Taking COSATU Today Forward, 6 June 2019
Norman Mampane
Taking COSATU Today Forward
‘Whoever sides with the revolutionary people in deed as well as in word is a revolutionary in the full sense’-Mao
Our side of the story
Thursday 6 June 2019
‘Deepen the Back to Basics Campaign, Consolidate the Struggle for the NDR and Advance the Struggle for Socialism’
COSATU Cares!
Contents
Workers Parliament: Back to Basics!
Ø NEHAWU in Limpopo notes the investigations by the HAWKS Unit leading to the raid in the office of the Premier
South Africa
Ø COSATU statement on the ANC Lekgotla’s decision on the Reserve Bank
Ø Social Development calls on employers to verify their employees on Child Protection Register
Ø SACP welcomes anti- corruption raid by the HAWKS on the office of the Premier
Ø SACP Moses Mabhida Province Provincial Working Committee statement
International-Workers’ Solidarity!
Ø Open Book Writing Contest of WFTU on the Topic: “The WFTU and the Palestinian Struggle 1945 – 2020”
Workers’ Parliament!-Back to Basics…
NEHAWU in Limpopo notes the investigations by the HAWKS Unit leading to the raid in the office of the Premier
Jacob Adams, NEHAWU Limpopo Provincial Secretary, 04, June 2019
The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union [NEHAWU] in Limpopo notes the investigations by the Hawks unit leading to the raid in the office of the Premier on Friday last week. We must indicate that as a trade union we welcome any investigation into corruption because our latest history in the province taught us that workers and the poor will ultimately suffer when corruption is not tackled head-on.
We, however, are perturbed at the onslaught against our shop stewards in the office of the Premier immediately thereafter, characterized by spurious allegations against them. This is meant to sway attention from the real issues and problems in the office of the Premier.
Attacking of shop stewards is an old tactic that has been defeated for many years and there is no way it can triumph against the massive power of workers. We will never succumb to big boy mentally and allow this union to be bullied by those who think they possess ultimate power and can trample over everybody with impunity.
The union will never take kindly to union bashing through harassment of our shop stewards in the Office of the premier. Government must with immediate effect call off their “hunting dogs” from pursuing our shop stewards and focus on resolving demands of workers in this province. The union will implement all efforts and tactics to defend its members as well as its shop steward.
NEHAWU have lately decried the lack of leadership provided by the Director General Mr Nape Nchabeleng and have called on the premier to fire him with based on the following:
1. It is under his leadership that workers in this province particularly in four departments namely, LEDET, Treasury, COGHSTA and Office of the Premier were taken to court seeking
a declaratory order which will give the employer an order to deduct money from workers and reversing all translations which will result in drastic reduction of salaries of those workers.
2. It is under his leadership that the Office of the Premier suffered an irregular expenditure to the tune of R3, 9 million hence the call to the premier to implement consequence management.
3. It is under his administrative leadership that organizational structure was reviewed without proposer consultation with recognized trade unions.
4. It is under his administrative leadership that he has implemented an unlawful and reduced traveling rates on subsidy cars which is against the national rates as determined by the national department of transport.
5. It is under his leadership that workers in this province are being denied to be paid their pay progression backlog since 2012 even when government have reversed the problematic clause that discriminate workers who qualify.
We therefore make a call to the Premier that he must call off all attacks on our shop stewards and concentrate on solving problems affecting workers as raised by the union. We further demand that Director General must be fired due to the irregular expenditures as confirmed by the Auditor General. Government must allow credible investigations by the Hawks to continue unabated without interference.
Issued by NEHAWU Limpopo Secretariat Office
South Africa
COSATU statement on the ANC Lekgotla’s decision on the Reserve Bank
Sizwe Pamla, Cosatu National Spokesperson, 5 June 2019
The Congress of South African Trade Unions has noted and welcomes the ANC Lekgotla position on the expansion of the mandate of the SA Reserve Bank, as communicated by the Secretary General of the ANC, Cde Ace Magashule. We remain unwavering in our argument that the SA Reserve Bank cannot afford to continue to only focus on price stability, as pursued through inflation targeting but should consider broader economic development imperatives.
Our own perspective of a South African economic growth path includes issues of social equity, redistribution and environmental sustainability and moves beyond the narrow definition of economic growth, which is based on the GDP growth rate and per capita income growth.
Currently, the objective of monetary policy is to ensure price stability or to fight inflation as well as protecting the external value of the Rand. With regard to price stability, this has been interpreted as zero or low inflation. As a result, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), mandated by the National Treasury has targeted inflation to be within the mystical range of 6-3%. If inflation, as measured by CPI or headline inflation, exceeds 6% the SARB would then use the interest rate policy or in this case, the repurchase or repo rate, to bring inflation down to the target range.
We want to see efforts to change the source of the SARB’s power to pursue inflation targeting. That source is section 224 (1) of the Constitution which states that the primary object (or the mandate) of the South African Reserve Bank is to protect the value of the currency in the interest of balanced and sustainable economic growth in the Republic. (2) The South African Reserve Bank, in pursuit of its primary object, must perform its functions independently and without fear, favour or prejudice.
The Reserve Bank has done considerable damage to this country’s economy under the guise of independence. After the
democratic elections in 1994, ex-apartheid minister Derek Keys and the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) under another apartheid apparatchik Chris Stals decided to scrap the Currency and Exchanges Act of 1933 and the adoption by the SARB of what is called
“flexible exchange controls”, to facilitate capital flights out of South Africa.
This led to a mass exodus of large corporations like Anglo-American, South African Breweries, Dimension Data and Old Mutual from the country they had exploited for over a century to settle abroad.
Prior to the adoption of the Constitution various commentators and intellectuals, including Dr Chris Stals, the former Apartheid governor of the Reserve Bank, who served as a governor between 1989 and 1999 argued that the interest rate policy cannot be used on a discriminatory basis.
For instance, it should not favour certain groups in the society such as black farmers, black industrialists and black workers. And that any intervention in the market should be through inflation-targeting using interest rates to control inflation and not through administrative controls e.g. price and rent controls.
It was argued that in order to ensure the independence of the Reserve Bank it should be protected by the Constitution a wish or demand, which was fulfilled through section 224(2). It is our considered view then that narrowly targeting inflation ignores the long-term impact of colonialism and apartheid in favour of satisfying narrow interests of those already with resources including foreign investors.
As workers, we favour an approach that incorporates both the developmental imperatives and also protect the currency because these are mutually reinforcing rather than contradictory.
Unfortunately, in the current reality that is dominated by finance capital, higher inflation rate suggest structural imbalance and it becomes an impediment for investors in productive sectors, including our own companies as they become hesitant to invest if they are sure that the value of that investment is going to plummet.
We, therefore, acknowledge that price stability is important even from a point of view of radical socio-economic transformation, as long as we currently depend on capitalists for job-creation and growth.
The mandate of the Reserve Banks of the American and other global-north countries includes employment creation. The New Growth Path that has been virtually replaced by the Neoliberal NDP called for a loose monetary policy but a tighter fiscal policy in order to create five million jobs.
South Africa needs a central bank that will pursue an inclusive monetary policy and that will regulate the finance sector with a view to ensuring that there is a redistribution of income and wealth to all South Africans as mandated by the Freedom Charter.
As argued by Joseph Stiglitz in his book The Price of Inequality, focusing on inflation is wrong when a large part of the cause of inflation is imported in the form oil prices and food prices and when the only beneficiaries of this policy are bondholders. The current policy of low inflation has entrenched apartheid economic policy of separate development, income and asset inequalities. An ordinary person without a job would prefer a job over mild inflation.
The greatest impediment to social stability facing South Africa is our 37% and growing level of unemployment. Unemployed people cannot buy goods. They cannot help sustain economic growth yet the SARB and its mandate do not speak to how they will help grow the economy in a manner that reduces our unsustainable levels of unemployment. Yes, workers cannot eat inflation nor afford to see it obliterate their meagre wages; neither can workers take care of their families whilst being jobless. The SARB’s mandate must be amended to compel it to tackle both unemployment and inflation with the same levels of determination.
In addition to targeting employment, the reserve bank should align its policy to industrial development, introduce foreign exchange controls and impose quantitative controls on commercial banks to ensure that a quarter of their loans go to priority sectors that drive the growth path and create jobs on a larger scale.
Currently, the Reserve Bank is only notionally independent as it generally subscribes to the dominant and conventional economic policy dogma, which is a failing policy received from finance capital – even at the expense of real producers of wealth in mining and manufacturing. The SARB is captive to the narrow interests of the rentier financial capitalists, some of whom are its shareholders – a reality that renders the notion of its independence preposterous.
The independence of the reserve bank in a multiparty bourgeois system is indispensable but we want the bank to be independent of both private interests and also independent from a reckless or captured government. The policies of the Reserve Bank currently reflect the neoliberal posture of the National Treasury, meaning that a captured government cannot be entrusted with the Reserve Bank.
COSATU wants a fully publicly owned Reserve Bank that will account to the public through their representatives in Parliament on the implementation of this broad mandate we are calling for.
As it happens in other developed countries, the Governor of the Reserve Bank must by legislative mandate, regularly account to parliament with regard to the overall work of the bank in securing the financial system, as well as on the decisions taken by the Monetary Policy Committee.
COSATU has noted the public sparring over this matter by some ANC leaders on this matter. We call on the President of the ANC and the Country, Cde Ramaphosa to rein in the free agents that are running amok at Luthuli House.
The President must lead and not allow these political vandals to run amok whilst our economy is bleeding because his silence will simply mark a green light for the factions to play games with workers’ lives. People like Tito Mboweni are shareholders at the Reserve Bank and they are conflicted on this matter, so they are representing their interests. The President should simply announce a logical and clear path to ensuring that the SARB mandate is adjusted to ensure it tackles unemployment and inflation, as well as the modalities of a rational process to bring the SARB in line with international norms in terms of it being owned by the public.
Issued by COSATU
______
Social
Development calls on employers to verify their employees on Child Protection Register
4 Jun 2019
Each day, children across South Africa come into contact with a number of people and organisations, some of which are meant to protect them. These include - amongst others – schools, school transportation operators, hospitals, child care centres and religious organisations. Given the unacceptably high levels of child abuse, neglect and exploitation in South Africa, suitability checks for persons working with, or having access to, children is crucial as a preventative measure in the child protection system.
As we commemorate Child Protection Week, the Department of Social Development calls upon all employers throughout South Africa whose employees’ job responsibilities require them to work with, or have access to, children to verify their suitability to work with children against the Child Protection Register (CPR).
The purpose of the CPR is to ensure that children are protected from abuse. Employers or potential employers are encouraged to take reasonable steps to minimise the risk of child abuse, neglect and exploitation.
In terms of Section 126 of the Children’s Act (Act No. of 38 of 2005), all organisations working with, or having access to, children are required to assess and verify the suitability of their employees and potential employees.
It is also the responsibility of parents to ensure that those entrusted with the care of their children such as child minders and early childhood development practitioners, including volunteers in childcare facilities are suitable to work with children. This will ensure that the right people are chosen to work with children.
Section 111 of the Children’s Act (Act No. 38 of 2005) mandates the Department of Social Development to keep and maintain a Child Protection Register.
The Child Protection Register consists of Part A and Part B.
Part A is used to record all reports of abuse or deliberate neglect of a child while Part B keeps details of persons declared unsuitable to work with children.
To date, there are 9 153 reported cases of child abuse, neglect and exploitation on Part A of the Child Protection Register. The register has 509 names of persons declared unsuitable to work with children. As of the end of March this year, the Department had received 140 029 suitability check enquiries from employers and individuals.
As part of this year’s Child Protection Week programme, the Department conducted parent-learner dialogues in Orange Farm, Gauteng Province. Issues raised include children’s concerns about their own safety in the community, bullying, sexual abuse, child abandonment, child neglect, child trafficking and teenage pregnancy. Working together with the local stakeholders, including community based organisations and provincial departments, a community-based plan will be developed to address child protection issues in the area.
The children also handed over to the Minister the first ever South African Children’s Manifesto which serves as a guide for the 6th administration.
Media enquiries:
Ms Lumka Oliphant
Cell: 083 484 8067
Issued by: Department of Social Development
_________
SACP
welcomes anti- corruption raid by the HAWKS on the office of the Premier
Goodman Mitileni, SACP Limpopo Acting Provincial Secretary, 4 June 2019
The progress realised by our people since our April 1994 democratic break through cannot be hindered, undermined or reversed by self-serving behaviour of those, including the bureaucracy, occupying the strategic positions in the state.
The SACP therefore welcomes the raid conducted this week on the office of Limpopo Province Premier by the Directorate for Priority Crimes Investigations, the HAWKS. The SACP supports efforts by law enforcement agencies to uproot corruption both inside and outside the state.
State intervention to deal decisively with corruption is crucial; however it is alone not sufficient. It must therefore be buttressed by active communities and a united and mobilised working class. The SACP will accordingly deepen social mobilisation to support anti-corruption state interventions, including holding the very same investigative agencies to account. It is important to note that it is not the first time a Premier's Office is raided by the HAWKS in South Africa. What we want are the results and consequence management to the full extent of law.
With that said, it raises eyebrows that such honourable and respected offices can be raided in an anti-corruption investigation, especially at this moment when the "new dawn" is supposed to be unfolding in earnest to give way to the shining light on the rest of our country following the May 2019 general elections. While we give space and time to law enforcement agencies to perform their work, we expect the leadership and officials in the Office of the Premier to fully co-operate with the investigations and allow all the other related processes to unfold without any hindrance.
The SACP has been paying its full attention in support of the branch of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) in the Office of the Premier. This included support for the lunch hour pickets that were called by the union, demanding an investigation into questionable dealings.
The SACP has further learnt of alleged corrupt activities relating to the Information Technology broadband roll-out throughout Limpopo Province resulting in more than half-a-billion rand in irregular expenditure, that is expenditure where one or more due processes were not followed. All these required a decisive action by the Premier but to no avail.
SACP salutes the people of courage and character, who took their efforts, under what has been characterised as a hostile environment, to report the allegations to the HAWKS and the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture.
The SACP is calling on the Office of the Premier to desist from a media onslaught against Nehawu leadership in that office, as well as other government officials in different departments suspected of having been the ones who reported the allegations to the HAWKS and the Commission. It is revolutionary to respect and protect corruption-combating efforts.
To this end the SACP expects the Premier to lead by example.
________
SACP Moses Mabhida Province Provincial Working Committee statement
Msizi Nhlapho, SACP Second Deputy Provincial Secretary, 4 June 2019, Durban
The Provincial Working Committee of South African Communist Party in Moses Mabhida Province (KZN) met on Thursday, 30 May 2019. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss latest developments in the province, including deployments and inauguration of new government leadership. The meeting was followed by a two-day Party Building Commission, held on 1- 2 June 2019.
The Provincial Working Committee welcomed the Alliance inclusive deployment process at the national level. We applaud the initiative. It will certainly contribute towards ensuring that policy direction and deployments reflect the spirit of a truly governing Alliance rather than the relegation of the Alliance to mere ANC election campaign machinery. In KZN Province a different scenario altogether prevailed, however. Consultation was minimal. As a result there was a lack of meaningful engagements and Alliance collective leadership to the process.
The SACP in the province deeply concerned about a developing conduct mainly from within the ANC where deployments are done to satisfy the expectations of factions rather than the need to serve the people selflessly and wholeheartedly. The conduct has previously created frequent reshuffling and disruption of consistency in governance. Where factions are more prevalent the Alliance and service delivery to the people become the victims of the circumstance.
The SACP spent quality time discussing the state of the youth in the country with a focus on the province. The Party felt that not enough attention or erratic strategies are applied in addressing the plight of the youth. Party structures have the responsibility to dedicate quality time to work with the youth, including building a strong and active Young Communist League structures on the ground.
Similarly, the SACP will also increase its activities on working with the trade union movement, particularly with our ally, the Congress of South African Trade Unions. The growing vulnerability of the workers and growing unemployment rate are a cause for concern, as is the likelihood of the casualisation of workers through the public works and youth employment programmes in addition to the base problem of industrial actualisation.
The above show a growing crisis of capitalism. A shrinking or stagnant economy, increasing unemployment, crisis in state-owned enterprises, rampant corruption both in public and private sector, and high levels of poverty and class inequalities are both the conditions and effects of the crisis.
SACP districts reported various crises of governance and looting in municipalities. This is reflected by a rising number of municipalities under administration and a significant number of mayors who are facing serious allegations of fraud and corruption, financial malfeasances, and even murder charges. Public protests against the problems of services provision are a daily occurrence and are becoming a norm. What we are currently witnessing is a collapse of governance and rampant corruption is a consequence of the 2016 factional deployments. This is demonstrated by absent councillors, collapse or dysfunctional public participation structures like Ward Committees.
The SACP is calling for the establishment of a Provincial State Capture Commission and further and will further initiate a discussion with the new Premier in order to interrogate
and deliberate on the State of the Province.
Issued by: SACP Moses Mabhida Province
International
Open
Book Writing Contest of WFTU on the Topic: “The WFTU and the Palestinian Struggle 1945 – 2020”
06 Jun 2019
In the framework of the continuous trade union training program of the WFTU, and in a effort to learn as much as possible about the history of the workers’ struggles and of the trade union movement achievements, the WFTU announces an International Contest on writing a book on the topic: “THE WFTU AND THE PALESTINIAN STRUGGLE 1945 – 2020”.
The goal is that the young generation of militants are well informed about the situation and the reasons that led to the current picture, as well as on how the militant world trade union movement has always supported the rights and independence of the Palestinian People, that are oppressed and exploited by the Israeli occupation and imperialism.
This open book contest is of great importance and another internationalist help and contribution of the class-oriented trade union movement to the working class of Palestine!
For communication and participation please send email to: ath...@wftucentral.org
Deadline for sending the books: 31.05.2020
The prize for the Open Contest winner will be a week of hospitality in Athens, Greece.
_____
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 010 219-1348
Attention:
This e-mail is privileged and confidential. If you are not the intended recipient please delete the message and notify the sender. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author.
Scanned by Trustwave SEG - Trustwave's comprehensive email content security solution. Download a free evaluation of Trustwave SEG at www.trustwave.com
Scanned by Trustwave SEG - Trustwave's comprehensive email content security solution. Download a free evaluation of Trustwave SEG at www.trustwave.com