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This is an abridged version of the Secretariat report. It looks at some of the organisational strengths and weaknesses and also raises some of the challenges that need to be discussed at the Special Congress. |
Regarding resolutions, in general our implementation strategy has been weak. This is so despite the Federation adopting a three-year programme at the level of Central Executive Committee
It was agreed COSATU would be empowered to enforce decisions relating to poaching of members. Affiliates had six months to hand over poached members. It was agreed that six broadly defined sectors/cartels must be established: manufacturing, mining, energy, public sector, private services and agriculture.
Where there is heavy poaching (such as between NUMSA and NUM, and FAWU and SACCAWU), technical committees have been established to work on implementation of this resolution.
Affiliates were encouraged to elect women into leadership position and to provide training for their women members. COSATU was to initiate the building of a national women's movement led by the Alliance to advance working class needs based on concrete issues facing women.
Affiliates agreed to forward the following demands on non-discrimination and affirmative action in every negotiation:
It was also agreed that companies should pay, for health screening for women workers and a binding sexual harassment code must be negotiated in the NEDLAC Labour Market Chamber.
The COSATU Education department and the National Gender Committee attempted to hold a Gender Studies course for the leadership and gender co-ordinators but it did not materialise. The leadership did not pitch up. What a waste of time and resources.
We need to examine possible measures to promote women in the labour movement. Additional ex-officio positions on constitutional structures:
enables women to be exposed to structures and participate in decision making
Portfolio positions:
Reserved seats for women:
Deputy secretary position at regional and local levels:
problem: would need to ensure that women don't get locked into these positions.
Quota
mechanisms are established to ensure that a certain proportion of delegates to education programmes are women.
We agree to embark on a major recruitment drive targeting vulnerable workers and white workers to reach at least 50% level of unionisation of COSATU affiliates and to open doors to unions who seek to join COSATU.
It was also agreed to strengthen SAAPAWU and research the establishment of advice centres for domestic workers as a short-term measure whilst discussions continue to find a viable home for domestic workers within the Federation.
The matter of sharing of resources in particular in rural and small towns has not been taken forward in a real way. This remains a challenge as our level of unionisation and organisation in most of these areas remains weak.
Our sense is that unity prospects are better with NACTU than any other Federation. With a serious push, we believe that unity with this Federation can be achieved within a year. Two years ago we established committees to put together all the policies of both Federations to see to what extend they overlap. This work must be revitalised and continued.
Intervention in SAAPAWU is ongoing. Lots of work must still take place to ensure that agricultural workers do benefit in a real way from legislation that has been passed.
We are of the view that the directive of the 6th National Congress to investigate the possibility of running advice centers for domestic workers is not feasible. Regrettably the Executive Committee has been unable to find practical ways of reviving a domestic workers union.
The current state of affairs means that domestic workers are unable to take advantage of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act improve the lot of domestic workers. A domestic workers union is to be launched by former SADWU comrades - called South African Domestic Service and Allied Workers Union (SADSAWU).
We are now affiliated to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. We are going to be members of its Executive Board. We are hosting its World Congress on 3-7 April 2000 in Durban.
We participate in the Executive Committee of OATUU. Comrade Joyce Phekane is Vice President of this body. We are co-hosting its Congress on 23-30 September 1999. The co-operation between OATUU and AFRO has improved.
We are continuing to restructure the Southern African Trade Union Co-ordinating Council. The COSATU Acting General Secretary is its current President. We hosted its Congress in November 1998. We are involved in a discussion with co-operating partners to ensure its financial viability.
We continue to be part of an initiative to strengthen links between unions in the Southern Hemisphere. We have strong relations with CUT of Brazil and KCTU of South Korea. We are hosting a conference of Indian Ocean unions on the 25-29 October 1999.
Our relationship with the World Federation of Trade Unions has recently lost momentum. They attended the 6th National Congress. We need to revitalise these links.
For many years the organisation has not had a clear programme on leadership development. The result is that in the long term the organisation will be hampered by untrained and undeveloped leadership.
Second layer leadership
Some of the areas we should train . our local, branch, regional and provincial leadership on include:
First layer leadership
The CEC and EXCO should be divided into portfolio committees focusing on the main issues that the Federation is involved in. Full time shopstewards need to be drawn into these commissions.
All affiliates should be encouraged to conduct shop stewards elections in the same year that they prepare for their National Congresses.
The challenges of the new millennium demand that we train shopstewards on issues which go beyond recognition agreements and union constitutions.
These issues include:
Affiliates should take responsibility for the training and induction of all new staff, and develop an understanding of the sector concerned at a higher level. The 6th National Congress resolved that 10% of subs should be set aside for education.
Outside a few areas (collective bargaining, arbitration, organisational management etc.) there is no focussed training of staff in the federation.
Very soon all unions shall belong to a SETA and pay a 0.5% levy and ultimately a 1% levy for staff training. We need to define what courses will be available for staff and be clear on which training provider we will use.
The NEDCOM should begin now to develop a menu of courses that we shall use to train staff. This menu should include administration, finances, organising, collective bargaining, education and training, media, gender, etc.
Jobs and Poverty Campaign is divided into:
Job creation
Job retention
The report commissioned by the . Deputy President as well as the Poverty Hearings organised by SANGOCO hi-lights the need for us to have a focussed campaign dealing with the plight of millions trapped in poverty. The inaugural Central Committee resolution in this regard serves as a useful framework for the campaign.
Detailed COSATU policy on health and safety is being developed and put into a single document. This is to ensure that all laws on health and safety are put into a single Act.
There is a noticeable decline in interest in taking this matter up organisationally. We are no longer commemorating important disaster dates such as Kinross and Vaal Reefs. And yet our members continue to die of accidents and many continue to be exposed to dangerous substances.
This campaign should be revived. We should move away from solidarity statements to meaningful action. The Federation must set up a structure that can co-ordinate this campaign. Affiliates must also play a meaningful role.
The economy's annual real growth rate has been declining since 1996. Current growth levels are unable to counteract the unemployment crisis.
Private sector investment has fallen sharply over the past three years. On the other hand, investment by public corporations has increased. South Africa's low savings rate has been pinpointed as a major obstacle blocking sustainable long-term growth. GEAR politics were partially aimed at remedying this problem.
Fiscal policy refers to how government raises money and how it spends that money. The main instrument of fiscal policy is the country's budget, which outlines government spending priorities and how it will finance such expenditure. Over the past two years government has adopted multi-year budgets rather that an annual budget. Gear set rigid targets on revenue to GDP and expenditure to GDP, as well as a strict deficit reduction programme. These targets have been missed or adjusted and the government was forced to revise deficit targets for financial year 1999-2000.
While it will be useful to analyse the budget over the two-year period, evaluation of the 1999-2000 budget is instructive. The overall budget has declined in real terms, growing 2% less of inflation. On the expenditure side, there are limited changes.
Interest payments - which have increased in both real and nominal terms - are consuming more and more government expenditure and leaving less resources for meeting basic needs. Most of the government debt is in the hand of the Public Investment Commission, which invests Government Employee Pension Fund (GEPF) money.
The current system is a mixture of fully-funded (about 75%) and pay-as-you-go. The extra money paid into the pension fund every year (in excess of what is paid out) is not really part of current expenditure and thus logically should not be included in the current deficit. The restructuring of the GEPF as agreed in the Job Summit needs to be speeded up as this will release resources for productive investment and social expenditure.
In an environment of declining budgets, the wage bill has tended to rise. This has generated the view that personnel costs are diverting resources from service delivery. As a result there has been pressure to downsize the public service. This view ignores the fact that it is public servants that are the arms and legs of delivery. Further, it creates a situation where clinics are unoperational due to lack of personnel. The skills, service and personnel audit currently being undertaken will for the first time give an accurate picture of the extent of overstaffing, and more importantly understaffing in critical areas of service delivery.
The reduction in company tax from 35% to 30% was unexpected. In the context of the current 'investment strike' by the private sector it is unlikely that companies will use the money they save to create jobs. Instead, it might well mean that working people subsidise higher dividends, offshore investment, and other unproductive diversions of surplus.
We need more specifically to consider total effective tax rates for different income groups (including consumption taxes - which are generally regressive). We do not in fact want an increasing proportion of tax revenue to flow from personal income tax in particular (as has been the trend from the early 1980s onwards).
The 1999-2000 budget gave tax relief to middle income earners - a step towards greater progressiveness of the tax system. Pressure from some quarters for increases in VAT - a highly regressive tax, was also avoided. Other taxes, which COSATU has been calling for - such as capital gains tax, wealth tax, land tax, and a special excise tax on luxury goods - have not been considered.
The adoption of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) was an important step in the budget reform process. The MTEF has the potential to be a progressive tool for effective budget planning and reprioritisation in the medium to long term. However, the budget reform process is far from complete. In particular the participation of civil society in the budget process, including trade unions, remains an unresolved question.
GEAR set rigid deficit targets, adjusted for the financial year 99/2000 due to sluggish growth and the global economic crisis. In our view, deficit targets should be subordinated to the delivery of services rather than the other way round. In the context of the apartheid legacy, expenditure levels actually need to be increased in order to finance the expansion of state services and their improved quality, as well as substantial state investment in people and social productive infrastructure. The criteria which must inform expenditure priorities should be people development; investment, possible income generation (direct and indirect); access to basic facilities and needs; and the redistribution of wealth and income.
At the beginning of 1996 we signed a National Framework Agreement (NFA) with government. In addition, a framework agreement was concluded in 1998 on the restructuring of local government. The NFA facilitated the restructuring of certain state assets, including Telkom. However, it underlines a number of problems that need to be addressed, including the one-sided orientation towards privatisation, weak organisational co-ordination and poor enforcement of Central Committee resolutions on investment companies. In certain instances, there was flagrant disregard of the NFA, for instance in the ESKOM Amendment Bill process. This is exacerbated by failure or unwillingness by some state assets management to comply with the NFA on the grounds that they are not legally obliged to adhere to it.
In principle, government and ourselves have agreed on the need to renegotiate the NFA. Subsequently, a COSATU task team was appointed to develop recommendations on the way forward including the legal enforcement of the NFA, the structures to be established and the nature and form of the agreement. These discussions are important in the light of government announcements regarding restructuring of Telkom, Spoornet, SAA and the Post Office.
The Reserve Bank sees its main function as controlling the rate of increase in the money supply. It uses changes in the money supply as the main anchor for its monetary policy strategy, and sets a specific target range for the growth of money supply in each period.
This policy is coupled with a high interest rate policy in order to con· rain the total demand for money in the market. A more restrictive policy on money supply growth, designed to lower inflation, therefore requires a higher level of interest rates than a more expansionary one.
The negative impacts of the current deflationary monetary policy on growth and employment require emphasis. The high real interest rate policy of the Reserve Bank negatively affects investment, consumption, and government interest payment on its debt, among others.
Government has gradually lifted and is still committed to further lifting of exchange controls. The fundamental problem with lifting exchange controls is that it led to increased mobility of speculative capital in and out of the country, and to domestic capital flight. Such flights have destabilising effects on the economy.
Government should increase its regulation of financial markets significantly. Exchange controls should be maintained and further strengthened in order to protect the domestic economy from the flight of capital and guarantee the efficacy of government intervention in the economy.
South Africa embarked on an accelerated trade liberalisation as envisaged in GEAR. In some cases, this proceeded faster than was required by the WTO. In some sections of the economy such as textile and clothing, accelerated trade reform negatively affected jobs. This prompted the Job Summit to adopt a resolution for a review of trade policy and and give priority to job creation and job loss.
Given the impact of tariff reform on employment creation there is a need to review the reform process. Tariffs should not be reduce a rate faster than that required by GATT obligations. In fact, where South Africa has lowered individual tariff rates below these levels, and the sector has experienced job loss, these should be increased back up to the GATT binding rate. Such an investigation should have tripartite participation. Where there are further tariff reductions, these should be preceded by active industrial policy measures and the implementation of sectoral social plans, including concrete social adjustment programmes to transfer workers into new jobs.
Further, there is a need to review the orientation of our trade and industrial strategy. Instead of focusing on export orientation, a number of measures need to be put in place to generate the domestic capacity of our economy. Linked to this should be a review of supply-side measures. Supply-side measures have an important role to play in our industrial development.
The Alliance Summit held in April this year agreed on a process to develop a common approach to socio-economic role of the state, and transformation of the public sector.
COSATU had already put forward the idea of an Alliance Programme for socio-economic transformation. The reason for proposal was that the Alliance does not have a coherent programme to implement the RDP but offer a strategic vision and programme to implement it. To quote from the proposal, it will provide "concrete measures to take forward in areas such as social security, and the social wage; job creation; intervention in financial markets; public housing and infrastructure; training; land reform. trade and industrial policy; tax reform. and a programme to reduce wage and income inequality."
The Alliance Accord was also seen as an alternative to a 'corporatist' accord binding government, business and labour. Through the Accord, the Alliance could reach agreement on core issues and a strategy for implementation. It would then mobilise broader society. The Accord could also be used to engage capital.
The need for such a programme is broadly accepted in the Alliance. However, there is no common understanding within COSATU or the Alliance on what shape the programme should take. Is it a political agreement that thrashes out the functioning of the Alliance and its broad vision for transformation? Or is it a programme for governance aimed at informing government policy? In real terms it has to be both, for we cannot countenance a situation where all is well in the Alliance, but there is no transmission mechanism that translates Alliance programmes into government programmes. If the current environment persists, the credibility of the Alliance is at stake.
There is broad agreement that the RDP remains the basic framework for transformation. The Programme is a programme of governance for the next five years. In line with the Election Manifesto, implementation of the RDP needs to be accelerated. We need an audit to assess how far we have come in the last five years.
The Election Manifesto itself, together with the RDP is a blueprint of the key programmes/transformation priorities of the ANC/Alliance, albeit in a scanty fashion. The Programme will have to flesh out what is contained in the manifesto. While the manifesto is progressive in broad terms, it will remain fragile unless there is a clear commitment to implement its provisions.
The debate on the Programme should take into account the political context / balance of power both internationally and in South Africa. While the political environment will influence the nature of the Programme, a progressive programme to rally around progressive forces can alter the balance of power. If the 'siege' mentality persists, the Programme may be minimalist. This is manifest in the current obsession with perceived constraints and problems, which sometimes underplays the strength of the revolutionary movement in South Africa and the space we have created for ourselves.
We need to fully exploit the space created by the 'crisis of ideology' faced by neo-liberalism to advance a more progressive alternative. While there is widespread desire to move beyond the 'Washington-consensus' there is also the danger of a 'post-Washington consensus' emerging from Washington. If we use the leverage accorded by the current but fluid circumstances, we would contribute towards sharpening a new discourse not dictated by the forces pitted against transformation. The nature of the programme we emerge with as an Alliance is therefore not only critical for us in South Africa, but has resonance with the broader international progressive movement.
In practice the Programme/ accord and the electoral pact have come to mean the same thing or are used interchangeably. All of these were developed in response to various political conditions.
They were an attempt to craft a more progressive alternative and a more coherent Alliance. We need to build on progress made in recent Alliance Summits and the space opened by debate and discussion around the need for a post-GEAR consensus.
As has already been noted, we need an Alliance Programme on core areas of transformation to consolidate and advance the gains of the last five years. This must be backed by a clear strategy for implementation. The Alliance Secretariat should work out channels of accountability whereby implementation of the programme by government structures can be tracked and assessed. Further, it must articulate clear organizational strategy on the role of the Alliance in driving transformation and policy development; building organisation and cadreship development and mass mobilisation.
It is clear that this will be a massive undertaking. We therefore need to agree on a number of core issues:
- development and defence of our macro-economic policies;
- development of policy options on implementation mechanisms;
- monitoring the implementation of agreed policies by the state;
The following steps need to be taken:
In implementing the programme mass organisational involvement must be included in order to combine the organisational and social power of the Alliance with its power through the State.
Some critical questions remain. If the programme is not finalised in the near future, what is going to guide the new government? How do we avoid the exigencies of governance from derailing the Programme, thus making it inconsequential? This will force the Alliance to continue operating as a fire extinguisher. If we lose momentum, we will also lose the leverage created by the election process.
We need to clarify whether the Programme is a comprehensive programme that covers every area, or only covers specific issues.
One possible route is to identify measures, such as legislation and institutional mechanisms, that should constitute the immediate programme for the ANC/Alliance. In pursuit of the manifesto, the following issues must, be prioritised for implementation:
We should broadly endorse the Alliance organisational programme drafted by the Alliance Secretariat. COSATU is committed to the Alliance and want to makes work. The following are some points to be taken into consideration when discussing this programme: