COSATU welcomes Mbeki's speech

By Anele Siwa
09 February 2008

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) hails the way President Thabo Mbeki’s State of the Nation Address sets out the key collective challenges facing the country, and how society should respond to them.

“COSATU therefore reserves its right to respond in more detail to the forthcoming pronouncements by ministers and the budget speech,” says COSATU national spokesperson Patrick Craven.

According to Craven their organisation is eager to understand whether the State of the Nation Address meets their expectations in relation to a number of things and to what point it takes forward the resolutions of the ANC 52nd Conference in Polokwane.

“In particular, we were keen to understand how government will tackle the twin task of addressing poverty and unemployment,” he added.

Craven says the President is correct to underline that the momentary challenges don't suggest a society on the precipice.

During his address president Thabo Mabeki said: "The entirety of our system of governance is therefore making the commitment that in the period ahead of us it will do its best live up to the imperative 'business unusual'. We speak of 'business unusual' not referring to any changes in our established policies but with regard to the speedy, efficient and effective implementation of these policies and programmes so that the lives of our people should change better sooner rather than later.”

On the other hand Craven says COSATU will urge that the spirit of ‘business unusual’ must also be informed by the rising inequality in the society.

“If we proceed on the current trajectory we are likely to miss the employment and poverty reduction targets, even if the growth targets have been largely met,” he says.

In what many believe was his last Address as President, Mbeki quotes Charles Dickens in his novel Tale of two cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before, we were all going direct heaven, we were all going direct the other way in-short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison.”

It is not clear whether the President was referring to the events happened at Polokwane.