A national shutdown could be the start of a major uprising, says expert

While major players – trade union federation Cosatu and the SA National Taxi Council (Santaco) – have distanced themselves from a call for Friday’s sporadic countrywide shutdown in response to soaring petrol and food prices, experts have called on government to provide relief to workers.

Cosatu national spokesperson Sizwe Pamla, who confirmed that none of the federation’s 17 union affiliates would take part in the demonstrations, said fuel and food hikes were “bleeding workers’ wages”.

This, said Pamla, was “suffocating the economy” – calling on government to intervene by:

• Extending tax relief and reducing taxes on fuel
• Deregulating fuel price
• Getting all metro rail and Transnet lines operational
• Retabling the Road Accident Fund and Road Accident Benefit Scheme Bills in parliament
• Driving a shift from fuel to electric and hydro-powered vehicles

ALSO READ: No national shutdown: Taxis won’t allow anyone to ‘get in the way’ of doing business

University of Johannesburg associate economics professor Peter Baur said major shutdowns would not solve global commodity inflation – anticipating increased levels of social unrest.

“As the SA economy is under pressure, given tightening monetary policy, relief could come from the fiscal sector, where better relief to households would go a long way to better support households under stress,” said Baur.

Against the background of the impact of the war in Ukraine, Baur said government “should not hold back on tightening monetary policy for a little bit longer”.

“In response to food and petrol prices hikes, government could offer relief by temporarily removing fuel levies and taxes – similarly for food and other key household necessities such as medical expenses, educational items and clothing items, such as school uniforms,” said Baur.

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“Other key expenses that could be given rebates and tax-free products include electricity, municipal costs and transport rebates.”

University of Stellenbosch’s Prof Mark Swilling said the shutdown could be the start of a major uprising, warning: “If the state responds in a heavy-handed way, it will get out of control.

“In an economy in crisis – underpinned by the near collapse of our energy system – we now face the perfect storm: rising food and fuel prices caused by a European war we have no control over.

“However, an immediate action would be to declare some sort of state of disaster for the energy sector and then mandate Eskom to end load shedding in 24 months by ensuring that 10 gigawatts of new generation capacity are connected to the grid during that time,” said Swilling.

Responding to unconfirmed news of the possible national shutdown, Wahl Bartmann, chief executive of Fidelity Services Group, said his national joint operations centre (JOC) was liaising with all the relevant authorities.

“We have had no direct confirmation a national shutdown will happen,” Bartmann said.

READ MORE: Taxi fares: ‘There’s definitely going to be an increase’, says Santaco

“Our teams are on standby with contingency plans to manage any unrest that may happen.”

Fidelity will place helicopter pilots on standby and be ready to deploy its resources, which include manpower and armoured personnel carriers.

“We have the capacity to allocate additional staff to the JOC compliment to assist with risk analysis, as well as to assist with recovery efforts through air and ground support, in conjunction with the police.

Distancing Santaco from the shutdown, the organisation’s chief strategy manager, Bafana Magagula, said taxi associations affiliated to the body would operate normally.

“Santaco is in the process of finding relief for its own members,” he said.

Meanwhile, police have been on high alert, with the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (Natjoints) saying it was aware of posters circulating on social media platforms, calling for a national shutdown.

“Those behind this are warned that prohibiting people’s freedom of movement is a criminal offence,” warned Natjoints in a statement.