SOUTH AFRICA TODAY
A WEEKLY NEWSLETTER BY THE LEADER OF THE DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE, HELEN ZILLE
FRIDAY 16 OCTOBER 2009
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Cosatu wants to abolish property rights. The DA wants to abolish poverty
How would you respond if you learnt that the South African Government
had been infiltrated by an organisation that had never been elected,
and whose aims were to eliminate private property, nationalise the
mines and food, and abolish parliament? What if you learnt that this
group had inserted ministers in government to drive policy objectives
that have brought disaster everywhere in the world
where they have been implemented?
In South Africa there are two such groups -- the South African
Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions
(COSATU). This week's SA Today focuses on Cosatu following its recent
Congress.
The DA unequivocally supports the rights of workers to form trade
unions to protect and promote their interests. Cosatu does not
confine itself to this role. Having received no votes from the South
Africa public, it is seeking to take over an elected party from
within, and to dictate policy in the highest councils of the state.
It is interesting to compare media coverage of Cosatu's 10th National
Congress last month with what actually happened. The newspapers and
TV covered the standing ovation for President Zuma, the calls to do
away with inflation targeting and the personal attacks on Trevor
Manuel.
What they did not cover were the actual resolutions passed at the
congress. These make chilling reading. They are freely available on
the Cosatu website.
In its "Draft Workers Manifesto Framework for a Socialist South
Africa", Cosatu says that "As part of the revolutionary proletarian
movement, Cosatu must develop its own guide to the struggle for a
socialist revolution". The revolutionary programme must have "A
Marxist dialectical and historical materialist approach".
The most dangerous element of Cosatu's rhetoric is the myth that its
policies will benefit the poor. Quite the contrary. The history of
the last century has demonstrated that this path inevitably leads to
the dead-end of dictatorship and impoverishment.
The lessons of history have escaped Cosatu whose "Long Term
Revolutionary Demands" include:
· Abolish bourgeois private property.
· Nationalise, socialise and democratise all key strategic means of
production in South Africa such as land, water, minerals, mines,
banks, oil companies, shipyards, telecommunications, transport, food,
housing, etc, etc, etc
· Abolish the bourgeoisie executive, parliamentary and justice system,
and replace them with working class state structures.
Presumably, these "working class state structures" will resemble those
set up by Comrade Lenin in Russia in 1917 and carried on so
enthusiastically by his faithful acolyte, Comrade Stalin. In North
Korea such working class structures are now headed by Comrade Kim
Jong-il (known in revolutionary circles as "The Dear Leader").
The policies promoted by Cosatu have always and everywhere been
disastrous. Always and everywhere, they have bought brutal, crushing
poverty to the people and exclusive power and privilege to a small
ruling elite. Always and everywhere, people have tried to move away
from communist countries: from East to West Germany, from North to
South Korea, from Cuba to the USA, from Communist China to
Hong Kong - there are no exceptions.
Cosatu particularly admires "the Cuban Revolution". In 1959, despite
the fact that reforms were urgently needed under the deeply corrupt
President Batista, Cuba was one of the richest, most developed
economies in Latin America. People wanted to come to Cuba. Castro's
revolution progressively wrecked the economy and impoverished Cuba.
The average wage is now $20 (R150) per month, although
Castro himself is ranked by Forbes magazine as one of the world's
richest men. Free trade unions are banned, only one party is allowed,
homosexuals have been persecuted, people with AIDS are reportedly
interred, and human rights have been crushed. People want to leave
Cuba: hundreds of thousands have fled; thousands have died while
trying to flee. Fidel Castro, after more than three decades
as dictator, has handed power over to his own brother. Such is the
model that Cosatu wants us to emulate.
The media gives the impression that the battle lines within the ANC
coalition are drawn on matters of personality and detail between
Trevor Manuel, head of the National Planning Commission, and Blade
Nzimande, Minister of Higher Education and head of the Communist
Party. (Incidentally, the one thing these two agree on completely is
the need to drive million Rand BMW motorcars at the tax-payers'
expense.)
This obscures the real battle within the ruling alliance, which is
over economic policy. The ANC's Polokwane Conference in 2007, where
Jacob Zuma replaced Thabo Mbeki as leader of the party, did nothing to
resolve the internal conflict. Cosatu was instrumental in Zuma's
coming to power, and now demand their pound of flesh. They seek to
present the economic debate as a simplistic contestation
between the "markets" and the "state".
This characterisation is obsolete and wrong. Successful market
oriented economies have strong and competent states. The real debate,
in every policy sphere, is about the specific role of the state and
the appropriate role of the market. In South Africa, the role of the
state should be to support people accessing the market economy, rather
than creating barriers to entry. All policies -- from
education to transport -- must be designed to open opportunity. Yet
Cosatu wants to shut down the market economy and prevent access to it.
When it pretends to be "pro-poor", the reality is that its policies
are pro-poverty. South Africa is now in the precarious position of
having 5 million personal registered tax-payers and 13 million people
dependent on social grants. This trajectory is unsustainable.
There are many leading figures in the ANC who understand this. The
growing tension between them and the "entry-ists" from Cosatu and the
SACP will escalate. This will, in all likelihood, culminate in
another split -- this time over economic policy -- within the next
five years. Indeed the period between now and the next general
election in 2014 will be fraught with risk for our developing
democracy. The greatest danger is that demagogues will increasingly
win the battle for control of the ANC, using race and populist
promises to mobilise support. Their cause will be driven by the
tragic fact that South Africa is one of the most unequal societies in
the world.
We urgently need a serious debate on the factors that make it so
difficult to reduce these inequalities. This is a complex debate, but
if we do not engage it, we leave the field wide open to the populists
who seek to enforce equality by destroying the economy, and thereby
ruining prospects of development.
We also need reliable research into the factors that continue to
increase inequalities. The populists claim that it is the result of
the "market". It is far more probable that the state has become the
primary driver of inequality in South Africa today. The extent to
which the ANC and its allies abuse the state for the accumulation of
wealth by a small elite with strong political connections
has increased, rather than reduced inequalities in our country.
Instead of removing the barriers to entry into the economy, the ANC
government built barriers, ironically in the name of "transformation".
This is a code word to justify the manipulation of tenders and
contracts in favour of the well-connected few.
The newspapers are regularly filled with reports of deals such as
those that enabled Gijima AST (with key links to the Zuma inner
circle) reportedly to turn over R3bn last year, 44% of which was
business with government. Sandile Zungu, another key Zuma associate,
recently received an outrageous R60m plus settlement from Transnet on
a case that he was considered unlikely to win. Procurement in
parastatals like the SABC is under investigation for crony deals, as
is SAA and as should be Eskom and Thubelisha. They all involve some
allegation of privileged relationships with service providers and/or a
political connection. It is routine for politicians and civil
servants to start their own companies to which they award tenders.
As the ANC's favoured inner circle gets smaller and smaller (and
richer and richer), inequality grows exponentially, especially as
educational outcomes decline and employment escalates during a
recession. But by blaming "apartheid" or "whites" or the "market",
the ANC and its allies in Cosatu can shift the blame and hide the
truth.
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