THE National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) has served notice on behalf of a growing number of unions and their coalition to the National Economic Labour and Development Council (NEDLAC) of its plan to proceed with the union’s intention to embark on protest action on Wednesday 30 September 2015.
‘Two months back, on 8 July, NUMSA gave notice to NEDLAC of its plans to embark on stayaways, strikes, marches and demonstrations across the country against escalating corruption in the country. ‘This we did in terms of Section 77 of the Labour Relations Act (LRA) to conduct protest action that promotes or defends socio-economic interests of workers.
‘After two meetings – one on the 5th of August and a second one on the 4th of September – what we did today was in line with the law. We gave NEDLAC notice of our intention to proceed with the strike at least 14 days before the commencement of the protest action. We are glad that the FEDUSA, National Union Council of Trade Unions (NACTU) and its 19-affiliates, and a significant number of independent unions, are joining us in this action, and as a federation have dispatched a letter to NEDLAC indicating such support.
‘We are also overjoyed that other trade unions have indicated their determination to do likewise in the next few days. This support puts to rest attempts to portray the action on 30 September as a NUMSA strike. The action on 30 September is people’s action united against the cancer of corruption. As the labour movement we are joining other civil society organisations – social movements, civics, women’s organisations, student, youth organisations, faith-based organisations from every denomination, rural organisations, the LGBTQI people, other membership-based organisations and individuals; to say we have had enough of corruption.
‘In a recent meeting of labour organisations, we unanimously committed ourselves to be part of the Unite Against Corruption coalition that will have as its main actions a march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria and a march to parliament in Cape Town on 30 September 2015. By joining the coalition, we are asserting that corruption does not only take place in the public sector. Our employers and the business sectors are directly involved in acts of corruption.
‘In most instances, the corruption in the public sector is as a result of links between private sector entities that have connection with public officials. Perhaps the biggest private sector corruption scandal to be exposed in a democratic South Africa is the revelation of a R30-billion price-fixing and collusion by the country’s biggest construction companies. The Competition Commission also found cartel-like behaviour in cases of bread and cement price-fixing. As we speak, the Competition Commission announced that it had initiated an investigation against 11 foreign currency traders for fixing the values at which they trade the South African Rand against other currencies such as the dollar, euro and pound.
”We also know that on 27 October 2014, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) and the Financial Services Board (FSB) announced a review of the foreign exchange trading operations of authorised dealers in South Africa. The Governor of the SARB and the Chief Executive Officer of the FSB appointed James Cross, a former Senior Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank, to lead the review task team, produce a report and to advise the bank and the FSB on its findings and recommendations. The task team was given the second quarter of 2015 as its deadline. Unfortunately, we have not seen the report!
But more scandalous are the illicit capital outflows that leave the country and the practice of transfer pricing. It is estimated that in 2012 close to 30-billion US dollars left South Africa as illicit capital outflows. In a briefing recently at the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry, Judge Dennis Davis, who heads of the Davis Tax Review Committee, said that, “If the South African Revenue Services (SARS) focused on recovering money from transfer pricing abuses‚ Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene probably would not have had to raise taxes by 1% in his budget speech earlier this year.” Recent SARS investigations into 30 multinational corporations recouped about R5-billion in transfer mispricing.
‘By joining the Unite Against Corruption coalition we are asserting that no other people can be better whistleblowers of the corruption that takes place in the private sector than our members. If you have any doubt about how workers are the best whistleblowers read the recent Public Protector report on Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA). Without the tenacity of the transport workers and members of the National Transport Movement (NTM) there would have been no exposure of the large-scale looting within the passenger rail entity.
‘Why are we taking action against corruption? Corruption robs us of potential jobs and it undermines existing ones. The Auditor-General (AG) found that 72% of organs of state audited for 2013/14 did not comply with tender procedures. The non-compliance does not only apply to departments and local governments. As unions who organise in state-owned enterprises, we have found large-scale non-compliance with the local content requirements of the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act (PPPFA) and its regulations leading to massive job losses in companies owned by local suppliers.
‘The Procurement Policy Framework Act requires the use of locally-produced goods when state organs procure goods and services. Instead of this, what we have seen is large-scale importation of solar water geysers. The R50-billion Transnet tender to build 1 064 locomotives was awarded to five foreign companies – China South Rail (CSR), ZhuZhou Electric Locomotive, China North Rail (CNR) Rolling Stock, Bombardier and General Electric; leading to a loss of 242 jobs in South Africa.
‘We already know that in the Prasa debacle, Swifambo Rail Leasing imports the trains as completely-built units from Spain. The first 20 trains that Gibela-Alstom is delivering are built in Brazil. Corruption robs us of potential jobs and undermines existing ones! The trick of the corrupt elite is to find politically-connected BEE and non-manufacturing companies to partner with these foreign companies …
‘Corruption is a licence to hunger as it ensures that food conglomerates dominate a broken food system (as seen in the bread price fixing scandal) and undermines the quality and scale of the school feeding schemes … But corruption is not new in South Africa. Once it became clear that the end of white rule was at hand, there was a rush to grab as much in the way of spoils as possible before the curtain came down … Our demands are not a wish list. We plan to mobilise around them. We plan to meet with National Treasury to find out how to deal with those organs of state that are not complying with local content regulations. We cannot fold arms when local jobs are being lost.
‘We intend to meet with SARS to say that instead of the institution being used for political games, it has a responsibility to deal with the problem of illicit financial flows, transfer pricing and money laundering in the country. As the labour movement we intend to lodge the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) application to have the Shiceka report released publicly. If not made public by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) and the Financial Services Board (FSB), as labour we will lodge another PAIA application for the review of the foreign exchange trading operations to be made public.
‘As the labour movement we are not prepared to see widespread looting and keep quiet. We will take the demands outlined above and fight for their realisation with our allies in the Unite Against Corruption coalition.’