COSATU-SACP Mpumalanga Bilateral Statement

14 June 2015

"Consolidate the unity of the socialist formations in Mpumalanga"

The provincial officials and office bearers of the SACP and COSATU in Mpumalanga held a successful bilateral meeting on Wednesday, 10 June 2015 at Mbombela. The meeting assessed the relations of the two organisations, state of the alliance and adopted a way forward. The meeting further assessed how far our Province is in terms of economic and preparing itself for a second, more radical phase of our democratic transition.

Consolidating the relations between the two working class organisations

COSATU provincial leadership briefed the SACP on the state of the federation nationally and at the provincial level. Both parties expressed appreciation for the unity and cohesion of COSATU in the province and underlined the imperative of protecting the unity of both organisations.

The meeting agreed that there is a need to build a strong COSATU and SACP, effectively functional to fight for the unity of the alliance in the province. The unity of COSATU and SACP is not informed by the emotions or personal relations but the common ideological objective which is socialism. There is a need to have a strong alliance to advance the struggle for socio-economic and political campaigns on the ground for a total emancipation of our communities.

The immediate tasks facing the two working class organisations therefore include taking up campaigns against privatisation of Eskom, sky-rocketing tollgates, corruption, political killings and as well as the campaign against exploitation of the farm workers. The organisations will work closely to develop a clear program to deal with campaigns of shared perspective.

State of the Alliance in the province:

The meeting raised concerns with the state of the alliance in the province and agreed that a united alliance is needed to advance the second radical phase of the National Democratic Revolution. Both organisations have noted a rising phenomenon of anti-communism in the province as perpetuated by some within the alliance and vowed to isolate those who seek to undermine the relevancy of the alliance.

The immediate task of the revolutionary alliance is to rid the province of the vestiges of apartheid colonialism and launch a radical process of constructing a democratic society and speed up service delivery. On that note, COSATU and SACP call for the Provincial Alliance Summit that will seek to strengthen the relations amongst the tripartite organisations.

Plight of farm workers in the province:

We are deeply concerned by the continued exploitation of farm workers in the province. Both organisations welcomed the establishment of a Provincial Commission on Farm Workers which seeks to deal with the challenges the peasants face on a daily basis and commit to fight to change the plight of these workers. Amongst other challenges faced by farm workers include:

• The non-compliance by farm owners with the sectoral determination which seeks to protect workers from exploitation.
• The unnecessary eviction from farms upon a farm worker becomes unemployed which in most cases is due to a wrong dismissal.
• As a matter of cheap labour, continuous usage of foreign nationals who are economically vulnerable.

Second radical phase of the NDR:

We believe that little has been done in advancing our radical approach to transform our provincial economy to serve the people. The uneven spatial development of the province, characterised by high levels of uneven urbanisation and under developed rural communities is delaying this program. There is a need to create decent work in the province of Mpumalanga through meaningful economic transformation and inclusive development.

We call on the re-establishment of the Provincial Economic Transformation Commission which amongst others will:

• Assess the implementation of the Mpumalanga Growth Economic and Development path.
• Deal with challenges facing our municipalities, lack of service delivery and health services in the province.
• To discuss a common alliance approach on matters of common interest.

Issued by COSATU and SACP Mpumalanga

Contact:

Bonakele Majuba - SACP Provincial Secretary
Mobile: 082 968 4877

Fidel Mlombo - COSATU Provincial Secretary
Mobile: 079 511 0947