COSATU+on+Dubai+flight+allegations




 * COSATU**

=Dubai flight allegations= The Congress of South African Trade unions notes the latest allegations in The Star that Thuthukile Mazibuko-Skweyiya, and possibly her husband, Zola Skweyiya, were also on the air force flight, which carried Deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and her family to the United Arab Emirates at the end of last year, at taxpayers’ expense. These allegations reinforce the call made by COSATU for a new rule-book to be drafted to regulate the use of public facilities by government ministers. While it is accepted that the President and Deputy President remain in public office even when they are on private business, and that they still require adequate security protection, there must be limits on the amount of public money that is spent on their private activities. The new rule book limitation must certainly cover situations where friends are also invited to enjoy the luxury provided by taxpayers’ money. COSATU will not comment further on the suggestion that the minister of Social Development was involved until we have more information about that. We live in a country that is still emerging from the illegal apartheid system which was corrupt and immoral to the bone. We inherited a country with huge inequalities in which the filthy rich and desperately poor lived side by side. This continues today in the business world, where Shoprite Checkers boss Whitey Bassoon gets a salary of R59 million, at the same time as he is casualising thousands of jobs in his stores and undermining his workers’ already pathetically low living standards. In the new South Africa, under the leadership of the ANC - an organisation that arose in opposition to the apartheid morality and all that it stood for - we are seeking to radically transform the state and its institutions to reflect the new traditions and cultures of the democratic movement. Central to that culture and tradition are solidarity, equity, selflesness and sacrifice, to serve our people. From that point of view it is totally immoral to have a rule book that permits the president or deputy president or any other minister to enjoy their leisure at public expense. Workers on low salaries have to save small sums of money each month in order to take their families away for a short holiday, so why should ministers on huge salaries, not at the very least be obliged to pay the equivalent of what their holiday would have cost had they been travelling as private citizens? There can be no justification for anyone being given free holidays at the taxpayers’ expense, especially when so many millions of South Africans are living in deep poverty, and cannot even dream of having any kind of holiday. Capitalism nurtures a culture of individualism and greed which is alien to revolutionaries. Revolutionaries must fight against that culture and fight to stop this morality taking over our movement. Corruption will soon become endemic unless we actively campaign against it. We have to ensure that our leaders in the unions, government, service organisations and other structures maintain organic links to workers and the poor. Congress of South African Trade Unions 1-5 Leyds Cnr Biccard Streets, Braamfontein, 2017 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**
 * Patrick Craven (Editor, Shopsteward Journal)