Address by Zwelinzima Vavi - COSATU General Secretary at the Nedlac Annual Summit

Sandton, 9 November 2002

Thank you for the opportunity to address this important  gathering - the NEDLAC Annual Summit.  We gather here today to assess progress since the last Summit and to assess how far we still need to go.  The Summit presents, representatives of government, labour, business, and community an opportunity to collectively reflect on the challenges confronting our nation.

As we meet in this Summit we note that a lunatic fringe is bent on turning back the clock to white supremacist policies. They dare not succeed and will not succeed to plunge our country into chaos.  Let us together, pledge our solidarity with victims - of this callous and senseless act.

The world also dangerously teeters on the brink of war as the US continues to threaten to bombard Iraqi. We sincerely hope the current UN efforts at averting war will succeed.  All peace loving people should unite against the war and the daily carnage of innocent people.

South Africa is firmly on the democratic path - this year marks the 8th anniversary of our freedom from racial tyranny and the 6th anniversary of our first democratic Constitution.  As workers, we appreciate the progress that has been made to realise the vision underpinning our Constitution.  Yet, our country and the world still faces enormous challenges.  Our task is to turn the hopelessness and despair facing many working class families.

On the whole the working class in South Africa has gained from democracy. But these gains are, however, offset by rising unemployment, poverty, rising food prices, resulting from failing economic policies and a lack of consensus on economic policy.  For example Global Insight quoted in the City Press suggests that the percentage of the population in poverty rose from 41% in 1996 to 49% last year.

Workers' share of national income has drastically declined. In 1990, labour's share of the national income stood at 57%, last year it had fallen to around 52%.  This reflects deepening unemployment, casualisation and the destruction of secure and quality employment, which has been replaced by insecure jobs mainly in the so-called informal sector. Workers are paying heavily for the failure to ensure that political democracy also brought about the transformation of the economy.

Were we to visit Jabu Ngcobo and Cynthia Gumede - the workers introduced to you in previous summits by our former President John Gomomo - we are more likely to find them in despair and hopelessness.  We are likely to find Jabu in a causal job earning way below what he earned in his previous decent job. We are also likely to find him living in a squatter camp that has probably been gutted by fire.

Cynthia Gumede is living with HIV and desperately in need of treatment.  Her HIV status is aggravated by her economic position. Because she ekes a living by selling tomatoes - with many others, may we hasten to add that the informal sector is the only highly competitive sector of the economy - she cannot afford the expensive treatment available in the private health sector.

Her immune is further compromised by poor nutrition as she cannot afford basic foodstuffs due to rising food prices. She looks to the public sector for a solution but in vain as treatment is not universally available. Of course she can go to the public sector for treatment of opportunistic diseases, however she would not have access to anti-retrovirals.

I am citing these examples to illustrate the hopelessness that many of our people face daily and as a call to action.  This summit must restore hope to workers like Cynthia and Jabu who yearn for gainful employment and a better life.  For as long as we speak from different sides of the river we would not succeed to tackle the economic and social problems facing our people particularly, unemployment, poverty, and inequality.

My sincere hope is that this summit would lay the concrete basis for working together to finding solutions to the social problems that threaten our fragile democracy.  Let us unite in efforts to shape a new economic dispensation that will lift our people out of misery and restore their hope and dignity.  The recent General Strike is a symptom of a failure and lack of willingness to engage. Where there is a will there is a way!

There is reason for hope. Gathered here today is the collective wisdom that can shape a new destiny for our people. A national consensus on economic development is made more urgent by the socio-economic crisis facing South Africans.  We can no longer afford to speak from different sides of the fence.  The sector summits that took place this year and the agreement on the plastic bags bears testimony to the importance and relevance of social dialogue. Let us all roll our sleeves to prepare for the Growth and Development Summit.

Finally, government should be congratulated for its sensitivity, even though still committed to the fundamentals of its economic strategy its recent decisions around HIV/AIDS, inflation targeting, food prices, and modest growth of the budget, demonstrate its willingness to modify is position in the face of adverse conditions. To ignore the reality facing our people and blindly impose higher interest rates and so forth would worsen rather than resolve the problem.

These are important steps but we need to work together to fashion a new deal for our people that will see expanding resources from the state in social and economic development and increased investment by the private sector.

I thank you