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Wednesday, 18 October 2017 17:31

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Wednesday, 18 October 2017 15:01

The Star reports that labour federations and unions on Tuesday set aside their differences and spoke with one voice in demanding worker representation on the board of the Public Investment Corporation (PIC).

Organised labour, during presentations to the finance standing committee, vehemently opposed the use of PIC funds to bail out ailing state-owned enterprises, including SAA, which have been bedevilled by charges of maladministration and corruption.

There were also questions about why Deputy Finance Minister Sfiso Buthelezi was the automatic chairperson of the PIC.

This happened amid growing fears about moves to turn the PIC into the next state project for state capture, and perceptions that the suspicious investigation into the corporation, ordered by Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba, was a ploy to get rid of CEO Dan Matjila.

In a presentation to the committee, Cosatu’s parliamentary co-ordinator Matthew Parks said no decision could be allowed to be made about public servants’ pensions without the involvement and agreement of his federation and its union.

“Workers and our members have had enough of their hardearned taxes being looted by a corrupt elite in both the public and private sectors,” Parks said.

He said the government should do its job by removing SAA board chairperson Dudu Myeni and institute a full investigation at the national carrier. Parks was emphatic that the cabinet should not tamper with PIC funds.

Fedusa general secretary Dennis George said public servants feared the PIC would be used for bailouts. “We demand a worker director on the PIC board,” George said.

The Public Servants Association’s Tahir Maepa said their fears were well founded.

“It is critical that people who sit in the PIC are people who champion the interests of workers,” he said, adding there should be 50% representation from labour.

“This will bring comfort labour,” Maepa said.

Zwelinzima Vavi of the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) said they had learnt that there was a queue seeking to borrow from the PIC to bail out SOEs bankrupted by “mismanagement and corruption”.

“This is the workers’ money,” he said. “People to give such a mandate should be the workers.

“This is their contributions and no one else must have a mandate,” Vavi said.

“It is something we will object to, oppose and go into the streets about. We know people to be impacted will be the poor and the working class,” Vavi said.

“Any bailout will consequently impact directly not only on government employees but broader society.

“Such a move, therefore, will be an assault on the living standards not just of workers but of the people of the country as a whole.”

Vavi said the PIC was the proper vehicle to invest the government employees’ pensions as long it was not used as a cash cow by desperate looters. to

This report by Mayibongwe Maqhina is on page 5 of The Star of 18 October 2017

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page

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Tuesday, 17 October 2017 15:55

In our Tuesday roundup, see summaries
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Monday, 16 October 2017 17:07

In our Monday roundup, see summaries
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Monday, 16 October 2017 08:19

In our early Monday roundup, see summaries
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