Latest news with #ZwelinzimaVavi
IOL News
14-05-2025
- Business
- IOL News
GNU clueless on how to tackle unemployment
The official unemployment rate moved upwards because 291 000 people lost their jobs quarter-on-quarter, dropping the employed workforce to 16.8 million as of March this year. Image: FILE THE increase in the official unemployment rate from 31.9% to 32.9% exposes the Government of National Unity's (GNU) "investment conferences" as gimmicks that only serve to create false sense of hope. That is how some unions reacted to news the official unemployment rate moved upwards because 291 000 people lost their jobs quarter-on-quarter, dropping the employed workforce to 16.8 million as of March this year. Statistics South Africa released its latest unemployment figures on Tuesday, showing that there was an increase of 1.3 percentage points of people entering the workforce, or 532 000 more working-age South Africans, which resulted in there also being more unemployed people. That figure is now 8.2 million. StatsSA also noted that those aged between 15 and 34 years remained the most vulnerable in the job market, with both work losses and an increase in unemployed youngsters pushing that unemployment rate up to 46.1% from 44.6% quarter-on-quarter. 'The youth (15–34 years) remain vulnerable in the labour market. The results for the first quarter of 2025 show that the total number of unemployed youth increased by 151 000 to 4,8 million, while employed youth recorded a decrease of 153 000 to 5.7 million. As a result, the youth unemployment rate increased from 44.6% in the fourth quarter of 2024 to 46.1% in the first quarter of 2025,' said StatsSA. South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said the figures underscored the deepening crisis confronting the working class and the urgent need for a radical shift in the country's macroeconomic trajectory. 'These figures are a damning indictment of South Africa's failed capitalist economic system — a system incapable of delivering decent work, reducing inequality, or ending poverty. They also expose the complete failure of the government's macroeconomic policies, which continue to serve the interests of big business and the wealthy elite, while abandoning the working class and the poor. 'The government's dogged commitment to fiscal austerity and neoliberal orthodoxy has led to the disinvestment in vital sectors such as manufacturing, agriculture, and public services, resulting in job losses, factory closures, and economic stagnation.' Vavi said the second phase of Operation Vulindlela, launched by President Cyril Ramaphosa last week was the latest neoliberal scheme to attract private investment — premised on de-risking and privatising strategic sectors. 'As with GEAR, AsgiSA, and other failed frameworks, Operation Vulindlela will not deliver the promised jobs or industrialisation.' His remarks were echoed by Saftu's affiliate, the General Industries Workers Union of South Africa (Giwusa), whose president Mametlwe Sebei the GNU was not the right vehicle to steer the country out of the crisis. 'The so-called GNU continues to implement the same austerity measures, privatisations, and attacks on workers' rights that have led us to this disaster. The latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey reveals GNU and capitalism's brutal assault on the working class. The so-called "recovery" is a myth and false excitement about GNU and business confidence are misplaced as we argued. We're now back to the same 32.9% unemployment rate as Q1 2024, showing capitalism's complete inability to create lasting jobs and GNU impotence in the face of this crisis.' DA spokesperson on employment and labour Michael Bagraim said his party's reform proposals and bold agenda should be front and centre to reverse thesituation. 'A job is more than income, it is hope for the future, security and dignity. This is why the DA's primary focus, and the DA's most important policy agenda in the GNU is to facilitate economic growth for all South Africans, and to do everything we can to foster job creation. Our country needs a growth agenda that unlocks barriers to investment, such as eliminating job quotas and economic and labour regulations that protect narrow interests and not all South Africans.' Delivering a keynote address during a memorial lecture honouring Struggle icon Duma Dokwe, ANC secretary General Fikile Mbalula, said: 'It is our contention as the ANC that the national budget must reflect a growth path that would ensure adequate absorption of the unemployed through economic opportunities for entrepreneurs and expansion of existing businesses…Our young people must embrace the philosophy of lifelong learning in order to become agents for transformation who have the necessary capacity to decisively tackle the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality.' Additional reporting Nicola Mawson. Cape Times
IOL News
02-05-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
Justice or diversion? Saftu challenges Ramaphosa's inquiry into TRC prosecutions
Justice buried under commissions is justice betrayed says SAFTU's general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, condemning President Ramaphosa's new TRC inquiry as another diversion from real action and long-overdue accountability. Image: File The South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) has criticised President Cyril Ramaphosa's decision to establish a new commission of inquiry to investigate why the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) were never implemented. Saftu views this move as a wasteful and cynical attempt to avoid accountability, branding it 'a bizarre and shameful spectacle of the state appointing a commission to investigate itself for its failure to act on the findings of a previous commission.' The announcement comes as Ramaphosa moves to establish a Judicial Commission of Inquiry to investigate whether government officials obstructed the investigation or prosecution of apartheid-era crimes. These cases, referred by the TRC to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), have been a longstanding source of frustration for victims and their families. Earlier this year, survivors and relatives of apartheid victims, with the backing of the Foundation for Human Rights (FHR), initiated legal proceedings in the Gauteng High Court. They accused senior state officials, including President Ramaphosa, Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi, Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, National Prosecuting Authority head Shamila Batohi, and SAPS Commissioner Fannie Masemola, of unlawfully delaying and obstructing justice. The Presidency on Wednesday, acknowledged that past administrations may have improperly influenced these investigations and stressed that the new inquiry follows extensive settlement discussions. However, unresolved issues remain, such as the government's potential liability for constitutional damages, which are now expected to be addressed through the commission's terms of reference. In a statement, Saftu's general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, condemned what it called a recurring pattern of 'governance by delegation and deferral — not by leadership.' According to Saftu, the government's response to major national crises has been to appoint commission after commission, yet few recommendations have been acted upon, and accountability remains elusive. The statement highlights the lack of progress following the Zondo Commission into State Capture, where despite extensive revelations of corruption, 'prosecutions are painfully slow, key enablers remain in office, and billions in stolen public funds have not been recovered.' Saftu says the same failures are evident in the aftermath of the Marikana Commission, the Life Esidimeni Arbitration, and the Nugent Commission into SARS, each revealing systemic abuse or negligence, followed by minimal consequences. Even the TRC, Saftu argues, has been betrayed. 'Three decades later, [its recommendations] have been ignored or shelved,' the federation says, adding that apartheid-era criminals who were denied or never sought amnesty remain unprosecuted, while victims and their families continue to suffer in silence. 'This endless cycle of commissions without consequences has become a deliberate strategy of avoidance,' the statement reads.
IOL News
27-04-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
South Africa's Freedom Day: A Celebration or a Reflection of Ongoing Struggles?
South Africa commemorates Freedom Day, but some organisations refuse to celebrate as many people are still living without dignity. Image: File Various organisations, including unions and civil rights groups, have refused to celebrate Freedom Day as socio-economic challenges 31 years later in democracy. The organisations said the social backlogs that democracy promised to overcome have instead deepened. Freedom Day is a day South Africa celebrates its first post-apartheid election. On April 27, 1994, a new path for South Africa was paved and the idea of a rainbow nation was cemented. This was the first democratic national election held in the country where all people could vote irrespective of their skin colour. The fight for liberation and an equal South Africa culminated in a single day that would change the trajectory of the country. Despite this gain, South Africa faces multiple interconnected socio-economic challenges. These include high unemployment, inequality and poverty. These are exacerbated by issues such as corruption, poor infrastructure and limited access to basic services. The South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) said while the political right to vote was achieved in 1994, economic liberation has been brutally deferred. The federation said rural areas remain zones of abandonment. Informal settlements and townships are scenes of permanent degradation — where millions live without dignity, trapped in overcrowded, unsafe, filthy, and uninhabitable conditions. 'Now even small towns, once relatively livable, are decaying rapidly, racing to join the working-class residential areas in collapse. Potholes, broken water infrastructure, electricity blackouts, refuse piling up, crime, and environmental hazards are no longer exceptional — they are the new normal,' said general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi. Climate change disasters are devastating communities, with thousands displaced by floods, droughts, and fires. Yet government planning remains reactive, uncoordinated, and wholly inadequate,' he said. The sentiments were echoed by the General Industries Workers Union of SA (Giwusa), saying the promises of freedom, dignity, and equality have been shattered by the ruthless advance of capitalism. The union added that what millions fought and died for has been betrayed by a system that replaced apartheid with exploitation dressed in democratic robes. Giwuss president Mametlwe Sebei said although the union acknowledged that the end of apartheid brought about the end of the daily racial humiliations of the black working class, they did not fight and die for mass unemployment, starving wages and casualised jobs, the continuation of land theft, sexual and gender-based violence to be rife and youth to be gunned down for daring to protest. 'This Freedom Day, we declare openly: There is no real freedom under capitalism. We owe this system nothing but its overthrow. We should not beg for crumbs. We must fight for everything they have stolen. We fight for socialism – a system where the wealth of South Africa belongs to those who produce it: the working class,' Sebei said. The South African National Christian Forum (SANCF) said the Freedom Charter has not yet been implemented, saying poverty, unemployment and inequality have been on the rise since 1994. The forum's president Bishop Marothi Mashashane said: 'We cannot celebrate the document which we are told is the best constitution in the world but it is never implemented, people will not eat or wear this piece of paper which is violated by the same politicians who wrote it,' he said, adding that there is nothing to be celebrated in the country where there is no justice for the poor.
IOL News
23-04-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
Out of sight, out of mind: A reflection on legacy and loss
Movements that forget their elders, discard their servants and replace memory with machinery lose their souls, writes Saftu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi. Image: Itumeleng English / Independent Media "The future is everyone's fear." Do not have high expectations of your family, friends, and comrades! Last Saturday, I attended the funeral of a veteran unionist and activist who had faded from prominence over the years due to age and ill health. She was once a fierce organiser and educator for COSATU and had passed through the ranks of SACCAWU and FEDCRAW. She embodied the tripartite alliance and the strong resistance traditions of the Vaal Triangle. She witnessed and survived the fires of 1976, the 1984 Vaal uprisings, the Sebokeng-Boipatong massacre, and every political upheaval in between. Growing up, she lived among neighbours who bore the scars from the 1960 Sharpeville massacre. Her life was woven into the very fabric of the people's movement. Yet I was stunned to discover that her funeral service was being held at her home. Those who grew up in the townships know how small those yards are. For a comrade of her stature? She deserved a send-off befitting a hero. In my mind, I had pictured streets lined with mourners, young people chanting, banners flying, and a final farewell lit by the red colours of the struggle. But none of that was present. The young and the old passed by quietly, minding their own business, their faces heavy with the burdens of daily survival. I recalled Frantz Fanon's eternal words: "Each generation must discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it." And I realised - I could not blame them. The silence of the street was not betrayal; it was exhaustion. There were not many in attendance. I sat at the front and counted the comrades I recognised - perhaps 25. Very few wore the colours of the movement to which she dedicated her life. Not a single red T-shirt of any kind - just a few women from the Women's League who had come in solidarity. The saying "out of sight, out of mind" pierced my thoughts more sharply than ever The coffin was modest, with no draping from the organisations she served. I have seen families go all out for their loved ones at funerals and witnessed ceremonies where resources signified remembrance. But buying the most expensive coffin is not necessarily a fitting tribute. Please give me my flowers while I can still smell them. The speeches from her neighbours and comrades were fitting - moving and fierce. They recounted her story and affirmed her power. I wished more people could have heard them; more neighbours should have seen who lived among them. Then, we proceeded to the cemetery, where the trauma deepened. The grave dug by the municipality was shallow, uneven, and wet, with water pooling at one end. My family has a tradition: a grave must be prepared with dignity. You do not throw soil directly over the coffin; there must be zinc or sticks. It's about honour and respect. And I asked myself - what awaits me and others like me after four decades of sacrifice for the workers' cause? What happened to Elijah Barayi? To Ronald Mofokeng? What will happen to Jay Naidoo, Mbhazima Shilowa, and James Motlatsi? Who will remember? Who will care? Will we only recall their mistakes and forget the decades of their sacrifice? Three weeks ago, I attended the funeral of the lifelong partner of a towering figure in our labour movement - the General Secretary of NUMSA. She was a stalwart in her own right. NUMSA leaders attended and gave her a dignified send-off. Yet again, there was the same quiet, the same absence, the same forgetting. I wanted to see more shop stewards and officials. I had imagined thousands chanting in the streets. So I ask - not out of vanity, but from the depths of a sleepless mind - what will become of me? Will my children remember? Will they bury me with understanding? Will their partners and in-laws even attend? Will they know the life I lived and the struggle I stood for? What about my siblings - of whom only six remain? Some are already pensioners, and two younger siblings are nearing that stage. I trust them; they would bury me with dignity, as we buried my sister only three weeks ago - laid to rest like a queen by her children. But what if they pass before me? And what about the comrades I led and the staff I worked with? The union officials I mentored, defended, reprimanded, and celebrated? Will they come? Will they remember? Will the leadership in place understand what I gave? Or will they leave it to my family to carry the weight of it all? I have organised to ensure my comrades are buried quietly - at my own expense. I borrowed money to travel to the NUMSA General Secretary's wife's funeral. I drove myself there with no one else except my wife. I have organised comrades to take his son to the mountain as part of the Xhosa rituals. I have stood in the gap when their organisations did not. I have made sure others were laid to rest with the honour they were denied in life. But will anyone stand for me as I have stood for others? Movements that forget their elders, discard their servants and replace memory with machinery lose their souls. Kgalema Motlanthe once remarked that there is nothing more important than memory. We spend the better parts of our lives serving without sparing ourselves. But when we age and become sick, we become the burdens of our families and close friends - if we are lucky to have had good friends. This is not a cry for accolades. This is a plea for consciousness I do not fear death. I fear erasure. I fear that the next generation may forget the shoulders they stand on. I fear a politics without memory, without honour, without spirit. But I take comfort in this: somewhere, a young worker is speaking truth to power. Somewhere, a protest is erupting. Somewhere, a soul is being stirred to fight back.
