COSATU Gauteng press statement o the World Social Forum Activities 24-01-08

 

 

COSATU Gauteng press statement on the World Social Forum activities

DATE: 24TH January 2008

As part of the COSATU National Programme, which is part of the World Social Forum activities, the federation in Gauteng will be focusing on the following campaigns:

Housing
Transport
Xenophobia
Education

As COSATU in the province we are particularly concerned about the plight of our communities who are staying in the informal settlements in and around Gauteng. In the past few weeks we had been experiencing persistent rains which resulted in a number of informal settlements in areas such Alexandra and Diepsloot being flooded. We believe that the right for a person to have decent housing is enshrined in our country’s constitution and is a fundamental human right.

As the federation, together with civil society organizations in Gauteng, we will be mounting a campaign to ensure that indeed our communities enjoy “A Better Gauteng” in terms of all the provision of basic rights particular on the front of the better human settlements.

We will be engaging the government, in particular the Gauteng Housing Department and the municipalities, to ensure that they accelerate the delivery of houses and the rezoning of informal settlements that can be converted into areas of living.

On the transport front, the federation is reaffirming our stance on achieving a public transport system that is affordable, safe, efficient and integrated. It is our shared view that for us to achieve the economic growth that can sustain and create jobs, transport in the corner stone.

We are particularly worried and disturbed by the recent events in Tshwane where trains were delayed for more that three hours without communication with the commuters which then resulted to the burning and destruction of trains. This led to a major inconvenience to commuters who mostly are workers and students who are now arriving late both at school and work

We think both as workers and communities, that we have a responsibility to protect and preserve public property. Therefore we condemned the acts of violence and destruction of public property, particularly the destruction and burning of trains.

As COSATU we will fully participate in the task team that comprises the Tshwane City officials, management of Metro Rail, commuter organizations and civil society, in speedily finding an alternative plan to ensure that at least a minimum service is provided in that area and augmenting other forms of public transport.

We also want to commend the management of Metro Rail who, despite the difficult situation, is working 24 hour in ensuring that at least they restore some minimum operation in that area. We are noting their announcement that they will be resuming that minimum operation by 4th February 2008. We think this will go a long way in alleviating the misery that those communities had to endure both in transport and monetary terms.

We are also calling on the employers to be sympathetic in this hour of crisis and ensure that they work hand in hand with their employees in resolving the issue of late coming due to the problem of public transport. They should not discipline workers for arriving late due to the problem of transport.

On the load shedding we note discussions around power outages and load shedding. We however note that this is surprising and coincide with the Eskom request late in 2007 for the 18% tariff increase from the Electricity Regulator. After their request of 18% was rejected by the regulator and given the increase of 14% they then started with their load shedding programme.

We call on Eskom not to punish the poor and the working class, because if this problem is not resolved it will result in major job losses and salary cuts by the employers. We also call on Eskom to engage with labour, as they did with business recently in finding solution to the problem.

With the current surge of price fixing we call on government to closely monitor the prices of all alternative energy supplies including the much talk about solar energy and avoid the repeat of what happened with the bread price.

On education we welcome the ANC NEC Lekgotla decision of ensuring that 60% of our schools become non-school fees schools. This will ensure that indeed most of our children have access to education. We also call for that decision to be also cascaded to the institutions of higher learning where as a start the first degree and diploma becomes free.

As the federation we once more call on calm to prevail in Soshanguve around the ongoing killing of our African brothers and sisters including children. As South African we cannot condone the xenophobic attitude that we demonstrate against our fellow Africans. We clearly understand and sympathise with their plight and hardship from their respective countries but there can be no justification for killing them because their fellow countrymen are alleged to be involved in acts of crime.

We believe that this is a matter for our security agencies who are trained to deal with such acts of crime. Therefore our communities should work closely with the police in apprehending those rogue elements, rather than killing their fellow countrymen. We will be working closely with the police and communities in ensuring that peace prevails and that our communities live in harmony.

In conclusion we call on all the people of Gauteng to join us in the fight against international injustice, global warming, poverty, unemployment as part of the activities of the World Social Forum. We will be marching to both the Premier’s Office and the Office of the Economic Development in Gauteng to highlight the above issues and also put pressure on the ongoing trade talk in Davos.

The march will start at 9h00 at the Workers Library in Newtown and proceed to the Premiers and Economic Office and back to the Workers Library at 13h00. This march will take place on the 26th January 2008.

For further information please phone the Gauteng Provincial Secretary, Siphiwe Mgcina, on 011 873 2610 or 082 465 8336