Jubie Matlou
Once a fortnight, Godfrey Debeila leads a delegation of the national executive of the Unemployed Masses of South Africa (Umsa) to the Democratic Party’s offices in the Gauteng legislature.
The purpose is to meet DP MP Richard Pillay, who also serves as Umsa’s policy adviser and patron, to discuss Umsa’s projects, progress and finances.
It is an unusual partnership: a party seen as a refuge for white fat cats and an organisation that purports to champion the cause of the black unemployed. It has, however, become one of the key routes the DP is pursuing to make inroads into black communities.
The relationship between Umsa and Pillay goes back to 1995, when Pillay was working for a company dealing with electricity problems plaguing the unemployed. “I was so touched by problems affecting the unemployed that I began to assist Umsa on a number of issues.
“We then approached a number of political parties with the purpose of getting their commitment to address unemployment. The DP was the only party that responded favourably when we asked it to directly represent the unemployed in all three tiers of government.”
Pillay says an alliance developed between the two disparate partners, and Umsa put its weight behind the DP in the 1999 general elections. “However,” he adds, “Umsa remains an independent organisation that makes its own independent decisions.”
Pillay – who flies to Jo’burg to keep his fortnightly Umsa appointments when Parliament is in session – denies that he owes his position as a DP MP to the support he commands from Umsa. “It was a collective decision by Umsa to enter into an alliance with the DP on the basis of common policy objectives of economic development and job creation. I am not using Umsa as my personal constituency in the DP. Umsa’s members are independent, able to analyse issues and decide which party to vote for during elections.”
Umsa claims a national membership of 32 000 and has initiated a number of self- help community projects seeking to make the unemployed employable. These include information technology, carpentry, welding, dressmaking, hairdressing and small business skills.
Jane Rihlampfu, Umsa’s national chair, manages a dressmaking project that employs 10 people on a temporary basis. When the Mail & Guardian visited the project, housed in Umsa’s offices in downtown Jo’burg, Rihlampfu displayed a sample of an order for girls’ tunics placed by a Soweto primary school. “By the first week of January, about 60 tunics should be ready before the new school term begins. I intend to expand this project by opening a dressmaking school that would make the project self-sustaining.”
Rocky’s Hair Salon, on the other hand, claims to have trained about 60 people in hairdressing for free. Pillay says Umsa approaches the business sector from time to time to assist the unemployed. “Some business people make donations, others provide skills training. We welcome whatever assistance is provided.”
Umsa also claims to provide assistance to the unemployed on issues relating to non- payment of rates and taxes. One member, Lorna Voeght of Eldorado Park, says she joined Umsa after it rescued her when the Johannesburg Southern Metropolitan Council attached her house in a bid to recover the R7 500 arrears.
Umsa’s founder president, Godfrey Debeila, a former member of the National Union of Mineworkers, says Umsa was formed by unemployed people who used to hang around the regional Labour Department office in Johannesburg looking for work. “No jobs were coming up from the regional office, so in 1994 we decided to march to the head office in Pretoria. Following that march, a committee was elected to represent the unemployed. That’s how Umsa was born.”
Debeila says all attempts to get assistance from the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) failed. Cosatu dismissed the organisation on the grounds that the federation “represents the interests of its members, not of the unemployed”, he says, and ignored Umsa during labour summits on job creation.
Cosatu representative Mukoni Ratshitanga denies that Umsa ever approached Cosatu – “in whatever form, for whatever reason. The fundamental intention of such a claim is to demonstrate the false view that Cosatu doesn’t care about the plight of the unemployed.” However, “we did not consult with Umsa for the job summit. We did not have to consult them.”
Ratshitanga accuses Umsa of using the unemployed for political gain to benefit the DP. “This amounts to desperation on the part of the DP. No wonder some of the DP’s leaders go to the extent of resurrecting the dead as bona fide members of the DP.”
Pillay is cagey about the source of Umsa funding, given its basic R5 annual membership fee. “We get donations from individuals. However, they don’t want us to disclose their identity.”
The organisation gained notoriety early this year when two African foreign nationals were thrown off a moving train by alleged Umsa members on their way back from a march in Pretoria. Umsa is opposed to the employment of foreigners, and argues that “they take jobs that belong to South Africans”.
Brian Goodall, elected to replace Peter Leon as DP caucus leader in the Gauteng legislature, is quick to stress that the party is serious about increasing the black-white ratio in its leadership.
“We don’t want to put in a black person to win votes,” says Goodall. “My primary goal as the party’s new leader in the legislature is to have the DP seen at grassroots level, in the townships and informal settlements. The DP is seen to be a party distant from the black community. I take it as a challenge to increase our profile in black communities.”
This week, the DP enjoyed something of a windfall where its plans for black representation are concerned. Of the 13 DP MPLs in Gauteng voted in after the June election, only two were black . But the party’s black ranks looked set to be bolstered by a mass defection from the United Democratic Party, led by one of the UDM’s founder members, Weston Shabangu.