Eskom misses wage trick
O tempora, o mores. So complained consul Cicero two millennia ago at the corruption of government. So too President Cyril Ramaphosa in his belated acknowledgment of the state capture scourge. How then for the new president to redirect the ship of state?
Step one: recognise the parlous condition of the fiscus. Step two: regain control of the commanding heights of the economy. Easy, appoint new boards of control. Step three: repeat step two, this time staring down the wage demands of organised labour. This, for a former trade union activist, should not be that difficult, or is this a naive misreading of realpolitik?
How did the Ramaphosa administration deal with its first real test of authority, namely the 15% wage demand by Eskom staff? Badly. At the beginning of the coup d’etat electrique, one suspects that Jabu Mabuza, Eskom chairman, had taken a leaf from former premier of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew’s account of how he stared down Singapore Airlines pilots in their demand for a 30% wage hike. Lee resisted by threatening closure of the airline. The pilots then made a forced descent from their high-handed position, giving in to the Lee government. That confrontation turned on who blinked first. Lee 1, Union 0.
In the Eskom case Mabuza, certainly with the concurrence of Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and Ramaphosa, insisted that the wage increase offer was zero. The union, willing and able to connive in industrial sabotage, arranged for the lights to dim. The ship of state flipped belly up, offering an above-inflation sweetener. It all turned on the simple question: who flicks the switch? Ramaphosa missed his Lee Kuan Yew moment.
With such power in the hands of the power workers, what are the political powers to do? Perhaps the solution lies in managing the fact that Eskom is management top heavy and overstaffed.
So next time the solution could follow this story line: play to the public gallery by awarding a minimal 1% pay increase to management — enough to compensate for the increased cost of private schooling and filling the Woolies trolley. And give a full consumer price index increase to the lowest paid. This begins to look like social equity, and if progressed forward over a generation will close the wage inequality gap. Ramaphosa 1, Unions 1. Public, applause.
Michael Kahn
Via e-mail