Don’t create another crisis for South Africa - Public sector unions are threatening a strike

In 2005 I discovered how the Communist system operates in China. Visiting a large factory that manufactured and bottled alcohol for sale I saw a huge slogan painted in red letters on the wall above where many people were working. I asked the manager what it said. He translated it as: “If you don’t work hard today you will work harder tomorrow looking for another job.”

Upon returning home I told our parliament, to some hilarity on the part of ANC MPs, that for the first time I understood what was meant by communism and that if we introduced this wonderful concept of hard work here we would be far better off.

Our trade union elite, the paid officials, mostly profess to be socialists and many are communists. None seem to have the view that workers should be encouraged to be more productive. Few seem to be aware of the national interest. All seem to frame their wants as “demands” which if not met will result in strikes. Patriotism and putting the interests of the country first are concepts totally foreign to them.

The South African economy is brittle. We have incoherent economic policies because of the ideological muddle in the heart of government. Our growth figure is completely inadequate for national needs. We have developed one of the largest social welfare networks in the world – far in advance of anything seen in other developing countries and while we can be proud of this, it has to be paid for.

Black Economic Empowerment has led to a doubling in the number of the officials who administer the country in the three spheres of government. We now have 2,161 –million government employees with a wage bill that grew by a staggering 145.6% between 2005 and 2012, according to economists Adèle Breytenbach and Jannie Rossouw. Researcher Anim van Wyk calculates the number of government employees grew by 27.3% in that time whereas in the USA, the number of employees grew by only 2%. It must be obvious that this is unsustainable.

And officials are threatening that if their demands are not met, they will go on strike.

Some cynics remark that if they stopped working we would hardly notice the difference. But that does not include the teachers, the nurses, the police and the people there to serve us in every government office. The sufferers would again be our children, the sick and the public generally.

The minister of finance, Nhlanhla Nene, has made it plain that the government cannot borrow any more money. Inflation-linked salary increases of 5.8% and housing allowances of R1, 200.00 per month have been offered. A settlement above that figure would entail reallocating the money from elsewhere or else cutting civil service jobs.

The inflation rate according to official figures was 3.9% in February. The public sector unions affiliated to Cosatu were demanding 15% increases and housing allowances of R3, 500.00 per month. This clearly was laughable and unattainable and the demands were modified to increases of 10% and housing allowances of R1, 500.00. Some of the smaller unions appear to be breaking ranks and are talking about demands for increases of 8.5% but the larger unions are not budging.

Given that the wage bill for civil servants is already R350 billion, the increases demanded are unaffordable. By way of comparison, the total spending on Social Assistance, with 17.5 million South Africans receiving grants, is R155billion. The total spending on Health (including salaries) is R157 billion.

What is to be done about this situation? The spokesperson for Nehawu, a union which has 277 313 members, Mr Sizwe Pamla, recently told the Mail and Guardian, “It is up to them whether they want to satisfy the IMF (International Monetary Fund) or the people who have been behind the ANC.” More pertinently, he asked the following, “Can the ANC afford to be deadlocked in wage negotiations before the local government elections in 2016?”

There you have it. In anybody’s language, blackmail. Minister Nene seems resolute and one assumes the government is backing him but their record is not encouraging and one would not be surprised to see them buckling to union demands in due course. If that happens it might be in the short-term political interests of the ANC, but the long term interests of both the ANC and the country will be grievously compromised.

Can the public sector unions be brought to sanity? Our economy is hamstrung by very low growth, by huge unemployment and by strike activity that has inflicted great damage in recent times. No one expects officials to live in poverty if they are doing productive, responsible jobs serving the public. But should they be paid far more than people doing equivalent jobs in the private sector and should they be feather-bedded and totally protected from economic realities because they were lucky enough to land a job in the civil service?

One can only appeal to the patriotism of the people we as taxpayers pay to work for us. Of course you have the constitutional right to strike. No-one disputes that; but the consequences of a prolonged and bitter strike by a million or more officials will be dire. It will cause a fall in the growth rate and it will lead directly to job losses.  

Instead of going down the easy path of striking, why not, just this once, put the public and South Africa first? Accept a reasonable increase linked to the current inflation rate, plus an increased housing allowance, and then get on with the job of serving the people of South Africa. Help the rest of us make the economy work; help us grow so that more people can be employed and can pay the taxes that pay your salary and benefits.

Douglas Gibson is a former Opposition Chief Whip and a former ambassador to Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.

This article first appeared in The Star.