Africa-Press – South-Africa. Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) president Zingiswa Losi says its task remains to advance working class struggles at all levels without fear or favour.
According to Losi, this is why the federation ensured that the government released R64 billion from the Unemployment Insurance Fund during the Covid-19 pandemic to help workers take care of their families.
Losi, along with President Cyril Ramaphosa, delivered the main address at Cosatu’s Workers’ Day rally in the Free State.
“This is why we say to government, retain, extend and increase the Social Relief of Distress grant for all unemployed persons as it is the foundation for a basic income grant and one of the largest sources of relief for the poor. This is why we expect the government to reverse the ill-considered cuts to the presidential employment stimulus. It needs to be increased to accommodate 1 million active participants by October. We cannot afford to lead an army of the unemployed,” she said.
Furthermore, Cosatu welcomed the government’s endorsement to relieve Eskom of R254 billion of its debt to allow the power utility to focus on fixing its generation fleet and to end load shedding.
“We are pleased the president has heeded our call and signed the Compensation of Occupational Injuries and Diseases Amendment Act providing cover for domestic workers and increasing protections for all workers, as well as the Employment Equity Amendment Act that will require any employer doing business with the state to be in compliance with the Employment Equity and National Minimum Wage Act.
“We welcome progress being made to amend the Mine Health and Safety Act to increase protections for our mine workers. Government and Parliament must move with speed to pass the pension amendment laws to allow struggling workers access to their pension funds by 1 March 2024. This will provide relief to millions of indebted workers,” she said.
Losi also called on Parliament to pass the National Health Insurance Bill and the Expropriation Bill, to accelerate the redistribution of land, by November 2023.
She also called on lawmakers to repeal the Municipal Systems Amendment Act that denies 350 000 municipal workers their constitutional right to hold positions in a political party.
Ramaphosa signed the legislation into law which prevents municipal managers, and senior managers who are directly accountable to municipal managers, from holding political office, whether they have been appointed in a permanent, temporary or acting capacity.
Meanwhile, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) called on its members to unite to fight against capitalist exploitation, poverty wages and growing inequality.
“We are celebrating international Workers’ Day against the background of a deepening crisis of capitalism which has resulted in a global crisis of unemployment, high levels of inequality, and extreme poverty. Workers and the working class have had to endure the miseries, pains and suffocation brought about by this barbaric and inhumane system of capitalism,” a statement from Nehawu read.
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) said that more than two decades of ANC rule has “created the most unequal society in the world, with extremely high levels of poverty and unemployment”.
“We can characterise the last 29 years of the ANC government as ’29 wasted years’ because after they were given an overwhelming mandate by the working class in 1994 through the elections, they have wasted all this time entrenching the power of the capitalist elite, instead of dismantling the colonial and apartheid structure of the economy,” it said in a statement.
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