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JOHANNESBURG. – The jubilant screams and cheers for ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa at Cosatu’s May Day rally were a stark contrast to last year’s heckling of then president Jacob Zuma, which eventually led to the cancelation of the event.
“This is the day when all of us, as South Africans, take off our hats and say ‘thank you’,” said President Ramaphosa as he too removed his black baseball cap while addressing the trade union members.
“Thank you for all the work that you do… because in the end you are the people that make South Africa work,” he declared.
“We say to you: ‘We respect you; we love you; we support you; we want to continue walking this journey with you’.”
President Ramaphosa’s gesture inspired a warm response in the crowd.
Last year, Cosatu was forced to abort its main May Day rally in Bloemfontein on Monday after former president Jacob Zuma was prevented from delivering the keynote address.
At the time, the unrelenting crowd sang anti-Zuma songs which escalated when Mr Zuma arrived at the venue. There was also a scuffle between supporters and those against Mr Zuma.
In an unprecedented move, after several failed attempts by provincial leaders to calm the crowd, Cosatu then announced an end to the 2017 event with no speeches delivered.
At yesterday’s event, President Ramaphosa used his speech to defend the national minimum wage.
He said that while the stipulation of R20 an hour was not a living wage, it was a move which would lift 6.6 million workers who were currently earning below this.
“Even as we were negotiating this, we know this is not a minimum wage – but we said that we need to form a foundation, so that we can keep going up.”
He said that if the minimum amount had been too high, too many people would have lost jobs and companies would have to close.
“The struggle for a living wage must continue but we must start somewhere,” he asserted.
President Ramphosa also paid tribute to the ANC’s alliance partners, Cosatu and the SA Communist Party – as well as the SA National Civic Organisation (Sanco).
“We are grateful, that indeed we do have an alliance in our country because this is the alliance that takes South Africa forward.”
President Ramaphosa also said that while the right to strike had to be protected, important services had to be allowed to continue, and property that belonged to all citizens was not damaged.
“Recently, where there has been strikes and protests, we have found some workers have been preventing other workers from doing important work such as helping women to give birth or helping newly-born babies.”
Moreover, torching vehicles and burning buildings was counterproductive, he said.
“Let us also be careful not to damage the assets that belong to all of us.
“Let us have that humanity, that even when we are on strike, certain services are important.”
President Ramaphosa ended his speech by making a call for a single federation to govern all unions.
“As the ANC, we long and look forward to the day when the workers in our country will be united under one federation – so that we can have one country and one federation.”
He said that this would allow all workers to be “talking in one voice” rather than “talking against each other and marching against each other”.
The SA Federation of Trade Unions, a breakaway from Cosatu, has recently gained significantly in power in the sector; holding countrywide strikes last week.
Earlier, the SA Communist Party General Secretary Blade Nzimande told those gathered at Tuesday’s event that while the party supported Cosatu, it would also reach out to other worker groupings.
“Cosatu is our ally but we are going to reach out to other progressive worker formations.
“You can’t have a trade union federation that goes on a strike by attacking other worker federations. That is against worker unity,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) says it will not be commemorating this Workers’ Day this year.
Instead the union is campaigning for Workers’ Day to be moved to a date that it says is “more emblematic” of South Africa’s working class struggle – the Marikana massacre on August 16.
On August 16, 2012, police opened fire on a crowd of striking miners at Marikana in the North West. Thirty-four mineworkers were killed, and 78 seriously injured.
“As a trade union we hold the Lonmin (Marikana) massacre in the same logical plane as the Soweto Uprising and the Sharpeville Massacres, just mention a few; which have managed to symbolise the youth and human rights struggles of our Country,” AMCU president Joseph Mathunjwa said.
“It is this symbolism that gives meaning and relevance, within context, to a public holiday for whatever purpose.”
International Workers’ Day is celebrated globally on May 1 every year after 300 000 workers in the US left their workplaces to demand an eight hour working day, Mathunjwa said.
However, the day has been adapted to celebrate various struggles in different contexts in different countries.
“Suffice to mention, there have been different standards internationally in determining the workers day with some countries using the first Monday of May while other countries such as the USA celebrate this day on the first Monday of September,” he said. – News24
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