothballed and being sold off to clothing capitalists elsewhere in the world.
When the bosses started off with a 0 percent offer, they were deliberately forcing the wage negotiations with Sactwu towards a strike. The bosses deliberately linked their wage offer to workers losing overtime pay if the stayed absent, even if they had a legitimate medical certificate. The question is why were the bosses so bold? There is a strong interconnection between the clothing retailers and the clothing manufacturers.
Normally this time of year the factories are bursting with orders and many work overtime. Why is this year different? The clothes had to be ready for the shelves within weeks. The bosses could only have played hardball if the retailers have already made plans to source their clothing from elsewhere (eg cheap Chinese goods). This means that there was open collusion between the clothing and retail bosses.
Another point has now become clear as evidence points towards collusion between the trade union leaders and the bosses to hold back the strike and to defeat it. First, was the very low demand, in fact for a wage cut, by the trade union leaders. Secondly, after only 4 days of the strike, the union leaders encouraged the strikers to go back to work. The strikers rebelled and held out for more than 1 week further.
Many of the clothing and retailers are directly and indirectly owned by international banks. For example Foschini is owned by Investec, JP Morgan Chase, State street, Standard bank, Santam. Mr Price is owned by JP Morgan Chase, Northern Trust, State Street, Old Mutual. Wooltru is owned by Old Mutual, RMB, Deutsche Bank. All these international banks are in a deep crisis of having too much capital and not enough returns. The Chinese worker earns R100 (about 8 British pounds) per week while the local clothing worker earns about R600 (50 British pounds).
The US banks are major investors in China and use it as a giant sweatshop. Despite the flood of cheaper Chinese produced goods, the retailers have not dropped their prices. In other words, the shift to China produced goods is a means of the major banks to increase their profits. They are not happy with 500 percent profit from the worker in South Africa, they want 1000 percent plus increase in profits. The international banks, who have shares in the retailers and the clothing companies, planned to shut the industry down and destroy the lives of over 300 000 people who are directly dependent on the clothing workers!
During the strike, a temporary agreement to limit ‘Chinese’ goods for 2 years, expired. It was clear that the bosses were planning mass retrenchments and were wanting to use the strike as a platform to start this process.
The bosses did not expect the workers to show the level of unity and determination. The entire clothing sector was shut down. The workers forced their leaders to call a secondary strike in the textile sector and a further 15 000 workers were preparing to join the strike when the bosses capitulated and gave in to a 7 percent increase for workers. The workers had already sent workers to Cape Town and Durban docks to temporarily block ‘Chinese’ goods for the duration of the strike. The clothing workers made it very clear that they were in full support of the Chinese worker but the capitalists were planning on bringing in scab products during the strike to keep their production going. The workers in Durban docks had in principle agreed to discuss the blockading of the docks when the strike ended. A blockade of the harbors were thought of because by the time goods left the factories in China, the Chinese worker would have been paid and the full loss would have been borne by the capitalists.
During the strike workers occupied the factories each day, escorting scab workers out by the front gate, and then strikers would leave the factory premises. In many cases police came to the gates to support the bosses. Even in the supposedly worker-owned Seardel group of factories, the police, armed with shotguns clashed with workers (we have some video footage of this). 20 workers were arrested in Ladismith on charges of public violence after they clashed with scabs.
The strike also coincided with the Congress of SA Trade Union Congress in September; thus all Sactwu delegates were strikers and they forced a resolution for a solidarity strike to be adopted.
This was the first time in the history of strikes within the clothing sector that there was an almost total shutdown of the sector.
Time to review workers’ shares in companies
Sactwu has invested millions of workers money in HCI, and thus in the Seardel group. HCI is an example of supposed ‘black economic empowerment’ but this company is still tied hand and foot to big capital, through the loans it had to make just to get started. HCI had to make loans to buy out a major share of the clothing capitalist, Searll. Thus if the Seardell group now closes, it will be workers’ money that will go to repay this loan. The workers would lose twice: first in loss of jobs, secondly in repaying the international banks. This is similar to what happened to General Motors in the US, where the government took over the company but stole workers pensions to repay JP Morgan Chase. 40,000 workers were still retrenched. The only way is to expropriate all the large clothing manufacturers, retailers and the banks, without compensation, and to place them under workers control. This is the only way for real empowerment of workers. A simple ‘nationalization’ like Obama did to GM, will only bail out the banks and smash the unions.
New leadership is needed
The low wage demand and the conduct of the union leaders in the strike shows that they were openly acting in favor of the bosses; it is time to choose a new leadership from those who proved themselves in the recent strike. It is time for real working class independence from the capitalists. The principle of the right of instant recall of any worker leaders as well as the pay for union officials to be limited to that of the average in the industry, should be seriously considered.
But as the recent strike and 40 day occupation of the Kraft-Terrabusi food factory in Argentina shows, it is important for workers to begin to organize politically as a class, independent of the mainstream parties, and on an international basis. [The factory has re-opened with the workers leaders dismissed, with the agreement of the union leaders, and under military police guard of production]. While big capital operates globally, workers are still divided locally and according to trades.
2 South Africa
2.1 Cosatu calls for ban on security firm
Kim Hawkey, Times, 31 October 2009
Cosatu is willing to negotiate with the security firm embroiled in a row over a version of the National Anthem that referred to former president Nelson Mandela as "a ka***r" - but only if there is a genuine attempt to reconcile.
Cosatu members marched yesterday to Sun City, where they demanded that the security company be banned.
Falcon Security Company CEO Ben Burger was arrested at a potjiekos competition at Sun City last Saturday after the racist song was played at a company function.
He was released on bail after appearing in the Mogwase District Court on a charge of crimen injuria this week.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/article174654.ece
2.2 Vavi slams dog-eat-dog capitalists
The Times, 30 October 2009
Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi says a selfish, 'dog-eat-dog' capitalist culture is behind the widespread corruption which is threatening to erase democracy in South Africa.
"Cosatu has for many years been concerned about corruption and we will continue to be concerned until we finally put an end to it," he told a Business Unity SA anti-corruption forum in Sandton, Johannesburg.
Corruption threatened the very foundations of the country's democracy, Vavi said.
"Only three days ago our Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan in his Medium Term Budget Policy Statement expressed concern about government tenders that were tainted by corruption."
Vavi said "it takes two" to embark on a corrupt deal - on the one side there were officials while on the other side there were corrupt business people.
It was, however, a mistake to assume that there was corruption only in the public sector.
"The private sector is deeply implicated and millions have been lost in white collar crime."
Vavi said a "disturbing culture" had set in and had taken root "in society and in the movement" which threatened to erase democracy.
"But this is a culture that has been imported into our movement from the business sector.
"Capitalist culture praises those who accumulate the most and despises those who fail."
Business in South Africa meant the survival of the fittest and encompassed the "dog-eat-dog" idea as well as the "me first" sentiment.
"However, the workers say an injury to one is an injury to all. But in business they say an injury to one is an opportunity for another."
Vavi went on to attack the high salaries and bonuses of top executives as this made South Africa "the most unequal society on earth today".
He said wages had consistently declined as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP).
"The figure in 1998 was 50 percent of GDP and in 2005 it was only 40 percent of GDP - all while profits rose in the same period."
Vavi said that fighting corruption was not only a moral imperative but also an issue of "social justice" in South Africa.
"As Gwede Mantashe [ANC secretary general] has said, if we don't act against corruption the ANC will move only one way and that is down.
"Mantashe has now become an enemy in some quarters."
Those who wanted to be public servants had to live with their salaries.
"Or they must then choose to be business people - no one should be allowed to choose both and a simple declaration of interest is not enough."
Vavi said corruption was an insult to the memory of African National Congress leader Oliver Tambo who had spent 30 years in exile, as well as to former president Nelson Mandela who had spent 27 years in prison.
"In fact corruption is an insult to all our heroes and heroines," he said.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/news/article173379.ece
2.3 Cosatu: Protests are response to inequality
IOL, 30 October 2009
The recent service
delivery protests are in part a response to the levels of inequality in
society, the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Friday.
"Some of you may not see the link but how do we explain that elsewhere in
Africa there is far greater poverty, yet we do not see the same amount of
social unrest?" spokesman Patrick Craven asked the SA Reward Association's
annual conference.
He said poverty in these other countries was more widespread and general.
"People in surrounding communities are seen to suffer from the same
poverty and lack of service delivery and it is thus accepted reluctantly as a
fact of life," he said.
On the other hand, communities like Alexandra and Diepsloot
were next door to Sandton and Fourways, communities which lived "in a
different world entirely".
Arguments about of a lack of resources for service delivery carried no weight among
people who were living in shacks but who encountered people with seemingly
limitless resources living only a few kilometres away.
"The situation is made even worse when their own local representatives
move into the wealthy suburbs and adopt a capitalist lifestyle," Craven
said.
Most councillors and mayors continued to do good work often under difficult
conditions, he said.
However, the recent protests were in part a revolt against people elected by
the community who had become corrupt, moved out of the community, lived a life
of affluence at the people's expense and did nothing to help those they had
left behind.
South Africa's levels of inequality were unparalleled, Craven said.
He pointed out that in the last financial year Brett and Mark Levy of Blue
Label Telecoms were South Africa's top-earning executives, taking home
R50,4-million and R49,5-million respectively.
In the financial sector, First Rand's chief executive, Paul Harris, made
R27.8-million, Sanlam chief executive Johan van Zyl R27.1-million, former Absa
chief executive Steve Booysen R18,2-million and Standard Bank chief executive
Jaco Maree R14,1-million.
"My opponents in this debate therefore need to justify why South Africa
should have such unparalleled levels of inequality.
"They may argue that these individuals deserve these obscene salaries and
perks, because they have earned them through hard work, which has created
wealth for their shareholders who took a risk by investing their money."
However, Craven said that in South Africa these bonuses were paid to the top
managers regardless of how hard they had worked or the performance of the
companies they were managing.
"The best example is Eskom, which has increased its CEO's salary by 26.7
percent despite its manifest failure to deliver an efficient and affordable
service," he said.
"These same companies which pay out these first-world salaries to their
CEOs expect their employees to accept third-world wages." – Sapa
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=124&art_id=nw20091030153141827C528760
2.4 Vavi blames business bosses' greed
for SA's corruption
Kea' Modimoeng, Sunday Times, 1 November 2009
Cosatu leader names company chiefs as recipients of 'obscene' pay packets, writes Kea' Modimoeng.
Trade union federation Cosatu slammed the South African business community for its "dog-eat-dog capitalism" culture and for the large salaries paid to executives, which it believed were the root causes of corruption.
Speaking at a Business Unity SA anti-corruption forum in Sandton on Friday, Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said it would be a "fatal" mistake for the business community to see corruption as the "problem of the public sector alone".
Vavi said the private sector was "deeply implicated" in the scourge of corruption - "with millions of rands being lost in white-collar crimes" within businesses.
"Business has always been run on the basis of the survival of the fittest, where the principles of 'dog eats dog' and 'me first' applied."
While the workers' universal slogan was "an injury to one is the injury to all", the capitalist mentality daily encouraged the opposite - "an injury to one is an opportunity to the other", said Vavi.
Vavi condemned the "obscene" levels of salaries, bonuses and perks for top executives, which he said had led to South Africa becoming the most unequal society on earth.
"As we know, however, in South Africa bonuses are paid to the upper echelons of management irrespective of the performance of the companies they are managing.
"Workers, on the other hand, earn far less than workers in the UK, France, New Zealand and Canada. These same companies that pay out these first-world salaries to their CEOs expect their employees to accept third-world wages, and lecture the trade unions about their excessive wage claims," he said.
He made specific reference to business executives Brett and Mark Levy of Blue Label Telecoms who, he said, were paid R50.4-million and R49.5-million respectively in the last year, "making them South Africa's top-earning executives".
He also criticised financial sector high earners such as First Rand's outgoing chief executive Paul Harris, who received a R27.8-million salary. Sanlam chief executive Johan van Zyl's R27.1-million, former Absa chief executive Steve Booysen's R18.2-million and Standard Bank chief executive Jaco Maree's R14.1-million were also cited.
The forum was attended by more than 100 delegates from business, government and the labour constituencies.
Jimmy Manyi, president of the Black Management Forum (BMF), said the issue of high executive perks needed to be looked at "unemotionally".
He said exorbitant salaries came as a result of shareholders' agreements, based on value propositions and benchmarked on international levels.
"The fact that you reduce the salary of the rich doesn't necessarily address the plight of the poor because it is not a given fact that when the executives take a pay cut, the money will be given to the workers."
Manyi said the BMF acknowledged the problem of corruption and believed that society should uphold the values of ubuntu and honesty in order for the problem to be solved.
South African Communist Party spokesman Malesela Maleka said most people in the public sector were corrupted by those in private businesses.
"It is unfortunate because, in the public sector, corruption affects service delivery and the communities suffer."
He called for a fight against capitalism, "because by fighting capitalism, corruption dies".
Chris Hart, Investment Solutions economist, said corruption was a serious problem in South Africa as it promoted a culture of lawlessness.
"Corrupt activities reduce government spending effectiveness and result in a higher tax burden."
Hart said that in the past, corruption combating efforts seemed to tackle "smaller fish, such as a corrupt official at a border post, and didn't deal much with the main tender corruption problems".
Acting national director of public prosecutions Mokotedi Mpshe told the anti-corruption forum that, despite its current corruption challenges, South Africa had made "great" progress in putting in place a variety of mechanisms and processes to fight corruption and bribery in both the public and private sectors.
Mpshe said the successes of the specialised commercial crimes unit included a conviction rate averaging 94.1% - with 3031 matters under investigation having been finalised in the last financial year.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/business/article174272.ece
2.5 Recovery will
only help rich to get richer
Terry Bell, Business Report, 30 October 2009
One man's meat is
another man's poison. Never has that aphorism been more appropriate to the
global economy than now.
That, at least, seems to be the broad, labour movement view as politicians and
their economic advisors, almost without exception, predict the start of a
turnaround in the world's economic fortunes.
But in a South African context, a second aphorism also seems particularly apt
when applied to much of the local labour movement: clutching at straws.
This week, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan took the turnaround stance when he
delivered his medium-term budget policy statement. But he also maintained that
spending in the social arena would be maintained through borrowing and a hefty
deficit.
Even mainstream economists such as Iraj Abedian admit that Gordhan's
projections on borrowing and payback are predicated on the economy growing over
the next two to three years.
This is something about which the labour movement, both in South Africa and
elsewhere, would not disagree.
So far as most trade union analysis is concerned, economic growth is possible,
even probable, in the next year or two. But this meat of growth, they fear,
will feed the rich minority at the cost of lives and suffering for the vast
majority.
This fear is well founded because recorded - technical - economic growth in many
parts of the world over the past decade has not been accompanied by a parallel
rise in the number of jobs.
The contrary is usually the fact and, in the past two years in particular -
South Africa is a prime example - job-loss growth has been the norm; in other
words, greater wealth was created on the back of greater unemployment and more
suffering.
The issue was summed up neatly this week by Dennis George, the general
secretary of the Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa). He noted: "We can't
talk about an upturn unless there is a jobs return."
But at the same time, three of the four local trade union federations generally
welcomed this week's budget statement because of the promises it held out, not
just for growth, but for job creation.
This could, of course, be said to reflect what British author Carmen Callil has
called "the faith of desperation".
The exception is the Confederation of South African Workers' Unions. General
secretary Khulile Nkushubana sees virtually no redeeming feature in Gordhan's
budgetary message. "What we have is more of the same; job-loss growth and
borrowing to rescue ailing business to the benefit of shareholders. Government
should be more responsible."
But so far as Cosatu, Fedusa and the National Council of Trade Unions (Nactu)
are concerned, Gordhan's statement, while in some respects worrying, should
broadly be welcomed. The fact that he verbally linked job creation to economic
growth while maintaining spending levels in areas such as health and education
was lauded by Cosatu spokesman Patrick Craven.
However, Craven also noted in an interview that the federation was concerned
that much praised economic growth over the past decade had resulted in a
greater gap between rich and poor.
Craven also admitted to fears that the domestic "jobs massacre" will
not cease, especially as the major 2010 World Cup stadium projects come to an
end.
Thousands of workers employed on these projects - the unionised majority belong
to the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) - are on short-term contracts.
NUM spokesman Lesiba Seshoka says: "Like about 48 000 mineworkers who have
already lost their jobs, many of them will be flushed out of the system."
Similar fears are expressed by Nactu general secretary Manene Samela. The
Building Construction and Allied Workers' Union, a Nactu affiliate, has already
registered its concerns in this regard.
The unions are aware that the loss of "unproductive" labour may
ensure a retention - even an increase - in profit levels, and that these may
contribute towards reported economic growth.
Nonetheless, most unions have given qualified - and apparently straw clutching
- support to Gordhan's budget statement.
In contrast, the SACP maintains: "The policy statement has laid a firm
basis for engagement with the government on its fiscal priorities, and issues
of macroeconomic and monetary policy."
Gordhan made it clear that there would be no deviation from the established
growth-before-redistribution orientation in what Britain's Trade Union Congress
general secretary Brendan Barber referred to this week as "the longest
recession in modern economic history".
Barber added: "Even if we achieved a technical recovery today, it would
not feel like a recovery to the thousands losing their jobs or afraid that they
will join (them) in the months ahead when unemployment will continue
rising."
In this context, the (technical) meat of economic growth amounts to a
cannibalistic feast, with the rich continuing, metaphorically, to devour the
tortured poor. To add another cliche: perhaps it is time to grasp this nettle,
rather than to clutch at straws.
http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5224008
2.6 Ministers caught between rock and
hard place
Nkululeko Ncana, Sunday Times, 1 November 2009
Cosatu and some members of President Jacob Zuma's cabinet are mounting a last-ditch attempt to torpedo South Africa's commitment to buy eight giant A400M military transport planes from the European Airbus consortium.
The planes will reportedly cost R47-billion.
Several government and industry sources told the Sunday Times this week that the cabinet had decided to go ahead with the purchase.
The deal is linked to a potentially lucrative contract for Denel and other South African companies to produce components for the A400M series.
But Ndivhuwo Mabaya, spokesman for the Minister of Defence, denied a decision had been taken. He said those who insisted it had were people with "vested interests" in the deal's going through.
Mabaya said the cabinet had instructed the Minister of Defence, Lindiwe Sisulu, to "engage" with Airbus and other stakeholders in the deal. He said a decision would be taken following her report-back.
This contradicts cabinet spokesman Themba Maseko, who told reporters more than a week ago that the cabinet had "taken a view" on whether to go ahead with the deal and the decision would be announced soon.
However, Mabaya said: "There are just too many elements here, and because this is a government-to-government deal, all factors have to be taken into consideration and treated very sensitively, regardless of whether or not the deal goes ahead."
The government is in a quandary over how to handle the controversial deal after Airbus announced delays in delivery and a price hike.
Several ministers in Zuma's cabinet are said to be questioning how government can justify the expenditure, given the shortfall in the budget.
According to Armscor chief executive Sipho Thomo, the government should have made a decision by yesterday.
A source who asked not to be named said: "Government is in a predicament here because if they choose to go ahead, they would have to say why and whether it is affordable.
"But, then again, if they choose not to go ahead, those actions could cost us our trust with our foreign counterparts."
Cosatu plans to raise the matter at the alliance summit later this month. Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini said the federation would fight to block the deal.
"If we have it our way, government will get out of the deal to show it has gone wrong from the beginning," he said.
One of the main reasons Cosatu is against the deal is because of a trend for highly placed politicians to get kickbacks from deals like this, he said.
Should the deal go sour, South Africa not only stands to be embarrassed in the face of its foreign counterparts, but could also incur substantial losses.
Airbus could cancel several contracts it has signed with some of the country's arms manufacturers to design and build parts for the A400M.
"The difficulty here is that our country must not be seen as an unreliable trader and thus bad for foreign investment," said a source.
Dlamini warned, however, that going ahead would fuel public anger.
"This issue will cause more delivery protests because people will not understand how government went ahead with this thing while services are so poor," he said.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/article174651.ece
2.7 The Left is not taking over, says
Zuma
Sibusiso Ngalwa, Cape Argus. 31 October 2009
President Jacob Zuma
has rejected perceptions that the Left is taking over the ANC and dictating
policy.
Instead, said
Zuma, the current policies - as adopted at the 2007 Polokwane conference, and
articulated in Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan's medium-term budget policy
statement - were here to stay.
In his online
letter, Zuma said most people outside and inside the ANC misunderstood the
nature of the relationship between the party and its alliance partners - Cosatu
and the SACP.
The government's
policies would not change just because the alliance partners were opposed to
certain positions.
|
' For years, the ANC has been advised to break with the SACP' |
"Policy arises from debates in the ANC, through a
very intensive process leading up to national conferences, where resolutions
are taken, thus informing the policy direction.
"There is
nothing, therefore, in the argument that the alliance partners determine the
policy of the ANC," he said.
"It
appears that people get mistaken when alliance partners raise their views in an
open debate, commenting on policy.
"The
policies that this administration is pursuing do not belong to one person or
any group of people."
Zuma said healthy
debates between the alliance partners were always welcome, as had been the case
in years past.
"Those
outside the alliance (and even some within) have struggled to understand this
cross-pollination of ideas. Indeed, many people fear it. And so arises this
feverish pre-occupation with a 'Left takeover' of the ANC," he said.
"This is not
new. For years, the ANC has been advised to break with the SACP.
"There are
those who fear the 'healthy' influence of the trade union movement.
"The point
that many people fail to grasp is that the ANC is a multi-class national
liberation movement with a bias towards the working class and poor," he
said.
Zuma cautioned against
singling out of individuals as the sole drivers of policy.
Minister for
Planning Trevor Manuel has come under immense criticism from some in the
alliance who have accused him of trying to take control of policy formulation.
Zuma's statement
comes barely two days after ANC treasurer Mathews Phosa told international
business leaders in London that there would be no policy shift in the ANC.
Phosa also said
that nationalising the mines - as urged by the ANC Youth League and the
alliance partners - was not the ruling party's policy.
He was
immediately criticised by the youth league and SACP.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=6&art_id=vn20091031130625531C598450
2.8 Analysis: Mini-budget a balancing act, but will taxes increase?
Donwald Pressly, Business Report, 1 November 2009
A good balancing act appears to be
the consensus on Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan's first mini-budget last week,
but questions remain whether he can avoid raising taxes in the February budget
to finance a high deficit and a growing dependence of millions of South
Africans on the nanny state.
Neva Makgetla, a former Cosatu economist who is now in charge of research and
information at the Development Bank of Southern Africa, says the deficit should
not be pushed "too high" and one way of financing it is to raise
taxes.
Makgetla noted that high budget deficits contributed to income inequalities.
Makgetla, who was until late last year a sector strategist in the presidency
under former president Thabo Mbeki and President Jacob Zuma, said: "When
you borrow (to finance the deficit), you borrow from the rich and pay it back
with interest. Some of it, of course, goes into pension funds, but a lot of it
goes back to the rich, both local and foreign."
Western Cape Cosatu general secretary Tony Ehrenreich said former finance
minister Trevor Manuel gave back to the rich and the middle class about R120
billion in tax rebates and cuts. "So there is a bit of space there,"
argued Ehrenreich.
Despite barbs from the DA's Dion George that the budget had "closed the
door to the Left", Ehrenreich believed that the budget had "moved in
the right direction".
Whereas in the past social programmes had suffered in an attempt to avoid
deficit spending in the budget, now there was "a willingness to
engage". This he believed as an important signal to the working class.
Ehrenreich agreed with Makgetla that there was an argument in favour of raising
taxes. But he singled out taxation for individuals as an area of focus. South
African individual taxes lagged behind some competitor countries, he argued.
He added that the previous ANC
administration had focused on the wealthy, but he believed that Gordhan had
shifted the budget focus "to the poor".
Nedbank group chief economists Dennis Dykes said Gordhan was going to have
"a tricky balancing act" going forward.
With salaries of public servants expected to rise, a growing budget deficit, a
growing dependence on social welfare grants and higher interest spending,
Gordhan would have his hands full. Expenditure somewhere would need to be
curtailed, he warned.
George said one of the crucial signals emanating from last week's policy
statement was that the National Treasury "will not bend to pressure from
Cosatu". He believed that the minister had "categorically"
slammed the economic door shut in the Left's face.
Cosatu had made a list of claims for dramatic changes to economic policy at
their annual conference, he said. These included that the whole food supply
chain should be nationalised, the property clause in the constitution should be
reversed, import controls with taxes and quotas should be imposed; the
commercialisation of Eskom should be reversed and inflation targeting needs to
be scrapped.
It had also sought to renationalise Sasol, along with other strategic companies
such as ArcelorMittal South Africa, Denel, Telkom, and Eskom, George argued.
While Gordhan himself emphasised he did not see South Africa as a social
welfare state, the grant system had been expanding exponentially.
Ehrenreich believes there is room to expand it, much like the British system,
where people who reached 18 do not just slip out of the system even though they
may not have a job.
George believes Gordhan is pragmatic and his policies are "not the
Socialist, centralising thinking of the Left".
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