The Congress of South African Trade Unions is deeply angered by the non-payment of worker’s salaries by Denel and we call on the national government to intervene immediately. This problem is not only a Denel problem but it represents the ongoing and alarming meltdown of the SOE’s at a time when the government is failing to come up with a solid and coherent turnaround strategy to rescue these state entities.
What is even more disturbing is that some of the people who were the architects of this mess are being sent back to the corridors of power, instead of being relocated to prison. The fact that this country’s law enforcement agencies are yet to attach the assets and prosecute the people implicated in State Capture. Workers are being victimised and made to pay with their livelihoods to cover for the sins of politically connected crooks.
This is happening on the eve of the 58th anniversary of the Freedom Charter, the guiding document of the liberation movement and millions of the people that continue to hold hopes for many at the bottom end of the economic pyramid. The three thousand delegates who assembled at Kliptown on 25 and 26 June 1955 were workers, peasants, women, youth and students of all races and colour. They did not fight and sacrifice in order for the political elite to loot and steal workers wages.
The same people who have failed to decisively intervene in strategic sectors of the economy, and radically overhaul our macro-economic policy in line with the radical economic shift have looted and collapsed the SOE’s with impunity.
The people who were supposed to be liberators are now skinning the people; they live on the fat of the workers just like the exploitative apartheid regime. President Cyril Ramaphosa needs to act with a sense of urgency to rescue the ailing SOE’s and also to hold accountable the architects, enablers and the looters that have stolen from the people.
Those who’ve looted must now be charged and their assets confiscated. They are well known to the public and we cannot expect the public and workers to continue making sacrifices through tax hikes, while the looters are allowed to continue to enjoy their ill-gotten gains. All these SOEs were until recently profitable and viable entities and what we need to see is our government moving much faster to stabilise and save them.
Issued by COSATU
Sizwe Pamla (Cosatu National Spokesperson)
Tel:
011 339 4911
Fax: 011 339 5080
Cell: 060 975 6794