Strike in South Africa’s economic heartland

PRETORIA – Thousands of workers protested or walked out on Monday in South Africa’s economic heartland over unemployment and job losses, closing some gold mine shafts and delaying international flights.

President Thabo Mbeki’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) is facing mounting pressure to deliver on its electoral promise to create jobs and curb poverty. More than 10 000 people marched through the centre of the capital Pretoria in support of the one-day strike, part of a regional rolling action by the main labour bloc Cosatu, a governing ally of the ANC.”Please stop job retrenchments,” read one placard carried by demonstrators in Pretoria, where union activists and workers marched under heavy police security from the centre of town to the grand colonial-era Union Buildings, the seat of government.”Mbeki, do something,” read another.Despite some disruption, most business continued normally, as it did when Cosatu launched the action last week in the Cape Town region and the Eastern Cape where South Africa’s successful car industry is based.But Cosatu’s leading role in the protests has added to strains within the ANC’s ruling alliance that could have implications for political stability in South Africa, according to analysts.After helping the ANC win a two-thirds parliamentary majority in last year’s general elections, Cosatu is demanding action against unemployment, which is running at over 26 per cent.Cosatu also complains the government is not doing enough to tackle widespread poverty in a country with one of the biggest income disparities in the world.”We cannot simply be election fodder,” Cosatu’s president Willie Madisha told workers gathered in Pretoria.”You cannot remember us with elections and thereafter forget about us.”While the ANC’s centrist policies have kept Africa’s biggest economy booming since the end of apartheid in 1994, they have increasingly alienated its more leftist workers and communist allies.Union leaders blame what they call Mbeki’s pro-business policies and a strong rand currency for job losses.In recent months Cosatu and the government have drifted further apart on issues ranging from Mbeki’s handling of the country’s AIDS crisis to his sacking of his deputy, Jacob Zuma, who was embroiled in an arms deal corruption scandal.Cosatu has thrown its weight behind the popular Zuma.On Monday, the union was mobilising supporters for a vigil at a court in the port city of Durban on the eve of Zuma’s appearance there on corruption charges.After last week’s similar one-day walkout in the Eastern and Western Cape provinces, Monday was the turn of Gauteng province – which includes Pretoria and the economic capital Johannesburg – and the platinum-rich North West province.Harmony Gold said the strike had halted production at one of its installations, while the other two main gold producers, AngloGold Ashanti and Gold Fields Ltd, said the impact was minimal.But at Johannesburg’s international airport, a hub for air travel to and within southern Africa, some international flights were delayed after immigration officials heeding the strike call failed to turn up.-Nampa-ReutersMore than 10 000 people marched through the centre of the capital Pretoria in support of the one-day strike, part of a regional rolling action by the main labour bloc Cosatu, a governing ally of the ANC.”Please stop job retrenchments,” read one placard carried by demonstrators in Pretoria, where union activists and workers marched under heavy police security from the centre of town to the grand colonial-era Union Buildings, the seat of government.”Mbeki, do something,” read another.Despite some disruption, most business continued normally, as it did when Cosatu launched the action last week in the Cape Town region and the Eastern Cape where South Africa’s successful car industry is based.But Cosatu’s leading role in the protests has added to strains within the ANC’s ruling alliance that could have implications for political stability in South Africa, according to analysts.After helping the ANC win a two-thirds parliamentary majority in last year’s general elections, Cosatu is demanding action against unemployment, which is running at over 26 per cent.Cosatu also complains the government is not doing enough to tackle widespread poverty in a country with one of the biggest income disparities in the world.”We cannot simply be election fodder,” Cosatu’s president Willie Madisha told workers gathered in Pretoria.”You cannot remember us with elections and thereafter forget about us.”While the ANC’s centrist policies have kept Africa’s biggest economy booming since the end of apartheid in 1994, they have increasingly alienated its more leftist workers and communist allies.Union leaders blame what they call Mbeki’s pro-business policies and a strong rand currency for job losses.In recent months Cosatu and the government have drifted further apart on issues ranging from Mbeki’s handling of the country’s AIDS crisis to his sacking of his deputy, Jacob Zuma, who was embroiled in an arms deal corruption scandal.Cosatu has thrown its weight behind the popular Zuma.On Monday, the union was mobilising supporters for a vigil at a court in the port city of Durban on the eve of Zuma’s appearance there on corruption charges.After last week’s similar one-day walkout in the Eastern and Western Cape provinces, Monday was the turn of Gauteng province – which includes Pretoria and the economic capital Johannesburg – and the platinum-rich North West province.Harmony Gold said the strike had halted production at one of its installations, while the other two main gold producers, AngloGold Ashanti and Gold Fields Ltd, said the impact was minimal.But at Johannesburg’s international airport, a hub for air travel to and within southern Africa, some international flights were delayed after immigration officials heeding the strike call failed to turn up.-Nampa-Reuters