Business Day
* Cosatu launches UDF to rescue SA* *Bekezela Phakathi, Business Day, Johannesburg, 28 October 2010*WARNING that SA faced a "national catastrophe", the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) yesterday launched a major civil society effort to tackle corruption, poverty and unemployment.
Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, in his address to the Civil Society Conference, evoked the landmark formation of the anti-apartheid United Democratic Front in 1983, but was at pains to stress that it was "not an anti-African National Congress and anti-government coalition".
"The challenges we face today are different but nonetheless very major and require a similar mobilisation of the democratic forces as we saw in those years," Mr Vavi told delegates at the launch in Boksburg.
The delegates represented civil society formations, including the Treatment Action Campaign (an AIDS lobby group), the National Union of Mineworkers and the Food and Allied Workers Union.
Although Cosatu is in alliance with the ANC, it often complains that its views are overlooked, especially on economic policy.
Its joining forces with other nongovernmental groups is being seen as an attempt by civil society to reposition itself at the centre of the national debate.
"We are not here to begin a process to form any political party, nor to advance the interest of any individual.
"We have only one enemy --- neoliberalism, that has condemned our people to poverty and unemployment," Mr Vavi said. He also criticised government officials involved in business, saying this was the root of corruption and a "big threat to our efforts to establish a transparent and corruption-free government".
He said corruption in particular "is a matter of life and death for our democracy".
"Day after day we see allegations of trusted public representatives being accused of using their position to enrich themselves and their families."
He said the elite were being awarded bonuses worth millions of rand, while workers, like those at Aurora's gold mine, had been waiting months to be paid.
This, he said, was sending the wrong message to students and entrepreneurs --- that if you had the right "connections" in government you could become a millionaire. "Young people in their 20s and 30s have become overnight multimillionaires.... We are rewarding laziness, greed and corruption and discouraging hard work, honesty and integrity."
His sentiments could be seen as an attack on President Jacob Zuma and his nephew, Khulubuse Zuma, who has become an "overnight millionaire".
Mr Vavi said public representatives had to "choose between being people's representatives or being in business". "The mere fact that they are in business to make money creates an inevitable conflict of interest when they are legislating in Parliament," he said.
Cosatu's patience was running out. "Yes we are angry.... We can no longer fold our arms and do nothing. We demand a more egalitarian society," Mr Vavi said.
Aubrey Matshiqi, a political analyst at the Centre for Policy Studies, said the coming together of the civil society bodies was "an attempt to reclaim their position and influence . A view that has gained prominence is that civil society is in retreat and the political space has been left to political parties. There is a recognition that the party political space is not enough," he said.
*[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>* *From: http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=125064* ** ** -- 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] .
<<image/gif>>
