COSATU general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi has said that South Africa's economic direction is the same as that followed by the apartheid government.

Delivering the Irene Grootboom Memorial Lecture, in Khayelitsha, Western Cape, yesterday, Vavi said the country should be worried about its economic policy direction.

"All we have done is change the skin colour of the driver but, in terms of economic policy, the direction remains the same as the one the apartheid regime was travelling, which was inspired by [former British prime minister] Margaret Thatcher.

"I talk here of the discredited Washington consensus that is based on the supremacy of the markets and the limited role of the state," Vavi said.

He said there had to be differences between the policies of the ANC and of the DA, which runs Western Cape.

Grootboom was instrumental in forcing the government to honour its obligations to the poor. Her case in the Constitutional Court in 2002 became a landmark judgment but she died in poverty.

Vavi said that, though the government has done much to improve the lives of South Africans, more needed to be done.

He said the government must be pressured to produce a new growth path that would lead to the building of a better life for everyone.

"We should campaign for an end to denialism. We should no longer tolerate the issuing of completely insensitive and naive statements from our leaders, who have been telling us for 16 years now that the economic fundamentals are in place and we have turned the corner.

"This is like a doctor declaring that the operation has been successful though the patient has died.

"We should no longer allow our leaders to go around the world with massive business delegations, leaving behind the poor and the marginalised, and then use these trade talks to declare that no economic policy will change and that we shall stay the course," Vavi said.

He announced that next week close to 50 civil society organisations will meet in Johannesburg to establish closer working relationships and better co-ordination between pro-poor organisations and the trade union movement.