The inclusion of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) prevented the African National Congress-led government from ”tilting to the right”, ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma said on Thursday.
Speaking at the South African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (Sactwu) 10th congress at the International Convention Centre in Durban, Zuma said: ”If workers and communists are not there, we are likely to tilt to the right and that is not very good for the balance [of the government].”
Zuma made the comment shortly after stating that he was pleased that all three members of the tripartite alliance — the ANC, the SACP and Cosatu — had ”taken a firm position that the alliance is here to stay” and that they had also decided to strengthen the alliance.
He said those who had tried to break up the alliance had failed and that worker involvement in the government was necessary.
”We are not in the alliance because we are nice guys,” he said.
He praised Sactwu for its role in preventing job losses and the fact that it had rejected the ”mindless competition among workers of the world”.
He praised the organisation for its role in mobilising the government to develop a plan to protect the textile industry.
Said Zuma: ”We need to unite and defend our market against unfair competition and unfair trade.”
Sactwu secretary general Ibrahim Patel told delegates that in the three years since Sactwu’s 2004 conference, 46 000 jobs had been lost in the industry.
At the same time, he said, the top five clothing retailers had seen profits climb to R15,5-billion.
Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa said: ”The clothing sector has large and important capabilities that we must not lose but it is a sector that has enormous challenges.”
He said the industry needed to upgrade its ”capital equipment” and that the government needed ”to look for an appropriate incentive mechanism to help the industry”.
The three-day conference ends on Saturday, during which time SACP secretary general Blade Nzimande and Cosatu secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi are expected to address delegates.
‘Not a random act of violence’
Earlier this week it was reported that a bag of papers belonging to Zuma, which was found outside a Durban flat after a break-in, had been sent for forensic testing.
Police spokesperson Phindile Radebe said the bag was found outside a Durban beachfront flat that had been broken into during the early hours of Monday morning.
Radebe said detectives had obtained fingerprints from the flat. ”We are doing an investigation. Fingerprints have been taken. There is no indication that something was stolen.”
Radebe said she could not elaborate on the papers, except to say that they belonged to Zuma. ”We have opened an ordinary housebreaking case,” she said.
The flat does not belong to Zuma, who, according to Radebe, ”occasionally” used it. Zuma’s attorney, Michael Hulley, told the South African Press Association that Zuma had last stayed in the flat on Sunday.
Earlier, the Star newspaper quoted Hulley as saying: ”This does not appear to be a random act of crime.”
The report said it appeared the intruder had rifled through the ANC deputy president’s documents. Police spokesperson Superintendent Muzi Mngomezulu told the paper ”a hard object, probably a crowbar” was used to enter the flat. — Sapa