Members of the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa). Picture: Thobeka Nzwana.
Today is International Workers’ Day, but the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) says there’s not much to celebrate.
“Twenty-eight years after the first democratic elections catapulted the ANC into power, the working class in South Africa continues to be dominated by white supremacy,” said the union’s general secretary Irvin Jim.
Jim points out that nearly three decades after white supremacist rule in South Africa, the country’s Black working class are languishing in crippling poverty, in poorly developed townships and informal settlements all over the country.
“Access to quality education and healthcare remains an unattainable dream for the masses,” said Jim.
In December last year, the union’s Central Committee met to deliberate and debate on the state of the nation, as well as burning issues affecting the working class and Numsa members in particular.
“The CC was an opportunity for the union to analyse and understand the terrain of struggle which we are operating in, and to define a path forward in dealing with challenges facing workers and their families,” said Jim.
Numsa President, comrade Andrew Chirwa had opened the CC with a quote from Russian revolutionary and politician Vladimir Lenin”
“We are surrounded on all sides by enemies and are under their almost constant fire. We have combined voluntarily, precisely for the purpose of fighting the enemy, and not to retreat into the adjacent marsh, the inhabitants of which, from the very outset, have reproached us with having separated ourselves into an exclusive group and with having chosen the path of struggle instead of the path of conciliation.“
Numsa said struggles faced by the Russian working class 120 years ago, are quite similar to what we are experiencing today.
“Today one can say that the working class is surrounded on all sides by enemies and the attacks against it are relentless.”
The Covid-19 pandemic has been devastating to the global economy and to the lives of ordinary people.
The virus has killed about five million people worldwide and over one hundred thousand in South Africa, with the fifth wave on the horizon.
“The union suffered many losses through the deaths of some of its members and leaders within the organisation.
“At the same time the lockdowns meant that many sectors were unable to operate resulting in business rescue, liquidations and in some cases, closure,” explained Jim.
But some businesses managed to thrive under lockdown, but the gains have not been seen on a worker level because conditions of employment had changed.
“We found ourselves flooded with notices of restructuring and retrenchments as companies sought to deepen their profits by taking benefits away from workers and reducing their salaries. The pandemic has normalized exploitation,” said Jim.
He reflected on the 2020 engineering sector wage negotiations in which the ‘Standstill agreement’ was signed.
The agreement allowed employers to keep conditions the same, and Numsa agreed not to demand an increase in the engineering sector for that year.
“We did this in response to the arrival of the covid-19 pandemic where the uncertainty created by the situation, meant we had to make sacrifices for the industry.
But the union would later accuse employers of making hay during the Covid-19 crisis.
Then, last year, Numsa challenged the engineering sector employers, calling for staff salary improvements.
“When they refused to make a meaningful offer, we embarked on a militant, national strike – with members backing,” reflected Jim.
Employers then agreed to a 6% increase over a period of three years.
“The agreement we signed with the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa (SEIFSA) to settle the strike was groundbreaking because we secured an above-inflation increase during a pandemic.”
“Under the leadership of the governing ANC, we have become the most unequal society on earth,” said Jim.
This has been exacerbated by the high rate of joblessness and unemployment, which is now at a staggering 46%.
“Some of these are graduates, and by far the majority are the youth and black women in particular,” pointed out Jim.
“The fact that almost half the population is sitting at home instead of working, is an indictment against this government which stubbornly holds onto failed macro-economic policies, which are not stimulating economic growth and thus keep failing to create jobs.”
Numsa is accusing corporate South Africa of sitting on more than R1 trillion in cash reserves but is only investing a pittance back into the South African economy.
In last year’s budget, National Treasury announced it would cut a whopping R50.3 billion from the healthcare budget over three years.
“Benefits for workers in the public sector have been steadily eroded over the years in the name of ‘trimming the fat’ and reducing the so-called public sector wage bill.”
However, politicians and members of parliament remain insulated from any cutbacks, thanks to rampant corruption and cronyism.
The Zondo Commission of Inquiry has found former President Zuma as an enabler of State Capture by allowing the looting of billions from SOEs through the Gupta family.
“President Ramaphosa was an integral part of the Jacob Zuma administration as his deputy,” said Jim.
“Ramaphosa claimed that his administration would bring in a “New Dawn” and he would clean up corruption. But what we have seen under his leadership is the continuation of massive theft, this time it was the looting of covid-19 funds.”
Numsa has blamed the job shedding at SOEs on restructuring to encourage participation from the private sector.
“One need only examine the case of SAA to see how wasteful and destructive the entire process was. An amount of R10.5 billion rand was allocated to capitalise the airline as part of business rescue.”
At the same time, over R200 million was spent, most of it was pocketed by the practitioners, lawyers and consultants, whilst ordinary workers suffered for many months without any salaries.
“At the end of the process more than three thousand direct jobs had been shed, and SAA which alone provided 40,000 jobs along the value chain prior to business rescue, is now a shadow of its former self.”
Numsa highlighted Eskom as another case in point where the government’s renewable energy program with the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) is violating all the principles of a Just Transition.
“Coal-fired power stations will be shut down to make way for privately-owned renewable energy companies and the CSIR has confirmed that at least one hundred thousand jobs will be lost as a result of this, in the province of Mpumalanga.
Government has not designed a Social Plan for this province in order to prevent this looming disaster,” pointed out Jim.
South Africans are paying more for electricity, a nation bedevilled by frequent load shedding because Eskom does not have capacity.
Frequent power cuts at the municipal level are commonplace due to an orgy of cable theft and vandalism on the country’s electricity supply infrastructure.
“All of these factors have deepened the suffering of workers and their families. The working class and the poor of this country have reached a breaking point.
“You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to know that such a situation is unsustainable and it fostered the perfect environment to provoke social unrest, riots and political instability which we experienced in July last year,” concluded Jim.
Compiled by Narissa Subramoney
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