African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma on Tuesday called for the tripartite alliance to be strengthened to ensure that workers’ interests received greater attention.
”If are we are serious about developing the African National Congress and parliamentary oversight then a lot more energy and focus has to go into the tripartite alliance,” he told the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union’s (Satawu) second national congress in Johannesburg.
Welcomed to the podium to the tune of his trademark song Leth ‘uMashini Wame (Bring Me My Machine Gun), Zuma said no other formation was better placed to address the interests of the poor, who made up its majority.
The South African Communist Party (SACP) emphasised the need to protect the alliance between it, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the ANC.
SACP deputy secretary general Jeremy Cronin said while the question of whether the party would contest the 2009 presidential elections on its own would still be discussed, the alliance would remain intact.
”We are not going to break the strategic alliance with the ANC and Cosatu.”
Cosatu president Willie Madisha blamed the rumoured dispute between him and the union federation’s general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi on the ”malfunctioning” of the alliance.
Madisha was reiterating his stance that there was no dispute over who would succeed President Thabo Mbeki in 2009.
”There are no in-fights at Cosatu House because of this matter.”
He said the alliance in recent years had not worked together properly, except during elections.
During his speech Zuma praised Satawu — Cosatu’s fifth largest union — for having grown to 133 000 members in the past three years. He said it had much to contribute to the success of the 2010 soccer World Cup, particularly in the transport sector.
Satawu was ”punching above its weight” in its fight for better wages in the security, transport and, currently, the cleaning sector.
Although the union had exhibited ”strong unity” during the recent security guard strike, the violence surrounding the strike was regrettable, Zuma said.
Zuma also spoke out against the casualisation of workers, and said ways had to be found to bring them into the formal sector.
Cronin said while the government was trying to create economic growth, its policies had resulted in job losses.
”Since Gear [Growth, Employment and Redistribution], one million jobs have been lost in the formal sector … hundreds of thousands of workers have become casualised and the wage gap has grown.”
Gear’s predecessor, the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP), had only excluded the poor from the country’s development.
The government’s present initiative to boost economic growth, Asgisa [the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative], was merely introducing the ”forgotten RDP through the back door”.
Recognising these failures, a number of ANC delegates at the party’s recent national general council had called for a policy shift to the left of the political spectrum, Cronin said.
Causing particular harm was the government’s messages on HIV/Aids, which Cronin characterised as one of denial.
”Four hundred thousand South Africans are dying every year of Aids-related illnesses. This makes the war in Iraq look like a birthday party. There’s a need for a major shift in policy.”
Cronin said part of the reason for the recent protracted security guard strike was that ”a few leading ANC figures” had a stake in the industry and consequently didn’t make efforts to resolve the dispute.
To loud applause and cheering he said: ”There are senior ANC people who are owners of security companies.”
Zuma, Cronin and Madisha all made calls for public transport, particularly the minibus taxi industry, to be improved.
Drivers were exploited by their owners who put great demands on them, resulting in unsafe driving and overloading. He called on those at the meeting ”take control” of the conditions under which they commuted and stop the carnage on the country’s roads.
Cronin called for a review of the government’s taxi recapitalisation programme, saying merely replacing old vehicles was not the answer. Trains, buses and minibus taxis had to become part of an integrated whole, but were at present competing against one another for customers, to the detriment of all. – Sapa