Hon Chairperson, hon Minister of Labour, hon Ministers and Deputy Ministers who are here - I only see one Minister, so you will automatically have Deputy Ministers - hon members and invited guests, 2013 is the 40th anniversary of the 1973 strikes, which started in Durban. As a result, I dedicate this Budget speech to ordinary workers who are never mentioned by name when we talk about these strikes. These unnamed heroes' and heroines' actions catapulted us into the present industrial relations regime.
Their demand was for an increase in their minimum wage. The wages of the textile workers were the worst, and you might ask the question, what has changed? Nothing much, but the colour of the exploiter has changed drastically.
During this period, the Trade Union Council of South Africa, Tucsa, was the mouthpiece of the National Party and apologists of apartheid. They agreed to the then legislation that blacks were not workers and could be paid four times less than white workers. These workers, who challenged the status quo, did not do so under the direction or support of any union. They had no confidence in the formal trade unions affiliated to Tucsa. Hon Minister, you will be forgiven if you are asking yourself about where I am going with this historic nostalgia. The only reason why I am referring to these strikes is because, as Salman Rushdie wrote in 1995:
History is natural selection. Mutant versions of the past struggle for dominance; new species of fact arise, and old, saurian truths go to the wall, blindfolded and smoking the cigarettes. The weak, the anonymous, the defeated leave few marks: field-patterns, axe-heads, folk-tales, broken pitchers, burial mounds, the fading memory of their youthful beauty. History loves only those who dominate her. It is a relationship of mutual enslavement.
If you do not believe what Rushdie wrote, ask Tucsa and former National Party members. What happened in 1973 is repeating itself right in front of us. Last year's strikes were a challenge to Cosatu, which is referred to by comrade Willie Madisha, former Cosatu president, as: "the workers league of the ANC."
The attitude of the sweetheart or shareholder unions to workers' plight was given a rude awakening by workers in the mining sector. The fact that employers agreed with the National Union of Mineworkers, NUM, concerning wage settlements and later produced more money, when the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, Amcu, members went on strike, is indicative of the fact that sweetheart unions can also wear red t-shirts. Hon Minister Fikile Mbalula ... [Interjections.]
HON MEMBERS: Minister, Minister!