POLITICS

NUMSA condemns xenophobic attacks in Balfour

Castro Ngobese tenderpreneurs are manipulating popular discontent

NUMSA CONDEMNS VIOLENT PROTESTS AND XENOPHOBIC ATTACKS

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) condemns the violent protests and xenophobic attacks directed towards foreign nationals in Siyathemba, Balfour, Mpumalanga province because they negate the legitimate and genuine service delivery and economic opportunities demands raised by the community. We view these protests within the context of the ‘welfarist', top-down bureaucratic ‘delivery' interventions fostered and entrenched by the 1996 class project.

We call on the working class formations particularly the ANC-led Alliance  to unite the community around a strategic programme that raises broader challenges - and not just demanding more ‘delivery' into the same over-crowded, under-resourced and reproduced apartheid slums and townships. Our Revolutionary Alliance must actively champion a revolutionary agenda which seeks to transfer the wealth of our country to the people as a whole informed by the Freedom Charter as part of resolving these challenges of underdevelopment and economic opportunities for our people.

The inability by the Revolutionary Alliance to seize this moment will open up a lacuna for local political entrepreneurs and ‘tenderpreneurs' who are opportunistically and demagogically using popular frustrations to wage their own self-centered battles to access local tenders and power. We reiterate our call for the convening of a service delivery summit geared towards responding to the challenges and bottlenecks at local level.

Statement issued by NUMSA national spokesperson, Castro Ngobese, February 9 2010

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