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AS THE ANC continues to grapple with a stagnating economy and global competitive pressures, the internal debate about kickstarting GDP-led growth continues unabated.
With the unions and centrists within the alliance seemingly at loggerheads, one of the most telling indicators of the country’s future course has recently come from none other than ANC secretary general and former chair of the South African Communist Party, Gwede Mantashe.
Buried within an address to the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union on November 27, Mantashe said: “Our economy is not growing fast enough for it to absorb new entrants to the labour market. This trend will continue until the private sector comes to the party.
"Organised labour has the responsibility to be constructive in supporting these efforts. If it plays an oppositionist role we must at best ignore it or engage it as such.”
If ever there was an admission that organised labour was now viewed by many within the alliance (even on the Left fringes) as obstructionist to growth, then this must be it. And, these sentiments play well within the desire of many to attempt a policy reorientation towards the somewhat ailing National Development Plan (NDP).
Mantashe’s admission that the private sector is critical to economic growth is important coming from someone of his stature – and ideological bent. It shows maturity to move beyond the narrow ideological confines and accept the enhanced role of business.
Mantashe certainly doesn’t need to love the private sector. In fact, in the very same speech he says: “Capital is not our friend but a necessary evil that you love and hate”, indicating that the contradictory relationship from the point of view of a communist or socialist background can be accommodated and tweaked to allow both sides compromise.
Mantashe is simply saying that unions, communists and socialists can and should work with capital to the betterment of the domestic economy, whether they love one another or not. This sounds suspiciously like the Chinese model of adapting and often embracing capitalism within the context of a socialist model.
Just as free marketeers need to temper their own blind spot when it comes to the sometimes necessary role of the state, so Mantashe well understands the need to compromise with economic models that might be anathema to ideological die-hards.
His statements point to an important shift away from the polarised policy debates that have largely crippled policy formulation from the broader alliance in recent months.
While Mantashe and other ANC leaders are not shy to criticise the private sector for tardiness in transformation and other ‘transgressions’, there seems a distinct desire on the part of the ANC leadership to similarly hold the unions to account.
Clearly, recent pro-labour laws like the labour relations amendment bill are seen as a hook for the unions to come on board and now the unions are expected to play ball by being somewhat more acquiescent to the policy whims of the NDP.
We are therefore witnessing the ANC attempting to rein in a key alliance partner (Cosatu) – and even to try and break its ‘oppositionist’ character that has become the norm over the last five years. A polarisation between moderate and more radical unions is therefore expected – whether this results in an actual split or more long-term splintering following 2014.
For Mantashe and the ANC, splintering the unions and the social contract that exists between the historic alliance partners is a pretty risky business. But then, so is a stagnating economy and low job absorption levels that may threaten the alliance in other ways in the future.
All this is reminiscent of Australia in the 1980s, when Labour Prime Minister Bob Hawke took on his very own socialist-left support base and effectively neutralised some of the ‘sacred cows’ of Australian labour socialism by working more closely with business.
South Africa under Mantashe (acting as a proxy for President Jacob Zuma) might well be attempting this important and necessary shift. But with Zuma more vulnerable than ever in his leadership role and Mantashe doing all the running, this might well be a messier process than expected.
Taking on the ‘oppositionists’ within the unions requires strong and decisive leadership, and Mantashe for all his bluster is a messenger of a weakened national administration.
For the unions though, splits and resultant suggestions around the formation of a new workerist party might be equally tough given the short timeline to 2014.
Expect a continuation of the troubled relationship for some time to come – but it’s an increasingly important debate that might end up being critical to a political realignment in future.
- Fin24
*Daniel Silke is director of the Political Futures Consultancy and is a noted keynote speaker and commentator. Views expressed are his own. Follow him on Twitter at @DanielSilke or visit his website.
With the unions and centrists within the alliance seemingly at loggerheads, one of the most telling indicators of the country’s future course has recently come from none other than ANC secretary general and former chair of the South African Communist Party, Gwede Mantashe.
Buried within an address to the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union on November 27, Mantashe said: “Our economy is not growing fast enough for it to absorb new entrants to the labour market. This trend will continue until the private sector comes to the party.
"Organised labour has the responsibility to be constructive in supporting these efforts. If it plays an oppositionist role we must at best ignore it or engage it as such.”
If ever there was an admission that organised labour was now viewed by many within the alliance (even on the Left fringes) as obstructionist to growth, then this must be it. And, these sentiments play well within the desire of many to attempt a policy reorientation towards the somewhat ailing National Development Plan (NDP).
Mantashe’s admission that the private sector is critical to economic growth is important coming from someone of his stature – and ideological bent. It shows maturity to move beyond the narrow ideological confines and accept the enhanced role of business.
Mantashe certainly doesn’t need to love the private sector. In fact, in the very same speech he says: “Capital is not our friend but a necessary evil that you love and hate”, indicating that the contradictory relationship from the point of view of a communist or socialist background can be accommodated and tweaked to allow both sides compromise.
Mantashe is simply saying that unions, communists and socialists can and should work with capital to the betterment of the domestic economy, whether they love one another or not. This sounds suspiciously like the Chinese model of adapting and often embracing capitalism within the context of a socialist model.
Just as free marketeers need to temper their own blind spot when it comes to the sometimes necessary role of the state, so Mantashe well understands the need to compromise with economic models that might be anathema to ideological die-hards.
His statements point to an important shift away from the polarised policy debates that have largely crippled policy formulation from the broader alliance in recent months.
While Mantashe and other ANC leaders are not shy to criticise the private sector for tardiness in transformation and other ‘transgressions’, there seems a distinct desire on the part of the ANC leadership to similarly hold the unions to account.
Clearly, recent pro-labour laws like the labour relations amendment bill are seen as a hook for the unions to come on board and now the unions are expected to play ball by being somewhat more acquiescent to the policy whims of the NDP.
We are therefore witnessing the ANC attempting to rein in a key alliance partner (Cosatu) – and even to try and break its ‘oppositionist’ character that has become the norm over the last five years. A polarisation between moderate and more radical unions is therefore expected – whether this results in an actual split or more long-term splintering following 2014.
For Mantashe and the ANC, splintering the unions and the social contract that exists between the historic alliance partners is a pretty risky business. But then, so is a stagnating economy and low job absorption levels that may threaten the alliance in other ways in the future.
All this is reminiscent of Australia in the 1980s, when Labour Prime Minister Bob Hawke took on his very own socialist-left support base and effectively neutralised some of the ‘sacred cows’ of Australian labour socialism by working more closely with business.
South Africa under Mantashe (acting as a proxy for President Jacob Zuma) might well be attempting this important and necessary shift. But with Zuma more vulnerable than ever in his leadership role and Mantashe doing all the running, this might well be a messier process than expected.
Taking on the ‘oppositionists’ within the unions requires strong and decisive leadership, and Mantashe for all his bluster is a messenger of a weakened national administration.
For the unions though, splits and resultant suggestions around the formation of a new workerist party might be equally tough given the short timeline to 2014.
Expect a continuation of the troubled relationship for some time to come – but it’s an increasingly important debate that might end up being critical to a political realignment in future.
- Fin24
*Daniel Silke is director of the Political Futures Consultancy and is a noted keynote speaker and commentator. Views expressed are his own. Follow him on Twitter at @DanielSilke or visit his website.
