SA ruling party chastises the unions

Sapa and Miningmx writer | Thu, 28 May 2009 17:14
[miningmx.com] -- THE secretary-general of South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC), Gwede Mantashe, warned trade unions on Thursday against public attempts to push the government to give in to demands.

After national elections in March, Jacob Zuma, leader of the ANC was sworn in as president and announced an enlarged cabinet that gave a fullsome nod to the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the Communist Party, which both backed him in his struggle to ascend to the presidency.

"You are projecting the Zuma leadership as weak and indebted to various constituencies," Mantashe told a National Union of Mineworkers (Num) congress in Johannesburg.

One of the concerns about the Zuma presidency is that it may swing left and away from the market-friendly policies of his predecessor Thabo Mbeki, who was unceremoniously dumped as leader of the ANC and the country during the power struggle with Zuma.

Some trade unions were creating the impression that "the ANC must react instinctively to demands", said Mantashe.

He cited a protest by the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) to the SA Reserve Bank (Sarb) offices in Pretoria on Wednesday.

"I am not sure the Numsa march was helpful," said Mantashe. "I need to talk to comrade Vavi about that," he added, looking at Cosatu general-secretary Zwelinzima Vavi.

Mantashe said the Numsa march to Sarb on Wednesday, while it was meeting to discuss interest rates, was "counter-productive".

Numsa marched to Sarb's offices in Pretoria to demand a cut in interest rates and the scrapping of inflation targeting, which is blamed by the unions for leading to economic decisions that made life tough for the bulk of South Africans.

The Reserve Bank was under pressure from all sectors to drop rates after news this week that South Africa was in its first recession in 17 years.

Mantashe said Sarb would not want to be perceived as having buckled under pressure from unions if it decided to drop rates. "It is not a household tactic to march because you are actually pushing them not to drop rates," said Mantashe.

Numsa officials were furious after learning Sarb would not accept their memorandum of demands, but Mantashe said unions were welcome to talk to the ANC about their complaints.

"It [protest action] may be counter-productive, particularly when there is an ANC that is there to listen and engage. It doesn't help if those doors are open and you keep kicking the door. Walk in and engage," said Mantashe.

Earlier, Vavi told the congress that the tripartite alliance between the ANC, Cosatu, and the SA Communist Party had never been as strong as it was now.

"The alliance has never been so strong. It is a spell of unity we have never seen," Vavi said. "The challenge is how we will keep this unity strong."

Vavi called for "a shift by the new government to more expansionary economic policy" to deal with the recession. This should include "a radically expanded public works programme".

Mantashe said the government would do its utmost to combat unemployment, but warned that the economic situation was not going to make it easy.

"This situation is going to impact negatively, particularly on the question of creating more jobs," said Mantashe.

The mining and manufacturing sectors have been particularly hard hit by the economic downturn, with both slowing by a third in the first quarter of 2009, a drop not seen in four decades. Mining companies have laid off thousands of workers.

The gold and coal sectors are engaging unions in talks to set a two-year wage agreement. The National Union of Mineworkers has already started threatening strike action to back their demand for a 15% wage hike despite the talks having barely started.