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At the center of his struggle with the government is the failure to deal with corruption and the dispute over salary increases in the public service.
FILE: Cosatu is organizing massive national protests for next week. Image Kaylynn Palm / EWN
JOHANNESBURG – As Cosatu prepares for its massive national protests next week, the labor federation has thrown its gauntlet on the current administration, saying it is time to lead the fight against the impending collapse of the economy and reject greed and mismanagement. of the country.
The section 77 strike, planned for next Wednesday, comes on the heels of revelations of large-scale corruption during the acquisition of COVID-19 resources.
The section contained in the Labor Relations Law grants workers the right to participate in legal actions of protest to promote or defend socioeconomic interests.
Cosatu, who has been angry at President Cyril Ramaphosa and his cabinet for some time, will finally have a chance to express his frustrations through pickets, marches and other forms of national protest next week.
Although the organization has listed several problems that have led to the strike, at the center of its struggle with the government is the failure to deal with corruption and the dispute over the public service salary increase.
Cosatu is in alliance with the ANC and has used its political power to negotiate with the state, something that is now a thing of the past after the Treasury’s decision not to allocate funds to wage increases for workers in the public service.
That’s where most of the federation members work.
In a forceful statement issued Monday, the organization draws the line in the sand, saying that if its affiliates did not take a stand and defend the interests of their members, this would represent the worst form of cowardice anyone would experience. to regret.
Read the full statement below:
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) continues to intensify its national mobilization efforts in preparation for the next national socio-economic strike that will take place on October 7, 2020, the World Day for Decent Work. The Federation is calling on all workers and South Africans to join the strike next week. South Africa is teetering on the brink of collapse and it is high time that we all stood up and demanded urgent action from policy makers and decision makers.
Frontline workers have performed heroically since the coronavirus outbreak. The insufficiency of the country’s economic system left workers; especially frontline workers exposed to the elements during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Many of them contracted this deadly virus due to a lack of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and the systemic failure of the public transportation system.
The failure of the public transportation system was a reminder that most citizens do not have access to a reliable, affordable, and integrated public transportation system. This failure of public transportation reflects the failures of our overall economic system.
Our public transportation system is not safe, and many workers contracted the virus from fully loaded taxis. The government’s failure to adequately regulate and support the public transportation system.
It is impossible to solve serious economic challenges without addressing major problems such as transportation in the country, which is the lifeblood of the economy. In our view, this is crucial to enhancing local economic development and eliminating the spatial challenges of apartheid.
Most citizens, especially those in rural areas, cannot access social services such as health due to lack of transportation. The current transportation system does not support other areas of social development.
The blatant undermining of collective bargaining currently taking place in the public service is a test for the labor movement in the country. This represents the blatant attempt to erode hard-won workers’ rights and reverse these gains of democracy. Frontline workers are forced to fight a deadly virus and at the same time defend their rights that are being violated, including the non-implementation of Resolution 1 of 2018.
Since the beginning of the current capitalist crisis, the ruling elites have imposed extreme sacrifices on the workers. They will be successful if, as workers, we show weakness or if we follow a class collaborationist line.
It is clear that the government expects our members to make sacrifices for an economic crisis that has been exacerbated by looting and mismanagement in government, state-owned companies and municipalities.
The largest group to solve South Africa’s myriad problems is state inefficiency and the scourge of corruption. The proposed privatization of SAA symbolizes this inefficiency and corruption. We have a corporate welfare state that continues to take resources from the poor to support corporations without any strings attached.
Corruption in the private sector has seen prices rise in many sectors of the economy, such as the retail and pharmaceutical sectors, therefore exacerbating existing inequality and poverty.
According to government figures, corruption costs South Africa’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at least 27 billion rand annually, depriving the country of possible 76,000 jobs that would otherwise have been created.
Annually, almost R80 billion are taken out of the country illegally, which places South Africa as one of the countries with high illicit financial movements. The South African economy has paid a huge price for transfer pricing and other forms of illegal capital flight by multinational companies.
The COVID-19 FIU TERS Fund has been looted by many employers who have not paid the money to the relevant workers, leaving many families struggling to put food on the table.
PPE’s corruption bidding allegations have demonstrated the depth of the problem and more than 250 workers have lost their lives in the health sector as a result of inadequate provision of protective equipment.
Year after year, the Auditor General reports increasing levels of corruption, fraud and unsuccessful spending in government, and what is more alarming is the growing number of strategic state-owned companies that are devastated by mismanagement and now have liquidity problems or they are bankrupt.
We know that both in the economic boom and in the crisis, it is the bosses who benefit and the workers suffer. Therefore, without a fight, it would be the elite 1% that continues to benefit while the poor majority suffocates by the austerity measures imposed by the government.
This is the time for the labor movement to take the lead in fighting this looming collapse and reject the greed and mismanagement of the country. Our inability to take a stand and defend the interests of our members against the looting and mismanagement of the country would represent the worst form of cowardice that we would live to lament.
We hope that all COSATU affiliates will be distinguished by their ability to fight for their members and the working class as a whole. The trade union movement needs to show and demonstrate that it is morally and temperamentally fit to lead this fight. This is the time for sustained acts of massive civil disobedience because the elites no longer have a counterargument. No one is buying her neol midnight mantra that it has never made any economic sense.
For us, as workers, it begins with the expropriation of surplus value, we see this as the root cause of corruption, that is, paying workers for less than they produce. Corruption / dishonesty is an inherent and fundamental value system of the capitalist system in general. Any development model that exploits and does not involve people is corrupt. We believe as workers that economic development must include human rights, community rights, and also address issues of equity and justice.
In South Africa, we have Alliance capitalism, where big companies collude and act like cartels, but are only charged for 10% of their profits. The 10% turnover, which is the maximum penalty that can be imposed by the Competition Tribunal, is inadequate to act as a deterrent and many companies have high profits and can pass these penalties on to customers through high service fees and fees. interest.
The cartels in this country have stolen billions of rand from businesses, taxpayers, and ultimately consumers. Cartels have distorted economic markets and served to stifle innovation; after all, companies that charge abnormal prices have little incentive to spend money on research and development. Your anti-competitive deals have hurt consumers and destroyed our economy.
A World Bank study on competition in South Africa noted, for example, that in the case of four cartels for corn, wheat, poultry and pharmaceuticals, products that account for 15.6% of the consumer basket Of the poorest 10%, conservative estimates indicate that about 200,000 people would rise above the poverty line when tackling cartel overcharges.
We demand decisive action against the deterioration of the country’s socio-economic situation. The amendment to the Competition Law was intended to allow company directors and managers to be held criminally liable for their company’s collusive behavior, but so far no one has been sent to prison.
The Auditor General’s office has been empowered to take action against officials and employees who waste taxpayers’ money, as well as those who know money is being stolen but do not act against the culprits. We demand more action from the Attorney General’s office to hold criminals accountable.
The Federation also demands that families of politicians be prohibited from doing business with the state. Politicians who insist that their families do business with the government must resign from their political positions.
As Nedlac partners, we have obtained a legal opinion that supports this measure and we ask the South African cabinet to support and implement it. The fight against corruption asks all of us to be united, principled, determined and bold. This is a fight we cannot afford to lose.
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