Thank you Mr President,
Honourable Ministers
Distinguished delegates
Ladies and Gentlemen
In his report, Working out of poverty, Juan Somavia highlighted that
“Poverty is a nightmare. It is a vicious circle of poor health,
reduced working capacity, low productivity and shortened life
expectancy”. He continued by emphasising “for families, poverty
is a trap. It leads to inadequate schooling, low skills, insecure
income, early parenthood, ill health and early death”. And he
concluded, for societies, poverty is a curse”.
One thousand eight hundred and twenty seven (1827) days ago,
President Thabo Mbeki addressed this august house and warned us that
“even those cast into the darkness, amongst whom there is weeping and
gnashing of teeth, are also capable of speaking… and when they do speak
in the end, on all continents, including where we are meeting, they
will proclaim – we are the hope of the world, free at last of the curse
of poverty”
Chairperson, let me acknowledge the fact this report is written in
the midst of global financial turmoil, soaring food and fuel prices and
economic downturn. In our reflections, the consequence of this
crisis is observed in the attitude of the poor. The poor are
beginning to be restless. This restlessness is reflective of
deep-seated aspirations of people for fair opportunities. It is
reflected in their cry against ineffective economic and social systems,
the inadequate political responses, the bankrupt policies,
marginalization and insufficient support.
Indeed, we have seen how in the past decade, as globalization
brought faster growth and better living conditions to some parts of the
world, the majority of the poor countries have become increasingly
marginalized, sinking more and more into poverty.
They proclaim, as an intolerable burden to live in daily fear of
retrenchment. As President Mbeki said “being equally unjust that
the rights of the working person should be threatened, because there is
another at the factory gate who is ready to take his place on the
factory floor, because he or she is ready to accept lower wages,
intolerable working conditions, casualization of labour and
non-implementation of the standards of the ILO”.
In efforts to chart the way forward in dealing with these
challenges, we welcome the Director General’s report and believe that
it provides some strategic perspective on the challenges lying ahead
for our decent work agenda campaign.
The challenges posed by the financial turmoil being experienced in
the international capital movements as well as other domestic economic
challenges we are faced with, are indeed enormous. This situation
further compounds our development challenges which make our decent work
objective even more daunting. For many countries in my continent,
Africa and other middle-income economies, growth has been observed but
has disappointingly not translated into more and better jobs, reduced
inequality and lower poverty levels. In fact, it is often argued
that the growth trajectory chosen has led to these undesirable
consequences. In other words, growth under finance-driven
globalisation has led to these inequalities and poverty. The
total reliance on market forces has ensured little, if any, form of
distribution of resources for development or social well-being.
The fundamental question that we need to ask ourselves is: how do we
achieve decent work in the context of huge inequalities and high levels
of poverty particularly in Africa? This situation has
unfortunately lent credence to those determined to undermine the
necessary securities in our labour markets by calling for lower wages,
exploiting the vulnerability of our workers. “We must counter the
false argument that the imposition of deregulation and flexible
employment policies will set people on the path to sustainable
development and create appropriate levels of social wellbeing coupled
with more and better jobs. It is a myth”.
We must remember that the poor and the unemployed are capable of
speaking; of revolting against the policies that we espouse. The
poor are beginning not to trust and believe their leaders. I have
seen their re-action in South Africa. Today they are fighting
amongst themselves – tomorrow it will be our turn all over the world –
when they proclaim … WE ARE TIRED OF SEMINARS, CONFERENCES, SUMMITS AND
SPEECHES.
This I have seen in South Africa where we have both the first and
the third world. The first world is rich, predominantly white and
has all the first world infrastructure one may think of. This is
the first world we call the first economy
The third world is poor, living in squalor, the majority unemployed,
uneducated and unskilled and predominantly black. Persons from
neighbouring countries arrive in South Africa to improve their
lives. Unfortunately when they get to South Africa they stay
among the poor, live in squalor with them. Some come with
entrepreneurial skills; some are adventurous, innovative and
creative. Those who come to live and stay in these black
communities are black.
Whilst those who are in the first world and those who are rich
compete about their investments and profits – people in the third world
economy compete about poverty as a result they become jealous of each
other – thinking that the new comer is the cause and reason for their
poverty.
It must be noted though that there are thousands of migrant workers
in South Africa. These were there for many years. They come
from Mozambique, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe etc. They never
stayed in refugee camps and even now we still do not believe that we
must create or establish refugee camps. We believe that Africans
must be integrated with other Africans. What we need is an
awareness campaign teaching our people about Africanism – Africans
loving each other, about the pride of being an African and never to
kill, main or hurt another African for whatever reason.
Truly and honestly, as South Africans we were immensely embarrassed
by the attacks of fellow brothers and sisters. It was and remains
a very humiliating experience to see a black man burning, burnt by
other black brothers and sisters over a meatless bone – with others
standing by celebrating, ululating and laughing.
Indeed, the poor are restless
I thank you
