The official publication of the Congress of South African ... · The official publication of the Congress of South African Trade Unions. 2 MAYDAY March SAN C O ... SANCO - Cde SPD

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www.cosatu.org.za

Volume 26 • Issue No.1 • April/May 2017

Denosa and Nehawu go Back to BasicsThousands of workers join the marches

NUM rejects the proposed power stations shut down by Eskom- says NUM

1st May 1950 Notably, the strike which brought the country to a halt in protest against the shooting of strikers on 1 May. It is this turning point that we are celebrating on the 1st of May 2017 as the South African May Day, because as much as was the Congress of the People, and the Freedom Charter, that were some of the later consequences of what happened on that day in 1950, this was the founding moment of our victory.

Remembering Comrade Chris Hani

the ShopstewardThe official publication of the Congress of South African Trade Unions

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MAYDAYMarch

SANCO

1 May 2017 - 09h00 “Build COSATU Engines for People’s Power

on the Ground, through Struggle for Ownership and Control of the Economy”

English

COSATU Priority Campaign 2017 ► Recruitment, retention and membership service campaign ► Provident fund/Social security reform► Living wage campaign► Banning labour brokers►Anti-privatisation►Public transport►Opposition to e-tolling►Anti-corruption campaign►National Health Insurance►Occupational H ealth and Safety

JOIN MAYDAY 2017 Marches in your area

PROVINCE RALLY VENUE CONTACT SPEAKERSFree State Mangaung

(Main Celebration)

Mangaung Loch Logan Park

Monyatso Mahlatsi 076 115 9923Pitso 079 0991 581

COSATU - Cde Sidumo DlaminiANC - Cde Jacob ZumaSACP - Cde Blade NzimandeSANCO - Cde Richard Mdakane

Mpumalanga Hectospruit Tebukhosi Lodge Thabo Mokoena 073 750 2041James Mhlabane 082 372 6653

COSATU - Cde Tyotyo JamesANC - SACP - Cde Frans baleniSANCO - Cde JJ Skhosana

North West Klerksdorp Jouberton Township Job Dliso 082 4631 840Kopano Konopi 082 339 5836

COSATU - Cde Thamsanqa MatosaANC - Cde SACP - Cde Thulas NxesiSANCO - Cde Robert Tsikwe

Limpopo Polokwane Peter Mokaba Stadium Gerald Twala 071 5872 872Louisa Nxumalo 082 339 6004

COSATU - Cde Solly PhetoeANC - SACP - Cde Senzeni ZokwanaSANCO - Cde Lucas Qakaza

Northern Cape Upington Pabalelo Stadium Anele Gxoyiye 082 4016 598 COSATU - Cde Mugwena MalulekeANC - Cde SACP - Cde Chris MatlhakoSANCO - Cde Elena English

De Aar Nonzwakazi Stadium Thandi Makhapela 079 481 9077 COSATU - Cde Cde Andre KrielANC - Cde SACP - Cde Madala MasukuSANCO - Cde Solly Legodi

KwaZulu Natal Durban Gugu Dlamini Park Edwin Mkhize 082 399 7756 COSATU - Cde Zingiswa LosiANC - SACP - Cde Solly MapailaSANCO - Richard Mkhungo

Mhlathuze (Richards Bay)

Mhlathuze Municipality Park

Lindani Mashaba 082 714 0781 079 916 3128

COSATU - Cde Joe KokelaANC - Cde SACP - Cde Yunus CarrimSANCO - Cde Zet Luzipho

UMzimkhulu uMzimkhulu TVET Gugulethu Mavuma 072 272 0128 COSATU - Cde Themba KhumaloANC - Cde SACP - Cde Ben MartinsSANCO - Cde NomaGugu Luzulane

Newcastle Allen Street (BMW Garage) to Trimpark

Nkosinathi Mazibuko 072 430 4179 COSATU - Cde Zizamele CebekhuluANC - Cde SACP - Cde Charles SetsubiSANCO - Cde Bheki Khanyile

Gauteng Sandton Sandton Park to Johannesburg Stocks Exchange and Media 24

Dumisani Dakile 082 727 1422Matserane 083 587 2766

COSATU - Cde Bheki NtshalintshaliANC - Cde SACP - Cde Jeremy CroninSANCO - Cde

Western Cape Cape Town Workers to gather at Keizerkraght and march to Parliament

Tony Ehrenreich 082 773 3194 Paul Bester 084 587 3059

COSATU - Cde Freda OosthuysenANC - CdeSACP - Cde Lechesa TsenoliSANCO - Cde Bonisile Malindi

Eastern Cape Bizana Mphuthumi Mafumbatha Stadium

Xolani Malamlela 082 4552 745 COSATU - Cde Mike TauANC - CdeSACP - Cde Mandla MakupulaSANCO - Cde

Komani (Queenstown)

Tobi Kula Indoor Sports Centre

Mkhawuleli Maleki 082 339 5482 COSATU - Cde Oscar PhakaANC - Cde SACP - Cde Fezeka LoliweSANCO - Cde SPD Skhosana

King William’s Town

Victoria Grounds Mkhawuleli Maleki 082 339 5482 COSATU - Cde Bereng SokeANC - CdeSACP - Cde Buti ManamelaSANCO - Cde

Port Alfred Port Alfred Jawuka Hall

Xolani Malamlela 082 4552 745 COSATU - Cde Aubrey Tshabalala ANC - CdeSACP - Cde Bulelwa TunyiswaSANCO - Cde

SACPSACP

Issued by: Congress of South African Trade Unions, COSATU House, 110 Jorissen Street, Johannesburg. Tel: 011 339 4911

Shereno Printers: 087 941 4100

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MAYDAYMarch

SANCO



English




(Main Celebration)















Lindani Mashaba 082 714 0781 079 916 3128













Komani (Queenstown)







SACPSACP



MAYDAYMarch

SANCO



English




(Main Celebration)















Lindani Mashaba 082 714 0781 079 916 3128













Komani (Queenstown)







SACPSACP



4

www.cosatu.org.za

SACP

COSATU will lead its members and unions in their struggles and campaigns, as a way of building strong workplace organisations, and also consolidating their unity, cohesion and organisational power. We are calling on all our members and other unions to offer support to our campaigns, starting with the May Day activities.

We are marching all across the country to highlight specific issues that have been continuously raisedduring our workplace visits in the course of our ongoing listening campaign. COSATU remains resolute in its commitmenttothefightforworkers’rightsandsocio-economic justice for all.

Let us defend our jobs, let us defend our gainsTheyear2017isprovingtobeaverydifficultyearforthe workers in general, with our economy continuing to shed jobs, which is resulting in growing inequality and deepening poverty. But we are happy that the federation is continuing to defy all doomsayers this year, by protecting its unity and cohesion and taking the workers battles to the employers and all centres of political and economic power. We remain proud of the strides that we have made as afederationtodefendtheworkersandtoinfluencethepolicy direction in this country. We are gradually re-asserting ourselves as a social force for transformation and are also diligently rebuilding our organised power, including our capacity to mobilise. Since the 12th National Congress in 2015, we have managed to command the policy direction in the country and achieved the following:Unemployment Insurance Act• We pushed for the adoption of the Unemployment

Insurance Act by Parliament and which was later signed by the President.

• This is a progressive law, which will see billions of rands of UIF funds channelled to workers by increasingUIFbenefitsfrom8monthsto12months.

• It will increase maternity leave payments from 54% of income to 66%, including mothers, who had miscarriages in the third trimester and stillborns under maternity leave.

• It will empower the Minister to set special regulations for domestic workers on the issue of maternity leave.

• We are currently busy engaging with government and other social partners at Nedlac on how to expand access to the UIF to cover the informal sector and self employed workers, like taxi drivers, and on paternity, parental and adoption leave.

National Minimum Wage (NMW)• We have fought and ensured that we have a

legislated universal National Minimum Wage of R20 an hour, {R3464 a month for 40 hours per week, and R3897 a month for 45 hours a week}. This still does not address the minimum living standards of an average South African household and still falls shortofthefederation’sproposedfigureofR4500;but it represents a victory considering that for two years government and big business were insisting on the figure of R1 800 and COSATU draggedthemtothecurrentfigures.

• National Minimum Wage should herald the start of a new wage policy, which will help us overcome the legacy of an apartheid wage structure. The struggle for a Living Wage will be a long and difficult one, and will include the struggle foraffordable basic services like, transport and food, and provide decent wages and improved working conditions. All of this will only be achieved through the collective power of workers.

National Health Insurance (NHI)• The NHI is now a government policy and its

implementation is at a pilot phase. We are still engaging with the government to achieve full implementation of NHI across all provinces in the country.

• The objective of the NHI is to ensure universal health-care coverage and healthcare for all.

• The only outstanding issue is the establishment of the NHI Fund. COSATU will be campaigning to ensure that companies contribute to the fund through taxation.

Comprehensive Social Security (CSS)• Government has now released a discussion

document on CSS for engagement at NEDLAC andexpectitsfinalisationbySeptember2017butwe are of the view that the timelines are impossible.

COSATU wants to see the following:■ Establishment of a social security fund■ Expanding social assistance■ Enhancing social insurance fund■ Regulatory reform of the pensions and life

insurance industry■ Strengthen the links between social security and

labour■ Improvedunemploymentbenefitsandalignment

of social security with National Health Insurance. ■ Transformation of the Road Accident Fund (RAF)

totheRoadAccidentBenefitScheme

• COSATU shall remain at forefront of these negotiations and will make sure that the CSS benefits all people in the country, especially thevulnerable and the poor.

• We have already managed to stop government from implementing adverse Retirement Fund Reforms until there is a Comprehensive Social Security system in place. Right now, we want government to extend the 2018 deadline for Compulsory authorisation of workers Provident Funds because government released the paper later than the agreed deadline.

COSATU remains a giant and the leader of the packToday in South Africa, there is not a single organisation or institution that can claim to have defended the workers and the poor better than COSATU. COSATU has silenced the doubters and proved wrong the cynics, who argued that this giant federation had lost its vocation for greatness. We remain the biggest workers formation in the continent of Africa and we shall continue to grow our numbers by organising the unorganised. We have a recruitment campaign that will see each COSATU member recruiting one member a month called: “Each one recruit one, our power and strength is in our unity and numbers”This campaign is informed by our perspective that unless the working class unites, organise and raises itself to a hegemonic position in key sites of power, andstrengthensitscapacitytomobiliseandfight,theenvisaged economic transformation will never happen. Over the past 18 months, we have proved that we fully understand the workers’ message coming from

our 12th National Congress. Workers called for a mindset change in COSATU, with greater focus on the expectationsofourmembersattheworkplace,fightingfor greater job protection and better living wages, greater solidarity and unity in action, making leadership more visible and interactive, and communicating more effectively with our members.

Our performance is measurable in both scale and qualityWe have responded to the worker’s call by launching a campaign to listen to all the workers, particularly the most vulnerable, at workplace level and also at community meetings. We continue to do everything possible to recruit the unorganised workers into the unions and create more united, militant and powerful worker-controlled trade unions.• We stood firm side by side with the workers

demanding justice for the victims of the Lily Mine disaster. We have consistently demanded an investigation and the Department of Mineral Resources has relented and committed to an investigation and also to bring back the bodies of the three workers that remain trapped underground.

• We supported and continue to support the 3 000 Umbhaba Estate workers, who were dismissed for going on strike. We succeeded in forcing the Human Rights Commission to investigate the case of these workers.

• We led the charge and ultimately defeated the reactionary lobby groups like Free Market Foundation, South African Institute of Race Relations and backward looking political parties like the DA in their attempt to attack the National Minimum Wage and Collective Bargaining and other progressive policies.

Already this year we have seen unions like NEHAWU on strike at Social Development, NUMfightingagainstretrenchments across the mining sector and at Eskom. DENOSA has been taking up the issues affecting nurses aggressively at SANC and at other workplaces. SACTWU has been taking SARS head on to demand better policing of our borders from cheap textile imports. Our battles will continue to be concentrated toworkfloorissues,aswecontinuetovisitworkplacesand intervene, service and recruit members to build this giant federation.

One Union One Industry; One Country One Federation Workers of the World, Unite. You have nothing to lose but your Chains!”

AMANDLA!

COSATU celebrates the 2017 May Day holiday under the theme: “Build COSATU Engines for People’s Power on the Ground, through Struggle for Ownership and Control of the Economy”.

This theme reflects the focus areas of ourwork for this year, wherewewill be focusing onbuilding our engines, protecting jobs and pushing for economic transformation. We shall intensify our workplace visit campaigns to listen to the workers and also address all their challenges like we have been doing for the last 18 months.

“Build COSATU Engines for People’s Power on the Ground, through Struggle for Ownership and Control of the Economy”

5

www.cosatu.org.za

SACP

COSATU will lead its members and unions in their struggles and campaigns, as a way of building strong workplace organisations, and also consolidating their unity, cohesion and organisational power. We are calling on all our members and other unions to offer support to our campaigns, starting with the May Day activities.

We are marching all across the country to highlight specific issues that have been continuously raisedduring our workplace visits in the course of our ongoing listening campaign. COSATU remains resolute in its commitmenttothefightforworkers’rightsandsocio-economic justice for all.

Let us defend our jobs, let us defend our gainsTheyear2017isprovingtobeaverydifficultyearforthe workers in general, with our economy continuing to shed jobs, which is resulting in growing inequality and deepening poverty. But we are happy that the federation is continuing to defy all doomsayers this year, by protecting its unity and cohesion and taking the workers battles to the employers and all centres of political and economic power. We remain proud of the strides that we have made as afederationtodefendtheworkersandtoinfluencethepolicy direction in this country. We are gradually re-asserting ourselves as a social force for transformation and are also diligently rebuilding our organised power, including our capacity to mobilise. Since the 12th National Congress in 2015, we have managed to command the policy direction in the country and achieved the following:Unemployment Insurance Act• We pushed for the adoption of the Unemployment

Insurance Act by Parliament and which was later signed by the President.

• This is a progressive law, which will see billions of rands of UIF funds channelled to workers by increasingUIFbenefitsfrom8monthsto12months.

• It will increase maternity leave payments from 54% of income to 66%, including mothers, who had miscarriages in the third trimester and stillborns under maternity leave.

• It will empower the Minister to set special regulations for domestic workers on the issue of maternity leave.

• We are currently busy engaging with government and other social partners at Nedlac on how to expand access to the UIF to cover the informal sector and self employed workers, like taxi drivers, and on paternity, parental and adoption leave.

National Minimum Wage (NMW)• We have fought and ensured that we have a

legislated universal National Minimum Wage of R20 an hour, {R3464 a month for 40 hours per week, and R3897 a month for 45 hours a week}. This still does not address the minimum living standards of an average South African household and still falls shortofthefederation’sproposedfigureofR4500;but it represents a victory considering that for two years government and big business were insisting on the figure of R1 800 and COSATU draggedthemtothecurrentfigures.

• National Minimum Wage should herald the start of a new wage policy, which will help us overcome the legacy of an apartheid wage structure. The struggle for a Living Wage will be a long and difficult one, and will include the struggle foraffordable basic services like, transport and food, and provide decent wages and improved working conditions. All of this will only be achieved through the collective power of workers.

National Health Insurance (NHI)• The NHI is now a government policy and its

implementation is at a pilot phase. We are still engaging with the government to achieve full implementation of NHI across all provinces in the country.

• The objective of the NHI is to ensure universal health-care coverage and healthcare for all.

• The only outstanding issue is the establishment of the NHI Fund. COSATU will be campaigning to ensure that companies contribute to the fund through taxation.

Comprehensive Social Security (CSS)• Government has now released a discussion

document on CSS for engagement at NEDLAC andexpectitsfinalisationbySeptember2017butwe are of the view that the timelines are impossible.

COSATU wants to see the following:■ Establishment of a social security fund■ Expanding social assistance■ Enhancing social insurance fund■ Regulatory reform of the pensions and life

insurance industry■ Strengthen the links between social security and

labour■ Improvedunemploymentbenefitsandalignment

of social security with National Health Insurance. ■ Transformation of the Road Accident Fund (RAF)

totheRoadAccidentBenefitScheme

• COSATU shall remain at forefront of these negotiations and will make sure that the CSS benefits all people in the country, especially thevulnerable and the poor.

• We have already managed to stop government from implementing adverse Retirement Fund Reforms until there is a Comprehensive Social Security system in place. Right now, we want government to extend the 2018 deadline for Compulsory authorisation of workers Provident Funds because government released the paper later than the agreed deadline.

COSATU remains a giant and the leader of the packToday in South Africa, there is not a single organisation or institution that can claim to have defended the workers and the poor better than COSATU. COSATU has silenced the doubters and proved wrong the cynics, who argued that this giant federation had lost its vocation for greatness. We remain the biggest workers formation in the continent of Africa and we shall continue to grow our numbers by organising the unorganised. We have a recruitment campaign that will see each COSATU member recruiting one member a month called: “Each one recruit one, our power and strength is in our unity and numbers”This campaign is informed by our perspective that unless the working class unites, organise and raises itself to a hegemonic position in key sites of power, andstrengthensitscapacitytomobiliseandfight,theenvisaged economic transformation will never happen. Over the past 18 months, we have proved that we fully understand the workers’ message coming from

our 12th National Congress. Workers called for a mindset change in COSATU, with greater focus on the expectationsofourmembersattheworkplace,fightingfor greater job protection and better living wages, greater solidarity and unity in action, making leadership more visible and interactive, and communicating more effectively with our members.

Our performance is measurable in both scale and qualityWe have responded to the worker’s call by launching a campaign to listen to all the workers, particularly the most vulnerable, at workplace level and also at community meetings. We continue to do everything possible to recruit the unorganised workers into the unions and create more united, militant and powerful worker-controlled trade unions.• We stood firm side by side with the workers

demanding justice for the victims of the Lily Mine disaster. We have consistently demanded an investigation and the Department of Mineral Resources has relented and committed to an investigation and also to bring back the bodies of the three workers that remain trapped underground.

• We supported and continue to support the 3 000 Umbhaba Estate workers, who were dismissed for going on strike. We succeeded in forcing the Human Rights Commission to investigate the case of these workers.

• We led the charge and ultimately defeated the reactionary lobby groups like Free Market Foundation, South African Institute of Race Relations and backward looking political parties like the DA in their attempt to attack the National Minimum Wage and Collective Bargaining and other progressive policies.

Already this year we have seen unions like NEHAWU on strike at Social Development, NUMfightingagainstretrenchments across the mining sector and at Eskom. DENOSA has been taking up the issues affecting nurses aggressively at SANC and at other workplaces. SACTWU has been taking SARS head on to demand better policing of our borders from cheap textile imports. Our battles will continue to be concentrated toworkfloorissues,aswecontinuetovisitworkplacesand intervene, service and recruit members to build this giant federation.

One Union One Industry; One Country One Federation Workers of the World, Unite. You have nothing to lose but your Chains!”

AMANDLA!

COSATU celebrates the 2017 May Day holiday under the theme: “Build COSATU Engines for People’s Power on the Ground, through Struggle for Ownership and Control of the Economy”.

This theme reflects the focus areas of ourwork for this year, wherewewill be focusing onbuilding our engines, protecting jobs and pushing for economic transformation. We shall intensify our workplace visit campaigns to listen to the workers and also address all their challenges like we have been doing for the last 18 months.

“Build COSATU Engines for People’s Power on the Ground, through Struggle for Ownership and Control of the Economy”

6

www.cosatu.org.za

there is a new mood of political urgency in the organisations of the democratic movement. Having dismantled the apartheid regime, the revolutionary congress movement is

now suffering from a lack of political direction. This has been manifested in the limited success in transforming the economy and the recent losses in the last year’s local government elections. It is obvious that unless the democratic movement can develop a strategic perspective to guide it in the coming period, the remnants of white conservative movement will regain political power and seriously weaken any prospects of a fully democratic and non-racial society.

Accordingly the focus of this issue of the Shop steward is on the terrible state of the economy, the fluid political situation and the workplace issues that will dominate the public discourse this year. We are busy finalising the preparations for the upcoming COSATU Central Committee that will be convened at the end of May 2017. The SCEC decided that the Central Committee meeting will be held under the 12th National Congress Theme - “Unity and Cohesion of COSATU to advance the National Democratic Revolution [NDR] for Socialism”. We are also dealing with the political fallout as a result of the cabinet reshuffle as announced by the South African President Jacob Zuma recently. This has already forced the federation to denounce president Zuma and called for his resignation. This was not an easy decision and a lot of thought and debate went in to it.

We were not consulted on the decision but reading the reaction of the ANC members of the Top Six, it does not look like there was any meaningful consultation, something that is very troubling for us. We grappled with many questions , we needed to understand whether the Cabinet reshuffle was transparent and in the best interest of both the ANC and the country. We also looked at whether the reshuffle helped the fight against corruption. Lastly we looked at whether the reshuffle was based on merit and also if it assisted the fight for Radical Economic Transformation. The answer to all of these questions was negative. Also in assessing the whole sags including the latest developments, we also noted with concern the re- emergence of the past undemocratic practices ,which were previously used in the run-up to the ANC 52nd Polokwane Conference , in particular the use of state institutions and the SABC in factional battles, including the failure to consult ANC members and Alliance

partners. This has shifted the political sands inside and outside the movement but we need to soberly engage to understand its implications going forward.

Economic DebateWe are looking at some of the economic

matters and challenges facing the trade union movement and the country in general. We are highlighting some of the economic issues and also reflect on the

broader economic crisis engulfing South Africa. The federation is happy that some of its valuable ideas on restructuring the economy and forging a new growth path are gaining traction in the ANC and we are now busy pushing for some action on the side of government. What is clear now is that if the federation does not succeed in seizing the initiative, the opportunity for the unions to test their economic ideas in practice will remain remote. We need to engage on the clear definition of what radical transformation is. The elements of radical transformation should include the total banning of labour broking, state ownership or control commanding heights of the economy banks, mines, nationalisation of the Reserve bank, a public work employment programme, which is based on permanent decent jobs and youth employment programmes. All this should be driven by the State companies control of international trade for the benefit all South African not only a few exporters and imports. We need restrictions such as taxes on export of capital, high corporate taxes, land restitution reform which is linked to participation of rural people in the economy and the break-up of the agricultural oligopolists, and 50/50 partnership between workers and farm owners, performance requirements on business to establish plants/factories in rural areas in order to revitalise rural towns.

Economic downgrade This economic downgrade is a big deal for

COSATU, which is first and foremost an economic entity with the responsibility to look after the interest of its members and the working class. We are worried because the junk status will have inflationary results as it would result in an increase in borrowing costs not only for government but across the economy. Currently South Africa owes more than 2.2 trillion rand which is more than 50.7% of the national income or GDP and pays R 160 billion per annum in interest payment, which is very close to what government spends on social grants. According to the National Treasury the budget for 2017/18 totals R 1.56 trillion of which revenue covers R1.41 trillion. The remaining R 149 billion will be borrowed and an economic downgrade means that government will have to pay higher interest rates to borrow money to repay its massive loans.

There is real possibility that SA government will be forced to further raise taxes to fund most of its

spending. This unfortunately happens in the midst of a stagnant economy with high unemployment and a shrinking tax base. This country’s economy is propped up by the retirement’s savings of workers and an economic downgrade means that workers will definitely feel the impact on their lives. This continuing downgrade by ratings agencies will result in interest rates going up and the value of the rand going down. The value is important because if the rand value of the dollar falls, we end up paying more because the current economic structure mainly relies on imports than local production and on exports of raw minerals and not labour intensive products. This prejudices workers because the money in their pockets looses value. This is so because one of South Africa’s biggest imports is oil and workers will be confronted by this reality at their nearest taxi and bus rank when the price of going to work or sending their kids to school goes up. In 2016 imports of mineral fuels including oil amounted to about $10 billion.

National Treasury Transformation Trade unions have agreed to give the new

Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba a chance and we already encouraged that he is exploring bringing in progressive economists like Cde Chris Malikane on board to join the National Treasury. We have long said that the best way to transform Treasury is to bring in some progressive economists and economic thinkers to temper the hard-line neoliberal culture of that institution. The National Treasury is currently dominated by free market acolytes and true believers, who care very little about economic transformation. We would like to see more progressives joining the National Treasury if the institution is to be transformed. They should work to do away with the mechanisms of incremental or piecemeal reform that do not work.

Job losses The ongoing jobs losses in a number of economic

sectors are deeply alarming. We are very much We are troubled by the reports that AB InBev has offered voluntary severance packages to some of its middle managers, despite its commitments on post-merger employment. This follows Anglogold Ashanti’s announcement that it plans to retrench 849 workers in all its operations in South Africa; and the jobs carnage currently taking place in the poultry industry. We are still seeing the rising unemployment and we have been campaigning to ensure that government needs to stem the tide of the ongoing retrenchments. COSATU has been warning that while investment in South Africa through mergers and acquisitions has increased, these investments have resulted in the loss of jobs over time in the acquired companies. The AB Inbev merger has resulted in retrenchments by a company that has been solidly growing and that has not undertaken any retrenchment exercise in decades. The same workers, who have carried South

African Breweries on their backs are now being put to pasture because the company is chasing profits.

Immigration rulesThe federation has hit the ground running

with the call for the increased monitoring and enforcement of business/corporate and visas to ensure that only scarce skills should imported as South African has lot unskilled labour in abundance. In this regard more financial resources from the Treasury are needed to boost the enforcement capacity of the Department Home Affairs and Department of Labour. This is an issue that COSATU is not prepared to let go, especially with the emergence of the Chinese labour being imported into South Africa.

We are also still intensifying our campaign against the Lily Mine Company, working with many other unions across the sectarian lines. We are doing this because mine safety affects us all, irrespective of union affiliation and we all need to send a strong message to the mining sector by standing shoulder to shoulder on this cause. COSATU is still fighting for justice for the Lily Mine workers. We are still pushing for a fully fledged investigation of the Lily Mine tragedy because we believe that these sinkholes might have been caused by human conduct. COSATU still demands a commission of enquiry to explore whether the accident could have been avoided if proper planning; maintenance and early detection measures had been carried out. The DMR and the company need to make public the relevant geological and surveying reports from before the mine was set up, to the date of the incident. We are still continuing to demand that the Department of Mineral Resources fulfil and honour the many promises that were made to the workers and their families. Some workers were promised alternative employment and others were promised payments but nothing has happened since those promises were made.

This gives our government another reason for government to step in by nationalising some of the mines on behalf of the workers and the people of South Africa. Sadly, very early in the year , we have had to deal with the sad situation , when the Health Ombudsman ,Professor Malegapuru Makgoba presented a report that shows that over 94 psychiatric patients died, after being transferred to unregistered and ill prepared NGO facilities by the Gauteng Department of Health. This is a terrible tragedy that was simply preventable and could have been prevented if government had stopped outsourcing its mandate to private hands. While, we have seen the resignation of the Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu, we still need to reflect and sort out the mess that led to this bureaucratic bungling and this tragedy. We need to root out incompetence and also work to put together a coherent strategy and a solid plan to deal with

Editors note

Bheki Ntshalintshali Editor in Chief

Editorial Note

ediTor iN CHieF: Bheki Ntshalintshali ediTor: Norman Mampane lAyoUT & deSigN: Nthabiseng Makhajane ediToriAl boArd: Bheki Ntshalintshali, Zakhele Cele, Norman Mampane, Sizwe Pamla, Nthabiseng Makhajane SUbSCripTioN & diSTribUTioN: : Nthabiseng Makhajane priNTerS: Shereno Printers AdverTiSiNg SAleS: Nthabiseng Makhajane Tel: +27 (0)10 219 1341 Fax: 086 481 6163 email: [email protected] 110 Jorissen & Simmonds Street , Braamfontein, 2001 PO Box 1019, Johannesburg 2000 Tel: +27 (0)11 339 4911 Fax: +27 (0)11 339 5080/6940 www.cosatu.org.za© Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.

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Editorial Note

Word from the Editor

mentally ill patients in this country. South Africa’s constitution (section 27) instructs government to: take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of each of this right”. This constitutional right has been undermined by the commodification of health in South Africa. The main cause of this is the unjust and biased national health financing structure of our healthcare.

Policy Front We all need to push for the finalisation and the

introduction of the National Health Insurance. The main objective of NHI is to: provide universal access to quality health services; create a single fund to decrease financial risks associated with accessing health care ; procure services on behalf of the entire population and effectively mobilize and control key financial services; and improve the under resourced public sector. The NHI will help government deliver on its constitutional mandate. COSATU is also engaging with the new policy proposals by government. Government wants to introduce a new sugar tax and the federation rejects the sugar tax proposal ,as it is likely to result in job losses, increase taxes on the poor ,who buy these sugary drinks because their labour surplus has been appropriated by bosses through slave wages. It will also cause high prices for food products including transport. We argue that even if the sugar tax is imposed it would not result in the reduction in consumption of sugary products. If the treasury wants revenue it should impose taxes on financial transactions and not on productive economic activity, such as sugar industry in particular, where it is estimated that there is likelihood of loss of at least 5000 jobs. The government should rather come up with sugar standards that would apply to not

only beverages but also to other food products. We do encourage workers to watch their sugar intake and try to eat healthy but we also understand that workers do not earn enough to afford the luxury of choosing what they can and cannot eat.

Aluta Continua Our unions have already hit the ground running

with NEHAWU declaring a full-blown strike at the University of South Africa after salary increment negotiations deadlocked. The South African Municipal Workers’ Union has been going toe to toe with the City of Johannesburg’s mayor Herman Mashaba for his anti workers and anti union tendencies. South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (SATAWU), has already made its intentions clear that it will not compromise, when it comes to wage negotiations for the passenger bus sector. The unions have been very patient with the employers and we support the workers decision to withdraw their labour power.. We fully support the legitimate and fair demands from the unions and call on the employers to accede to these demands to avert a devastating strike. Workers are seeking a 12% across-the-board increase while employers are only offering 7.5%. We also agree that the bus industry needs to be transformed so that it complies with the prescripts of the LRA. Bus owners need to think about the workers and their passengers and not just about profits. The NUM has already stopped Anglo Gold Ashanti from retrenching 846 workers in all its operations in the country.

NEHAWU is currently waging one of the longest strikes at Social Development demanding that workers working conditions improve. We are also sending a clear message to the workers the decision by government introduce Independent Power Producers {IPP’s} to the national grid and subsequently Eskom’s decision to shut down five

power stations should be opposed. The federation will be submitting a section 77 at Nedlac on this matter as soon as possible and will mobilise across the society spectrum to fight against this suicidal decision by government. The NUM has estimated that over 40 000 workers will be affected by this reckless decision and almost a quarter a million people would be negatively affected by it. We fully support the National Union of Mineworkers {NUM} that is already mobilising its members to push back against this reckless decision. The federation is adamant that government should suspend IPP contracts until the clarity on the jobs issue has been provided. We also demand transparency and want to know, who are these IPP’s bringing into country in terms technology and skills. The country has invested billions in Eskom and now that we have an oversupply of electricity, they decide to shutdown power stations that produce electricity cheap and opt to buy it from IPP’s. This decision is going to destroy jobs and lives of the surrounding communities. Our position is that climate change needs must go hand in hand with the needs for jobs and this is our interpretation of a just transition towards clean energy. Clean energy should not be introduced at the cost of jobs.

The taxpayers are also picking the tab for these IPP’s because according to the Treasury as of March 2017 exposure to IPP amounted to R125.8 billion, which represents huge liability and transfer from the fiscus to the IPPs. IPPs are private companies and they should be required to create jobs, transfer technology and skills to workers that are employed in the fossil fuels sector in particular. Otherwise lack of jobs in the renewable sector could support claims that developed countries are using among others SA market to dump goods in South Africa. This decision also makes a mockery of government’s

commitment to job creation. This incoherent policy formulation is a serious cause for concern and makes the commitment to job creation and economic transformation sounds hollow and self serving.

This decision to shutdown power stations will not just affect jobs at the power stations but will also affect the coals mines that supply these power stations, the transport sector that carries these coals to the power stations, and the subcontractors. We do not see who will benefit from this poorly thought out project, which is why we need to know the identity of the owners of these IPP’s. We have a right to know whether those, who have endorsed this decision, are not directly or indirectly benefiting from it, as has been the case in many instances of looting.

Our message is clear, we do not need renewable energy unless there is certainty that current jobs will be preserved and new jobs will be created in the renewable sector. In the absence of a commitment to protect jobs there should not be any reckless action from government and Eskom. This is going to be a very hectic and busy year and we urge all workers to work with their unions to recruit more of their colleagues to COSATU. We are going to need to strengthen our muscle and build our numbers as the federation if we are to withstand the whirlwind that is on the horizon. We are busy with our Back to Basics and Workplace Visit campaign that seeks to ensure that employers do not rest on their laurels. As we begin the New Year COSATU insists that there should be timelines on implementation of free education for the poor and working class. South Africa has the financial capacity to fund free education particularly if a CEO can be paid a R50 million annual salary.

Aluta Continua

welcome in 2017, as we usher in a new Shopsteward Newspaper. The country is facing new but not different challenges associated

with being declared a ‘Junk status’, joblessness, lack of service delivery in communities and maladministration in various parastals and government departments. We send our heartfelt condolences to families of the many breadwinners as we continue to lose their lives on our roads. We hope that the Easter Weekend road safety awareness may be sustained.

Recently, workers participated in the remembrance of a working class leader, Comrade Chris Hani and let’s take stock of all achievements and tackle all challenges we facing today. Workers as organized detachment of the motive forces within a National Democratic Revolution, we must foster ahead and change society for the benefit

of society at large. We have a chance!The tasks that face us are enormous.

Millions of workers have to be organized and unionized; many of these workers are still under-employed under labour brokers! We must fight against the exploitation of workers in every sector.

In this Edition, we cover the broader political issues of the new year after the ANC January 8 Statement and the 22nd Anniversary celebration of the passing on of comrade Joe Slovo. COSATU has prioritized the Back to School Campaign by all communities. All learners must learn; all teachers must teach and education authorities must provide educational resources and support to re-kindle education to become an apex priority in our society. Every workplace must be re-organised and unionized. We reflect on trade union activities which are geared to enhance

vibrant trade unionism in every site of struggle or shopfloor. COSATU is first and foremost a shield of workers. Let’s uphold the class struggle and reverse the levels on exploitation by bosses, high poverty levels, inequalities ravaging communities and unemployment undermining human development. Going Back to Basics has to be practicalised! If for example, you are a researcher, then do research that would help the workers’ movement.

If you are a writer, expose the exploitation of workers in every sector by writing and putting things in perspective. If you are a Shopsteward, you have to represent and advocate for workers’ right in all workplaces.

Help expose the poverty wages and the adverse effect of being employed under labour brokers. On international issues, we reflect on

the high unemployment rate envisaged by the ILO through the World Social and Economic Outlook Report released in 2017. We also reflect on ‘How is the contour of the BRICS pattern?’. Hoping that you will enjoy reading the workers’ magazine and we welcome you to provide feedback to improve the content of your magazine for your benefit.

It is not yet Uhuru!Mampane Norman COSATU Shopsteward Editor

Norman Mampane - Editor

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local organization comes first and it leads to organisation at the national scale. Nationalism is the building block of Internationalism. M ay the

1st is the International Workers’ Day. This year, we are proud to celebrate the South African M ay Day, because the story of M ay Day for ms a central par t of South African history.

May Day, 1950, is at the heart of the South African liberation struggle. We intend to honour the central place of the working class in the South African liberation struggle, and its consequently central place in the national democratic revolutionary alliance that continues

our liberation struggle, which is not yet over.

The personalities that carried forward the history of the liberation movement, have their centre of gravity in the organised working class; and the tragic but heroic events of May Day 1950 stand as a historic sacrament, whereby the three principal components of our Alliance were permanently joined together. The unit y forged on that day has been our strength. It will continue to be our strength.

1st May 1950 - “Notably, the strike which brought the country to a halt

and the June 26 strike in the same year in protest against the shooting of strikers on 1 May. It was a turning point and a great landmark in the long history of the struggle of the people of South Africa against racial persecution and for full trade union rights.”

It is this turning point that we are celebrating on the 1st of May 2017 as the South African May Day, because as much as was the Congress of the People, and the Freedom Charter, that were some of the later consequences of what happened on that day in 1950, this was the founding moment of our victory.

T h e S t a y a w a y Tactic The 1946 Mineworkers strike taught the movement that masses of workers out in the open could be cut down, killed, wounded and dispersed by the armed forces of

SoUth AfricA’S MAy DAy 1st May 2017

The Working-Class Heart of our History

May Day

The Bantu World, a voice of the bourgeoisie, of 6 May 1950 said:

“Disregarding warnings repeated several times last week by African leaders, police officials, Ministers of

the Crown and the press, Africans in several Reef centres bent on “FreedomDay” celebrations on Monday, May 1

landed themselves in trouble by their action. Thirty eight sustained injury and eighteen died. Areas particularly affected were Brakpan and Benoni on the East Rand,

Sophiatown and Newclare in the Johannesburg western zone, as well as the Orlando area.”

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May Day

the regime. In response they invented the tactic of the stayaway, whereby workers, instead of picketing and demonstrating, would stay indoors at home. This tactic, designed to minimize casualties, was used later, again and again, but as we shall see, on the first occasion that it was used – 1 May 1950.

– it was not a full success from this point of view. “Defend Free Speech” Day of May 1st, 1950 led to June 26th – “Freedom Day”– Which became the occasion of the passing of the Freedom Charter. “Defend Free Speech” was in practice and in the first place, defense of the Communist Party, which the Party can never forget and does not forget. On that day, the ANC defended the rights of the vanguard party of the working class.

The May Day Massacre – South Africa, 1950“It will always be to the credit of the African National Congress that when the first major onslaught was

launched to illegalize the Party of the working class,

it did not s t a n d

as ide b u t

c o u r a g e o u s l y took the lead and threw

all its resources into the fight for the legal existence of the Communist

Party. “...the strike was an outstanding success. Virtually all industry on the Witwatersrand came to a stop; hardly a dark-skinned face was to be seen in the streets of Johannesburg, Springs, Randfontein and other Reef towns.

“The police had banned all meetings and gatherings on the day; and for the most part the non-white public remained quietly in their homes, following the call of the leadership to do so. But in the evening the trigger-happy police opened fire on small groups of young Africans in Alexandra Township and elsewhere. Eighteen were killed and over thirty wounded. A wave of anger and indignation spread throughout the country.”

“As soon as the terms of the Unlawful Organizations Bill became known in M ay 1950, the National Executive Committee of the ANC called an emergency conference in Johannesburg.

“The conference resolved on mass action, in protest against the law to suppress the Communist Party and other undemocratic measures. 26 June 1950 was set aside as a day of mourning for those killed by the police on 1 May, a day of nationwide strikes and protests. A joint committee was established to implement the decision.

“Chief Luthuli has told us over the course of his leadership

over us, that what we need is courage that rises with

danger. The Nationalist Party of South Africa, which came into power twenty years ago, came with a violence and viciousness that was new in many respects. We confronted them with a nonviolent approach to the struggle. They killed freely, and Chief Luthuli

led us, the African National Congress led the

people, and now this non-violent approach became a

militant form of struggle and we launched more campaigns.

The more killings there were, the more pressure there was.

This was courage rising with danger. When the killing took place in 1950 on a fairly massive scale, we decided to demonstrate against this, to intensify the struggle against apartheid pressure, a national stay-at-home on June 26, 1950. This was June 26th. “

“Since then, June 26th has been

the centre, the peg on which we have hung many a campaign against racism in South Africa. It has come to symbolize the determination of

our people to fight harder, the more severe and brutal the oppression.”

(Speech to United Nations Special Committee Against Apartheid, Stockholm, Sweden, 18 June 1968). Courage Rising With Danger Marches, Strikes and Cato Manor, Sharpeville

The decade of the 1950s began with the freedom of speech campaign, leading to the first death‐defying Stay away on 1st May, 1950, allied in defense of the Party of the working class, and the first brave Freedom Day on 26th June 1950.

This is why we always celebrate May Day, as the organised working class, together with our friends and allies, the ANC. Because it is we, or at least it is our organised working class forebears, who initiated this struggle. This is what the oppositionists do not understand. It was for the workers that the Freedom struggle began, and it was by the workers’ strength, with that of our beloved allies who stood with us and marched with us, that we were able to achieve victory, as far as we have done so. And so long as we are allied, we will continue to be victorious.

The decade of the 1950s was the last decade of legal struggle before the 30 year banning of the liberation movement, the ANC.

It proceeded through the Treason Trial – which was a consequence of the Congress of the People and of the Freedom Charter – into a time of very tense confrontation with the regime, up to the split of the PAC, and the disaster that this split caused, the catastrophe of Sharpeville.

After Sharpeville came the founding of Umkhonto we Sizwe and the initiation of the heroic armed struggle. Many of the early MK recruits were trade unionists.

The struggle is continuity, but it is rooted in the working class action of the 1940s, and especially in the unity-in-action of May Day 1950, when working class blood was shed on the streets of Alexandra Township, and other places. This is what we honour and celebrate on May Day. The struggle continued. Its character was confirmed in the Morogoro Conference of the ANC in 1950. Its international working class character was confirmed by proletarian internationalism, all over the world. Mass action, inside the country

continued in the 1970s – working class mass action, leading eventually to the formation of COSATU in 1985, thirty years ago.

COSATU was formed in recognition of the indivisible nature of the struggle as between its class question, and

its national question. We say that the one will not be solved until the other one is solved and now we add the question of gender, which can also only be solved simultaneously with the other two.

Thus it is that the success of the entire struggle has rested upon unity, especially between

its national and its class components.

The fight to make May Day a public holiday was one of COSATU’s first campaigns, and one of its first successful campaigns.

In 1986 which also marked the 100th anniversary of May Day , the five-month-old Congress of South African trade Unions staged one of the biggest-ever stay-aways to demand recognition of May Day as a paid public holiday. This action was supported by the formations of the Mass Democratic Movement under the leadership of the United Democratic Front. Workers all over the country responded to the call and more than 1,5-million workers observed COSATU’s call, joined by thousands of school pupils, students, taxi drivers, hawkers, shopkeepers, domestic workers, self-employed and unemployed people. Rallies were held in all the major cities, even though many of these were banned in advance by the state.

The majority of South Africa’s workers had already unilaterally declared the day a public holiday and stayed away from work. Shocked by this wave of worker militancy, P.W. Botha responded by declaring the first Friday in May as Workers` Day, a paid public day. COSATU announced that it would stop work on both the first Friday and the real May Day. Faced with this, the apartheid regime backed down and in 1987 recognized 1st May as a public holiday.

The majority of South Africa’s workers had unilaterally declared the day a public holiday, and employers bowed to these struggles as accepted it the reality of May 1 as the worker’s day. Today it is one of the 12 public holidays, which we celebrate in a thriving democracy.

Source: COSATU Archives

The Bantu World, a voice of the bourgeoisie, of 6 May 1950 said:

“Disregarding warnings repeated several times last week by African leaders, police officials, Ministers of

the Crown and the press, Africans in several Reef centres bent on “FreedomDay” celebrations on Monday, May 1

landed themselves in trouble by their action. Thirty eight sustained injury and eighteen died. Areas particularly affected were Brakpan and Benoni on the East Rand,

Sophiatown and Newclare in the Johannesburg western zone, as well as the Orlando area.”

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the 10th April 2017, we have come here to salute the family of com-rade Chris Hani for giving us their son, a husband and their father

to serve our revolution. We want to say to you thank you, we know the pain you have gone through. We have no words to comfort you but we want you to know that we value your sacrifices and we will always love you. It is not a coincidence that we gather here today on the month of April to commemorate the life of one of the greatest leaders of our revolution, comrade Chris Hani.

When addressing the youth at the Sol-omon Mahlangu Freedom College at a time when the apartheid regime had suc-cessfully forced some African countries particularly in Southern Africa to remove the ANC from their countries, he said on amongst others that “At this time we are compelled to reflect daily on the future of our struggle, because at this time the en-emy, that is responsible for your leaving your homes in the first instance, has been terror-izing southern Africa, as you all know very well. And he has registered a breakthrough, let us admit that much. The enemy has won a point, has gained a very important posi-tion, a position none of us thought the en-emy would get quite so easily”.

Is it not possible perhaps that today as a movement, we have reached a similar mo-ment in which today the “enemy has won a point, has gained a very important po-sition, a position none of us thought the enemy would get quite so easily”. Today

we meet here still engulfed with pain to celebrate the life and times of Cde Chris Hani, our leader who was assassinated by the apartheid regime on the 10th April 1993 and that very same month on the 24th April on the same year the great Oli-ver Tambo passed away.

This year also marks 40 years since Solomon Mahlangu was arrested after the Goch Street shooting in 1977 lead-ing to his arrest and his hanging on the 6th April 1979 by the apartheid regime. After he had been captured and arrest-ed, his mother visited him in prison and the mother could not bear the pain, the young Solomon Mahlangu who by then was 22 years said to his mother “Why are you crying in front of these dogs” , I don’t care what they do to me. And if they spill my blood, maybe it will give birth to other Solomons.’

It is without doubt that the month of April is a significant month in the painful history of South Africa. It is a month which has marked both the turning and inflec-tion points in the history of our country generally, and in the history of our strug-gle in particular, to mention but a few of these historic points:

a) It was on the 6 April in 1652, 365 years ago that a criminal and a thief called Jan Van Reinbeck sets his foot on our soil;

b) On the 17 April, 1658 the first formal School was opened at the Cape in-tended to increase the usefulness of the slaves to their slave owners.

c) On the 9 April, 1679, 27 years after settlement at the Cape by Jan van Re-inbeck the first census was conducted and it excluded the indigenous inhab-itants in the Cape as this exclusion on matters of development continues up to this day under Helen Zille and her DA who follows in the footsteps of her ancestor Jan Van Reinbeck.

d) On the 9th April in 1820 the first Brit-ish Settlers, known as 1820 Settlers arrived in Algoa Bay, now called Port Elizabeth. They numbered about 4500 and included artisans, trades-men, ministers of religion, merchants, teachers, bookbinders, blacksmiths, discharged sailors and soldiers, pro-fessional men and farmers. It was this process which marked the consolida-tion of exclusion of blacks and Afri-cans from the main stream economic activities.

e) On the 9th April 1960 the first assas-sination attempt was made on the life of Prime Minister H.F. Verwoerd at the Rand Easter Show here in Johannes-burg by a disgruntled White farmer, David Pratt, who fired two shots at the Minister at close range.

f) It was on this very same month on 1st

April 1961 that South Africa`s Apart-heid government declared Robben Is-land to be a prison, and that it would be used for both high risk and political prisoners and it was from this prison that the road map to South Africa’s freedom was designed.

g) On the 2nd April 1944, the ANCYL WAS

founded with Muziwakhe Anton Lem-bede elected as its first president and adopted a constitution which said the aim of the ANCYL is on among others to assist, support and reinforce the Af-rican National Congress, in its struggle for National Liberation of the African people

h) On the 25th April 1969 the history making Morogoro Conference was convened which amongst others el-evated the supremacy of the strategy and tactics which have always kept our movement on a superior combat position and a step ahead of the en-emy. .

i) On the 9th April 2005 on the midnight of the evening of the final certifica-tion of results of the 2006 local gov-ernment elections, the federal council of the New National Party agreed to disband the party. Of the13 members of the council, eight voted in favor of the motion, two disagreed and three abstained. The council decided to join the African National Congress (ANC) and fight all future elections under the banner of the ANC.

j) On the 27th April 1994 South Africa , for the first time the African people voted marking one of the greatest achieve-ments in human history , marking a democratic breakthrough

Today we are meeting here before the grave of our hero to declare that your death was not in vain, it inspired us to push towards a democratic breakthrough and yet today the freedom we achieved

Workers and their families remember CHRis Hani

COSATU’s Message at the Chris Commemoration

By Sidumo Dlamini, COSATU President

Worker issues

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The late SACP General Secretary addressing masses before liberation

Worker issues

23 years has gradually lost its meaning. These are not just dates which are be-ing used mechanically but they remind us that we remain a colonized people and our oppressors remain our enemies. We cannot treat them as our allies.

Whatever the challenges confronting our revolution, we will never march with oppressors. We can never march with em-ployers. We can never march with people who see us as monkeys. We can never march side by side with people who shoot workers because they have mistaken them as monkeys. We can never march with people who do not hesitate to paint a worker and put workers in a fridge .

No, comrades we can never march and be led by the DA, who call our people refugees in their own country. We can never march and be led by the DA that believes that that colonialism was noble and progressive. We stand here today to commemorate the Killing of comrade Solomon Mahlangu and Comrade Chris Hani, who were both killed to advance the very same colonial agenda, which the DA cherishes and that also constitutes the essence of DA’s policies. Revolutionary

progress has been undermined by con-tinued mistakes and internal divisions giving rise to an emboldened Right wing. Our revolution have secured and achieved many qualitative gains but it is becom-ing clear that even these gains can be re-versed. The vision of our struggle captured in the freedom charter will remain in paper for as long as our political power does not come with economic freedom. This period have seen the rise of the liberal and right wing forces in our country, who continue to grow in confidence under conditions in which the credentials of the ANC led progressive forces are being questioned. This also happens under conditions in which the progressive forces are in disar-ray and lack coherency in both strategy and tactics.

In the face of the continued rise in the confidence of the right wing, our move-ment is not showing any signs of coher-ency instead infighting continues both inside the movement and in the state. There is a political stampede where every-one is jostling for power.Week in and week out comrades openly go to the media to attack each other or to present positions ,which differ with the official position of

the ANC. Veterans of the movement do not use internal organizational platforms but instead go to the media to express their concerns. As we gather here today with all these developments , the succession bat-tles have become even more acute , more open , more pointed , more brutal ,more destructive and more sharper.

Every week we have been bombarded by allegations of how leaders of the ANC are plotting against each other. The very national democratic revolution which is a minimum programme that unites us is under threat from the divisions and high levels of mistrusts amongst ourselves. As we meet here two of the alliance partners COSATU and the SACP have taken a deci-sion that called for comrade Jacob Zuma to step down because the comrade is no longer trusted by his own comrades.

Learning from Comrade Chris HaniPerhaps coming here today in this grave

site to be closer to the spirit of comrade Chris , the brave revolutionary of our struggle we can be revived and unite against a clearly defined enemy. In this regard, we recall that this year marks 50 years since the ANC President Chief Albert Luthuli died in 1967. Under his leadership

the ANC grew in size and in stature.

In memory of comrade Chris Hani, a member of a Luthuli detachment, we recall today that this year also marks 50 years since the Wankie operation by the joint forces of MK and Zipra under the respective political leadership of the ANC and ZAPU took place and lasted from 13 August to mid-September 1967.

This was a military campaign in which comrade Chris Hani led as a political commissar,charged with the responsibility of ensuring that MK cadres remained with the required political discipline and clarity even during combat and that they infiltrat-ed South Africa safely. It is in this campaign in which the fearlessness of comrade Chris Hani was not just heard in words but was seen in actual combat. Comrade Chris became the first to cross the crocodile infested Zambezi river into the then Rho-desia. Those who reflected on the Wankie experiences said this action alone by com-rade Chris of crossing the dangerous river contributed immensely towards building the morale and brought the MK and ZIPRA cadres closer to one another.

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Worker issues

It was during this Wankie operation that comrades Chris Hani demonstrated that bravery alone is not enough but properly considered strategies and tac-tics were more important to always re-main a step ahead of the enemy.

Comrade Chris Hani was a brave sol-dier who did not rely to his bravery only but also in his brains and political clarity too. He knew how to identify the enemy. He knew how to properly analyze that enemy and he knew when to shoot at the enemy. Do we still have the same discipline of bravery and strategic think-ing in our ranks?

He understood comrade Mandela’s words when he said that “the struggle that will free us is a long, hard job. Do not be deceived by men who talk big with no thought for tomorrow. Freedom is not just a matter of strong words. Nei-ther is it simply brave men and heroic deeds. Impatience, which makes men lose their heads, will not bring freedom”.

A story is told by comrades who were there how comrade Chris Hani would order MK cadres not shoot at random with panic against the enemy, ordering them to hold their fire and reminding them that ‘every bullet was precious’ and that they should not pull the trigger until they could see their targets clearly.

It was not until the enemy would fire randomly into the air, until a handful of soldiers stood up and called out: ‘Where are they? Can you see them?’ At that mo-ment, Hani gave the order to open fire. Two of the Rhodesian soldiers fell in the first hail of automatic rifle fire. They happened to be officers, and their loss caused pandemonium. The rest of the group scat-tered in all directions, leaving their weapons and food supplies behind. In the process Mk cadres were able to strip the enemy soldiers of their camouflage uniforms and personal items like watches, and the command-ers divided the food and water they had recovered among the hungry and thirsty men. For the first time in weeks, they had a decent meal, including cheese, biltong, tinned food and other rations. It was a feast for the guerrilla fighters, and afterwards, they resumed their march to the south. We are also told how comrade Chris was able to instruct his men not to be lured by the enemy to kill them. There were instances where the enemy would open fire into the bush when they were still about 200 m away, and before they could see the guerrillas. Under the instruction of comrade Chris, the unit waited, silently, and when the troops

were about 100 m from them, the order to open fire rang out. The enemy radio operator was hit immediately, while the rest of the platoon dived for cover and began returning fire. This was met by deafening silence from the guerrillas, but the enemy continued to fire on their position for about 30 minutes. Assum-ing that the guerrillas must all be dead, the enemy began advancing once more, and as soon as they were exposed, the MK/ZIPRA cadres poured fire at them. Black members of the Rhodesian secu-rity forces tried to lure the ANC/ZAPU fighters into the open by standing up and pretending to flee from the battle.

When the guerrilla commanders no-ticed that only black soldiers were run-ning away, they recognized this as a ploy to expose them. They were supposed to think that the enemy was retreating, and if they pursued the black soldiers, they would run straight into an ambush laid by the white security force members. Hani and Dube ordered some of the comrades to toss grenades at the enemy position.

There were screams and the rest of the Rhodesian men did, in fact, withdraw in disarray. The Luthuli Detachment had

won its sec-o n d

b a t -tle, and

w a s once again re-warded by retrieving abandoned food and ammunition.

In his own account later comrade Chris Hani said of the first battle, “for us that day was a day of celebration, because with our own eyes we had seen the en-emy run. We had seen the enemy frozen with fear. We had also observed each other reacting to the enemy’s attack. A feeling of faith in one another and rec-ognition of the courage of the unit de-veloped.[1]

What are the lessons we need to learn from these experiences?a) Comrade Chris Hani taught us to

always ensure coherency and disci-pline in the application of strategies

and tactics against the enemyb) Comrade Chris taught us to be al-

ways clear about who our enemy is and to be able to see the enemy’s manoeuvres and to be able to de-fend our base

c) He taught us to have the capacity and the required patience to allow the enemy to expose itself and be able to pursue it as a united force and dis-arm it militarily and politically.

d) Comrade Chris Hani hated corruption and surely he would have stood up against when he saw it happening inside the ANC and all of us have a responsibility to fight corruption and all of us must fight it regardless of who is implicated. But we should be careful that allegations of corrup-tion are not treated as truth without proof in the same way that allega-tions of spies were used to kill many people in the past without proof only to discover at the TRC that the enemy had used lies and the media to set ourselves against each other. Where there is evidence surely the culprit must be arrested and if he or she is in the movement such a com-rade will have to be removed with-out any hesitation.

e) The arrest of comrade Chris and his Comrade in Botswana which was considered to be friendly to the liberation movement ,and the subsequent to call to have the ANC move out from certain countries in Southern Africa gives us a lesson about how the enemy can be em-boldened by divisions amongst the progressive forces.Are we in a position to reflect hon-estly about the extent to which the enemy has been emboldened by our own divisions and the implica-tions of allowing the enemy to oc-cupy such a superior and strategic position against the progressive forces?

f) We must never allow ourselves to be confused by our class enemies

As COSATU, we are worried that in the process of all our fights, it is the workers and the working class that stand to lose more. The employ-ers are excited about the infighting they see amongst us and they are prepared invest their resources to deepen our divisions.We recently saw them openly mo-bilizing workers to march and said they will pay them. We are now wait-ing to see if they will allow workers to attend May Day events. We are waiting to see if they will workers if we plan a march to remove the rac-ist Helen Zille as a premier of the Western Cape. We are waiting to see if they will pay workers as we will be heightening our campaign for a Living Wage and the total ban of

labour brokersAs COSATU, we remain very clear that we will never march with the DA or participate in activities aimed at achieving regime change to re-move the ANC from power. As the left ,we also need to be careful that we do not find ourselves being led by the civil society ,whose very exist-ence and reasons for getting fund-ing is to effect regime changeAs COSATU, we are not confused about who is our enemy, because we feel the enemy every day at the point of production. Our enemy is monopoly capital who own and control the economy and wealth of our country at the exclusion of the majority. Our enemy is corrup-tion and the biggest corruption which has happened in this country include the R2, 2 billion owed by ABSA, FNB customers continues to lose large sums of money from the bank and the bank is not taking re-sponsibility for it.

g) We must confront and correct our own failures

i. We have failed and refused to learn

from the past and the most recent experiences. This applies to all com-ponents of the Alliance but more so the leader of the Alliance, the ANC

ii. We have failed to properly theorize, properly comprehend and practi-cally deal with the implications and the limitations imposed by waging the National Democratic Revolution within the legal parameters of con-stitutional democracy.

iii. We have failed to link our access to state power and organizational mass power on the ground.

iv. We have consciously promoted federalism and the electoral system that does not promote accountabil-ity of people’s representatives. Expe-rience dictates that we should scrap provinces; they are a burden and have become centres of patronage. We should consider introducing a mixed electoral system that will enhance accountability of public representatives

v. We have promoted the demobiliza-tion and lack of Coherency amongst the motive forces which has mainly been characterized by the open and subtle attacks and isolation of the left inside the movement.

vi. More importantly our failure as a movement to fundamentally trans-form the colonial and apartheid economy

(h) Our biggest enemy is the non implementation of progressive resolutions.

Every day we live with the excruci-ating pain of looking at the economy of our country being squandered by both foreign and domestic capital

It is without doubt that

the month of April is a significant

month in the painful history of South

Africa. It is a month which has marked

both the turning and reflection points in

the history of our country generally,

and in the history of our struggle

in particular

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Worker issues

when the country is engulfed by racial inequality, poverty and unemployment. Every strategic sector of our economy does not belong to us. The financial sec-tor (banking and insurance) is a monopoly industry: Dominated by 4 large privately owned banks (ABSA, Ned bank, FNB and Standard Bank), two of which have sig-nificant foreign ownership. Insurance and re-insurance is dominated by Mutual and Federal, Old Mutual, Sanlam, Chartis, San-tam, Swiss Re-insurance, Africa Re-insur-ance, Munich Re-insurance, Chartis, etc. ABSA is 56% foreign-owned whilst Stand-ard Bank is at least 40% foreign owned.

The South African Reserve Bank is also privately owned and has foreign owner-ship too. The wholesale and retail trade sector is a monopoly industry, domi-nated by two firms: Shoprite and Pick ‘n Pay, which constitute 66% of the market share. Massmart (soon-to-be Walmart) is 60% foreign-owned, Shoprite is 35%, Tru-worths is 50%, Foschini is 40%, JD Group is 40%, Lewis is 30%, Pick ‘n Pay has less than 10%, Spar under 20% and Mr Price and Woolworths 20%[8]. The state does not play any role in this sector and there is high degree of self regulation in the sec-tor. Manufacturing is dominated by two

sectors, within which there are monopo-lies: petro-chemicals and basic iron and steel, which are dominated by Sasol and Arcelor-Mittal. Sasol is about 30% foreign-owned and Arcelor-Mittal is 65% foreign owned. More than 80% of the Johannes-burg Stock Exchange is accounted for by the large banks and the few companies in the traditional sectors: mining and energy.

All these companies are white, private, and capitalist-owned and they are in-creasingly being foreign-owned. The For-estry sector is also monopolised by two major players, Sappi and Mondi, with the state, through Safcol, playing a minor role. These firms are integrated with sawmills, and feed into the highly monopolised furniture sector downstream. The entire paper, pulp and wood production in the country relies on these few firms.

The cement sector is also dominated by 4 players (PPC, Alpha, Lafarge and Natal Portland), in which each player has sig-nificant pricing power. The construction sector is also monopolised, dominated by four players: Murray & Roberts, WBHO, Aveng and Group 5.

Machinery and equipment is a diverse sector and the sector is dominated by foreign companies primarily through the

major import fronting company in South Africa, Barloworld. The major equipment players are Caterpillar, John Deere/Bell, Komatsu, Manitou SA and Thyssen-Krupp. All these are foreign owned companies that play a strategic role in the country`s capital equipment supply. In the telecom-munications sector the state plays a sig-nificant role through Telkom.

However, the experience of private and foreign ownership of Telkom has shown the dangers of privatisation of strategic sectors. The Thintana Deal in 1997, which led to massive job losses in Telkom from 67 000 to 25 000, left the country poorer and in a worse socio-economic position.

This was not helped by the further sale of Telkom shares in Vodacom to Voda-fone. By and large, the telecommunica-tions sector is not in the state`s hands, despite control measures through ICASA. The massive profits that are appropriated in the sector go mainly in the pockets of individuals, a significant number of whom are foreigners.

The pharmaceuticals sector is ruled by foreign companies: Aspen, Adcock-In-gram, Sanofi, Pfizer, Norvatis, etc. have all

significant foreign-ownership, if not some of them are foreign companies to begin with, and feed on the burden of disease in South Africa.

Mining is a monopolised sector too, in all its varied aspects because of the vari-ous minerals under it. Iron-ore, so crucial to steel production is dominated by Kumba Iron-Ore, which is majority for-eign-owned. Manganese production is dominated by Samancor, which is a joint venture of foreign-owned mining hous-es, Samancor Chrome, is also a majority foreign-owned entity, vanadium is con-trolled by Vanchem also foreign owned, coal production is majority owned and controlled by foreign companies (with Exxaro`s exaggerated black ownership being among them), etc.

In short all minerals in South Africa are majority foreign-owned and controlled. This is a fight we will pursue in the context of ensuring a second more radical phase of our transition characterized by radi-cal economic transformation. If we are to honour comrade Chris, we will need to be honest to ourselves, respect each other, confront and correct our mistakes.

Amandla!

Stay abreast of labour law in transition and its impact on the trade union environment.

HOT TOPICS INCLUDE: Recent Developments in Strike Law The Future of Trade Unions CCMA Jurisdiction Under EEARecent Developments in Dismissal Law Unfair Labour Practices in the Public Sector…

Book your spot as we refl ect on how far we’ve come in 30 years and plan for the future.

ENGAGE AND INFLUENCE SOUTH AFRICA’S DEVELOPING LABOUR LAW

BOOKINGS: Erin Ryan TEL: +27 31 303 9852 EMAIL: [email protected] HASHTAG: #ALLC2017

@AnnualLabourLaw www.facebook.com/AnnualLabourLawConference

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Wall of remembrance

Ahmed Mohamed Kathrada, sometimes known by the nickname

“Kathy”, was a South African politician, political prisoner and anti-

apartheid activist.

21 March 1929 - 28 March 2017

AhmedKathrada

Solomonmahlangu

Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu was a South African operative of the

African National Congress (ANC) militant wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe

(MK). He was convicted of murder and hanged in 1979.

10 July 1956 - 06 April 1979

15

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Wall of remembrance

Chris Hani, born Martin Thembisile Hani, was the leader ofw the South

African Communist Party and chief of staff of Umkhonto we Sizwe,

the armed wing of the African National Congress.

28 June 1942 - 10 April 1993

chriShani

oliverTambo

Oliver Reginald Tambo was a South African anti-apartheid politician

and revolutionary who served as President of the African National

Congress (ANC) from 1967 to 1991.

27 October 1917 - 24 April 1993

16

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this year, the Minister of Mineral Resources, Mr Mosebenzi Zwane released the 2016 Statistics on Health and Safety in the mining

sector. ‘Our overarching goal of ensuring that every mineworker returns home unharmed, every single day but we have not achieved that in the period under review’, said Zwane.

‘I declare that we all remain resolute on the goal of zero harm’, argued Zwane.We are releasing the 2016 statistics here at Doornkop Gold Mine in recognition of consistent efforts by both employers and workers of this mine in improving health and safety matters in recent years. The Doornkop operation has remained fatality-free for two successive years, a target we encourage them and other operations across the country to not only match, but exceed. The year 2016 was a particularly challenging one for health and safety. However the lives of mineworkers cannot be reduced to just numbers and statistics. We have been attending the funerals of mineworkers across the country, and at each and every one we are starkly reminded that these are family members, often breadwinners, whose absence has a lasting impact on those they leave behind’, said Zwane.

He said ‘The tragic accident which occurred at Lily Mine outside Barberton in Mpumalanga on the 5th of February 2016 continues to occupy the hearts and minds of all South Africans. The two subsequent major falls of ground that occurred a week after the initial accident caused further deterioration of ground conditions and contributed to the complexity of the rescue operations. The investigation into the underlying causes of this accident commenced last year and has now been converted into a formal inquiry in terms of the legal provisions’.

‘The Department has initiated discussions with the National Prosecuting

Authority to strengthen the ability to prosecute those who are negligent in their responsibilities, in as far as fatalities, injuries and occupational diseases in the sector are concerned. I would like to appeal to all the employers and mine management to ensure that the health and safety of their workers, is always prioritised. We should not place more value on profits over the lives of workers’, said Zwane.

The health and safety of mineworkers remains of paramount importance not only for the day-to-day operation of mining operations, but for the long-term sustainability of the sector. ‘As the Regulator of the sector, the implementation of the enforcement measures as contained in the law remains a key priority. We are of the firm view that it is the responsibility of each one of us to work tirelessly towards achieving the goal of zero harm. The Mine Health and Safety Act is a product of consultation and inputs from organised labour and organised business’.

The Department has made significant gains in improving health and safety since the dawn of democracy in 1994, which has led to the sustainable downward trend of fatalities, injuries and occupational diseases over the years. ‘Be that as it may, we believe that as the sector we should not become complacent’, said Zwane. As the Department entrusted with the responsibility to enforce the legal provisions on health and safety, our standpoint is clear - if you cannot mine safely, then don’t mine at all. Find people who can mine safely, and can extract the mineral wealth of our country without killing, maiming or causing any occupational ill health and diseases.

FatalitiesA total of 73 fatalities were reported in

2016 compared to 77 during the previous year. This translates to an improvement

of 5% year on year. The breakdown of the fatalities per commodity during the year 2016 is as follows: gold (30), platinum (27), coal (4) and other mines (12). In the category of other mines these include diamonds, chrome, copper and iron ore.

The 2016 statistics suggest that the major gold and platinum mines remain the main contributors to accidents and the subsequent loss of lives. This is regrettable, as we believe that these mines should be at the forefront in terms of the development of appropriate systems and expertise to enhance health and safety. Fatalities reported by the gold, coal and ‘other mines’ sectors during 2016 showed a decrease of 9%, 20% and 33% from 2015 respectively. Regrettably, the platinum sector reported an increase in the number of fatalities by 29% from 21 in 2015 to 27 in 2016 and plans are in place to proactively contain this trend.Historically, the last few months of the year have been characterised by a rise in accidents and fatalities, as the year winds down. Increased vigilance and active campaigning to raise awareness during the last quarter of the year resulted in a 57% reduction in fatalities from twenty one (21) during 2015 to nine (9) during 2016.

Despite the improvement in the number of fatalities reported in 2016, I want to convey my serious concern that we continue to experience loss of life in the mining sector. Already, there are four fatalities that have been reported since the beginning of this year, with the most recent occurring yesterday.

Improvement in the number of worker injuries

There has been a welcome decrease of 15% in the number of injuries, from 3 138 in 2015 to 2 662 in 2016. Most of these injuries are mainly as a result of repeat accidents. ‘We fully trust that the tripartite collaboration will focus on this as well and

continue to achieve positive results’, said Zwane.

Occupational Health‘Although in recent years we have

made modest strides on safety, it is unacceptable that the mining sector is still reporting a high number of occupational diseases - more specifically TB, silicosis and noise-induced hearing loss. However, it is encouraging that the occupational diseases reported bythegold, other and coal sectors reduced by 15%, 8% and 4% respectively. Occupational health matters will continue to receive our outmost attention. In this regard, work on the integration of compensation systems is underway to address the inequalities that had been identified of occupational health programmes being executed unsystematically and inconsistently. This work is critical in the restoration of dignity to our mineworkers. The recent court cases where mineworkers were granted permission to launch a silicosis class action suit against mining companies clearly indicates that there is a great need to do more in the prevention of occupational diseases at mines’, said Zwane.

Health And Safety Improvement Measures

‘We cannot afford to relax as a result of the consistent improvements we have realised over the years. Our Summit resolutions guide where would like the sector to be by 2024. On fatalities, the objective remains zero harm. Furthermore, a number of initiatives have been embarked upon to enhance health and safety’, said Zwane.

These include the following:• Stakeholder Collaboration

The Department will continue engaging and collaborating with its social partners to ensure that the health and safety of the workers in the sector is prioritised.

• Monitoring compliance and enforcing

Mining safety is in a CRisis - South Africa NUM members marching against un-favourable working conditions

Worker issues

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Worker issues

legal provisionsIn order to monitor and enforce compliance to health and safety measures at mines, group audits and inspections are conducted to ensure compliance with the legal provisions. The group audits mainly focus on the effectiveness of control measures that have been put in place to prevent rock falls, rock bursts and transport equipment accidents. The audits evaluate mine management systems for preventing exposure of employees to noise and dust (including silica dust) which could result in workers suffering from noise induced hearing loss and silicosis.

As part of the audits, mines’ TB, HIV and AIDS programmes are being evaluated to ensure that there is an improvement. Mine inspectors are also checking whether the mines are complying with the Mining Charter commitments for improving living conditions of employees and conversion of single sex hostels, as it has been determined through research that poor living conditions also exacerbate Tuberculosis,

HIV/AIDS and other health and safety challenges.

• Capacity to Monitor ComplianceThe department is working together with the Mining Qualification Authority (MQA) and the Department of Higher Education and Training (GHET) in placing bursars, interns and students at various universities and companies so that they can form part of the professionals in training for future engineers, environmental scientists, as well as surveyors.

‘The Department will continue to work together with our social partners to ensure that there is a significant and sustained improvement in the health and safety of mineworkers. We will continue to implement provisions in the law and take all the necessary steps to ensure compliance. Let us all play our part to realise our overarching goal of ensuring that every mineworker returns home unharmed, every single day’, concluded Zwane. Meanwhile, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) welcomes the release of statistics on health and safety for

last year. ‘The NUM is disappointed that there is no improvement on fatal accidents for the period under review. It is against the consistent decrease we have been observing for the past few years which could be interpreted as the lack of the commitment towards zero harm’, said Erick Gcilitshana, NUM Health and Safety Secretary.

‘In 2012 there 112 fatal accidents with gold leading with 53 followed by platinum with 28. In 2013 there were 94 fatal accidents. In 2014 there were 84 fatal accidents. In 2015 there were 77 fatal accidents again gold leading with 33 followed by platinum with 22.The report talks to 73 fatal accidents against 77 same time last year and platinum shows an increase from 22 to 27’, elaborated Gcilitshana.

‘We are observing this increase in the platinum belt and interpreting it as a result of the fact that when workers fight against each other, the employers relax the health and safety procedures, standards and policies which lead to the

spike in fatalities and injuries’. ‘We say we are disappointed because we are talking of breadwinners, not just figures here’. ‘This announcement comes two days before the 57th anniversary of the major Coalbrook disaster which killed more than 430 workers on 21 January 1960’.

‘We acknowledge that we have signed a 5 point pledged in the summit held in November last year with a view to achieving zero harm.We call for workers to unite to save their life, limbs and lungs from the brutality of the industry’, argued Gcilitshana. ‘Another area of concern is the court battles between DMR and Employers around section 54 of the Mine Health and Safety Act (MHSA) which we believe is meant to save lives of the mineworkers.

We call upon the parties in the spirit of the 5 point pledge plan to sit around the table and appreciate the objectives we set ourselves of zero harm and the commitment we made on achieving it to guide us in finding an amicable solution’, said Gcilitshana.

the milestones that were agreed upon by all industry stakeholders

at the 2014 and 2016 Mine Occupational Health & Safety Summit are in danger of not being achieved in accordance with their timeline.

The milestones include the elimination of all mining fatalities by 2020 and a 20% reduction in serious injuries (an injury which either incapacitates the employee from performing his or her normal or similar occupation for a period totalling 14 days or more or which causes the employee to suffer the loss of a joint, or part of a joint, or sustain a permanent disability.

Combined efforts by stakeholders are not bearing any fruits. At the end of the summit last year, there was consensus amongst all the partners in that things had to be done differently if the sector wanted to achieve the milestone targets and ultimate goal of Zero Harm.

When releasing 2016 statistics on health and safety earlier this month (January) Minister of Mineral Resources Mosebenzi Zwane pointed out that, in the year

to November 2016, there had been 73 fatalities recorded in the mining sector compared to 77 during 2015. Gold sector recorded 30 fatalities, platinum 27, coal 4 and other mines 12. In the category of other mines these include diamonds, chrome, copper and iron ore.

This announcement of “reduced fatalities” is still not a cause for celebration. These figures continue to show that gold and platinum mines remain the main contributors to fatal accidents. Though the National Union of Mineworkers welcomed the slight decline, it raised its concern on the lack of commitment towards zero harm, particularly by employers.

It urged employers to do more to achieve the zero harm milestones. One death is one death too many. The very sad thing that comes with those statistics is the fact that these workers are breadwinners to their families.

The NUM is observing this increase in the platinum belt and interpreting it as a result of the fact that when workers fight against each other, the employers relax the

health and safety procedures, standards and policies which lead to the spike in fatalities and injuries.

The union calls on workers to unite to save their lives, limbs and lungs from the brutality of the industry. In the summit last year November, the tripartite leaders committed to zero harm in mine safety by signing for the following five key priorities:

• Tripartite visible feltleadership and relationship buildingAction: Principals and leaders of all stakeholder groups commits to meeting at least on two facilitated sessions on health and safety matters per annum.

• TrustdeficitAction: All stakeholders will address the issue of trust deficit amongst the stakeholders moving from a transactional to transformative approach on OHS matters.

• CommunicationAction: All stakeholders - the MHSC, organised labour, state and employers - will commit to improving communication across all levels to ensure that the message of Zero Harm reaches all mine employees

and contractors, and in so doing support and permeate actions intended to improve OHS throughout the industry.

• Empowerment ofsupervisors and employee empowermentAction: Stakeholders will collectively and collaboratively empower supervisors, health and safety representatives and employees through extended visible felt leadership and empowering conversations.This will not only be implemented by employers but also other stakeholders from organised tripartite stakeholders will also strive to empower women in mining on safety and security challenges, personal protective equipment and hygiene issues that impact on them.

• Annual company healthand safety daysAction: Each mining company will commit to hosting an annual health and safety day tailored to their respective needs as part of their overall health and safety campaigns.

Chilwane is a Media Officer at National Union of Mineworkers

Dream of zeRo HaRM

in the Mining

industry in trouble

By Luphert Chilwane

Mineworkers singing at the Youth structure Conference

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going BaCk to BasiCs Denosa and Nehawu hold

successful marches to employers

Back to Basics campaign led by workers

COSATU National Office Bearers leading workers’ marches to employers

Worker issues

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health sector Trade Unions affiliated to COSATU held successful marches across the country to employers

to demand decent work and also job security in the social development sector. NEHAWU held various meetings with workers in fora amongst others such as the SASSA National Meeting to debate the state of readiness for the planned strike which resonates with the campaign of going back to basics led by the federation.

‘The closure of vacancies creates more work for fewer workers whilst the rate of pay is not increasing at the same time. So far this has created even more work-overload across state-administration and other supportive staff levels such as clerks, cleaners, messengers, potters and other so-called blue-collar workers in all departments and state institutions.

All of this destruction of jobs in the public service is done in the name of reducing the public service wage bill.

As NEHAWU we are saying NO to these austerity measures’, said Comrade Bereng Soke, Nehawu General Secretary.

Amongst the other demands by health workers were;• The filling of all funded vacant posts

to improve service delivery• Drop the austerity measures

on wage bill and improve the conditions of public servants to boost the low morale by public servants

• Stop implementation of neoliberal macroeconomic policies that undermine industrialization and job creation

• Absorb all health care workers to become part of the health care services

• Implement the National Health Insurance to ensure the constitutional rights of citizens to healthcare is promoted

• Stop implementation of Border Management Agency which is part and parcel of outsourcing of the public service to the private sector

• Total ban of labour broking and calls for full employment

On the other hand, DENOSA has declared 2017 the Year of the Member,

to be the voices that leads. DENOSA demanded that the South

African Nursing Council must open offices across all provinces for the registration of nurses to the council. ‘We started by carrying out a mandate given by our members that we march

to the National Department of Health and the South African Nursing Council (SANC)’, said Simon Hlungwani - DENOSA President.

‘Nurses will be celebrating the International Nurses Day (IND) on the 12th of May worldwide under the 2017 theme: A voice to lead – Achieving the sustainable development goals. Denosa would like to call upon every nurse to be a voice that leads the health services within our country. Don’t keep quiet when things are not going well. #TimeIsNow for nurses to be the voice that leads in society’, said Hlungwani.

The period when the health workers Unions were consulting with workers, the country was preoccupied with a national crisis engulfing the social development department after there were threats that social grants will not be paid come April 1, 2017.

The recent COSATU Central Executive

Committee expressed concern about the inept manner in which the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has handled the extension of its contract with Cash Paymaster Services.

This is likely to see the most vulnerable groups of South Africans who are

beneficiaries of the social grant system not getting paid on the 1st of April 2017.

There are 17 million of South Africa’s poorest, who are dependent on social security every month. The Department of Social Development pays out a total of R10 billion to beneficiaries each month. Amongst the most vulnerable groups are the elderly, the disabled as well as children below the age of 18. Research has proved that most of the social grants are spent on food, meaning that a disruption to this social security system could be catastrophic and ultimately life threatening. ‘COSATU is appealing to the President to intervene and heads need to roll at Sassa’, said Bheki Ntshalintshali, COSATU. General Secretary in a statement in the Post CEC Statement.

Meanwhile, COSATU has come out to support the social development sector strike led by NEHAWU.

The National Education Health

and Allied Workers’ Union (NEHAWU) leadership said ‘We are calling on all our members to down tools for a total and indefinite shutdown until our demands are met. Following a marathon of negotiations with the employer, last night the negotiations collapsed’.

Worker issues

neHaWU members supporting the social development sector strike

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the entrance or the inclusion of Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to the energy sphere is a pure privatization brought to Eskom

through the back door.

Our country is under serious attack by the neo-liberal agenda that seeks to undermine the gains of our liberation since 1994. The NUM has noted that the decision to partially privatize Eskom has already been taken without our involvement.

The difference between the cost of renewable energy generated by IPPs and the electricity generated by Eskom could adversely affect the utility’s balance sheet.

During the deliberations at the Eskom shopstewards council, the NUM came to the conclusion that as much as we support green energy we cannot ignore scientific facts that green energy is not as cheap as it is portrayed to be by the capitalists who are dealing with it.

We know that capitalism is about profit maximization. Capitalists will go to the extent of misleading society for only profit maximisation.

We have further noted that green energy is not even reliable. It doesn’t have the capacity to replace the current base load as

currently subjectively portrayed.

The sun doesn’t shine every day and also the wind doesn’t blow every day.

We have a problem with the selective and subjective bias that opportunistically purports the renewable energy as the alpha and omega for South Africa whilst completely turning a blind eye to the realities that these renewables can’t be used as base loads.

An independent power producer or non-utility generator is an entity which is not a public utility, but which owns facilities to generate electric power for sale to utilities and end users.

What is going to happen if the sun does not shine and also when the wind does not blow?

We will definitely have a black out. South Africa had black outs between

2008 and 2009 mainly because of the interference of politicians in scientific decisions of Eskom. We appeal as the NUM that politicians must leave scientific decision to scientists.

The NUM agree that there should be a reduction in Green House Gases (GHG) and strengthened efforts to introduce

renewable energy, but should not result in retrenchments.

We have identified the following impact to South Africa due to the introduction of IPPs:• That there is going to be major

retrenchments to our members in energy and mining sector

• IPPs are not labour intensive• That they are more expensive than

coal• That there is no social labour plan

associated with the decision to introduce IPP’s

• That the whole supply chain in the coal industry will be affected

• That it will affect the public in that they will have to pay more on electricity directly and indirectly

We have therefore concluded that we will have a national march that will begin as soon as possible to protest against the inclusion of IPP’s to the national grid.

The action will include mass action and educating the public on the real impact of the IPPs on the price of electricity. The inclusion of IPP’s means that Eskom must pay more for the commodity that we can produce for cheaper prices. If Eskom agrees, the long term impact of this might result in Eskom being bankrupt and being

sold to the highest bidder.

On the decision by the power utility to close down five power stations (Hendrina, Kriel, Komati, Grootvlei and Camden), the NUM views that as senseless, irrational, malicious and an attack on the ordinary voters. It is a decision that is only aimed at pursuing narrow and selfish business interests which is none other than neo-liberal agenda.

The NUM wishes to sensitize the government that closure of these power stations will cost South Africa approximately 30 000 jobs which is contrary to the government’s NDP objectives of fighting the triple challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality.

Whilst we are mindful of the need to deal with climate change, IPPs cannot be implemented at the expense of massive job losses.

Workers from those power stations will suffer as a result from the poverty that will confront the surrounding communities.

Article written by David Sipunzi, General Secretary, The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM)

nUM rejects the proposed power stations sHUtDoWn by eskomby David sipunzi – General Secretary, The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM)

nUM leadership at CosatU CeC

Worker issues

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nUM rejects the proposed power stations sHUtDoWn by eskomby David sipunzi – General Secretary, The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM)

out of the ShelfWhile you were sleeping, I was reading...

Collective Bargaining: A workers’ education manualISBN 92-2-105284-2

Success in collective bargaining calls for knowledge and skill in several

basic areas. How should a claim be presented to an employer? What

arguments should be used? How is bargaining conducted? What is the

role of the state? What are the rights to which a worker is entitled, in

terms of international labour standards? These are among the questions

answered in this manual, which belongs to a series designed to be as

effective as possible in the defence and advancement of workers’ interests.

Understanding the economyISBN 0-620-20937-2

This book is meant for all those people who want to know more about

the economy but have not been able to find anything which explains it

in a way that everyone can understand. Most people who write about

the economy only seem to recognise the formal economy. All those

economically active people who work outside the formal economy are

usually invisible, as if they were not part of the full picture. This book shows

both the formal and informal sides of our economy and gives proper

recognition to all those workers, especially women, whose contribution

to the economy normally goes unnoticed.

Book Review

22

www.cosatu.org.za

the International Labour Organization’s World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2017 released early in January has painted

a ‘gloomy picture’ about the rate of unemployment in many countries. Global unemployment is expected to rise by 3.4 million in 2017. The Report takes stock of the current global labour market situation,

assessing the most recent employment developments and forecasting unemployment levels in developed, emerging and developing countries. It also focuses on trends in job quality, paying particular attention to working poverty and vulnerable employment. It takes stock of the current global labour market situation, assessing the most

recent employment developments and forecasting unemployment levels in developed, emerging and developing countries. It also focuses on trends in job quality, paying particular attention to working poverty and vulnerable employment.

Economic growth continues to disappoint and deficits in decent work

remain widespread Global GDP growth hit a six-year low in 2016, at 3.1 per cent, well below the rate projected in the previous year. Looking ahead, global economic growth is expected to pick up modestly in 2017 (3.4 per cent) and 2018 (3.6 per cent). However, as this report highlights, the forecasts for growth for 2017 have continually been revised downwards

the economy

& Social OUTLOOkTrends 2017

World EMPLOyMENT

the shopsteward - april/May 2017

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the economy

over recent years (from over 4.6 per cent forecast in 2012 to 3.4 per cent forecast in 2016) and there is persistent elevated uncertainty about the global economy.

The rather disappointing economic performance in 2016 and the below-trend outlook for 2017 raise concerns about the ability of the economy to (i) generate a sufficient number of jobs, (ii) improve the quality of employment for those with a job, and (iii) ensure that the gains of growth are shared in an inclusive manner. Countries around the globe are facing the twin challenges of repairing the damage caused by the crisis and creating quality employment opportunities for new labour market entrants.

First, global unemployment is expected to rise by 3.4 million in 2017 Global unemployment levels and rates are expected to remain high in the short term, as the global labour force continues to grow. In particular, the global unemployment rate is expected to rise modestly in 2017, to 5.8 per cent (from 5.7 per cent in 2016) – representing 3.4 million more unemployed people globally (bringing total unemployment to just over 201 million in 2017).

And while the global unemployment rate is expected to hold relatively steady in 2018, the pace of labour force growth (i.e. those in search of employment) will outstrip job creation, resulting in an additional 2.7 million unemployed people globally. The increase in unemployment levels and rates in 2017 will be driven by deteriorating labour market conditions in emerging countries (as the impacts of several deep recessions in 2016 continue to affect labour markets in 2017).

In fact, the number of unemployed people in emerging countries is expected to increase by approximately 3.6 million between 2016 and 2017 (during which time the unemployment rate in emerging countries is expected to climb to 5.7 per cent, compared with 5.6 per cent in 2016). Of notable concern are developments in Latin America and the Caribbean, where the unemployment rate is expected to rise by 0.3 percentage points in 2017, to reach 8.4 per cent – largely driven by rising unemployment in Brazil. In contrast, unemployment is expected to fall in 2017 in developed countries (by 670,000), bringing the rate down to 6.2 per cent (from 6.3 per cent in 2016).

In Europe, notably Northern, Southern and Western Europe, unemployment levels and rates are both expected to continue to fall, but the pace of improvement will slow, and there are signs that structural unemployment is worsening. The same applies to Canada and the United States. For example, in both Europe and Northern America, long-term unemployment

remains elevated in comparison to pre-crisis levels and, in the case of Europe, it increased recently, despite the reductions in the unemployment rate. In fact, in the EU-28, the share of unemployed people who had been looking for a job for 12 months or longer reached 47.8 per cent in the second quarter of 2016, up from 44.5 per cent for the same quarter of 2012.

Furthermore, in the second quarter of 2016, more than two-thirds of this group – a total of 6 million people – had been unemployed for over two years. Unemployment levels in developing countries are also expected to increase in 2017 (by 450,000), with unemployment rates hovering at around 5.5 per cent in 2017 and 2018. For many developing and emerging countries, however, chronic poor-quality employment – as represented by high shares of own-account workers and contributing family workers (collectively classified as workers in vulnerable forms of employment) and working poverty – takes centre stage. Second, vulnerable employment – at 1.4 billion worldwide – remains pervasive.

Workers in vulnerable forms of employment are typically subject to high levels of precariousness, e.g. they often have limited access to contributory social protection schemes, which tend to be more common among wage and salaried workers. However, only marginal improvements in the share of workers in vulnerable employment are expected for the coming years: the rate of vulnerable employment is expected to fall by less than 0.2 percentage points per year over the next two years, compared with an average annual decline of 0.5 percentage points between 2000 and 2010.

As such, vulnerable forms of employment are expected to remain above 42 per cent of total employment in 2017, accounting for 1.4 billion people worldwide. In fact, almost one in two workers in emerging countries are in vulnerable forms of employment, rising to almost four in five workers in developing countries. As a result, the number of workers in vulnerable forms of employment is projected to grow globally by 11 million per year. The two regions most affected by vulnerable employment are Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Third, reductions in working poverty are slowing, endangering the prospects for eradicating poverty as set out in the Sustainable Development Goals Working poverty remained a problem in 2016, with nearly half of workers in Southern Asia and nearly two-thirds of workers in sub-Saharan Africa living in extreme or moderate working poverty (i.e. living on less than US$3.10 per day in purchasing power terms).

Working poverty rates have been

declining over the long term and this trend is expected to continue in 2017. In emerging and developing countries, the share of workers living in moderate or extreme poverty is expected to fall from 29.4 per cent in 2016 to 28.7 per cent in 2017. However, progress in reducing working poverty rates is slowing.

The absolute number of working poor has also been declining over recent years, but the rate of that reduction is now also slowing, and in developing countries the number is on the rise. While both the rates and numbers of working poor have been falling rapidly in emerging countries, progress in developing countries has been too slow to keep up with employment growth. Consequently, the number of workers earning less than US$3.10 per day over the next two years is expected to increase by around 3 million per year in developing countries. Finally, inequalities in opportunities and social discontent persist.Underlying these aggregate labour market and social trends are disparities, often wide, across a number of demographic groups.

Of notable concern are gender disparities in labour market opportunities, which cut across and persist in a number of areas. For instance, in Northern Africa, women in the labour force will be twice as likely as men to be unemployed in 2017. The gap is even starker for women in the Arab States, who were more than twice as likely to be unemployed than men, with a gap of more than 12 percentage points. Vulnerable forms of employment are consistently higher for women across Africa, Asia and the Pacific and the Arab States. For example, in Southern Asia, close to 82 per cent of women were in vulnerable employment in 2016, compared with just over 72 per cent of men.

The gender gaps in the labour market also extend to differences in remuneration. As the recent ILO Global Wage Report 2016/17 highlighted, the gap in hourly wages, which reaches as high as 40 per cent (e.g. in Azerbaijan and Benin), continues to persist despite improvements in equal pay legislation in a number of countries. At the same time, in light of exacerbating global uncertainty, the risk of social unrest or discontent has heightened across almost all regions. The ILO’s social unrest index, which seeks to proxy the expressed discontent with the socio-economic situation in countries, indicates that average global social unrest increased between 2015 and 2016. In fact, between 2015 and 2016, eight out of 11 regions experienced increases in the measure of social discontent, most notably in the Arab States.

Discontent with the social situation and lack of decent job opportunities are both factors (among others) that play a role

in a person’s decision to migrate. In fact, between 2009 and 2016, the share of the working-age population willing to migrate abroad permanently increased in every region of the world except for Southern Asia and South-Eastern Asia and the Pacific. The largest increases over this period took place in Latin America and the Caribbean and the Arab States. Overall, the share of people willing to move abroad remained the highest in sub-Saharan Africa, at 32 per cent, followed closely by Latin America and the Caribbean and Northern Africa, at above 30 per cent and 27 per cent, respectively. Policy efforts must focus on how to overcome structural impediments to growth, including inequality

Many of the recent labour market dynamics reflect both cyclical factors and structural factors – e.g. low productivity growth and widening income inequality – which may lead to secular stagnation. Under a scenario where secular stagnation intensifies, the ILO estimates that global unemployment could rise by an additional 1 million over the next two years.

Developed economies would be most affected, while emerging and developing countries would benefit initially from higher capital inflows before also suffering from the negative spillover effects caused by lower trade and investment. Achieving the right policy mix is essential.

Accordingly, policies that address both the root causes of secular stagnation and structural impediments to growth need to be incorporated into macroeconomic policies and placed at the forefront of the policy agenda. The ILO estimates that a coordinated effort to provide fiscal stimulus – an increase in public investment – that takes into account each country’s fiscal space would provide an immediate jump-start to the global economy.

This could lower global unemployment, relative to the baseline, by 0.7 million in 2017 and 1.9 million by 2018. In the medium term, such efforts might also remove fears of low growth and, thereby, raise investment demand. Looking ahead, long-term trends related to technological development and the accompanying structural changes are also likely to affect the nature of economic growth. In the context of its Future of Work initiative, the ILO will be examining in greater detail the implications of these developments on the world of work, including the impact of these structural factors on the quantity and quality of jobs.

Reference:World Employment Social Outlook Trends 2017: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/---publ/documents/publication/wcms_541211.pdf

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the change in the structure of the economy is clear from the contribution of the different sectors in the economy, and the number of

people that are employed in these sectors. In 2012 the primary sector’s contribution to the GDP was 7.9% (agriculture, forestry and fishing 2.4% and mining and quarrying 5.5 %) manufacturing was 17.2%. The tertiary sector dominated by finance, insurance, now contributes more than two thirds of the GDP. Today, the manufacturing sector accounts for 13.9 percent; the mining and quarrying sector accounts for around 8.3 percent, while agriculture accounts for only 2.6 percent.

The gross domestic product (GDP) which is a measure of economic performance and an annual measurement of the value of the production of goods and services in the country shows that we have grown by 0,3%. It is what is used by international organisation, such as the IMF and to measure the health of an economy. As a result countries are required to prioritise economic growth and to have specific targets for economic growth. The Chapter 3 of the National Development Plan (NDP) states that by 2030, unemployment would have declined from 25% to 14% in 2020 and to 6% in 2030 and that 11 million jobs would have been created by 2030. By 2020 the unemployment rate was supposed to have been reduced to 20% but in 2017 it still around 25%. The NDP have early been missed and it is unlikely that they would be realised by 2030.

According to Statistics SA• South Africa’s economy as measured

by the GDP contracted by 0,3% in the

fourth quarter of 2016. The mining industry’s 11,5%1 drop in production was the main mining industry’s 11,5%1 drop in production was the main contributor to the economy’s slowdown, brought about by a fall in production of coal, gold and ‘other’ metal ores, such as platinum and iron ore.

• The Manufacturing sector contractedby 3,1% in the same quarter. This was largely a result of slower production in manufacturing sectors related to food and beverages, petroleum and chemicals, and transport equipment.

• All industries in the tertiary sectorrecorded positive growth rates, led by an increase of 2,6% in transport and communication services and an increase of 2,1% in trade, catering and accommodation services.

• The South African economy grew by0,3% in 2016 compared with 2015.

• Theunadjusted realGDP increasedby0,7% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2016.

It should be noted that these GDP figures are an indication of a paralysis in SA economic policy trajectory. The NDP’s projection of an average annual GDP growth of 5.4% in order to reduce unemployment is unlikely to be realised. Even if it were to be realised the number of jobs would be few.

The focus of the government should be on addressing among others high unemployment rate through encouraging domestic demand, and domestic production and not just the export of raw minerals and imports of food and manufactured goods.

According to the NDP, the low value added services sector and low wages as solution to SA’s unemployment crisis such as EPWP jobs. In order to industrialise and increase standard of living the SA government should be investing more in the manufacturing sector. This ignores the fact that economic growth is but one indicator of economic development which other indicators such as unemployment and income inequality. The focus on the services sector as growth engine of the economy will ensure perpetual poverty and unemployment that will not able to provide value added services, such as civil engineering and software engineering services.

The failure to protect SA’s agricultural industries through imports from the US and EU poses risk of job losses and food security. The agricultural sector has remained monopolised.

The contraction in the manufacturing sector in the third quarter, of 2016, shows that the benefits of SA’s integration into the global economy have not trickled down to the masses in the form of jobs and more investment in the sector. This is a failure of industrial policy.

The failure of the mining also shows that the quest to transform the sector to process minerals locally has failed. The intervention by the government through the mining charter has not produced positive results. The mining sector has remained monopolised.

The only sector which has grown is services sector, where most workers find themselves in a vulnerable position because the duration of their contracts is uncertain and a result, they are unable

to plan for their future. They work long hours more than 50 hours per week but they are paid only for 40 hours, they do not have leave days, sick maternity and paternity leave which are mandatory in terms of the law. When these workers get sick of lack of rest they are accused of being lazy. Furthermore, there is lack of enforcement and allocation of funds for the DOL inspectorate. Economic growth cannot be achieved at the cost of the workers.

One of the main reasons for lack of economic growth is labour flexibility which allows employers to retrench workers under the excuse of introducing technology and unhappy labour force which is being deprived of its surplus value and the right to dignity. Prioritisation of the service sectors without a manufacturing implies the entrenchment of low wages and de-industrialisation.

The obsession by business of wanting to interfere into political arena and to reduce costs in order to remain competitive is regrettable. Even if there was economic growth of 5.4% ,companies would still retrench workers. This is because the private sector has remained intransigent by refusing to retrain the workforce in modern technology and also to use technology to replace workers in the name of profit maximisation.

This is why COSATU calls for a moratorium on retrenchments and for government to convene a jobs summit in order to develop short and long term measures to stem the jobs bloodbath. There is no shortcut to development.

the economy

is caused by gradual DE-INDUSTrIALISATION process

Slow economic GrOWTH

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the economy

is caused by gradual DE-INDUSTrIALISATION process

the recent decision by the ratings agency S&P Global Ratings to downgrade South Africa to sub-investment grade will have long

lasting consequences for the workers and the country. This is a significant matter for COSATU, which is first and foremost an economic entity with the responsibility to look after the interest of its members and the working class.

We are worried because the junk status will have inflationary results as it would result in an increase in borrowing costs not only for government but across the economy.

Currently South Africa owes more than 2.2 trillion rand which is more than 50.7% of the national income or GDP and pays R 160 billion per annum in interest payment, which is very close to what government spends on social grants. What is more worrying also is that according to the National Treasury the budget for 2017/18 totals R1.56 trillion of which revenue covers R1.41 trillion.

The remaining R 149 billion will be borrowed and there is strong possibility that South African government will be forced to further raise taxes to fund most of its spending. This unfortunately happens in the midst of a stagnant

economy with high unemployment, poverty and inequalities

We cannot afford to pay higher interest rates, especially when we are opening Public Service Wage negotiations later in the year after a three year wage agreement. This will definitely affect the negotiations and service delivery targets will have to be curtailed. This government cannot afford this, when more and more people are losing their jobs and combined with the working poor are becoming more dependent on government services.

This will also impact on government’s commitment to Radical Economic Transformation.

The federation rejects this notion that our government needs to be supervised by ratings agencies, especially because they are corrupt and have been fined billions and millions of rands before after being found guilty of collusion.

This is what informs our disapproval of the credit rating agency S&P’s decision to downgrade the country, and we also view their reasons about political uncertainty as interference in our domestic political affairs, which should be beyond their scope of work. Overall this calls for a radical approach from all concerned about the way, we manage and transform our economy.

According to COSATU South Africa should not be looking for loans but we should be increasing tax on companies since they have trillions stashed in bank accounts. SA is rich in mineral resources and our wealth is equal to wealth possessed by oil producing countries.

A debt of more than 2 trillion is indication that neo -liberal policies have failed as they have made SA economy to be more dependent on foreign investors A radical transformation will never be achieved as long as treasury pursues policies of price stability or fiscal consolidation.

It is for this reason that SA should be campaigning for a Brics bank and Brics rating agencies. It is strange that only 10% of government debt is foreign owned yet the repercussions of the downgrade will be felt throughout the economy.

This should be a wakeup call to South Africans that whilst we may be free to vote we do not have economic freedom we cannot determine our economic policies freely. SA should be campaigning for an African bank that will be able to mobilise resources on the continent.

The practice of state owned companies and municipalities using the debt market should be stopped.

Our economic policies need an overhaul to ensure that the economic is locally owned and more inward and less vulnerable to investor sentiments.

The credit agencies are merely instruments of imperialism and the fact that they are also rating developed countries debts, such as the US and UK debt does not mean that they are not pursuing an imperialist agenda.

In 2011 46% of credit active consumers about 8.8 million then had impaired credit records. There is price fixing across the economy and prices of most consumer goods are high from vegetables to motor vehicles.

Already the majority of South Africans are excluded from the economy by neo liberal policies, which assume that the quality of living standards and decent jobs will be improved by private a company which is an illusion.

Debt service costs which amount to R162 billion in 2016/17 is the fastest growing item on the budget.

This means that most resources would have to be diverted to payment of debt rather than providing job creation projects and social security.

THE RATINgS AgENCy DECISION to downgrade is a clear call for a NEW rADICAL APPrOACH in the way we

manage and transform our economy

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very soon South Africa will be celebrating a decade since it joined BRICS. On the 24th of

December 2017 SA will mark the 7th year since it joined BRICS in 2010. BRICS has served as an important countervailing force in the world economy dominated by the western, developed countries. Trade amongst the BRICS countries has intensified.

In fact China is now the biggest trading partner of SA. The key question though is the composition of this trade. One of the main gripes has always been that the Global South trade relations were dominated by commodities. Historically, SA has been exporting more of its raw materials to these western countries and importing value-added goods from them.

It would be important to start dissecting some of the pertinent trade issues amongst the BRICS countries as we approach a decade since the country joined BRICS. This article constitutes the first attempt to do that. A closer look at the imports and exports between January and December 2016 shows that SA’s key exports into the BRICS countries were mineral products. The mineral products item is a common denominator of SA’s exports to all the BRICS countries. China gets a lion’s share of these exports and in 2016 the value of mineral exports to China amounted to more than R60bn. This actually represented more than

60% of SA’s total exports to China in 2016. The second most important export category was iron and steel products with the export value of over R23bn.

On the import side of things SA’s top category of imports from China was machinery with the value of over R90bn. Interestingly, the export of

machinery was at the bottom of the top 10 list with the value of about R675bn. The second important import category was textiles with the value of close to R20bn. Table 1 below shows all the other categories of imports from and exports to China. So, trade between SA and China still betrays colonial patterns with SA exporting minerals and importing value added goods. We

import machinery, chemicals, plastic, rubber, vehicles, aircrafts and vessels among other value added products. Interestingly, trade with India is also dominated by mineral products. Both exports and imports of minerals occupy the first spot with the value of close to R32.7bn and R10.4bn respectively (see table 2 below).

We still import value-added products

the economy

of the BrICS pattern?

How is the CONTOUr

by Jonas Mosia

Table 1. China Imports and Exports: January to December 2016

Rank Products Value Products Value

Exports Imports

1 Mineral Products R 60,424,808,393 Machinery R 90,602,457,489

2 Products Iron & Steel R 23,281,676,763 Textiles R 19,992,708,682

3 Wood pulp & paper R 4,225,628,080 Products Iron & Steel R 16,884,000,524

4 Textiles R 3,150,093,712 Chemicals R 12,437,042,935

5 Precious Metal R 2,666,820,688 Toys & Sport apparel R 9,934,677,142

6 Chemicals R 1,420,505,706 Plastics & Rubber R 9,910,478,258

7 Prepared foodstuffs R 1,274,790,366 Footwear R 8,375,657,858

8 Vegetables R 949,406,993 Vehicles aircraft & vessels R 4,923,153,662

9 Raw hides & leather R 885,489,067 Stone & Glass R 4,690,957,906

10 Machinery R 675,100,727 Photographic & medical equipment R 4,265,713,220

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like machinery, vehicles, aircraft, vessels and chemicals from India. It is not surprising that Asia is becoming an important player; India and China

constitute a big market given their population sizes. The South African mineral products were also exported to Brazil in 2016 with the value of R1.1bn. This put mineral products export to Brazil at number 3 in terms of importance. At the top of the top

10 table was iron and steel products with the value of R1.97bn; followed by chemicals with the value of R1.3bn. The most important imports from Brazil

comprised of value-added products including equipment components with the value of R3.9bn; and vehicles, aircraft and vessels with the value of R2.5bn. The rest of the products are outlined in table 3.

Table 4 below shows an interesting

story; the trade between SA and Russia was a green one; a vegetable one in 2016. Both exports and imports in vegetables between the two countries

topped the table in 2016 with the values of R1.6bn and R1.9bn respectively. Mineral products still played an important role in South African exports to Russia, occupying the third spot with the value of R736.6m.

In conclusion, it is important to acknowledge that this has not been a comprehensive analysis; particularly because it only covered a period of one year. However, it may serve as an indicator of what the picture might look like when the country celebrates the 10th anniversary of South Africa’s acceptance as a member of the BRICS bloc. The picture painted in this short article is that trade between SA and other BRICS countries is still

dominated by the raw materials and the country has to move up the value chain ladder if it is to play a meaningful role within the bloc and address some of the worrying economic indicators.

In 2013, the unemployment rate in South Africa was 25%. In the

same period India’s unemployment rate was at 3.4%; Brazil’s at 6.5%; Russia’s at 5.2% and China’s at 4%. In the same period the Gini Coefficient was 0.497 in Brazil; 0.416 in Russia; 0.469 in China; 0.367 in India and 0.650 in South Africa. This has to change and change fast.

There are other areas that need close monitoring like the BRICS Development Bank, which is now called New Development Bank (NDB). The expectation is that it can’t operate like the other International Development Finance Institutions if it is to help BRICS countries and SA in particular to address its challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality.

Jonas Mosia is a member of Nehawu & Former Cosatu IPC

of the BrICS pattern?Table 2. India Imports and Exports: January to December 2016


Exports Imports

1 Mineral Products R 32,752,788,353 Mineral Products R 10,404,470,884

2 Products Iron & Steel R 3,599,008,509 Chemicals R 9,415,645,968

3 Wood pulp & paper R 2,825,557,113 Vehicles aircraft & vessels R 8,704,946,896

4 Machinery R 2,405,215,254 Machinery R 3,751,330,585

5 Chemicals R 1,865,625,779 Vegetables R 2,464,247,658

6 Precious Metal R 1,009,144,789 Textiles R 2,332,039,640

7 Wood Products R 545,456,195 Products Iron & Steel R 2,122,594,399

8 Vehicles aircraft & vessels R 385,609,371 Plastics & Rubber R 1,272,647,751

9 Photographic & medical equipment R 346,743,648 Precious Metal R 908,093,602

10 Other unclassified goods R 255,298,573 Equipment Components R 775,369,715

Table 3. Brazil Imports and Exports: January to December 2016


Exports Imports

1 Products Iron & Steel R 1,975,117,132 Equipment Components R 3,904,500,330

2 Chemicals R 1,314,810,017 Vehicles aircraft & vessels R 2,567,664,617

3 Mineral Products R 1,142,604,205 Products Iron & Steel R 2,497,939,872

4 Vehicles aircraft & vessels R 383,226,453 Machinery R 2,113,885,916

5 Machinery R 221,991,511 Chemicals R 1,879,793,274

6 Plastics & Rubber R 208,184,871 Prepared foodstuffs R 1,770,060,709

7 Prepared foodstuffs R 77,612,846 Live animals R 1,653,206,728

8 Photographic & medical equipment R 53,415,454 Vegetables R 1,156,083,745

9 Vegetables R 50,306,859 Wood pulp & paper R 900,086,513

10 Textiles R 43,249,190 Mineral Products R 544,126,006

Table 4. Russia Imports and Exports: January to December 2016

Source for all tables: SARS


Exports Imports

1 Vegetables R 1,635,128,970 Vegetables R 1,940,222,544

2 Products Iron & Steel R 921,583,078 Chemicals R 573,480,183

3 Mineral Products R 736,616,161 Products Iron & Steel R 510,257,683

4 Prepared foodstuffs R 479,591,445 Machinery R 260,658,518

5 Machinery R 200,347,878 Plastics & Rubber R 173,864,173

6 Vehicles aircraft & vessels R 64,531,928 Wood pulp & paper R 82,293,107

7 Chemicals R 63,503,787 Mineral Products R 55,590,390

8 Plastics & Rubber R 20,582,826 Wood Products R 37,040,082

9 Photographic & medical equipment R 19,258,775 Precious Metal R 31,920,788

10 Works of art R 5,278,623 Vehicles aircraft & vessels R 29,408,814

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The National DEVELOPMENTPlan unpacked

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the economy

the National Development Plan (NDP) offers a long-term perspective. It defines a desired destination and identifies the role

different sectors of society need to play in reaching that goal.As a long-term strategic plan, it serves four broad objectives:1. Providing overarching goals for

what we want to achieve by 2030.2. Building consensus on the key

obstacles to us achieving these goals and what needs to be done to overcome those obstacles.

3. Providing a shared long-term strategic framework within which more detailed planning can take place in order to advance the long-term goals set out in the NDP.

4. Creating a basis for making choices about how best to use limited resources.

The Plan aims to ensure that all South Africans attain a decent standard of living through the elimination of poverty and reduction of inequality. The core elements of a decent standard of living identified in the Plan are:• Housing, water, electricity and

sanitation• Safe and reliable public transport• Quality education and skills

development• Safety and security• Quality health care• Social protection• Employment• Recreation and leisure• Clean environment• Adequate nutrition The NDP has been approved and adopted by government and has received strong endorsement from the broader society. The focus now shifts to how the NDP will be implemented.

1. Implementation phases

The NDP and its proposals will need to be implemented in the right order over the next 17 years. This process of prioritisation and sequencing will take place in three broad phrases:a. Critical steps to be taken in 2013

to unlock implementation. The following actions will be undertaken during 2013:

• Implement programmes that do not require additional resources and long lead times

• Identify critical first steps to unlock implementation

• Preparation of the 2014-19 MTSF as the first five-year building block of the NDP

• Focus on areas where implementation of existing policies needs to improve

• Focused dialogues to overcome obstacles to implementation.

b. 2014-2019 planning cycle. The 2014-2019 planning cycle should be viewed as the first in a series of five-year planning cycles that will advance the goals of the NDP. The equivalent planning cycle at local government level will be equally important.

c. 2019-2024 and 2024-2029 planning cycles. This phase of the NDP will be used to initiate the remaining activities. It will build on previous cycles and be informed by the review of performance.

2. Integration into government plans

The planning processes carried out by departments and other government entities will have a vital role to play in bringing the vision and proposals contained in the NDP to life.

NDP proposals are being incorporated into the existing activities of departments and broken down into the medium and short-term plans of government at national, provincial and municipal level. The NDP provides the golden thread that brings coherence and consistency to these different plans.

Government has already started a process to align the long term plans of departments with the NDP and to identify areas where policy change is required to ensure consistency and coherence. Each government programme will have to be backed by detailed implementation plans which clearly set out choices made, actions that need to be undertaken and their sequencing. Key steps to facilitate this integration include:• The Presidency is leading the

formulation of the 2014-2019 MTSF (Medium Term Strategic Framework) in consultation with departments.

• The Presidency and National Treasury will work with departments to clarify roles and responsibilities, ensure that plans and budgets are aligned, and develop clear performance indicators for each programme.

• Departmental strategic plans, annual performance plans and programme plans will need to be evaluated by the Presidency to determine alignment with the NDP prior to submission to Parliament.

• Monitoring and evaluation will be used to identify obstacles to implementation, to facilitate reflection on what works, and to continuously improve implementation.

As mentioned above, implementation of the NDP in government requires a process of breaking down the plan into key outputs and activities to be implemented by individual departments or groups of departments.

In this regard, we have started to develop the 2014-2019 MTSF with the aim of having it ready for approval by Cabinet as soon as possible after the 2014 elections. This will enable the new administration to focus on implementation as soon as possible after taking office. The MTSF will be precise and clear in identifying indicators and targets to be achieved in the 2014-2019 period, similar to the existing delivery agreements for the 12 outcomes. The MTSF will contain the following for each of the outcomes:a) Key targets from the NDP and from

other plans, such as the New Growth Path, National Infrastructure Plan, and Industrial Policy Action Plan

b) Current baseline for each target and the MTSF (2014-2019) target based on consideration of a trajectory to 2030

c) Key outputs and actions to achieve the target and department(s) responsible.

The NPC and the Department for

Performance Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) in the Presidency are jointly leading the process of developing the TSF. This process requires intensive engagements and negotiations with individual departments, groups of departments and clusters to obtain agreement on the detailed contents of the MTSF.

DPME, the NPC, DCOG and line function national departments responsible for concurrent functions will also be engaging with the provincial Offices of the Premier, the relevant provincial departments and municipalities regarding the provincialisation and localisation of the national targets, for inclusion in provincial and municipal

strategic plans. This intensive engagement and negotiation process to work out detailed implementation plans for the 2014-2019 period will be the major focus during 2013. However, in the meantime, some of the key proposals for change in the plan are already being implemented by national and provincial departments in the current financial year. For example:a) National Treasury is in the process

of appointing a government Chief Procurement Officer to strengthen procurement systems so that they deliver value for money

b) The Minister of Public Service and Administration has started to develop proposals for restricting the business interests of public servants and to work on frameworks for improving performance incentives and the application of consequences for poor performance.

c) The Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Commission is driving and monitoring the process of accelerating the development of the economic infrastructure required to enable increased economic growth

d) The Minister of Economic Development is coordinating and monitoring the various economic growth and job creation drivers in the New Growth Path

e) The Minister of Health is implementing the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMCT) programme, and has already initiated antiretroviral (ARV) therapy for all eligible people living with HIV, and is already progressively improving TB prevention and cure and addressing HIV and TB co-infection

f ) The Minister of Basic Education is ensuring that parents receive their children’s ANA results, and that Provincial Education departments have programmes that use ANA results to improve school performance

g) The Minister of Higher Education is ensuring that FET lecturers are being trained as part of improving the quality of FET colleges.

There is a high level of correlation between the NDP priorities and the current 12 priority outcomes, and this correlation enables us to maintain continuity in the planning and monitoring and evaluation processes of government. Government will therefore continue with the focus on outcomes in the 2014-2019 period, with

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the economy

minor adjustments. For example, we are considering adding an additional outcome on social protection and to split outcome 12 into two outcomes on increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of government and nation building, given the importance attached to these issues in the NDP. Coordination of implementation will continue as before, with implementation forums (clusters and Minmecs or their equivalents) coordinating and driving implementation of each outcome. 3. The role of different sectors of society

The NDP is a plan for the whole country. Government will engage with all sectors to understand how they are contributing to implementation, and particularly to identify any obstacles to them fulfilling their role effectively.

The NDP sets out ambitious goals for poverty reduction, economic growth, economic transformation and job creation. The private sector has a major role to play in achieving these objectives.

Long-term planning and investment in the future is just as important for the private as the public sector. Government is clearly stating its commitment to the NDP, and it is important that the private sector does the same.

Where the private sector faces

obstacles, sectoral dialogues will take place to identify how these obstacles can be addressed within the parameters laid out by the NDP.

High-level leadership meetings will be held regularly between government and business, government and labour, and government and civil society. These will provide a route for focused dialogue to discuss the contribution of each sector to the implementation of the NDP, identify blockages and develop a common understanding of how obstacles will be overcome.

These high-level meetings will be underpinned by more focused stakeholder engagements. These stakeholder engagements will be intended to find solutions to specific challenges and construct frameworks that enable stakeholders to hold each other accountable.

4. Core implementation principles

The effective implementation of the Plan depends on our ability to build unity in action through the following principles:

• Broad ownership - The Plan enjoys wide support from all sections of society. The best way to sustain this support is by ensuring broad engagement at every level of implementation. It is important that the implementation phase builds on this sense of broad ownership by enabling different sectors and individuals to contribute their skills, resources and expertise.

• Continuous capacity building - Capacity building needs to be treated as an on-going process. It requires that all sectors constantly strive to improve their own performance. This includes measures to strengthen the capacity and developmental commitment of the state.

• Policy consistency - Many successful reform initiatives have policy consistency and stability of leadership as common features. The Plan is designed to bring about change over a period of nearly two decades and this requires a degree of policy consistency. Policy changes must be approached cautiously based on experience and evidence so that the country does not lose sight of its long-term goals.

• Prioritisation and sequencing - Not all proposals will be implemented at once. Priority will be given to policies that need to be implemented immediately because other actions cannot be implemented until these steps have been taken; policies and plans that have long-term implications and lock in future choices; areas where the core objective is to improve the implementation of existing policies; areas where the first task is to build consensus, improve trust, build capacity or agree on the division of responsibilities before implementation can take place. Particular attention will be given in the initial stages to the three objectives that the NPC has identified as being especially important for the success of the Plan: (a) improving the quality of learning outcomes, (b) creating jobs and promoting inclusive growth, and (c) strengthening the capacity and developmental commitment of the state.

• Clarity of responsibility and accountability - The Plan calls for the tightening of the accountability chain. An important step towards this is to ensure that all activities

necessary to implement a programme are clearly spelt out including the timeframe and responsibility for implementation, as well as oversight and monitoring mechanisms that will help identify blockages.

• Continuous learning and improvement – It is important to figure out how to make things work before trying to implement at a large scale. Implementation needs to be a learning process, so that plans can evolve based on the experience of departments and the results of evidence-based monitoring and evaluation.

• Coordinated action - The NDP provides an overarching policy framework to bring greater coherence to the work of government. However, many coordination problems relate to implementation and in these areas issues will need to be resolved through regular day-to-day interactions.

5. Conditions for successful implementation The successful implementation of the NDP depends on:• Breaking the Plan into

manageable chunks• Developing detailed programme

plans• Building on the broad support

for the Plan• •Buildingtrustandconfidence

among key role-players• Strengthening public sector

capacity• Streamlining reporting

procedures• Consistent messaging

6. Financing

The Plan will shape resource allocation over the next 17 years. The Plan supports government’s intention to gradually shift resources towards investment that grows the economy, broadens opportunities and enhances capabilities.As a result, other parts of the budget will need to grow more slowly. This will only be possible if we achieve greater value for money in many established areas of government activity; that is why much of the Plan focuses on how we can get better at what we do.

7. Provincial government

The Plan identifies the task of improving the quality of public services as critical to achieving transformation. This is not an easy objective and it will require provinces to focus on identifying and overcoming the obstacles to achieving improved outcomes.

The provincial planning process should therefore be used to focus on the proposals that are made in areas of core provincial responsibility such as education and health.

Some of these proposals require policy changes at the national level, but there are many areas where provinces can start work immediately on improving the quality of what is already being done. This applies, for example, to strengthening the capacity of education districts to provide quality support to schools and to ensuring p r o c u r e m e n t s y s t e m s d e l i v e r value for

money.It is

e s s e n t i a l that provinces engage with these areas of the NDP in detail, identify specific priorities where they can commit themselves to improving outcomes and then

The NDP is a plan for the whole country.

Government will engage with all sectors to understand

how they are contributing to implementation, and particularly

to identify any obstacles to them fulfilling their

role effectively.

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the economy

develop focused plans for how this can be achieved.

In the process, each province has the opportunity to lead the way in demonstrating the potential for how we can get better at what we do. Priority steps provinces need to take in implementing the NDP include:• Engage in detail with areas of the NDP

that relate to core provincial priorities and identify specific proposals where implementation can start immediately. Most of these will be proposals relating to how to improve the implementation of existing policies.

•Use the

provincial five-year plan to focus attention on how to improve outcomes in core provincial functions, such as education and health.

• Pay greater attention to the quality of management within departments with a view to ensuring that public servants are both challenged and supported so that they can contribute fully to the work of their departments.

• Address weaknesses in procurement systems to ensure a greater focus on value for money.

• Strengthen administrative relations between provincial departments and their national counterparts.

8. Local government

The Plan highlights the need to strengthen the ability of local

government to fulfil its developmental

role. Municipal I n t e g r a t e d

Development Plans (IDPs) need

to be used more strategically to focus

attention on critical priorities in the NDP that relate to the mandate of

local government such as spatial planning, infrastructure and basic services.

Like provincial planning processes, municipal IDPs should be used to focus on aspects of the NDP that fit within a municipality’s core responsibilities. This would allow the IDP process to become more manageable and the participation process more meaningful, thus helping to narrow the gap between the aspirations contained in these documents and what can actually be achieved.

To do this effectively, the IDP process needs to be led by municipal staff, not outsourced to consultants.

As for provinces, there are also many areas where municipalities could start implementation immediately by engaging with aspects of the Plan that speak to their core competencies and identifying how they can action proposals for improving implementation.

9. Monitoring and reporting

Planning and implementation should be informed by evidence-based monitoring and evaluation. There are already monitoring and reporting processes in place for government priorities, plans and policies. Integration of the NDP into these plans will enable implementation of the Plan to be monitored through

existing processes. The Department for Performance Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) has responsibility for overseeing progress against many of these objectives through the outcomes approach, and will have overall responsibility for monitoring progress.

It is also important that we are able to keep track of our progress against the NDP as a whole. This includes identifying unforeseen

circumstances that may hamper progress or identifying serious

blockages that need to be addressed. This will require a more strategic and

high-level form of monitoring that will be carried out by the NPC drawing on data that is already collected by DPME and other sources so as to minimise the reporting burden.

Since the implementation of the Plan will be a shared responsibility between government and social partners, it will be important to interact with organisations in other sectors to assess progress and identify blockages. 10. The role of leadership and accountability

Political leadership is critical for effective implementation. The President and Deputy President will be the lead champions of the Plan within Cabinet, in government and throughout the country.

Premiers and Mayors will need to be visible and active champions of the Plan, with their offices being the catalytic agencies to drive implementation at provincial and municipal levels.

Cabinet has the responsibility for making the necessary prioritisations, sustaining momentum and ensuring that public confidence in the NDP remains high. Cabinet will be responsible for overseeing implementation and facilitating the resolution of coordination challenges. At an administrative level, this coordination role will be played by FOSAD Management Committee. Where there are blockages, the Presidency will mediate discussions between the different parties responsible for implementation in order to find a practical way of removing the blockage.

11. getting the incentives right

Effective implementation will require a constant desire to improve. Too often the incentives do not encourage people to make the extra effort. In the public service, there are few consequences for public servants who do not perform, and sometimes the incentives can encourage people to do things that are inimical to the public good.

Similarly, we see from the many businesses that are failing to invest in growing their businesses or recruiting and training young talent that the private sector also faces many disincentives to taking decisions that will benefit it in the long term.

The long-term framework provided by the NDP should help to address some of these incentive problems; others will be identified and addressed through the processes of focused dialogue described above.

The steps the NDP identifies as necessary to improve the capacity of the state will also be important in this regard, as the state (at national, provincial and local levels) needs to be proactively involved in identifying and overcoming obstacles to implementation.

*Issued by Government Communication and Information System

The NDP is a plan for the whole country.

Government will engage with all sectors to understand

how they are contributing to implementation, and particularly

to identify any obstacles to them fulfilling their

role effectively.

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the Commission for Gender Equality holding a hearing on implementation of employment equity at UKZN

The Global Gender Report for 2016 released has painted gloomy picture about the status of women across the globe.

It is said ‘..In the 10 years since the Forum began measuring the global economic gender gap it has narrowed by only 2%. Higher levels of female participation in education are not leading to commensurate employment opportunities for women – many barriers to entry and progression still remain along the female talent pipeline’.

In 2012, pilot Gender Parity Task

Forces were launched in Mexico, Turkey and Japan. A further task force followed in 2014 in the Republic of Korea. Learning from these pilot experiences, the Forum is now working to scale the Task Force model to new countries in partnership with regional and national organisations. As a first step, we have established a Gender Parity Task Force in Chile in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank.

According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2016, it is alluded that ‘Talent and technology together will determine how the Fourth Industrial Revolution can be harnessed to deliver sustainable economic growth and innumerable benefits to society. Yet if half

of the world’s talent is not integrated— as both beneficiary and shaper—into the transformations underway, we will compromise innovation and risk a rise in inequality. This urgency is at the core of a fresh call to action to accelerate progress towards gender equality, adding to the well-established economic case for gender equality. Moreover, there is a fundamental moral case for empowering women: women represent one half of the global population and it is self-evident that they must have equal access to health, education, earning power and political representation’.

More than a decade of data has revealed that progress is still too slow

for realizing the full potential of one half of humanity within our lifetimes.

Governments must accelerate gender equality through bolder policymaking, to businesses to prioritize gender equality as a critical talent and moral imperative and to all of us to become deeply conscious of the choices we make every day that impact gender equality globally.

The Report reveals the following:• Wage equality between women

and men for similar work is still huge

• Share of women on boards of listed companies very low

• Ability of women to rise to positions

‘WOMEN have no opportunities

to advance in lEADERShIP

positions’, reveals the Global Gender Report

by Norman Mampane, COSATU Shopsteward EditorThe Commission for Gender Equality holding a hearing on

implementation of employment equity at UkZN

gender agendaThe Shopsteward - April/May 2017

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of leadership still low• Workers in informal employment

still dominated by the total of females than males

• Average minutes spent on work per day by females as compared to males vary) and Proportion of work spent on unpaid work per day by females and males have shown growing trends

• Number of female heads of state to date is still low

• Workers are still employment in low paying jobs than males

• Firms with female top managers are still low in numbers

South Africa is ranked number 15 out of 144 countries.

Employment Equity In South Africa, the Department

of Labour has every year released a disappointing Report on implementation of Employment Equity at the workplace. The onus now lies in every workplace to challenge employers and all line management responsible to implement the legislation.

According to the Commission for Employment Equity[CEE] in the Employment Equity Report for 2015 ‘The current inequalities in the South African labour market are as a result of past statutory discrimination in the workplace, such as job reservation and denial of organising rights for black South Africans. To think that this can be reversed without statutory imperatives is unrealistic. It is the only way to enforce this compliance given that the environment is one where people do not want to embrace what is necessary.

The Regulations and the Codes on Equal Pay for Work of Equal Value support the amendments by giving us “the how to” and the tools, and the Commission for Employment Equity [CEE] is proud to have concluded these documents. They are practical and an easy way to achieve the desired outcomes of the Act and its amendments.

The objective of affirmative action is intended to address past discrimination, is set out in section 15 of the EEA where it is stated that these are measures ‘designed to ensure that suitability qualified people from designated groups have equal opportunity to employment and are equitably represented in all occupational levels in the workforce of a designated employer’. This report provides a picture of representation of employees at different occupational levels with reference to the economically

active population as an indicator of progress on affirmative action. We recognise that to this extent, this indicator has its limitations as it only reflects one side of the picture. It fails to quantifiably look at the pool of suitability qualified people and whether there is equal opportunity for employment, which is far more complex and difficult to assess. Current systems used for reporting do not provide us with ways of tapping into this information. The trends in the 2014/2015 report remain relatively unchanged. Change remains slow and again this means that the Sunset Clause is a “pie in the sky” concept. What is further alarming is how in some of the provinces and sectors we have witnessed a decline in black representation where it matters most.

Also becoming significantly evident is the increase of Foreign Nationals at senior levels of most organisations. On a positive note, we welcome the decrease of whites at top management in the light of the EAP statistics on designated people. However, the pace is still slow. In 2010 it was at 2.9% and it is in 2014 at 3.4%. We cannot hope to pick up momentum unless there is a passion for transformation. Employers have to come to terms with the fact that such better representation amongst the designated people makes business sense. There is definitely a business case to be made for that. It is not just a matter of redressing the past’.

‘Transformation is profoundly advanced by improving the quality of human relations and also creating a meaningful behaviour towards a sustainable positive change in power relations between males and females’, argued Dr Van Jaarsveld.

This year, the University of KwaZulu-Natal which has an intake of 46 566 students and a staff compliment of 928 permanent employees presented its milestone on full implementation of employment equity for the period 2015/2016 before the Commissioners at the Commission for Gender Equality public investigative hearings held at Johannesburg.

According to the University of KwaZulu-Natal Vice Chancellor, Dr Van Jaarsveld ‘UKZN has made tremendous improvements since the last time it appeared before the Commission for Gender Equality. ‘We have allocated R700 000 which was secured from the SETA’s. the Commission for Gender Equality holding a hearing on implementation of employment equity at UKZN

The Global Gender Report for 2016 released has painted gloomy picture about the status of women across the globe.

It is said ‘..In the 10 years since the Forum began measuring the global economic gender gap it has narrowed by only 2%. Higher levels of female participation in education are not leading to commensurate employment opportunities for women – many barriers to entry and progression still remain along the female talent pipeline’.

In 2012, pilot Gender Parity Task Forces were launched in Mexico, Turkey and Japan. A further task force followed in 2014 in the Republic of Korea. Learning from these pilot experiences, the Forum is now working to scale the Task Force model to new countries in partnership with regional and national organisations. As a first step, we have established a Gender Parity Task Force in Chile in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank.

According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2016, it is alluded that ‘Talent and technology together will determine how the Fourth Industrial Revolution can be harnessed to deliver sustainable economic growth and innumerable benefits to society. Yet if half of the world’s talent is not integrated— as both beneficiary and shaper—into the transformations underway, we will compromise innovation and risk a rise in inequality. This urgency is at the core of a fresh call to action to accelerate progress towards gender equality, adding to the well-established economic case for gender equality. Moreover, there is a fundamental moral case for empowering women: women represent one half of the global population and it is self-evident that they must have equal access to health, education, earning power and political representation’.

More than a decade of data has revealed that progress is still too slow for realizing the full potential of one half of humanity within our lifetimes.

Governments must accelerate gender equality through bolder policymaking, to businesses to prioritize gender equality as a critical talent and moral imperative and to all of us to become deeply conscious of the choices we make every day that impact gender equality globally.

The Report reveals the following:• Wage equality between women and

men for similar work is still huge• Share of women on boards of listed

companies very low• Ability of women to rise to positions of

leadership still low• Workers in informal employment still

dominated by the total of females than

males• Average minutes spent on work per

day by females as compared to males vary) and Proportion of work spent on unpaid work per day by females and males have shown growing trends

• Number of female heads of state to date is still low

• Workers are still employment in low paying jobs than males

• Firms with female top managers are still low in numbers

South Africa is ranked number 15 out of 144 countries.

Employment Equity In South Africa, the Department

of Labour has every year released a disappointing Report on implementation of Employment Equity at the workplace.

The onus now lies in every workplace to challenge employers and all line management responsible to implement the legislation. According to the Commission for Employment Equity[CEE] in the Employment Equity Report for 2015 ‘The current inequalities in the South African labour market are as a result of past statutory discrimination in the workplace, such as job reservation and denial of organising rights for black South Africans. To think that this can be reversed without statutory imperatives is unrealistic. It is the only way to enforce this compliance given that the environment is one where people do not want to embrace what is necessary. The Regulations and the Codes on Equal Pay for Work of Equal Value support the amendments by giving us “the how to” and the tools, and the Commission for Employment Equity [CEE] is proud to have concluded these documents. They are practical and an easy way to achieve the desired outcomes of the Act and its amendments.

The objective of affirmative action is intended to address past discrimination, is set out in section 15 of the EEA where it is stated that these are measures ‘designed to ensure that suitability qualified people from designated groups have equal opportunity to employment and are equitably represented in all occupational levels in the workforce of a designated employer’. This report provides a picture of representation of employees at different occupational levels with reference to the economically active population as an indicator of progress on affirmative action. We recognise that to this extent, this indicator has its limitations as it only reflects one side of the picture. It fails to quantifiably look at the pool of suitability qualified people and whether there is equal opportunity for employment, which is far more complex and difficult to assess.

gender agenda

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www.cosatu.org.za

gender agenda

Current systems used for reporting do not provide us with ways of tapping into this information. The trends in the 2014/2015 report remain relatively unchanged. Change remains slow and again this means that the Sunset Clause is a “pie in the sky” concept. What is further alarming is how in some of the provinces and sectors we have witnessed a decline in black representation where it matters most. Also becoming significantly evident is the increase of Foreign Nationals at senior levels of most organisations. On a positive note, we welcome the decrease of whites at top management in the light of the EAP statistics on designated people. However, the pace is still slow. In 2010 it was at 2.9% and it is in 2014 at 3.4%. We cannot hope to pick up momentum unless there is a passion for transformation. Employers have to come to terms with the fact that such better representation amongst the designated people makes business sense. There is definitely a business case to be made for that. It is not just a matter of redressing the past’.

‘Transformation is profoundly advanced by improving the quality of human relations and also creating a meaningful behaviour towards a sustainable positive change in power relations between males and females’, argued Dr Van Jaarsveld

This year, the University of KwaZulu-Natal which has an intake of 46 566

students and a staff compliment of 928 permanent employees presented its milestone on full implementation of employment equity for the period 2015/2016 before the Commissioners at the Commission for Gender Equality public investigative hearings held at Johannesburg.

According to the University of KwaZulu-Natal Vice Chancellor, Dr Van Jaarsveld ‘UKZN has made tremendous improvements since the last time it appeared before the Commission for Gender Equality. ‘We have allocated R700 000 which was secured from the SETA’s for leadership development of female leadership within the Institution. We have produced many female students than males in the period under review. We have only registered two cases of sexual harassment’.

‘Our changes are considerate with the aspects of reinforcing a multifaceted process which is biased towards full consideration with the cultural heritage of our staff compliment and student population, their diverse background, diverse environment and also focused on augmentation of access and success for all stakeholders’, said Jaarsveld.

Case study on the University of KwaZulu-Natal: Employment Equity implementation

Going back to basics on all aspects affecting workers in every workplace

entails ‘ensuring that workplace forums on employment equity’ are attended by all shopstewards representing workers.

The University shared some of the practices under implementation to achieve a balanced workplace wherein the aspect of equality between men and women is nurtured;• Consistent engagement with workers

and their Unions on all aspects of employment equity.

• Engagement of Unions on recruitment, short listing, interviews and appointments to ensure that women are considered for posts from all levels of the institution.

• Establishment of Employment Equity Committees to manage, monitor and assess compilation and submissions on the implementation of employment equity at the workplace.

• Initiating education programmes to empower female employees to advance opportunities which will empower them to contest positions and/or posts as part of their career pathing.

• Launching of campaigns such as the 16 Days of Activism against women and children abuse to keep a sustainable momentum to eradicate inequalities in society.

• Strengthening sexual harassment policies, with clear and definable procedures to uproot acts of

sexual assaults, misdemeanors and transgression at all workplaces.

• Allocating budgets to manage programmes on gender equality and empowerment of the most marginalized groupings such as the LGBT community, disabled persons and also on HIV/AIDS victims .

There are many similar cases to learn from and arrive at workable solutions to address equity at the workplace.

Recourse on launching a case on employment equity

Many women workers are facing the hardships of being less considered for promotions and also facing income differentials.

The Department of Labour undertook a process of conducting assessment of Income Differentials in companies to determine salary disparities in terms of race and gender since 2010.

‘The intention of this process was to test and promote the principle of “Equal Pay/Remuneration for Work of Equal Value” in line with the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Convention 100 that was ratified by our country on 30 March 2000. In order to be able to assess if employers are promoting pay equity, the criteria and methodology to assess work of equal value contained in the 2014 Regulations were utilised. Companies listed in the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and multinational

COSATU gender Coordinators during the 16

Days of Activism against women

and children Abuse

caption:

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gender agenda

companies operating in the country in different sectors, and government departments were identified for assessment’, argued the Commission for Employment Equity in the Employment Equity Report for 2015.

Since 2010 to date, over 200 employers in the private sector and in government have been assessed.

During this process, employers. presented the following challenges: •Limitedornouseofproperjob

evaluation systems by employers • Employers were unable to provide

justifiable reasons for salary disparities • Some employers use confidentiality

as a defense mechanism to resist providing Income Differential information as per the requirements

• Reluctance by employers toimplement corrective measures to address pay disparities as part of affirmative action measures in their EE Plans and

• Absence of a RemunerationPhilosophy and Policy that directs and guides remuneration and benefits

in a manner that is free from unfair discrimination for each employee at the workplace.

COSATU on the other hand has ‘condemned lack of opportunities to women across all sectors of the economy. And also the federation called for Employment Equity Tribunals to address redress’. The 2014/2015 Employment Equity Report shows that in the two decades South Africa has made little progress in changing the complexion of top management.

Representation of whites at top management was 68.9%, more than six times their representation in the economically active population. This was also the case for Indians, who at 8.6% of top management made up more than three times the size of the group’s economically active population.

White women were also favourably represented at the top in all provinces compared to other race groups, with the Western Cape at 14% having the highest representation, followed by Limpopo at 13.6%.

The CEE report, citing Stats SA figures, showed Africans account for 77.4% of the economically active population, coloureds 10%, Indians 2.7% and whites 9.9%.

The employment equity report also showed that the representation of people with disabilities in the workplace had decreased from 2% in 2014 to 1.7%, with men more likely to find employment

‘The labour federation was not shocked at the CEE’s latest statistics’.

“Of late, what we’ve seen is that in industries where there are retrenchments, unions like Solidarity have been ensuring that as and when those retrenchments take place that the issue of employment equity (affirmative action) is not really considered,” said COSATU leadership.

Workers in workplaces must be encouraged to launch complaints with the Commission for Gender Equality against any form of discrimination by employers.

The complainant must send a letter to the Commission to investigate the complaint.

All complaints must be send to: The Legal Department Commission for Gender EqualityP.O.Box 32175Braamfontein2017Tel: 011 403 7182Fax: 011 403 5609/011 403 7188Email: [email protected]

References:Global Gender Gap for 2016 http://www3.weforum.org/docs/GGGR16/WEF_Global_Gender_Gap_Report_2016.pdfCommission for Gender Equality Brochures for [email protected] Commission for Employment Equity Annual Report for 2014/2015http://www.labour.gov.za/DOL/downloads/documents/annual-reports/employment-equity/2014-2015/15thceeannualreport2015_part1.pdf

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gender agenda

Pregnancy Grant by: Lebogang Mulaisi

a pregnancy grant for South African women has been recommended by researchers from Wits

University, Ghent University, Monash University in Australia as well as the Soul City Institute. Research conducted in the South African Medical journal suggests that women should receive support as soon as pregnancy is diagnosed.

Pregnancy although being a natural and normal life occurrence, can place financial stress on women especially if they do not currently have the necessities to support everyday life. The formal sector has recognised the effect of pregnancy on women’s earning potential however there is no equivalent benefit for women who are in the

informal sector or unemployed.Nutritional status (what the

mother eats during pregnancy) is a key determinant of the baby’s weight at birth and further informs the baby’s likelihood of survival. The mother’s nutritional status also informs the child’s ability to develop and learn when the child reaches schooling age.

Currently three groups of people receive social grants in South Africa: The elderly, those who are living with disabilities as well as children below the age of eighteen. The Soul City institute is supporting the inclusion of a fourth group of persons to receive a grant: pregnant women.

The grant system is intended for those persons that are poor and/or are vulnerable. Therefore poor or vulnerable pregnant women

should have access to social protection because a child’s life begins at conception and not at birth.

Child grants were introduced in 1998 and more than 10 million children are the recipients of the grant. The majority of the caregivers of child grant recipients are women and studies have shown that they spend the money primarily on food. This result is an indication that a pregnancy grant will result in expectant mothers using the money on better nourishment during pregnancy.

The pregnancy grant will also enable women to spend the money on transport in order to acquire antenatal care; women from rural areas who are usually far from health care facilities

will be able to acquire essential antenatal health care.

Nearly thirty countries across the world, including eight on the African continent, provide pregnancy grants in cash or vouchers, which vary from R14 in Mozambique to about R3500 in Bolivia, where women receive it until the child is two years old.

Even though COSATU does not have a position on a pregnancy grant specifically, the eighth national congress resolved to call on government to increase the value as well as the volume of social grant in real terms.

lebogang Mulaisi is COSATU’s Social Development Coordinator

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Pregnancy Grant by: Lebogang Mulaisi

i nternationalThe Shopsteward - April/May 2017

Campaign for zero Recruitment fees highlights the Culmination

Conference in south africa

the culmination Conference of the Public Service International’s Project on Decent Work and Social Protection for Migrant Workers

took place on the 13th January 2017 at the Reef Hotel in Johannesburg, South Africa. It was attended by 28 participants from various affiliates of PSI.

Public Services International (PSI) affiliates such as SAMWU, NEHAWU, HOSPERSA, DENOSA, and NUPSAW, led the Culmination Conference of the PSI “Project on Decent Work and Social Protection for Migrant Workers” in South Africa. The project, implemented in 2014 to 2016, sought to promote access to decent work and social protection for migrant workers in the public services.

Participating in the conference were the local migrant organisation, the Migrant Workers Association of South Africa (MWASA), the Migrating for Work Research Consortium (MiWORC), the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), the Building and Woodworkers International (BWI), the African Diaspora Workers’ Network (ADWN) and the Department of Labour and the International Organisation for migration (IOM).

Highlighting the conference was the presentation of PSI’s No Recruitment Fees Campaign. The campaign seeks to abolish the charging of recruitment fees on migrant workers. PSI believes that all workers deserve to have decent work and social protection. No worker should

pay in order to get work. Charging of excessive recruitment

fees leads to migrant workers being entrapped in a cycle of debt, they fear joining trade unions and silently suffer exploitative and precarious working and living conditions. The PSI No Recruitment Fees Campaign will be rolled out throughout the year 2017.

Also presented in the conference was the ‘Passport to Worker and Union Rights in South Africa’, as well as the ‘Return and Reintegration Kit to South Africa: An Information Kit for returning Migrant Workers’. These information materials provide practical information for migrant workers on their rights as well as information to help them in their return and reintegration.

The conference was enriched with presentations, discussions and sharing of experiences and actions on the situation of migrant workers in South Africa, the challenges they face and what unions, government, international organisations and civil society are doing to address these challenges. The conference concluded with the participants gathered together in a symbolic signing of the Manifesto for Fair and Ethical Recruitment.

Read the full Conference Report herehttp://w w w.world-psi.org/sites/default/fi les/attachment/news/media-brief_culmination_conf-migration_project_jan2017.pdf

Participants at the PSI Conference held in 2017 in South Africa

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i nternationalThe Shopsteward - April/May 2017

Fidel Castro, A Marxist-Leninist Theoretician is no more

By Phatse Justice Piitso

Fidel is not dead, Fidel is here, his ideas will forever inspire humanity!

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the news of the passing away of Commander in Chief of the Cuban revolution Fidel Castro reached the capital cities of the

world like a devastating hurricane storm. The news reverberated into the ears of the millions of the people of the world like the rough sounds of the waves of the Atlantic and the Indian oceans. The beautiful horizons of our mother earth became an emboldened bowl of darkness in the absence of his living image. Destiny imposed his grandeur stature into a shadow of our imaginations.

Even if death has robbed us such a great revolutionary leader of the international working class movement, our faces shall never be a perennial river of tears. One of his greatest contributions was to teach humanity not to weep in the face of adversity. Our Commander in Chief taught us never to allow the enemy of our revolution to redirect the high moral standards which are the core characteristic values of our revolutionary movement. He taught us to fight adversity until it obeys us.

On Sunday the world shall follow the funeral procession accompanying his mortal remains to its final resting place at the pantheon of great martyrs of Santa Ifigenia in Santiago de Cuba. The sacred place of the spirits of the Cuban revolutionaries. At the pantheon of Santa Ifigenia rest amongst others, the hero of Cuban nation, Apostle Jose Marti, the father of the Cuban nation Carlos Cespedes, the mother of the Cuban nation Mariana Grajales, General Antonio Maceo, General Maximo Gomez and many others.

His mortal remains shall be deposited into a grave which its topsoil shall be a seedbed of the garden of the flowers of our revolution. The breeze from the Sierra maestra mountains, shall blow the seeds which will germinate revolutionary struggles of the working class across the world. The seeds from the flowers on the topsoil of his grave shall add an impetus to the revolutionary struggle of the working class across the globe

for the achievement of socialism. They will regenerate a momentous struggle which will consolidate the hegemony of the working class power for the achievement of our socialist revolution. The symbolic life of our Commander in Chief has been a journey of profound humility. It has been a journey of a true revolutionary immensed in the worldwide struggles for the emancipation of humanity.

The ancient Chinese writer Szuma Chien says” though death befalls all men alike, it may be weightier than mount Tai or lighter than a feather”. Therefore to live and die in the trenches for the liberation of the working class against the subjugation of colonialism and imperialism is weightier than mount Tai. Again to live and die vacillating and collaborating with forces of counter revolution is lighter than a feather. Our Commander in Chief lived and died undefeated by the forces of colonialism and imperialism. He never vacillated between the forces of our revolution and counter revolution.

From the battle of Moncada, to Sierra Maestra, from the battle of Playa Giron to Quito Quanavale. From the many battles fought in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Congo, Ethiopia, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde, Algeria, Bolivia, and other parts of the world, Fidel demonstrated himself to the world that indeed he is weightier than mount Tai. In Fidel, the world has lost one of its finest genius ever produced by the struggle of humanity. A towering giant of the working class struggle for socialism. Fidel was one of the greatest Marxist Leninist theoretician of our epoch. He was an ardent true revolutionary of our struggles for the liberation of our people.

Throughout his life, he demonstrated himself to be a true student of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin. He was indeed a true student of the world communist movement. His world outlook was based on the profound analysis of the world material conditions guided by the scientific revolutionary theory of Marxism Leninism. His theoretical outlook was never an illusion of an

abstract thinking about the concrete conditions of the material life of society. Our Commander in Chief never exaggerated false views that in the kingdom of hope there is no winter. This was necessarily as a result of his profound theoretical grasp that a revolution is slippery like a Mercury.

In the corridors of his deep thoughts, a revolution was like an orchestra. In the deepest provocation of his thoughts, the essence of any revolution was to define the tempo of our struggles in any particular historical epoch. The greatest revolutionary is the one who masters the principal instruments of a revolution. In an orchestra the greatest leader is the one who masters how to play the violin to a cello, and a french horn to a flute.

The theoretical exposition here is about our understanding that we cannot lead the momentum to the victory of our struggles to socialism without a profound analysis of the class balance of forces. Of significance importance is how to navigate the strategy and tactics of the time for the victory of the revolutionary struggles of the working class. Fidel mastered the core primary question that in order to vanquish the world of capitalism and create a new classless society of communism, the proletariat must have its own working class party. The party that should constitute the nucleus of the vanguard struggles of the working class, and therefore a party which plays the vanguard role as the guiding force of the working class movement.

The vanguard party which its historic mission is to destroy capitalism and give birth to a new socialist society at the world stage. The core character of such a distinguished revolutionary party is selflessness, discipline, honesty, dedication and collective work. The communist party is not just a vanguard of the class conscious detachment of the working class. The communist party is also an organized detachment of the working class with its discipline, a party which is able to lead and direct the working class struggles

based on the scientific revolutionary theory of Marxism Leninism. What distinguishes a communist party from the rest of other detachments of the working class is that our party is armed with the knowledge of the life of society, its laws of development and the laws of class struggle. It is a vanguard party of dialectical and historical materialism.

The world communist movement is a movement of Marxism Leninism. Our approach to nature, our method of its study and understanding, is derived from the world theoretical outlook of the revolutionary science of dialectical and historical materialism. This is the distinguishing catalogue of our vanguard party from other amorphous working class parties. We are distinguished from the rest because we are a part and also a leading detachment of the working class struggles.

Our father Fidel was one of the most outstanding revolutionary thinkers of our contemporary era. During his life he achieved a bold vision of transforming a national liberation movement into a communist party which became a powerhouse of the working class struggle. At the heart of the leadership of the Cuban communist party was the strategic perspective that the only guarantee that a revolutionary organisation of the working class should not lose sight of its strategic objectives for socialism, or lose its identity as an independent party, is its adherence to and reliance upon Marxism Leninism.

Under the leadership of Fidel they well understood that socialism is a scientific body of ideas. That socialism has to be studied as a science for the development of human society. This was primarily as a result of their understanding that a science cannot arise spontaneously in the consciousness of the people.

Therefore they understood that the struggle for socialism is the supreme task of a vanguard party. A communist party which is the highest form of the organisation of the working class. The leadership was convinced that

International

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the role of a vanguard can only be fulfilled by a party guided by the most advanced theory. They were taught that in its struggle for power, the proletariat has no other weapon than an organisation guided by a scientific revolutionary theory of marxism leninism. After the triumph of the Cuban socialist revolution, the communist party assumed its vanguard role as the leader of society. Marxism Leninism became a dominant and official ideological w e a p o n f o r

transformation of society.

The party became a guarantee for the victory of the struggles of the people against oppression and exploitation by the imperialist forces. The Cuban nation matured into a new society which has liberated itself from the jaws of the instruments of capitalist oppression. The revolutionary government of Cuba immediately embarked on a qualitative advances to eradicate the legacy of poverty, disease and underdevelopment. The working class in Cuba for the first time in the history of the development of the nation,

enjoyed the revolutionary fruits of socialism, by getting access to free education, health, housing, security and comfort.

The island of Cuba became the first ever socialist state to be declared

in the American hemisphere. For the first time the working class became the masters of its own destiny at the backyard of the Yankee empire, the USA. The communist party transformed the Cuban revolution into a world political school of the revolutionary principles of solidarity and internationalism. The important question of solidarity and internationalism was not just a moral

issue but a political issue of paramount importance. Fidel understood the important question that in order to for the working class to achieve the unity of its struggles for socialism, it must first and foremost act in common purpose in the spirit of solidarity and

internationalism. Through the revolutionary scientific

theory, Fidel was able to

a n a l y s e t h e

h i s t o r y of the

d e v e l o p m e n t of the Cuban

capitalism, anticipate the class struggles ahead as inseparable from this development, and therefore identified the party as the only leading detachment for the socialist transformation of the society.

Consistent with the teachings of our great teacher Lenin, our Commander in Chief understood that our theory is never about collection of dogma, never about catechism,

never about vulgar or political mantra. Our teachings are never about half baked concepts without profound theoretical foundations. Our theory is the science of the development of society. It is about finding solutions to the problems confronting humanity.

For we revolutionaries, democracy and socialism are not two separate phenomena, where the first is just a means of achieving the other. In other words our understanding is that these are two indispensable questions for the development of society. In

the most literal form of the words, democracy is about securing the

right to self determination in all areas of social life including

the economic arena and whilst socialism means the democratic organisation of society.

Our commander in Chief departed from the land of the living few months before the world can celebrate the centenary of the great October socialist revolution. The

revolution was an event of great political significance

which heralded the birth of the first socialist state ever

in the history of humanity. The great October socialist

revolution was a momentous turning point in the history of

the struggle of humanity against colonialism and imperialism. Over two thirds of the world population was liberate from the shackles of oppression and exploitation. The celebrations of the centenary of the great October socialist revolution will take place against the background of events of far reaching historical significance. More importantly at a time when imperialism has unleashed an unprecedented offensive against the revolutionary movement across the world.

The demise of socialism in the Soviet Union and the East European states has ushered in the present hostile and the most aggressive unipolar world dominated by the US led imperialism

The working class in

Cuba for the first time

in the history of the development

of the nation, enjoyed the

revolutionary fruits of socialism,

by getting access to free education,

health, housing, security

and comfort.

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and the international monopoly capital. This has tremendously shifted the balance of forces against the revolutionary movement across the world. Despite this setback, the working class shall forever be inspired by the scientific ideas of the great October revolution. The working shall forever be inspired by the ideas of Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin and Commander in Chief Fidel Castro.

The triumph of the great October socialist revolution saw Lenin bringing to the fore the most important theoretical preposition on the national and colonial question. He creatively hatched an understanding that the fundamental aim of Marxism is to unite the working class of countries to fight imperialism and at the same time building socialism. Lenin understood the importance of the struggle for the liberation of the oppressed nations. He understood that the struggle for the liberation of oppressed nations shall inevitably intensify the crisis within the capitalist world.

The understanding of the national and colonial questions led to a worldwide struggle for the emancipation of the oppressed people in the colonial and semi colonial countries from the yoke of imperialism.

In other words, the struggle to fight imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism. To achieve this magnanimous goal, the working class was perpetuated to resolutely opposed national oppression, fight for national equality, fight for the right for self determination of the oppressed nations of the colonial and semi colonial countries and fully support the national liberation movements against imperialism.

In our own South African situation, the communist movement instructed the South African Communist party to pay a particular attention to the emergence of the embryonic national organizations amongst the natives, such as the South African Native National Congress. It instructed that while retaining its independence,

the party should participate in these organisation, seek to broaden and extend its activities.

The aim was to transform the SANNC into fighting revolutionary organisation against the white bourgeoisie and British imperialism. It resolved that the development of a national revolutionary movement of the toilers of South Africans against

the white bourgeoisie and British imperialism, constitute one of the major tasks of the Communist party of South Africa.

These are the ideas which inspired Fidel throughout his life as a leader of the Cuban revolution. Precisely because Fidel understood the fundamental question that the contractions of imperialism are the manifestation of the struggles between the oppressor and the oppressed nations.

As a result, he saw it necessary for the Cuban revolution to assist the African people in their struggle against colonial oppression and imperialism. Over the years he provided both the material and human resources to assist many of the African countries in their struggles for national independence. Even today, thousands of Cuban volunteers are still helping many deserving nations across the world to fight poverty,

disease and underdevelopment. In our own country, thousands of Cubans are helping us in our revolutionary project to reverse back the legacy of apartheid colonialism which is still the dominant feature of the South African society. In his memory we shall forever appreciate his ideas that unity is materialistic in theory and practice. That unity must reflect concrete realities and not wishful dreaming. That unity must be dialectical, be able to see things in their development, their motion, their

coming into be and going out of being.

That unity is never eternal. In his memory, we shall hold the glistening banner of the world commune to be, when class war shall have been stamped out, when mankind shall no longer cower under the bludgeon of the oppressor, when the necessities and amenities of life, the comfort and the culture, the honour and the power,

shall be in him who toils not him who exploits, when none shall be called master nor a servant, but shall be fellow workers in common.

Rest In Peace Our Dear Father Rest In Peace Our Commander In Chief We Salute You

Piitso is the former Ambassador of our country to Cuba, writing this tribute in his personal capacity.

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SACCAWU since its inception has valued international solidarity and aligned itself with sister

unions in the continent and the federations in the world at large.

The UNI Africa conference held in March 2017 has showed their gratitude

and respect for all the achievements and progress of the outgoing President and Regional Secretary. They were praised for making UNI Africa a force in the region and paving away for the New Africa.

UNI Global Union General Secretary

Philip Jennings played tribute to Bones who he said had always been a rock and a friend, someone who had been prepared to challenge in his efforts to take Africa forward.

Jennings also praised Zakari for his sustained efforts over thirty years to

bring UNI Africa to the pinnacle it has reached today.

The UNI Africa staff also took to the microphone to express their thanks to both Bones and Zakari.

the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union celebrated a graduation of 248 shopstewards

after undergoing training on Paralegal learnership and negotiation in Johannesburg.

The graduation was held under the Theme ‘Advancing Education as a Tool in defending Workplace Rights’ in which families, colleagues within the industry and other major stakeholders came to congratulate them. The graduates and all in attendance appreciated the

motivation from SATAWU President, Kate Matlou who congratulated all shopstewards and also said ‘I started as a cleaner where I was employed and worked myself up the ladder through workplace learning provided by my Union’.

Its fundamental aim is to assist trade unions, through the promotion of workers’ education, to expand their membership and activities by making their organisations more efficient, and to improve their negotiating skills, their

capacity to participate in decision-making and their ability to defend the interests of their members-ILO. ‘SATAWU is taking forward the ‘Going Back to Basics’ resolution of COSATU to greater heights by walking the talk’, said SATAWU General Secretary, Zenzo Mahlangu.

The ceremony was facilitated by Mrs Jenny Irish-Qhobosheane from SASSETA and Mrs Maphefo Anno-Frempong from TETA, who also provided technical assistance and funding. Some of the

shopstewards had this to say; Comrade Gilbert Gamla said ‘I was able to make it against all odds, including living with cancer. Thanks, I was able to complete my Paralegal course’.

Comrade Sevha Shikweni said ‘ I am now Paralegal guru. I used to work night shift as a security guard and attending classes during the day. Today, I have completed the course’. SATAWU graduation ceremony was graced by the Minister of Transport, Honourable Dipuo Peters.

Thank you Bones and Zakari!

SATAWU Graduates celebrate graduation

The Shopsteward - April/May 2017

UNI paid tribute to the outgoing leadership of Bones Skulu and Zakari koudougou

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the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (POPCRU) has condemned the unfortunate incident which

took place during the early days of 2017 which took place at St Albans Correctional Centre in which three people lost their lives, with other twenty-six injured.

‘We are irate over the lack of putting into practice the necessary measures aimed at ensuring the core function of rehabilitating inmates is fully undertaken and the insurance of a safe working environment for correctional officials’, said POPCRU General Secretary, Nkosinathi Theledi.

Earlier last year, at the Leeuwkop Correctional Centre inmates were involved in a violent scuffle with correctional officials and the Johannesburg Correctional Centre (Sun City), where five correctional officials were attacked and stabbed when intervening to halt a gang-related altercation.

Correctional officials have been at the receiving end of all these challenges due to the fact that the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) simply chooses to ignore their plight, whilst focused on the privatisation of correctional centres and the tenderisation of most services it provides.

The current shift system, coupled by the long-standing understaffing and overcrowding has been at the centre of this debacle, with gangs taking opportune moments to foster lawlessness in these centres while being fully aware of the limited figures of correctional officials on duty at any given time.

In this shift pattern, there are two shifts with half of the staff at home while the other is at work at any given time, while nationally, the 2 DCS training colleges can only accommodate 1000 trainees per year, simply indicating that, provided no measures are taken, the understaffing challenge will not be addressed in the near future cause

of the growing prison population, therefore compromising the much-needed rehabilitation process’, argued Theledi.

‘With a prison population of just over 160 000 having to be services by 26 000 prison officials, the safety of these officials is highly compromised and morale is low at the face of a growing prison population representing the 11th highest prisoner population in the world in terms of sheer numbers, giving an occupancy rate of 133%’.

‘These calamities continue to limit prospects for proper implementation of effective programmes of rehabilitation as officials are simply unable to deliver comprehensive programmes due to overcrowded facilities coupled with inadequate human resources’.

‘Recent studies have shown that over 80% of inmates reoffend after their release, therefore signalling that they should not remain indolent in correctional facilities, but do consistent work that will ensure these facilities

become self-sufficient insofar as food production through farming, the production of offender uniforms, furniture, both steel and wood as well as inmates’ beds and lockers, the general maintenance and repairs, etc. Most farm prisons like Baviaanspoort and Zonderwater in Gauteng including others in Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu Natal and Western Cape have land which should be utilised for food production as this will cut down on costs.

The training and development in the workshops should be reignited to address the idling that is currently underway. Inmates should equally be integrated into rural development projects that will assist with our national developmental goals as a way of paying back to the communities they have wronged, instead of being spoon-fed through taxpayers’ moneys while remaining idle’, concluded Theledi.

The DCS needs to focus on its core business of rehabilitating inmates in a conducive environment!

PoPcrU marches against unsafe working conditions

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POPCrU members marching against unsafe working conditions

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the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (SACTWU) marched to and protested at

the Head Office of the South African Revenue Services (SARS) in Brooklyn, Pretoria on the 10th March 2017 to demand government’s intervention to stop illegal imports in South Africa.

Over the last few years, National Government, working together with our trade union, has introduced support measures which have helped to stabilise our industry. However, these noble efforts are now being undermined by ineffective customs control measures

which open the floodgates for high levels of illegal imports into our country.

These illegal imports are being sold all around our country. They are so cheap because they have not paid any, or the full, import duty. As a result our local legally operating factories cannot compete. They lose orders. They close and retrench workers. We lose our jobs. In the process our families and communities become poorer, and our country suffers.

‘We are members of SACTWU, representatives of workers from clothing, textile, footwear and leather

(CTFL) factories across South Africa. We also represent workers in the industry’s distribution pipeline. Our members come from the poorest parts of the South African community, with most being women and single mothers’, said SACTWU General Secretary, Andre Kriel.

‘We are here because our industry and our jobs are under threat from illegal imports, and in our view SARS is not doing enough to stop this crisis. In fact it seems to us that SARS is choosing illegal importers over local jobs. This must change now!’, said Kriel

‘Clothing, textile, footwear and leather sector workers are coming to demonstrate their extreme unhappiness with the crisis of illegal imports flooding into South Africa (SA), which SARS has stopped effectively policing over the past two years or so. The consequence of SARS’ declining efforts to halt the flow of illegal imports into SA has been rising job losses and greater instability in the clothing, textile, footwear and leather (CTFL) industry’, elaborated Kriel.

SACTWU and other representatives of the CTFL industry have repeatedly raised our concerns about illegal imports with


Going Back to Basics SACTWU marches against illegal import

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SARS, for more than 18 months now. We have pointed out to them in our quarterly industry forum meetings, that the customs and investigative work by SARS against illegal imports appears to have collapsed in recent years.

This is despite the institution having done some very impressive work between 2009 and 2013/14 to fight against the deluge of illegally and fraudulently imported CTFL products. It seems to us that SARS is now choosing illegal importers over local jobs.

This situation is extremely worrying. The SARS customs fraud campaign is a key leg of the State’s drive to reindustrialize South Africa, and the imperative to fight customs fraud is captured in key government economic and industrial policies. If SARS does not do its work properly, it undermines everything else done by other parts of government to build and grow industries and factories.

Lack of Enforcement

To date nothing has been done by SARS to correct this problem. This is why SACTWU held its march last Friday, and planned further protests in all provinces. The collapse of the SARS’ customs fraud campaign should not only concern workers and their unions, or industries and employers.

This problem actually has a direct impact on society at large and on our future development as a country. After all, apart from the obvious benefit to having more employment and industry rather than less, when import duties are not collected properly by SARS, this robs the South African fiscus of billions of Rands worth of revenue.

We estimate that about R4bn worth of import duties are lost every year from illegally imported clothing and footwear from China alone. If these duties were collected, it could have built infrastructure or helped factories or supported SMMEs or provided bursaries to student or provided grants

and services to the poor.

Workers demand that SARS:

•Revivethereferencepricesystemandbegin to actively stop illegal imports and build the evidence to fight customs fraud

• Make sure that customs fraudoffenders, including high profile offenders, are prosecuted. Justice needs to be done, and an example needs to be made of these offenders to discourage others from doing the same. We recognise that this requires the assistance of the NPA but then plans must be made urgently to allow this to happen

•Evaluateandpossiblyimplementanalternative formula to collect import duties to eliminate the incentive for cheating through under-invoicing

• Implement dedicated ports of entryfor clothing, textiles and footwear imports to ensure better monitoring

• Conduct inspections at the port ofexport for goods destined for South Africa

• Fast-track the implement the newCustoms Control and Customs Duty Acts, which contain several provisions to help deal better with customs fraud

• Increasemonitoringof compliancewith trade agreements, specifically Rules of Origin provisions in regional agreements which allow for duty-free imports

• Increase raids on internal customsfraud hotspots and target the distribution part of the value chain – such as warehouses of retailers and importers, and China malls and other shopping centres

• Use customs reservists and othermeasures to increase capacity at major ports

• Increase themediaprofileofSARS’fight against illegally imported clothing, textiles and footwear

•IntroducetargetsforSARS-specificallyin terms of jobs saved - for its customs

fraud campaign

‘25000 RDP houses could’ve been built with all the money stolen through illegal Chinese clothing and footwear imports per year’, says SACTWU.

COSATU fully supports its affiliate SACTWU’s march to the South African Revenue Service (SARS) offices in Pretoria’, said Solly Phetoe, COSATU Deputy General Secretary who participated in the SACTWU march.

‘We agree with their argument that cheap illegal imports are having a negative impact on our clothing, textile and leather, and footwear industry. Despite rhetorical statements about the centrality of job creation and transformation of the economy, government has done very little to protect our most vulnerable industries from the influx of illegal and cheap imports from all over the world, especially Asia’, said Phetoe.

government loses from illegal imports says SACTWU

‘Government needs to move away from mere pontificating but should launch a ground campaign, where Sars, Saps and Metro police officers are deployed to go door to door searching all containers and harbours, including all the shops in our towns and CBDs to confiscate the billions of rands worth of illegal goods that are flooding our economy’, argued Phetoe.

Government needs to go further by actively helping to find and arrange alternative markets for our local producers and developing an export strategy for them.

Solidarity Actions

Meanwhile, COSATU affiliated trade unions pledged their solidarity with the federation’s campaign launched way back around 2000 to promote locally produced goods.

‘The issues raised by SACTWU speaks directly to the issues that we have been raising as NEHAWU in relation to

the handling of customs by SARS’, said NEHAWU.

NEHAWU has been at the forefront of calling for the filling of vacancies in customs in order to deal with the work load and enforcement of the laws and tariffs.

‘As NEHAWU we are now faced with a situation where the SARS section of customs is set to be taken out of the public service into the mooted Border Management Agency (BMA)’, said Bereng Soke, NEHAWU General Secretary.

The creation of the BMA simply underscores that despite the rhetoric around building the developmental state, in the absences of strategic oversights and discipline, departments are allowed to continue with the fragmentation and dismemberment of the state through the tenderisation and agencification of its functions.

The transference of customs to the BMA means that it run the risk of being outsourced to a private company, which can only means enforcement of the laws and tariffs is going to deteriorate in favour of profit-maximisation. Outsourcing also leads to the casualisation of jobs and poor pay; which in turn would expose workers to bribery and fraud.

Additionally, the creation of the BMA will lead to more illegal imports entering our shores which will result in job losses. Government has an obligation to build its internal capacity to undertake such key functions as outsourcing them has dire consequences for both workers and the people we claim to serve.

When we as workers are made poorer and lose our jobs, it makes other people poorer too. After all, if we lose our incomes, we cannot spend as much money in the economy anymore. If we do not buy as much, other people cannot sell as much: they earn less money, and this makes them poorer.

Our future development loses from illegal imports! DENOSA, SADTU and POPCRU also supported the SACTWU march to SARS.

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denoSA 20th celebrations a huge success


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the DENOSA 20th anniversary celebrations at the Union Buildings on 5 December 2016

was a resounding success as nurses from all corners of the country were bussed in to be part of the eventful day. The day was also to commemorate the 3rd anniversary of Madiba’s passing. Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, DENOSA President Simon Hlungwani laid wreath on the foot of Madiba statue just before the 20th celebration kicked off.

The celebration, which was broadcast live on ANN7 television channel, kicked off with DENOSA Gauteng Chairperson, Simphiwe Gada, welcoming all nurses from other provinces to Gauteng and warned the Department of Health and the Presidency that, as an organisation that will now turn 21 and be moving to adulthood, both offices should expect some visits from the nurses over the conditions that they work under.

He also invited nurses who are not yet part of DENOSA to come home. DENOSA General Secretary, Oscar Phaka, outlined the purpose of the event to the masses on the day. He said: “Today is a special day for nurses of this country, that after our own CODESA as the nursing profession, we are hereby to celebrate 20 years of our existence.

“The celebration itself gives us the opportunity to reflect on the road that we have travelled as the nursing profession. Here this morning, we are joined in this celebration by nursing stalwarts and veterans who were

at the forefront. While this dream became a success, it came at a great sacrifice to their personal lives, and loss of family time. Today we are saying to them, your sacrifice was never in vein.”

“Yes, you wanted to unify nurses of this country. And today we have a democratic nursing organisation that is a representative organisation for nurses. Today we pay tribute to these trailblazers who took the need for a one nursing organisation forward and succeeded in doing so. We are here to say thank to you for your hard work.

“Furthermore, we are also here to pay tribute to tata Madiba, who officially launched us here on 5 December 1996. Coincidentally, tata Madiba died on 5 December 2013. Today we mark the 3rd anniversary of his passing. With the wreath laying at the statue here, we say thank you tata. The baby that you endorsed 20 years ago is still alive and well,” he said.

Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Joe Phaahla, paid tribute to nurses for the work they have been doing. He attributed to successes in the country’s health priorities and programmes to nurses.

Addressing the more than 3000 nurses on the day, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa paid tribute to nurses who he labelled ‘miracle workers’ for the wonderful work they continue to do. He acknowledged that nurses in the country work under challenging conditions, and committed to ensuring these are resolved.

The severe shortage, long working hours and shortage of resources are some of the challenges he alluded to.

He lauded the efforts of DENOSA to unite nurses of this country, and said DENOSA is the only authentic voice of nurses in the country, to a loud applause from the nurses. “Madiba would have been proud of your theme for this celebration: 20 of unifying nurses,” he said. He said DENOSA has achieved a number of milestones since its inception and said he looked forward to more achievements that await the organisation.

DENOSA President, Simon Hlungwani, said: “It has not been an easy journey by any imagination. However, we take great pride in having reached where we are while there is still a lot that needs to be done.

This celebration is held at the Union Building, the birth place of DENOSA, where it was launched by Tata Nelson Mandela on the 5th of December 1996. This day is very significant to us as South Africans; it is also a day in which Dr Nelson Mandela died in 2013. The Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital was opened last week Friday. The hospital is a legacy that Nelson Mandela wanted to leave for children of Africa. We expect that nurses will ensure the smooth running of the hospital and we invite those willing to assist sustaining Nelson Mandela’s dream to do so in kind.”

He continued: “The history of nursing in South Africa can be narrated as a bitter one. Prior to the formation

of DENOSA, nurses had no freedom of choice to association, as nurses in homelands had to pay subscription to both those homelands organizations and to SANA at the same time. SANA was compulsory to belong to. Salary gaps between nurses on the basis of race was what unsettled nurses into pushing towards the formation of a Democratic Organisation for nurses of South Africa.”

Former leaders, led by DENOSA founding President, Professor Philda Nzimande, founding General Secretary Thembeka Gwagwa, and previous DENOSA Presidents Ephraim Mafalo and Dorothy Matebeni were in attendance, and so were key stakeholders like SANNAM, nursing professional associations, the Department of Health and Sponsors.

COSATU delegation of National Office Bearers, led by President S’dumo Dlamini and first Deputy President Tyotyo James were also in attendance. Dlamini delivered a congratulatory message to DENOSA said COSATU knows the struggle of DENOSA to unify nurses of this country, despite challenges. He said COSATU will be with DENOSA throughout its journey. He also called on unity of workers and nurses.

Nurses at the event danced to the soulful sounds of the Mafikizolo group, which mesmerized the crowd in what was a day to remember for the organization.

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the National Education Health and Allied Workers Union held a successful Public Social

Development National meeting in Johannesburg to discuss a way forward and road map in relation to the demands tabled in the Public Health and Social Development Sectoral Bargaining Council [PHSDSBC] by the union in August 2015.

‘….to date the employer has dismally failed to table a counter offer after several negotiations conducted since 2016. As a result of this inability from the side of the employer, NEHAWU declared a dispute and received a certificate to exercise its right to strike’, said NEHAWU President, Mzwandile Makwayiba.

‘Currently, all provinces and regions are directed to widely consult every member in order to compile all issues facing them in the sector ranging from conditions of service and profession including service to South African citizens. Ultimately, at the end of mobilisation programme, the union will organise a National march to highlight its dissatisfaction with how the employer has been and still handling our issues’, elaborated Makwayiba.

Poverty wages

‘Social Service professionals are the lowest paid professionals yet expected to give hope and confidence to the development of citizenry and creating a sustainable and active citizens for social development.

Unfortunately, workers in this service are not compensated in a dignified manner and valued as critical contributors at the point of service.

For instance, the current OSD does not promote the principles of attracting and retaining professionals to preserve this precious service in a sustainable manner for social development’, said Makwayiba.

genuine demands

Our members have run out of patience and demand the following;

As a matter of fact, in its current form, the Social Service professionals retire or die poor hence our demands for the review are as follow:

• Review of Resolution 1 of 2009:Occupational Specific Dispensation (OSD) for Social Service Professional and Occupations

• SocialWork category: Entry level forSocial Workers to be salary level 10, Supervisor entry level 11, bring back assistant Director at entry level 12, Retain Social Work Manager (DD) at entry level 13

•ChildandYouthCareWorkers(CYCWs)Category: CYCW grade 1 (CYCW) = Salary Level 7, CYCW Team Leader grade 2 (Senior CYCW) = Salary Level 8, CYCW Supervisor grade 2 (Chief CYCW) = Salary Level

• Social AuxiliaryWorkers (SAWs) andAssistant Community Development Practitioners (ACDPs) category: Entry level for Social Auxiliary Workers and Assistant Community Development Practitioners to be 7

• Community DevelopmentPractitioners (CDPs) category: Entry level for Community Development Practitioners 8

• Delinking of Accelerated GradeProgression from PMSD system and reduction of years for qualification of grade progression: Qualification for Accelerated grade progression be delinked from performance assessment, pending the introduction of a compatible and effective system.

Qualification for Accelerated Grade Progression be reduced from 5 years to 3 years.

Qualification for grade progression be reduced from 10 to 5 years, 20 to 15, 30 to 20 years respectively.

• Introduction of a newPMDS tool: Interms of clause 3.4 of Resolution 1 of 2009, employer was supposed to have developed a new performance management and development system for social service professions and occupations within twenty four (24) months from the date of signing the agreement and they have failed to do so.

•RuralAllowance:Wedemand for theintroduction of rural allowance for Social Service Professionals and Occupations.

• Provision of a conducive workingenvironment and working tools including insourcing all outsourced employment services.

‘Failure to pay attention or find solutions to our demands, we unfortunately left with no option but to accelerate our mobilisation into a full blown strike’, concluded Makwayiba.

nehAWU holds Public Social development

National Meeting


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the South African Medical Association Trade Union acknowledge decisive leadership

displayed by the Health Department in Limpopo after a series of service delivery concerns from nurses and doctors.

‘SAMA Trade Union applauds the appointment of one of our own as the acting CEO of W.F Knobel hospital and strongly believe that he will turn around the once forgotten centre of delivering quality healthcare to the people of Moletshi village’, said Dr Seshoka Muila, SAMA Trade Union Provincial Secretary.

‘Over the past months, we’ve noted with great concern the excessive involvement of the MEC in the operational matters of the department which poses a lot of questions in as far as the competency and or efficiency of the administrators from the provincial office to the clinic level is concerned’, said Muila.

‘It is also a known fact that Limpopo Hospitals are operating at a vacancy rate of medical practitioners of around 75% and this has a significant impact on the working conditions and delivery of quality healthcare to the people, poor of the poorest in

particular. It is disturbing is that some medical officers were given the salary of a community service medical officer and those in community service given the salary of a medical intern’, argued Muila. SAMA called upon the MEC of health to intervene in a speedily fashion to prevent the disaster witnessed at W.F. Knobel Hospital.

Other SAMA demands are;• District health offices must

deal solely with the issues of primary healthcare services, data capturing and preventative health programmes.

• The issues of hospitals must be dealt

with by the provincial office without passing through the district office

• Understaffing of nursing personnel in the hospital

• Lack of equipment and surgical consumables, and bad infrastructure in health centres

• Finalize grade progression for doctors

•‘We have also noted that the district offices are bloated with many officials who, majority of the time, are not at work during working hours, yet receive the full salary and in worst case scenarios, performance bonuses’, concluded Muila.

SAmA Trade Union demand intervention by limpopo mec for health

Affiliates

city of Tshwane negotiating in Bad Faith

the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) Tshwane Region continued in 2017 to

challenge the employer after workers were facing job insecurity.

‘SAMWU has been engaging the City of Tshwane on permanent absorption of contract workers since February 2016. During Local Labour Forum held in November 2016 the City of Tshwane committed that the matter will be finalized by the Mayoral Committee

on December 7, 2016. The Executive Mayor had said in many of his media statements that no workers will lose their jobs. In trying to update workers on the matter, the employer convened a meeting with workers at Finance on 17 January 2017 and indicated that 3000 workers will be absorbed’, said SAMWU Tshwane Regional Secretary, Mpho Tladinyane.

‘On the 18 January 2017 the Mayor and Acting City Manager refused to

meet workers. Workers decided not to resume their duties until their issue is clarified’, said Tladinyane.

‘The issue created panic within workers and they demanded that the employer clarify who will be part of the 3000. The employer created the situation and must therefore resolve the matter by clarifying workers on who is part of the 3000’, argued Tladinyane. SAMWU has called on the Tshwane Executive Mayor and

the City of Tshwane to reinstate the 305 terminated workers and further provide clarity on the 3000 to be absorbed.

Meanwhile, SAMWU also challenged the employer abut allegations of racist statements attributed to one Director at the Centurion electricity depot, who called workers ‘baboons and kaffir’. The matter is still pending to be finalized.

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New approach needed to tackle rISING DrUG PrICES

by Valerie Paris

the proliferation of high-cost medicines and rising drug prices are increasing pressures on public health spending and calling into

question the pharmaceutical industry’s pricing strategies. Governments need to work with the industry and regulators to define a new approach to the development and use of new health technologies that encourages innovation while also delivering more affordable and value for money treatments, according to a new OECD report.

New Health Technologies: Managing Access, Value and Sustainability says that pharmaceutical spending is increasingly skewed towards high-cost products. The launch prices of drugs for cancer and rare diseases are rising, sometimes without a commensurate increase in health benefits for patients. For instance in the United States, the launch price of oncology drugs per life-year gained has been multiplied by four in less than 20 years - in constant

terms - and now exceeds USD 200 000.

Payers, such as insurers or public health providers, are also increasingly struggling to pay for high-cost medicines targeting very small populations, which are expected to proliferate with the development of precision medicine. On the other side of spectrum, new treatments for hepatitis which are very effective and cost-effective in the long-term but target a wide population, are unaffordable to many who would benefit in almost all OECD countries because of their high budget impact.

The prices paid for technologies must reflect their real-world health benefits compared to alternatives, and be adjusted based on evidence about their actual impact. Payers must be equipped with the necessary powers to adjust prices and withdraw payment for ineffective technologies.

A rebalancing of the negotiating powers of payers and manufacturers is needed, says the report. This could be through increased transparency and co-operation between payers and international joint procurement initiatives, as tested in Europe and Latin America. Pricing agreements, which link the final price paid to the actual performance of the drug, as used in Italy and England, may also be effective if management and administration costs are controlled and the clinical data and evidence collected made widely available to the scientific community.

The report, was discussed at an OECD meeting for Ministers of Health on “The Next Generation of Health Reforms” in Paris on 17 January, highlights other challenges facing the adoption of new technologies. Investment in R&D to treat neglected diseases, such as HIV/AIDS or tuberculosis, fight antimicrobial resistance and address dementia has also become

less attractive as their profitability is lower. The incentives for private investment in these areas should be strengthened. Many biomedical technologies are today approved and adopted based on limited evidence of their safety and effectiveness. Assessment of their performance in real world conditions is rare. This compromises safety, is wasteful and no longer sustainable.

More efforts are also needed to harness the potential of health data more effectively. Use of personal health data creates major opportunities for health system improvement, research and disease surveillance, but requires the right governance frameworks to realise these benefits while managing the privacy risks.

Valerie Paris is the Senior Policy Analyst at the OECD’s health Division and main author of the report

Commentary

by Ntombifuthi Jennet Ngiba

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evidence based practice: Is cricoid pressure effective in preventing gastric

aspiration during rapid sequence intubation in the

emergency department?

there is on-going change within trauma nursing due to increased research in the area. Practices

have been routinely adopted as the norm, but subsequently on further examination proven to be useless and more of a risk to the patient (Moore & Lexington, 2012).

Research has brought into question practices or techniques such as the application of cricoid pressure during rapid sequence tracheal intubation. This practise was goaled at preventing the regurgitation of gastric content into the pharynx and subsequent aspiration into the pulmonary tree, but now questioned.Cricoid pressure was briefly defined by Sellick in 1961 as a method used to reduce the risk of aspiration during the induction phase of anaesthesia.

Sellick`s technique was to apply backwards pressure to the cricoid cartilage, compressing the oesophagus against the underlying vertebral body (Ellis, Harris & Zideman 2007; Priebe 2005). In this application of pressure the oesophageal lumen is occluded, preventing the passage of regurgitated gastric content into the pharynx and subsequent aspiration into the pulmonary tree (Stewart et al, 2014).

Cricoid pressure is incorporated into the overall approach in reducing the chances of aspiration through rapid sequence induction of anaesthesia (Ellis et al., 2007; Priebe 2005). Over the years

rapid sequence induction has been adapted by emergency physicians to allow ventilation as required to prevent hypoxia and subsequently termed “rapid sequence tracheal intubation”. Rapid sequence tracheal intubation (RSTI) is now the most widely used technique for tracheal intubation in the emergency department (ED) and cricoid pressure is taught as a standard component of emergency airway management (Ellis et al., 2007).

Despite inadequate scientific evaluation of the risks and benefits of cricoid pressure it is adopted as an integral component of rapid sequence intubation in EDs. No randomised controlled trials have shown any benefit of its use during rapid sequence intubation (Trethewy, Burrows, Clausen & Doherty, 2012).

Furthermore, the application of cricoid pressure may be linked to increased risks to the patient such as impeding airway management, prolonging intubation time by concealing laryngeal view, inducing nausea/vomiting and oesophageal rupture with excessive force (Ellis et al., 2007; Priebe 2005; Trethewy, et al, 2012).

Paradoxically, cricoid pressure may promote aspiration by relaxing the lower part of the oesophagus (Ellis et al., 2007). Some case reports note that tracheal intubation was impeded by cricoid pressure and regurgitation

occurred despite application of cricoid pressure, possibly due to its improper application (Trethewy, et al, 2012). According to Bhatia, Bhagat and Sen (2014) the application of cricoid pressure increases the incidence of lateral displacement of the oesophagus from 53% to 91%.

However despite this evidence and the outcome of Trethwy’s (2012) RCT the judicial system appears guided in its judgement by outdated practises. A judge in UK ruled against an anaesthesiologist for failing to apply cricoid pressure to a patient with irreducible hernia who had regurgitated and aspirated.

The judge argued that “We cannot assert that cricoid pressure is not effective until trials have been performed, especially as it is an integral part of anaesthetic technique that has been associated with a reduced maternal death rate from aspiration since the 1960’s” (Bhatia et al. 2014).

Therefore one may say that despite cricoid pressure entering medical practice on limited evidence and only supported by common sense, it somehow remains the practice of choice (Bhatia et al., 2014).Thus it is about time nurses and doctors embrace evidence-based practice within the emergency department and let go of traditional practice that are proven to do more harm than good. There is still a great need for further evidence-based practice within the

emergency department, to investigate the validity of the notion that cricoid pressure prevents regurgitation.References● Bhatia N, Bhagat H & Sen I. (2014).

Cricoid pressure: Where do we stand? J Anaesthesiol Clin Pharmacol, Vol 30 pp 3 – 6.

● Ellis D.Y, Harris T & Zideman D. (2007). Cricoid pressure in the emergency department rapid sequence tracheal intubations: a risk-benefit analysis. American College of emergency physicians.Vol 50, pp 653 – 665.

● Moore K & Lexington K.Y (2012). Evidence-based practise guidelines for trauma care. Journal of emergency nursing. Vol 38, pp 401-402.

● Priebe H.J, (2005). Cricoid pressure: an alternative view. Elsevier. Germany.

Stewart J.C, Bhananker S, & Ramaiah R. (2014). Rapid-sequence intubation and cricoid pressure. J Crit Illn Inj Sci, Vol 4, pp 42 - 49.

● Trethewy C.E, Burrows J.M, Clausen D & Doherty S.R. (2012). Effectiveness of cricoid pressure in preventing gastric aspiration during rapid sequence intubation in the emergency department: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial. BioMedCentral. Australia. Retrieved 04 August 2016

Ntombifuthi Jennet Ngiba (BN) (UKZN), is a professional nurse at Greytown hospital.

Commentary

by Ntombifuthi Jennet Ngiba

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The Struggle against corporate capture is a class Struggle

By Benson Ngqentsu

Class struggle is a political struggle

in a class-divided society you are either with the oppressed and exploited class or with the

exploiting class. There can be no position of neutrality. This is a direct challenge for organised labour and its leadership as they are expected to

be the most reliable force in the class struggle. Our Federation COSATU can be characterised as a class federation in the sense that it represents the workers who collectively are of a particular class in society and the critical component of the working class. Over decades, our labour movement has presented an ideological coherence

in the related struggles against the national oppression and against the class exploitation of our people. It is within this context that our Federation never saw a Chinese wall between the political struggle and the shop-floor struggles in our country, and there is no recorded history in which our labour movement’s commitment to

the national struggle and overcoming class exploitation is doubted. COSATU led both political and shop-floor campaigns before and after the 1994 democratic breakthrough. Thus I would argue that this ideological coherence dates back to the period of illegality and that at the heart of it has been the appreciation that our shared national

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democratic revolution is our direct route to socialism and ultimately to a classless society where there is no exploiter and the exploited. Most importantly, the Federation’s ideological coherence was anchored by its leadership’s organic activism either in the SACP or ANC. Today’s leadership must appreciate the fact that JB Marks, Crosby Moni, Gwede Mantashe, Mbuyiselo Ngwende and many others did not get elected to the leadership of the SACP and of the ANC primarily because of their strategic location in COSATU but that their election was a product of an organic form activism.

Derived directly from this, they appreciated the dialectic relationship between the struggle to advance, deepen and defend the national democratic revolution and the class struggle.

It is worth appreciating that the coherence and unity of the socialist axis in the post-1994 democratic breakthrough was not based on personal likes and dislikes but on the fight against attempts to reverse our political gains through the neo-liberal agenda that was forced down the throats of the working class.

This neo-liberal offensive on the working class has been characterised as the ‘1996 Class Project’, led by former President Mbeki. At the heart of the 1996 Class Project was the cutting of social spending; privatisation, that led to extensive retrenchments; leaving the market to decide; a non-interventionist state; the introduction of inflation targeting; and the ‘modernisation’ of the ANC-led national liberation movement, with the re-direction of our NDR amongst other things.

However, we must be under no illusion that there were no traitors in our

own ranks, exposed by the erroneous and divisive positions they advanced. On the one hand, there were those in the ranks of the labour movement and the broader socialist axis who found comfort in a ‘pure’ national struggle, stripped it of its progressive class content and willingly sought to postpone the class struggle, whilst on the other hand there were those who believed that any association with the ANC - a nationalist organization in their characterisation - represented the postponement of the class struggle.

The posture Willie Madisha, COSATU’s former president, is one example of those who found comfort in a ‘purified’ national struggle and workers punished him for that. An example of the other erroneous position - believing that COSATU and the SACP’s association with the ANC amounts to the postponement of the class struggle - may be represented by Irvin Jim, amongst others.

In the current period the immediate struggle is the struggle against corruption, the neo-liberal restructuring of South Africa’s work-places, and corporate capture by the smash and grab parasitic bourgeois tendency. This tendency is bent to looting state resources and the use of state machinery to advance political and narrow factional battles. The leading personalities in this tendency include President Zuma and his corrupt clique from some provinces and among the leaderships at all levels of the ANC Leagues.

It is dumb-founding that for the first time in the history of our NDR to have our COSATU, while class contradictions are sharpening, putting its tail between its legs and leaning against the wall. This new opportunistic stance of our Federation, or of its leadership, has been

confirmed by its silence in the state capture debate and the developments at the SABC and Eskom amongst other things.

Like a coward on the battle field, the COSATU leadership has chosen to regard the corporate capture of our state as merely political squabbles and that “politicians” seeks to use them-this is liberal. Even if it was merely that, since when did COSATU not have a position on political matters?

The COSATU leadership must know that the battles against corporate capture of the state are essentially and centrally of the class struggle. In this vein, the SACP’s General Secretary Blade Nzimande cautioned COSATU that “no one is better positioned to stop the state capture than the trade unions. The biggest loser, if we allow our state to be stolen, will be the working class.”

Let me give here one glaring piece of one evidence of COSATU’s leadership failure: one of COSATU’s affiliates expressed disappointment on the resignation of Brian Molefe and praised his leadership as CEO of ESKOM for what it characterises as the fact that he stabilised the energy utility, while ignoring the fact that one aspect of the capture of ESKOM to serve the interest of private business in the form of Guptas was extensive retrenchments in the coal sector in Mpumalanga.

This posture is actual a serious contradiction of the NUM’s 2015 National Congress and the recent Central Committee where ESKOM was voted by delegates unanimous as worse employer. Is COSATU that blind not to see this reality? Fortunately, in contrast to the union’s apparent servility, the rank and file workers in the countryhave said of Molefe’s departure “Good Riddance.”

Clearly, COSATU’s new and suddenly invented outlook that the current sharpening class contradictions are mere political and they (COSATU) shall not enter into the fray smacks of political opportunism and is a clear manifestation of the extent of business unionism embedding itself in the worker’s organisations.

I make no apology in saying that the struggle against corporate capture is a class struggle and calling on COSATU to hold hands with the vanguard Party, the SACP. The unity of the socialist axis between the SACP and COSATU cannot be based on personal likes and dislikes, and those whose commitment to the class struggle is informed by little more than their personal moods must be exposed and isolated.

For the SACP, it must learn again the lesson that the co-option of trade union leaders to the Party’s senior leadership positions merely because of their strategic location in the trade unions does not of itself and alone advance the struggle. It does not work because, as we have seen, the conduct and posture of trade union leaders without the necessary revolutionary class consciousness confirms Rosa Luxemburg’s view that trade unions are by nature reformist.

We must not make the error of assuming a revolutionary and committed contribution to the class struggle from any trade unionist who has not demonstrated in addition his or her class-conscious commitment.

Benson Ngqentsu is the SACP’s Brian Bunting District Secretary and an NUM regional official based in the Western Cape. he writes in his personal capacity.

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My name is IIyich Vladimir Ulyanov, they called me

Lenin

I’m positing my CV for the work application in your

Marxism factory

Here is my resume

Born: in Russia 1870

Address: 1898 exile in Siberia

School: Communist manifesto of 1847

Contact: 1902.what is to be done

Website: Works of Lenin

My name is IIyich Vladimir Ulyanov, many called me

Lenin

I have sent you my resume because I’m seeking the

top revolutionary position of Dictatorship of the

Proletariat. Please consider my accomplishment as set

forth in my resume.

Qualifications

I studied Marxism and discovered imperialism as a

highest stage of capitalism

I’m a founder of Iskra (spark) in 1900 an ideological

centre for social promulgation

I breathed the Russian Social – Democratic Labour

Party into true life of a real Vanguard Political Party

(Communist Party) of the Russian working class and

peasants

I have agitated and brought in the theory and the

tactics of scientific socialism to the workers and

peasants against Autocratic Nikolai 11 regime

The Marxism theory was and is still a revolutionary

social science that exposes the knowledge that

ordinary people were denied all along.

I have been using it all my life against petty –

bourgeoisie revisionists, pseudo Marxists, Anarchists

and opportunists and not forgetting the mischievous

Mensheviks who were guilty of misinterpreting

Marxism because they lacked the Marxist ideological

spark.

Occupational Background

I’ ve been a Marxist and a leader of Bolsheviks in my

life time

In 1917 I led the Russian Great Revolution and the

first government of the workers and peasants, for

the first time in the history of human kind since the

Paris Commune seized political power in 1871 and

proclaimed the first working people’s republic

My previous employer

The USSR held highly of all Marxist socialist projects

that brought harmony, brotherhood, no more

divisions, no more hostilities, no masters giving

orders and servants carrying them out and neither

rich, powerful and privileged, nor poor, weak and

impoverished. There were community of equals, like

brother and sisters in a single family, all taking part in

the decision – making; all co – operating in carrying

out the daily task of living, all sharing the distribution

of the fruits of their common labour and no one lived

of labour of another, women oppression was ceasing

into being.

gREAT OCTOBER REvOLUTION

Poem

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Poem

Skills and Experience

Some of my skills and work experiences include, on

establishment of soviets all over the country and

in the factories, land distribution among the poor

peasants, empowering workers and peasants to

be creative to build their new socialist government

without blue print but with Marxist compass

I am a hard worker, (Marxism as a guide to action) see

Marxist doctrine on socialism and on creating

activities at grass roots as the basic factor of new

public life

Most importantly, genuine discoveries in the fields of

theory and political practice on development

during transition from capitalism to communism.

Education Background

I have encompassed the entire breadth and length

of knowledge, wisdom and understanding from the

workers’ strike schools and university of street mass

actions and demonstrations

My analysis is so powerful, it has been described by

others as being Tommy cat chasing the mice that are

after the cheese but to the masses I am a torch bearer

and the light on the world working class’ path to

power.

I heard that some called me a mountain Eagle and

appreciated that honour

Major Accomplishments

No illiteracy, no unemployment, no diseases, no

homeless, free health, a country of bread for all, free

education, public transport, most of social services are

free, no capitalist market system, technology is used

for improvement of development

I laid down my life so that socialism may advance

to communism, one step forward and two steps

backward

In Soviet Union and with other comrades in arms we

defeated the oppression and exploitation on person

by another person to show the world over on how it is

to be done

There are many more major accomplishments,

to many to mention, you can read them on my

website (works of Lenin) of course you will need

an interconnection on your computer to access my

website

References

Bolsheviks, workers, peasants, Red army, Soviets and

USSR

Summary

Now that you have read my resume, I’m confident

that I’m the only candidate uniquely qualified to

fill this vital position in your Marxism factory of the

revolutionary spirit. In summation, one of you said

that, that the emancipation of the working class must

be the act of the working class itself and for itself, so in

this century beginning with this anniversary of Great

October Revolution, the working class must build its

power base

and lay down a firm foundation in order to take over

and construct a humanistic societies of the world.

Poem by Thobile Maso

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know your country - south africa

Identity

The National Identity

Our Constitution

The Constitution was drafted in terms of Chapter 5 of the interim Constitution (Act 200 of 1993) and was first adopted by the Constitutional Assembly on the 8th May 1996. It was signed into law on 10 December 1996.

The process of drafting the Constitution involvedmany South Africans in the largest public participation programme ever carried out in South Africa. After nearly two years of intensive consultations, political parties represented in the Constitutional Assembly negotiated the formulations contained in the text, which are an integration of ideas from ordinary citizens, civil society and political parties represented in and outside of the Constitutional Assembly.

This Constitution represents the collective wisdom of the South African people and has been arrived at by general agreement. To this extent, the Preamble of the Contitution encapsulates the dreams and aspirations of the people of South Africa.

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Identity

The Preamble of our Constitution

We, the people of South Africa,Recognise the injustices of our past;Honour those who suffered for justice and freedom in our land;

Respect those who have worked to build and develop ourcountry; and Believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity.

We therefore, through our freely elected representatives, adopt this Constitution as the supreme law of the Republic so as to:

• Heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights;

• Lay the foundations for a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of the people and every citizen is equally protected by law;

• Improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person; and• Build a united and democratic South Africa able to take its rightful place as a sovereign state in

the family of nations.

May God protect our people.Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika. Morena boloka setjhaba sa heso.God seën Suid-Afrika. God bless South Africa.Mudzimu fhatutshedza Afurika. Hosi katekisa Afrika.

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gautengDumisani Dakile - Provincial [email protected]

Matserane Wa Mapena - Educator / [email protected]

Nomthunzi Mothapo - [email protected] Corner Jorissen and Simmonds Streets, Braamfontein.Tel: 011 403 0990 / 011 403 1036Fax : 011 403 1653

Eastern CapeXolani Malamlela - Provincial [email protected] Mkhawuleli Maleki - Educator / [email protected]

Thokozani Mtini - [email protected]

19B Devereux AvenueVincent, East LondonTel: 043 726 4038/45Fax: 043 726 4029

Free StateMonyatso Mahlatsi - Provincial [email protected]

Abel Pitso - Educator/[email protected]

Lumka Siyoko - [email protected] 6th floor, Miriam Makeba StreetAtrium Building, P O Box 985Bloemfontein 9300Tel: 051 447 5499 / 5230Fax: 051 447-5603

KwaZulu-NatalEdwin Mkhize - Provincial [email protected]

Nokhwezi Buthelezi - [email protected]

Khaliphile Cotoza - Provincial Organiser/[email protected]

P O Box 4765 Durban 4000 7th floor, Suite 73 320 Anton Lembede (Smith) Street, Mercury House Building, Durban Tel: 031 304-1690 FAx: 031 304-1822

LimpopoGerald Twala - Provincial [email protected] Louisa Nxumalo - Provincial Organiser/[email protected]

Toeki Kgabo - [email protected]

16 Schoeman StreetPolokwane0700 Tel: 015 291 2981Fax: 015 291 3232/ 086 204 7173

MpumalangaFidel Mlombo - Provincial [email protected]

Thabo Mokoena - Educator/[email protected]

Phindile Sidane - [email protected]

P O Box 2425Witbank 1035 House no. 1Cnr Beatty & Plumer StreetWitbank1039 Tel: 013 656-0289 / 90Fax: 013 656-0291

North WestJob Dliso - Provincial [email protected]

Kopano Konopi - Educator / [email protected]

Ruth Mosiane - [email protected]

Elijah Barayi House75 Commissioner StreetPO Box 11909

Klerksdorp2570Tel: 018-462 2406/6602Fax: 018- 462 3993Fax-email: 086 566 4854

Northern CapeAnele Gxoyiya - Provincial [email protected]

Thandi Makapela - Educator/[email protected] Gosalamang Jantjies - Administrator [email protected]

21 Angel StreetKimberly, 8301 Tel: 053 832-9090FAx: 053 832-9080

Western CapeTony Ehrenreich - Provincial [email protected] Mike Louw - Educator/[email protected] Fiona Kleinhans - [email protected] Ground FloorCommunity House41 Salt River RoadSalt River, Cape TownPO Box 471Woodstock7925 Tel: 021 448 0044/5/6Fax: 021 448 0047

Parliamentary Office69 Plein StreetPlein Park Building P O Box 5622Cape Town 8000Tel: 024 461 3835Fax: 021 461 4034 Matthew Parks - Deputy Head of [email protected] Patience Lebatlang - Administrator [email protected]

CosatU Provincial Offices

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The shopsTeward is a unique magazine. Most newspapers

and magazine owned by millionaires and reflect the outlook

of the rich and powerful. The Shopsteward is produced by

COSATU and gives the workers a point of view on the big issues

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The official magazine of The congress of souTh african Trade unions

the Shopsteward

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MAY DAY SPECIAL EDITION 2015 • www.cosatu.org.za

Volume 24 • No.1 • may Day Special eDitioN 2015

The official Magazine of The Congress of souTh afriCan Trade unions

the Shopsteward

60

www.cosatu.org.za

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For more information on fi nding the correct safety footwear solution foryour company contact us on:

www.bbfsafety.com | Tel: +27 31 710 0400 | Email: [email protected]

8 BRANDS1 SAFETYFOOTWEAR SOLUTION

S A F E T Y F O O T W E A R

Documents

The official publication of the Congress of South African ... · The official publication of the Congress of South African Trade Unions. 2 MAYDAY March SAN C O ... SANCO - Cde SPD