Government promises to protect workers’ rights

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Government has promised to protect workers’ rights as the African National Congress (ANC) seeks to form a new Government of National Unity.

This is the sentiment shared by three cabinet Ministers who were addressing delegates at the National Union of Mineworkers’ (NUM) Policy Conference in Boksburg, east of Johannesburg.

The three ministers; including Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, Pravin Gordhan and Sihle Zikalala, told workers that government is committed to policy continuity that will safeguard the gains of the working class.

The policy conference sits every two years to take stock and structure policies for members of the NUM in various sectors of the economy. In its organisational report, the NUM says the union’s members have been faced with a plethora of issues that have led to job losses especially in the mining sector.

NUM is the largest union in the mining sector with almost 200 000 members. The labour union has been gradually experiencing a decline in membership attributed to retrenchments due to the closure of mining shafts. It says this has been worsened by what it calls the slow pace in the issuing of mining licenses.

“We have observed, and business has complained that the DMR is very slow in terms of issuing licences. People are applying, businesses are applying and this is job creation, today we’ve lost elections because people are complaining about job creation, unemployment and so on. Our departments are reluctant and subjecting everything bureaucracy,” says Mpho Phakedi, NUM Deputy General-Secretary.

Following the recent general elections, workers expressed concerns about their future and that of the country.

The union invited stakeholder ministers from government to address workers, one of them, outgoing Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan who spoke on the country’s SOEs. Gordhan has attributed the challenges at state entities to state capture and corruption.

“All of this entities need to move to a new stage of efficiency in their operations so that they can make a difference to the economy itself and that’s the critical work that has been started and the green shoots are there and they need to be developed further as we go. But, what we need to do as an absolute necessity is get rid of a culture including politicians to stop looking at ways to extract money from these entities and if we don’t stop that, we are defeating ourselves.”

Gordhan addresses NUM conference:

Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says the country has enjoyed a prolonged period without load shedding and he says it’s all thanks to workers from the NUM amongst others. He has allayed fears of any drastic policy shift in the energy sector come the new administration.

“It’s a human instinct that you will be worried about your future prospect, so I was making the point that this is government policy and if you look at the integrated resource plan, coal is still part of the energy mix even the one gone out public consultation IRP 2023. Coal is still the backbone, so baseload is coal, then it’s nuclear, gas and hydro. Of course, there going to be an exponential rise in wind etc, but I think there is policy certainty.”

Video: NUM Policy Conference – In conversation with Minister of Electricity

With a shift in the political dynamic, the conference also called on government to intervene in the construction sector in rolling out projects that will lead to job creation.

NUM also organises in this sector.

“The climate is quite dynamic, its changing but that does not mean we must regress, it means we must consolidate as we said the working class will be important for the ANC to regain its strength and for the workers in particular. The problem has been on project preparation and packaging and through infrastructure South Africa and infrastructure fund we are able now to build that capacity and ensure that projects that are led by government are expedited,” says Public Works Minister Sihle Zikalala.

Video: NUM Policy Conference – In conversation with Minister of Public Works

The conference continues with the strong focus on the meeting of the Tripartite Alliance with Cosatu, ANC and the SACP on a way forward following the general elections.

NUM members are hopeful that the policies structured here at the conference will align the country’s political direction and the economy.

They’ve added their voice as they encourage their alliance partner the ANC to choose partnerships that will protect the gains of workers over the years and address their grievances going forward.