Glenda Daniels and Barry Streek
The African National Congress and the government tied themselves up in knots this week, trying to reconcile ANC secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe’s call for a war against capitalism with the country’s investor-friendly macroeconomic policies.
At a Workers’ Day rally, Motlanthe commended the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) for taking protest action against job losses to the streets, endorsed the union federation’s planned one-day strike on May 10 and called on union members to “intensely hate capitalism and engage in a struggle against it”.
The ANC’s head of communications, Smuts Ngonyama, said the surprising about-turn to support Cosatu’s national strike was a position taken outside of the government. “The position was taken as part of a civil society process. It is about giving support to Cosatu on an important campaign that will highlight the job losses situation in the country,” he said. Asked whether President Thabo Mbeki supported the stance, Ngonyama said: “I’m not sure but he is a member of the ANC.”
The Deputy Minister in the Office of the President, Essop Pahad, was reluctant to discuss Motlanthe’s comments. “You should ask the ANC about that,” he said. “Speak to Smuts. I can’t answer those questions. It’s to do with the ANC. The government is the government. If you want to write ‘no comment’ from me, that’s fine.”
A senior government official said Motlanthe’s comments did not reflect the government’s position, while other ANC sources within the government indicated they were mystified by the secretary general’s Workers’ Day speech. The endorsement of the national strike and the call to hate capitalism had not been adopted by formal party structures, they said, although some sources speculated that the ANC’s national executive committee could broach the subject at a meeting this weekend.
It is particularly difficult to reconcile Motlanthe’s comments with Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel’s stance on organised labour. In a seminal interview with the Independent Group, Manuel chastised Cosatu for attempting to launch “job creation marches” against the government. “I want someone to tell me how the government is going to create jobs,” Manuel told the group. “Workers can go on a general strike day after day and you are not going to create jobs.”
Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana said in February the May 10 strike “threatened to undermine the good faith demonstrated by all stakeholders in addressing concerns in a constructive and non-confrontational manner”.
Motlanthe reportedly continued his Workers’ Day speech by saying the ANC “commends workers for taking up the struggle against retrenchment and poverty to the streets. Workers must understand the working system of the capitalist in order to defeat it.”
He was less clear when questioned about his speech on SAfm’s AM-Live on Wednesday. When asked to explain the apparent contradiction between his speech and the government’s conservative economic policies, Motlanthe replied that “there is an ongoing search for a more equitable system” and “no, it’s not at odds” with the government’s view. He told his interviewer, John Perlman, he had merely been trying to “get workers to understand the intricacies of the system”, and to understand the “internal logic of capitalism”.
Meanwhile, organised labour appeared unfazed by Motlanthe’s comments, with most organisations welcoming them and some expressing cautious cynicism.
National president of Cosatu Willie
Madisha says the ANC has always been in an alliance with Cosatu. “It’s just what has been expressed now hasn’t been expressed before. I don’t see it as a politically cynical move because elections are round the corner. The reality in the country is that jobs need to be created, poverty needs to be eliminated – and the ANC understands this.”
However, another unionist from Cosatu, who does not want to named, feels the move by the ANC is indeed a cynical one, motivated by the fact that local government elections are coming up, making this an election ploy to get more votes.
“Yes, it is curious that this stance has come at the time that it has – near to local government elections. Organised labour is very critical of the government’s economic strategy, as it is causing job losses. And we are critical of Igoli 2002 [the restructuring programme initiated by the Johannesburg City Council], so the ANC has a dilemma in terms of where it is giving its support.”
The unionist said: “There is a lot of debate within the ANC about becoming more open and tolerant, and there is an unease with a certain authoritarian style of leadership creeping in. So maybe this move is part and parcel of trying to change.”
National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa’s national representative, Dumisa Ntuli, says the ANC recognises that workers are losing jobs at an alarming rate, which escalates on a daily basis. “So why not support the strike? Even though we have been in disagreement over the Gear [growth, employment and redistribution] strategy, which is destroying jobs, we have never disagreed that the alliance still exists.”
One unionist from the South African Municipal Workers’ Union expressed doubt that this stance would be supported by all within the ANC, especially those in government.
“I have a feeling that before the strike actually begins, some high-up people in government will withdraw their support. Wait and see.”