SACP General Secretary Solly Mapaila. File picture: Itumeleng English/African News Agency (ANA)
Cape Town - With almost all South African public holidays having political roots, it is unavoidable that mass commemorations such as Workers’ Day will turn into political rallies – but should they?
On Monday, talk of next year’s elections and the state of the tripartite alliance dominated the Workers’ Day rally in Bethlehem in the Free State.
But prior to the 10-minute combative speech by SACP General Secretary Solly Mapaila, the rally remembered 51 delegates who died when their bus drove into a dam near Bethlehem on their way to a Workers’ Day event in 2003.
It has been seven years since Lily Mine in Mpumalanga collapsed and trapped a container underground with three employees inside – Pretty Nkambule, Yvonne Mnisi and Solomon Nyirenda. Their bodies have yet to be retrieved.
According to Statistics South Africa, the country’s unemployment rate decreased by 0.2 percentage points to 32.7% in Q4-2022 compared to Q3-2022.
The memories of the Marikana Massacre will remain entrenched in the minds of many people for decades to come.
The courts are flooded with cases of unfair dismissal, harassment and other work-related cases.
In essence, there are far too many workers’ issues in the country for leaders to be fighting politically on the only day supposedly dedicated to workers.
The dirty laundry involving the ANC and its alliance partners Cosatu and the SACP should be dealt with through relevant “family” structures, not during a Workers’ Day rally.
Cape Times