The South African Federation of Trade Unions has expressed skepticism about the one million jobs newly-elected President Cyril Ramaphosa has promised during the State of the Nation Address.
SAFTU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi addressed union members in Durban.
He says there will be no economic change in South Africa unless the governing party goes back to the drawing board and draw their vision from the freedom charter.
The South African Federation of Trade Unions has rubbished the realisation of a million jobs promised by President Ramaphosa during his State of the Nation Address. Federation members gathered in Durban for their two day conference.
Delivering his address, Secretary General Zwelinzima Vavi said the country’s economic path did not support those who lived below the bread line but was only beneficial to business.
“Well we want one million jobs but we want more than just one million jobs – our worry is whether the president is not yet again putting himself into a corner as other presidents have done before.”
“What they must realise is that the economic path they have chosen makes them to limit their role in just creating an environment to create jobs; they are not driving a developmental strategy based on growth redistribution of wealth.”
Vavi says the new economic path the country is taking is just giving false hope to poor South Africans.
He says political stamina is needed to bring about economic change in the lives of the people.
“Nothing is going to change unfortunately there will be no new industries until we develop guts and political stamina to do what the freedom charter said must be done and the rest is going to be a nice rhetoric, nice things to say to give people false hope that something is going to emerge out of Cyril Ramaphosa.”
He says the continued state capture narrative is worrisome as it started long before the Guptas arrived in the country.
“Well the state capture in our view happened before 1994 and the ANC was sweet talked by the owners of the economy to abandon the economic demands of the freedom charter when they agreed to abandon the demand of the wealth of the country to be shared, when they adopted in 1996 GEAR, when they started a programme of privatisation of basic services, when…..introduced e-tolls, that is the real state capture in South Africa.”
Vavi says they believe South Africa will only prosper once the country’s leaders draw up policies based on the freedom charter.
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