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SJOHANNESBURG - The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) said International Workers’ Day is celebrated against a backdrop of increasing poverty, inequality and high unemployment in the country.
The union took a swipe at the ANC government yesterday, claiming the past 29 years were ‘wasted years’.
“More than two decades of ANC rule has created the most unequal society in the world, with extremely high levels of poverty and unemployment.
“We can characterise the past 29 years of the ANC government as ‘29 wasted years’ because after they were given an overwhelming mandate by the working class in 1994 through the elections, they have wasted all this time entrenching the power of the capitalist elite, instead of dismantling the colonial and apartheid structure of the economy,” said NUMSA General Secretary Irvin Jim in a statement.
He said the union shared the sentiments of Abahlali BaseMjondolo, who described the last two decades of ANC rule as ‘fake freedom’.
The ANC’s obsession with pleasing ‘white monopoly capital’, had resulted in the destruction of State-owned enterprises like Eskom and deliberate neglect of Eskom’s coal-fired power stations, Jim said. This had led to persistent load-shedding, which was worsening job losses and choking economic growth.
“We pay higher tariffs for electricity because the private sector is playing a greater role, through the independent power producers, in the generation of electricity,” he said.
He added that NUMSA, the Health and Allied Workers Indaba Trade Union,
UDM, SAFTU and other progressive organisations had taken Eskom and the government to court earlier this year in the hope they could get certain critical sectors of the economy exempted from load-shedding.
“The energy crisis cannot be underestimated because it has a direct impact on the growth of the economy. It also may lead to companies moving production to other parts of the globe, which means even more workers will lose their jobs.”