End Telkom privatisation: Numsa
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) has called for an end to any privatisation of Telkom.
Although partly private and listed on the JSE, government has a 39.8% direct ownership of Telkom and has insisted that it intends to use the company as an asset for its national broadband policy.
In blocking the deal with Korea Telecom (KT Corp) at the end of May last year, cabinet said that “Telkom is a key and strategic asset in the rollout of this telecommunications infrastructure and in the effort to improve the skills of our citizens.”
Numsa released a statement following its National Bargaining Conference (NBC) earlier this week, rejecting privatisation at struggling enterprises including Telkom, and Eskom.
“We demand an end to any privatisation of Eskom, Telkom, Transnet and railway lines as envisaged in the NDP in the name of private-public partnership.”
“Sometimes we hear it called ‘concessioning’ or ‘unbundling’, but it is just privatisation by other names. The death of Margaret Thatcher must signal the end of these Thatcherite policies,” the union said.
Numsa also called for the withdrawal of government’s National Development Plan (NDP) which aims to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality by 2030.
“The National Development Plan stands against the Freedom Charter and the interests of the working class and the poor. It protects the historic and vested interests of white monopoly and imperialist capital.”
“It continues to promise us that redistribution will come after growth when we know that growth can only come through redistribution. It presents this false road as the basis for the gradual evolution of a ‘New South Africa’.”
“It is a right-wing document that will direct the wheels of history in the interests of the ruling class until 2030,” Numsa said.
On Thursday (25 April) Communications Minister Dina Pule insisted that government was not interfering in the operations of parastatals, including Telkom, but rather it was making policy to direct the parastatals, The New Age reported.
“It will be wrong of me not to pick up the phone and say: Telkom, you are doing things wrongly. So, no one is going to say I’m interfering because we are a majority holder in Telkom,” Pule said at business briefing hosted by The New Age and the SABC in Sandton.
More on Telkom
Telkom shuts the door on KT Corp revival talks
Loading ...