NACTU spokesperson Mahlomola Skhosana: "An interim government for whom? They've got to spell it out."
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Following are excerpts from an interview with Mahlomola Skhosana, the first assistant general secretary of the National Council of Trade Unions (NACTU), a major union federation in South Africa. The interview was given to Socialist Action Co-editor Michael Schreiber in Johannesburg on June 10, 1992.
Socialist Action: What are the major campaigns that NACTU is engaged in at the moment?
Mahlomola Skhosana: We are experiencing a deep recession. The recession has led to massive retrenchments [lay offs]. One of our major campaigns is for a moraEric Miller want to discuss the question of investment-because South African big business is disinvesting in the country. They're taking their money here and investing in other countries, to create employment in other countries.
There are billions of rands locked in the stock exchange every day in this country. What about this money? It's not getting out of the stock exchange. We have problems where big insurance houses that control pension funds of workers are not investing this money in job creation. They're investing this money, I think you'll see-either in Durban, Capetown. Johannesburg—there's always a new build. ing coming up. They put all that money into buildings. So we need to discuss those issues.
It's a forum in which we in NACTU are looking to make specific demands on big business as well as government. We will not accept that the initial economic forum be linked to CODESA, nor do we accepi that the economic forum be an advisory body to the government. We're not advising, but going there to make specific demands.
SA: What about the "workers' summit" that NACTU was planning together with COSATU? It was scheduled to be held at the end of May, and at the last minute was cancelled.
MS: It wasn't cancelled. It was postponed.
SA: What were some of the reasons behind the postponement?
MS: First and foremost, people make a mistake to think that here in South Africa, workers are in COSATU and NACTU. There are more workers outside COSATU and NACTU. And we have accepted that. We recognize that. For the summit, we had not reached out enough to get those workers who are outside COSATU and NACTU.
One of the things that were going to be