By Norm Dixon
The 1.6 million member Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) reinforced its opposition to anti-worker sections of South Africa's draft constitution by bringing the country to a standstill on April 30. The general strike and mass rallies were aimed at breaking the intransigence of National (NP) and Democratic (DP) parties over a bill of rights clause that grants employers the right to lock out striking workers.
The stoppage was preceded by nationwide pickets on April 26. COSATU ignored big business claims that the stoppage would damage the economy by frightening away foreign investment and cause the value of the rand to slide.
Support for the strike was strong in the Eastern Cape and Gauteng provinces, where the walkout was near total. The response was weakest in the Western Cape. Nationally, most major industries and public transport were paralysed. Tens of thousands attended rallies in Johannesburg, Cape Town and other major centres.
COSATU general secretary Sam Shilowa said that a constitution without the full right to strike offered no protection to the vulnerable. This right, he said, was non-negotiable. COSATU also rejected NP-DP proposals to limit the right to strike to collective bargaining, saying workers should have a right to strike over broader social and economic issues which affect their interests.
The general strike was supported by the ANC, which called on "all freedom-loving South Africans" to participate. "The constitutional positions which COSATU is mobilising around are positions which the ANC has long maintained. They are issues which are critical to ensuring that the constitution lays the foundation for a society based on equality, justice and freedom", the ANC said.
"Those parties which are seeking to entrench fundamentally undemocratic provisions in the constitution must realise that the people will not accept a constitution which hampers the democratic transformation ... During the next two weeks the workers, students and citizens of this country will be articulating their support for a fully democratic constitution. In this they have the full backing of the African National Congress."
Some trade unionists have pointed out that the Labour Relations Act, passed by the ANC-led government last year to regulate industrial relations, already grants a lockout right to employers. Unless there are also changes to that act, the contest over constitutional provisions is largely symbolic, they say.
The 490-member Constitutional Assembly must thrash out a final draft, which must be adopted by a deadline of May 8. It requires a two-thirds majority to pass. The ANC's majority falls short of this. As well as being deadlocked on the lockout clause, ANC and NP delegates are also at loggerheads over clauses that will institutionalise single-language schools, as well as property and language rights. Should the assembly be unable to pass the constitution, it is likely a referendum will be needed.
NP demands over these issues are widely seen as attempts to deliver to its two key constituencies: big business and conservative Afrikaners seeking to preserve their privileges under the cloak of "language rights" and "cultural rights".
ANC negotiator Blade Nzimande pointed out that the NP has not moved a centimetre on single-language schools for six months. Nzimande said that the ANC was striving for an education clause which will allow for the existence of some Afrikaans schools while guaranteeing that such schools would not be racially exclusive. The NP has blocked all attempts at such a formulation.
COSATU opposes the entrenching of a property clause in the constitution because existing property rights were secured through apartheid injustice. A property clause would limit the capacity for land reform and restitution, it argues. The ANC supports a clause that recognises property rights but allows for expropriation with compensation "only for public purposes or in the public interest". The NP-DP supports a clause that protects property holders from being "arbitrarily deprived", making redress of past injustices extremely difficult.
South Africa's trade unions are again moving into action after a year of relative quiet. In the period January to March, 175,000 work days were lost to strike activity, against 60,000 in the first quarter of 1995. Last year, 1.9 million work days were lost to strike action, against 3.5 million in 1994. The record was set in 1987 with 9 million.
In 1996 strikes have increased in number and size. COSATU's Nowetu Mpati refused to promise a reduction in strikes. "It all depends on the relationship between labour and government, and labour and business. There are still plenty of companies that do not want to address workers' demands", he told the Weekly Mail and Guardian.