The Government of National Unity (GNU) is facing concerns that it would intensify and broaden the implementation of the neoliberal policy that has already caused immense inequality and hardship over the past 30 years.
The Workers & Socialists (WASP) and the Socialist Youth Movement (SYM) said this includes fiscal austerity, privatisation and the handing over of public services to corporate profiteering, brutal monetary policy, and a failed industrial policy that is premised on incentivising the private.
These remarks came in after they held a recent mass meeting.
The parties were joined by other organisations including left political formations, community civic organisations, social justice campaign groups and trade union representatives, to prepare a battle against the multiparty government.
They said the strategy for attracting investment was already responsible for the relentless attacks on public service and workers’ rights.
The parties said this would be expected to be pursued with renewed vigour despite abundant evidence which indicates that this strategy has failed to create jobs. These investments reflect the ongoing colonial plunder of minerals and the hostile takeovers responsible for job losses and the decimation of previously sheltered local industries.
This came amid labour protests in the country.
Recently Impala Platinum’s Bafokeng mine contractors embarked on an illegal strike demanding permanent jobs. Ford workers also took to the streets over bonuses. Ribas Manufacturing also embarked on a strike on Friday, demanding a wage increase of R4 per hour and a 10-minute break.
On the other hand, Gautrain workers are also demanding a 13% wage increase from their management, while Sibanye-Stillwater has embarked on a process to retrench 4 000 workers and contractors.
This, according to labour experts, suggests that the mood amongst labour is not upbeat about what the GNU will deliver.
According to the Labour Law Management Consulting chief executive, Ivan Israelstam, the fact that the ANC lost its majority vote means that the GNU partnerts in the cabinet would have a say in government policy. Israelstam said this created uncertainty among the ANC’s labour allies as to what their members can expect.
The South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) has already lamented the appointment of a DA candidate as the Minister of Education. The South Africa Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) also accused the ANC of abandoning the interest of South African for Cabinet positions.
Israelstam said labour’s dissatisfaction and uncertainty as to what the GNU would bring is likely to result in apprehensiveness and even fractious behaviour. He added that employers too were uncertain as to whether the multiparty Cabinet would provide better or worse government.
However, WASP and SYM said they are expecting direct attacks on the minimum wage, collective bargaining and the right to strike, alongside the erosion of gains won surrounding national health insurance, basic income grant and other concessions that the ANC was forced to make in recent times.
“While the policies of neo-liberalism have a direct implication on the volume of unemployment and poverty, the fundamental flaw lies in the capitalist mode of production. No matter how policies are adjusted, as long as they prop up a capitalist economy, unemployment will persist and poverty will be reproduced.
“This is because the logic of capitalist accumulation annihilates jobs through machinery and concentrates wealth in the hands of the tiny economic elite that owns the means of production,” said WASP National Committee Member, Mametlwe Sebei.
Sebei said this “right wing coalition” was an admission from the ANC that it has abandoned any pretence of serving the working class. He added that this was an assurance to world imperialism that they no longer have any intention of pursuing redress for the historical injustices rooted in the country's colonial and apartheid past.
“The Coalition with righting parties like VF (Freedom Front Plus) and the DA is only possible on the basis that the ANC will not address the most fundamental issues that are part of the lingering national question i.e. foreign, especially Western imperialist domination, white monopoly over the ownership of the land, minerals and economy, and ongoing racial inequalities, including the discrimination and abuses of the black majority that is part of their daily humiliation in every sphere of society.
“Even the ministry held by the opportunistic PAC over land could never meaningfully address the land question while in coalition with racist parties who vehemently defend and uphold the interests of white monopoly capital,” said Sebei.
Sankarist David Letsoalo agreed with the views of WASP and SYM, saying it must be emphasised that it is a misnomer to refer to this government as GNU. Letsoalo said that was the reason it was easily appropriate to align with the uMkhonto weSizwe Party leader and former president Jacob Zuma, who said the notion of GNU was “meaningless and nonsense”.
“What the country needs is the proper redress in terms of which black people are brought to the main table, and not under the table to wait for crumbs. The country needs a stern reversal of the damage inflicted on black people through colonialism and apartheid. This reversal is guided by the national democratic revolution (NDR),” said Letsoalo, adding that the little remnants of any sentiment or perspective that is pro-working class is worse off now because the so-called GNU is crammed with neoliberal parties.
He said the country can be assured that any voice that may attempt to sing the tune of poverty eradication and economic transformation within this new government will be drowned, vilified and ostracised.
“It should be clear that this government is not about the creation of employment. In my view, it is a conglomeration of forces that are there to serve the interests of capital in the context of the wider global capitalist architecture. In terms of global geo-politics, the West cannot afford to have a progressive South Africa with anti-capital or socialist orientation,” he said.