Signs of the times must be read

TWO decades into our democracy and government is sitting on a time-bomb for failure to progressively improve the lives of the poorer working class in South Africa.

Voices within the labour movement are calling for greater accountability from the ruling ANC arguing that there have been fewer gains for the poor amid a thriving black middle class.

With government dogged by controversial corruption scandals, there is a sense that the mass working class have had enough. They are prepared to bring the country’s economy to its knees as clearly expressed by the five-month-long strike in the platinum sector.

This is a critical time for South Africa and the whole world is watching. The labour movement and political landscape is undergoing a tectonic shift.

But in efforts to get government’s attention through ‘political’ strikes, are we in fact putting a spanner in the works for job creation and foreign investors?

Anglo American Platinum’s announcement this week to sell some of its mines after plunging profits in the second half of the year may be a gloomy indication of things to come.

The world’s biggest platinum producer said that it had lost more than a third of annual production owing to the longest strike in South Africa’s history.

The company’s Union and Rustenburg mines, along with another joint venture, account for a quarter of the company’s production capacity, but employ about half of its workforce.

In a country plagued with unemployment and poverty, the real question is whether we can afford to repel investors?

The exit by the world’s top platinum producer from the South African market may set a trend for other investors fed up with continuous labour unrest, rising costs and volatility.

We are not living in an island and unfortunately, Zululand will not be exempt from the domino effect of such a move.

Richards Bay has long been a destination of choice for foreign investors, but with the gloomy outlook projected to the world by the rising unrest in the country’s labour-intensive mines, our glory days seem a distant past.

Incentives for attracting investors are diminishing by the day.

It is time for government to wake up and interpret the signs.