Kimberley - Cosatu has used the ANC’s January 8 rally in the Northern Cape to call for the dissolution of the entire Eskom board.
The ANC's top leadership from national level, province and other lower structures converged in Kimberley on Saturday as the party celebrated 108 years since its founding in 1912.
The call by the federation comes after former Eskom board chairperson Jabu Mabuza resigned on Friday, following accusations by Deputy President David Mabuza that the Eskom leadership along with Public Enterprises Minister Pravhin Gordhan had misled President Cyril Ramaphosa about the power utility’s plans to eliminate blackouts.
Delivering the message of support on behalf of the federation, Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi welcomed the resignation of Mabuza, saying workers were happy to see him leaving the embattled power utility.
“It (resignation) has come at the time we have been long calling for it. Since August last year, Cosatu has called for the entire board of Eskom to step down. We are saying to the rest of the board, do the honourable thing and tender your resignation and follow suit,” Losi said.
Losi called on the ANC to take seriously, the scourge of poverty and unemployment in the country, and help block ongoing job cuts in various sectors of the economy as job losses were aggravating the problems.
“We cannot stand the continued retrenchments of workers from their workplaces. The unemployment level is at 40% now. Big business must implement the resolutions of the Jobs Summit and stick to their commitments of creating employment in SA,” she said.
One of the commitments made by big business at the 2018 Jobs Summit was to refrain from all retrenchments and look for all alternatives, before resorting to job cuts as a last measure.
Losi said Cosatu would continue throwing its weight behind the ANC-led government in defence of the National Health Insurance (NHI) as many workers had no access to adequate health and media aid schemes.
She said the ANC had to take the issue of expropriating land without compensation seriously as it would improve living conditions of poor South Africans.
“If we want to deal with issues of poverty, unemployment and inequality, we must address the issue of land in our country. The majority cannot continue to be subjects of the minority in SA,” Losi said.
On Wednesday, Northern Cape Premier Zamani Saul lamented how the population of 7% white people in the province owned 85% of the land in the Northern Cape, while the 93% black population only owned 13% while a mere 2% was owned by the State.
She said while the ANC was known to be biased towards the working class, workers wanted see and feel it.
“We remain in alliance with the ANC but we want an ANC that listens and hears what the workers are saying,” she said.