01 Jan When leaders lose control
With an increase in violent protests and unprotected strike action in SA, what role do all stakeholders play in ensuring a stabilised labour force? Chris Jacobs, conflict resolution expert at OIM International, provides his considered opinion.
History has dictated that we should not be surprised by the tragedy that occurred at Lonmin’s Marikana mine in Rustenburg. The past few years have seen a mushrooming of unprotected strike action in the mining sector, such as at Karee, Aquarius and Impala Platinum, all involving violence, union rivalry and illegal activities. The trend for unprotected strike action also entered the construction industry, with violence disrupting construction at Medupi and Kusile coal power stations. This type of action has been building up since 2010.
Parallels with Marikana can be drawn all the way to the 1997 Amplats mining strike, also involving rock drillers, which saw numerous people killed. In this case the masses also disregarded the advice of the recognised leaders and later rejected their leadership completely.
This was followed by a rejection of the NUM and a group of so-called Ten Madodas filling the leadership vacuum. Fierce intimidation and several killings followed. NUM leaders were assassinated and mob rule was at the order of the day.
The Ten Madodas controlled everything with an iron fist and employees were fined for not following these new rules. These Madodas then formed themselves into a registered union and operated as counter to the NUM in the Rustenburg region.
A trend not unique to the Lonmin strike is the rejection of elected leaders, such as what happened at Karee, Impala and Aquarius, and the non-recognition of breakaway unions, such as AMCU from NUM, by government and policymakers.
Although the Marikana Commission of Inquiry is not yet complete, and the cause of the violence has not been fully revealed, it has been widely reported that Marikana’s violence and tragedy saw opportunist populist leaders, such as Julius Malema, come to the fore of the crisis for their own political gain. This has later been compounded by other individuals and organisations such as the Socialist Democratic Movement vying for the strikers’ support.
How could these trends not have been recognised prior to the Marikana tragedy, and thus avoided? Shockingly, these trends were either not identified, or simply ignored by political, business and trade union leaders, who should have developed a strategy that could have prevented the tragic loss of lives. However, nobody showed the necessary leadership at the time.
The losses are manifold and include the following: the tragic loss of several lives, the massive outflow of money from South Africa (Gill Marcus is reported to have said that on 8 October alone SA saw a nett equity market outflow of R5.6 billion), recent drops in our credit ratings, the damage to our investment reputation, loss of production, loss of income for strikers (in 2011 strikers lost a total of R1 073 109 000 in wages – these strikes will in all likelihood be more than that).
Our leaders have failed South Africa by not taking appropriate action ahead of the Marikana tragedy.