Settle differences without violence
HOT TOPIC: Union rivalry on mines
IT is shocking that the Marikana situation has deteriorated to the extent it has, at the expense of many black people, leading to lives lost.
I understand Amcu broke away from NUM because the members were dissatisfied with NUM’s ability to negotiate their demands. This has led to the embarrassing debacle between the two trade unions. It raises the question why a trade union cannot be established and operate independently of existing monopolies?
A democracy is meant to allow for this to ensure that different views can be accommodated, especially those of workers.
If workers, as the vanguard of the struggle, are not listened to, as observed by the number of protests held each year in South Africa, then we must accept that we have created a political system which is a dictatorship.
We can presume to have a situation where the ruling party operates as a one party state and Cosatu as the only trade union organisation that must be recognised, destroying any new trade union that may arise.
Cosatu is considered to control all bargaining councils as a result of member thresholds they have in various companies across the country. This development points to reactionary politics and trade union activism.
The workers’ concerns really are no longer the reason for the existence of the trade union. It is all about which trade union is the most powerful in relation to numbers.
Because of this, it is sad – no, shameful – that black workers have had to resort to fighting among themselves in this way. The murder of an Amcu organiser appears a very deliberate assassination, as are the murders of two innocent victims, thought to be NUM members. These actions are certainly inhumane. People with pride and dignity would not lower themselves to this level of behaviour and reaction.
No one really knows who is behind these deaths, but it certainly has raised fear levels and created lack of trust in the community, which could lead to more deaths.
The conditions in which the workers live and work in some of these mines are atrocious.
Can anyone with a conscience sleep at night knowing this?
While the owners make money, poor black workers continue to be exploited.
Worst still, the black elite have the audacity to exploit this through their BEE schemes.
Names like Cyril Ramaphosa, unfortunately, have come to be trusted by our people, so when he says he will intervene, our people tend to believe this, not realising their interests are only secondary.
Otherwise, why were Lonmin and associates not prepared to negotiate and reach a speedy resolution to the demands of the workers?
Having created a strike environment, they add fuel to the fire by threatening mine closure and cutbacks. Even their plans do not make sense in relation to the reasons given to cut back staff and retrench others.
It appears as a strategy to control prices, to their benefit, with the option to re-open the mines again later.
They now have blood on their hands – because of the way they handled the situation in the first place.
Unfortunately, the trade unions we trusted to protect our livelihoods are now putting poor black people at risk.
I wish black workers could rise above this psychologically.
We need to organise in a constructive way by first protecting each other from the exploitation, and not lowering ourselves to the level of ignorance and greed of others.
Black people have a right to organise themselves independently and demand a decent wage, and good working and living conditions.
No one, not even another black person, has a right to undermine this process of assertion because of power games by the trade unions that are meant to represent them, in this case, Amcu and NUM.
Of course, the European law system they operate under constrains them. But can they not see this? These are the things we should be challenging. I just hope no more lives will be lost! But it does appear we have reached a point of no return and that things will get worse before they get better, especially if both sides continue to dig their heels in.
And we thought we were free? It seems we have just replaced the white face of apartheid with that of a black face to continue its work!
In whatever situation, black-on-black violence should never be an option!
Disagreements can always be resolved and differences should always be respected.
Nontobeko Yawa, Port Elizabeth