Shabangu was on the money over Implats

THIS time Mines Minister Susan Shabangu has got it right. Well, partially at least. When she laid into Impala for negotiating new wage conditions for a section of its employees outside an earlier wage agreement, she was giving voice to what many have thought. I did not criticise Impala because I thought the damage was actually done by Lonmin.

But I did say at the time that the effect would be to encourage a rash of strikes in the mining industry on the basis that mine managements fell over as soon as angry workers waved machetes at them. And that is what has happened.

And I agree with Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi when he says Lonmin has done no one any favours by negotiating through churches and allowing any Musa, Mzwakhe or Ngwako to take part. Vavi must have enjoyed that — at long last he had a justifiable cause with which to beat management.

Not so fast though. The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) also bears responsibility for this lamentable breakdown in communication. Its shop stewards are elected by their peers; they are provided with office accommodation and telephones by management. They are supposed to look after their fellow members.

They haven’t. What is now obvious is that this isn’t a battle between two trade unions seeking membership from the same pool. This is a clarion call from workers who say they no longer trust their trade unions. Then they tell management to get rid of their branch chairmen and shop stewards, as though this actually falls into management’s purview.

The fault here lies squarely with the union. It hasn’t done its job to the satisfaction of those who pay for the upkeep of the union’s office bearers. Nor, I should add, has the Depart- ment of Labour. On one occasion during the negotiations at a Gold Fields mine one of the men involved said they no longer trusted “the ANC (African National Congress) government”. If that isn’t a message for the ANC, the NUM and Cosatu there will never be one.

Strikers generally now have the bit between their teeth. They are behaving brutally everywhere. Intervention by the much vilified police is an absolute. The country cannot endure a situation in which strikers lob bricks and bottles off bridges with the intent of doing damage. Those apprehended should be charged with attempted murder.