IT was always on the cards that the once legitimate culture of protest action would come back to bite us.
This method of demanding and fighting for equal rights was certainly warranted – and eventually effective – in the pre-1994 era.
But the success of it has spawned an ugly brother one can label as opportunistic protestation.
A less kind of description would be exploitative striking.
One must distinguish between the rapid rise of what can be classified as valid remonstration during especially the Zuma era as frustrated citizens took to the streets to once again oppose arrogant, corrupt and incompetent governance. Protest action was and is their only weapon.
Economically damaging as this may be, one had to concede there was some merit given the exceptional circumstances.
The violent nature of many of these strikes is, of course, a topic for separate debate.
The real problem is that this kind of slash-and-burn means of ‘negotiation’ has largely replaced sensible boardroom arbitration because it is seen as more effective, opening up a gap for opportunists to ride piggyback with their particular brand of exploitative protest action.
In recent years Zululand industries especially, on an alarmingly constant basis, had to bear the brunt of this kind of poorly disguised manipulation.
Collective benefits
Collectively, the industries provide thousands of jobs directly benefitting tens of thousands of people in local communities. But it doesn’t end there.
None of the Zululand industries shirk their duties when it comes to social responsibility. They freely invest hundreds of millions of rands to uplift the communities in which their operations function.
Major projects include schools being built and supplementary educational initiatives established, entrepreneurship, training and job creation enterprises are created and supported, healthcare programmes and facilities are provided and self-sustaining community projects such as food security launched and managed – the list goes on.
More importantly, the industries have gone out of their way creating proper communication structures to ensure transparency in dealings between themselves and community leaders.
Yet, in return for being community champions, local corporates are constantly held to ransom by the pure and simple greed of opportunistic factions and agents spouting hate speech and threats, and using disruption of operations through menacing protest actions as a means of gaining traction.
It is about time the demanding communities revisit the saying ‘killing the goose that lays the golden eggs’ and fully understand its meaning.
Perhaps the lack of understanding of intricate economic principles among the populace is the one key shortcoming causing the stormy industry-community relationships.
In everything there must be a sensible balance, of fair give-and-take which ensures sustainability in the interest of both parties.
Educating the people about these in innovative ways should go a long way to help communities better understand the consequences of their actions – and expose the self-serving hustlers for whom they are.
