“We are meeting today comrades after 130 years of May Day – workers day today and in South Africa we are celebrating 30 years of celebrating this important day as it is not only celebrated in our county, but throughout the world. We are celebrating 30 years of defending collective bargaining and workers jobs and rights. And for us to defend workers jobs and rights comrades, it has to be practical and it has to be looked in to beyond the shop floor but involving the working class as a whole in our communities and elsewhere,” he explained.
He says they are now told that our society needs a Messiah to cure it from corruption and calls him the champion of the workers wearing some overalls and some other boots and everything.
“You know, the issue here is that our enemy is corruption comrades and we must fight corruption comrades, but we can’t be told by Julius who led this province down on its knees through his corrupt activities and come and tell us about some corruption,” added Mthethwa. He says the national government had to intervene in Limpopo and run this province because of this chap who says today he is as clean as white as white as an ice, as white as snow and he will come and clean the sins of the sinners. We have got to ensure that our municipalities have a especially targeted programmes for young people. Part of what we need to do comrades is to have programmes that are going to engage young people because if the army of the unemployment is growing within us and amongst us we are going to have a threat to our democracy and idle young people,” he says.
He added that idle young minds are dangerous minds. “We are going to have young people who are easily going to be influenced and convinced by fraudsters who today claims to be Messiahs of our problems in society. We need to be vigorous fighting corruption and our anti corruption programme calls must start with municipalities. We were not going to have a problem in this Limpopo if comrades were firm. Some young boy come and run old people and impoverished the entire province,” he says. Mthethwa said they must ensure that councillors abide by their code of conduct.
Now turning his attention on the means of production, Mthethwa said when they say that the power should be restored to the people they mean practical things; we mean that the ownership’s of the means of productions, the ownership of the economy of this country especially in the mines and mining areas and sector should be restored to the people.
“What is going to be happening in our country in few months or weeks to come we are going to see the monopoly capitalists taking government to court especially on mining. They are saying that they have done everything to transformation when we know that transformation hasn’t happened in the sector. We need to follow this closely because as government we are going to fight this. They are saying that if a mining company has black partner’s and those people decide to sell their shares and it continues to be white, they are not obliged to get other black people. Because they did it before “they say ones empowered always employed’. We say no! For now, very few people have benefited out of broad based black economic empowerment,” remarked Mathethwa.
He says they are forging ahead and comrades ought to be close to this when called upon for mass actions and for programmes against these monopoly capitalists. We support that because it is in the benefit of all of us and those communities,” he stressed. Now turning his attention on Vavi, Mthetwa said the giant COSATU should continue to grow in the space where they are operating some trade union movements coming up but it is the job of COSATU to ensure that there is one labour federation in this one country under the leadership of COSATU.
“Those splinters and those individuals who left COSATU and the Alliance because they couldn’t get positions; there is one gentleman called Vavi who wanted to have a negotiated arrangement for him to be the Deputy President of the ANC we said in the ANC things don’t work that way gentlemen. When you are not nominated you can’t go to Nkandla and negotiate to be a Deputy President,” said Mthethwa. He further said COSATU should fight for the rights of the workers and workers will always support COSATU if it stands and represents them.
