Statement of the COSATU Special Central Executive Committee meeting held on 12 August 2014
The Congress of South African Trade Unions held a special meeting of its Central Executive Committee on 12 August 2014, at COSATU House, Braamfontein, attended by the National Office Bearers, leaders of affiliated unions and provincial structures. The items discussed, amongst others, were:
1. Report from the ANC Task team
The meeting welcomed members of the Task Team established by the African National Congress to assist COSATU to resolve certain internal problems: Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe, Deputy Secretary-General Jessie Duarte, Treasurer-General Zweli Mkhize and Comrade Ebrahim Patel.
Comrade Gwede Mantashe gave an interim report from the Task Team, which could not be finalised as they still needed to meet two more COSATU affiliates. They had however met the other 17 unions of the 19 COSATU affiliates and held extensive discussion with the federation's national office bearers.
Their decision was informed by the ANC's acknowledgement that a strong and united COSATU is integral to the success of the NDR and that the ANC's leadership of the strategic revolutionary alliance requires it to play a role in assisting the federation in addressing its internal challenges.
The task team was pleased with the progress made. All the discussions had been very frank and constructive in its attempts to identify the underlying reasons for the problems. After the final two meetings with the outstanding unions the next phase would be to craft a final report and a road map to show the way forward to uniting and strengthening the federation.
The overriding objective of the intervention is to maintain the unity of COSATU and the integrity of the organisation as a cohesive force in society, because workers in South Africa are strongest and best served when organised under a united COSATU, based on the principle of one union one industry. COSATU's primary objective is and must continue to be to defend, protect and advance the interests of members.
In this context there is agreement on the constitutional right of unions to call for a special national congress (SNC). The NOBs recognise that the right to call for an SNC should be exercised with care, informed by clear intended outcomes and take into consideration all factors such as costs, logistics etc.
There is recognition that the current request for an SNC is perceived differently by affiliates and has created divisions and that it may lead to a split in COSATU.
The purpose of convening an SNC should be to help the federation to rebuild its unity and internal cohesion. The timing of the Congress, its precise agenda and purpose, will all be influenced by the outcome of the current internal process within COSATU and the engagement with the ANC Task Team.
There will be a process in place to deal with certain organisational and administrative matters such as the pending disciplinary cases.
To achieve this, founding principles of the Federation would have to be rigidly adhered to, including maintaining the unity of the federation, defending and promoting the interests of members, the leadership speaking with one voice, upholding the principle of one union/one industry and implementing National Congress resolutions.
The CEC must unite around a fighting programme that encompasses the implementation of all the federation's resolutions and policies including its core policies and campaigns in defence of workers.
The task team accepted that there would always be different opinions in a federation as large as COSATU but that these had to be skilfully managed by the NOB collective. The autonomy of affiliates needed to be respected, provided they acted within the COSATU constitution.
The CEC welcomed the report and deferred any detailed discussion until the final Task team report was submitted to another Special CEC meeting, which should be held as soon as possible.
2. Preparations for Central Committee
The CEC adopted a report of a meeting of the joint Political and Socio-Economic Commissions, proposing specific policy issues for discussion at the forthcoming Central Committee, a body which meets every three years in between National Congresses, to review progress, successes and setbacks in implementing its mandate.
The 12th National Congress in 2015 will mark the 30th Anniversary of COSATU and the 60th anniversary of the Freedom Charter. Its central focus will therefore be on assessing progress towards the implementation of the federation's 2015 Plan, the 11th Congress resolutions.
The pillars of the 2015 Plan were:
1. Strategies to build the power of the organised working class in South Africa in our region and continent and internationally.
2. Strategies to build a developmental state
3. Strengthening the Alliance to render it capable of leading a radical transformation
4. Swelling the ranks of the ANC and SACP to ensure continued bias towards the working class
The mandate of the 11th Congress was summarised as:
(a) Abolition of the apartheid wage structure and a campaign for a new incomes policy,
(b) A campaign for a radical socio-economic transformation,
(c) Building strong worker-controlled unions
(d) Engineering our own Lula moment.
The CEC also spent some time discussing the urgent strategic policy issues and these include, amongst others, the following:
2.1 Labour Market proposals
The CEC was highly concerned that in the recent past there has been renewed pressure from the DA and business to attack the constitutionally guaranteed right to strike, including calls for compulsory arbitration, which would compel unions to settle whenever a strike is deemed to have gone on for too long.
COSATU is worried that this is happening when labour law amendments have still not been signed into law, with the exception of the Employment Equity Amendment Act. The right-wing forces have been waging a campaign to have these amendments not signed into law.
COSATU has therefore written to President Zuma seeking an audience to get an explanation for the delay to sign the labour law amendments into law. With all the misgivings we had regarding the labour laws amendment process, we accepted the outcomes of that process.
The federation is currently consulting with lawyers to prepare a response to some of the emerging policy proposals to force unions' constitutions to have a clause on balloting and to impose mandatory arbitration with regard to strikes.
The CEC agreed to fight relentlessly against any proposal which undermines workers' constitutional right to strike, forces workers back to work or to dictate the method by which they obtain a strike mandate from their members. The right to strike is a constitutional right which we will defend with everything we have.
2.2 The Youth Employment Tax Incentive: protest against Adcorp labour brokers
The meeting was shocked at reports that labour brokers were getting the lion's share of government tax rebates under the Employment Tax Incentive (ETI) Act.
It has come out that the biggest beneficiaries of this act have been labour brokers. And it seems that the National Treasury remains hell-bent on justifying the ETI.
It has therefore been agreed to picket the Adcorp offices and we may decide to then have a picket at the offices of the National Treasury since it is they who have rammed through this policy.
2.3 Land
We have also looked and briefly analysed the recent policy proposals by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR) 2013 contained in document entitled: ‘Strengthening the relative rights of people working the land', which seeks to achieve what is outlined in the Freedom Charter, by increasing tenure security and improving access to land.
The most striking thing about the policy is that it links land policy to socio-economic development, places land ownership (by workers and dwellers) at the centre of transformation and shows how access to land can be used to improve living standards.
The policy could be a catalyst for developing small-holder farming in the country. The approach of supporting ownership by those who actually work the land is more conducive for restructuring the sector, and, more importantly, the sustainability of the farms will be enhanced by the document's proposed measures of support.
However the "regime of prescribed roles and responsibilities", one of the prerequisites for gaining access to land, is not clearly defined. It is essential that these regulations aren't used to pursue unjust labour practices. The document mentions the term "disciplined service", a concept which could be used to undermine labour rights.
The CEC agreed to express its support to the Minister of Rural Development on the overall intentions of the proposals to take forward the dream of ensuring that the land shall be shared amongst those who work it.
It was agreed to request a meeting with the ministers of both Land and Rural Development and Agriculture and Fisheries to discuss the underlying reasons behind the failure to address the land question in the last 20 years, whether the current policy proposals can stand the test of cross examination in the constitutional court, and to interrogate how they will be implemented.
COSATU will never abdicate the task of waging a relentless struggle to reverse the impact and legacy of the 1913 Land Act and to ensure the realisation of the dream contained in the Freedom Charter that the land shall be shared among all those who work it.
2.4 Immigration Policy
The meeting considered immigration policies and how COSATU should approach the issue. It was noted that there was already a new law in place and the department was not prepared to engage on reviewing it. It was agreed that NOBs should convene a meeting with the Minister of Home Affairs to discuss various issues, including the protection of migrant workers, and to develop a COSATU position on a progressive immigration policy for the country. It was also agreed to oppose the privatisation of functions within the immigration service.
2.5 NHI Roll out
A concern was raised that the Minister of Health, Comrade Aaron Motsoaledi, was bending to accommodate the big companies and in the process compromising the essence of the National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme by giving way to such models as public-private partnerships which will essentially benefit business and undermine the whole NHI model which should be directed at benefitting the majority.
The CEC agreed to create a national NHI campaign to call for the speeding up of its implementation.
It was agreed that we urgently need to find a way forward to deal with the national challenge of TB and to formulate a comprehensive paper on occupational safety.
COSATU will continue to work with progressive civil society groups on health policy related matters, strengthen its participation in the Alliance health and education subcommittees and ensure replacements in these committees
2.6 Provident Funds
The CEC discussed a report on the government's proposals on the reform of the retirement system. COSATU has always expressed concern about government's piecemeal approach to comprehensive social security and retirement reform which has been on the agenda for the past 12 years.
There have been reports about members resigning because they have been falsely told, or they fear, that government is going to ‘nationalise' their provident funds and that they will only have access to part of their retirement benefits when they retire.
The reality is that in the 2014 budget speech the Minister of Finance said that government intends to move progressively towards a mandatory system of retirement for all employed workers.
This essentially means making retirement savings compulsory for all employed workers and prevent them from withdrawing all their funds before retirement. The current system which is voluntary means workers and companies must be persuaded to make retirement provision for themselves or for their employees.
We are calling on our members to stop resigning based on a lie that government will nationalise their retirements. We are also calling on the merciless policy brokers from hoodwinking workers into resigning from work so that they can shift their retirement funds to their schemes.
We have secured a meeting to engage with the Minister of Finance to persuade government to include the element of voluntary participation and to make a call for a moratorium on the implementation. If government refuse then a Section 77 notice must be submitted.
3. Solidarity with Palestine campaign
The CEC condemned the devastating Israel missile attacks on Palestinians' homes and infrastructure and the killing of defenceless people. According to Gaza authorities, some 5,000 homes have been completely demolished in 22 days of Israeli attacks, while over 26,000 have been damaged.
COSATU has agreed to more effective action against the Israeli onslaught through a campaign which will capture the imagination of our people. This campaign will include a big march directed against the Israeli Ambassador in South Africa and for recalling the SA Ambassador from Israel.
The campaign will also seek to identify economic pressure points against Israel, including doing a clinical study of how to weaken its economic muscle, including a policy that workers' provident funds should not be invested in Israel-related business activities. A list of businesses to be targeted will be developed and a call to boycott those will be made through educational pamphlets which will be circulated to affiliates.
Statement issued by COSATU Special CEC, August 13 2014
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