COSATU's New Year message, 22 December 2008

2008 has been a momentous year. Both South Africa and COSATU have new Presidents, our foremost icon, comrade Nelson Mandela celebrated his 90th birthday, a new right-wing political party has been born and the world has entered the biggest economic recession since the 1930s.

Workers' struggles

For workers it has been a very tough year. They started 2008 struggling with the impact of regular power cuts, huge increases in the price of food, fuel, school fees and transport. Then they were hit by a succession of rises in interest rates and the massive 27.5% increase in electricity tariffs.

COSATU launched a campaign of mass action on the issues of food and electricity price increases, with a massive response to its call for strike action, in the provinces during July and in a national general strike on 6 August.

The situation was made even worse by price-fixing by companies in the bread and dairy sectors, which has rightly led to government proposals to toughen the laws to stop this theft of the poor by the rich, by making guilty company directors personally responsible for their crimes, rather than passing on their fines to their customers who had already been fleeced by their price-fixing.

Even workers who had negotiated wage increases found that the extra money in their pockets was had rapidly lost its value. For the unemployed, casual workers and families depending on grants and pensions, these price increases were a disaster, pushing millions into deep poverty.

The price crisis eased fractionally towards the end of the year - with a slowdown in food prices rises, a tiny and totally inadequate 50-point cut in the minimum lending rate, and a fall in fuel prices, which as usual has not been passed on by companies who never cut their prices when fuel costs go down with the same speed at which they raise them when fuel costs go up!

It is in recognition of all these challenges and hardships faced by the working class that COSATU has once again declared this 2008 festive season as a black Christmas.

Unemployment

Any benefit to workers from this slowdown in price increases was instantly cancelled out by the impact of the global recession. Unemployment, that had been falling - though very marginally and remaining far too high throughout the year - started edging upwards again towards the 40% level (using the more realistic statistics that include those who have given up looking for work.

Now, as the year ends, company after company is announcing retrenchments and more are sure to follow in 2009. Never has the campaign to persuade shoppers to Buy Local! been more relevant and necessary. COSATU members were out at the shopping centres in December to persuade consumers to support our local manufacturing industries and refuse to buy imports produced by workers elsewhere some of whom are paid poverty wages and enjoy no workers' rights.

Even in the months when the number of jobs was increasing slightly, there was evidence that the quality of jobs was continuing to fall. The biggest increases were consistently in retail and construction, both of which are sectors notorious for casualising employment, creating more but worse, low-paid, temporary and insecure jobs, with few if any benefits.

One of the year's highlights was the strike for union recognition by SACCAWU members at Woolworths, which ended in a significant victory, and will encourage thousands more workers in the retail sector to join the union and fight back against casualisation.

COSATU has warmly welcomed the Minister of Labour's pledge that the next ANC government will outlaw labour brokers. These human traffickers are one of the biggest contributors to the spread of casualisation and increased exploitation of workers and we will be glad to see the back of them.

Horrific accidents

One grim consequence of the declining quality of labour has been the worsening state of occupational health and safety. 2008 witnessed an outrageous number of horrific accidents.

The mining industry remains the leading killer of workers and is maiming an absolutely unacceptable number of workers.

The crisis was brought into sharp focus when even on May Day, nine contract workers died at Gold Fields' South Deep mine - on the day when workers should be on holiday celebrating our achievements and campaigning for a better life for all workers.

This followed four more deaths at Gold Fields' Driefontein mine and another who died after a rock fall at South Deep the same day. That was 14 deaths in 48 hours in two mines owned by the same company!

Dozens more workers lost their lives in a series of accidents in vehicles transporting them to and from work. The continued use of open trucks to transport workers is a national scandal, which must be outlawed immediately. It shows that fourteen years into a democracy, lives of workers remain unvalued by some of the companies, in particular those operating in the construction sector.

This practise cannot be de-linked from our apartheid and racial past. Only black workers are loaded like bags of cement on the back of open trucks. We are still to see any company practising the same thing to white workers.

This makes our slogan that "we sell our labour but not our lives and limbs" even more appropriate as we move to 2009.

Xenophobia

May 2008 saw a sudden and unprecedented outbreak of xenophobic violence targeted against foreign nationals living in South Africa, in particular those who originate from the African continent. This was extremely embarrassing for COSATU one of whose five founding principles is international worker solidarity.

COSATU strongly condemned the murders, rapes, assaults and robberies and demanded that those responsible for these criminal acts be brought to justice.

As we said at the time, "It is shocking and disturbing to see that some workers and residents of poor communities believe that these problems are caused by foreign nationals and that they are attacking, robbing and killing those foreigners they believe to be responsible, who are themselves victims of the same unemployment, poverty and crime.

"They are totally wrong. The problems they face are rooted in years of apartheid, which kept the majority of South Africans in desperate poverty and denied them any democratic means to improve their plight... If people are made scapegoats simply on the basis of their country of origin we will be on a slippery slope towards regionalism and tribalism and the destruction of the unity we have built in the trade unions and civil society organisations."

Racism

Throughout the year COSATU has received reports of the festering of racism, particularly in rural areas. The year began with the horrific racist massacre of Skierlik, for which Johann Nel has just been given four life sentences, after frankly admitting that he was motivated by a hatred and fear of black people.

While that was the best publicised case, there are regular reports of employers abusing, assaulting and mistreating workers and dwellers on the farms on a racist basis. The continuing leniency of the judicial system in some such cases was illustrated by the early release of Mark Scott-Crossley, who was involved in the notorious incident when Nelson Chisale was thrown into a lions' enclosure.

Racism remains a reality for most black people, in particular workers. That is why COSATU few years ago launched a campaign to highlight this abhorrent practise. We urge all South Africans to unite behind the need to build a truly non-racial, non-sexist, a democratic and prosperous South Africa.

HIV/Aids

COSATU welcomes the turnaround in the nation's response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and in particular the Constitutional Court ruling supporting the security forces union, SASFU, against the SANDF, insisting that discrimination against people living with HIV is unconstitutional.

The new Minister of Health, Barbara Hogan, has personified the new approach, which is to unite the country to defeat a disease, which every day kills 1,000 people and infects another 1,450 people. 60 000 babies are born with HIV every year. With the young and working age dying in droves, South Africa's death statistics resemble those of a country in a terrible war.

At least 70% of the caseload in the public health system is now taken up by HIV/ AIDS cases, crowding out the capacity to treat other medical conditions. Moreover, while we still cannot treat more than half the 800,000 needing anti-retroviral treatment now, that number is going to rise to 5,5 million within five years, as people already HIV infected reach full-blown AIDS.  

Sadly this is the legacy we inherited from many years of denialism, mixed and confusing messages, combined with many years of government inaction and lack of clear leadership in the face of the unfolding catastrophe.

Year of continued improvement of government delivery record

COSATU was heartened by the publication of the government's 15-year review that demonstrates a continued improvement of our people's lives.

Even before Polokwane, while we were very critical of many government policies, we never failed to give the ANC credit for all the positive advances they have made, and there is now a new spirit of openness in the ANC.

Significant progress has been made in transforming our economy and society since 1994. We can record the following:

• We have the longest economic expansion recorded in SA history - from 1994 to 2003 the economy grew at an average of 3% and 4.5% since 2004.
• Unemployment has decreased from 31% in 2003 to 23% in 2007, using the official narrow definition. This translated into 500,000 new jobs being created annually since 2004.
• Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) coverage has been expanded to include nearly a million domestic workers and farm workers.
• Access to social grants has massively increased from 3 million people in 1997 to 12.5 million, 8 million of whom are children aged under 14 years;
• About 3.1 million RDP housing for 10 million people were built, outpacing informal housing for the first time. The majority of RDP homeowners are women.
• About 18.7 million people have access to clean water and 10.9 million provided with sanitation, with the number of households with bucket system reduced from 605 675 in 1994 to 113 085 in 2007.
• The expansion of electricity has reached 70% of the population.
• In health, progress has been recorded through expansion of free primary health care. We have expanded health infrastructure, including building 1,600 clinics and new eight hospitals. Many public hospitals have been revitalized and refurbished. We have scaled-up the ART rollout programme with more than 480,000 people enrolled. A number of initiatives were launched to combat smoking.
• In education, access to our primary and secondary schooling has reached near universal enrolment, with the participation of girls being the highest in the world. A total of 98% of children aged from 7 to 15 years are enrolled in schools; 88% for 6 years olds and participation rate for children aged 4 and 5 (Grade R) in early child development has now reached 70%. The matriculation pass rate has increased from 58% in 1994 to 65% in 2007. Pupil-to-teacher ratios have improved from 43:1 in 1996 to 32:1 in 2006.
• Mass mobilisation around the literacy campaign means that it is now covering more than 350,000 of our people who cannot read and write. We are well within targets to ensure South Africa is free of illiteracy by 2014.
• In higher education, the ANC government has a plan to ensure participation rate of 17.5% by 2010 and 20% by 2015. Since 1994, 140,000 students have benefited from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), which is aimed at improving participation rates amongst disadvantaged South Africans.

The impact of these economic and social policies has seen significant reductions in the level of severe poverty and improvement in the quality of life of millions of South Africans. Significant progress was made, therefore, toward the vision of creating a united, non-racial and non-sexist society.

Our country has become more cohesive and we collectively celebrated achievements in sport, especially being awarded the 2010 FIFA World Cup. During this period we also became the Rugby World Champions, the Angling World Champions and have world-class Paralympians whose performance contributed to national pride at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics.

On the international front, the ANC government has strengthened the country's role in peace, reconstruction and development, especially on the African continent. Our international responsibilities and recognition has also grown. Our membership of United Nations Security Council provided opportunities to promote peace. Strategic partnerships with major countries of the South - China, India and Brazil - were strengthened. We have also being active in international global forums, such as the G20 and OECD to advance the South African development and the African agenda.

As many in the ANC will admit we still have a long way to go before we can claim we have conquered the apartheid legacy. Unemployment, poverty and inequalities remain stubbornly high.

But Polokwane, and the Policy Conference that preceded it, have enabled us to have an open and frank discussion on the best way to tackle problems of poverty and unemployment.

Political landscape

This year has seen historic changes. As we said in our statement at the end of last year, "without any doubt 2007 will be remembered most for the series of crucial political events - the ANC Policy Conference, the SACP National Congress, the COSATU Central Committee and finally the ANC National Conference - which transformed the political landscape.

"It would be impossible to overestimate the importance of the Polokwane conference. This was not a clash of individual leaders or ‘camps'. It was a revolutionary mass movement from the grass roots, which brought about... a tsunami, which aimed not just to replace one set of leaders with another but to transform the way our national democratic revolution is being led... a rebellion by the representatives of millions of workers, the unemployed and the poor (who) knew that their criticisms of government's pro-business and pro-rich policies were right and wanted a new leadership to bring about a change of policy."

Events in 2008 have reinforced everything COSATU said in that statement last year. Despite attempts by commentators and ‘experts' to convince us that ANC policy has not changed, the evidence points to a decisive shift. The Polokwane resolutions, augmented by the declarations of the two highly successful Alliance Summits held this year, clearly represent different pro-poor and pro-worker policies, which the delegates voted for. They provide a firm basis for an election manifesto, which would pave the way for the next phase of the NDR.

The ANC leadership, while understandably anxious to reassure all sections of society that they have nothing to fear from an ANC government, is firmly committed to a much more developmental, interventionist state that will make poverty eradication and the creation of quality jobs its top priority.

This is why COSATU is fully committed to mobilising its two million members and their families to make sure that the ANC is re-elected with an even bigger majority and to implement its progressive manifesto with vigour and determination.

‘Congress of the People'

The ANC will of course face a new challenge in 2009 - the so-called ‘Congress of the People'. This splinter from our movement has stolen the name of one of the pivotal moments in our history but has abandoned all the progressive policies of the Freedom Charter, which were adopted at that great event.

It represents a coalition of conservative forces, who have been, and are still, following the agenda of a section of the capitalist class. Their aim is to divide and disrupt a progressive ruling party that has the support of most South Africans and impose the programme of international capital and its local lackeys.

It is no coincidence that almost all the ‘COPE' leaders, including former workers' leaders, are now wealthy business people. They used leadership positions in the ANC, and in some cases the SACP and COSATU, to accumulate wealth and dispense patronage.

They were the very people who as ANC leaders tried and failed to demobilise the mass movement, reduce the ANC members to spectators and voting cattle, and who tried to turn the ANC into a "modern political party", which would abandon its Alliance with COSATU and the SACP.

This pro-capitalist faction did not accept their defeat at Polokwane and have formed a new party, which, in league with other opposition parties, is fighting for their class project against the ANC, the Alliance and the working class and the poor.

COSATU has issued a challenge to answer "Questions to born-again democrats", so that we know where they stand on all the key issues we face. But we are still waiting for their answers.

‘COPE' has to be defeated, but politically, by exposing their right-wing policies and their links to the very employing class which exploits and abuses the workers and the poor on a daily basis and the policies which, however well dressed up in populist rhetoric, embody the class interests of the rich and powerful.

Scorpions and Pikoli

One set of victories to chalk up in 2008 are the decisions to disband the Scorpions, and not reinstate NDPP Vusi Pikoli, and the ruling by Judge Chris Nicholson in the Pietermaritzburg High Court against the NPA, and by implication, the former government.

COSATU has consistently charged the NPA, and the Scorpions under its control, of abusing structures of the state and judiciary for factional political purposes. Even the Ginwala inquiry report, which was in many respects an attempt to whitewash the involvement of, in particular, the former President and Minister of Justice, could not avoid confirming some of the charges made by COSATU against Pikoli and his predecessor, including:

• His failure to stop the Scorpions from conducting an illegal inquiry, which led to the Special Browse Mole Report and then failure to take disciplinary action against those responsible.  This was one of the worst examples of the NPA and Scorpions, under Pikoli's direction, acting illegally and unconstitutionally in pursuit of factional political agendas.
• Developing illegal intelligence gathering capacity within the Scorpions.
• His use of unvetted staff when conducting search and seizure raids on sensitive buildings such as the Union Buildings and Tuynhuys.

We would have added other charges: the use of selective media briefings and leaks to prejudice the case again ANC President Jacob Zuma, in effect conducting a trial by media.

The report confirms precisely that Nicholson's serious charges of political interference by the government in the NPA's decisions are not only true but are even justified by former leaders of the government.

SABC Board

Just before the end of 2007 COSATU received news of President Mbeki's approval of the new SABC Board, which contained no representatives of labour or working journalists and was dominated by BEE business interests. A coalition of civil society organisations, which became the Save Our SABC! (SOS) campaign, set out to contest a decision which was clearly being used in the factional battles then opening up post-Polokwane.

Having discovered that there was no realistic possibility of a legal challenge to the appointment of the new Board, the SOS campaigned to change the law so that Parliament, guided by the new leadership of the ANC, could change the composition of the Board. The result was the passing of the Broadcasting Amendment Act.

We call on the President to without any further delay sign the Broadcasting Amendment Bill into law after which we hope the parliament will ensure that a new more representative board replaces the current unrepresentative and factional board. We look forward to seeing this used to appoint an SABC Board, which is more representative of South African society and stops the public broadcaster from being used as a propaganda tool for the COPE.

International

COSATU has been involved in many important international interventions, in line with its founding principle that it must promote solidarity among the workers of the world.

One of the most important has been the ongoing ‘Doha round' of negotiations on world trade, which have kept stalling. If they are resumed, and if the tentative framework that emerged during the July ministerial wins the day, it threatens to lead to a settlement that will devastate the economies of developing countries, including South Africa.

Our prospects of escaping from the colonial pattern of exporting raw materials and building a thriving manufacturing industry will disappear unless we stop the powerful Northern countries from imposing massive tariff reductions on the developing world. They refuse to cut their own massive subsidies and tariffs which keep our goods out of their markets, but demand that we cut ours so that they can invade our markets.

Our government has taken a bold stance, and formed important alliances with other Southern developing countries, particularly the NAMA 11 Group. But the threat remains in 2009.

Closer to home, the federation has been heavily involved with the struggle for democracy in our neighbouring countries of Zimbabwe and Swaziland.

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe has reached several points at which it seemed things could get no worse, yet they did. It is now in a state of economic meltdown and political anarchy. While millions of ordinary Zimbabweans struggle to survive and avoid falling prey to cholera, the ruling elite are now ruling as a criminal mafia, arresting, abducting and murdering anyone standing in their way.

The SADC leaders have shamelessly ignored the daily, widespread abuse of human rights by a ‘government' that lost the elections on 29 March 2008, while trying to patch up a ‘power-sharing' agreement that would leave the party that won that election with a token role in a government still dominated by Mugabe's police state and paramilitary thugs.

COSATU has condemned in particular the regular arrests of ZCTU trade union leaders who are playing an exemplary role in uphold democracy and human rights in the face of appalling attacks by the state.

As always the federation has not restricted its solidarity to making statements but has worked closely with the ZCTU and civil society, and achieved one brilliant success, when it forced a Chinese ship loaded with arms for Mugabe to turn back from Durban because SATAWU members declared that they would refuse to unload it.

Swaziland

Thanks is no small part to COSATU's persistent campaigning, the world has at last started to wake up to the existence of another dictatorship on our borders, in many respects even worse than Zimbabwe. Swaziland is an absolute monarchy, which has ruled under the longest state of emergency in the world, since 1973, where political parties are outlawed and whose elections are a complete sham.

Today the leaders of the main opposition forces, PUDEMO and SWAYOCO, are still locked up in jails, where torture is routine, while the people are suffering from desperate poverty and the highest rate of HIV infection in the world. COSATU will not hesitate to resume its solidarity campaign of border blockades and economic sanctions, when called upon to do so by the Swaziland trade unions.

Throughout our life, including this year, COSATU has sought to highlight the plight of our people from other parts of our continent.

We have sought to raise the quest for independence for the people of Western Sahara who remain defiantly colonised by Morocco.

As we end 2008 our hearts go out for the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo who are staring in the face a humanitarian catastrophe as a result of a simmering war in their country, where women and children are paying the biggest price.

Our hand of solidarity goes out to the people of Sudan and Somalia who are devastated by strife that continues to maim so many and push their poor to more desperate levels of poverty. We join all the progressive formations calling for speedy resolutions to all these conflicts in our continent so that all of our citizens may enjoy peace and prosperity.

Cuba

COSATU sent its best wishes to Comrade President Fidel Castro when he announced his retirement after almost half a century at the helm of Cuba, keeping the flag of socialist internationalism flying high. We have also added our voice to the demand for the release of the five Cuban patriots who have been in US jails for ten years now on trumped-up charges.

Let us hope that Barack Obama will end the cruel US economic blockade which was intended to starve the Cuban people into submission but has only made them more determined than ever to defend their freedom and socialism.

The federation has continued to protest against the brutal Israeli occupation of Palestine and the ongoing military dictatorship in Burma.

In an exceptional tribute to COSATU's influence internationally, its General Secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi, was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the TransAfrica Forum in Washington DC.

Obituaries

COSATU has said farewell to some of its greatest stalwarts in 2008. They are:

John Gomomo, President of COSATU from 1991 to 1999, one of the greatest leaders of the South African workers, who devoted his entire life to their service and will be forever remembered as a hero of the struggle for freedom, democracy and workers' rights. After leaving COSATU, he continued to serve the people as an ANC Member of Parliament and Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration.

He was a great leader and servant of the trade union movement, who worked tirelessly to improve the lives of his fellow workers and all the people of South Africa.

Billy Nair, a founder member of both Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) and the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) - the forerunner of COSATU - and one of the 156 Congress activists charged with treason. In 1984, after serving a 20-year sentence on Robben Island, he became active in the United Democratic Front and participated in the anti-election campaign of 1984. When the SACP was relaunched as a legal body on 29 July 1990, he was elected as a CC member, was elected to the ANC National Executive Committee in 1991 and in 1994 was elected to the National Assembly.

Liz Abrahams, General Secretary of the Food and Canning Workers' Union (FCWU), which later became FAWU, from 1956-1964, who also played a part in building the Federation of SA Women, SACTU, the Coloured People's Congress and ANC Women's League. She will be buried on 27 December 2008.

Don Pasquallie, Deputy General Secretary of SADTU, who died tragically in a road accident. Since joining SADTU in 1991, he worked tirelessly to improve the lives of workers in the public service. He played a leading role in the national collective bargaining team and was an eloquent and forceful public representative of the striking workers during the historic public sector dispute last year.

Pretty Singonzo, 2nd Vice-President of POPCRU, which she helped to turn round and to make it one of the fastest-growing unions in the country, a revolutionary who fought for and was prepared to lay down her life for thousands and millions of people she had not even met.

Ncumisa Kondlo, National Deputy Chairperson of the South African Communist Party, a member of the ANC's NEC and NWC, and Chairperson of the ANC Caucus in Parliament, an outstanding leader of people and gender activist, who has left a deep void in the working-class politics.

Brian Bunting, a founder of what was then the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), a ‘Natives' representative' in Parliament, until he was expelled because of his party membership. More than forty years later he returned in triumph to the same Parliament buildings as an MP for the ANC. He used his writing talents to propagate the message of socialism and generations of workers were influenced by his writings and his example.

Mike Terry, the executive secretary of the British Anti-Apartheid Movement from 1975-1994, who personified the spirit of international solidarity which inspired thousands around the world to take up the struggle of the South African people thousands of miles away.

Miriam Makeba - ‘Mama Africa' - not only a legendary artist, of unequalled talent who, characteristically, was still singing the night she died, but also an inspirational figure in our national liberation struggle, who became a symbol of hope for South Africans when she appeared before the U.N. Special Committee on Apartheid to call for an international boycott of South Africa.

Further we deep our flags for many unsung heroes and heroes, including outstanding artist Lucky Dube and Vuyo Mokoena, who departed during the course of the year. COSATU is aware of the number of deaths caused by HIV and AIDS and many preventable diseases that continue to main so many of our people. Our hearts go out to the families, including those children headed families who in particular face daunting social and economic challenges as we celebrate Xmas and the festive season.

Forward to 2009

2009 promises to be an even more eventful year. From the beginning of January we shall be plunged into the election campaign, when the ANC Manifesto is launched and our members around the country hit the doorsteps to win another great victory for our revolution.

But our work will not stop after the elections. We shall be making sure that the policies from Polokwane and the Alliance Summits, which we expect to be in the Manifesto, are fully translated into government programmes so that real improvements in the lives of the workers and the poor can happen.

We shall be greatly assisted in this task by the panels of expert advisors being assembled in the Walking through the Doors Project.

Important though the elections are, COSATU, which is holding its 10^th National Congress in September 2009, will never abandon its primary role as an independent defender of workers' rights. In the aftermath of the world recession it will be more vital than ever to have a strong, militant workers' movement to defend our class from the threat of even higher unemployment and falling living standards.

COSATU congratulate learners who have passed their Matric and encourage the others never to give up trying.

We send New Year greetings to the workers of the world and the people of South Africa. We wish everyone a very happy, successful and revolutionary 2009.

Statement issued by COSATU December 22 2008