Fatal strikes need to stop
THE Marikana massacre was one of the most tragic incidents to happen in this land. This is partly because this massacre was committed under the watch of a, eh . . . sort of democratically elected president.
It is the most tragic because it represented a betrayal of all the things we thought we had achieved with democracy.
The continuing strike led by the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) somehow reminds me of this tragic betrayal.
The strike has been going on from January 23. Families are suffering – both here in the Eastern Cape and at the mines, small businesses are closing close to the mines. The demand is the same R12 500 basic salary which was being demanded when the miners were shot down by the police in August 2012.
Most workers have the idea they are honouring their fallen comrades who died for this demand. My hope is that this is not what they died for. I hope they died for something more noble, more valuable, a cause which might last for generations, not R12 500 per month.
My hope is that they died to show us we need to take the responsibilities of leadership seriously. I hope they died to teach us that populism is dangerous, that greed and political machinations always result in unnecessary death. To learn these lessons is what would honour these men.
A strike without end in a country like South Africa which is prone to strikes anyway, is in fact a national disaster. This strike will affect everything in the future, whichever way it ends. The expectations of workers, the conduct of business in South Africa and the value we place in leadership are all being tested.
Whilst Joseph Mathunjwa and his men at AMCU continue to receive their salaries, the men who need to feed families and develop children hope that their standing is solid, that their demands are reasonable and that the lofty promises of Mathunjwa and his men are within reach.
The question is whether this so or are we witnessing, yet again, another tragedy in the offing – one that will change the face of our fledgling democracy?
Mathunjwa is reported saying, “The members will decide about the strike”.
But what is his role as a leader? Does not leadership involve responsibility and the ability to maintain sanity on all sides?
Have we learnt nothing from the jobless growth of the Mandela and Mbeki eras when business simply retrenched workers when they were forced by legislation to up salaries?
If this R12 500 is possible, will it not mean the same thing, that the mines will simply retrench and automate the mines if they are denied the profits they went into business for?
It is time for some sanity. This strike is causing too much suffering for what it hopes to achieve.
I have always liked the idea of building a house as an example of building anything of value. If your house is in disrepair and you are living in it, what do you do to address this? Do you knock down the house in the hope of renovating it whilst living in it? Or is it better to buy time with minor repairs, build a new house and only knock down the old one when you have safely relocated into the new?
The latter obviously seems like the better option. AMCU’s demands seem like those of a man who is knocking bricks off his house to replace them with new bricks, however his actions might cause the whole house to come tumbling down. This strike must stop now.