Unionists in government have failed us, says Cosatu
● Deploying union leaders to the government has not benefited workers’ struggles and has instead backfired, says Cosatu general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali.
Ntshalintshali told the Sunday Times in an interview that workers’ frustration is at an all-time high despite many former unionists — including President Cyril Ramaphosa
— making up the core of the country’s leadership and the cabinet.
Cosatu supported Ramaphosa at Nasrec and his ultimate rise to the Union Buildings. As he filled his cabinet with communists and unionists, Ntshalintshali said, this support was premised on the hope these deployees would advance workers’ struggles and socialist-leaning policies. He said this had proved to be a miscalculation as workers continue to be frustrated by an ANC government they see as neoliberal.
The latest blow, he said, was the government dragging public sector unions to court over the 2018 wage agreement and emerging victorious, while workers got a bloody nose. The Constitutional Court this week upheld the government’s decision not to honour the last leg of a three-year wage agreement.
The Cosatu boss said government leaders who came from within union ranks had failed workers.
“We have occupied the highest office in the cabinet with a president [Ramaphosa] from a union, and we had a deputy president from the unions [Kgalema Motlanthe, a former general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers, or NUM] and many people in higher positions within the cabinet. If they were exercising their consciousness, the balance should be tilting towards the workers and working class. But it does not seem to be giving us that advantage,” said Ntshalintshali.
“Look at the minister of finance [Enoch Godongwana] he is a former general secretary of a union [the National Union of Metalworkers of SA]. The minister of trade & industry [Ebrahim Patel] is a former general secretary of a union [the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers Union].
“The minister of mineral resources & energy [Gwede Mantashe] is a former general secretary of a union [the NUM]. The minister of employment & labour [Thulas Nxesi] is a former general secretary of a trade union [the South African Democratic Teachers Union].”
Ntshalintshali said workers “have not seen the fruits” of this deployment policy.
Cosatu, which is in a ruling alliance with the ANC and the SACP, is discussing the possible formation of a forum within the alliance. This will entail all former unionists who occupy senior positions in the cabinet and the government accounting to workers regularly.
Ntshalintshali said it was wrong for workers to look at Ramaphosa alone as a silver bullet to their problems.
“The president is the president of the ANC. We will not just look to one individual without looking to the completeness of the structure he leads.
“But there are issues that workers are not happy about that they feel the president should have intervened in. Whether that is legally possible is something else, but politically the workers feel there are issues the president should have announced differently.”
Despite the workers being “frustrated and angry”, Ntshalintshali said leaving the alliance to form a workers’ party is not a viable option for now.
While workers are at a crossroads, the ANC remains a better devil than any other political party.
Ntshalintshali said the SACP, which would be the obvious vehicle to back as a workers’ party, has shelved plans to contest elections on multiple occasions because it is not ready to go it alone.
“We have taken a decision a long time ago never to venture a political party for workers because our members are diverse in politics. We have members from all the political parties,” he said.
“What workers will not do is to say we would rather have no home and just leave everything to every individual member. We will need to move together to find a new home if the need arises, but for now we are comfortable to stay within the alliance and contest [within] the alliance.”