Just before the pandemic I spoke at two workshops on the Eskom crisis that were attended by members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa).
On both occasions I asked the workers why I was always reading in the press that there was animosity between the two unions, when all I could see was unity on the issues they were facing at Eskom. The reply was: “It is not us who are fighting with each other, it is our leaders.”
In January, I presented: “Vision 2036: A plan to achieve full employment” to all of country’s major unions at the National Economic Development & Labour Council labour school. They were united on the need to oppose austerity, with one person saying there must be a merger between union federations Cosatu and Saftu. The break-up of Cosatu and expulsion of Numsa and former general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi were the most shameful events in the history of trade unions since 1994.
Last week I addressed Numsa and NUM conferences. At Numsa’s national bargaining conference transport minister Barbara Creecy presented a false narrative that the government is broke and has no option but to destroy Transnet by privatising its most profitable lines. The private sector will cherry-pick the prime iron ore, coal and manganese lines and leave Transnet to deal with the subprime general freight business. In a threat that was in poor taste, since Numsa members did not cause the crisis at Transnet, Creecy said workers must not make Transnet another SAA.
In what could be a game-changer in SA politics, NUM’s extraordinary national political council decided to recommend to its congress in June that the union supports the SACP at the next election. In the commission I attended this was a unanimous view, with workers saying they had not benefited from the abusive marriage with the ANC. With Cosatu also likely to support the SACP at the next local and national elections, the party could emerge as a strong left alternative, attracting a portion of the 57% of eligible voters (22-million people) who boycotted the 2024 election.
There must be a realignment on the left around a common vision for the economy that includes rolling out universal public services — education, health and electricity and subsidised mass housing and transport. It is impossible for the private sector to finance all of the country’s huge energy, transport and water infrastructure requirements, since it will just take the few juicy parts and discard the rest for the government to address.
It would be quicker and easier for the government to finance the infrastructure instead of going through the complicated steps of destroying Eskom and Transnet by carving out transmission and railway lines and ports and creating independent water producers.
Such structural reforms will just create new class of oligarchs — a corporate heist for the connected few — and leave the government with large bills to pay for the infrastructure the private sector cannot provide, and the subsidies that will be required so that the poor can pay for unaffordable public services. SA needs a united trade union movement, a merger between Cosatu and Saftu that goes beyond co-operation.
The NUM must start talks with the Association of Mineworkers & Construction Union to create one union for the mining industry. At the NUM conference I was surprised that so many of the delegates were young and female. But many of them could not understand why the SACP would run for office while remaining in an alliance with the ANC, or why it allowed its leaders in the government to become cheerleaders for economic policies it opposes.
The SACP must carve an independent identity that is separate from the ANC and mobilise funding and capacity to mount an electoral challenge.
• Gqubule is an adviser on economic development and transformation.
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