African Trade Unions (Cosatu) members barred ANC Chairman Gwede Mantashe from speaking at their 14th national congress on Monday.
‘Hamba Gwede’ (Go Gwede) and ‘asinamali’ (we have no money) were slogans chanted on Monday by delegates attending Cosatu’s conference, who believe the ANC (African National Congress) is full of empty promises.
This led to ANC Chairman Gwede Mantashe having to exit the stage alongside ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) members Lindiwe Zulu and Mmamoloko Kubayi – without delivering his remarks.
Conference delegates who heckled Mantashe, however, said that they were not particularly targeting him and that any ANC leader would have faced the same treatment.
Mantashe was meant to deliver a message of support on behalf of the ANC at the Cosatu conference, which was held at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand, Gauteng.
Party leader President Cyril Ramaphosa was involved in another engagement in Soweto where the ANC was commemorating the 86th birthday of the late Struggle icon Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
Conference delegates were unapologetic about their stance and wanted the ANC to account for a number of issues, the first being the wage increase that the government has offered workers – which they believe is not sufficient because of the high cost of living.
Last month, the government raised its wage offer to public servants from 2% to 3% during a mediation process aimed at breaking a deadlock in wage discussions.
Among those considering the offer and taking it to their membership for a mandate are a number of Cosatu affiliates.
Wage demands by unions in the public service wage talks range from 4% to as much as 10%.
Some delegates explained that raising their issues within union structures was a futile exercise seeing that their president, Zingiswa Losi, is a close Ramaphosa ally.
After being booed, Mantashe was surrounded by his security and refused to speak to the media until later in the evening.
When he eventually decided to comment on the matter, he insisted that the embarrassment that he had faced was not an indication that Cosatu is rejecting the ANC.
‘Rejection is actually raising your issue with the ANC. If they were rejecting the ANC they would, in fact, not invite us here. We were invited here, that is not rejection.
‘If they want to disrupt the speed of the ANC, that’s a different matter, it’s a statement they are making and we must listen to that statement,’ he said.
The tension in the alliance has been ongoing, with Ramaphosa having been heckled at the union’s May Day event this year.
Ramaphosa was unable to deliver his speech and had to leave that event.
Mantashe was booed off the stage at the 14th national congress, with Cosatu members singing songs until he left the stage.
The union’s conference nominated a new leadership which will be voted for during the course of the four-day sitting. Losi, who was nominated unopposed, will be re-elected as party president.
Losi opened her speech with her negative views about the ANC.
Her biggest criticisms of the party were surrounding the poor state of local government, state-owned enterprises, corruption and the unemployment rate. She also spoke about the Eskom crisis.
She warned: ‘The reports by the Auditor-General on the state of municipalities is a horror story.
‘A decade ago, 10% of our municipalities were in financial distress but today it is 90% – 43 have collapsed, 151 are on the brink of collapse.
‘Many municipal workers are sent home without being paid, from Renosterberg to Amahlathi.
‘We correctly condemn the reckless austerity budget cuts to key frontline service departments.
‘And then what? What are we doing to expose corruption? When some of our own members are implicated, do we keep quiet? These are the hard issues we must grapple with.’
She said: ‘The ANC is not perfect. It has made serious mistakes. It is battling to cleanse itself of the demons of corruption and factionalism.
It is contested by various class forces. Yet it has stood with Cosatu when we demanded the constitutional enshrinement of workers’ rights, the passing of our labour laws and our many other progressive laws. Our task is to defend workers’ hard-won victories.
‘We must contest the ANC and the alliance to ensure that the voice of workers is heard and not sidelined. We must help to rid the ANC of criminal elements if it is to be saved.’
Speaking on the state of Cosatu, Losi raised concerns about the decline in the number of the union’s members and said that they were working towards reaching two million members before 2027. The union has lost support over the years.
‘We need to engage more on how to bring other unions into Cosatu if we are serious about achieving our goal of one union, one industry, one federation, one country.
‘We need to reflect on why only 27% of workers are unionised. What are our programmes to organise the unorganised? What creative strategies are needed to increase our membership to two million by the next congress and to attract young workers?’ she asked.
- South African public servants are preparing to reject a government wage offer, raising the prospect of the first major strike by state workers in more than a decade.
Preliminary results from a ballot of the Public Servants Association, the biggest government labour union, show workers won’t accept the proposal to increase pay by 3% and continue receiving a cash gratuity until March, the PSA said on Monday in an emailed statement.
The government’s current offer expired yesterday, Wednesday 28 September.
‘Current mandating outcomes indicate that votes are tilting toward rejecting the offer,’ the PSA said.
Remuneration of the government’s 1.3 million workers accounts for almost a third of total government expenditure, and keeping it in check is key to the National Treasury’s plans to rein in the budget deficit and bring runaway state debt under control.
The unions have argued that inflation-beating increases are warranted in light of soaring food and energy costs. The annual consumer inflation rate is currently 7.6%.
Public servants in July lowered their demands for pay increases of as much as 10% to 6.5%, after the government rejected their earlier request on the grounds that it was unaffordable.
Workers’ anger about the government’s refusal to accede to their wage demands boiled over on Monday, when Minerals Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe was prevented from addressing the Congress of South African Trade Unions’s annual conference in Johannesburg.
Cosatu is a member of a tripartite alliance along with the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party that rules South Africa.
Tensions have been growing between them over a decision by the ANC-led government to renege on a 2018 wage agreement – a decision that was backed by the country’s highest court.
Cosatu has also been scathing of the government for failing to address an ongoing energy crisis, as South Africa experiences record power outages this year.
Public-sector workers last went on strike for three weeks in 2010 before settling on a wage increase of 7.5%.
The PSA said it plans to ask the government to incorporate the cash gratuity into their baseline pay, or extend it, which ‘may ensure a positive members’ mandate to accept the offer.’
