Workers' rights should never be taken for granted - Zuma

Speaking at the main Cosatu Workers' Day rally in Kimberly, Northern Cape, Zuma said that the ANC has held a strong bias towards the working class and poor.

"The ANC bias towards the working class does not mean we have abdicated our responsibility as a liberation movement to mobilize the broadest strata of society for fundamental transformation.

"It simply means we have correctly understood that our democracy will not be stable, sustainable and successful if the plight of the working class, employed or unemployed, is not sufficiently attended to," he said.

South Africa today marked the 19th Workers' Day celebrations since the dawn of democracy.

Workers' rights such as the right to fair labour practice and the right to form and join trade unions were enshrined in the Constitution. "These are very important rights which must not be taken for granted."

The ANC President urged that a tendency to divide workers or undermine collective bargaining among others should be guarded against.

"Unity within Cosatu is paramount. We need a united Cosatu that is able to devote its attention to promoting the rights of workers. Thus we urge the labour movement to work seriously at uniting the federation and to resolve whatever differences there may exist," said Zuma.

Workers are the creators of the country's wealth and they must get an equitable share in the wealth, he said adding that attention needs to be paid to the plight of mineworkers and farm workers.

"As we focus on miners and farm workers, we also remember those workers who tragically lost their lives in Marikana in the North West and related violent incidents. We have to draw lessons from Marikana."

The National Development Plan (NDP) is the country's socio-development blueprint for the next 20 years.

"We reiterate that those who have views about the NDP should feel free to raise them in the spirit of the democratic culture within the movement and the Alliance. Views cannot be suppressed. However, work is continuing to implement the NDP."

At government level, the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation, has already begun developing a draft Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF) for 2014-2019, as the first five-year building block of the NDP.

The intention is to submit the first draft of the 2014-2019 NDP aligned framework to the 2013 July Cabinet Lekgotla. This can then be refined so that it can be submitted to the new Cabinet for approval as soon as possible after the 2014 elections.

This will enable Departments to include the new targets in their individual five year strategic plans, which they will be starting to work on later this year and in early 2014.

Workers' Day was celebrated with rallies held across the country.