Socialist Resistance : SR46 - Summer 2007

Trade Unions

South Africa: Public sector strikes back for pay justice

Norman Traub

South African trade unions have launched one of the biggest national strikes of the post-apartheid era in a move widely seen as spearheading the left’s challenge to win control of the ruling African National Congress ahead of next year’s presidential election. On June 13, the unions called out hundreds of thousands of members in support of public sector workers who had already been on strike for a fortnight, forcing schools to close and hospitals to treat only emergency cases. Municipal workers joined the strike, shutting down rubbish collection, maintenance of power supplies and public transport. In addition, taxi and bus drivers, electricity and cleaning workers, administrative staff and officials from border posts and airports joined the protest. Cities like Durban were brought to a complete standstill and many workers took part in lunchtime protests.

The unions wanted a 12% wage increase but have lowered their demand to 10% plus increases in health and housing benefits. President Thabo Mbeki’s government increased its offer from 6% to 7.25%, well below inflation. Public sector workers are a prime example of qualified workers who survive on low pay - nurses earn as little as £250 a month. Striking workers joined protests in major cities including Johannesburg, where some held up signs reading: "The ANC government is a replica of the then apartheid government." Underpinning the strike is the looming power struggle for control of the ANC at its national congress in December ahead of next year’s general election. South Africa’s trades union confederation, Cosatu, which has 1.8 million members, is part of the tripartite ruling alliance with the ANC and the Communist party. However, because of the massive disaffection among ordinary workers it has had to call this action.

A political columnist for Johannesburg’s Star newspaper described the strike as a political strategy beyond pay issues. "This is war, a show of force by the unions after 12 years of being bludgeoned into submission in the ruling alliance," he wrote.

The government’s response has been heavy-handed. In an attempt to intimidate workers, Public Service Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi obtained an interdict from the Labour Court forbidding workers in essential services from joining the strike. This included the water industry, the courts and correctional services, emergency health provision, nursing and medical, and paramedics. Fraser-Moleketi immediately declared that essential workers who did not return to work by June 4 would be summarily dismissed. More than 600 strikers have been sent letters of dismissal. Soldiers were sent in to man hospitals. Nurses were served with copies of the ultimatum when they were on picket duty. Despite the interdict, large numbers of nurses remain on strike. At the Addington Hospital in Durban, several nurses were wounded when police opened fire on the fourth day of the strike. Twenty nurses were arrested as they blocked the entrances. On the day of the mass sympathy strike, thousands gathered outside the parliament building in Cape Town.

Many strikers spoke bitterly about the contrast between their demand for a 12 percent increase and the 57 percent that has been recommended for President Thabo Mbeki and his cabinet. One striker told Reuters, “They live in luxury, we still stay in poverty.”

The militancy and determination of the workers involved in the strike and the widespread support in the population are an expression of massive disaffection with the ANC government. South Africa, according to the United Nations Development Programme, is among the most unequal countries in the world—third from the bottom behind only Brazil and Guatemala. The country is becoming increasingly polarised, headed as it is by a small clique of black businessmen, mostly made up of leading members of the ANC, enriching themselves through the government’s policy of Black Economic Empowerment.

Along with the South African Communist Party (SACP), COSATU favours the candidacy of Jacob Zuma, the supposed “people’s president,” who is no left-winger. Zuma was Mbeki’s second in command until last year and has never opposed any of the government’s pro-market privatisation policies.

Mr. Mbeki, president of both South Africa and the congress, is legally barred from running again for national president in 2009, but is widely expected to seek a new term as president of the party late this year. The president of the party effectively controls who becomes its nominee for president of South Africa. Experts say the strike could become more serious if it spreads beyond public workers to private industries vital to the national economy. However, that seems unlikely at present.

Norman Traub

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