Holomisa slams Cosatu

2004-03-20 13:03

Johannesburg - United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa on Saturday criticised the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) for urging its members to support the African National Congress during the elections next month.

He said Cosatu had lost members because the ANC government had carried out policies which were detrimental to workers, making a handful of rich individuals richer.

"While the unemployed continued to be locked out of the economy, the working masses are told by Cosatu to vote for the ANC.

"But how can the same Cosatu that claims to share these concerns now expect workers to vote for the ANC? This is a deceitful approach to elections.

"Nobody, not even Cosatu, must force voters to vote for a party whose policies they do not agree with," Holomisa said in a speech prepared for delivery at his party's election campaign at the Orlando Stadium in Soweto.

"The same Cosatu that claims to be concerned about HIV and Aids asks workers to vote ANC.

"This would be a vote for an ANC whose president has disputed the link between HIV and Aids, and who questions statistics that indicate how many of our people are dying of the pandemic.

"Cosatu actually expects workers to vote for a party whose health minister seems more obsessed with opening her own potato and garlic vegetable patch than providing antiretroviral treatment," he said.

'Disgusting'

Holomisa said it was disgusting for Cosatu to campaign for a party which did not have the interests of its members at heart.

He went further to liken Cosatu to the New National Party, which has an alliance with the ANC in the Western Cape, saying the NNP was "hanging onto the ANC's coattails" for as long as the ANC would tolerate them.

"Both these organisations (Cosatu and the NNP) claim to have an influence on the ANC, while they are in reality little more than window-dressing."

He said Alexandra and Sandton, north of Johannesburg, were a clear example of the growing gap between the wealthy and the poor.

"The physical distance between wealth and despair is as little as the few kilometres between Sandton and Alexandra.

"The economic cake is not grown fast enough to provide a just and equal share for all.

"Hence, we continue to have a small handful of wealth creators in an ocean of economically marginalised people.

"This small group now includes black faces, but this does not change the underlying and growing inequality between the fortunate and less fortunate," he said.

Cosatu, the ANC and the SA Communist Party form the tripartite alliance.

- SAPA