CWU demands ministers to be accountable
JOBURG – The ministers who have been appointed by the African National Congress (ANC) must be accountable to the workers that’s one of the demands by the Communication Workers Union (CWU as they marched to Luthuli House to hand deliver its memorandum to the ANC national office bearers.
CWU’s number one shop-steward and also known as commander in chief president Clyde Mervin said the union arrived at this ‘painful decision to march against itself after a series of engagements with the parastatals, the state and the ANC, without any success over a period of two years.
The march comes after the backdrop of an unstoppable tsunami of job losses in Telkom, led by Sipho Maseko in that in the past two years, over 46 percent of job cuts has been recorded from a 23000 workforce to just over 12500 workforce (today) and counting. Mervin said the ultimate aim is to reduce the number of workforce to between 6000-8000.
He said, “It cannot be business as usual We voted ANC to power, the ANC appoints the ministers who hold cabinet posts. We cannot have this crisis in Telkom, Post Office, Broadband Infraco, Sentech and Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa (Usaasa). The ministers appointed by the ANC that we voted in must be accountable.
Our voices must be heard, we want to see the intervention of the ANC.” Mervin also stated that they wanted government to fund South African Post Office (Sapo) and not to give them guarantees to go make a loan from the banks. He also said they demanded permanent employment of the casual workers at post office and that the salary increase for the permanent workers at post office.
CWU also want the government to stop the proposed merger of Telkom and Broadband Infraco, a state owned company in the telecommunications sector. “We are marching to Luthuli House to raise all these issues… Therefore, we calling for the immediate stopping of the job shedding in Telkom and the removal of both the CEO and the board chairperson in Telkom. As CWU, we are displeased by the political unwillingness for the revival and recapitalisation of the Sapo. The challenges in Sapo need a political solution for a swift state intervention. The dire situation in Sapo has left many workers employed as casual workers for 22 years, same age as our democracy. It also has left workers salary increases and backpay of 2014/15 not being realised, agreements in favour of workers not implemented,” Mervin said.
He also stated that government departments failure to use Sapo and Post Bank in favour of the private sector and foreign owned institutions, is a clear indication of political unwillingness.
The union also noted that the blunt arrogance of outsourcing basic government services like population registering, issuing of Identity Documents, Passports, Sassa grants and related services to white monopoly capital instead of using Sapo is yet another element of state capture.
