COSATU says the South African government has acted as a referee between workers and business, resulting in workers being on the losing end of the game.
The spokesperson for the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), Sizwe Pamla says COSATU will use Workers’ Day or May Day to warn its alliance partners, the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the African National Congress (ANC), that should public policies not change to benefit workers, then the ANC could see itself losing more votes in next year’s general elections.
Speaking to Political Analysis South Africa on Tuesday, 30 April 2018 ahead of COSATU’s main May Day Rally in Nelson Mandela Bay, Pamla said that workers do not have a good story to tell 24 years into the county’s democracy. Pamla charged that the South African government has acted as a referee between workers and business and this has resulted in workers being on the losing end of the game
“We can’t have a government who’s going to intervene and say these ones have the equipment and these ones are playing barefoot. So we can’t say they are equal, so we have to intervene on behalf of these ones especially because they vote for us,” he said.
Pamla explained that in the early years of the country’s democracy, legislation such as the right to strike was introduced to protect workers rights but says that in recent years workers have endured the worst kind of socioeconomic suffering.
“As workers in the last quarter of a century from ’94 we are worse off than we were…because in comparison to white people and the majority of well-off people, the gap is too wide between us,” he said.
Pamla believes the increase in casualisation of the workforce in the South Africa, where he says most workers work on contracts and are not hired as permanent workers, has resulted in job insecurity in many sectors of the economy.
“Before, we used to have people who work for 30 years in one workplace. That is very rare these days”
Pamla further noted that the rapid technological advances taking place in many sectors results in workers being replaced by machines. He said that in order to keep workers in their jobs, government would have to regulate the pace at which technology overtakes the need for human workers.
“We are a country not a casino. You can’t just say free for all and good luck to the winners. That’s not how it works there has to be regulation,” he said.
He added that despite the positive changes in South Africa for many workers since the beginning of democracy, the situation remains dire and is most likely to remain so for a long time unless major policy changes are made by the government in order to accommodate the needs of workers.
