The tragic shootings at Lonmin’s Marikana mine is a wake-up call to South Africans who imagined that the hard yards had ended with the advent of democracy. It is also a seismic shock to a labour-relations system that has weathered more than three decades.
At the very least, the shooting to death of 34 miners will change the way the SA Police Service is trained and deployed in public-unrest situations.
The disaster is manna from heaven to populists like expelled ANCYL firebrand Julius Malema. He could not have dreamed of a handier and heftier stick with which to beat President Jacob Zuma and with which to try to leverage Zuma’s ousting.
It is a bonanza, too, for Malema’s nationalisation campaign, given the inept management of Lonmin, a corporation unable even to outline a defence against accusations of exploitation. For days the world media published, unchallenged by Lonmin, striker claims that they earned R4 000 a month, while in fact the minimum underground wage is two-and-a-half times that amount.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions, whose strongest constituent, the National Union of Mineworkers, was at the core of the dispute, will also be greatly affected. A judicial commission will ultimately dissect and weigh the contributory causes of the violence, but it’s obvious that rivalry between NUM and the breakaway Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, was a major factor.
While Amcu appears to have driven this particular conflict, coercion is certainly not unknown to Cosatu. It has often turned a blind eye to so-called “rogue elements” within the ranks, who have rampaged, wounded and on occasion killed “scab” workers. On all sides, selective violence has long been a strategy.
Given the transformation of SA over the past couple of decades, it easy to forget that the basic shape of the country’s labour dispensation has remained essentially unchanged for 33 years. It was in 1979 that the National Party government accepted the Wiehahn Commission recommendations that legalised black trade unions.
It was an attempt to dampen industrial unrest, as black workers flouted the law to use their industrial muscle. Wiehahn argued that incorporating black workers into a formal bargaining system would give them a stake in shaping the outcomes of the capitalist system rather than trying to topple it.
The Nats also believed that if allowed to unionise, blacks would focus on achieving economic freedoms, rather than political ones. That was a predictably forlorn hope and black trade union power gave impetus to the political tsunami that culminated in the Nat volte-face of unbanning the ANC.
However, unlike the Nats, Wiehahn was right. The industrial-relations landscape of which he shaped the contours has proved remarkably resilient at containing the sometimes explosive pressures that bubble in SA society.
Until now. As the Marikana tragedy shows, suddenly there are challengers who scrabble for membership – with all the influence and rewards that employer recognition brings to union officials – on the basis that Cosatu is not only a crony of capital, but is also a pillar of the tripartite alliance that has failed the poor.
In this emotionally charged Amcu-NUM battle it doesn’t matter much to those at the bottom of the pile that Cosatu generally has been demonstrably successful in benefiting its members. Nor that the ANC alliance, for all its faults, has measurably improved life for most South Africans.
After almost two decades in power, the tripartite alliance – at least in the minds of many of the excluded and disaffected – has morphed into an arrogant bully, corrupt and unable to deliver. This is dangerous, explosive stuff, not only for Cosatu and the ANC, but also for SA.
The crisis demands vision and leadership, with solutions that eschew mindless populism. If Zuma cannot deliver, Marikana might become his personal Golgotha.
If we accept that the SA democratic system is largely build on european models, be it the UK single party system (if we want ot call that democratic) or many of the other european multiparty democraties, we cannot call the SA system democratic at all.
The mix of labour (by nature socialist), communist (by nature dictatorial) and capitalist (by nature dictatorial liberal) in one governing party with a strong internal -almost dictatorial- obediance structure is an impossible governing structure. This structure can never become a stabilising factor in the SA society. The many internal fights and manipulations are hardly in the public eye or understood by the public.
It is high time that the three componenets should brake up and become political parties. If this means (and it will) that the ANC wil loose its majority status, the debates between the three (and the other parties) will bring more clarity to the debates on the various social and economic issues. It might reduce the various cosy and often corrupt dealings between the one party government and (often related) private organisations.
It should not be just be the labour landscape that shudders but the whole political systems that shudders. A first sign is the break away from NUM telling us that Cosatu could be slowly crumbling. The amateur performance of the police is another sign……no training? or just not the will to act and thus divided or simply not disciplined.
The Lonmin story is parallelled by the various political murders in other provinces. The breakdown of the KZN Hawks unit with a history of violence, murder and corruption is another sign of brewing political unrest.
Unseating the ANC would create the base for another few chaotic years. The ANC themselves should untie the knots of the triparte alliance to allow a slow process towards a real and transparent democracy to start.
Unbelievable, how the usual suspects point the government, unions, miners, inequality, and whatnot instead of addressing the underlying cause of this sad tragedy – Lomin’s inability to pay these miners a LIVING WAGE while its fatcat executives continue to feed at the trough with obscene salaries, bonuses, stocks and other company perks!!!
Lomin and corporate media could care less about the consequences while they continue to play the politics of divide-and-rule. Their CEO, Ian Farmer has already fled the scene by suddenly being admitted to hospital. But the media will never investigate Lomin management or who gave the order to use live ammunition against protesting workers! I wonder why?
I recently read an article that SA should embrace the unions and that the Marikana tragedy is a demonstration of what can happen when unionized labour is unstable. While there might be value in that comment, and regardless of what part they play in “big” business, as a small business owner I would like to suggest that unions ought not to play any role in small business.
They are accustomed to throwing their weight around and frankly, often do so in destructive ways. Business is hard enough to grow in this country with a myriad laws stifling entrepreneurial verve, but to have some power-hungry union leader trying to impact in a business where he has nothing at risk, will only bring negative results.
The impression I have is that union recruiters are given targets (I don’t know whether it has financial implications for them) to sign up a certain number of workers. Then these retards want to involve themselves in your business, which they know nothing about.
At this stage, and with my anti-union sentiment, I can only say that when the proverbial hits the fan and you’re the one flinging it, you’re bound to get splattered. Hopefully, much like people are feeling the wrath of “you get what you vote for” and starting to question historical political allegiances, so too, with their blind association with other organizations.
On the mark Dave Harris. The fat cats get fatter, but you have to admit that they do with the collusion of this government, which learned its crooked ways from the old government.
“But the media will never investigate Lomin management or who gave the order to use live ammunition against protesting workers! I wonder why?”
Dave Harris eventually got there:
It is my belief that Lonmin management was not entitled to bypass the unions and speak directly to the workers about these salary issues. There would be a reason that a said appointment was not kept; was it actually made?
I can understand why a company teetering financially would delay making promises it knew it might not be able to keep, perhaps a go-ahead was needed from the UK?
But to be entirely honest, Dave, whoever gave the order to use live ammunition, it wasn’t Lonmin and to be supplied with live ammo, the cops must have received the order from some superior being, whether in the force or in government. And to be utterly frank, would anyone supply more than was intended to be used?
“striker claims that they earned R4 000 a month, while in fact the minimum underground wage is two-and-a-half times that amount.”
So the strikers are demanding what the lowest paid are already are already getting? Either that or you’re not too hot with maths Willy.
@dave…”Lomin’s inability to pay these miners a LIVING WAGE while its fatcat executives continue to feed at the trough with obscene salaries, bonuses, stocks and other company perks!!!”
A little simplified statement, my dear.
1. Lonmin had a wage agreement with NUM until 2014.
2. the front row of miners (drilling and exploding) were already on a wage skill of R10.000 a month (according to various reports)
3. Lonmin could not unilaterally enter into wage negotiations with the newly formed union without some form of consensus from NUM.
The situation between a bunch of hyped up miners and nervous police men…….resembles a Russian roulette.
Latest story: a Sangoma had told the miners “not to kill the rabbit…..” and some miners did kill the rabbit. Hence…….
And….”33 years of stability” on the labour market ? My definition of stability is a little different.
Far as I’ve been able to make out, AMCU is basically a trouble-making union (who ever seriously asked for a 200% pay increase in the middle of a depression?) and Lonmin was using them to undermine NUM. Which would mean that Lonmin’s management is ultimately responsible for the massacre (and the killings which preceded it). Which again makes Harris more right than anybody else.
And, of course, everybody is criticising the police — quite rightly — but who’s criticising Lonmin, apart from COSATU themselves?
Otherwise, this is a pretty good article.
An interesting summation of the current status quo, thank you.
Earlier, in another response on this topic, i noted that notwithstanding Polokwane,itself a watershed, this Marikana massacre episode introduces us to what may be metaphorically described as “The 2nd Republic” of the Liberation Era.
The people tasted the reality of their power at Polokwane, when, what Chikane calls a “coup”, took place within the ruling party. Now we see the gloves coming off in the real struggle that followed “The Struggle”.
Your emphasis tho’ tends to see the present state of conflict as an “Us/them” thing, and it is more appropriately an in-house struggle between the traditionalist rent-seeker class amongst the party faithful and the progressive modernising class amongst the Party faithful.
Ironically the ANC is [seemingly] in desperate [if unacknowledged] need of a genuine threatening opposition to maintain their hold on power… The “big man syndrome” killed COPE in the same way it now threatens the ANC. With the present, inherently “Poodle Parlour”, clique of yapping opposition ‘worthies’, being essentially of nugatory effect, the outcome is that the monolith that is/was/could be, the ANC, is now feeding on itself: and nothing could be a greater signal to the absence of leadership than internal unresolvable conflict.
It raises the possibility that leadership of such a “broad church” is out of reach, and that whatever happens at Mangaung we are still in…
I remember the very first weeks of ‘democracy’ when at a school somewhere attracted the dissatisfaction of some people who promptly kidnapped the principle and some of the teachers. Nothing was ever done about this and it set the example of saying to those who have grievances – “if you don’t like it, trash it, burn it, kidnap them or kill them” as there is no other way to get satisfaction. And so it has grown and grown where now the innocent or those not even involved in disputes, have their businesses burnt, shops looted, windows smashed, cars damaged and nobody is responsible. A retired friend of mine had his car destroyed by rioting ‘strikers” and now he cannot replace his car as there is not enough money to do so, but the workers got what they wanted at the cost of everyone else. And all the while the government and the police looked on and did nothing. As demands become more and more unreasonable so too become the violence with which grievances are demonstrated. The ANCYL is today busy trying to make the Western Cape ungovernable as they could not beat the DA in an election so bring out the knobkerries, the matches and the tyres and force you ‘democratic’ views on others. This is treason. Tear down the toilets and generally destroy things that in civilized, law abiding countries would land you in jail. In South Africa the cops and the government enjoy the show and do nothing. Pay day has arrived with Lonmin and guess what? It’s going to get worse!
Of course a tragedy like this has many causes and fingerpointing always takes place as this is the easiest. Some are very good at it. (You know who you are)
WE have been promised an investigation and the outcome will depend on what their brief is.
In the end a scapegoat will be found and maybe a head will roll. Maybe even a few.
For the workers probably not much will change, neither for the widows and the fatherless children.
Sharpville lives in our collective memory: a day not many will or should forget.
Hopefully this equally shameful day will not be forgotten and should get a place on the calendar.
Lest we forget…
TAKE NO PRISONERS
LEAVE NO WINNERS
or
To Satisfy Their Demands For More
They Were Not To Shoot a Rabbit
When Preparing For War
or
POINT YOU RIFLE IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION.
—————————————————————–
What is better?
Which is worse?
Running away
Or going by hearse?
Bulletproof vests or bullet proof muti?
Pangas and knives – or live ammunition?
Being killed and embalmed by a mortician
Or death according to your sangoma’s tradition?
A strike is a strike
But if you make it a war
You can get more
Than you bargained for
@Jon Story: “In the end a scapegoat will be found and maybe a head will roll. Maybe even a few”
And….yippy, we have found some 250 scapegoats….!!
With the current throughput in the judicial processes, it might take years if not decades to get this sorted out. This will allow enough time to build the prisons for these guys.
The Aim of Union Leaders is supposed to be to work themselves out of jobs when most of the “workers” have become Middle Class professionals represented by Professional Associations.
IT is NOT supposed to be the Aim of Union Leaders to become Tribal Chiefs!
Bravo Peter Joffe for a clear and succinct analysis. SA has been heading this way for years. The ANC royalty mistakenly believed that they have the support of the masses “until Jesus comes” and are now shown to be powerless in the face of a few thousand determined workers. The outrageous self-enrichment of the political elites and the corruption pandemic at every level of government have robbed the “leaders” of legitimacy. It will get worse from here. The downward spiral in Zimbabwe was remarkably quick when the wheels came off in the late 90′s. Sad to say, but SA is probably headed in the same direction. I work in Investment Banking : no sane investment manager is going to risk money on a mine in SA for a very long time. Goodbye jobs, goodbye foreign exchange, goodbye Rand.