Taking COSATU Today Forward Special Bulletin, 25 June 2024
Norman Mampane
|
COSATU TODAY This week, NEHAWU celebrates its 37th anniversary! #ClassStruggle |
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, 25 June 2024
‘Building a strong and united COSATU in mobilizing for the ANC electoral victory”
“Build Working Class Unity for Economic Liberation towards Socialism”
Organize or Starve!
Contents
o Workers Parliament: Back to Basics!
- COSATU dismayed by the latest drop in employment
o South Africa
- SACP statement following bimonthly Political Bureau meeting
- International-Workers’ Solidarity!
- Sino-Uganda Mbale Industrial Park must comply with labour laws
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics
COSATU dismayed by the latest drop in employment
Zanele Sabela, COSATU National Spokesperson, 25 June 2024
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) notes with disappointment the 0.6% decline in formal employment in the first quarter of 2024.
According to Statistics SA’s latest jobs report, jobs in the non-agricultural sector decreased by 67 000 in the first quarter of 2024 to 10.7 million when compared to the last quarter of 2023.
The Federation is deeply concerned about the shockingly high unemployment rate in the country at 41.9% and 59.7% for youth aged between 15 and 24.
We call on the incoming government of national unity (GNU) to hit the ground running and stimulate the economy by abandoning austerity measures that have led to its stagnation in recent years.
Support for and investments at state-owned entities Eskom, Transnet and Metro must be intensified to jumpstart the economy. We are encouraged by the progress that has been made so far but more urgency will result in better outcomes.
The Federation calls for the drastic expansion of the Presidential Employment Programme to cater for at least 2 million participants and help lower the unemployment rate. The GNU should also move with speed to roll out the ANC’s commitment to establish a National Youth Service under the South African National Defence Force.
COSATU also calls on business not to be bystanders and assist government by creating decent jobs, and halting retrenchments as the economy cannot afford to lose a single job.
The private sector must also come to the party and offer employment opportunities to young people via internships and artisan programmes. This will afford young people a chance to gain skills and kickstart their careers.
The Federation is gravely concerned as an increasing number of employers across industries including mining, transport, retail and textiles have announced plans to retrench.
In response, COSATU resolved during its Central Executive Committee meeting last week to exercise its rights under Section 77 of the Labour Relations Act and launch a build-up campaign towards a National Day of Action in defence of jobs, workers’ hard-won constitutional and labour rights, as well as collective bargaining in both the public and private sectors.
What we cannot afford is to normalise a 42% general and a 59% youth unemployment rates. This is a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. As part of COSATU’s campaign in defence of jobs, the Federation will embark upon a National Day of Action at a date to be determined between August and September.
Issued by COSATU
South Africa
SACP statement following bimonthly Political Bureau meeting
Dr Alex Mohubetswane Mashilo, SACP Central Committee Member, National Spokesperson & Political Bureau Secretary for Policy and Research, 25 June 2024:
“President Cyril Ramaphosa needs to move swiftly to appoint the Deputy President, Ministers and Deputy Ministers”, concluded the South African Communist Party (SACP) bimonthly meeting held on Monday, 24 June 2024. The SACP Political Bureau emphasised the importance of meaningful consultation and building and maintaining national stability and certainty.
This requires decisiveness against any section that has resorted to trickery, brinkmanship and untenable demands to steal power and thus undermine the will of the people.
While the ANC did not receive the minimum of 50 per cent plus one required to form an outright majority government, it is important for everyone to recognise that it still has been voted the largest electoral party by voter support. The SACP Political Bureau denounced attempts by the DA, a party with a little over half of the ANC’s votes, at elevating itself to or usurping the role of the party with the largest votes.
Any success from the trickery, brinkmanship and untenable demands by the DA will be tantamount to undermining the will of the people and stability in our economy and country. This neo-liberal party, whose leadership composition starkly reminds us of the persisting legacy of racism due to the stark contrast between their racial composition and the national population demographics, has to face deep-going working-class mobilisation, as will any slightest rightward shift in government policy direction.
The DA has positioned itself against the government of national unity, which the ANC seeks to form. This is obvious from the DA’s manoeuvres to secure a hostile takeover through a grand coalition with the ANC, also involving the IFP, in which the DA will wield veto power under the guise of “sufficient consensus”.
This must not be allowed to see the light of day.
The DA’s trickery, hypocritical and untenable demands vindicate the SACP, which has on the record expressed strong opposition to a coalition with the DA. In doing so, the SACP made its preferred option of an ANC-led minority government with the features of a government of national unity clear.
The DA’s trickery, brinkmanship and untenable demands tend towards the division of the Cabinet, which would be akin to a federation of unaccountable ministers if there were to be one part of the Cabinet which would operate separately and accountable to the DA as its “ministers”, rather than adhering to the unified whole Cabinet outlined in the constitution. According to the constitution, the Cabinet is appointed by the President, to whom the executive authority is vested.
It includes the Deputy President and Ministers, together with whom the President exercises the executive authority.
The DA’s demands fly in the face of the constitution and labour law. A party that has claimed to support “the separation of party and state” is now vehemently demanding the exact opposite. It has pretended to have a problem with “cadre deployment” and anti-constitutionalism, but it is now demanding that the President must accept new practices which would amount to an exclusive DA cadre deployment.
In a leaked letter of demands addressed to the ANC Secretary-General, dated 24 June 2024, the DA further demands that “Directors General in departments reporting to the Democratic Alliance ministers are selected by panels consisting of the Democratic Alliance ministers, and submitted to the President for his approval, and that such approval cannot reasonably be withheld” – note, not unreasonably. To pave the way for this anti-constitutionalism in favour of its exclusive cadre deployment policy, the DA is also demanding that the contracts of current DGs must be “reconsidered” – meaning terminated.
The DGs are, correctly so, not rightless. They are covered by the hard-won labour rights enshrined in our constitution and labour law and have a defined tenure. Any arbitrary termination of their contracts would amount to an abuse of the DGs, who are unlikely to be passive. Such abuse will also lead to wasteful spending of public resources. The SACP will stand in solidarity with the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union in the fight to protect their rights against such violation, just as it stands for the rights of all workers.
The SACP Political Bureau has approved final preparations for the first Party Central Committee plenary scheduled to take place from Friday to Sunday, 28–30 June 2024. In its focus, the SACP Central Committee plenary will conclude with a press briefing on Sunday, 30 June 2024. Solly Mapaila, the Party General Secretary, will lead the National Office Bearers with the Secretariat as the core in communicating the key outcomes of the meeting, including the initial strategic tasks and tactical steps for moving forward after the 2024 elections.
Mass mobilisation, forging a popular Left front and building a powerful, socialist movement of the workers and poor will, among others, receive greater attention from the Central Committee plenary. “This mobilisation is crucial for the people, the majority of whom is the working class, to realise progress in resolving the problems that affect them the most”, concluded the Political Bureau.
It is pretty obvious that the top priorities that the people need exclude the DA’s trickery, brinkmanship and untenable demands. The priorities include immediate efforts to achieve large-scale employment creation, poverty eradication and radical reduction of income, wealth, racial, gender and spatial inequalities.
To achieve this, the priorities include a high-impact, comprehensive industrialisation policy, adequately supported in terms of both resourcing and an enabling macro environment by developmental fiscal, monetary, international trade, infrastructure development and other developmental policies. In townships and rural areas, people want equal development attention comparable to that received by those in developed metropolitan areas.
Effective delivery of public goods and services, with the productive participation of the people, is crucial in all this.
Issued by the South African Communist Party,
Founded in 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa.
Media, Communications & Information Department | MCID
International-Solidarity
Sino-Uganda Mbale Industrial Park must comply with labour laws
21 June, 2024
On 19 June, a tripartite meeting at Sino-Uganda Mbale Industrial Park strategized how to initiate social dialogue to make employers comply with national labour laws and decent working conditions.
During the meeting, the ministry of labour agreed to conduct an inspection on workers’ rights violations through questionnaires which the employers are required to respond
to in 30 days. The employers also made a commitment to immediately provide personal protective equipment to workers. On their part, unions will develop recognition agreements and begin their engagement in social dialogue with employers in the Sino-Uganda Industrial
Park.
Sino-Uganda Mbale which has more than 50 factories, employs thousands of workers in manufacturing sectors that include textiles, electronics, glass, and soap making. The unions recommended that the Uganda Investment Authority should make compliance with labour
laws a condition for investing in the country.
The meeting, which included factory visits, took place between unions, ministers, government officials, members of parliament for workers, employers, and local authorities, and came after unions had petitioned the government over workers’ rights violations
and decent work deficits. The violations highlighted in the petition in May included unfair dismissals, long working hours, and unpaid overtime. The unions wrote that most of the companies at Sino-Uganda Mbale promoted precarious working conditions, “with
heavy casualization of labour which included piece rates, short contracts, low pay, and no appointment letters.”
On health and safety, the unions said the companies failed to provide personal protective equipment and adequate accident prevention measures. Gender-based violence and
sexual harassment were common with women workers being denied maternity protection.
Sino-Uganda Mbale, located in East Uganda, is a joint China-Uganda project whose construction was done by the Tian Tang Group and is part of China’s “One Belt One Road” initiative.
Participating in the meeting were ministers of state financing and economic development, labour, industrial and productivity, and trade, industry, and cooperatives. Workers MPs, who are elected by trade unions as per Uganda’s Constitution also participated
at the meeting.
Last month, IndustriALL Global Union affiliates, Uganda Textile, Garment, Leather and Allied Workers Union (UTGLAWU), Uganda Printers, Paper, Polyfibre and Allied Workers Union (UPPPAWU), Uganda Chemicals, Petroleum, and Allied Workers Union (UCPAWU), Uganda
Hotels, Food, Tourism, Supermarkets, and Allied Workers Union (UHFTAWU) petitioned the government expressing concerns on violations of freedom of association and collective bargaining especially the workers’ right to form and join
trade unions. The affiliates are also members of the federation, the National Union of Trade Unions (NOTU) which participated at the meeting. The union rights’ campaigns are supported by the Danish
Trade Union Development Agency (DTDA), and the Norwegian Society of Graduate Technical and Scientific Professionals (TEKNA).
“Most of the employers are refusing to recognise unions, which is a constitutional right, thus denying workers the right to collective bargaining and decent work. This violates International Labour Conventions 87 (Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize) and 98 (Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining),”
said Hajj Twaha Sempebwa, chairperson of the IndustriALL national council for Uganda. He further added that this contradicts Uganda’s national action plan on business and human rights
which states that employers must respect workers’ rights and promote decent work.
“Industrial parks should not be enclaves of workers exploitation that offend national and international labour standards. We are in solidarity with Ugandan trade unions on their calls for social dialogue to ensure compliance with labour standards to improve industrial relations,”
said Paule France Ndessomin, IndustriALL regional secretary for Sub-Saharan Africa.
__________________________
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