Speed+up+land+reform,+No+weakening+of+labour+laws,+COSATU



=Speed up land reform, says COSATU=

The Congress of South African Trade Unions welcomes the very progressive statements on land reform by President Thabo Mbeki and the Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs, Thoko Didiza. We particularly welcome the decision to review the willing-buyer/willing seller principle and look forward to getting clarity on what effective measures the government proposes as an alternative.

COSATU has consistently supported the redistribution of land in order to reverse the theft of our land from the people by colonial and apartheid rulers, and to return it to its rightful owners. We support the implementation of all the decisions of last year’s Land Summit, including abandoning the willing-buyer/willing seller principle in order to speed up the redistribution of land. Under the existing system, which is based on the dictates of the market, it will be impossible to come near to reaching the targets the government has set for the transfer of land.

We do not want to see Zimbabwe-style land invasions, but fear that if land reform continues at a snail’s pace, poverty-stricken rural communities will become desperate, and will take direct action to obtain the land they are claiming.

Zimbabwe holds important lessons for South Africa. For 20 years of independence, nothing was done to change the colonial patterns of land ownership, until the government was suddenly driven to rush into launching its chaotic form of land redistribution.

If South Africa is to avoid such an outcome it must drastically accelerate the orderly and lawful transfer of land, in order to redress the injustices of the past and make real the aim of the Freedom Charter that the land belongs to the people.

=No weakening of the labour laws!=

The Congress of South African Trade Unions warmly welcomes the statement on Tuesday 7 February by Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana that the government has no intention of amending the country’s labour laws.

COSATU has argued repeatedly that no evidence has ever been produced to show that the labour laws are an obstacle to economic growth and job creation. They provide a framework for the regulation of the labour market, the enforcement of basic minimum conditions and the protection of workers from exploitation, abuse and unfair dismissal.

There are far too many workers who are still denied these basic constitutional and legal rights, particularly with the relentless increase in the number of insecure, low-paid, temporary and part-time jobs, as a result of the casualisation of labour. As a result there are more and more workers who desperately need the protection that the labour laws provide. COSATU wants these workers to get more, not less protection, and fully supports the efforts of the Minister to enforce the labour laws more effectively, especially in the most vulnerable sectors of domestic work and agriculture.

1-5 Leyds Cnr Biccard Streets, Braamfontein, 2017
 * Patrick Craven (Editor, Shopsteward Journal), Congress of South African Trade Unions

P.O.Box 1019, Johannesburg, 2000, South Africa

Tel: +27 11 339-4911/24, Fax: +27 11 339-5080/6940, E-Mail: patrick@cosatu.org.za**

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