Time to reflect on plight of workers
AS SOUTH Africans celebrate yet another public holiday on May Day, we have an awful lot to reflect on and ponder about as a country that is largely governed by former trade unionists.
May Day, also known as International Workers’ Day, commemorates the struggles and gains of the working class around the world.
South Africa is a country with a long history of struggles by the working class, and in the last 30 years has had a governing party that is a strong ally of the largest trade union, Cosatu. For this reason, the governing ANC has been, rightly or wrongly, regarded by many as sympathetic to the interests of the working class.
South Africans celebrated another very important public holiday, on April 27, that commemorated our freedom to choose our representatives in elections. Next month, on May 29, South Africans will be going to the polls to elect their representatives in national and provincial elections. The fundamental question is: Even though the ANC remains an ally of Cosatu, does it then follow that the governing party truly represents the interests of the working class?
Judging by the regular prevalence of strike action organised by public sector unions affiliated with Cosatu, such as Samwu and Nehawu, it appears that there are growing tensions between the governing ANC government and trade unions.
May Day is a public holiday that commemorates the ongoing struggles and gains of the working class around the world. In South Africa, the struggles of the working class date back to, and formed a central part of, the fight against racial discrimination in the workplace and in the broader society. This explains why the largest trade union, Cosatu, is in a tripartite alliance with the SACP and the governing ANC. For this reason, it is not a coincidence that three state presidents – Jacob Zuma, Kgalema Motlanthe and Cyril Ramaphosa started their careers as trade unionists.
South Africa is no exception to being led by former trade unionists. The current presidents of Brazil (Lula) and Venezuela (Maduro), are former trade unionists and so was the former president of Zambia (Chiluba). Since 1994, trade unionists have occupied powerful positions in the ANC and the government, men such as Jay Naidoo, Alec Erwin, Sam Shilowa and Sydney Mafumadi. Three former secretaries-general of the ANC – Ramaphosa, Motlanthe and Mantashe – came from the National Union Mineworkers (NUM).
After Mbeki stepped down as the state president, more former trade unionists swelled the ranks of the executive branch of government with the likes of Gwede Mantashe and Ebrahim Patel, being the prominent ones.
Other trade unionists went into the business sector to benefit from black empowerment (BEE) deals, where Ramaphosa made billions. These trade unionists-turned-business leaders and politicians are now at the forefront of setting the agenda in South Africa, and also determining the direction of the country. It suffices to say that most, if not all, of these former trade unionists were employed in the labour-intensive sector. This begs the number one question: What does it mean for South African society with its sophisticated economy to be led and dominated by trade unionists?
In a globalised world that is rapidly changing in terms of technological advances and migration patterns, South Africa finds itself having to deal with old challenges as well as new overwhelming challenges. While South Africa is still grappling with a long history of racial discrimination, unfair labour practices, and rampant exploitation in the workplace, these new phenomena are adding another dimension to the economy.
AI-inspired lay-offs are now becoming a reality and AI technology is enabling business leaders to significantly cut labour costs through retrenchments and outsourcing. Some studies reveal that AI is replacing workers both in the labour and capital-intensive sectors.
In an era of porous borders, more people are coming to South Africa. This presents opportunities and challenges for South Africa. The biggest challenge is that South Africa is attracting more unskilled than skilled labour, and some of the unskilled immigrants are here illegally. It is these unskilled immigrants who are competing with unskilled South Africans in the labour-intensive sector. Unskilled immigrants have become a source of cheap labour for businesses in farming, private security, mining, and truck driving.
For instance, most farms in the Cape Winelands hire immigrants who are reputed to have a better work ethic than locals. Immigrants, particularly, illegal ones, do not make demands for better working conditions and pay. In addition, because immigrants are not unionised like the locals, employers sometimes prefer to hire immigrants.
Since 1994, our economy has been struggling to create jobs in the labour-intensive sector, in part, because of our subdued economic growth, load shedding, and high rates of crime. These problems are well documented and are not making South Africa an attractive destination for foreign direct investment. Another problem is that South Africa has been experiencing a lot of violent strikes in the recent past. The Marikana massacre at Lonmin mines remains one of the most violent industrial labour strikes in the history of our country.
Recently, Cosatu-affiliated Samwu went on strike to protest against poor salaries. Protesting workers vandalised and thrashed many parts of Durban. Even more disturbing, these workers also intimidated and harassed non-striking workers without much protection from law enforcement agencies. In line with Cosatu’s slogan of “an injury to one is an injury to all,” many South Africans are being severely inconvenienced whenever workers go on strike.
As our economy sheds jobs in the labour-intensive sector, our labour laws appear to be failing to protect workers against retrenchments, restructuring and outsourcing. This is very bad in a country with one of the highest rates of unemployment in the world.