Union federation Cosatu has called on its ally the ANC to break its silence over the nonimplementation of wage increases for public servants, stressing that collective bargaining was under siege by the government and private sector.
Cosatu is part of the ANC-led tripartite alliance and was among the first to endorse President Cyril Ramaphosa’s campaign for ANC presidency in 2017. It has also always campaigned for the former liberation movement during national elections since the advent of majority rule in 1994. Because if its numbers, its voice is quite strong in the alliance.
However the ANC-led government and unions have been on a collision course since finance minister Tito Mboweni pencilled in cuts to the public-sector wage bill in his Budget Review in February to contain rising government debt and a ballooning budget deficit. A few months later, the government reneged on a three-year wage agreement it had signed with public-sector employees. The union federation has since taken the government to court.
Implementing the last leg of the wage deal for 1.3-million public servants will cost R37.8bn and the government says it has no money.
Cosatu general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali said collective bargaining “is under attack”.
“What is worrying is the silence of the ANC,” he said. “To attack a valid and legal agreement to the extent that you go to court [is not right]”.
“We appeal to the ANC [to break their silence]. They must think carefully about their silence. It’s too loud,” Ntshalintshali said at the start of Cosatu’s three-day collective bargaining conference starting on Wednesday.
In her opening address at the virtual conference, Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi also said workers were under siege by the ANC government.
“Some in the cabinet and Treasury believe unions are a problem [that] must be dealt with,” she said.
“They prefer a quiet, docile labour desk.”
Losi said the government had chosen to ignore the fact that corruption and wasteful expenditure, declining tax revenues, retrenchments, business closures, and bailing out failed state-owned enterprises were the fundamental causes of SA’s fiscal crises.
“Instead, the solution that our comrades in government are imposing upon workers is a four-year public service wage freeze,” she said.
“These comrades of ours have allowed the state to be looted to the point of collapse and are now dumping the [public sector wage] bill on the very essential workers that they glorified for carrying the nation on their shoulders during the lockdown.”
Losi added: “We must be honest comrades, workers are under siege from many within the ranks of our ally, the ANC, and in government.”
ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe did not respond to a request for comment.
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