President Thabo Mbeki said yesterday he could see no reason for the Congress of South African Trade Unions’s planned anti-privatisation strike, and that the African National Congress would be talking to Cosatu about the proposed action.
Cosatu has announced a national protest strike for October, after suspending its anti-privatisation campaign earlier this year pending the growth and development summit announced by the president in his State of the Nation address.
Speaking in Pretoria after the Cabinet’s three-day lekgotla this week, Mbeki said the growth summit would take place in the first quarter of next year. It was originally set for last April. He also said the government would reconvene next month to conclude a range of policy discussions on poverty and joblessness.
At a media conference in which he studiously steered clear of controversy, he said there were no problems in the ANC’s relations with the South African Communist Party. This had been underlined by the speech at the current SACP conference by ANC chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota.
Amid speculation that he wished to avoid a hostile reception, Mbeki did not attend the conference to deliver a scheduled address.
Mbeki said the confusion over the Global Fund’s R600-million HIV/Aids grant to KwaZulu-Natal had been resolved, with the fund now agreeing to transfer the money to the national government. Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang had objected to the KwaZulu-Natal application on the grounds that it was unprocedural.
However, the fund has said it will not transfer any funds at present without official confirmation.
Mbeki made only one explicit reference to HIV/Aids, devoting most of his comments on health to tuberculosis, as the country’s foremost killer. The government was awaiting an accurate statistical report on mortality from Statistics SA before deciding implications for the health system. This would be based on analysis of death certificates.
He also indicated the presidency would be strengthened to boost its oversight and coordination role.