The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) said in a statement on Thursday that it had reservations about the implementation of President Cyril Ramaphosa's State of the Nation Address (SONA). This follows President Ramaphosa delivering his second SONA in Cape Town as part of the Government of National Unity.
COSATU stated that it welcomes its progressive commitments and applauds progress made but remains deeply concerned about the pace of implementation.
“The working class and society face numerous crises, in particular our 41.9% unemployment rate, entrenched poverty and inequality, paltry economic growth, endemic crime and corruption, struggling public and municipal services, and embattled State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs).”
COSATU added that it applauds the tireless work done to rebuild Eskom that has seen us overcome loadshedding. “Eskom and our electricity infrastructure remain fragile and need continuous investments to bring on board new generation, transmission, and distribution capacity. These must be anchored upon Eskom as our publicly owned utility and most strategic economic asset.”
COSATU noted that progress made stabilising Transnet and Metro Rail has brought much-needed relief to the economy.
“We urge the government to accelerate efforts to rebuild Transnet and improve its performance, including debt relief to free capital to modernise our ports and rail network, as well as law enforcement support to tackle cable theft. An efficient Transnet will unlock the mining, manufacturing, and agricultural sectors and create thousands of jobs.”
COSATU added that the state of local government is extremely worrying, with increasing numbers in serious financial trouble and many no longer paying staff salaries, pensions, and other payments or able to provide municipal services.
“We support the President’s call for urgent engagements on a new municipal funding model and a shift towards District Development Models.”
COSATU stated that the R943 billion allocated for infrastructure investments is crucial for stimulating the economy.
“We remain worried by the pace of investments and the construction mafia hindering many much-needed projects. Specialised law enforcement must be deployed to break these gangs and syndicates.”
COSATU added that with 12 million South Africans unable to find jobs, public employment programmes, in particular the Presidential Employment Stimulus, must be drastically expanded to accommodate at least 2 million participants by April 2025 and 4 million by November 2025.
“The days of cutting expenditure for these critical programmes must end. Engagements need to urgently take place at Nedlac on an overhaul of these programmes to ensure none pay below the National Minimum Wage, that TVET Colleges be roped in to help provide the skills, training, and experience needed for their participants to find permanent work.”
COSATU said that it welcomes the government's commitment to transforming the Special Relief of Dispensation Grant into the long-sought Basic Income Grant.
“All eligible persons must be enabled to access it. Its participants must be supported to access skills, training, and employment opportunities. We remain concerned about the insufficient funding allocated for SMMEs and industrial financing. We cannot stimulate the 3% plus growth we need to defeat unemployment with the current amounts of financing. We welcome the commitment for a new mass industrial financing programme. It must unlock resources from the fiscus, developmental finance institutions, banks, and investment funds and be anchored upon supporting local procurement.”
COSATU added that it stands firmly with the President and government in defence of South Africa’s sovereignty and values.
“No country will be allowed to dictate to the people of South Africa their path. We are a robust and noisy democracy, but we will not tolerate any attempts to intimidate us. We will continue to support the government's efforts to develop strong relationships with all nations. This must be accompanied by ramped-up support to boost exports and diversify trade with not only key trading partners in America, Europe, China, Japan, and India but in particular Southern Africa and Africa, where our destiny lies.”
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