Inside Labour: Not so Proudly South African

WHEN will you ever learn that most people are not fooled by double talk?

We could certainly have asked that of our political masters over the past week and more as President Jacob Zuma and ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe tried to squirm and spin their way out of the Nkandla debacle.

The same could also have been asked of Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa when he addressed the Buy Local Summit of Proudly South African last week. It was the fifth time that this expensive and clearly unsuccessful 15-year-old campaign once again turned the blame for unemployment and poverty onto the victims.

According to Ramaphosa, buying local is not only lekker, it is “the silver bullet to challenge unemployment, inequality and poverty”. For the wealthy, price may be insignificant. For the poor - whether working or not - and those of modest income, price is invariably the determining factor.

Tired and fundamentally dishonest cliches

This “silver bullet” remark was only a slight variation on the usual tired and fundamentally dishonest cliches that have been trotted out by Proudly SA over the years. And Ramaphosa’s call to all of us to “be choosy and be biased” in our purchases is hardly likely to inspire splurges of patriotic purchasing.

Above all, this idea that the buying practices of consumers are to blame for our social ills was decried by trade unions when the R60m Proudly SA campaign was launched in 2001. And they continue to decry it, pointing out that government policies at a time of global economic crisis have exacerbated the situation.

Trade unionists could also have reminded Ramaphosa and the Proudly SA executive that they were promised the campaign would not be the simple “Buy Local” exercise it has become. In fact, as Proudly SA’s first chief executive Martin Feinstein pledged in 2001, it would be “much more”; it would be part of a general drive to improve the social and economic conditions of the population at large.

Textile and garment union Sactwu's general secretary - and now Economic Development Minister -  Ebrahim Patel also hailed the launch of Proudly SA as “going to the heart of nation building”. There was no definition of what this might actually mean and Mantashe, then general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers, did warn: “Xenophobia is a risk in a campaign like this.”

Today the same rhetoric applies, with the organisation claiming: “Members of Proudly South African share a commitment to an uplifting ethos that promotes social and economic change and progress. They make a meaningful contribution to building South Africa's economy, alleviating unemployment and retaining existing employment opportunities.”

However, what the unions hoped for and thought they were promised never eventuated. They thought the emphasis in the campaign would be on not importing goods from countries that did not adhere to labour standards - to wages and conditions - at least on a par with those in South Africa. And they saw Proudly SA as a means of putting pressure on the government to change its free market policies.

So Cosatu, the Federation of Unions (Fedusa) and the National Council of Trade Unions (Nactu) took seats on the Proudly SA board. Although apparently grumbling from time to time, they have remained there ever since.

Yet, as this column predicted at the time, Proudly SA quite quickly became a “Buy local” drive along the lines of similar - and largely failed - campaigns in other countries. And just as the powers that be continue largely to ignore the impact of digitisation and robotics, so did Proudly SA ignore the glaring realities of global gluts and the consequences of dropping tariffs.

Also ignored was the fact that competing businesses, in order to stay ahead of the game, had to cater to price conscious consumers while beating competitors on price. So clothing chain stores in particular, despite being members of the organisation, could be found stocking mostly goods imported from Myanmar (Burma), Thailand and Vietnam, not to mention China.

Fifteen years down the line, the unions may finally have had enough. “We have requested an urgent meeting with Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies,” said Proudly SA interim chair Joseph Maqhekeni, who is also the president of Nactu.

“Government and business have simply not stuck to their commitments”.

That the Proudly SA budget has been cut this year, apparently by R3m, is also a factor, along with the fact that the also heavily sponsored Brand SA now seems to be competing with Proudly SA.

And as any survey of stores from supermarkets to clothing and other outlets will show, even the content behind labels regarded as local is now wholly or in part imported. The source is usually countries where conditions for labour are worse and pay much lower than here. So the minor rebellion by trade union board members at Proudly SA is clearly long overdue.