The main beneficiaries of economic transformation are white capitalists who remain the ”induna [chief]” while the black middle class holds jobs in human resources, Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said on Saturday.
”They remain as oppressed by the white oligarchy as the working class,” Vavi told the 12th national congress of the South African Communist Party (SACP).
Vavi, who received a standing ovation at the end of his speech, said the SACP and Cosatu are ”in the middle of one of the biggest struggles since the 1980s and 1990s” and warned that the patience of the working class is ”wearing thin”.
”They are demanding that the benefits of the sustained economic growth should be shared with the people who created the wealth,” he said.
As the class battles intensify, ”we can expect the attacks on all of us to intensify”.
On relations with the African National Congress (ANC), he said Cosatu wants the tripartite alliance to be restructured in the areas of strategy and deployment ”so that no single organisation decides strategy and deployment on its own”.
Vavi said the SACP and Cosatu have achieved a considerable amount together. He asked: ”Imagine what could have happened if the abuse of power and of state resources to persecute political opponents had been left unchallenged?”
He also asked whether the five-year plan for the fight against HIV/Aids would have been rolled out ”if the SACP had not stood up and said there is a crisis”.
Concerning the SACP and Cosatu’s achievements at the ANC’s recent policy conference, Vavi said that if the resolutions are adopted and implemented by the government, ”it will be a shift to the left”.
He said the task of the SACP and Cosatu is to defeat the agents of new capital. They need to be ”more aggressive” in pursing this agenda. ”We should not embrace short-termism. We are in [this] for the long haul,” he said.
Office bearers
The SACP elected new office bearers at the congress on Friday. It re-elected Blade Nzimande as its general secretary, and Jeremy Cronin remains his deputy.
Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula was replaced by former National Union of Mineworkers boss Gwede Mantashe as national chairperson.
Mantashe, who chairs the technical working group of the government’s Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition, was elected unopposed. His election of Mantashe had been expected.
Former Eastern Cape social development minister Ncumisa Kondlo, now an African National Congress MP, replaces Dipuo Mvelase as Mantashe’s deputy.
Pumulo Masaulle, another former Eastern Cape minister, takes over from the suspended Philip Dexter as the party’s treasurer.
The election of the 25 members of the central committee was to take place on Saturday and the results announced on Sunday. — Sapa