President Thabo Mbeki was silent on HIV/Aids as a call was made in his presence on Monday for ”presidential leadership” on the topic.
Representatives of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) highlighted HIV/Aids as a key challenge when they addressed a May Day rally in Swellendam in the Western Cape.
”Aids is undermining millions of people’s hopes and livelihoods and robbing people of the means to lift themselves out of poverty,” Cosatu Western Cape representative Andre Kriel told hundreds of people gathered at a local primary school.
Describing HIV/Aids as a ”national disaster”, he expressed concern about a lack of proper government programmes and focus, and called for ”presidential leadership”.
A national Aids summit should be held, Kriel added, as he accused the Department of Health of contributing to confusion around the treatment of the disease.
SACP provincial chairperson Gwebbs Qonde said there should be greater focus on Aids education. ”We must ensure that prevention is highlighted so we reduce the rate of infection,” he told the gathering.
HIV/Aids, he added, is causing ”social strife” in South African communities.
Mbeki told the gathering that freedoms achieved through the anti-apartheid struggle should be used to change the lives of all South Africans for the better. This includes farm workers, many of whom work under unacceptable conditions and face the constant threat of unlawful evictions.
The only way to reduce unemployment, poverty and homelessness is to build new factories, mines and infrastructure, boost skills development and grow the economy, Mbeki said. He gave an undertaking that the government is doing all in its power to achieve these objectives.
Kriel said the benefits of an apparently booming economy are not filtering down to poor South Africans. Job creation is not fast enough, he said, to achieve the target of halving unemployment by 2014. Those jobs that do exist are often underpaid and insecure.
”The current growth spurt seems to be unsustainable,” Kriel said. It is based on current high prices for mined export products, which in turn fuel the overvaluation of the rand. ”This type of growth means jobs are under threat.”
Cosatu is embarking on rolling mass action this month in support of its ”Jobs and Poverty” campaign.
Qonde expressed concern about government corruption, lamenting what he described as ”a growing attitude of entitlement and greediness among the rich”.
”Resources intended to improve the lives of poor people find their way into the pockets of government officials.”
He called for a renewed debate on whether government representatives and public servants should be allowed to be in business and expressed concern about existing relationships between government officials and the private sector.
Qonde also appealed for a thorough analysis of the situation in the Western Cape, where the African National Congress has managed to win outright majorities in only four municipalities in the recent local government election.
”We need to account to the movement, under the leadership of the president, whether we have [executed] the task given to us.”
He said: ”The honourable thing to do is to analyse the situation and take full responsibility for the state of affairs and work together to find appropriate answers in this regard.”
Qonde expressed the SACP’s support for striking security guards, whom he said are exploited by their employers and paid ”peanuts”.
Kriel said some guards earn as little as R300 a month while facing danger every day. He said many workers are still subjected to racism and other forms of intimidation.
Mbeki said the government has a responsibility to ensure the labour laws it has passed are adhered to by everyone.
He also called on South Africans to ask themselves what they can do to help realise the goals of a better life for all. ”The future of South Africa is in all our hands,” the president said.
Trade unions
Meanwhile, South African labour laws must be amended to ensure trade unions are held responsible for ”unlawful and criminal actions” of their members, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said on Monday in his Workers’ Day message.
”By necessity this would see trades unions being held potentially liable, both for the criminal misconduct of their members as well as for any civil claims that may arise from their members’ actions,” said Leon.
He said an urgent agenda of reform is needed in South Africa, especially in the wake of the ongoing strike by security guards.
”The current strike has been the most violent in South Africa since the advent of democracy in 1994,” said Leon, adding it has led to the deaths of a number of people and destruction of private and public property.
Leon said in order to prevent such incidents, the law should be amended to force trade unions to be proactive in ensuring their members are responsible when on strike.
He also said the conduct of South African Trade and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) members during the strike was a stark reminder of the damage that can be done when unions behave recklessly.
He said while South Africa celebrates the advance of workers’ rights, it should be asked whether the plight of unemployed people has not been aggravated by the labour-market regime.
”We can’t condone a ‘business-as-usual’ approach given the scale and extent of the unemployment crisis that exists in this country,” he said.
According to Leon, South African labour laws and trade unions need to be aligned to the country’s economic growth targets as well creation of jobs.
Setas
The trade union Solidarity intends investigating how many new technical workers are the products of sector education and training authorities (Setas), it said on Monday.
In a May Day statement, general secretary of the union Flip Buys also suggested salary manipulation by big business could be the reason technical positions offer low salaries.
Such poor salaries are partly responsible for the skills crisis in South Africa, he said. ”If the salaries were better, more young people would want to obtain technical qualifications.”
Buys said Solidarity needs to find out why there are only 3 000 apprentices today, compared with 33 000 back in 1975.
Solidarity further noted that the average age of qualified South African artisans is 54.
Buys said Setas are in a privileged position being funded by a 1% levy on the payrolls of companies. ”These funds are not being optimally utilised by the Setas and the necessary quality training is not being provided.
”The Setas, which date from 1999, have not yet managed to establish a viable vision or framework to supply sufficient trained workers.”
Solidarity said it will approach independent parties to conduct the investigation into both Setas and companies where it has representation.
He said Solidarity finds it odd that there is such a dearth of artisans and technicians that people have to be imported from abroad to assist with South African projects. ”Yet there has not been a commensurate increase in the salaries of technical staff.”
Buys pointed out that the salaries of technical staff show much slower increases than those of top management.
”It is a fact that the discrepancy between the low supply of and high demand for technical skills has not led to a commensurate increase in the salaries of technical staff.
”This may well be due to salary manipulation by big business, with technical salaries being artificially suppressed to save on labour costs and to increase profits.”
Buys warned that while big business has historically been able to keep technical salaries low, things are changing, particularly in the construction, electrical, chemical and mining industries.
”The large number of new projects being undertaken has led to the poaching of artisans. The international commodity boom has also created a large demand for human capital.” — Sapa