Volume 7 No 6 / 7 - September / October 1998
Winning Letter: Shop stewards should be active
Proposed demutalisation of Sanlam and Old Mutual
How free are they?
Demutualisation on track
Ditsela Conference
Employment Equity Bill
Cosatu fights crime
Strikes
Workers show solidarity
Municipalities to subsidise private water companies
Jobs summit
T&GWU to organise taxi drivers
International News
Zimbabwean workers keep up the fight
Swaziland - poor voter turnout
The long awaited Presidential Jobs Summit will at last take place at the end of October. In his address to parliament early this year, President Mandela described the Jobs Summit as one of the most significant events since the 1994 democratic elections. It has the potential to unify the country and offer hope to the majority of workers - most of whom are referred to as the working poor - and the unemployed.
The federation, as part of the labour caucus in NEDLAC, has put forward a number of proposals which are aimed at creating jobs, stemming job losses and creating a climate within which further discussions on macro-economic issues can take place.
However; you cannot create jobs, stem job losses, grow the economy 6~ deal with poverty and unemployment unless you have a framework that creates and permits such conditions.
As a federation, we make no apologies for putting forward a bold plan necessary for job creation. We believe that solving the unemployment crisis is critical if we are to have a stable society. Unemployment is the root cause of poverty, crime and other social ills which poverty breeds. Unemployment is caused by a long history of mismanagement of the economy, de-skilling and under-development and an ongoing shortage of sustained investment in infrastructure and industry. The Presidential Jobs Summit can be useful to address this situation.
However, for it to succeed will require bold vision, innovation, political will and support by the majority of South Africans.
Our interests as workers - both organised and unorganised - and those who depend on us, the bulk of whom are unemployed, are materially linked to the success of the Summit.
The Summit must succeed in creating new jobs and consolidating and improving the quality of working life in South Africa.
Labour has proposed that workers donate a day's wage as workers to this worthy cause. COSATU has suggested a day in March 1999. Let's carry out these revolutionary ideas for the sake of our country.
We are going to the Summit willing to commit workers' money - be it from a day's wage, from our retirement funds or redirecting our investment companies into social and productive investment -
so too must the government and business contribute. I think it will do them a lot of good were they both to put money into reconstruction and development.
1999 Elections
The elections campaign has started in earnest We will use future editions to outline in detail what we are doing as COSATU to ensure that our future is
secure. But if you want to vote:
Even President Mandela will not be allowed to vote if he has no bar coded ID and if he has not registered as a voter. I have a bar coded ID, so I will register as a voter at the end of November. Then I will be able to vote. Make sure all of you do the same.
SASBO Congress
A few weeks ago SASBO held its national congress. It was a first of its kind. Some voices called on SASBO to suspend its affiliation to COSATU, but the overwhelming majority had no doubt that their future lies inside COSATU and the motion was defeated.
This is a sign that workers in SASBO are willing to take bold steps to safeguard their future in the federation and to continue to influence policies in COSATU through effective participation.
Mbhazima Shilowa
General Secretary
Write to The Shopsteward to give your views on how to deepen transformation in our country or any other issues and debates on Cosatu’s agenda. Send your letters to:
The Shopsteward
P.O. Box 1019
Johannesburg 2000
I would like to stress my opinion to those comrades who don’t want to be active. I would like to advise our comrades not to rely on officials as they may be busy. I am not saying that officials are not supposed to visit companies, but comrades should also be active rather than prefer that the officials do everything.
The companies who have been with the union a long time, should be visited by officials.
I appeal to all comrades to attend local meetings each and every time they sit, so that problems can be addressed at these meetings and so that they can gain knowledge about the struggle.
Be committed.
The problem is that comrades don't want to commit themselves. Once comrades are chosen to do something, when they refuse then they distance themselves from the union.
Comrades, if you don't want to commit yourselves then who is supposed to guide you? We should all be together and ensure that we accommodate and advise each other. I am not saying that I am perfect, but let us all be together like the Ppwawu comrades. Let us be proud of our union and popularise it. Let us ensure that our union will grow bigger and bigger.
Let us give our comrades support in companies as they have elected us to stand for them. Let us show employers that we can make it if we want so they can respect us and our union.
If we are not active they will play with the workers. We should not allow employers to divide us as comrades. We should ensure that we move forward and implement something progressive.
Shopstewards, let us not leave our comrades to drift away while we are here. Let us show employers that we are active and that we can stand for our members at all times. We should guide our members with the correct information, and not wrong report backs. We should be responsible to give them a way forward as they are the ones who have elected us. We should satisfy workers so that they should be happy at the end of the day.
I thank the two comrades who advise us when attending conferences, Comrade Gomomo and Comrade Shilowa. I thank them for their respect and as the umbrella in assisting affiliates to fight retrenchments. I will be happy if this can be done, because many of our comrades are losing jobs. Crime won't stop because of these retrenchments.
Viva Comrade Shilowa, Viva
Viva Comrade Gomomo, Viva
Forward with the Struggle, forward. Long Live Ppwawu, Long Live,
Long Live Cosatu, Long Live Viva Comrade Madiba, Viva
Viva ANC, Viva
Moffat P. Motshabalekgosi,
Ppwawu Office Bearer
I write to you as a concerned member of both Sanlam and Old Mutual and as a concerned South African.
The millions spent on propaganda by the men and women who run Sanlam and Old Mutual has duped almost all financial commentators into believing that demutualisation is a most wondrous thing. It will, they say, provide a "windfall" for millions of ordinary people and a much-needed boost to the economy when these windfalls are spent; a boost that will pull South Africa out of its present economic slump. 'In addition’, they say, ‘the 2.5% job-creation levy imposed by the government will go a significant way to relieving our unacceptably high unemployment rate.’
Old Mutual are spending half-a-billion rands (Sanlam, a similar figure) in leading us to believe that demutualisation will do all this without affecting members’ benefits in any way. Apparently there is plenty of upside and no downside. A classic ‘win-win’ situation.
I disagree and I think that many other people would disagree if the proposal to demutualise had been presented to them in a more even-handed manner and with ample time for serious debate.
Firstly, how big will the so-called windfall be? The vast majority of policy holders (85%) will receive 800 shares or less and almost two-thirds will receive 400 or less (Sunday Times, September 13 1998). Since the recent stock market crash, many market analysts now believe that the shares will only come on to the market at around R5 per share, at best. So the typical member will be lucky to receive R2,000. He will also have the inconvenience of selling his shares because no mechanism has been established for this purpose and no alternative cash offer in lieu of shares has been made.
In return, the free reserves of both companies will disappear overnight. In Old Mutual's case, these reserves have been built up of over more than 150 years. Old Mutual and Sanlam argue that this will not affect members’ benefits in any significant way, that members will get what they would have got, had the companies not demutualised.
However, with the recent slump in the market a few more discriminating commentators are now questioning whether without these free reserves as a cushion, Sanlam and Old Mutual will not be faced with a serious financial struggle in the months ahead - if not to meet guaranteed minimum benefit payments under existing policies, at least to declare reasonable bonuses in line with members' expectations (see article written by Jim Jones, Business Day, September 16 1998). Indeed, both companies have already indicated that they will be declaring negative bonus rates this year on certain series of policies.
To my mind this means that a long-standing member with a retirement or Investment policy who is retiring within the next year or so could stand to lose a significant amount of money; an amount far in excess of his so-called windfall.
Both Sanlam and Old Mutual are, at best, being disingenuous when they claim to act in the best interests of members. What they want is an unfettered licence to pursue their international aspirations (which they find exciting) and at the same time line their pockets with money that belongs to the members and that is there for the sole purpose of protecting members' interests in hard times.
Marinus Daling, for example, stands to gain 190 571 free shares (Sanlam's published proposal) plus the benefits from an executive share-incentive plan, plus, no doubt, a generous new remuneration package commensurate with the responsibilities of heading a large shareholder company. I would argue that his management of Sanlam over the past few years does not warrant the money he has already had without his being rewarded for giving away billions of roads of members' money.
Secondly, the 2.5% levy which both institutions freely agreed to allow the government to take, is nothing more than a sop. Money is needed to help job creation but whipping it off the top in this manner is not the way. A return to prescribed asset requirement placed on insurance companies as in the past would generate much more money without members having to give up their reserves.
I know you have given this matter a great deal of consideration and that you are not convinced that demutualisation is in the best interests of members or the country at large. Unless Sanlam and Old Mutual give members more time and show less bias, I urge you to urge your members to vote "NO" to the proposal to demutualise.
Yours sincerely
Concerned South African
Since it took effect on the 21st March 1988, the Basic Conditions of Employment Act's chapter on Child Labour has been either not known or deliberately ignored. This is evident in our countryside, where the farmers are exploiting the children.
Our democracy is just a dogmatic blue print, as long as this sector of our society is still experiencing super exploitation. The children are denied their basic human rights laid down by the South African Schools Act - the right to learn. The alliance structure has been luke-warm in kick-starting the campaign on Basic Conditions of Employment Act, to keep our society and security system conscious. We should also encourage the children involved, to consult social workers if the need persists.
As a Party we should spearhead this campaign, because it is no one’s task but ours to eradicate social injustice, laid by the bourgeois-democracy, which seeks its way, to monopolistic accumulation of wealth at the expense of everything including blameless children.
By: David Mashilo,
Deputy Secretary,
SACP Sekhukune East District.
The Basic Conditions of Employment Act will probably only come into effect on December 1, 1998. The Act was passed but was not promulgated because small business complained it would affect their businesses. Parties agreed to do research on how it would impact on small business and only after that would it come into effect. See also the story on Basic Conditions of Employment. Editor.
