Taking COSATU Today Forward Special Bulletin, 13 May 2024
Norman Mampane
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COSATU TODAY #Back2Basics #ElijahBarayiBrigades #VoteANC #ClassStruggle “Build Working Class Unity for Economic Liberation towards Socialism” #Back2Basics #JoinCOSATUNow #ClassConsciousness |
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
13 May 2024
“Build Working Class Unity for Economic Liberation towards Socialism”
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Contents
- Workers Parliament: Back to Basics!
- Media Alert: President Cyril Ramaphosa to address Elijah Barayi Lecture, UJ 15 May 2024
- South Africa
- South Africa seeks urgent ICJ order for additional provisional measures
- Burning of our national flag in whatever form unjustifiable
- International-Workers’ Solidarity!
Ø Will Africa’s transition minerals create green jobs?
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics
Media Alert: President Cyril Ramaphosa to address Elijah Barayi Lecture, UJ 15 May 2024
Matthew Parks, COSATU Acting National Spokesperson & Parliamentary Coordinator, 13 May 2024
President Cyril Ramaphosa will address the inaugural Elijah Barayi Lecture at 10h30 Wednesday 15 May 2024 at the Imbizo Hall, Soweto Campus, University of Johannesburg. Accreditation will be from 08h00.
This lecture serves as part of a national programme celebrating Workers’ Month and seeks to establish a tradition of hosting an Elijah Barayi Lecture annually.
The late Elijah Barayi was a former Deputy President of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the founding President of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). NUM and COSATU under his leadership played a critical role in the resistance to apartheid, the achievement of a constitutional democracy and the progressive labour laws protecting the rights of workers today.
President Barayi symbolised a generation of leaders who fought valiantly to improve the working and living conditions of conditions of millions. We welcome this progressive initiative by the Presidency and the Department of Employment and Labour to celebrate a South African working-class hero and to remind the nation of the need to continuously defend and enforce the hard won rights of workers.
We encourage members of the public to attend this important occasion honouring one of our gallant sons.
Please note that those wishing to attend should send their names, ID numbers as well as contact details and organisation (if any) to: Reen.M...@labour.gov.za to ensure admittance.
Issued by COSATU
South Africa seeks urgent ICJ order for additional provisional measures
11 May 2024
The Republic of South Africa yesterday, 10 May 2024, returned to the International Court of Justice to seek an urgent order from the court for the protection of the Palestinian people in Gaza from grave and irreparable violations of their rights under the Genocide Convention, as a result of Israel’s ongoing military assault on Rafah.
The urgent application follows the escalation of Israel’s assault on Rafah, which poses extreme risk to humanitarian supplies, basic services into Gaza, the survival of the Palestinian medical system, and the very survival of Palestinians in Gaza as a group.
South Africa contends that the attack on Rafah further worsens the prevailing situation and causes irreparable harm to the rights of Palestinians in Gaza and that the situation has changed significantly since the Court’s Order of 28 March 2024.
Rafah is home to 1.5 million Palestinians. It is the last refuge in Gaza for those displaced by Israeli action, and the last viable centre for public administration and the provision of basic public services, including medical care.
Since the start of the military action in Rafah, Israel has seized control of both the Rafah and the Kerem Shalom (Karem Abu Salem) crossings, effectively controlling all movement in and out of Gaza and cutting off all critical humanitarian and medical supplies, goods and fuel.
Israel has further prevented medical evacuations and has treated evacuation zones as extermination zones as evidenced with the destruction of hospitals in Gaza and discovery of mass graves in other major health care facilities in the Strip.
Therefore, South Africa is calling for urgent interventions and investigations of all actions that continue to cause irreparable prejudice to the rights of Palestinians, including the use of Artificial Intelligence (‘AI’) for targeted killings.
South Africa has therefore requested that the Court indicate the following provisional measures:
The
State of Israel shall immediately withdraw and cease its military offensive in the Rafah Governorate.
The
State of Israel shall immediately take all effective measures to ensure and facilitate the unimpeded access to Gaza of United Nations and other officials engaged in the provision of humanitarian aid and assistance to the population of Gaza, as well as fact-finding
missions, internationally mandated bodies or officials, investigators, and journalists, in order to assess and record conditions on the ground in Gaza and enable the effective preservation and retention of evidence, and shall ensure that its military does
not act to prevent such access, provision, preservation or retention.
The State of Israel shall submit an open report to the Court: (a) on all measures taken to give effect to these provisional measures within one week as from the date of this Order; and (b) on all measures taken to give effect to all previous provisional measures indicated by the Court within one month as from the date of this Order.
South Africa further requested that the Court reaffirm and seek urgent compliance by Israel with the provisional measures ordered by the Court on 26 January and 28 March 2024. In particular, South Africa petitioned the Court to urgently reaffirm the application to the Rafah and Kerem Shalom (Karem Abu Salem) crossings of provisional measure 4 of its 26 January 2024 Order and provisional measures 2(a) and (b) of its 28 March 2024 Order.
These
measures will require the immediate withdrawal of the Israeli forces from the two crossings to allow for the unimpeded movement of medical personnel, including the United Nations and other humanitarian personnel and medical evacuees, as well goods and services
that are vital to addressing the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in Gaza.
South Africa remains firmly of the view that the necessary condition for the effective implementation of the Court’s provisional measures is a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
“We call on the international community, including the allies of the State of Israel, not to turn a blind eye to the ongoing genocide in Gaza. The gross human rights violations perpetuated by Israel have scaled to incomprehensible levels of cruelty, hate and extreme violent oppression. The world must do more to end the persecution of Palestinians, including that of many innocent women and children.
In this regard, South Africa is deeply heartened by the protest actions of university students in the United States and other parts of the world. We are also greatly encouraged by the adoption of the United Nations General Assembly draft resolution that recommends to the Security Council to reconsider favourably the application by the State of Palestine for full membership of the United Nations.
The support to this resolution shown by 143 countries is a further demonstration that the world is listening to the cries of the Palestinians,” says President Cyril Ramaphosa
For media enquiries:
Vincent
Magwenya
Spokesperson to the President
E-mail: Me...@presidency.gov.za
Issued by The Presidency
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Burning of our national flag in whatever form unjustifiable
Dr Alex Mohubetswane Mashilo, SACP Central Committee Member, National Spokesperson & Political Bureau Secretary for Policy and Research, 9 May 2024
The recent flag-burning advertisement orchestrated by the DA serves as a stark reminder of its alarming disregard for the founding democratic principles and national integrity of modern South Africa. The desecration of the South African flag, a symbol of our hard-won democratic breakthrough against the racist apartheid regime, is unjustifiable and cannot be dismissed as a mere symbolic gesture. Rather, it is an integral component of the DA's protracted agenda to undermine our democratic national sovereignty and the collective aspirations of our people.
The DA's latest egregious act adds to a long list of its treacherous deeds. From deplorably labelling indigenous citizens as "refugees" within their own land, to praising the racist, oppressive colonial system as developmental, to advocating for the secession of the Western Cape Province through nefarious initiatives like the "Western Cape Provincial Powers Bill", the DA has consistently demonstrated its disdain for national unity and the imperative to advance towards shared prosperity for our nation.
Also, by aligning itself with imperialist forces, serving as the domestic transmission belt of latter-day interests and practices of neo-colonialism, the DA has unmistakably revealed its true allegiance. The DA's recent solicitation of imperialist interference in our domestic democratic processes, focusing on but not only the forthcoming national and provincial elections, stands as a brazen affront to our hard-won democratic sovereignty of our nation.
It is imperative that we stand resolute against such blatant attempts to erode our hard-won advances and collectively strive towards a future characterised by social emancipation and the realisation of socialist ideals.
As peace-loving democratic South Africans, we unequivocally condemn the DA's reprehensible actions. We urge all sections of our society, particularly the working class, to strengthen unity in pursuit of expanding and deepening democratisation. This must encompass democratic transformation aimed at dismantling the entrenched economic control wielded by the small minority of the capitalist class, the majority of whom remain white, perpetuating the enduring legacy of the colonial-apartheid era over our society's wealth and resources.
As things stand, voting for the ANC on 29 May 2024 is imperative to defend our democracy against apartheid beneficiaries who have no regard for democratic-South Africa's national flag. Similarly, a decisive majority victory for the ANC is imperative to defend our democratic-South Africa's flag against the other beneficiaries of the apartheid regime who recently marched in Groblersdal waving the flags of the apartheid regime. The DA and the FF-plus are in the same WhatsApp group, the so-called multi-party charter.
Issued
by the South African Communist Party,
Founded in 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa.
Media, Communications & Information Department | MCID
International-Solidarity
Will Africa’s transition minerals create green jobs?
8 May, 2024
With abundant transition mineral resources in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) estimated at 30 per cent, by the International Energy Agency, what are the prospects for these minerals to create millions of the much-needed green jobs?
Experts say that with increasing demand for the critical minerals, there is potential for this demand to spur economic growth and development in SSA. This will be an opportunity for the countries, which are currently facing high levels of poverty, unemployment, and inequality to develop?
The critical minerals include copper, cobalt, lithium, manganese, nickel, platinum group metals, and rare earth elements, and are in high demand for use in the manufacturing of products that are required in the energy transition from electric car vehicles to solar panels and other components.
Researchers Thomas MacNamara and Siziba with support from La Trobe University and the IndustriALL regional office for SSA, went out to find some answers on how unions can influence debates and policy engagement on the Just Transition and on the job creation potential of the transition minerals in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The four countries are major producers of the transition minerals with the DRC producing as much as 70 per cent of global cobalt while Zimbabwe has huge resources of lithium.
The researchers of the baseline report entitled Influencing a Just Transition in the mining sector in Sub-Saharan Africa say the green jobs must be assessed on quality, sustainability and appropriateness.
They argue further that, “Almost all sustainability advocates argue that the transition away from fossil fuels will generate more employment than unemployment. However, investigating their claims more thoroughly encourages that the jobs are quality (well-paid, unionized, and safe), sustainable (long-term employment) and appropriate (in areas where mining jobs are being lost and/or requiring similar qualifications).”
The researchers estimate that most of the jobs will be in the construction phase for instance during the installation of solar panels. They cite a Price Waterhouse Cooper (2021) study, in South Africa, which estimated that while 800 000 jobs were created in the construction phase only 21 000 jobs were retained in the operation and maintenance phase. In Zimbabwe, about 7,000 jobs will be created on lithium mines but more jobs can be created through beneficiation of lithium instead of exporting raw lithium to China.
In the informal mining economy in the DRC, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, especially in artisanal and small-scale mining(ASM) millions of jobs can be created. In the DRC alone, the ASM economy has over two million workers but without formalization ASM activities fall short of the decent work agenda.
The research report, which analyses the diverse definitions of what is meant by a Just Transition, and the complexities of COP processes, gives examples of different models and best practices of the Just Transition in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Canada, India and Indonesia, Italy and other countries from which lessons can be drawn for Sub- Saharan Africa.
Glen Mpufane, IndustriALL director for mining said:
“This research report shows that trade unions should be cautiously optimistic about green jobs and continue to demand decent working conditions in the critical minerals sector. Mineworkers’ unions have consistently fought for better working conditions and living wages and should maintain their vigilance in defending workers’ rights and interests.”
Influencing a Just Transition in the mining sector in Sub-Saharan Africa is published on this link and complements other IndustriALL publications that include A Trade Union Guide of Practice for a Just Transition.
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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