Cosatu in NC calls on Zuma to resign
THE CONGRESS of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) in the Northern Cape has joined the call by opposition parties and some South Africans for President Jacob Zuma to step down.
Cosatu made the call during the federation’s Provincial Executive Committee meeting that was held in Kimberley last week.
The federation’s provincial secretary, Anele Gxoyiya, said in a statement yesterday that a number of issues, including the political climate in the country, socio-economic issues and organisational matters were discussed during the meeting.
Gxoyiya added that Cosatu condemns political leaders who use government programmes as a way of campaigning.
“We condemn the high level of desperation shown by President Zuma and all those who are close to him, who continue to parade Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma in government programmes while she is not in government,” he said.
“Cosatu in the Northern Cape calls on President Zuma to listen to the calls of the broader masses of the liberation movement and to resign. He should desist from participating in factional politics and work hard to unite the ANC and be the glue that OR Tambo was in difficult times.”
Gxoyiya supported the election of a female president but added that she should first be a deputy president.
“We reaffirm the Central Committee Resolution to support comrade Cyril Ramaphosa for the presidency of the ANC in December, in line with the 47th National Conference of the ANC. We support a female candidate for the position of the deputy president in order to ensure that, when comrade Ramaphosa leaves, he is succeeded by a woman . . . in line with the same established tradition of the ANC.”
Gxoyiya also used the opportunity to take a swing at several provincial government departments.
“Cosatu calls on the MEC for Transport, Safety and Liaison to convene an urgent taxi indaba and to release the report on the illegal sale of taxi operating licences. This will expose those implicated in this act that is aimed at breeding taxi violence.
“We also call on the Department of Health to stop the random issuing of licences for private hospitals as we see this as working in direct contrast with the spirit and trust of the proposed National Health Insurance (NHI).”
Gxoyiya said that Cosatu would convene a bilateral meeting with the MEC for Health to demand the release of the NHI report to the public and also the department’s plan to address the chronic shortages of nurses and other medical professionals.
The federation said that much still needs to be done to address the social challenges, such as unemployment, that the country faces.
“Cosatu’s PEC welcomes the increase in the number of employed people, however, we are concerned that there is a growing number of informal jobs while decent work is being compromised, both in government and the private service.
“The continued failure by the director-general to release the statistics on the vacant and funded posts and the management plan for the filling of those vacancies as well as the recent introduction of EPWP workers in government, is an assault on decent work.”
Gxoyiya concluded by saying that the federation will host a Provincial Shop Steward Council on August 18 in Kimberley to communicate the Central Committee and PEC resolutions.