If the EFF does, indeed, form its own union, as party leader Julius Malema indicated in a May Day rally over the weekend, it would hasten the inevitable fall of the ANC while also causing a war between rival union Cosatu and the new EFF variant as they jostle for members and turf, writes political commentator Justice Malala.
Malala writes that in a worst-case scenario there might even be bloodshed as was the case during the Marikana massacre in 2012 when in the days leading up to the massacre where 34 people died, ten people were killed as unions, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Association of Mineworkers & Construction Union (Amcu) clashed.
But more so than the jostling for power amongst employees, fractures in the labour force may spook investors when labourers don’t talk with a united voice while the formation of an EFF-aligned union also has the power to potentially reshape the political landscape, writes Malala.
And it’s the rejection of the ANC and Cosatu as the political party and union of choice among workers that President Cyril Ramaphosa will have to get used to, writes Martin Williams.
Williams predicts that no matter whether Ramaphosa or one of the Radical Economic Transformation candidates wins the next ANC elections scheduled for December, at the next national election voters are likely to turn their back on the party.
And at the same time, Malema was announcing the EFF’s new union, Ramaphosa was being heckled off the stage in Rustenburg by Cosatu members. But unions may come to regret turning their backs on the president, writes the Financial Mail, as they have never been weaker in democratic South Africa.
Membership has continued to decline, and union management increasingly does not represent the interests of its membership base.
Cosatu has always been seen as a vote bringer for the ANC as part of the tripartite alliance between the two and the South African Communist Party (SACP) but Financial Mail writes it may be time for the ANC to call Cosatu’s bluff and admit that unions hold no real sway over voters anymore.
Ramaphosa could still be a staunch ally of unions given he founded NUM and spent his formative political years working in and around unions, but unions risk a great deal by alienating a president who must be acutely aware of his re-election prospects.
Here’s a round-up of opinions, editorials, and in-depth articles we’re reading:
LUCKY MATHEBULA | Why Rustenburg doesn’t reveal what SA really thinks of Cyril – Sunday Times Daily (for subscribers)
Melanie Verwoerd | How much is enough? Why our current economic model is unsustainable – News24 (for subscribers)
EDITORIAL | The wages of SA’s pay gap will be death – Sunday Times Daily (for subscribers)
TONY LEON | Presidential sounds of silence are fuelling the fire engulfing SA – Sunday Times Daily (for subscribers)
EDITORIAL: Thungela rally highlights need to rethink coal’s future – Business Day
MAMOKETE LIJANE: No-one can prevent the global economic slowdown – Business Day (for subscribers)
The DA needs to first address pressing issues here at home – The Citizen (for subscribers)
Confronting xenophobic populism — ‘think carefully, write clearly, repeat’ – Daily Maverick
