While the great privatisation debate rages on, changes are taking place at grassroots level, writes Max Gebhardt
The apparent change of heart by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on privatisation has been greeted as a positive move by both business and the government. Sam Shilowa, general secretary of Cosatu, endorsed partial privatisation as one way of restructuring state assets after last weekend’s meeting of the union’s central executive committee (CEC).
Business now feels negotiations on privatisation can finally begin in earnest.
Public Enterprise Minister Stella Sigcau said the decision marks a constructive milestone in the government’s evolving economic strategy.
“This is an exciting step forward in developing a rigorous growth-oriented approach to the economy with a broad national consensus on generating economic opportunities and job creation,” said Sigcau.
“The warm reception by the international money markets and potential investors, both domestic and foreign, speaks for itself.”
Colin Coleman, public finance director of Standard Corporate Merchant Bank, feels Cosatu’s statement may be seen as vague and tentative, but it is nonetheless a positive step forward.
“It is a document of compromise,” Coleman said.
“Cosatu fears the initiative is slipping away from them. They have had to change their attitude to privatisation if they plan to have a say in the restructuring of the economy.
“I don’t think the government and labour are that far apart from each other anymore,” says Coleman.
The CEC did reiterate its opposition to “wholesale privatisation of state assets” and remains opposed to the basic thrust of the government’s macro-economic framework — – growth, employment and redistribution (Gear). But it said there may be “state assets which should have never belonged to the state sector in the first place”.
Cosatu doesn’t appear willing to lose the commanding heights of the economy controlled by the state, arguing that certain sectors should remain in public hands. These include posts and telecommunications, electricity, public transport, housing, health, water, state forests, municipal services, education and roads.
“We acknowledge that the Reconstruction and Development Programme envisages a role for the private sector. But equally it envisages a role for the state in production,” the CEC said.
Where there is a compelling case for private sector capital (in limited form), the union feels the state should remain the majority shareholder.
Bill Lacey, senior economist of the South African Chamber of Business, believes opposition to Gear will undermine the government’s 6% growth strategy.
“Privatisation is one of the essential cornerstones of Gear. If they [Cosatu] don’t take it completely on board it will put the pressure back on monetary and fiscal policy,” Lacey said.
Chris Lloyd, national official with the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), said the larger unions within the federation had for quite a while adopted a pragmatic opinion on partial privatisation.
“Ourselves, along with the more pragmatic unions like the National Union of Mineworkers, were the architects behind the shift in policy,” Lloyd said.
According to Lloyd there will be inevitable back-street fighting among the unions, especially from the public sector unions, which he says are still fundamentally opposed to privatisation.