Glenda Daniels and Jaspreet Kindra
Car manufacturers say South Africa’s reputation has been permanently damaged by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa wage strike.
The total losses due to the strike is about R1-billion. Employers asked workers to go back to work and the president of the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa, Ian Robertson, said South Africa’s reputation as a safe foreign investment destination was “irreparably and permanently damaged. The situation has now been reached where it will be impossible to recover loses in production within the current year. This situation will have a direct bearing on South Africa as a manufacturer for export markets,” Robertson said.
Meanwhile, the government has accused the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) of “double standards”, pointing out that the federation’s investment arm has taken advantage of the spin-offs from the restructuring of both public and private enterprises.
At a press conference on Thursday, attended by five Cabinet members, Minister in the President’s Office Essop Pahad said there was no “ideological dispute” with Cosatu.
He asked how Cosatu explained the participation of its investment arm in deals with the Airports Company, Alexkor, restaurants in National Parks and Aventura.
Minister for Public Enterprises Jeff Radebe said: “These inconsistencies by Cosatu defy logic, and indeed they once more bring out in bold relief the question, ‘Is this strike really necessary?'”
The ministers urged Cosatu to reconsider the strike action and said their “doors were always open” for talks.
The anti-privatisation strike will involve more than Cosatu’s nearly two million members, with other union federations likely to participate. One of the burning issues for labour is the job loss bloodbath from privatisation. About 200?000 jobs have been lost due to the privatisation at Transnet, Denel, Telkom, Eskom and the public service.