[miningmx.com] — COSATU cleared the air about its stance on nationalisation considerably on Thursday by giving its full support to the views of the National Union of Mineworkers (Num).
Num said the Freedom Charter’s stance that the mineral wealth beneath the soil had to be restored to the people of the country, was in fact carried out when the State became the owner of all the mineral rights, in terms of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act proclaimed in May 2004.
The nationalisation of the mining industry, according to Num, has therefore already taken place.
“There is no difference between Num’s views on nationalisation and ours,’ Cosatu president Sidumo Dlamini said at a news conference in Johannesburg.
Num is also the political architect of the state mining company, as well as being the driving force behind the state’s involvement in the mining industry to promote social upliftment.
At the same time, Dlamini and the other top Cosatu officials also criticised the “use of nationalisation to blackmail people who are opposed to it or to gun for leadership positions in the alliance’ – like the ANC Youth League, but also leaders in Cosatu who have recently put forward radical viewpoints on nationalisation.
A dispute broke out on this issue between Num and the National Union of Metalworkers. “We are worried by the fact that the extremely important debate on nationalisation is being used in some circles to sow dissension,’ Dlamini said.
He and the other national office-bearers of the trade union yesterday issued a wide-ranging economic policy document that was confirmed by Cosatu’s leaders this week. It was discussed at their mini-congress in Midrand last month, but has only been finalised now.
In it, Cosatu asked that nationalisation should not be seen as an objective nor as a solution for all the country’s economic problems. It should rather be analysed in a broad, social debate as part of a search for ways to distribute wealth more rapidly.
“We are appealing to everyone, including opposition parties, for true dialogue to take place among us.
“We believe, for example, that by far the majority of South Africans agree that the current patterns of land ownership spell disaster for the country’s political future,’ the document said.
It also said that the property clause in the Constitution should be amended, but that it should be unanimous and not by Constitutional amendment with the required two-thirds majority by the ANC.
Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said that the hunger for land by the majority of the population can simply not be sustained. “There is going to be an implosion,’ Vavi said.
Deputy general secretary Bheki Ntshali-Ntshali said government hasn’t tested the Constitutionality of expropriation with compensation, which is provided for in the Constitution, but the land question must not be settled in a legalistic manner.
“There must be broader, social dialogue on this, because it’s in everyone’s interest. It mustn’t be a question of getting a two-thirds majority and then amending the Constitution. It’s a time bomb, and we have to enter into honest dialogue with one another about it,’ Ntshali-Ntshali said.
“The Constitution did not help us with land reform – that’s why we realise there’s a need to amend the Constitution. But this will by no means amount to an amendment that will result in expropriation of land without compensation,’ Dlamini said.
