Taking COSATU Today Forward Special Bulletin, 20 January 2025
Norman Mampane
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Taking COSATU Today Forward Special Bulletin
‘Whoever sides with the revolutionary people in deed as well as in word is a revolutionary in the full sense’-Maoo
Our side of the story
20 January 2025
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Contents
- Workers Parliament: Back to Basics!
- DENOSA Limpopo applauds SAPS for the arrest of a suspect linked to gaChuene clinic abduction and rape case
- South Africa
- COSATU KZN distressed by impending closure of Ithala
- International-Workers’ Solidarity!
- SACP statement on the removal of Cuba from the unjust US government’s list of state sponsors of terrorism
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics
DENOSA Limpopo applauds SAPS for the arrest of a suspect linked to gaChuene clinic abduction and rape case
Jacob Molepo, DENOSA Limpopo Provincial Secretary, 19 January 2025
POLOKWANE – The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) in Limpopo welcomes and applauds the tireless efforts by the SAPS following the arrest of a 27-year-old suspect linked to the horrific incident where two nurses were physically and sexually abused.
The suspect was arrested yesterday at Feke Village, Ga-Maja, in the Capricorn District, where the 9mm pistol, 8 live ammunitions, panga, laptop, cellphone, cash and other stolen items were recovered.
The suspect was under correctional supervision when committing this crime and is also linked to various criminal activities around the Capricorn District.
The arrest of this suspect gives hope to nurses and communities on the role that is played by SAPS in the fight against crime in the province.
DENOSA calls for the court to deny bail to the perpetrator as one form of immediate justice to the affected nurses who are still admitted in the hospital, battling to recover from this horrific incident.
DENOSA maintains its call for the Department of Health to strengthen security in all healthcare facilities, which includes installation of CCTV cameras, beams, and fixing of unlocked doors.
DENOSA in the province will lead the picketing by nurses from the nearby hospitals and clinics for no bail when the perpetrator appears in court on 20th January 2025.
End.
Issued by DENOSA in Limpopo
COSATU KZN distressed by impending closure of Ithala
Edwin Mkhize, COSATU KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Secretary, 20 January 2025
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in KwaZulu Natal is deeply distressed about the impending liquidation of KZN-based Ithala SOC.
The South African Reserve Bank’s Prudential Authority has applied to the High Court in Pietermaritzburg for the provisional liquidation of Ithala, after the development finance agency was reported to be insolvent. Ithala does not have a banking licence but has been allowed to act as one and accept deposits under a temporary exemption granted by the Prudential Authority, with the hope that in time it would comply with all stipulated conditions and eventually be granted a licence.
After renewing the exemption several times, the Prudential Authority is now pulling the plug on Ithala.
COSATU is first and foremost worried about the more than 400 workers who will lose their jobs when Ithala is forced to close its doors forever. With South Africa’s unemployment rate at a shocking 41.9%, it is clear we cannot afford to send another 400 people to the unemployment line. We must do everything in our power to hold on to every job to avoid the devastating impact the job losses will have on the economy, as well as the workers and their families.
The Federation is also concerned about the impact the closure of Ithala will have on its more than quarter of a million depositors, who are themselves workers and grant recipients. We note National Treasury’s assurance that it will guarantee the funds of the 257 000 depositors. The guarantee offers little comfort, however, when in the same breath, the depositors from working class and poor communities are told to make urgent alternative banking arrangements.
It is critical that whatever happens that social grant recipients be assisted to access their grants and workers be enabled to receive their monies and wages. They simply cannot be abandoned.
In an economy that mainly remains untransformed more than 30 years into the democratic breakthrough, Ithala represented what could be possible if the working class and poor were allowed to access even the smallest slice of the economy for themselves.
COSATU echoes its Affiliate, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (NEHAWU), that Ithala banked the rural unbanked, financed bonded houses throughout the KZN province, banked churches, stokvels, SMMEs, informal businesses and the taxi industry.
It is no secret that these groupings are not considered triple A clients by traditional banks; but at Ithala they found refuge.
For the longest time there’s been talk of establishing a state-owned bank. Ithala’s sole shareholder is the KZN Provincial government – therefore it is a state-owned bank. Granted, to date it has not been perfectly managed, the Reserve Bank should view Ithala as a kind of pilot and draw lessons on what not to do, and by extension what to do to build a successful state bank. Closure must be a call of last resort when all other interventions have failed.
Much has also been said about the development agency’s inability to draw skilled expertise into its employ. COSATU challenges government to prove its willingness to transform South Africa’s economy by seconding the necessary skills to Ithala, draw up a turnaround plan, explore means to capitalise it and resuscitate it.
The idea that everything meant to empower the country’s historically excluded must be condemned, has to be dealt a fatal blow. COSATU calls on the Prudential Authority to exhaust all possible options to resolve this crisis. That said, the Federation calls on the Reserve Bank and all its divisions to take their regulatory role very seriously. Ithala could have been set on the right path much earlier, if the bank had been stringently following its own regulations and not allowed the situation to deteriorate to the verge of ruin.
It is equally important that any persons found to have broken the law, be held fully accountable.
Issued by COSATU KwaZulu Natal
International-Solidarity
SACP statement on the removal of Cuba from the unjust US government’s list of state sponsors of terrorism
Dr Alex Mohubetswane Mashilo, SACP Central Committee Member
National Spokesperson & Political Bureau Secretary for Policy and Research, 20 January 2025
The South African Communist Party (SACP) notes the decision of the United States government to remove Cuba from the list of the so-called “state sponsors of terrorism”. In the first place, Cuba should never have been included on the list.
The removal of Cuba from this list is a belated act by the United States government after discovering that it is virtually impossible to defeat the united people of Cuba. As the SACP, we have consistently been calling for the removal of Cuba from the list, which the United States draws up unilaterally – without any international mandate or recognition.
Cuba has been a victim of various acts of terrorism, which were overtly or covertly supported by the United States, on the one hand, all while Cuba, on the other, has been one of the leading nations in the genuine fight against terrorism.
The United States’ anti-Cuba stance has caused hardships for the Cuban nation, particularly economically, including by blocking access to crucial supplies.
In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021, the Cuban government lost more than 40 relations with financial and banking institutions. This hampered its fight against Covid-19, in addition to negative effects felt by the healthcare system.
Cuba was deprived of access to financial transactions by more than a thousand financial banking institutions in the last four to five years due to the arbitrary inclusion on the illegitimate list.
Despite the attack on Cuba, the people of Cuba, with the active support of the overwhelming majority of the people across the globe, persevered and stabilised their country’s people-based system.
On 30 October 2024, the United Nations General Assembly, once again, voted overwhelmingly for the United States to end its illegal economic, investment, trade, financial and development blockade of Cuba. This vote renewed the United Nations’ demand it has made on behalf of the peace-loving people of the world annually since 1992. A total of 187 governments representing their nations voted in favour, while only two governments, the United States together with its apartheid settler state ally, Israel, voted against the resolution. Ultimately, the imperialist regime of the United States had no choice but to yield to the demands of the world, albeit adopting a limited scope as it remains intransigently committed to its imperialist agenda.
The SACP conveys its message of solidarity with the Cuban people and government in the continued fight against the imperialist aggression currently spearheaded by the United States. The SACP will continue to support the total lifting of the illegal blockade and calls for the United States to end its occupation of Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay with immediate effect and unconditionally.
The SACP salutes the brave people and government of Cuba and commits to ongoing solidarity until they sustainably achieve the justice and freedom they so rightfully deserve.
We stand with Cuba in its fight, which is a fight for all of humanity against imperialist domination, exploitation and foreign occupation.
Issued by the South African Communist Party,
Founded in 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa.
Media, Communications & Information Department | MCID
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Norman Mampane (Shopsteward Editor)
Congress of South African Trade Unions
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