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By Norm Dixon A general strike by the Congress of South African Trade Unions was narrowly averted after talks with African National Congress government ministers. The 24-hour strike, scheduled for January 16, was suspended by COSATU's leaders after the government cancelled a special cabinet meeting aimed at making further decisions on privatisation and promised "consultation". The ANC shocked its alliance partners — COSATU and the South African Communist Party — with a December 7 announcement by deputy president Thabo Mbeki that a number of major state assets would be privatised. COSATU and the SACP were not consulted prior to the announcement. Mbeki outlined plans for a 49% sell-off of Telkom, South African Airways and the authority that operates South Africa's airports, as well as the total privatisation of several regional airlines and the road transport division of the country's transport utility. Mbeki said the sales were "to improve the efficiency of its corporations and resources in a bid to stimulate growth, lower the national debt and give the RDP [Reconstruction and Development Program] a new momentum. The sale of assets will also promote black entrepreneurship." There is speculation that the government is also considering selling the giant electricity corporation Elcom and the railways, Spoornet. Sections of the state-owned South African Broadcasting Corporation radio and television networks are already on the auction block. In response, 40,000 members of the South African Railway and Harbour Workers Union on December 13 staged a one-day strike, causing delays in local and international flights and disrupting commuter train services. About 50 members of the Post and Telecommunications Workers Association occupied the offices of Telkom's chief executive. On December 19, a national two-hour stoppage coordinated by COSATU took place and the January 16 general strike was announced. COSATU general secretary Sam Shilowa said these actions "marked the beginning of a process of mobilisation against privatisation", which would benefit only the elite and result in job losses. Privatisation was at complete odds with the supposed aims of the RDP. "We accept the need for the restructuring of state assets, but not that it should be a euphemism for privatisation", Shilowa said. "If the government wants to sell off the family silver, we say no, you cannot." The decision by COSATU to call off the strike without assurances that the government's privatisation plans will be reversed, however, has led some trade union militants and movement activists to question the COSATU leadership's preparedness to seriously oppose the ANC's rightward drift while it remains in alliance with it.