COSATU is clearly deeply divided over its invitation to the Democratic Alliance to participate in a march against E-Tolling in cities throughout South Africa tomorrow. Intense internal wrangling in COSATU overnight resulted in the invitation being withdrawn this morning.
When COSATU's invitation to the DA was prominently reported in the media on Monday, I considered the matter and decided to accept the invitation because COSATU agrees with the DA's opposition to the E-tolling of major commuter thoroughfares.
We do not, however, agree with COSATU's call to ban labour brokers. We believe the industry should be appropriately regulated to prevent abuse. If done fairly, labour broking helps create the jobs that lift people out of poverty. COSATU's proposed ban on labour broking would destroy hundreds of thousands of jobs overnight.
Because COSATU supports the DA's position on free speech, we resolved to make this difference clear during the march we had been invited to attend.
My office contacted COSATU spokesman, Patrick Craven, to accept the invitation to join the march, and I left a message for COSATU Secretary General, Zwelinzima Vavi.
I contacted Mr Vavi again later in the day when I heard that COSATU intended to involve teachers - and even pupils - in the march during school hours. The DA strongly opposes the deliberate disruption of education for any purpose. One of the key reasons why there is so much poverty and unemployment in South Africa is that basic literacy, numeracy and skills levels are so low. If we want to beat poverty through employment, education must be a national priority, and should not be disrupted for any extraneous purpose.
Mr Vavi confirmed that COSATU intended to involve the members of the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) in the protest march.
We were unable to continue our conversation as Mr Vavi had to take a call from a radio station, but he undertook to call me back at 19h00. He did not do so.
Instead, this morning, I received an SMS from Mr Vavi which noted that COSATU did not want to "get the opposition political parties joining the march". I understand that this position was reached after intense overnight discussions within COSATU's ranks.
Despite our strong opposition to E-Tolling, the DA will not force its way into COSATU's march. We have a long track record of staging our own, appropriate protests without disrupting education.
It is apparent now that COSATU's invitation to us to join the march was disingenuous from the start. It was clearly designed to place us in a dilemma by joining two disparate issues: E-tolling and Labour Broking.
We called their bluff. And they didn't like it.
While COSATU continues to undermine education and jobs, we will continue to improve education where we govern and promote policies to achieve 8% growth through job creation initiatives such as a youth wage subsidy. Our goal is to get South Africa working to beat poverty.
Statement issued by Helen Zille, Leader of the Democratic Alliance, March 6 2012
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