Donations created 2600 jobs say unions

JOHANNESBURG -- South Africa's three trade union federations said yesterday they had created at least 2600 permanent jobs with money raised from workers in 1999.

At the same time, the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu), the Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa) and the National Council of Trade Unions (Nactu) urged business to create more formal jobs.

They also challenged the government to start spending the "idle millions" in the Umsobomvu youth development fund.

Addressing the media on how the estimated R90million raised on March 3, 1999 -- when workers contributed a day's wages for job creation -- was being spent, Labour Job Creation Trust (LJCT) chairman and Cosatu president Willie Madisha said the disbursement had picked up after a slow start initially.

He said the money could have been allocated much more quickly. But such a move would have been irresponsible in the light of the sacrifice made by workers.

There was also a likelihood that the workers' donations could have been misspent as a result of corruption or poor decision-making.

"We have often been asked why spending has been so slow. We believe it was justified. We had to be thorough in allocating money as it was given to us by ordinary workers, many of whom do not earn what we would call a 'living wage'," Madisha said.

He said the trust asked for funding proposals for projects soon after it was created.

A total of 3300 applications, requiring R4,5billion to fund, were received.

Trustees, assisted by the Development Bank of Southern Africa, turned down 627 applicants due to financial constraints or because they could not meet the stipulated criteria. These included a bias towards projects in the poorest provinces, women and youth empowerment, HIV-Aids prevention, poverty alleviation, skills development, (including adult education) and the number of jobs that would have been created.

Fifty-seven projects emanating from the workers' contributions were being implemented and R4m had already been disbursed.

Another 19 projects had been approved for which R37m had been committed.

A trustee's meeting shortly before the media briefing had approved a further tranche of projects, expected to create 1900 new, permanent, jobs.

The trustees also resolved to allocate at least two thirds of the fund by the year-end.

The representatives of all the three labour federations said they were happy with the progress that had been made.

Fedusa's Hennie van Staden said his union was initially frustrated with the pace of delivery after the contributions were made, citing a lack of information.

"We can't approve a project without sufficient information.

But once things started moving, it moved quite fast."

Nactu president, Joseph Maqhekeni, said corruption had to be minimised.

"Yes, there were some delays in implementation. We wanted to make sure the money was well spent."

Many of the projects were partnerships with the Department of Labour, local governments and -- in some instances -- even traditional leaders.

Samwu president Petrus Mashishi, an LJCT trustee, said most of the money allocated was in the form of loans, not grants and would be repaid to the trust in due course. -- Sapa