COSATU congratulates the people of the DRC 17 - 11 - 06

COSATU congratulates the people of the DRC

The Congress of South African Trade Unions congratulates the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the successful completion of their first democratic elections for 40 years. It is a magnificent achievement for a people who suffered for decades under the brutal Mobutu dictatorship. We send our best wishes to the government and people as they face the immense challenges that lie ahead.

COSATU also congratulates the South African government for its pivotal role in facilitating the return to democracy and peace in the DRC. This was a major achievement by our government and vindicates their recent election to the UN Security Council.

We hope that this election marks a turning point in the struggle to rid Africa of colonialism and economic imperialism. Even after the withdrawal of the Belgian colonialists, the wealthy Western powers maintained and increased their economic stranglehold on the country, made huge profits by exploiting the mineral resources, impoverished its people and turned a blind eye to the atrocities of the Mobutu regime.

We must ensure that South African business interests do not engage in the same practices, as they have been accused of doing in the Cote d’Ivoire and elsewhere. We cannot tolerate South Africa becoming an African imperialist power, exploiting cheap labour and mineral resources, at the expense of the people, in the same fashion as the Western powers.

The strongest safeguard against such a development is a powerful trade union movement. COSATU is committed to work for strong trade unions in the DRC and throughout Africa, by strengthening the national federations and both international confederations - the Organisation of African Trade Union Unity and the very new International Trade Union Confederation.