The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) notes President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Opening of Parliament Address and appreciate its many progressive commitments.
COSATU welcomes the President’s commitment that the 7th administration will respect our labour laws and protect workers’ hard-won rights and continuously improve their working and living conditions. This needs to be met with investments in the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), the modernisation and overhauling of the Unemployment Insurance and the Compensation of Occupational Injuries and Diseases Funds to clamp down on pilferage and ensure monies due to workers reach them quickly.
Government has allocated a massive R900 billion for infrastructure investments over the next three years. The commitment to capacitate and rebuild local government is key to ensuring that these funds are spent appropriately, this includes ensuring that municipal workers are paid timeously. The recent intervention in the eThekwini Municipality to restore municipal services along with the commitment to undertake similar interventions is sorely needed. South Africa needs to be turned into a massive construction site to kickstart the economy. Releasing state land, accelerating land reform and granting title deeds to the landless is fundamental to ending our still racially skewed land ownership.
The commitment to increase support for the industrial master plans and industrial, export and trade programmes are key to growing the economy and creating decent jobs and value chains. The intention to expand the Presidential Employment Stimulus is supported and needs to be expedited to accommodate at least 2 million continuous participants as part of breaking the back of unemployment, in particular, the youth. Reckless cuts to its funding by Treasury need to be halted.
COSATU commends government, Eskom and its employees for the remarkable turnaround the nation has seen with overcoming loadshedding. Eskom must be given further support to ramp up maintenance, bring on board its own new generation capacity and tackle crime and corruption. The progressive plans to bring on board 170 new transformers and 14 000 kms of new transmission lines will be a game changer, ensuring Eskom returns to its strategic role as the engine of the economy’s growth.
Similar support needs to be given to Transnet and Metro Rail to ensure that endemic cable theft is defeated, and our ports and railways are modernised. We have seen progress in both SOEs. When returned to full efficiency they will help boost mining, manufacturing and agriculture, and create badly needed jobs and revenue for the state and economy. The creation of the new mining rights application system must be expedited to halt the flood of retrenchments in this critical sector.
Other embattled SOEs, particularly Denel, the South African Broadcasting Corporation, the Post Office and Postbank equally need urgent interventions and support to set them back on the path to sustainability. We are disappointed that few clear plans have been put in place for these entities and cannot agree to their workers being made to pay the price.
We welcome the commitment to transform the SRD Grant into a Universal Basic Income Grant. The SRD Grant with all of its limitations has laid the foundation for this long sought after objective. A clear timeframe and path is now needed to achieve this, including raising the SRD Grant to the Food Poverty Line and linking its recipients to skills and employment opportunities. Increasing the number of essential items in particular food, exempt from VAT, reviewing and reducing the third of the fuel price going towards taxes, will provide valuable relief for the poor, workers and the economy. Whilst welcoming these, the President needs to assent to the Pension Fund Amendment Bill and pension funds need to move much faster to ensure the long sought two-pot pension reforms come into effect on 1 September giving relief to millions of highly indebted workers.
COSATU applauds the President’s clear support for the National Health Insurance and the need to begin its built roll out, including investing in our badly overstretched public healthcare infrastructure. This needs to be accompanied by the filling of critical health worker vacancies. Similar commitments to invest in public services need to be accompanied by a shift away from debilitating austerity budget cuts and the employing of badly needed teachers, police officers, prosecutors, Home Affairs and other essential frontline workers essential to delivering quality public services. Clear deadlines to end the shame of pit latrines at schools are needed.
In order to ensure these commitments materialise, Treasury needs to table a progressive and bold Medium Term Budget Policy Statement at Parliament. We cannot afford to raise the hopes of workers with a progressive Opening of Parliament Address, only to see the mandarins of Treasury pickpocket it through painful and ill-considered budget cuts. SARS, whose employees have done wonderful work to rebuild it, needs to be given all the resources it requires to boost tax compliance to 70% over the next two years and thus provide government the resources it requires to capacitate the state, stimulate the economy, slash unemployment, poverty and inequality; and tackle crime and corruption.
Whilst COSATU is surprised that the OPA was silent on the many geo-political challenges facing the world, we expect government to maintain the principled international relations stance of the 6th administration founded upon non-alignment, the African agenda, the promotion of trade and international solidarity.
Parliament must play its role in these unchartered times, and hold the state at all levels, accountable for actioning these commitments and where failures occur, to hold those responsible liable. We need action not sloganeering or heckling. Society, in particular, workers and working-class communities are exhausted and demand government and the private sector do more and better. We have the resources and capacity as nation to deliver a Better Life for all. What we do not have is unlimited time or infinite patience. Government must lead with the decisiveness and discipline required.
Issued by COSATU
For further comment please contact:Matthew ParksParliamentary CoordinatorCell: 082 785 0687Email: matthew@cosatu.org.za