Why the national ‘shutdown’ was a complete blunder

This week, in many parts of the country, you could have blinked and missed the entire national stayaway called by the trade unions.

The stoppage was supposed to be in protest at the soaring cost of living and intended to pressure the government into doing something about it.

There are a number of reasons why the exercise was not a stellar success. For a start, the taxi industry – a powerful political and economic bloc in our country – decided they wouldn’t take part.

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So people could get to their places of work if they wanted to. Then there was the fact that many employers – including the government – decided that, although the stayaway would have been a protected one, they would enforce the “no work, no pay” rule.

This would have, in effect, cost an already struggling working class an entire day’s pay … something many could not afford.

Finally, many perhaps realised that, ineffective as our ANC government is in most cases, the current sky-rocketing inflation rate is due to factors beyond its control, many of them precipitated by the Russia invasion of Ukraine, which sent global markets into a tailspin and saw fuel prices shoot up.

The failure of the national stayaway is being brushed off by the unions – both Cosatu and Saftu – but they do need to introspect about the obvious waning of their influence in society.

For decades, the unions – led by Cosatu as part of the tripartite alliance between it, the ANC and SA Communist Party – have had a privileged place in South Africa.

They have intimidated business and cost the economy billions. Yet they only represent that fortunate minority who have jobs. Many of their industrial actions can cost their own members dearly in lost wages.

Our unions need to reassess their role if they are to remain relevant.