When employers undermine the collective bargaining processes in order to make more profits, we, as society, must take responsibility. It is our collective fault, South Africa. It is on our watch that people living in our country take life-threatening action as the only way to improve their conditions of employment. It is the vulnerable workers, such as domestic workers, farm workers, maritime workers and disabled workers that bear the brunt of noncompliance with labour legislation.
We, all of us here and at home, are currently living within the South African class struggle. These engagements are getting more violent, and this will continue until we, as South African people, fully engage in the creation of a nonracist, nonsexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa. We, as South African people, must fully engage in the national democratic revolution.
If we take a serious look at the relationship between the employer and the worker today, we will see a growing trend that is emerging. This trend is one of tit for tat: the minimum wage is increased and the employer applies for a permit for foreign workers - as if foreign workers are easier to exploit. The workers win better packages, and the employer reacts by retrenching. This trend is growing throughout the country in every sector. We, as South Africans, should not allow this trend to become the norm. This trend is detrimental to the development of our country and of our future.
In South Africa today, the former apartheid collaborators, the DA, are attempting to assert the notion that the cause of worker unrest is the fault of a few individuals in the same way that the apartheid government attempted to assert that the South African freedom struggle, led by the ANC, was initiated by outside forces. [Interjections.] The DA's assertion is racist in character ... [Interjections.] ... as if the poor and oppressed black workers do not have the capacity to liberate themselves. [Interjections.]
When workers are forced to live in squalor, when they are treated with no respect, they are forced to struggle against their oppressor. [Interjections.] Within the South African labour market, the oppressor is the unscrupulous and inhumane group of greedy individual employers. We, as South Africa, have watched these greedy people undermine the collective bargaining agreements, resulting in loss of life, as we have seen in the mining sector. We, as South Africa, have watched while they employ expensive private security companies to assault, intimidate and harass our fellow South Africans, as witnessed in the farming sector. [Interjections.] We continue to watch ... [Interjections.]