04 July 2002
The South African Communist Party (SACP) has closely observed developments around the strike of municipal workers led by the South African Municipal Worker's Union (SAMWU) over a wage agreement and related issues.
The SACP adds its voice to the call by the Minister of Labour, Comrade Shepherd Mdladlana on all parties to go back to the negotiations table for meaningful negotiations given the sensitivity and political leadership required to resolve the impasse. The wage dispute cannot and must not end inconclusively. The immediate question posed by the dispute is the need to develop an effective wage policy for local government, including the relationship between the government budgetary processes and wage negotiations.
The SACP strongly believes that workers are not just a cost on the payroll, but are a key asset for transformation in local government. There is no contradiction between a living wage and service delivery. In order to advance the interests of workers, our local government unions need to co-operate with democratic local government led by the ANC. Similarly, democratic local government can never be able to achieve its objectives without unions and worker's struggles harnessed in support of transformation. Any approach that is based on an assumption that one without the other can advance transformation can only play into the hands of the enemies of transformation.
In other words, the approach to this wage dispute and local government transformation must be distinguished from that of the bosses.
It is also in the above context that the SACP welcomes the leadership of SAMWU in ensuring that it condemns the ill-advised tactic of trashing city centres as this may allow anti-worker forces to draw attention away from the real issues and legitimate demands of workers.
CONTACT
Mazibuko Kanyiso Jara
Department of Media, Information and Publicity
South African Communist Party
Tel - 011 339 3621
Fax - 011 339 4244
Cell - 083 651 0271
Email - sacp1@wn.apc.org