INPUT BY THE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE LABOUR
CONSTITUENCY: ZWELINZIMA VAVI, GENERAL SECRETARY OF
COSATU
In his opening, the General Secretary of Cosatu stated that the
NEDLAC 13th Annual Summit came at a critical time
whereby the country was faced with serious economic and social
challenges.
The following were certain key economic and social challenges
highlighted:
- The global economic crisis, which threatened to worsen the
lives of workers and the poor;
- Eskom - energy crisis;
- The state of healthcare, worsened by the HIV epidemic;
- Discussion by Nedlac around the crisis of food price increases
which had been rising much faster than overall inflation;
- High interest rates, other countries were slashing their
interest rates to try to offset the looming recession, and South
Africa' s interest rates remained stubbornly high, making the rate
of job losses high;
- CPIX inflation rose by 10.1% in March 2008, while inflation for
very low income earners was at 13.5%, mainly because of food prices
which accounted for 51% of their expenditure.
- The unemployment rate had already started to creep upwards,
from 23,1% in the second quarter of 2008 up to 23,2% in the third
quarter, together with a 0,4% fall in the total number of people
employed to 13.655,000, which left 4,122,000 officially unemployed.
The said figures excluded those deemed to have given up looking for
jobs, and underestimated the real levels of joblessness and
poverty;
- The global financial meltdown, which threatened to plunge the
world economy into a deep recession, which would threaten millions
of jobs;
- It obscured a huge problem of the rapid decline in the quality
of work, as more permanent jobs had been casualised and/or
outsourced to labour brokers, so that more workers fall into
low-paid, insecure and temporary forms of employment;
As a result of the above, food price increases were fuelling
economic and social inequality, at a faster pace than the State
social security system could keep up with.
The General Secretary pointed out that on 1 July 2008,
electricity tariffs shot up by 27.5%, more than double the overall
level of inflation. Whilst NERSA had agreed to a further high
tariff hike of 20% - 25%, Eskom was looking at even higher tariffs
hikes for 2009. He accordingly requested Government to
intervene, by making available the costs of recapitalising Eskom,
as a grant, and not a loan, that would end up being unfairly repaid
by the consumers.
In conclusion, The General Secretary emphasised that Nedlac and
all its stakeholders should continue to find the maximum unity and
solutions around the economic policies that would be in the best
interest of all South Africans.