Workers’ Day 2023: Numsa’s scathing assessment of the state of SA

On International Workers’ Day 2023, one of South Africa’s largest workers’ unions, National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) has painted a rather grim picture of the country under the ANC-led government.

29 wasted years

The union’s scathing indictment described the entire ANC-rule and post democracy as “29-wasted-years.”

President Cyril Ramaphosa, often during his addresses to the country, refers to the “nine-wasted-years,” under former President Jacob Zuma (during which he was the country’s deputy president) as a blanket excuse for government failures.

On Workers Day, Numsa has accused the governing party of “entrenching the power of the capitalist elite, instead of dismantling the colonial and apartheid structure of the economy.”

“We are celebrating this day against the backdrop of increasing poverty, inequality and unemployment of the masses of this country,” said the union in a statement.

“More than two decades of ANC rule has created the most unequal society in the world, with extremely high levels of poverty and unemployment.”

ALSO READ: Power struggle: Unions stand firm during Eskom wage negotiations

Fake freedom

Numsa says its shares the views of informal dwellers union, Abahlali BaseMjondolo, who have described the last two decades of ANC governance as “fake freedom.”

The common sentiment is that only the rich, whose cumulative wealth continues to increase, are free; while the working classes living standards continue to decline.

“The Reserve Bank announced a 50-basis point interest rate hike at the end of March 2023, which made the cost of borrowing higher than it has been for almost 14 years!”

March’s interest rate hike marked the ninth consecutive rate increase since November 2021.

“We must obviously continue to campaign against and condemn this continuous hike of interest rates and we must continue to make the call for a state that must move away from austerity measures, and move towards an expansionary budget,” Numsa said.

ALSO READ: Numsa accuses Eskom of coming to wage talks unprepared

Power crisis

Workers Day cannot take place without mentioning the ongoing crippling power cuts that have slowed down economic growth and led to the steady closure of small businesses.

Numsa’s stance remains that efforts to deliberately neglect and defer maintenance on the country’s coal fired stations while prioritising renewable energy will only cost more in the future.

The union has been at pains to point out the renewable energy experiment in developed nations has failed, causing countries like Germany to return to coal fired power amid concerns about increased carbon emissions.

“The ANC’s obsession with pleasing white monopoly capital, has resulted in the destruction of SOE’s like Eskom and the deliberate neglect of Eskom’s coal fired power stations which has led to persistent load shedding which is worsening job losses, and choking economic growth.”

The parastatal’s spending has also come under fire from Numsa, with the workers movement arguing the state is paying exorbitantly for primary energy, while deferring increases and benefits to Eskom staff during one of the world’s most crippling cost-of-living crisis.

ALSO READ: Eskom wage talks set to begin today as NUM, Numsa demand 15% increase

Eskom staff have been under immense pressure to fix breakdowns and are working overtime to keep the lights on, even though the national supply is frustratingly fragmented.

“Wages and benefits have cost Eskom not more than R33 billion since 2017/2017 until financial year 2021/2022, while Primary Energy costs (Coal, IPPs, Diesel Open Cycle Gas Turbines) ballooned from R83 Billion in 2016/2017 to R132 Billion in 2021/2022.”

Numsa, together with Health and Allied Workers Indaba Trade Union (HAITU), UDM and SAFTU have even sought relief from the courts for critical sectors of the economy to be exempted from load shedding.

“In Part A of our application which was heard in March, we demanded that the state should guarantee consistent and reliable supply of energy to hospitals, schools, and police stations.

Part B of our application will be heard this month, and is about challenging the shenanigans of the state that undermine our sovereign right to decide on the energy mix to power our communities and our economy,” said Numsa.

ALSO READ: Workers Day: Parliament acknowledges farm labourers plight and unemployment

Numsa’s promise to continue its fight

Numsa, has on Workers Day 2023 also acknowledged its hard-won smaller victories.

“We continue to secure above-inflation increases like we did last year for the Auto sector, (8.5% increase), Gautrain, (7% increase), and at Hulamin (7.25% increase).

We recently won a constitutional court judgment limiting the use of scab labour during a strike. We also won an arbitration at CCMA where our shopsteward at Gautrain, was reinstated on full pay for rejecting managements covid-19 imposed vaccine mandate.”