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Strikers' tragedy

IT IS almost with a feeling of helplessness that one views the platinum mine strike, which has been dragging on for so long. Despite contacts - one would not call them negotiations – between the employers and trade union Amcu, they are as far apart as ever.

Of course, one has to view the events in a nuanced way. Life very seldom is a question of black and white; rather, there are only different shades of grey.

If you have a human heart beating in your chest, you have to have sympathy for the strikers. They toil day after day, doing back-breaking work for what you and I would regard as a scandalous pittance if that would be our fate. Their  lives are reduced to a never-ending struggle for survival.

At the same time, however unjust it may seem, this is the way the modern economy works. In today’s world, you need skills and training in order to survive properly. And the average mineworker has had inferior schooling (if any at all), and their vocational training has equipped them for nothing more than menial jobs.

They have no possibilities and no hope.

On the other side, one has to understand the employers’ position as well. They (and by the way, the whole economy) are losing bagsful of money each day.

They may be looking for two alternatives. One is to cut their losses, close the mines and walk away; the other is to start mechanising. If there is one thing the present strike has brought home, it is that the mining industry’s economic model (cheap, labour-intensive) is outdated.

Whatever choice they take, the employers are going to walk away with the money, and the strikers are going to lose out. The strike has simply hastened this process. Instead of improving their lot, the mineworkers are ensuring that it will get worse, far worse.

There is, of course, a solution, albeit a problematic one.

Firstly, employers and trade unions should look to successful models in Europe, such as those in Germany and the Netherlands. Of course employers and unions bump heads there too, and strikes happen there as well.

But there you have a continuous tripartite process of negotiation, consultation and even cooperation between the government, employers and unions. All three parties realise that too much conflict is against everybody’s interests. And therefore, they regularly exchange ideas in an organised fashion.

Not only that: the employers know that a by and large contented labour force is in their interest. The unions realise that making unrealistic wage demands will hurt the employers, and therefore themselves as well. The government realises that an acceptable and continuous compromise peace between the employers and trade unions is good for the economy as a whole.

This is a model we South Africans might want to explore as well.

The second part of the solution is a massive state programme of schooling and vocational training. Of course, employers have to pitch in as well – as they, to a lesser or greater extent, already are.

But it starts at school. Probably the loudest voice denouncing the dysfunctionality of perhaps a majority of South African schools is Professor Jonathan Jansen, vice-chancellor of the University of the Free State. He never stops warning that South Africa is heading for a precipice if the government cannot get its educational act together.

Since the 1970s, several generations of largely illiterate and almost untrainable young people have been delivered to the labour market. And we see the results among others in the present mining industry unrest.

But, although we know the basic direction in which to seek a sulution, there is a big problem. Governments – and ours is no exception – often couldn’t care less about the country’s interests. All too often they do not look further into the future than the next election – and in our case, that is only weeks away.

In addition, they are chiefly interested in warming their own seat on the gravy train. Need I mention more than the name Nkandla?

Therefore, unless a miracle descends on us from on high, we will continue on our present destructive path. The platinum mines will either close down or mechanise.

The government will not solve the problem of dysfunctional schools. The poor will still desperately try to survive in an economy which makes no provision for them. And the politicians will still see them only in the weeks preceding the elections and go on enriching themselves.

In other words, the downtrodden will be trampled even further into the mud.

We know what the solution is, difficult as it may be. But we refuse to exert ourselves. What a tragedy.

 - Fin24

* Leopold Scholtz is an independent political analyst who lives in Europe. Views expressed are his own.


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