Secret balloting needed to solve on-going mining crisis 

Deputy President, Kgalema Motlanthe's announcement today that government will facilitate talks between the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) and mining companies is a step in the right direction. 

It is better late than never. 

However, in order to deal with the on-going mining crisis in the long term, the government needs to provide more resolute and immediate interventions that will protect current jobs and create new ones.

An intervention that DA believes would  balance workers' constitutional right to strike, and the need to grow the economy and create jobs, is the democratisation of labour relations through the introduction of secret balloting before unions engage in strike action.

A secret ballot would reduce strike activity and remove the possibility of union bosses engaging in strike action at whim.

Government's continued refusal to introduce secret balloting is a clear indication that it will continue to pander to the interests of union leadership at the expense of workers and the unemployed. 

The DA has already requested that Deputy President Motlanthe's Task Team, which was tasked with stabilising the mining industry, be summoned to Parliament to provide an update on its work. We will request that the Task Team also brief Parliament on why secret balloting has not been implemented. 

South Africa can no longer afford to be held hostage by those who serve their own narrow interests while the poor, the vulnerable and the unemployed are left out in the cold.

Over the last year, strike action is said to have resulted in approximately R1.18 billion in lost wages.

Government's ad hoc reaction to strike action will only result in more lost wages and jobs.

In the current state of affairs, only a well-positioned few stand to gain, while the rest of South Africans bear the real losses. Real change is needed once and for all.

Statement issued by Kenneth Mubu MP, DA Shadow Minister of Labour, January 22 2014

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