Comrade President Thulani Ngwenya and the National Office Bearers of POPCRU,
Leadership and delegates of the revolutionary union of Gregory Rockman and Zizamele Cebhekulu,
I bring you militant greetings on behalf of your Federation, COSATU, its Central Executive Committee and our 1.5 million members from Manenberg to Mussina, from our schools to our hospitals, from our farms to our restaurants.
We meet at a time when workers are under siege on many fronts. When a class war is being waged against the working class and the entire liberation movement. A war declared on the working class by capital, by austerity, by imperialism, and by those who want to reverse the gains of our liberation.
As Vladimir Lenin said “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” Comrades, we are living in such times.
POPCRU, is on the frontline of defending the working class, the liberation movement and the National Democratic Revolution.
You are the workers who defend our communities. When the police and correctional services function, it is you. When public services collapse, it is you who carry the burden. When the state delivers, it is you who has delivered. And when the state collapses under neo-liberalism, it is you who carry the pain.
Today we must speak honestly and unite. We cannot afford soft talk. Our people are hungry. Our youth are jobless. Our public services are bleeding.
THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHALLENGES FACING THE WORKING CLASS
Comrades, let us name the enemy and name the crisis.
Unemployment is 43.8%. Youth unemployment is above 60%. This is not a mere statistic. This is a life sentence for a generation. It is factories closed, it is graduates with no future, it is fathers who cannot feed their children.
South Africa remains the most unequal country on earth. The top 10% own 80% of wealth. Whilst billionaires fly to Davos, workers in Khayelitsha and Botshabelo queue for water. This is capitalism in its rawest form.
Crime is rampant because millions cannot find work, the youth are losing hope and the state is overwhelmed.
Migration and xenophobia are the consequences of the failures of capitalism and the political leadership across the African continent.
Whilst we must condemn without equivocation all forms of xenophobia, afrophobia and vigilantism, we must equally insist that all persons within South Africa, citizen and non-citizen, abide without question by our laws. We equally insist that other countries take responsibility for their citizens and not expect South Africa to shoulder this burden alone.
ATTACKS ON PUBLIC SERVICES: AUSTERITY, STATE CAPTURE AND CORRUPTION
The public service is under attack.
Austerity budget cuts are not “fiscal responsibility”. They are class warfare. Cutting the health budget means patients die. Cutting education means our children will struggle to find decent jobs. Cutting municipalities means sewage in the streets. This is neo-liberalism, and it must be defeated.
State capture and corruption robbed public and municipal services of over R500 billion. That money could have built houses, clinics, and factories. Instead it built mansions in Dubai. The same corrupt networks remain embedded in the state and the private sector, across our body politic.
Corruption is not just about stolen money. It is about stolen futures. It is why police stations lack rape kits and working vehicles. It is why prisons have double the inmates they can hold. It is why we have half the traffic, police and correctional services officers we need to enforce the rule of law.
As POPCRU and COSATU we must say: No more! We will defend public services because public services are the lifeline of the working class. We did not fight for freedom so that the poor can be denied healthcare, education and the right to life without fear of being robbed, raped and murdered.
THE GLOBAL CONTEXT: RISE OF THE RIGHT AND IMPERIALIST WARS
Comrades, our struggle is not only in South Africa.
Across the world we see the rise of right-wing, racist, fascist forces from Europe to the Americas. They blame immigrants, attack trade unions, cut welfare and wage wars.
We see wars of aggression against progressive forces. We see Palestine bombed, sanctions on Cuba and Venezuela’s President kidnapped.
And now they have targeted South Africa. Right-wing racist forces at home and overseas are working overtime to reverse our transformation journey. They attack BBBEE. They attack land reform. They attack the state. They want a return to the dark days of apartheid.
THE ALLIANCE MUST RESPOND DECISIVELY
The working class is angry. And they have a right to be angry.
Angry about unemployment. Angry about poverty. Angry about load-shedding, water cuts, potholes, and corruption. Angry about a general despair that is creeping into our communities.
The Alliance — ANC, SACP, COSATU — cannot pretend everything is fine. We must respond decisively.
That means:
- A jobs plan with mining, agriculture, manufacturing, and public employment at the centre.
- An end to austerity cuts and implementing a developmental budget that funds frontline public and municipal services.
- A war on corruption with jail time, not commissions.
- Holding government accountable from national to local when they fail workers.
We are in the Alliance not to clap hands. We are in the Alliance to push it to emancipate the working class.
PREPARATIONS FOR COSATU’S 15TH NATIONAL CONGRESS
In a few weeks we will hold COSATU’s 15th National Congress. This Congress must not be a talk shop. It must be a war council. It is the Workers’ Parliament.
We will soon host the CEC and conclude on the draft progressive and revolutionary resolutions that speak directly to workers:
- Tackling the cost of living and ensuring that food, electricity and transport are affordable.
- Building a developmental state that plans, invests and creates jobs.
- Empowering the working class through worker control, worker ownership, and worker education.
- Recruiting and servicing members. A union that does not service is a union that dies.
- Laying the foundations for socialism. Because only socialism can end exploitation.
But comrades, we must be honest. COSATU has no money. We are carrying debts from the last Congress. We are running on fumes. We need every assistance to ensure that we host a Congress fit for the challenges facing the National Democratic Revolution.
When we emerge from Congress, we must put in place a fit for purpose funding model for COSATU including continuous fundraising and solidarity campaigns. We must be cost conscious, but we must also be resourced to fight.
A broke Federation cannot lead a class war.
UNITY AND LEADERSHIP: COSATU CANNOT AFFORD TO BE DIVIDED
Comrades, the most important achievement at Congress is to unite COSATU and workers.
A divided COSATU is a defeated COSATU. Our enemies are praying for our divisions.
I want to commend the leadership of POPCRU for your efforts to unite the Federation, especially in the public service.
We must elect a leadership that will:
- Unite COSATU
- Inspire workers
- Build a militant, well-oiled Federation
- Drive active campaigns on the ground
- Hold government accountable
- Unite the Alliance
Affiliates will soon nominate leadership candidates. We must do so in a way that unites the Federation.
THE ALLIANCE AND THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS
Comrades, allow me to be direct on the challenges facing the Federation and the Alliance.
We must not allow ourselves to be divided by our political allies. We respect and love the ANC. We respect and love the SACP. But our first loyalty is to workers.
We need a formula that unites and does not divide COSATU as we go into the most contested local elections in our history.
Our position must be clear: Workers must support the ANC and the SACP as our Alliance Partners in the local elections. Let us not be divided as the Federation.
Support must come with demands. Support must come with a campaign. We must work flat out at workplaces, amongst members, in working class communities to ensure that the Alliance emerges victorious on the 4th of November.
Especially in our metros — Johannesburg, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, eThekwini, Nelson Mandela Bay, Buffalo City — where service delivery has collapsed and the right-wing is circling. If we lose the metros, the revolution will be facing oblivion.
As Fidel Castro said: “A revolution is not a bed of roses.” Elections are not a bed of roses either. They are a battlefield for the working class.
CONCLUSION
The working class is looking to us. The unemployed youth are looking to us. The traffic officer in Mbombela, the police constable at Idutywa, the social worker at Pollsmoor are looking to us for leadership.
We have no time for cowardice. We have no time for factionalism. We have no time for business as usual.
We are the frontline of the working class. We believe another world is possible. A world without exploitation. A world where the wealth created by workers belongs to workers.
Let COSATU’s 15th Congress be the Congress that reignites the fighting spirit of 1985. Let it be the Congress that says to bosses, to the IMF, to the right-wing: Not on our watch!
Let us emerge united, militant, and ready to fight.
As I conclude my term as President of the Federation of Elijah Barayi and Dora Tamana, allow me to thank you President Ngwenya and the entire leadership collective of POPCRU, past and current, the entire membership of this mighty union, for the support, comfort, guidance, wisdom, protection and leadership that you have given me, a young woman from eGqerberha.
You were there for me when others were not. When I needed guidance, you took me into confidence. My successes and those of the entire Federation are yours. Words alone cannot express my deep appreciation for all that you have done for me, your member.
It is this support and comradeship that gives me the strength to keep fighting for the working class. With this POPCRU, the POPCRU that defied the might of the apartheid regime that day in 1989 in Mitchells Plain, we can never be defeated!
Amandla! Thank you. Enkosi.