Vavi eyes strategic control of resources
September 15 2010 at 09:59AM By Carien du Plessis Political Bureau Cosatu would not try to beat the ANC Youth League in the debate about nationalisation of mines, which the youth had started, the labour federation's Zwelinzima Vavi has said, but this did not mean Cosatu agreed with the argument. Referring to the league, Vavi told a gathering in Johannesburg at the launch of the party's economic growth path document yesterday that "we can let the demagogues win the discussion, which is based on a single narrow focus on mines instead of on the role of the state and nationalisation broadly". He said the way the league was arguing the point could give rise to counter-arguments that they were only interested to "lay their hands on the mineral resources", whereas nationalisation in broader terms could work. "They are talking about blanket nationalisation; we are talking about strategic nationalisation, where a state plays a specific role in the control of resources," he said. "I know that the youth league will say that is not what they are asking for, but tactically we must not beat the youth league - we must allow them to push so that the equilibrium is reached in the strategic intervention of the state," he said. Cosatu had worked with the league to develop a discussion document on nationalisation, Vavi said, "but in their posture and public articulation they may lose the plot and focus narrowly on the mines". Vavi said the debate had begun "wrongly", but to restrict it to mines was to do an "injustice" to the state's role. He said the state should take a strategic interest in areas of the economy where monopolies needed to be broken up, such as the cement business. He said it would not be viable to nationalise all mines. ANC structures in Gauteng, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal at the weekend indicated they agreed with Cosatu's stance of broader nationalisation, but some provinces said league members pushed their arguments hard at meetings. In the Eastern Cape, this led to a scuffle and a disruption of the provincial general council. The Western Cape and Mpumalanga indicated that the topic needed to be debated. ANCYL president Julius Malema last week indicated that the league intended to use the issue as a yardstick for which leaders would back. He said the league would only support leaders who subscribed to its stand on the matter, leading ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe to urge party members to leave their emotions outside this debate. At a mining summit last week, Malema said leaders who did not support nationalisation were "undisciplined" members of the ANC because the matter was ANC policy. This referred to President Jacob Zuma's assurances to foreign investors that the matter was neither government nor ANC policy. Vavi was yesterday more subdued in his criticism of ANC leaders after Cosatu agreed to toe the line following a meeting with the ANC. The federation agreed to "defend" ANC policies as well as leaders elected at the party's 2007 Polokwane conference. - *This article was originally published on page 4 of Cape Times<http://www.capetimes.co.za/>on September 15, 2010 * http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=6&art_id=vn20100915041523374C253138 -- News is something someone, somewhere doesn’t want to read. The rest is PR.— Claud Cockburn www.kwelaxpress.co.za -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
