The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is looking forward to working with the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) at the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac).
At the end of January, Nedlac approved Saftu’s application for membership, ending the federation’s almost six-year wait to join the council.
Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla told Sunday World the federation welcomed the council’s approval of Saftu’s membership.
“We have worked well with the Nedlac labour caucus, and we hope we will work well with them too.”
Pamla said if workers were united at Nedlac, they would have a more significant influence. “We are already united with them [Saftu] on the streets, including last year during the Putco strike,” he added.
The Cosatu-affiliated National Union of Mineworkers and Saftu-affiliated the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa have been working together at Eskom and in the mining sector.
Saftu joining Nedlac was another step in strengthening partnerships and relationships between Cosatu and Saftu and their affiliated unions and a way of strengthening the hand of the workers, Pamla said.
Saftu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi in a media briefing this week said the Nedlac membership offered the federation an opportunity to influence the South African government and business.
“Nedlac is a co-operative structure that, if you are not careful, can supplant the militancy of the trade union movement, co-opt them and make them the conveyor belt for the capitalist order.
“We are going there quite aware of those dangers,” Vavi said. “We want our voice heard and to unite with the other federations at Nedlac so we can speak with one voice,” he said.
Nedlac executive director Lisa Seftel wrote in a letter addressed to Vavi saying that the Nedlac executive council meeting last month had approved Saftu’s membership application. This followed a letter that Seftel had written to Saftu in late November last year indicating that the federation had met its criteria to join it.
As a result, Saftu will be the fourth labour federation to join Nedlac along with Cosatu, the Federation of Unions of South Africa and the National Council of Trade Unions.
“The next step would be for the organised labour overall convenor, [former Cosatu general secretary], Bheki Ntshalintshali, and yourselves to be in touch to arrange for the induction and incorporation of the various structures and committees of Nedlac,” Seftel said.
Nedlac states on iTs website that its mission is to facilitate consensus and cooperation between government, labour, business and the community in dealing with South Africa’s socio-economic challenges.
Saftu spokesperson Trevor Shaku told Sunday World the federation, at its first congress in 2017, resolved to apply for Nedlac membership.
The federation, which was launched in April 2017, has 17 affiliated unions and 540 000 members.
Shaku said there were several reasons why Saftu’s Nedlac application had taken close to six-year to win approval.
Among the reasons, he said Nedlac required Saftu to have existed for over two years before they could consider their application, and the federation also had to submit two years of audited financial statements.
The Saftu-affiliated unions, said Shaku, had to submit their audited financial statements too. Nedlac considered its application in tandem with the affiliates’ audited statements and membership.
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