The Communications Workers Union (CWU) says it will be picketing outside parliament on Wednesday when Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan delivers his budget speech.
The union says the picket will be followed by a series of marches to different institutions.
CWU spokesperson Aubrey Tshabalala explains, “CWU will be outside parliament picketing and handing over a memorandum to the office of the Minister. On Telkom retrenchment, Post Office bailout and restructuring of the ICT industry. There will be a march to Luthuli House on the second week of March. Followed by a march against ANN7 and Multichoice in April. This week we will be staging a lunch hour picketing at eTV.”
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Below is a media release on the CWU expectations
National budget speech
Communication Workers Union (CWU) is looking forward to the National Budget Speech on the 24th of February 2016 as it will be delivered by the Minister of Finance.
We agree with the Treasury that one of its fundamental responsibilities is to entrench efficient and sustainable public financial management that will promote economic development, good governance, social progress and rising standard of living for all South Africans.
It is therefore our view that such is attainable if we have a National Budget that is inclusive, and alive to the fact that employment remains critical part in a developmental state. In the past two years we have been calling for the National Treasury to inject capital for the resuscitation of the Post Office.
After the South African Post Office has been collapsed through maladministration and irregularities in as far as cooperate governance is concerned, it is practically impossible for the Post Office to discharge its mandate without this significant intervention from the National Treasury.
As CWU our call has been falling on deaf ears despite workers’ demonstration through protest marches, strikes and picketing. After our march to the National Treasury at the Union Building on the 29th October 2014, the office of the minister made an undertaking that it would respond positively to our memorandum that amongst others demanded the following:
1. Compel all government institutions from the municipality, provincial and national level to procure all postal and courier services from SAPO.
2. The SAPO to handle all the South African Social Security Agency transactions through the Post Bank.
3. A greater portion of the multibillion rands tender on international courier services should be given to SAPO, in particular in the SADC (Southern African Development Community). where we as a country already have footprints and for the benefit of our neighbouring states.
4. The delivery of text books to our public schools and medication to the most remote areas of our country including but not limited to senior and terminally ill citizens of our country should be done through SAPO.
5. Push for proper and proportional regulations on the private sector doing business in the scope of the Post Office.
These are some of the few innovations that will transform SAPO to being a self-sufficient, reliable and efficient State Owned Enterprise. The South African Post Office employs an estimated 22000 workers which is a significant number for development of our economy.
On the 16th of February 2016 we wrote a letter calling for National Treasury to have an urgent meeting with CWU to unpack some of the issues that we had highlighted. The office of the Minister acknowledged receipt of the letter however there’s no indication as to when will the meeting sit or even be considered. It is a shame that the National Treasury currently seem to be giving an extremely hyped attention to the business community at the expense of the poor.
We further condemn calls for privatisation of State Owned Enterprises in general and of the South African Post Office in particular. History informs us that privatisation benefits the few, widen the gap between the poor and the rich and every time profit margins are threatened we experience massive job losses. We remain opposed to the neoliberal policies that undermine the National Democratic Revolution and our transformational agenda.
Public Protector
We welcome the announcement by the Public Protector that on the 23rd of February 2016 there will be a media briefing by the Public Protector where she will be releasing a report on an investigation into allegations of maladministration and improper conduct at the South African Post Office.
The investigation relates to the lease of the Eco Point Office Park to accommodate the head office of the South African Post Office, its procurement as well as the entity’s utilisation of labour brokers. This to us as a union is a watershed report that will finally define the wayforward in as far as prosecuting those who squandered monies and collapsed the Post Office.
However we condemn the delayed release of this report in February 2016 whereas the matter was reported in the year 2011 while those who have been at the receiving end are mostly workers and the downtrodden strata of our society.
It is because of this maladministration and corruption that workers are subjected to poor working conditions, casualisation, indecent salaries, deteriorating infrastructure. We must emphasise that we remain cautious as a union because we haven’t seen the report, BUT trusting that it will expose all those who were involved in corruption.
We announce to you today that we are going to the Public Protector again tomorrow Tuesday the 23rd of February 2016 to formally report irregularities happening in Telkom. These have thus far led to over 4000 job losses and displacement in a period of less than a year.
The continuation of outsourcing and job shedding in Telkom will result in over 4000 workers losing their employment in the first quota of the year 2016. This has proved to be a throwing of a javelin in essence for the benefit of some as most of these workers who from time to time get retrenched come back to the company as employees of subcontractors and as casual workers.
Furthermore we have seen engagements with the African National Congress in terms of curbing this job blood bath in Telkom proved to be fruitless with endless promises that never materialised.
Multichoice/ Naspers
It is concerning that a company of Multichoice’s calibre which generates over R30 billion per annum on South African operations intends to embark on massive job reductions. In a case of MNET, letters of retrenchments given to workers were reversed because they were legally challenged.
While there’s a call of forging unity in a fight against the economic meltdown, a company that enjoys massive profit margins deliberately wants to increase unemployment stats. This is pure demonstration of unpatriotic tendencies.
We note that Multichoice is not committed to transformation instead it pays lip service to it the appointment of the new CEO Mr. Gideon Khobane as a black person for purposes of window dressing being the case in point.
The then acting CEO Mr. Brandon Foot has been redeployed in a newly created position of COO, which will lead all the strategic core business functions. These functions were led by the CEO before and this renders the new CEO a mere statue for public relations exercise. The executive will remain lily white resembling an Irish coffee.
Developments in the department of communication
As Communication Workers Union we are happy to announce that there has been an improvement between CWU and the Department of Communications led by the Minister Comrade Faith Muthambi as a result of frank and robust engagements.
As opposed to the situation before, we have agreed to establish certain forums to deal with a number of issues that we viewed as important. This doesn’t mean that there will always be an agreement on everything but we are comfortable with the fact that there is a commitment by parties to deal with sensitive issues with an intention of resolving them in earnest and swiftly.
Program of action
• When the National Budget Speech is delivered in Parliament by the Minister of Finance on the 24th of February 2016 CWU will be outside parliament picketing and handing in a memorandum to the Office of the Minister on Telkom Retrenchments, Post Office Bailout and Restructuring of the ICT industry in a form of Broadband Infraco, SENTECH, Bidvestfm and USAASA
• There will be a march to Luthuli House in the 2nd week of March 2016.
• That will be followed by a march against ANN7 and Multichoice in April. We are waiting for authorities to confirm the date.
• This week we will be staging a lunch hour picketing at e-tv against racism, exploitation and undermining of the Labour Relations Act.
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