The Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) accused the government on Monday of ”wilfully misunderstanding” its position on privatisation.
”Our position papers leave little room for any form of miscommunication and for the kind of wilful misunderstanding we have seen from government,” Cosatu said in a statement in response to comments by President Thabo Mbeki during his Imbizo tour of Gauteng at the weekend.
Mbeki said he did not understand Cosatu’s opposition to privatisation when the investment companies owned by its affiliates were bidding for stakes in entities earmarked for privatisation, such as the debt-ridden Aventura holiday resort network.
”Our position paper on privatisation makes it clear that our opposition is to the privatisation of basic services which have historically been rendered by the state, particularly to the poor,” the labour force said.
”We have identified 11 basic services that should remain in the control of the state because of our developmental challenges. These are water, sewage and rubbish disposal, basic housing, health, education, telecommunications, safety and security, welfare provision, transport, electricity, and basic cultural amenities.”
Aventura clearly did not fall into this group, Cosatu said. Cosatu said it had exhaustively explained its stand on privatisation during the past two years in its section 77 notices to the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac), a body that brought together organised business, labour, government and civil society.
The notices were required by law before Cosatu’s two general strikes against privatisation. Cosatu said it opposed privatisation and ”even commercialisation of these services” for three reasons:
Because of endemic poverty, most South African households were unable to pay for basic services from private providers and there was therefore no incentive for private providers to serve the majority;
State control of assets was an important lever in the fundamental restructuring of both the state and the economy, while privatising assets prevented strategic intervention;
Privatisation and commercialisation were clearly linked to massive job losses and declining conditions of employment;
”Where services have been outsourced, workers have moved outside their bargaining unit and faced reduced pay, benefits, and job security. The majority have been lower-skilled Africans from rural areas, thus reinforcing our existing inequalities,” Cosatu said.
”Because of this, we have defined privatisation as any restructuring of state assets and functions that involves their sale or outsourcing to the private sector, the replacement of social objectives with profitability by state-owned agencies, and the opening of historically state-controlled industries to private competition.”
Cosatu also denied government claims that Cosatu and its constituents had agreed to privatisation and commercialisation. – Sapa