Day celebrated
May 08 2008 03:41:52:030PM  - (SA)  
Martin Tsatsimpe

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The stadium was crowded with the members of Cosatu affiliates, the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the ANC in their usual red regalia t-shirts as the symbol of celebration, whereby the programme was directed by the Northern Cape Provincial Secretary of Cosatu, Willie Sikhali.

Workers from the entire Kgalagadi region, and as far as Kimberley, were part of the celebration, rendering hot revolutionary songs like in the olden days before democracy. The workers were entertained by the brass band from Moshaweng and a cultural group from Batlharos.

The national Minister of Education, Naledi Pandor, from the ANC and Norman Shushu, the provincial secretary of the SACP, were amongst the dignitaries who attended this annual May Day celebration of the workers.

Pandor encouraged the workers to participate in different projects like the development of the infrastructure to assist their respective community and uplift their living conditions as this is part of job creation.

The audience was passionate to listen to the keynote address by the president of the National Union of Mine Workers (NUM), Senzeni Zokwane, who represented Cosatu. He said that the employers must provide better employment conditions and wages for the workers.

Senzeni also motivated the workers to defend their living standards and he encouraged them to do HIV/Aids tests so they could know their status and either abstain or do what was.

Shushu highlighted the crisis on food prices, petrol and high interest rates which adversely affect the living conditions of the workers and the poor. “We are in a period in which our revolution is characterised by thoroughly contradictory realities,” said Shushu. “On the one hand there has been some significant progress in consolidating our democracy and addressing some of the pressing socio economic challenges facing the majority of our people, but, on the otherhand we still continue to have a colonial type of economy,” said Shushu.

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