Is the RET faction behind the sabotage?

What if the Eskom workers’ strike is not principally about wages and the latest truckers’ blockade of the N3 in KwaZulu-Natal wasn’t only in protest against foreign drivers? What if all this and much more is powerplay from the RET (radical economic transformation) faction of the ANC? Consider the timing.

The final report of the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture has been released, detailing grand theft by former president Jacob Zuma and the Gupta brothers. And we are less than six months from the ANC national conference, where the governing party will choose its leader for the next five years.

December’s ANC conference may be the last opportunity of the Zuma camp to retain their ill-gotten gains and avoid going to jail. They are becoming desperate to succeed. Their livelihoods depend on securing the ANC leadership. Their candidate must win the party presidency, and they must dominate the top six party positions if their “looter continua” struggle is to prevail.

In desperation they aim to ruin the economy further and weaken President Cyril Ramaphosa. During last July’s riots they mastered the closing of the N3. Now they’ve shown they can still do it, which is an indictment of national intelligence and security. No serious ringleaders have been jailed.

Over the past year there have been repeated acts of sabotage against Eskom infrastructure and equipment. The latest sabotage – getting workers to strike and intimidate non-strikers – adds to the RET armour. They can strangle the economy by closing the country’s most important highway – between Joburg and Durban – and switching off electricity.

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As Johannesburg ward councillors, we witness the daily destruction wreaked upon City Power’s unstable network by stage 4 “load shedding”.

Exploding substations and fried cables, resulting from the inevitable in-rush currents when so much ancient stuff is switched on and off and on again, spread misery in townships and suburbs. But they embolden those who plan to seize political power in times of chaos.

The RETs aim to create a climate where authoritarian rule will be accepted as necessary to instill law and order. It’s so much easier to destroy than it is to build; to cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war, than it is to instill hope when things are falling apart.

As The Citizen editorial pointed out yesterday, we are being blackmailed by a small, violent minority of Eskom workers engaging in acts of sabotage and intimidation, while illegally withholding their labour. Whose interests do they serve? They are playing into the hands of the ANC’s RET faction, including the Zuptas. Can they be stopped? Yes. Will they be stopped? Angazi.

This country has a history of violent strikes with few consequences. In the 2007 security workers’ strike, 63 people were murdered. Many were thrown off moving trains. There were no successful prosecutions for murder. Too much strike violence has gone unpunished for too long.

Ramaphosa must get a grip. Instead of glad-handing at the G7 summit in Germany, he should be here ensuring that his ministers deal effectively with the Eskom strike. That’s assuming he wants to save his vanishing political career, and not leave SA at the mercy of the RETs.