No sooner had the last vuvuzela sounded – thankfully – from South Africa’s extraordinarily successful World Cup this summer than the massed battalions of workers began to flex their muscles.
Virtually dormant in the run-up to the world’s second-largest sporting event – a four weeks that showcased all that was good about South Africa – the country’s unions began a trickle of unrest that has now turned into a raging torrent.
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Mass optimism engendered by the World Cup has given way to huge industrial unrest as South Africa has been successively paralysed by wave after wave of strikes.
Civil servants have taken to the streets in the tens of thousands calling for above-inflation wage increases, while the powerful National Union of Mineworkers is also reputed to be gearing up for confrontation.
The recent feel-good factor has evaporated as quickly as it arrived – and nowhere has this been more evident than in South Africa’s auto industry.
Reeling from the recent eight-day dispute by auto manufacturer workers that cost billions of Rand and led to severe production stoppages, South Africa’s car industry has just been dealt another hammer blow with this week’s walkout of around 70,000 component and tyre employees.
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By GlobalDataThe demands are pretty similar to those of their car manufacturing colleagues – a 15% pay rise, better severance pay and maternity leave – but the employers’ organisation – the Retail Motor Industry (RMI) is nervously insisting the union ought to consider the effect its industrial action could have on the considerable foreign investment in the country.
Most of the big guns are in South Africa – but with the RMI noting Volkswagen for example had completely shut down production this week – the dispute is going to make the other six decidedly twitchy.
And this dispute – which has also spilled over onto South Africa’s highly-regulated forecourts – also carries with it the whiff of violence.
From here in the UK, it’s unclear how far this has progressed, but after mutually signing a deal expressly condemning the possibility of aggressive behaviour, it appears there has been a certain amount of intimidation and violence.
South Africa is the powerhouse of the continent – from cars to wine, diamonds to minerals – the country has long enjoyed an economic status way ahead of its neighbours.
The World Cup showed a face to the planet that was young, vibrant and forward-looking – not to mention a cosmopolitan melting pot.
But the morning after the party has seen the hosts struggle to maintain the mood of unrestrained optimism. The auto industry is anxiously hoping next week’s talks between the NUMSA union and RMI will yield positive results – and that those foreign investors will stay firmly put.
