With the country still confronted with the triple challenge of unemployment, poverty and inequalities, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is hoping that President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) tomorrow will address these challenges.

“The address comes a week after the release of horrifying poverty statistics by the Statistics SA which shows that more than one in every two South Africans lives in conditions of poverty,” the union states.

“Coupled with stubbornly high rates of unemployment at over 36%, with young people constituting the majority of those who are without jobs, the country is facing serious challenges and needs extraordinary measures to address these challenges.”

Some of the key issues Cosatu intends to take up in coming months include:

* Ending poverty, through a national minimum wage, defence of collective bargaining and comprehensive social security;
* Defending workers’ right to strike;
* Resolving the crisis at Eskom;
* Transforming the lives of vulnerable workers;
* Eradicating racism and sexism in the workplace;
* Opposing e-tolls and campaigning for better public transport; and
* Fighting corruption, particularly in the union and their investment companies.

Cosatu expects “business unusual” from the 2015 Sona by President Zuma. “While we fully appreciate that the global economy is not recovering at a pace that will help the South African economy to grow faster to help to address the challenges of unemployment and poverty in particular, it is therefore of critical importance that government should stimulate economic growth and job creation.

“This among others requires the government to spend and invest more, particularly in the infrastructure development programme, and in capacitating the public service and all state institutions.
“This runs counter to the current fiscal stance taken by Treasury, which is one of austerity, or cutbacks in real terms.”

Cosatu also seeks reassurance from the President that all efforts are being taken by government to address the precarious electricity situation in the country.

“Despite a commitment the President made in his 2014 Sona that government would ‘respond decisively to the country`s energy constraints’, rolling electricity blackouts have become a norm rather than an exception. This is a matter of grave concern to Cosatu because ‘load-shedding’ has the potential to result in job losses.

“The President should reassure the nation that the assets of Eskom will not be sold to the highest bidder as an option to get more funding for Eskom.

“Further we need to know in the context of this crisis why the aluminium smelters continue to be allowed to consume such massive amounts of electricity (up to 7% of total electricity consumption), at taxpayers’ expense, and without adding any significant value to the economy. Government urgently needs to look at how to close the remaining smelters down.

“The President should outline an implementation strategy for the expansion of the renewable energy sector, which must take into account the importance of developing social forms of ownership, localisation, job creation and enhanced energy access to the working class.

“We reiterate our opposition to the expansion of nuclear energy generation based on costs and safety considerations in particular.

“We note that government is steaming ahead with shale gas extraction and our concerns in that regard include water contamination, health effects, green-house gas emissions and the destruction of the political economy of the Karoo.”

Other issues that Cosatu hopes will be addressed include corruption, education, the National Health Insurance (NHI) white paper and land reform.