THE Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), the new political party led by former African National Congress (ANC) Youth League chief Julius Malema, is to target mineworkers as its primary constituency and says it will "agitate" during this year’s wage talks for a minimum wage of R12,500. There is already much anxiety that mining wage negotiations will be marred by labour unrest and violence with unions having made unprecedented demands. The EFF’s intentions can be expected to further inflame tensions and heighten these risks. The EFF, which this weekend held a national assembly of representatives from around South Africa, also unveiled its logo, which along with a fist, a spear and the map of Africa, features a mining headgear, leaving no doubt as to what its focus will be. Among its key policies are nationalisation of the mines and banks. EFF spokesman Floyd Shivambu said in an interview on Monday the inclusion of the mining headgear on the logo "symbolis es our commitment to reclaim South Africa’s mineral wealth … which constitutes the core of our political programme". The party will be formally launched on August 17 — one day after the first anniversary of the Marikana massacre — at a rally in Marikana. At the weekend assembly, worker leader Xolani Nzuza, who played a central role in the workers’ committee set up to negotiate with Lonmin during last year’s strike, is reported to have been "paraded prominently" as a leader of the EFF. In an interview on Monday, Mr Nzuza said he had joined the EFF because "there are many things that this organisation will change, such as our working conditions". Many mineworkers were asking him for membership forms as they still felt angry about last year’s events, he said. "The president of the country labelled the Marikana workers as hooligans, while Julius Malema came to speak to us." An organisation of former mineworkers based in the Eastern Cape also attended the meeting, Mr Shivambu said. The EFF would soon begin visiting mining communities around the country. "Our overall approach to mineworkers is that they should all be paid a minimum of R12,500 per month and all other negotiations will start from there," Mr Shivambu said. "We’ll be involved … in mobilising mineworkers to demand a minimum wage of R12,500." The demand for a minimum of R12,500 for underground workers is the same demand that newcomer union the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) made in the gold sector wage talks, and amounts to more than a 100% increase. In response, the Chamber of Mines has offered 5%. On Monday, the Chamber of Mines declared a dispute with Amcu and referred the matter to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration. It is also the demand that Marikana miners put forward in their strike last year. By echoing Amcu’s demands the EFF may be hoping for a tie-up of some kind with the new union. Over the past year, Amcu has grown exponentially from a membership of 30,000 to the (unaudited) size of 110,000. Although the union sometimes says it is nonpolitical, it is affiliated to trade union federation National Council of Trade Unions, which is associated with the black consciousness movement. The EFF has similarly adopted an Africanist perspective, calling for the doing away of borders on the continent and for African solidarity and brotherhood. The re-emergence of the call for the nationalisation of the mines comes after a two-and-a-half-year battle over the policy in the ANC between the youth league and the mainstream of the organisation. At the ANC’s electoral conference in Mangaung last year, the word "nationalisation" was finally removed from ANC policy documents on the economy. This followed the political defeat of Mr Malema, who was expelled from the ANC early last year. Mr Malema’s defeat was reinforced by the crushing of his old supporters in elections, following which the call for nationalisation died a quiet death. Now the call for nationalisation is back and is likely to be used against the ANC in the national elections next year.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Jul 2013 11:09:01 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015