The third regional workshop took place at the Parktonian Hotel, Johannesburg (South Africa) on 7-8 January 2005. Apart from the President and Executive Secretary of SATUCC, virtually all its affiliates attended (including its new member, the Mauritius Trade Unions Congress, MTUC), with the exception of COSATU. The ALRN was represented by its co-ordinator, Thobile Yanta, Godfrey Kanyenze, Austin Muneku, Tendai Makwavarara and Rodney Ndamba. Nine sectoral researchers, the two senior progressive intellectuals Tandon and Mhone, Jos Martens in his capacity of ANSA Coordinating Committee member, Alice Siame of LO-Norway and the then President of ICFTU, Fackson Shamenda also attended the workshop.

Following the presentation of the revised concept paper and the alternative framework, nine sectoral papers were also outlined (finance, manufacturing, health, culture, role of South African Companies in Africa, labour, land and agriculture, education and gender). During the discussions, it was agreed that additional research needs to be done on six new areas, namely, macro economy, trade and trade agreements in the region, social policy, infrastructure, science and technology and role of the State. It was emphasised that the link between research and mobilisation should be strengthened through the development of popular and education materials based on the research papers, on globalisation, the SADC Trade Protocol and other regional trade agreements. Participants noted that apart from ZiCTU, several alternatives had been developed in various countries such as the ‘People’s Budget Initiative’ spearheaded by COSATU and encouraged the researchers to draw from them as well.

Participants expressed concern over the reconfiguration of the region through trade agreements after it had been presented that the SADC region had been fragmented in the current negotiations on Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the European Union (EU) where only seven SADC member States are involved. While the other countries are negotiating under the East and Southern Africa area (ESA), South Africa already had its own bilateral trading agreement with the EU. It was agreed that trade unions in the region should engage EPAs and other trade agreements such as the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) as a matter of urgency. Participants encouraged the research process to include an audit of all SADC protocols relevant to the sector work. It was agreed another workshop should be organised to deal with the remaining papers that were not discussed and that global unions be engaged to support the ANSA cause.

The fourth and final workshop to discuss the outstanding research papers was held at Booysens Hotel, Johannesburg (South Africa) on 15-16 December 2005. The workshop was attended by the trade union officials that attended the third workshop, a researcher from most of the affiliates, the representatives of ALRN in the region and six of the researchers. At this workshop, the papers on the macro economy and finance, science and technology, and mining were presented and discussed. It was agreed that once the research is finalised, Herbert Jauch from LaRRI, with colleagues from ILRIG amongst others, would develop a popular version. The coordinating committee was requested to finalise the research phase through the production of the book so that the second phase of the programme, involving research at national level, training & advocacy and engagement would formally commence.

It is therefore my pleasure to herewith introduce “ANSA, the search for Sustainable, human development in Southern Africa” to you.

Ms Lucia Matibenga
President SATUCC
Harare, December 2006