ADDRESS BY THE
PRESIDENT OF AZAPO AND DEPUTY MINISTER OF EDUCATION, MR MOSIBUDI MANGENA, TO
THE BIENNIAL WORKERS CONGRESS OF THE BUILDING ALLIED MINING AND CONSTRUCTION
WORKERS UNION (BAMCWU) ON 17 NOVEMBER 2001.
Topic: Rededication of the Working Class towards
Worker Hegemony
The president, office bearers,
comrades, guests and delegates
I have no doubt most of us at this
congress believe in the efficacy, justness and potency of socialism. It is an economic and political system that
is better suited to fixing the vast inequalities that exist in our country much
faster than any other. A socialist
arrangement would distribute wealth much faster and attend to many social
problems arising from unequal access and provision of social services.
However, we have a capitalist system
where capital, the means of production and therefore wealth, reside in the
hands of the few while the vast majority live by selling their labour to the
owners and / or controllers of capital.
Barring a major and unexpected
development, it seems we are condemned to live and eke out a living under a
capitalist system for a long time to come.
So, while we cultivate ourselves politically and ideologically in our
struggle for socialism, we need to also understand where we are and know how to
survive the elements arrayed against us.
So, where are we as a country, a people
and a working class? How do we look
like after our mutation from a racist settler-colonial arrangement to a
neo-colonial one?
The period since 1994, has been one of
extraordinary activity, immense accomplishments, serious disappointments and
undiminished enthusiasm to transformation.
The consensus we achieved was based on our democratic constitution that
was meant to deal squarely with the South African realities and allow the
country to respond to the global challenges of the new century. Our attention
has now turned increasingly to issues of service, discipline, efficiency,
productivity and effectiveness in society.
We have turned our backs, for good on
the divisive legacy of settler-colonialism. However our country still carries a
deadly baggage of our past. The social
conditions created by the years of apartheid and before that the colonial
encounters have left what is threatening to become an indelible stain on the
socio-economic fibre of our society. The resultant social backlogs continue to
be the most pressing issues confronting our country, with unemployment and
poverty remaining the key issues.
The HIV/AIDS epidemic is regarded as
one of the major threats to our country’s political and socio-economic
development. Our population is severely
affected by this scourge that is impacting negatively on the economic
productivity of our youth, all strata of the labour force as well as the
unemployed. The epidemic will probably
exacerbate the existing skills shortage in the economy. This negative effect
has the potential of undermining the country’s ability to compete favourably in
the global economy.
Illiteracy is very prevalent in this
country, particularly among older persons who were marginalised from
educational opportunities under the apartheid system. Over three million of our
people cannot read or write at all and millions more are semi-literate. This is
likely to have devastating and negative consequences on their ability to
participate fully in the political, social and economic spheres of life. About 67% of persons aged 15 years and above
have completed grade 6 while another 83% of those aged between 15 and 24 are
considered to be functionally literate.
The
literacy rates of the United States of America, United Kingdom and Australia
stand at 99% while that in Malaysia is 86,4% and India is 55,7%. African
countries such as Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Mozambique have literacy rates of
87.2%, 61.1% and 42.2%, respectively.
The Department of Education has
established the South African National Literacy Initiative (SANLI) and through
it aims to mobilise three million participants into literacy programmes. The initiative seeks to mobilise the support
of business, local government, NGO's like yourselves and volunteers into
tackling the issue of illiteracy.
While the country’s economy is on the
path of recovery, the growth rate and levels of investment are too low to
absorb the high number of unemployed and new entrants into the labour market.
Statistics South Africa has attributed
the decrease in employment to the following factors:
q Retrenchment of casual employees in the
manufacturing industry;
q Resignation and retrenchment of
employees in government institutions;
q Resignation and termination of
part-time employees by universities, technikons and provincial departments.
Between December 1999 and December
2000, there has been a decline of one hundred and twenty one thousand (121 000)
employees. The South African Reserve Bank
attributes the low labour absorption rate of the our economy to the following
factors:
q The restructuring of South African
businesses since the beginning of the 1990s that was aimed at enhancing the
international competitiveness of domestic producers but which also had the
negative effect of laying-off more workers;
q Preference for capital intensive over
labour intensive production processes;
q Introduction of new production
technologies which raised the demand for a smaller number of highly skilled
workers; but simultaneously reduced the demand for less skilled and unskilled
workers; and
q The shift of the economic processes to
being less reliant on large numbers of unskilled workers.
Significant structural changes have
occurred in the economy over the last three decades and these changes have
intensified in the past decade. Each
year the country’s economy is becoming more service and knowledge based. More complex and dynamic operating
environments, together with continuous technological advances are resulting in
businesses requiring more skilled labour. The implications for our country’s
largely unskilled and low-skilled workforce are serious and far-reaching.
The increasing use of technology and
capital equipment has led to an increasing share of skilled and highly skilled
jobs and a decrease in the share of unskilled and lowly skilled jobs. The net
effect of job losses due to trade liberalisation and low levels of both foreign
direct investment and new local investments has been the dramatic decline in the
total number of formal sector jobs.
Those with no education have been the
most severely disadvantaged in the labour market over the last 25 years. This
country’s labour demand patterns show a high and increasing demand for
individuals with secondary education or more.
Those who have completed secondary education will do better and the best
employment opportunities will go to those with tertiary education. That is why
all of us must ensure that our children and young people in general, take their
education seriously. Creating jobs for
unskilled people has become more difficult, meaning that more training and
education are required to lift the level of skills. All of us, regardless of the formal standard of education, can be
trained to do skilled work of one description or another.
Currently and in the future our labour
market needs to produce sufficiently and highly skilled technical personnel.
The growth in the number of people entering the science, engineering and
technology sectors is still insufficient to meet the national demand. Blacks
and women are still under represented in the top occupations such as
technicians, legislators, professionals, senior officials and managers.
Through the acquisition of knowledge
and skills, the potential of our people can be maximised. Access to education
is a major instrument in providing the skills needed in any economy, especially
to enhance our competitiveness in the global economy.
Due to continuing job losses and lack
of job creation in the labour market, labour and in particular the working
class has been under pressure. The working class is faced with far-reaching
organisational and structural changes. Many factors are contributing to the
increasing challenge to improve the working class.
First is the development of innovative
and creative thinkers who are sufficiently skilled to make a major contribution
in the work force for future economic growth and competitiveness in global
matters. Second the building of vibrant networks and partnerships that would have
the ability to drive and sustain change. Working in isolation will bring no
hope of initiating and sustaining any significant change. Third, improving
communication in order to share information, which is an ongoing challenge. The
capacity on the ground needs to be supported and strengthened through
integration and co-ordination.
There is a further challenge to develop
leadership skills and professional competencies. The working class needs the
right understanding of where it is and what the issues are. The working class needs skills. The working
class needs unions with knowledge and ability to do their work and advance the
interests of their members. The working class needs cadres who will be able to
work in democratic and participatory ways.
The current cadreship of the working
class embodies remarkable qualities of patriotism, talent, experience and
commitment. Cadres in various organisations are making unsung contributions to
the transformation of our country. The ultimate goal is to contribute to the
overall economic growth of our country as well as the improvement of the
quality of life for all.
While we find ways to live and survive
in a capitalist economy, while we try to explain the nature and source of our
problems, we should not slacken our efforts to work for a socialist
system. We should hold fast on our
ideological position but adapt our strategies and tactics to suit the new
conditions in which we find ourselves.
Among other things, we should build our solidarity, co-operation and
democratic participation as a matter of urgency.
We should use the space and national
instruments to advance our interests in a democratic but effective manner. True revolutionaries are those who do not
only understand ideology, but they also understand the conditions under which
they exist and work. It is foolhardy
and perhaps even counter-revolutionary to adopt strategies that expose you to
certain danger. Let our solidarity continue
to be an effective weapon of struggle.
Then the hegemony of the working class will move much closer.
17
November 2001