The ANC Veterans’ League is calling for action against organisers of the Worker’s Day event that saw President Cyril Ramaphosa whisked offstage for safety reasons.
Speaking to Sowetan on Monday, ANC Veterans' League leader Snuki Zikalala said sending Ramaphosa to Rustenburg, North West, had been a miscalculation, adding that those responsible should be held accountable.
On Sunday, Ramaphosa was scheduled to give a keynote address at the Cosatu rally but had to be taken away as angry workers refused that he address them and demanded he leave.
The workers have been on strike for eight weeks now, demanding a R1,000 monthly salary increase for Sibanye-Stillwater gold mine workers.
The mine has rejected their demand and instead offered an R800 monthly increase, which they declined.
Zikalala said ANC structures in the North West were weak and had not met in ages, adding that this was the reason a provincial task team was sent there to build branches.
“We’re aware workers are still on strike and there are tensions there. I don’t know the thinking with sending him there because it didn’t only risk his life but the reputation of the ANC. We’ll raise it at our next meeting to establish what the thinking behind it was,” he said.
Scathing in his comment, Zikalala called for the organisers to take responsibility, saying they should have scanned the environment. “What is it that our people are angry about? Our people are tired of empty promises.
“We’re not saying people should act violently but people’s patience is not endless. Had we delivered on our promises to the poor and delivered water, sanitation ... we wouldn’t have seen what happened on Sunday.
“There won’t be any fallout [with Cosatu]. ANC people should have scanned the environment. We know Cosatu has been contested in the North West and our people should’ve checked,” Zikalala said.
In a statement on Monday, Cosatu national spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said the union hoped the disruptions in Rustenburg would jolt the ANC and its government into action.
Pamla said a 46% real unemployment rate, stagnant wages and budget cuts had exhausted the patience of workers.
“This threatens the coherence and the legitimacy of the alliance in the eyes of the working class. There is an urgent need to address and revive the workers’ confidence in the sixth administration.
“This administration needs to prove that it possesses the capacity to deliver on the 2019 ANC elections manifesto commitments,” he said.
Historically, Workers’ Day is a day when workers reflect on their struggles and push for change.
SA Democratic Teachers Union deputy general secretary Nkosana Dolopi said a big discussion needed to be had by the alliance.
He said Ramaphosa should not concern himself with the embarrassment he suffered but occupy his mind with improving the country’s economy, which he said was still in the hands of white people.
Dolopi said leaders should accept the country was facing unprecedented unemployment levels, adding that Cosatu was not weak but was operating under extremely difficult conditions.
“Ramaphosa’s government is leading the collapse of collective bargaining. If he doesn’t want such incidents to happen, he must protect collective bargaining and protect collective negotiations.
“He must fight corruption with more passion than he’s fighting right now. We must also assist him. We must work with him to fight corruption,” he said.
Labour consultant Tony Healy said organised labour in general had been playing a diminishing role in work places over many years.
He said placing blame solely on organised labour was an overly simplistic way of viewing things.
“Here’s a guy (Ramaphosa) who is responsible for service delivery but also a guy running a corrupt government and who was the vice-president to [former president Jacob] Zuma and didn’t call him out,” he said.
Healy said wearing a Cosatu jacket was not enough to appease the realities workers faced.
“Workers have become smaller, angrier and become an increasingly disillusioned workforce. This is not only in Cosatu but across the unions.
“Labour conditions have become a platform for unrest. When a union member chases a president offstage, it’s a union member coming from a township with no running water, electricity and he/she represents themselves as a South African who feels genuinely disenfranchised,” he said.
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