COSATU Today 17 November 2009

The Congress of South African Trade Unions rejects and condemns the undermining response to the memorandum submitted to the Sun International by workers on 31 October 2009.

Sun International and its Sun City management, their contractors, labour brokers and their shareholders have known about racism, exploitation, victimization and intimidation, which is has been led by Falcom Security Company for years.

Sun International’s response to investigate our memorandum or issues is a way of delaying so that it can continue with its capitalist agenda for making profits at the expense of our poor workers. Workers are working under very bad condition, under labour brokers such as inn- staff which employed more than 7 000 – 8000 employees. Others are employed under Falcon Security Company leader of racism in Sun City.

These are all the issues that we have raised in the memorandum and in a brief meeting with the International group HR executive on 10 November 2009 on which we did not agree:

Ø Exploitation of workers has been happening for years

Ø Racism has been happening to the extent that one worker was put in a room with the snake for hours, and workers have been called baboons and ‘kaffir’ for years.

Ø Workers are not allowed to exercise their rights of joining the union of their choice.

Ø Workers are employed as casual, contractors, temporaries with no benefits e.g. UIF, no Health and Safety Act and employers not respecting all labour legislatives.

The BEE, shareholders leading the capitalist agenda are exploiting poor workers. There is no decent job at Sun City under Sun International at all.

With Falcon Security Company, we are not compromising or negotiating; they must go. COSATU calls for the termination of their contracts, the resignation of Mr. Burger. It does not take away the racism and discrimination that is taking place led by Falcon Security Company and shareholders.

The programme of action is starting from 3^rd December 2009 throughout the holidays to the 2010 FIFA action.

COSATU members first are our priority but racism and exploitation is criminal.

Provincial action starts on 26 November 2009 against the closure of Taung Agriculture, exposing corruption, racism and demobilization

On 3^rd December 2009 there will be protest action in Mafikeng with a march to the provincial government and the NWDC, exposing corruption, the racism of Falcon Security Company, and demanding that all racist farmers in the province who were given bail must be re-arrested. We will also fight against labour brokers.

2 Alliance Summit

2.1 Statement on the Alliance Summit

13-15 November 2009, Esselen Park, Ekurhuleni

The African National Congress, South African Communist Party, Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African National Civic Organisation gathered at the Alliance Summit, in Esselen Park, Ekurhuleni.

The focus of the Summit was to review the implementation of the Programme of Action that emanated from our shared electoral platform in the 2009 Election Manifesto. The alliance thanked millions of our people for the confidence they have shown in the ANC led alliance and returning the ANC to government in the elections held in April 2009. Summit also reconfirmed the resolutions of the last Alliance Summit held in May 2008 and the Alliance Economic Summit held in October 2008.

The Summit took place in the midst of the global economic crisis, which has had a profound impact on the workers and the poor majority of our people: nearly a million jobs have been lost in the formal sector in the course of this year. There have been company closures, mass layoffs and deepening indebtedness for many South Africans.

Against this background, in the coming period we shall be working together as the Alliance on the following key programmatic areas:

Economy development: All Alliance partners reaffirmed the commitment to ensuring the vigorous implementation of the NEDLAC Framework Agreement on South Africa Response to the Global Economic Crisis. The Summit agreed that there is a need to link our short-term counter-cyclical response with our long term objectives of transforming the structure of the economy and moving to a different growth path. We support Government's infrastructure investment programme as key component of South Africa's response to the crisis.

The scale and scope of industrial policy needs to be increased, and funding needs to be increased commensurately. The summit agreed that the Alliance Task Team on macro-economic policy must remain seized with reviewing and broadening the mandate of the Reserve Bank.

National Planning Commission: The Alliance agreed with the broad thrust of the Alliance discussion document on the Green Paper on National Strategic Planning. In particular we agreed that there is a need for the National Planning Commission (NPC) located in the Presidency, which will be chaired by the Minister in the Presidency for the NPC and whose main responsibility will be to ensure an integrated strategic planning across government.

Towards energy security and sustainability: The summit recognised the importance of energy security in order to advance the developmental agenda of the country. The summit also noted with concern that the successive tariff increase requests through the multiyear price determination by Eskom will negatively impact on society, the economy and jobs. The summit therefore supported efforts to have the tariff increases minimised.

The summit also agreed that we will ensure that government-led energy policies place greater emphasis on sustainable and renewable technologies and the creation of green jobs. We also agreed that our energy mix must contribute to our international obligations to promote a cleaner environment and mitigate the effects of climate change. The alliance will conduct a campaign for energy efficiencies and to promote the use of alternative energy sources in society.

Rural development: The Summit agreed to work towards a comprehensive approach to rural development which will focus on the following: food security, transformation of the apartheid spatial reality, expansion of provision of social and economic infrastructure, the plight of farm dwellers and farm workers and systematic promotion of co-operatives.

Education: The Summit reaffirmed education as a key priority of our movement. A mass campaign for basic education, public sector workers will play a role in this campaign. The ANC-led Alliance will launch a quality education and teaching for all - to be launched before Alliance Education Transformation Summit next year. The Campaign will mobilize our communities, the parents, the learners, the teachers and government education of officials. This will include the enforcement of "non-negotiables" agreed to at the previous Alliance Education Summit.

With regard to our approach to higher education and training the Summit agreed to continue with a process to realign and build capacity for FET colleges and align the SETA's to produce skills to meet our developmental objectives. We support the call and will participate dynamically in government led summits on Higher Education and Skills development to be convened in 2010.

Health: The transformation of the national health system will require strategic leadership through the Alliance to mobilize society around a social compact for health care transformation. Central to the implementation of the Ten-Point Plan for health care transformation is organization and mobilization of our people.

In the period ahead we will, working together with government and SANAC, mount a campaign for HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment, which includes campaign for HIV/AIDS Testing and Counselling, involving mobilization of our society.

We will also mount an ANC-led Alliance campaign on NHI - which will involve public education, and engagements with various sectors of society around the vision and the principles of NHI. This campaign will also emphasise improvement in the quality of healthcare in our health institutions.

Local government: The Summit supports the development of Local Government's "Turn Around Strategy Framework", led and driven by the ANC led Alliance and implemented by Government at all levels, through the full involvement of communities. The intentions of the Turn Around Strategy are to deliver quality, affordable and reliable services to South Africans. An Alliance Summit on Local Government will be held early next year, to focus on service delivery.

ANC Centenary Preparations The Summit noted the centenary celebrations of the ANC and we affirmed our support for the preparations towards 2012, which will not be just ANC-led Alliance celebrations but for our people as a whole.

2010 Soccer World Cup Next year our country will host one of the biggest sporting event in the world, the FIFA Soccer World Cup. We call on all South Africans to rally behind Bafana Bafana, our National Team.

We wish all South Africans a happy and safe festive seasons and a prosperous new year. We call on those who will be on the road to exercise extreme caution to minimize road carnage.

Issued by:
African National Congress
South African Communist Party
Congress of South African Trade Unions
South African National Civic Organisation

2.2 YCLSA welcomes Alliance Summit outcomes

Gugu Ndima, YCL Spokesperson, 16 November 2009

The Young Communist League of South Africa (uFasimba) welcomes the Alliance Summit outcomes and declaration as presented yesterday by the leaders of Cosatu, SACP, SANCO and ANC. The Summit is a representation of a departure from old-school mentality of such gatherings being a platform to further alienate the Alliance partners from the ANC, and shows the determination of our leaders to unite all of South Africa.

The outcomes of the Summit also disproved the prophets of doom whose intentions were to see the Alliance ultimately break in the hands of the current leadership. We are also pleased that those who are in the leadership and were quoted as saying there is an intended left takeover, have come to appreciate and endorse the new spirit of sustaining lifelong relations amongst the allies.

We particularly welcome the determination by our leadership to focus on employment creation as a crisis that affects millions of young people around the country. The youth of our country have been the most hit by the economic recession, which resulted in retrenchments that followed the “last in first out principle”. The hunger for new jobs represents a powder-keg that is waiting to explode, and the sooner this is addressed the better.

We further welcome the commitment by the Alliance leadership to vigorously campaign against HIV/AIDS, again a nemesis for the youth of our country. The statistics presented by the Department of Health on the shocking rate of deaths in relation to the rate of births, and the number of young people infected with HIV/AIDS means that our political leadership should depart from denying the existence of HIV/AIDs and enter a new paradigm of uniting our country against this scourge. The resolutions of the Summit presents hope to our youth that those who are infected will be provided with anti-retroviral drugs and that those who are not, will get adequate health care that will keep them healthy and fit.

We equally welcome the “uncomfortable” attitude of the Alliance leadership towards the 45% tariff increase over the next three years by Eskom. This means that the Alliance takes the impact of the tariffs on our economy and on the working class and the poor seriously. We hope that the leadership of Eskom or Nersa will heed to this call and ensure that they halt their intentions, and raise money elsewhere.

We want to state for the record that we are not surprised that the President of the Republic intervened on the Eskom crisis. Eskom remains a national company and any crisis that happens in that institution should require an intervention from the highest office of the land. The Democratic Alliance would have done the same and even worse, and that they should not use this as a platform to win votes in future elections.

The YCLSA will do everything in its powers to ensure that the Alliance remains united, focused and provide leadership to society. We call on all members of the Alliance structures to ensure that the same spirit as displayed over the weekend at the Summit filters down to provincial, regional and local structures.

3 South Africa

3.1 Support for North West Premier in fight against corruption

Solly Phetoe, COSATU NW Provincial Secretary, 16 November 2009

The Congress of South African Trade Unions supports the North West Premier’s decisive action to fight corruption. The forensic investigation in the following departments: Education, Public Works, Roads and Transport, Health, Safety and Security, and Agriculture must be extended to Economic affairs, and Sports Arts and Culture.

COSATU calls on the Premier to give all key strategic officials of all the departments leave without pay to allow proper investigation

It is known that an investigation that takes place while the officials are present will be a futile exercise because they will be defending themselves.

Investigation must be combined with action. Those who are implicated must go and be punished and pay back the public funds.

COSATU also calls the Premier to investigate all the farms that belong to MECs, government officials and mayors and how did they get them, including the implementation task team report against municipalities.

3.2 YCLSA Calls on DA to stop harassing Zuma

Gugu Ndima, YCL Spokesperson, 17 November 2009

The Young Communist League of South Africa (uFasimba) calls on the Democratic Alliance to stop harassing the President of the country, Jacob Zuma, through their application seeking to reverse the decision to drop the charges against Zuma by NPA Acting National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), Adv. Mokotedi Mphse.The latest attempt by the DA to accuse both Mphse and Zuma of trying to stop the case from getting to court shows that the DA has no interest in law but in attracting media attention.

The DA was one of the political parties which insisted on the “rule of law” when the YCLSA charged that the NPA was being used as part of the political conspiracy, and for them to now undermine the decision by the Acting NDPP is tantamount to mob justice and a smack in the face of the same “rule of law” that they were pursuing.

Hellen Zille is aware that there is no case for both Zuma and the NPA to answer, and that the matter is closed, but is however insistent that the matter should be brought to court again. We do not believe that the President should be subjected to any further persecution, especially by a political party whose leader and its votes are dependent on the number of times they appear on newspapers.

We also question as to whose interests Hellen Zille is serving, if not of those who were implicated in the conspiracy (Penuell Maduna, Bulelani Ncguka). We also wonder why it is only Zille and not these two who are pursuing the matter. Who is Hellen Zille fronting for?

It is time for Zille and company to accept that Zuma is President of the Republic and move on from their affection with this matter.If Hellen Zille and the DA do not stop pursuing this matter, they will be working against the spirit initiated by Zuma to work together with the opposition parties.

4 Announcements

4.1 YCLSA Political School to commence on 18 November 2009

Gugu Ndima, YCL Spokesperson, 17 November 2009

The Young Communist League of South Africa (uFasimba) will hold a National Cadre School this week as part of our preparations for the Special National Congress of the SACP. The National Political School will look into the "South African Road to Socialism"; "The Alliance, National Democratic Revolution and Socialism" and discuss the SACP Discussion Document to the Special Congress.

We will also discuss the current global economic crises and the response by our country and its impact on the youth.

The National Cadre School will be addressed by the YCLSA National Secretary (Buti Manamela), SACP General Secretary (Blade Nzimande), SACP CC Members (George Mashamba and Rob Davies), ANC NEC member (Ngoako Ramatlhodi) and the Minister of Finance (Pravin Gordan).

Other topics will include Global Warming and Climate Change, the current water crisis, and the role that young people will play.

Details of the Political School

Dates: 18th November 2009- 22nd of November 2009

Venue: The Lakes Hotel, Benoni (next to Lakeside Mall)

Media is hereby invited

Issued by the YCLSA Head office

Contact

Gugu Ndima

National spokesperson

076 783 1516

Richard Mamabolo

National officer for Cadre development

0796700274

Patrickn Craven (National Spokesperson)

Congress of South African Trade Unions

1-5 Leyds Cnr Biccard Streets

Braamfontein

2017

P.O.Box 1019

Johannesburg

2000

South Africa

Tel: +27 11 339-4911/24

Fax: +27 11 339-5080/6940

Mobile: +27 82 821 7456

E-Mail: pat...@cosatu.org.za

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