Taking COSATU Today Forward, 6 June 2024
Norman Mampane
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COSATU TODAY |
Taking COSATU Today Forward
‘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
Wednesday, 5 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!
- NUM set to convene its National Policy Conference from the 11th - 13th June 2024 at Birchwood Conference Centre
o South Africa
- COSATU notes and welcomes the resignation of Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Zizi Kodwa
- South African Communist Party Political Bureau statement
o International-Workers’ Solidarity!
- Education International delegation to defend teachers’ rights at the International Labour Conference
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics
NUM set to convene its National Policy Conference from the 11th - 13th June 2024 at Birchwood Conference Centre
Livhuwani Mammburu, NUM National Spokesperson, 05 June 2024
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) will from the 11th - 13th June 2024 convene its National Policy Conference, set to take place at Birchwood Hotel and Conference Centre in Boksburg.
The National Policy Conference is organised under the theme “41 Years of Unbroken Revolutionary Struggle for Workers”.
A range of organisational policy related issues within the four sectors that the NUM is organising (Mining, Energy, Construction and Metal Sectors) are scheduled to be thoroughly discussed and future plans outlined.
Amongst speakers invited and scheduled to give messages of support to delegates are leaders from the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), the African National Congress (ANC), the South African Communist Party (SACP) and other fraternal local and international organisations.
COSATU has already confirmed deployment of its General Secretary Solly Phetoe while SACP and ANC are still yet to confirm.
Members of the media are therefore invited to attend and cover the event and the full programme will be distributed to journalists at the venue.
For more detailed information, please contact:
Livhuwani Mammburu, NUM National Spokesperson, 083 809 3257
Luphert Chilwane, NUM Media Officer, 083 809 3255/ 073 354 6569
South Africa
COSATU notes and welcomes the resignation of Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Zizi Kodwa
Zanele Sabela, COSATU National Spokesperson, 05 June 2024
The Congress of South Africa Trade Unions (COSATU) notes and welcomes the resignation of Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Zizi Kodwa.
Minister Kodwa resigned with immediate effect after he was arrested and appeared in the Palm Ridge Magistrates Court on charges of having received R1.6 million in bribes.
COSATU is pleased that the step aside principle has come into effect. We applaud the political accountability that is developing within the ANC in line with its renewal campaign.
Kodwa is the second minister facing charges for corruption after Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula was charged for receiving R2 million in kickbacks.
COSATU is encouraged that the ruling party is living up to its promise to be tough on corruption.
Issued by COSATU.
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South African Communist Party
Political Bureau statement
Dr Alex Mohubetswane Mashilo, SACP Central Committee Member, National Spokesperson & Political Bureau Secretary for Policy and Research, 5 June 2024
The South African Communist Party (SACP) Political Bureau held a special meeting on Wednesday, 5 June 2024, in Johannesburg. This sitting was preceded by a meeting of the National Office Bearers with the Secretariat as the core on Monday, 3 June 2024, a day after the Independent Electoral Commission announced and declared the results of the May 2024 national and provincial government elections as free and fair.
The SACP wishes to take this opportunity to thank all South Africans who exercised their democratic right to vote and to express the Party’s sincere gratitude to all the people, with the working class being the majority, who voted for our ally, the African National Congress. The SACP campaigned for the ANC across the length and breadth of our country within the framework of our ANC-led Alliance, its collective achievements, reconfiguration engagements and jointly consulted manifesto.
The votes received by the ANC maintain it as the largest party by electoral support in our country and reaffirm its outright majority in five provinces: Limpopo with 73.3 per cent, Eastern Cape with 62.16 per cent, North West with 57.73 per cent, Free State with 51.87 per cent and Mpumalanga 51.15 per cent. This is the will of the people. The SACP will defend it in advancing working-class interests across the board and considering the way forward nationally and in provinces where the ANC, although remaining the largest party by electoral support, did not secure the 50 per cent plus one required to form a majority government.
Matters of principle, guided by the interests of the working class, maintaining strategic consistency
We have campaigned against the anti-worker neo-liberal and corrupt state capture networks.
To maintain strategic consistency, the SACP is against seeking a coalition arrangement with the right-wing, DA-led anti-ANC neo-liberal forces. The core of the DA-led neo-liberal forces, highly supported dominant sections of capital, mainly the white bourgeoisie whose roots can be traced to the era of colonial and apartheid oppression of the black majority, organised itself into the so-called multi-party charter. This grouping also received support from western foundations.
In the same vein, the SACP is against seeking a coalition arrangement with the MKP, whose origins can be traced back to factionalism, the corruption of state capture and resistance to accountability, as outlined in the report of the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture and related Constitutional Court judgments.
Neo-liberal economic restructuring, which includes retrenchments – those announced during the May 2024 election campaign period in the mining and other sectors included, opposition to the national minimum wage, attacks of our collective bargaining framework and resistance to National Health Insurance, among others, has severely impacted the workers and impoverished populations of our country. These forces remain arrogant and anti-working class as evidenced in the DA’s reckless utterances.
The industrial-scale looting under state capture crippled many of our state-owned companies, public entities and financial resources, negatively impacting the capacity of our state to serve the people. The factional conduct and ethnic nationalism of those driving the MKP have negatively impacted our own, ANC-led movement, and the ANC’s electoral performance.
The votes and number of seats from the May 2024 national and provincial government elections offer coalition permutations with the features of a developmental and transformation purpose-driven ANC-led Government of National Unity – excluding both the DA and the MKP. The SACP will actively pursue this to become the outcome of the ANC-headed Alliance coalition engagement process – both within the Alliance and publicly through campaigning and mobilisation of the working class. This strategic task, outlined in our programme adopted during the July 2022, 15th National Congress of our Party, is crucial in defending and advancing the interests of the working class against its strategic adversaries.
The strategic adversaries of the working class include the neo-liberal and “looting” class networks, as well as fugitives from justice who have profited from state capture and fled South Africa to evade accountability. Intensifying efforts to track down and hold accountable those who were involved in and benefitted from the proceeds of state capture corruption and fraud must be a central component of the programmatic basis of the coalition arrangements that our movement should pursue.
In pursuing the ideal scenario under the circumstances and in the interests of the working class, the SACP will prioritise governance stability over the instability often associated with local government coalitions. The instability in local government has hindered effective governance and delivery of public goods and services and must be avoided, through clear guarantees. We will also insist on accountability and the interests of the people, especially the majority, the working class.
The interests of the working class encompass priorities such as large-scale employment creation to resolve the unemployment crisis through industrialisation and structural economic transformation, poverty eradication, the implementation of a developmental and transformative macroeconomic policy to achieve these two goals alongside other working-class interests. A more caring social policy, including an advance towards a universal basic income grant and the rollout of the National Health Insurance to ensure quality healthcare for all, form part of crucial working-class interests.
The protection of workers’ rights and other achievements, along with addressing challenges impacting the delivery of public goods and services, including infrastructure development and maintenance in municipalities, should be integral components of the programmatic basis of the coalition arrangements that our movement should seek.
Rolling back austerity measures and other neo-liberal policy prescriptions will be crucial for achieving an economic turnaround and ensuring the provision of essential social services, such as quality healthcare. This must be included in the programmatic basis of coalition arrangements.
Internationally, we remain firm in our unwavering support for the people of Palestine against the genocide on them by the apartheid Israeli settler state. Maintaining the entire progressive thrust of South Africa’s international relations and co-operation policy, including deepening alignment with the BRICS Plus community of states and solidarity support for Cuba against imperialist aggression, should be upheld as part of the programmatic basis of the coalition arrangements that our movement should advocate for.
The Independent Electoral Commission
The Political Bureau commended the IEC but expressed deep concern regarding the issues that affected the elections from the commission’s side. The concerning issues include major technological breakdowns, which contributed to delays in the voting process and system downtime disruption of the counting process. An investigation into why these issues occurred is essential. This investigation must include examining where the IEC sourced the technology it used and, if it was sourced from another country, assessing that country’s attitude and its current relations with ours at present. The investigation is crucial to prevent future disruptions and secure the credibility of our elections, safeguarding our democratic national sovereignty.
Detailed assessment
The Political Bureau meeting focused on the immediate question of coalition arrangements in view of the imperative for a new government to be established in line with the tight constitutional and electoral law timeframes.
The next step, going forward, will be an in-depth assessment of the May 2024 national and provincial government elections, considering all variables that played a part in the results. This will guide the enhancement of the programmatic basis of the coalition arrangements that we wish to see our movement pursuing.
The in-depth assessment will also inform the direction the SACP will take at its Special National Congress later this year, as well as at the 16th National Congress in 2027, regarding future elections.
Issued by the South African Communist Party,
Founded in 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa.
Media, Communications & Information Department | MCID
International-Solidarity
Education International delegation to defend teachers’ rights at the International Labour Conference
trade union rights are human rights trade union rights, 5 June 2024
From 3-14 June, an Education International (EI) delegation is attending the 112th session of the International Labour Conference. Sixty-nine teachers and education professionals from 35 countries are present at the annual conference of the International Labour Organization (ILO).
Held under the auspices of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, this global event brings together representatives of governments and of workers’ and employers’ organisations. It is the place where new policy priorities are discussed, where international labour standards are adopted, and their implementation supervised. This year, representatives from 45 EI affiliates stand ready to defend the labour rights of the profession in the various committees of the conference.
As every year, the Committee on the Application of Standards (CAS) will review the implementation of labour standards and examine specific cases of trade union rights violations. The 25 countries selected to be examined by the committee this year include Belarus, Cambodia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Eswatini, Georgia, Guatemala, Japan, Kazakhstan, Philippines, Paraguay, and Turkey.
Education International and its affiliates will take part in the debates to ensure that the Committee adopts strong recommendations urging governments to act in favour of workers. The representatives of education unions will put the recently adopted recommendations of the UN High-Level Panel on the Teaching Profession to good use in the interventions.
These 59 landmark recommendations call for urgent government action to end the global teacher shortage and ensure teachers are valued and respected. The recommendations emphasise the importance of coordinated and institutionalised social and policy dialogue. The Panel also reaffirms the need to fulfil existing rights that are the foundation for quality education and quality teaching. Finally, the Panel emphasises the importance of the right to strike as a last resort to ensure decent working conditions.
On 10 June, Haldis Holst, EI Deputy General Secretary, will deliver a speech on behalf of Education International, as part of the discussion on the report of the ILO Director General Gilbert Houngbo. The focus will be on the role of quality education in social justice and on the recommendations emerging from the United Nations High-Level Panel on the Teaching Profession.
Another item on the agenda of the International Labour Conference will be a discussion on decent work and the care economy. This discussion pertains to EI's efforts to improve decent working conditions for paid care workers which include early childhood education teachers and educators.
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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