Calls went out on May 1 — Workers’ Day — around South Africa, for better conditions of employment, more jobs, transformation and the eradication of poverty.
However, foremost in people’s minds was the memory of 51 Northern Cape municipal workers who died on this day a year ago, outside Bethlehem in the eastern Free State, when their bus plunged into the Saulspoort Dam. They were on their way from Kimberley to a Workers’ Day rally in Qwa Qwa when the tragedy occurred.
President Thabo Mbeki was one such dignitary who remembered the victims when he spoke at a ceremony at the West End cemetery in Kimberley, in the Northern Cape, where tombstones for some of the victims were unveiled.
He said the union movement and government needed to work together to ensure that workers’ conditions and remuneration were improved.
Joe Seremane, chairman of the Democratic Alliance said in a press statement that while the party celebrated the contribution of workers to the building of the country, ”we also remember the families of the 51 who died in the Saulspoort dam disaster”.
He moved on to the question of unemployment and said the determined action needed to be taken by government to reduce the high percentage of people without jobs. He said part of the reason for joblessness was a lack of leadership to drive job creation in the country.
He said what was required someone to drive the issue of job creation at the highest level.
”Some countries, like Denmark, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and France have ministries of employment. The DA believes that job creation in South Africa requires support from within the Presidency.”
South African Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande said at a Workers’ Day rally in Kimberley, that SACP members would never forget the tragic drowning of the 51.
”We shall always honour and remember them as heroes and heroines of the working class struggle.”
He also took the opportunity to congratulate workers for the struggles they had endured during the first decade of the country’s freedom. Workers must mobilise to assist government and drive transformation programmes at all levels of governance, he added.
Patrick Craven, acting spokesperson for the Congress of South African Trade Unions, speaking at the same rally in Kimberley, also said that the workers who had died must be remembered and their families assisted.
”Politically, in their memory and honour, we must use this anniversary to rededicate ourselves to workers’ struggles in South Africa and across the globe.”
He said this May Day was the 10th one under a democratic government.
”We shall use it to celebrate the huge progress and gains we have achieved as workers and society in those ten years.”
However, Craven warned there were still many challenges that had to be met, including unemployment, poverty and inequality.
”The economy is predominantly white-controlled and we must do more to transform it. We still oppose the push to commercialise, and in part privatise, the parastatals.”
He encouraged workers to join the ANC’s ”people’s contract” to create work and fight poverty.
And speaking on behalf of all those in the medical profession who would not enjoy the pleasure of time off on May 1, was Gavin Moultrie, president of the Health and Other Services Personnel Trade Union of SA (Hospersa).
He said in a statement: ”They are working under tremendous strain due to staff shortages, poorly maintained and outdated diagnostic and operating equipment and emergency vehicles.”
Moultrie, said nursing personnel were leaving South Africa because the public and private sectors did not adequately recognise their years of service and were also excluding them from the scarce skills allowance.
”As a trade union with 65 000 members in the health sector, Hospersa will continue to defend and promote the interests of its members and will leave no stone unturned when it comes to raising the standard of working conditions,” said Moultrie. – Sapa