By Tmg Digital | Dec 06, 2015
South African Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande on Saturday urged the trade union federation Cosatu to drive a second‚ more radical phase of the democratic revolution.
Speaking in Durban on the 30th anniversary of Cosatu;s formation‚ he said the celebration must not be divorced from the revolutionary role played by the formation`s predecessors.
"It must in fact be a continuation‚" he said‚ adding that the formation of Cosatu had signalled a major victory against the oppressive racist apartheid minority that had sought to suppress shop floor mobilisation in the country.
Nzimande said that over the past 21 years there had been a massive capital flight from the country - reaching some 20% of GDP.
"All kinds of tricks are used to maximise monopoly profits and to minimise any responsibility for developing South Africa. There is transfer pricing and mis-invoicing. There is tax evasion‚ there is the use of tax havens‚ and there is collusion
"In response to our new majority-rule ANC-led government`s attempts to advance reconstruction and development - South African monopoly capital has launched an investment strike‚" he asserted.
"Monopoly capital has often succeeded in infiltrating into our own organisations. They have used narrow BEE. They have used bribes and all manner of fronting to find entry points into government departments. They have fostered a class of vultures‚ the tenderpreneurs‚" he added.
The SACP leader‚ who is the country`s minister of higher education and training‚ added that corruption must be dealt with "not just in theory but practically".
"While the scourge of corruption is not by any measure the main cause of the economic crises we are confronting as a country‚ corruption fragments the democratic state and our movement‚ and opens up space for regime-change agendas. If we are to respond effectively to the economic challenges‚ then it is absolutely essential that as a movement we deal decisively with corruption and corrupt individuals‚" Nzimande stated.
He said it was also necessary to "re-build worker control and worker democracy in the trade union movement".
"We must make sure that COSATU is in the forefront of workplace struggles and that the workers at the same time are at the forefront of community struggles - the struggle for a NHI‚ for free education for the poor‚ the struggle for public transport‚ the struggle against evictions‚ the struggle for basic services (access to safe electricity‚ clean water etc.)‚ the struggle for safe streets - free of drugs and gangsterism‚ the struggle against backward patriarchal practices in our communities."