The Marikana shooting incident is now part of the annals of post-Apartheid South African history. It represents one of the most graphic interfaces between the need for law and order, and the wish for continued disorder in society. Whilst the police should be held accountable for the hard handed manner in which they have responded to the behaviour of the miners, there are questions that still need to be answered in respect of their actual responsibilities in similar conditions. The worker despair at established labour relations systems and ‘sweetheart’ or ‘otherwise’ union representation should be juxtaposed against the creeping despair of law enforcement officers at the altar of a yet to be defined post-Apartheid policing.
The ‘platinum’ nature of the Marikana inequality does not match the ‘platinum’ benefits of the mineral to owners of the resource. As Chairman Mao taught “labour and capital have been in contradiction ever since the two classes came into being, only at first the contradiction had not yet become intense. The inherent neo-liberal character of the ANC with some amongst its leadership, current and/or expelled and/or suspended, being a pornographic embodiment of crass materialism lends credence to the existence of the contradictions Mao referred to. The opportunism that has found traction within the structural design of post-apartheid wealth creation and showing can only be liquidated by community responses that are informed by the historical correctness of struggles for social justice.
The Marikana killings have thus far grown to become the single most expression of the underlying tensions between post-liberation politics and the need to restore the legitimacy of law in society. The various fears that characterised the CODESA constitutional negotiations have not only delivered to our shore one of the worlds most celebrated constitution, but yielded as collateral democratic openness that assumes a certain measure of sophistication in the electorate it was designed for. The need to see the Marikana debacle as the cradle of discontent that is fast being tied to a non-ANC alternative has not only arrived but requires an ideological response from the ANC and its alliance partners.
The dominant narrative on the Marikana tensions, past and present, hinges on a belief that the trade union movement is in a contest for hegemonic control of worker power in the platinum mines of South Africa. The narrative goes on to characterise the tension as being between AMCU and NUM, with each union arguing its innocence. A natural conspiracy theory that has not yet found a protagonist will be the existence of some third or fourth force propelling the tension. In all these narratives the potential to miss the actual mark is not only real but promoted. What then is the mark, if any?
Statistically South African platinum mines are estimated to be employing about 100k people. This figure translates in financial terms, and assuming a membership fee of R50 per person, to R5 million per month in respect of union subscriptions. The figure attracts a gearing potential given its cash flow guarantees and occupies a special place in the procurement of goods and services thus making unions economic players in their own right when factoring income streams emanating therefrom. It is a well-known fact that the subscription based prowess of COSATU in the late 1980’s propelled the mass democratic character of the ANC-led liberation movement to levels never seen before in ant-colonial struggles. The reality therefore of a new union movement outside the political orbit and influence of the ruling ANC carries the potential of being a bedrock for the creation of a much sought after anti-ANC opposition. The ingredients of a viable opposition establishment are all but incomplete without a predominantly black led union movement.
In the political economic sphere of South African life, the union subscription based economy has been growing since 1994. The investment companies of unions have propelled and somewhat created legitimacy figments of the (collapsing) black economic empowerment transactions to levels where there seems to be no distinction between who is an employer and who is the worker in many of the business arrangements instructing the South African business landscape? The general influence of the trade union movement in the pension fund and other compulsory savings and insurance financial resources have not only made membership to these unions lucrative but increased the ascendant premium of leading them.
The sub-contextual political economy variables of the union influence do not only redefine the financial services regime of South Africa but introduces into the mix new capitals that require some form of investment or the other. Apart from the traditional finance related capital, social and political capitals have become the invisible factor on the general balance sheet big companies require in navigating the South African economy. The multi holdings structure of the Public Investment Commission, which controls in excess of a trillion ZAR, and that of the many Union Investment Companies, which dictate the pace of public sector based business activities, which has attracted the ire of the competitions commission, has foregrounded political capital as an investment focus for the private sector in South Africa.
The change of influence in the mining sector through activities of new, and not so political sweetheart, unions such as AMCU, creates political reconfigurations that will be costly for private sector investment, when returns on earlier political investments are due. The deployment therefore of the state apparatus on the ‘Marikana discontents’ is representative on the underlying ‘private capital discontent’ on the capacity of those in charge of the state to secure the continued returns. The Fulham Commission, which turned out to be a factory fault in respect of ‘discontent management and diversion, further foregrounded the underlying socio-economic challenges of the economic structure of South Africa not sufficiently dealt with at CODESA. The graphic manner in which levels of poverty found their way onto the centre stage of the Marikana aftermath defines a new era that may derail efforts at the creation of a ‘capable state’ and re-establish the legitimacy for a left leaning ‘developmental state’ as envisaged in the ancestral economic policy direction articulated in both the Freedom Charter and the RDP document. Marikana has thus defined a new era for South Africa; political mobilisation will in future be about how not to create another Marikana. The answer to that question will migrate the policy discourse towards a social democracy that is pro poor.
I AM JUST THINKING ALOUD
The ‘platinum’ nature of the Marikana inequality does not match the ‘platinum’ benefits of the mineral to owners of the resource. As Chairman Mao taught “labour and capital have been in contradiction ever since the two classes came into being, only at first the contradiction had not yet become intense. The inherent neo-liberal character of the ANC with some amongst its leadership, current and/or expelled and/or suspended, being a pornographic embodiment of crass materialism lends credence to the existence of the contradictions Mao referred to. The opportunism that has found traction within the structural design of post-apartheid wealth creation and showing can only be liquidated by community responses that are informed by the historical correctness of struggles for social justice.
The Marikana killings have thus far grown to become the single most expression of the underlying tensions between post-liberation politics and the need to restore the legitimacy of law in society. The various fears that characterised the CODESA constitutional negotiations have not only delivered to our shore one of the worlds most celebrated constitution, but yielded as collateral democratic openness that assumes a certain measure of sophistication in the electorate it was designed for. The need to see the Marikana debacle as the cradle of discontent that is fast being tied to a non-ANC alternative has not only arrived but requires an ideological response from the ANC and its alliance partners.
The dominant narrative on the Marikana tensions, past and present, hinges on a belief that the trade union movement is in a contest for hegemonic control of worker power in the platinum mines of South Africa. The narrative goes on to characterise the tension as being between AMCU and NUM, with each union arguing its innocence. A natural conspiracy theory that has not yet found a protagonist will be the existence of some third or fourth force propelling the tension. In all these narratives the potential to miss the actual mark is not only real but promoted. What then is the mark, if any?
Statistically South African platinum mines are estimated to be employing about 100k people. This figure translates in financial terms, and assuming a membership fee of R50 per person, to R5 million per month in respect of union subscriptions. The figure attracts a gearing potential given its cash flow guarantees and occupies a special place in the procurement of goods and services thus making unions economic players in their own right when factoring income streams emanating therefrom. It is a well-known fact that the subscription based prowess of COSATU in the late 1980’s propelled the mass democratic character of the ANC-led liberation movement to levels never seen before in ant-colonial struggles. The reality therefore of a new union movement outside the political orbit and influence of the ruling ANC carries the potential of being a bedrock for the creation of a much sought after anti-ANC opposition. The ingredients of a viable opposition establishment are all but incomplete without a predominantly black led union movement.
In the political economic sphere of South African life, the union subscription based economy has been growing since 1994. The investment companies of unions have propelled and somewhat created legitimacy figments of the (collapsing) black economic empowerment transactions to levels where there seems to be no distinction between who is an employer and who is the worker in many of the business arrangements instructing the South African business landscape? The general influence of the trade union movement in the pension fund and other compulsory savings and insurance financial resources have not only made membership to these unions lucrative but increased the ascendant premium of leading them.
The sub-contextual political economy variables of the union influence do not only redefine the financial services regime of South Africa but introduces into the mix new capitals that require some form of investment or the other. Apart from the traditional finance related capital, social and political capitals have become the invisible factor on the general balance sheet big companies require in navigating the South African economy. The multi holdings structure of the Public Investment Commission, which controls in excess of a trillion ZAR, and that of the many Union Investment Companies, which dictate the pace of public sector based business activities, which has attracted the ire of the competitions commission, has foregrounded political capital as an investment focus for the private sector in South Africa.
The change of influence in the mining sector through activities of new, and not so political sweetheart, unions such as AMCU, creates political reconfigurations that will be costly for private sector investment, when returns on earlier political investments are due. The deployment therefore of the state apparatus on the ‘Marikana discontents’ is representative on the underlying ‘private capital discontent’ on the capacity of those in charge of the state to secure the continued returns. The Fulham Commission, which turned out to be a factory fault in respect of ‘discontent management and diversion, further foregrounded the underlying socio-economic challenges of the economic structure of South Africa not sufficiently dealt with at CODESA. The graphic manner in which levels of poverty found their way onto the centre stage of the Marikana aftermath defines a new era that may derail efforts at the creation of a ‘capable state’ and re-establish the legitimacy for a left leaning ‘developmental state’ as envisaged in the ancestral economic policy direction articulated in both the Freedom Charter and the RDP document. Marikana has thus defined a new era for South Africa; political mobilisation will in future be about how not to create another Marikana. The answer to that question will migrate the policy discourse towards a social democracy that is pro poor.
I AM JUST THINKING ALOUD
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