Latest news with #COSATU
IOL News
4 days ago
- Business
- IOL News
R770 million National Dialogue bill sparks uproar: final say lies with finance minister
Finance Minister, Enoch Godongwana will have the final say regarding funding amid widespread criticism from trade unions and political parties. Image: Armand Hough / Independent Newspapers As questions swirl around the projected R770 million price tag for the forthcoming National Dialogue, Deputy President Paul Mashatile has confirmed that the ultimate decision on funding will rest with Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana. Last week, the National Dialogue preparatory committee announced that the process could cost as much as R770 million. This announcement has triggered public outcry and political scrutiny regarding government spending, with South Africa's largest trade union, Cosatu, and several political parties criticising the estimated figures. "COSATU like other sober-minded South Africans was amazed that anyone could even suggest the Dialogue should be allocated R700 rash thumb-suck budget figure should be dismissed as a verbal gaffe and a reckless typo better left deleted and forgotten," Matthew Parks COSATU Parliamentary Coordinator said. Deputy President Paul Mashatile confirms that Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana will hold the final say on funding amid widespread criticism from trade unions and political parties Image: GCIS The National Dialogue was initiated by President Cyril Ramaphosa and aims to promote inclusive discussions on the country's most pressing social, economic, and political challenges. "The dialogue will be a people-led, society-wide process to reflect on the state of our country in order for us to reimagine our future," Ramaphosa said. Speaking to journalists outside the North West University's Rag Farm Stadium on Monday, Mashatile said the minister of finance will have the last say on the budget. "Trade unions, the churches so it's going to be everybody what we are trying to come together as South Africans talk about our challenges but also solutions to our challenges. We want to come out of that dialogue and say this is the South Africa we want to build together," Mashatile said. "The issue of the costs, obviously, will be looked upon by the minister of Finance, and normally when there are activities like this, officials will start planning and projecting the costs. The minister will decide whether funds are available in that regard or we need to cut down". [email protected] IOL Business Get your news on the go, click here to join the IOL News WhatsApp channel
IOL News
5 days ago
- Business
- IOL News
Cosatu: The importance of BBBEE in addressing inequality in SA
Unsplash BBBEE is merely one tool, among many, to address the legacies of the past and the inequalities of today. This is a key prescript of the Constitution and an obligation of the state to society, the writer says. Image: Unsplash Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) remains an important tool to address our deeply ingrained levels of inequality. It would be strange for any democratic government of a nation emerging from three hundred and fifty years of the most brutal and institutionalised forms of discrimination that left over 90% of society consigned to the most poorly paid form of manual labour, not to embrace state supported economic empowerment programme. It would have been tantamount to endorsing South Africa's status as the world's most unequal society, something clearly the fringe right wing extremists wish for. BBBEE is merely one tool, among many, to address the legacies of the past and the inequalities of today. This is a key prescript of the Constitution and an obligation of the state to society. BBBEE in short seeks to give a fair opportunity to millions historically denied such due to their race, gender or disability. People, in particular the race baiting fringe right wing, ignore its inclusivity. BBBEE includes Africans, Coloureds, Indians, plus women, workers and persons with disabilities of all races. In short it covers about 97% of society! BBBEE is not just the 30% shareholding option but also equity equivalents where investors can offer similar investments supporting local companies, creating jobs and investing in communities. All equally important. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad Loading It includes Employee Shareholder or Worker Ownership Programmes (ESOPs). This has been an initiative COSATU and many unions have championed. In the recent past few years, it has seen over 550 000 workers become shareholders in their companies. This has given them a stake in the companies' well-being and growth, but also crucially put money in their pockets. Some critics lament that BBBEE has failed and must be scrapped. Yet they are silent on its role in creating a growing Black middle class. They deride efforts to create Black industrialists yet miss the point of their role in opening factories and companies, and the jobs these create in local communities. Is BBBEE perfect? Of course not. Does it need to be adjusted, lessons learned, mistakes corrected? Without a doubt. Cosatu does have many concerns with the implementation of BBBEE, notwithstanding appreciating its successes in many instances. BBBEE does need to be adjusted to learn from challenges experienced, to avoid repeating them and to ensure its progressive objectives reach those most in need of empowerment, the millions of working class residents living in townships, informal areas, rural towns and villages across the nation. A discussion needs to be had about the once empowered, always empowered notion. Do we want BBBEE to continue to benefit those already empowered? Or can it be adjusted to prioritise those still in need of empowerment? How can this be practically done? An elegant solution is needed lest BBBEE be dismissed as benefiting only the wealthy. How can SMMEs, especially emerging ones, and particularly those in townships and rural areas, be elevated? We should not continue to normalise township and rural economies to be composed of taxis, petrol stations, hawkers and taverns alone. An inclusive targeted approach to these communities where the overwhelming majority of South Africans live, is needed. Can more be done to eliminate fronting where White South Africans merely add the name of a Black employee or partner to their ownership papers or where a Black owned company simply imports goods from Asia? BBBEE is not about names on a letter head. It is meant to reach those in need of empowerment. It cannot be about enriching importers when we need to elevate local procurement and give support to local businesses, Black and White, and not sacrifice them in pursuit of cheap imports. Public procurement with an annual budget of over R1 trillion, from departments to municipalities, entities and State-Owned Enterprises, has a key role to play in supporting BBBEE and more critically making sure it reaches those who need it, not the nouveau riche. The recently assented to Public Procurement Act elevating this important objective across the state will be an important boost in this regard. Public representatives across the three spheres of government need to hold the executives accountable in this regard. The private sector too, in particular large mining, manufacturing, financial and other well-resourced sectors with large procurement budgets, need to provide more solidarity and support to local companies, in particular BBBEE compliant ones. This is key not only to transformation and empowerment, but also to boosting localisation and stimulating badly needed economic growth and tackling unemployment. Whilst Cosatu supports the thrust of BBBEE, the heart of our support and in fact our passion, lays in ramping up ESOPS or Worker Ownership Programmes. We want workers to live a better life, to boost their earnings, to have more money to pay their debts, to feed their families and to buy the goods local companies produce and thus spur economic growth and sustain and create more jobs. We want workers to become co-owners of their companies as this gives them a stake in their success and a direct motive to boost productivity and again spur economic growth and sustain and create jobs. We want to end the still painfully prevalent apartheid scars that are the feature of almost every township, village and community. We want workers, African, Coloured, Indian, White, women and with disabilities, to be co-owners in this economy, including on the JSE. We want this better life now, not in some indeterminate future promised on a Jpeg by irrelevant populists. Workers are the backbone of the economy. They have made South Africa the industrial hub of the economy. Many have grown wealthy off of their sweat and blood, it is time that this wealth is shared with the working class. ESOPs are a critical path to doing that. BBBEE is not perfect, but its objectives remain as valid today as they were in 1994. Adjustments are needed, in particular to make sure the SMMEs in our townships, local manufacturers, and most importantly workers are elevated and prioritised at all times. Solly Phetoe is the General Secretary of Cosatu. Solly Phetoe is general secretary of Cosatu. Image: Doctor Ngcobo / Independent Newspapers.
IOL News
26-05-2025
- Business
- IOL News
SA's Jobs Crisis: A Reflection of Capitalism's Failures
Members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) hold placards and shout slogans in support of a nationwide demonstration in Durban on February 13, 2019. The ANC has failed to prioritize job creation in its economic policies, says the writer. Image: AFP Dr Trevor Ngwane Are South Africans looking for a sign? After 30 years of democratic governance, millions of working-class and poor people continue to await the promised benefits of liberation after decades of struggle. Some are losing hope that meaningful change will occur for themselves and their children. There are still far too many continuities of oppression and exploitation from the past. Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke's recent release of the country's unemployment figures may be the sign the masses have been waiting for. He informed the nation that approximately 12 million workers are unemployed, with youth aged 15 to 24 bearing the brunt of the crisis. About 3.2 million of them are idling at home, neither working nor attending educational institutions. Their future is bleak. Is the unemployment crisis in South Africa a sign that the economic system is failing, that our society is unviable, and that we are staring into the abyss of a social apocalypse? Using the expanded definition of unemployment, 43,1% of workers were unemployed in the first quarter of 2025, marking a 1.2-percentage-point increase from the previous quarter. Conditions are worsening, not improving. This suggests systemic failure, indicating that the economy is broken and unsustainable. The unemployment rate is not merely a statistic; it is a crime scene. Unemployment represents a form of structural violence. Daily life poses a challenge for the majority of people. Everything becomes a problem when you are both unemployed and poor: food, water, electricity, housing, healthcare, education, transport, and so on. Deprivation and destitution define your existence, leaving you perpetually on the brink of despair and hopelessness. At times, it seems as though there is neither a present nor a future. Hardship and suffering have been normalized in post-apartheid South Africa. Unemployment is not the worst of the morbid symptoms found in a society caught at a crossroads in its history. Post-war Germany and the USA faced a similar predicament in the 1930s following the 1929 Great Depression: mass unemployment, economic despair, and a crisis of legitimacy in their respective political systems. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Next Stay Close ✕ Hitler led the Volk down the path of fascism, providing them with scapegoats and authoritarianism. Roosevelt adhered to the democratic course, presenting a vision of hope and reform. Hitler directed Germany toward war and disaster, while Roosevelt steered the USA toward reforming capitalism through a bold program of public works, financial regulation, and social safety nets. Since the 2008 global economic meltdown, a crisis rooted in neoliberal capitalism, the world has been plunged into uncertainty, insecurity, and instability. Once again, the world finds itself at a crossroads. Under President Trump, the U.S. government drives a populist right-wing shift in global politics. There is a movement to retreat from liberal democracy and the globalization agenda of neoliberalism. Governments and political leaders are forced to choose which path to take. This choice is often framed as democracy versus authoritarianism, multilateralism versus unilateralism, open trade versus protectionism, the Global North versus the Global South, etc. At the heart of it all lies the question of how to survive and thrive as nations, classes, and individuals amid the conditions of a capitalist crisis. The system has long passed its expiration date. Every capitalist government or enterprise strives to save itself, maintain its economic power, and shift the burden of the crisis onto others. South Africa finds itself in this predicament. In its 30 years of governance, the ANC has failed to extract the country from the ongoing dysfunctions of racial capitalism, including a low growth rate, a small domestic market, the non-beneficiation of its mineral resources, and a high unemployment rate, to name just a few of its shortcomings. It is fair to say that the ANC came to power during a challenging economic period. The 1940-1970 Golden Age of Capitalism, marked by significant economic growth, high productivity, low unemployment, and prosperity for Western European and East Asian countries, had long since ended, and neoliberalism took hold. Contrary to the Freedom Charter, the ANC was never allowed to seize 'the commanding heights of the economy'; instead, ANC leaders accepted the dominance of neoliberal ideology without resistance. From all accounts, neoliberalism devastated the South African economy, fulfilling its agenda of making the rich richer and the poor Africa lost millions of jobs due to the opening of the economy by World Trade Organization policy; manufacturing was nearly decimated by the ANC's eagerness to embrace unfettered global trade; billions of rands exited the country when the ANC removed exchange controls; the economy was nearly suffocated by the South African Reserve Bank's high interest rates and dogmatic inflation targeting. These misguided policies have contributed to unemployment. The ANC has failed to prioritize job creation in its economic policies. It has been timid when faced with vested interests that sought to benefit from the country's economic resources at the expense of the working class and the poor.
The Star
22-05-2025
- Politics
- The Star
All you need to know about Zingiswa Losi: The woman who schooled Donald Trump on South Africa
Zingiswa Losi, the president of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), delivered a pointed response to US president Donald Trump's controversial remarks on South African land reform and violence against white farmers during a high-level meeting at the White House on Tuesday. Losi, the country's first female president of COSATU, joined president Cyril Ramaphosa as part of a delegation aiming to strengthen diplomatic and economic ties between the two nations. Trump used the opportunity to repeat long-standing, debunked claims of 'systematic killings' of white farmers, raising alarm over land expropriation policies in South Africa. She countered his narrative with a clear message: crime in South Africa is a universal scourge, not a racially targeted phenomenon. "The problem in South Africa is not necessarily about race, but it's about crime," Losi told Trump. "Black men and women in our rural communities are just as many victims of brutal crimes as anyone else." Born in 1975 in KwaZakhele, Eastern Cape, Losi began her activism in the anti-apartheid struggle, inspired by her politically active family. She served in the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) from 1996 to 1999 before joining Ford Motor Company in Port Elizabeth, where she became a shop steward for the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA). Her rise within the labour movement was steady. She served as COSATU's second deputy president from 2009 and became its first female president in 2018, securing re-election in 2022.
The Guardian
22-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Ramaphosa withstood Trump's bizarre ambush – but he let down South Africans
The dust is still settling from Donald Trump's latest 'ambush' in the Oval Office. What started off as a series of pleasantries about golf between the US president and South African president Cyril Ramaphosa's delegation quickly turned into a lecture – complete with a video screening and reams of printed-out news articles – about how a white genocide is supposedly under way in my home country. The delegation was largely successful in correcting that narrative. It emphasised that crime affects South Africans of all races and that white citizens are not specifically targeted. Zingiswa Losi, president of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, rightly pointed out that in rural areas, it is Black women who bear the brunt of violent crime. On the surface, this might all seem like a familiar conflict – one between Trump's deluded and emboldened hard-right vision of the world and a country's leadership trying its best to stick to the facts without aggrieving the beast too much (South Africa is still facing 30% tariffs, after all). But as an investigative journalist and researcher who focuses on land dispossession and reform in South Africa, to me the encounter looked different. All I could see was a missed opportunity. One spark for this ongoing showdown between the Maga movement in the US (allied with some white Afrikaners in South Africa) and the African National Congress (ANC) government has been the introduction of a land reform act that was passed in January. The law aims to address the inequalities of the white-minority-rule era by tackling an issue that has been ignored for too long in post-apartheid South Africa and lies at the root of many of our problems: land. To explain why, let me return to the subject of golf – a subject that feels all the more appropriate given that, at Trump's request, Ramaphosa's delegation included professional golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen. I've written extensively about golf courses and golf estates. Take the suburb of Fourways in northern Johannesburg, which contains some of the most exclusive and luxurious golf estates in the country. With homes that sell for tens of millions of rands, these enclaves serve South Africa's wealthy elite. Among their many amenities such as private lagoons, nature trails, sports fields and high-end restaurants, the most coveted is safety. In a city with high rates of car hijackings and home invasions, their surveillance systems, access control and electrified perimeter walls offer peace of mind that is a luxury in Johannesburg. Inside those walls lies a world largely insulated from the realities of South Africa – a world that is overwhelmingly white, even though more than 80% of the South African population is Black. Before Fourways became a hub of luxury living, it was an agricultural region made up of farms and smallholdings. The land was seized in the 19th century by Afrikaner settlers who forced the original Black residents into labour tenancies. Stripped of land rights, those tenants could only stay on their ancestral land if they worked it for the settlers. In the 1980s, as apartheid began to falter and the prospect of democracy grew, many white landowners sold their farms to private developers and fled the area or the country. The labour tenants were left behind, only to be forcibly relocated to underresourced townships such as Alexandra and Soweto. They lost not just their homes and livelihoods but also family graves and burial plots that could not be moved. Some 30 years into democracy, the former labour tenants of Fourways, like the majority of South African land claimants, are still trapped in a backlogged, corrupted land-claims process with their hope dwindling that they'll ever be granted compensation or restoration of their land rights. This is why it's so tragic that Ramaphosa's team has been framing the failure of land reform as proof of successful race relations. It's as if they're effectively saying: 'Look – there can be no 'white genocide' in South Africa because white people own 72% of farmland!' This is factually correct. However, our inability to redistribute land, and thus create a more equitable and sustainable South Africa, is not a marker of national unity. It is the ANC's most glaring policy failure, one the government is only belatedly trying to fix with this controversial law. The crowded, impoverished townships where the state relocated Black South Africans under the Group Areas Act remain among the most dangerous places in the country. Generations of South Africans have been cut off from the wealth-building power of land ownership. Here's the key point: this economic exclusion, combined with mass unemployment, fuels the very crime that the delegation insisted affects everyone equally. I appreciate that it may not have been the right occasion and Trump was probably not a receptive audience for a nuanced conversation. Still, it saddens me to think of the resources poured into this mission to correct the damage being wrought by a malicious, white supremacist agenda in South Africa and the US. Meanwhile the historically dispossessed South Africans who need these resources most are left to flounder, overlooked as the true victims of the violence of the apartheid regime and the dark shadow it has cast over our young democracy. Most Black South Africans will never be able to afford to move to areas such as Fourways. They live in places the government once designated for removal, with limited access to jobs, safety or infrastructure. They are the ones most exposed to violent crime, not those living in fortified golf estates and large fortified farms. Zanele Mji is a writer, investigative journalist and podcaster based in Johannesburg, South Africa
