Africa’s largest labour federation calls out predatory western capital

The Congress of South African Trade Unions ( Cosatu) is the latest to call out western capital for their predatory dealings with the African continent which campaigners believe has led to millions of Africans leaving their home countries in search of a better life.

Cosatu’s First Deputy President Mike Shingange said current migration patterns are a direct result of the unrestrained extraction of natural resources by European and American companies that leave most African countries poorer.

“It is them who came and extracted the wealth and mineral resources, took profit and left ghost towns and distressed communities, and took profit away. Even here in the country we have got mining companies that can spend 40-50 years mining, leave the communities in distress and take profit and close mine.Workers lose jobs and the profit is allowed to go out of the country. So when workers follow their wealth, when the workers understand that ‘we have been working well here driving nice in Rustenburg or Mpumalanga, we are now poor the mineral resources are now in Italy, they will go to Italy to find their wealth,” said Shingange.

Cosatu’s call comes at the back of a directive by a United Nations committee that countries are legally obliged to consider reparations for the transatlantic slave trade and also take ⁠measures to address the enduring ⁠legacy of racial discrimination.

According to guidance published on Monday by the committee on the elimination of racial discrimination, the obligations arose from ⁠a legally binding 1965 convention on racial discrimination, not from the legal standards that existed when the slave trade took place.

The committee described the approach as a “paradigm ⁠shift” away from debates over historical responsibility that have often been used by governments to resist reparations claims.

“States parties must implement comprehensive reparatory measures for ‌people of African descent, ‌covering all aspects of remedies,” said the UN in the legally binding document.

Calls for reparations including in the form of official apologies and financial compensation have gained momentum globally, with opponents arguing countries and institutions should not be held responsible for historical crimes committed to by their predecessors.

Shingange said even South Africa’s current immigration crisis is a result of its private sector’s exploitation of various parts of the continent.

“Similarly, the South African companies that are all over the African continent, extracting wealth and profit of these countries, and come here and build machines and universities and everything, those communities will come here for that better education that is built by their wealth,” said Shingange who’s federation is based in South Africa, the most industrialised economy on the continent.

Cosatu alone represents no less than 2.2 million workers who are in some 21 affiliates spread across the economy and is politically aligned with the ruling African National Congress and the South African Communist Party.

The Deputy President also affirmed the federation’s support of the continental campaign for the demand for financial compensation for colonialism and the transatlantic slave, both declared crimes against humanity.

“Those who are having a class action to demand repatriation, we do think that they are doing good and we support them because because those people are living nicely in their own country, their own family, because of the poverty they caused in the African continent. As I said earlier on, that the immigration issue is a global phenomenon, but it’s not just because people just want to move around, and leave heir own country. So, that is why the socio-economic conditions that our people are faced in, that causes them to flow from one country it’s a crisis of capitalism.That’s why, even in our country, we are trying very hard to ensure that, much as it is important to demand the enforcement of the law, but we must understand that the root cause of this thing is the capitalism system that divides African people, it divides the working class,” he said.

The federation’s President Zingisa Losi said African countries must negotiate better deals for the extraction of their natural resources but cautious that ultimately its only local beneficiation that can power up much-needed industrialisation on the continent.

“They ( Europeans) have identified amongst what we have which ones are critical for them but we are saying they are strategic. And that, them being strategic, it means they must be developmental.They must help to develop the economy of the African continent. The question still remains, do our leaders appreciate the strategic minerals that we have? And what does that mean when they are strategic? I’m building our economies on the basis of what we have. But I also say, for those that want to come and invest in the African continent and extract, there will be no extraction and exporting raw materials.

We want beneficiation, which has been what we have been raising. Because through that we are able to create employment and avoid forced migration,” said the President.

South Africa is widely seen as a model for a country committed to restorative justice following the overthrow of the apartheid regime that oppressed blacks for many years. To level the playing field, democratic South Africa put in place measures such as Affirmative Action, Black Economic Empowerment and Land Expropriation Without Compensation to undo the more than 400 years of exclusion.

While the various redress policies pursued by the South African government have not worked perfectly or without resistance, they have largely transformed South African society.

CAJ News