Letter from the COSATU leadership to all workers and poor communities

Dear South African worker, and citizens of South Africa

Once again we feel obliged to write this letter to you, as a citizen of South Africa, and a worker, coming from poor communities, about the forthcoming local government elections to be held on 18 May 2011.

We do not want to take you for granted and we feel as a labour organisation that represents the interest of working families we must explain why we are asking you to vote for the ANC in the local government elections.

We are asking you to defend the following gains we have secured together under the leadership of the ANC:

1. Over 2.5 million houses have been built, giving shelter to 15 million poor South Africans.
2. 6 million households have gained access to clean water. In 1994 only 62% of households had access to clean running water; today 93% do.
3. In 1994 only 50% of households had access to sanitation; today 77% do.
4. In 1994 only 36% of households had access to electricity; today 84% do - this means nearly 5 million homes have been connected.
5. By 2010 14.5 million people were receiving social grants including equal pensions and child support grants from the government.
6. In 1996 only 2.4 people children were receiving child support grant. By 2010 9.5 million children were receiving child grants and in 2011 child grant will be extended to children below 18 years!
7. The age for men to go on pension is being gradually reduced from 65 to 60 years
8. More schools have been built with 8 million children from poorest communities receiving a meal a day at school to help them concentrate.
9. Student loans have been converted to bursaries for successful final-year students who qualify for financial aid. Students in further education and training colleges who qualify for financial aid are now exempted from paying fees
10. More clinics and hospitals have been built. Today pregnant mothers and children below the age of 6 years are treated for free in the government health institutions.
11. Today 1.4 million people are receiving free antiretrovirals from the government. The campaign against HIV/AIDS has been stepped up! Government aims to test 15 million people by June 2011.
12. Thousands of community development workers are bringing government services closer to the people. The ANC National General Council held in September said these workers must be employed full time by the government
13. Crime is coming down with murder declining by 8.6%
14. The Constitution gives workers rights. This include the right to form and join unions, the right to collective bargaining and to strike to advance our rights, the right to be treated fairly and to sign union security agreements such as agency and closed shop agreements when our unions are a majority in the workplace. Further to this, government has passed many labour laws to advance these rights. This includes the Labour Relations Act, Basic Conditions of Employment Act, Occupational Health and Safety Act, Employment Equity Act. As we speak we are negotiating with government another set of amendments to address the problems associated with labour brokering. COSATU has demanded that this system of perpetually employing workers as temporary through the human trafficking labour brokers must be banned! 

Precisely because of our struggles and our community struggles the ANC have prioritized 5 areas for government. These are:

1. Creation of decent work and building sustainable livelihoods for all
2. Education including prioritizing training and reskilling of workers
3. Health including introduction of a National Health Insurance so that health care could be free at the point of entry 
4. Rural Development including fighting for food security
5. Fighting crime and corruption

Progress has been registered in all these areas already since the election of the government under the leadership of President Jacob Zuma. For example, on jobs government announced two major policies the Industrial Action Plan in April 2010 and New Growth Path in November 2010. Government has set a target to create 5 million jobs in the next 10 years.

Already government has set aside R9 billion to undertake job creating initiatives in the next 3 years. Another R10 billion has been set aside by the IDC to create mainly green jobs. Government has set aside over R800 billion rands to build infrastructure including more roads, fencing of our communities, etc.

Our task is to work with government to realize these common objectives, and ensure that the programme of decent work creation is taken forward. The National Health Insurance will be introduced progressively from 2012 so that we end the current situation where a few medical aids enjoy first world health amenities whilst the majority are trapped in a degrading health system.

When we point out these gains we are not in any way suggesting that there have been no problems and challenges. Of course there are many problems and progress on a number of areas could have been faster! But we must not score a political own goal which will result in even this progress being reversed!

Many would have heard COSATU leaders over and over raising concerns with government and the ANC. Yes it is COSATU that has been critical and urging government to do more about the crisis of unemployment, poverty and inequality. Yes it is COSATU that has marched against corruption, exposed corrupt individuals, and demanded that government must take stronger action against those stealing resources.

COSATU, and working class communities, must continue to put the government  under pressure to do more and address all these many challenges. But we have not forgotten that apartheid took 40 years and colonialism took over 300 years. It will require a massive national effort, involving all of us, to reverse that legacy of colonialism, exploitation, and oppression.

When we say Aluta Continua! (The struggle continues!) we mean that not everyone has access to a decent job, to water, electricity and houses! We mean the struggle against unemployment, poverty, inequalities, crime, and corruption continues. We continue to struggle against a system which concentrates economic power and wealth in the hands of a minority.

We are aware that some amongst us are extremely disappointed by the failures of this and that department and or even individual leaders of the government. We know all these problems, including the unfair deductions of workers' salaries in the Eastern Cape.  We are aware of many other challenges including in some cases the shenanigans that have sidelined good men and women in favour of powerful factions that have appointed themselves as gatekeepers, including in some instances in the selection of local government councillors. However we must continue to fight the battle for accountability and democracy, in our organisations and in the state.

With all of this we are appealing to each one of you not to forget the bigger picture. Boycotting elections and worse of all voting for a party whose policies seek to reinforce the power and control of a wealthy and racist minority in society, will be a huge mistake.

Not voting because of these and other disappointments will open a space for the DA to implement its anti-worker and anti-poor policies and pro-business pro-rich policies!

It would be a nightmare to allow a DA government, not because its leader is white or a women, but because of its pro-big business and pro-rich and anti-poor and anti-worker policies. The struggles to build a new and better South Africa cannot be led by those who benefitted from inequalities, poverty and our oppression, and continue to pursue policies to entrench these injustices.

To demonstrate this fact, once it won power in the Western Cape the DA put together a cabinet dominated by whites (70% of the Cabinet, although whites are a minority in the Province) with not a single women. Only recently, they appointed Patricia de Lille, that serial political floor-crosser, just because they sought to win more support from her disgruntled constituency.

They claim to manage a ‘well run' province, but the Western Cape remains possibly the most backward province in South Africa, when it comes to reversing the apartheid social and economic legacy. A simple drive from Cape Town airport to the city centre shows us what would befall the whole of South Africa if the DA came to power: abject poverty and neglect, for the majority living in shacks and depressed communities, alongside wealth and privilege for the small minority.

What does the DA stands for? The DA made the following commitments to its rich and mainly big business constituency in its 2009 elections manifesto. This is what it said about how it will create jobs:

• We will reduce corporate taxes- i.e. make the poor pay more, so the rich can pay less
• We will reduce the labour laws to make it easy for employers to hire and fire workers - i.e. take us back to apartheid super-exploitation
• We will introduce a six-months probation period in which employers will easily dismiss workers without any recourse
• We will demarcate the country into Export Processing Zones and turn all the current Industrial Development Zones into Export Processing Zones where employers will be attracted to invest on the basis of not paying taxes and where workers will not enjoy any rights!

Yes, the ANC has committed mistakes and some individuals have betrayed its historic mission, but we have a far greater chance of correcting ANC mistakes than we have of correcting the DA's anti-workers and pro-big business policies.

No worker must vote for a party that will take us back to Egypt!  Vote to protect and advance workers interests! Vote for the ANC!

Yours in the struggle

Zwelinzima Vavi

COSATU General Secretary

Issued by COSATU, April 15 2011

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