President Thabo Mbeki launched a sophisticated attack on the trade union federation leadership and other left-wing critics — alternating praise with criticism on Workers’ Day on Thursday.
He seemed to be putting a wedge between the workers and their vociferous leadership — in particular the ever-critical Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu).
While “saluting” workers as “producers of wealth”, Mbeki chided “those with short memories” who have forgotten the conditions the African majority had lived in 10 years ago.
After every two paragraphs of praise for the workers, Mbeki slighted those with “short memories”.
Telling were remarks such as: “Those with short memories have forgotten that not long ago we had an economy that was in decline and shrinking. The future it promised was one of increasing misery and impoverishment and despair for the majority of our people.”
Mbeki was seemingly responding to Cosatu’s recent complaints about how the current economic conditions had led to job losses and poverty.
National Union of Mineworkers general secretary Gwede Mantashe, speaking on behalf of Cosatu at the same podium earlier, had made extensive references to the “deepening levels of poverty” in the country.
And then strategically Mbeki went on to say: “Through their labour, the workers of our country have made a decisive contribution to the turnaround that has given us a growing economy and the increasing wealth that we need to improve the lives of all our people.”
A Cosatu official confirmed that Mbeki’s speech seemed to be an “indirect attack, but we always acknowledge the good the government has done”.
Then, in an apparent reference to demands from Cosatu and its other left-leaning social movement allies such as the Basic Income Grant Coalition to provide for a more substantial security system, Mbeki said: “Those with short memories have forgotten about the pitiful pensions that our grandfathers and mothers used to get. They have forgotten that not long ago the African majority could not receive the child support grant.”
Mbeki was clearly trying to send a message to the workers that despite what their leadership says, their conditions have improved substantially.
He went on to remind those with “short memories” that many African children went to schools with no water, no sanitation, no electricity. And that the critics “claim to be unaware that millions had no access to the infrastructure that would provide people with clean water, electricity and telephones”.
Then, drawing the workers closer, Mbeki said that with their help the government “can begin the process of meeting these infrastructure needs”.
Mantashe announced that Cosatu would continue its fight against the privatisation of parastatals. He described a recent statement by a Telkom official that the parastatal is expected to shed 10 000 workers as “unacceptable”.
He said the workers had fought in the liberation struggle to ensure that they all had access to state-provided essential services such as social security, water, electricity, education and health care.
Mantashe said the federation would continue to engage the government to ensure these services are not privatised.
National Council of Trade Unions president Joseph Maqhekeni raised concerns about the non-provision of anti-retrovirals for HIV/Aids sufferers. He urged all the role players to stop pointing fingers at each other over “who said what to whom” and concentrate on saving workers dying from the illness.