Wildcat strikes and spreading violence in South Africa are putting pressure on the economy and have forced the government, business sector and police to intensify efforts to end the industrial action. "We have gone through a difficult period in our country in the past few weeks with wildcat strikes, one of which tragically claimed the lives of 46 people in Marikana," President Jacob Zuma told the annual convention of the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Thursday.
"We should not seek to portray ourselves as a nation that is perpetually fighting." The strikes started early this year in the platinum mining sector. In August, Lonmin Plc's mine at Marikana, in the North-West province in the heart of the platinum belt, was hit by a violent strike, killing 46 people, including 34 striking miners shot dead by police.
Illegal strikes have since spread to gold and chrome mines. The country is also seeing a wave of protected, but still crippling, labour actions in other sectors. Truck drivers are refusing to work, causing shortages across the country, while some municipal workers have also staged authorised walk outs.
Car maker Toyota this week agreed to a pay rise for South African employees after a three-day snap strike at a plant in Durban caused production to drastically decline. Unions and the Chamber of Mines have agreed to review entry-level wages in the gold sector in an effort to bring an end to the strikes. Officials say they hope a week will be sufficient time for the negotiations to bear fruit. Both workers' organisations and business leaders are afraid the existing labour relations frameworks will fall apart, leading to chaos.
Chamber of Mines spokesman Jabu Maphalala said the goal of the talks was to "protect collective bargaining and industrial relations on existing wage agreements". Maphalala also announced that "exploratory talks" would be launched to find a way forward in the platinum sector, which lacks a collective bargaining framework. The police, meanwhile, have deployed even more forces to the restive platinum belt, saying spreading violence was a major concern.
Police again fired rubber bullets on Thursday at Anglo American Platinum, after striking miners and residents of a shanty town near the mine began to clash with the officers and threw stones. Cosatu, the main umbrella trade union, has said the living conditions of miners is one of the root causes of the unrest. In a joint statement, the union and the Chamber of Mines said they would aim to establish a commission to investigate the quality of life of the working poor.
International investors' confidence has been shaken, with ratings agencies downgrading South Africa's sovereign debt. Economist Mike Schussler warned that the wildcat strikes were bringing "a new level of uncertainty" to the country's labour sector with a worryingly high official unemployment rate of 25 per cent. "The actual output in the economy is definitely going to be lower. How much lower, we don't know right now," Schussler was quoted as saying by the SAPA news agency this week.
Some analysts have said that the unrest could force South Africa to deal with key issues that have been ignored, especially concerns about sustainable employment and more equitable economic growth. "We believe that Marikana represents a turning point in South Africa's post-apartheid history. The question is: in what direction will we now go?" said the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (CASAC).
The reputation of the police will have to be rebuilt, the constitutional watchdog group said. It warned that the heavy use of the security forces to deal with the unrest also presents a threat to civil liberties and progressive politics. Analysts say the strikes offer an opportunity for the government to introduce economic reforms that would benefit not only the mining sector but the whole economy. This would involve policies aimed at narrowing the gap between rich and poor.