Taking COSATU Today Forward Special Bulletin, 28 September 2021
Norman Mampane
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COSATU TODAY #Cosatu affiliated trade unions scheduled to participate on World Day of Decent Work activities in South Africa #October7 |
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
Tuesday, 28 September 2021
‘Deepen
the Back to Basics Campaign, Consolidate the Struggle
for the NDR and Advance the Struggle for Socialism’
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We
shall overcome!
Contents
o Workers Parliament: Back to Basics!
- CWU wins against the SABC at the CCMA
o South Africa
Ø COSATU Message of Support – ANC Local Government Elections Manifesto Launch
Ø POPCRU welcomes the appointment of CDC Thobakgale as the acting DCS National Commissioner
o International-Workers’ Solidarity!
Ø Indian unions unite against government's anti-labour policies
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics
CWU wins against the SABC at the CCMA
Aubrey Tshabalala, CWU General Secretary, 28 SEPTEMBER 2021
Communication Workers Union (CWU) welcomes the CCMA ruling on a matter that was between SABC and CWU on behalf of her member, Rozalia Whitehead.
The matter relates to a case of the 5th of September 2019, where a wrong pre-recorded video clip of a speech made by H.E. President - Cyril Ramaphosa was broadcasted on television.
The CCMA ruled for the SABC to reinstate Whitehead to the same position she had occupied at the time of her dismissal with retrospective effect and must report back to work on the 1st of October 2021.
At the time, CWU insisted that this wrong clip was played on air because of poor management and running the department on skeleton staff. However, the management of the SABC was preoccupied with their plan to retrench workers and kept on shifting the goal post through their propaganda.
They eventually publicly announced and told the parliament portfolio committee that the entire incident was a sabotage.
Despite making this fallacious argument, the public broadcaster management to date failed to bring any person to book on such charges. This means that SABC management lied in public and parliament without consequences.
CWU calls for the management of the SABC to apologize to Parliament, the community of the Republic, and most importantly to workers of the SABC who are doing their best under difficult circumstances to provide exceptional service.
The end
Issued by CWU
South Africa
COSATU Message of Support – ANC Local Government Elections Manifesto Launch
President Cyril Ramaphosa,
The leadership of the ANC, COSATU, and the SACP,
The membership of COSATU,
Workers and their families across South Africa,
Introductory Remarks
The Congress of South African Trade Unions held its Central Committee last week. The message from unions and our members is clear, the African National Congress remains the political home for the overwhelming majority of workers.
The mandate that the membership of COSATU and workers have given to the Federation is to wage a relentless campaign in every ward, town, and city to ensure the ANC is returned to office on the 1st of November.
The challenges facing South Africa and its workers are many.
It is not a secret that the ANC, like the government, the State-Owned Enterprises, and municipalities has been painfully hurt during the decade of state capture. Much remains to be done to cleanse the ANC, government, and South Africa of corruption.
COSATU welcomes the efforts undertaken by the President and the ANC to begin cleaning up the rot of state capture. The suspension of senior political leaders in the ANC and government charged with corruption, the appointing of Commissions of Enquiry, the charging of officials by the Hawks, the recovery of stolen funds in Eskom are positive signs that we are turning the tide.
These must be accelerated. We cannot afford to lose the war against corruption.
The efforts by the ANC to ensure competent and accountable leaders in municipalities must be replicated at all levels of government.
The ANC remains an ally of workers.
In the midst of media headlines, the many positive achievements of the ANC are forgotten.
It is the ANC working with COSATU that passed the National Minimum Wage Act improving the wages of over 6 million workers, in a particular farm, retail, security, and construction. At the beginning of 2022, domestic workers will equalise the National Minimum Wage.
It is the ANC that passed our progressive labour laws protecting workers from victimisation and unfair dismissal, providing paid maternity and parental leave, requiring employers to provide a safe workplace, guaranteeing the right to unionise, and collective bargaining.
It is the ANC that tabled the National Health Insurance Bill to provide universal health care and the Expropriation Bill to speed up land reform.
It is the ANC-led government working with COSATU and social partners at Nedlac that ensured over R60 billion was released from the Unemployment Insurance Fund to over 5.5 million workers and over R50 billion paid in the Covid-19 SRD Grants to over 8 million unemployed recipients.
Much remains to be done to improve the lives of workers and their families.
The challenges facing workers and South Africans are immense. They require all of us to contribute towards their solutions.
COSATU will work with the ANC to ensure the implementation of its manifesto, in particular its commitments to tackle corruption, grow the economy, and mobilise every South African to vaccinate.
We welcome the manifesto’s commitments to rebuild local government so it can deliver quality basic services, and end labour broking and outsourcing in municipalities.
COSATU supports the manifesto’s call to overhaul public procurement and establish a single and transparent public procurement system that will support local businesses.
We will work with the government to strengthen the ban on politically exposed persons from doing business with the state.
COSATU calls upon all workers and their families to support the ANC on the 1st of November.
The ANC has experienced many challenges, but it remains an ally of workers.
Workers stand the most to lose from an ANC ousted from the government. No other political party stood with workers when it mattered most during the liberation struggle.
Some opposition political parties have proudly promised to scrap all our labour laws and protections for workers. Others have shown themselves to simply being vehicles to satisfy the needs of their leaders’ extravagant lifestyles.
Much remains to be done to achieve a better life for all.
The ANC has delivered on many commitments to improve the lives of workers and their families over the years. Much remains to be done as we battle a recession, a global pandemic, and emerge from the decade of state capture.
The ANC is the party that can lead workers to a better life. It is not an easy journey. It is one that we must take together.
COSATU and its Affiliates will campaign in every workplace and community to mobilise workers to come out in their numbers to deliver an overwhelming victory for the ANC on the 1st of November.
Matla!
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POPCRU welcomes the appointment of CDC Thobakgale as the acting DCS National Commissioner
Richard Mamabolo, POPCRU National Spokesperson, September 28, 2021
The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union has noted and welcomes the appointment of Mr. Makgothi Samuel Thobakgale as the acting National Commissioner of the Department of Correctional Services (DCS).
The appointment of Mr. Thobakgale takes place at a critical time wherein, 27 years into our democratic dispensation, the DCS faces multiple upheavals, including being perforated with challenges ranging from overcrowding and understaffing, ailing infrastructure, the lack of resources to appropriately meet its increasing demands, the full implementation of the Occupation Specific Dispensation (OSD), the development and implementation of a lawful shift pattern, the development of a promotion policy, provision of uniforms for its staff and the adoption and implementation of its service delivery model among others.
It was back in 1998 when the DCS made a paradigm shift from being a purely punitive institution to becoming rehabilitative; however, these obstacles have in many ways seen it deviate from implementing its core task, which is to ensure rehabilitation over the years.
Having a total number of 243 operational centres with a bed capacity of 118 572, while housing approximately 138 070 inmates, our correctional centres have a staff complement of 34 000, with 12 000 performing administrative work.
Beyond this, approximately 85% of inmates in our country re-offend after their release, meaning the current system of rehabilitation needs to be redefined because as is the current situation, our centres are far from being conducive to fulfilling the rehabilitating requirements. This is partly due to limited technical and life skills inmates are getting, therefore making it difficult to survive outside the prison environment, and has been a source of increased crime.
Our Correctional centres also continue being high-risk environments, particularly in that the department cannot maintain adequate standards of health and safety, proper sanitation, and other health and safety protocols as prescribed by the World Health Organisation (WHO), and with the current Covid-19 pandemic, the situation has worsened.
We reiterate our call that, in addressing some of the pertinent challenges facing our correctional centres, they should be self-sufficient insofar as food production through farming, the production of offender uniforms, furniture, and the general maintenance and repairs as this will not only cut down on costs incurred and reduce the levels of criminal activities common within prisons but will also skill inmates even beyond incarceration.
Time spent in incarceration must never be about inmates being idle and just lazing around for twenty-four hours on every day of their term of imprisonment. All inmates must contribute towards the running costs and decent up-keeping of all correctional centres.
As a union, we stress the need to have capable, efficient, and ethical officials who can optimally meet the needs of the department, to ensure the most efficient allocation of public resources, and the need to reprioritise the department back to its core function.
This new era brings about an opportune moment to jointly remedy past trends, and we are confident that the new appointment, working together with stakeholders, can bring about the much-needed stability needed within the criminal justice cluster.
Issued by POPCRU
International #Solidarity
Indian unions unite against government's anti-labour policies
28 September, 2021
Indian unions are taking action against the government’s plans to privatize key assets and sectors on 7 October, World Day for Decent Work, as the so-called National Monetisation Pipeline could violate human and worker’s rights and fail to create decent jobs.
In August, the government of India announced a policy called National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP), listing many important government's infrastructure assets and sectors, including mining, aviation, ports, natural gas and petroleum product pipelines, railways and power sector, to be sold over the next four years. This is not merely a funding mechanism for the government, but marks an overall shift to privatization of core sectors.
In an additional move, which will lead to precarious employment and unsafe working conditions, the Indian government is pushing for labour law amendments, which would exclude and deprive workers from legal protection and lead to violations of human rights and the elimination of core labour rights.
Dr. G. Sanjeeva Reddy, president of Indian National Metalworkers' Federation and IndustriALL executive committee member, says:
"India is facing a social and economic policy paralysis as the government is moving to lease or sell all infrastructure services and core industries to private companies. We, the trade unions in India, will together organize, campaign and hold a country-wide protest on 7 October under the name of Mission India.
“We call all working people to come forward and participate in this joint demonstration and struggle so that our legitimate rights and jobs will be protected."
Despite many difficulties and restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Indian unions and sectoral federations have a tradition of joint protests and opposition. However, the government a has not heeded the workers' voice and is continuing to push for changes the economic and social system of the country.
India’s government is promoting the privatization of profit-making companies, including Vishakhapatnam Steel Plant, while undermining the democratic rights of working people without consulting stake-holders, like workers and trade unions.
Sanjay Vadhavkar, general secretary of Steel, Metal & Engineering Workers’ Federation of India and IndustriALL executive committee member, says:
“The government shows its complete disconnect with the vital demands of the working people and how they are deliberately using the pandemic to hand over the people’s wealth to its corporate cronies.
The united struggle will continue until the four labour codes are scrapped and the government’s attempts to privatize core businesses are stopped.”
Atle Høie, IndustriALL general secretary, supports the joint protest of the Indian unions and says:
"We are in solidarity with the workers and people of India and urge the government to recognise the genuine concerns of working people. The government should immediately withdraw its policy proposals and establish an inclusive social and political consultation with all stakeholders, including workers and trade unions."
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Norman Mampane (Shopsteward Editor)
Congress of South African Trade Unions
110 Jorissen Cnr Simmonds Street, Braamfontein, 2017
P.O.Box 1019, Johannesburg, 2000, South Africa
Tel: +27 11 339-4911 Direct line: 010 219-1348