Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota’s ”hostility” towards the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) was reflected in his ”ignorance” of its policies, presented as an alternative to those of the government, Cosatu said on Wednesday.
Lekota had challenged Cosatu in a South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) radio broadcast to ”present alternative policy positions to those of the ruling party”.
The SABC reported that Lekota was reacting to Cosatu’s recent call for an election pact and criticism of the African National Congress’s (ANC) failure to honour its policy commitments.
Cosatu was ”astonished” that Lekota could be unaware of, or not have read, the many documents, statements, articles and speeches that did ”precisely what he is demanding”, said spokesperson Patrick Craven.
”Comrade Lekota pretends to be ignorant of all these statements, even the four documents he was given at the fourth central committee, the whole four days of which he attended,” he said.
”This can only reflect his hostility to the organisation and a refusal to learn anything new about Cosatu’s policies.
”If he had paid attention at the recent ANC policy conference he would also have heard many of our policy positions being argued by both Cosatu and ANC delegates.”
Craven said this year alone, Cosatu had published responses to ANC policy documents on its strategy and tactics, economic transformation, legislature and governance, electoral systems, social transformation, challenges facing workers and the unions and transformation of the media.
Cosatu’s policies were based on its belief that government policy since 1994 had benefited business and the rich more than the workers and the poor, he said.
”Cosatu’s main critique and policy response has been on government’s socio-economic policies, flawed by a notion that the vast number of South Africans trapped in poverty, squalor and unemployment will be ‘saved’ by the market.
”We are arguing for policies that are biased in favour of workers and the poor, with the high levels of unemployment and poverty as the top priorities that should guide all policy decisions.”
Craven said while Cosatu could not understand why Lekota was demanding alternative policies with such a selection already on the table, it would, if necessary, expand its views in even more detail.
”We shall be straining every muscle to get our alternative policies to the delegates to the ANC national conference and are confident that they will sympathise with what we are saying and adopt many of our alternative policies,” he said. — Sapa