The South African working class is being ravaged. Government figures record thousands of infections and hundreds of deaths per day from COVID-19. In late March, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a national lockdown to contain the virus. But as restrictions were eased on 1 May and again on 1 June, the case numbers began to soar. At almost 600,000 cases, the country now has the fifth-highest number of recorded infections in the world. On top of this, millions are being thrown into poverty as unemployment rises, the official rate being above 30 percent and gross domestic product predicted to collapse by up to 10 percent this year. Ashley Fataar, a member of the International Socialist Movement, reports from Cape Town on the government’s appalling response to the crisis.
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There were 9 million workers in permanent employment before February this year. Up to 3.5 million have now lost their jobs. Women account for two-thirds of those job losses. Forty-two percent of men are working fewer hours. According to some estimates, the economy will not be operating fully for two to three years—but not all companies will remain in operation. Unemployment will remain high for the next three years at least. Of those who lost their jobs between February and April, two-thirds were trying to support a household. They were given a grant of 350 rand per month (about 28 Australian dollars). A living wage in South Africa is widely reported to be at least 500 rand a day (A$40).
Before the lockdown, the government said that some relief would come in the form of unemployment insurance (UIF) payments to those affected by the lockdown. But right before the lockdown started, it became clear that the government was completely unprepared—UIF payments would only be processed after the lockdown ended. This meant that workers were not paid for at least six weeks.
Food insecurity was previously at 20 percent. A provincial governor admitted that during the lockdown the figure doubled. Yet the government did not plan for the provision of food to needy families. When it finally did, the distribution was made only through registered non-government organisations (NGOs) and charities. Hundreds of working-class communities suffered starvation because there were no NGOs in their area. When people resorted to street riots and the looting of grocery shops in desperation, police responded with rubber bullets and water cannon.
The lockdown is not the only cause of job losses. Major corporations announced plans to lay off workers as early as last year. But it was set up for failure even before it started. The inadequate income grants and food provision put immense pressure on people to get out and find work to feed their families. It means that bosses can reopen non-essential workplaces without too much opposition from starving workers.
As well as being a factor in spreading the virus, the increasing poverty has worsened the violence directed against women and children. According to United Nations statistics, nearly two-thirds of women have experienced sexual violence in working-class areas. The lockdown pushed those figures to 80 percent. Violence against women has become the country’s second pandemic.
To cut costs, the Western Cape provincial government announced that no coronavirus testing would be carried out on those under 55 years of age. The government also wanted to reduce testing so that the number of discovered cases would not be so high. They want to give the impression that the pandemic has reached its peak. But they can’t hide the reality. According to a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-africa/africas-cases-of-covid-19-top-1-million-reuters-tally-idUSKCN25235N">Reuters news report</a>, one scientific study “showed some 17,000 deaths above the normal rate, or a 60 percent excess, between early May and mid-July, suggesting more people are dying of COVID-19 than official figures reflect”.
Capitalist looting
The lockdown has exposed callous levels of bare-faced looting by the ruling class. Services that were supposed to be provided by private companies have been subject to massive over-pricing, or not delivered at all. Contracted companies distributing food parcels charged prices up to three times higher than those charged by supermarkets.
In another instance, a courier company was paid 3 million rand (A$240,000) to take samples from a hospital to a laboratory for testing. They simply dumped the samples on the side of the road. The three largest private groups of hospitals (Life, Mediclinic and Netcare) have, since 2016, paid out an average 400 million rand every month to shareholders. That money was not invested in equipment, more beds or staff. It went into the pockets of the already rich.
The hospital system has been undermined for two decades due to cost cutting. It is now unable to cope with the pandemic. An insufficient number of medical personnel have to work with inadequate personal protective equipment. Hospitals are turning away anyone who does not have a serious enough case of COVID-19—including elderly patients who need regular check-ups. Even then those requiring hospitalisation are turned away.
The private sector has benefited from the pandemic. Companies with family connections to the government have been awarded government contracts. In addition, the government has obtained a loan of US$4.3 billion from the International Monetary Fund. The South African government is serving the needs of capital, not protecting the lives of millions of workers and their families.

Ashley Fataar

South African government response to COVID-19 crisis: profits matter more than workers’ lives

Students at universities across South Africa have been demonstrating for the complete removal of university fees for poor students. They are pushing for the realisation of the demands raised by the #FeesMustFall campaign last year, which was the largest wave of protests since the fall of apartheid and drew tens of thousands of students into the streets. In this fresh round of protests, students are taking action at universities across six provinces.
The protests erupted when Blade Nzimande, the minister responsible for higher education, announced that it would be left to individual universities to determine fee increases for 2017. Students were hoping for at least no increases. Had that been the case, then the protests might not have erupted. However, the government has allowed administrations to raise fees by up to 8 percent at a time when many students already cannot afford to go to university.
The students responded to the proposed fee hikes by organising mass meetings on campuses. They had a series of sit-ins and meetings, and disrupted lectures. Barricades were erected at some campuses.
The response from university managements and police has been vicious. They are determined that there will be no re-run of last year’s campaign, which caught them flat-footed. Faced with the re-emergence of campus protests, university managers have called in private security companies and the police to disrupt student mass meetings.
One of the private security corporations is Vetus Schola. It employs former special operations soldiers of the apartheid military. They identified and hunted anti-apartheid activists and murdered them in the 1980s. Vetus Schola security thugs also unleashed a reign of terror in a mining community during a workers’ strike some years ago. Now they have been sent onto campuses to brutalise students. Already a student has been shot through the thigh in Johannesburg, allegedly by a private security guard.
The police have used tear-gas, rubber bullets and water cannons. They wear body armour and wave loaded guns at protesters. In one incident, police fired a rubber bullet point blank into the face of a priest who was sheltering students inside his church in the neighbourhood of Wits University in central Johannesburg.
Soldiers have also been deployed to the University of the Free State to “assist” police. They use automatic rifles. The mainstream media have not reported on this.
The battle of Braamfontein
On 10 October, students at Wits University tried to use the main hall for a meeting. Police nyalas (armoured cars) and a water cannon charged at them. Heavily armed officers threw stun grenades into the crowd and opened fire with rubber bullets. Tear gas was also fired into university lecture rooms to clear buildings.
A number of university workers who were not part of the protest at the time were severely injured by the bullets, burned by the grenades or had breathing problems from the tear gas.
The students responded by taking their protest outside the campus and into the surrounding area of Braamfontein. Bystanders shocked at the police response sympathised with the students and joined in the protests.
Other people also joined in. Poor and homeless people smashed shop windows and grabbed what they could – especially clothing. The mainstream media called them “criminal elements”.
The following night, police unleashed a reign of terror on student residences and clubs in the area. A witness described what happened at one night club:
“So the Wits management decide to impose a curfew on campus and police jump at the opportunity to implement the curfew in neighbouring suburb, #Braamfontein, where they rain down terror last night. People are arrested for walking on the street? Stun grenades, rubber bullets, tear gas are unleashed on people passing by in the streets. Off campus residences are raided and more tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets are shot indoors.
“In the midst of this … the iconic Sibongile Khumalo is busy performing at the Orbit Jazz Club in Braamfontein and from what I can gather, as security enter the club she begins to sing Nkosi Sikelel’ Africa [the anthem of the anti-apartheid struggle] and patrons all rise. She keeps singing and then ends her concert with a prayer for the #FeesMustFall movement as teargas creeps up the stairs of the popular jazz club.
“As patrons leave, the streets have become a war zone. A truck has been set alight, another car is burning, friends who were there report harrowing screams, and police continue brutally implementing #HabibsApartheid [the Wits vice-chancellor is professor Adam Habib, a former liberal turned reactionary].”
Imprisonment
There is more repression being unleashed. Wits administrators have imposed a 10pm curfew on the halls of residence and sent police and security forces into the buildings, in which they terrorised students.
Witnesses report that students are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, uncontrollable crying and nightmares from the experiences. Students arrested on or off campus are being denied bail. Some have been locked up for three weeks.
Most have been charged with arson. But, chillingly, one student in Cape Town has been charged with attempted murder. Three security guards were locked in a security office, which was set alight. Yet the security company says no students were involved. The student was also nowhere near the campus. A second student at another university in Cape Town has been denied bail and is currently locked up in a maximum security prison.
A massacre on the way?
Many commentators point to a massacre of students in the making – just like striking mineworkers were massacred by police four years ago in Marikana.
The president, Jacob Zuma, has announced a commission of enquiry into the issue of free education. It is due to report by next July. But it’s clear the main item on the agenda is the further securitisation of the campuses: members of the commission include the government ministers responsible for the prisons, police, army and intelligence services. The minister of finance, the one with the capacity to actually increase university funding, is not a member.
We don’t need to wait for the commission’s findings: the police action in Braamfontein and the trumped-up charges against students show how the government is already responding. And the message from the university administrations, police and government is chillingly clear: their violence is going to escalate.
In order to counter this, students organised a week of action starting on 17 October, to culminate in a march to the Union Buildings in Tshwane (Pretoria) on 20 October. Trade unions and other groups of organised workers have passed motions of support for the students and are discussing how they might assist.
What you can do
1. Solidarity statements can be sent to: Ferron Pedro of the Workers and Community Solidarity Forum at <a href="mailto:ferron.pedro@gmail.com">ferron.pedro@gmail.com</a> and the Left Students Forum at <a href="mailto:leftstudentsforum@gmail.com">leftstudentsforum@gmail.com</a>.
2. Donations can be sent to PayPal with the email address: <a href="mailto:workerssolidarityfund@gmail.com">workerssolidarityfund@gmail.com</a>. Wire transfers can be made to: Workers Solidarity Fund Task Team, Standard Bank, Main Road, Rondebosch 7700, Cape Town, Branch code: 051001, Account Number: 073576093, Account Type: Cheque account.

South African students resume their fight and face repression

Many students who enter South African universities are underprepared by poor schools in working class townships and rural areas. They struggle to deal with the coursework and have to work part time to make ends meet.
Having to deal with demanding study between shifts reduces focus and results in frustration, stress and at times academic failure.
There is financial aid available. But bursaries only go to people whose families have low incomes. Many students face difficulties. It is only the children of the 1 percent who have no worries.
[Read more: Tom Bramble, "<a href="https://redflag.org.au/article/south-africa-rocked-biggest-student-uprising-fall-apartheid">South Africa rocked by the biggest student uprising since the fall of apartheid</a>"]
The cancellation of the fee increase is a victory. It is a win against the hated policies of neoliberalism. It is a win against the arrogance of the African National Congress government. It is a win against the police, who brutalised protesters.
However, it is not the end. The goal of a university degree is out of reach for thousands of students. As a teacher in Bishop Lavis, a working class area in Cape Town, put it:
“I was having a discussion with my students last week when the Wits students began protesting. They argued that even if they pass matric they can’t afford the costs associated with university or tertiary education.
“They argued that they were only being educated to work as till operators in supermarkets or to join the criminal gangs. They questioned as to why they should therefore bother with writing final high school exams.”
They are right. The win does not address the issue of student debt. Those who are fortunate enough to get loans still have to pay them off.
Many students argue that the demand that “fees must fall” means not only that there must be no fee increases, but that there must be no fees at all.
One of the other demands is that universities end outsourcing. At two universities, this campaign has been heating up and has been given added profile by the protests over fees. Workers from these two campuses have met to plan wildcat strikes to demand that they be employed by the universities.
Workers are also demanding decent working conditions. They are victimised and prevented from joining trade unions.
The University of Cape Town Left Students Forum said in a statement: “Let’s get rid of outsourcing. We cannot continue to tolerate the exploitation, victimisation and intimidation of outsourced workers. We cannot continue to not take responsibility when we are responsible. Forward to a living wage! The companies must go! The workers must stay!”
They are absolutely right to argue this.
The vicious policies of capitalism cause misery for both workers and working class students. The rich must be taxed. Education must be free. Workers must be paid a living wage.
Until this happens South Africa will continue to experience the protests that we are seeing now.
[Ashley Fataar is a member of Keep Left in South Africa.]

Fee protests point to a much deeper problem at South African universities

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), the country’s largest trade union federation, expelled the metalworkers’ union, NUMSA, on 8 November. NUMSA was the federation’s largest and most politically militant affiliate.
Seven affiliates have withdrawn from COSATU’s executive in protest. The rank and file members of two other unions have also come out against the expulsion – standing against their union leaders’ decision. So too has the leadership of one of COSATU’s regions.
The splitting of the labour movement is part of a broader political realignment that began at the end of the 1990s when township protests erupted across South Africa. Increasing anger at the ruling African National Congress was the background to Thabo Mbeki losing his bid for reelection as ANC president at the ANC’s elective congress in 2007.
The realignment took on a life of its own following the Marikana massacre of more than 40 striking mine workers by police in August 2012. Less than a year later, the Economic Freedom Fighters was formed by expelled former ANC Youth League president Julius Malema.
Divisions
COSATU, and some of its affiliates, are riven with infighting. Many COSATU meetings cannot take place because of the divisions and disagreements. SADTU, the teachers’ union, has been expelling and suspending members en bloc this year to keep the lid on a potential revolt by the rank and file. SAMWU, the municipal workers’ union, has just lost a court bid to do the same to its office bearers. Disheartened, hundreds of members of SADTU are forming a new union.
Speaking at a press conference, NUMSA secretary general Irvin Jim said: “COSATU is consumed by internal battles between those who support the ANC and those who consciously fight for an independent, militant federation which stands for the working class.” He is right. Disgracefully, sections of the COSATU leadership, along with the Stalinist South African Communist Party (SACP), defended the massacre at Marikana.
Since then, NUMSA constantly and openly has attacked both the ANC and SACP, which are in political alliance.
Tensions reached a high point in late 2013. In December, NUMSA held a special Congress that passed two major resolutions: first, that it would not campaign for the ANC; second, that it would launch a united front against the ANC-SACP alliance. The hope is that the united front will lead to the formation of a workers’ party.
As Irvin Jim argued after the expulsion: “We have been rejected by COSATU, but we have not been rejected by workers.” NUMSA is also considering forming a new, more radical union federation. Such a move would certainly attract hundreds of thousands of workers from inside and outside COSATU.
Mass strikes by new unions that are not affiliated to the federation, such as the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, have exposed how conservative the main unions have become.
COSATU was established in 1986 to fight the apartheid regime. But it is part of what is called the tripartite alliance with the SACP and the ANC that has governed since black majority rule was won in 1994.
The way forward
The way forward is going to require lots of intervention and arguing. The seven unions that support NUMSA have not broken their relationship with the ANC-supporting leaders of COSATU. They are showing no signs as yet of mobilising to reorganise COSATU or get rid of its present leadership.
Furthermore, full engagement with the rank and file members of these unions has not been achieved, even in NUMSA. Many unions have a top-down approach; it is not yet clear how the expulsion has gone down with NUMSA’s 340,000 members or with the members of the other unions.
The Democratic Left Front, an anti-capitalist project launched to forge unity in struggle, said, “COSATU will degenerate further into essentially a sweetheart and bureaucratised union … [The left] must regroup around the leadership of NUMSA and fight for a new COSATU that is militant, democratic, worker controlled, independent and socialist.
“This will open a new chapter in the history of the workers’ movement in South Africa. Now is not the time to mourn. We must organise.
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Ashley Fataar is a member of the revolutionary group Keep Left. He lives in Cape Town.

The fight for the soul of South Africa’s labour movement

Seventy-five thousand platinum mine workers have entered their 21st week of strike action – the longest in South Africa since 1994. They are demanding a wage of US$1,250 per month. The mine bosses are offering $750.
Background
In August 2012, mine workers employed at the Lonmin owned Marikana mine went on a wildcat strike. Neither the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) nor the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), the two largest unions, organised or agreed to the strike. It was organised by the rank and file membership.
While the leaders of both unions called on workers to end the strike, it was the leadership of AMCU that was much more sympathetic to the strikers. (It was this that led to most NUM members leaving to join the AMCU, the union that is leading the current strike.)
Realising that the wildcat strike showed no signs of a quick ending, the police, with help from mine security, opened fire on unarmed strikers. Thirty-four of them were killed.
After 4 weeks they won a small increase. Lonmin management agreed to raise the wages to $1,250 at a later date but subsequently reneged on the agreement.
After waiting 16 months for the promised wages, workers went on a union-backed strike in January this year. After three months, hungry and desperate mine-workers began arguing. Six hundred of them temporarily broke their strike and began working. It was this that galvanised comrades in the Democratic Left Front (DLF) into solidarity action.
We sent out appeals to a broad section of those likely to assist, including churches, mosques, non-governmental organisations, trade unions and universities. The response that we got was heart warming. Monetary and food collections came in as churches and mosques made appeals during their prayer sessions.
The Tide Turns
On 12 May, the mine bosses issued an ultimatum to the striking workers: return to work in 48 hours or get laid-off. Two days later, thousands of striking workers turned up and told the owners that they were not going back to work. By then workers had realised how much profit they make for the owners.
The corporate media, which had largely been ignoring the strike, now began reporting it – and in an almost sympathetic way. When a major relief organisation began sending supplies and doctors to assist striking workers and their families, many began sympathising with the strike.
Three mineworkers are currently on a tour of parts of the country. The tour is being organised by the Marikana Solidarity Campaign (MSC), of which the DLF is part. Hundreds have been coming to the miners speaking meetings. These actions have given the striking workers hope and strengthened their resolve to continue with the strike. As a mine-worker put it:
“If anyone says that workers are suffering – it’s not only about workers because there are billions, which means the whole nation is suffering. This matter is a matter of public interest. It does not concern the workers in mining alone.”
Another reason for the sympathy with the strike is that South Africa is the most unequal society in the world. In the mining industry, CEOs “earn” between 200 and 300 times what a mineworker is paid. This is a reflection of the income differentials in South Africa. The CEO of the largest retail chain, Shoprite, “earns” 725 times what a retail worker is paid!
This is the legacy of the so-called “rainbow nation”. It is because of the neoliberal policies of the ANC government. Labour laws have been “relaxed”, resulting in casualisation and attacks on workers’ wages. In 1993, wages accounted for almost half of the costs in mining. Today they account for a third. In the same period the profits of the mining companies have risen a staggering 300 percent.
Mine owners Transfer Pricing
The familiar cry of the mining bosses is that $1,250 is unsustainable. This is untrue. Investigations by activists have shown that up to $1.5 billion has been lost in the last ten years because the companies sell platinum at less than the global market price to other companies. It is common for the mining companies to sell metals to other companies registered as tax havens in the West Indies and the Channel Islands. These tax-havens are, in most cases, subsidiaries of the mining companies. Currently the mining companies sell the platinum for a third of the market prices. So they effectively end up stashing two-thirds away. This is how they evade tax and paying decent wages.
Asijiki! (No Going Back!)
In the six months before the strike, mine owners had stockpiled the equivalent of three months’ worth of platinum sales. Almost on cue, three months into the strike Amplats, one of the mine owners, announced that it could not pay any suppliers. Workers could now see that the pressure was beginning to show on the mine owners.
There is another important reason for the mineworkers’ determination – the previous massacre. The judicial commission of enquiry into the shooting will soon come to an end, yet no company boss, senior police official or government minister has been called to testify.
President Zuma amended the terms of the judicial enquiry by ensuring that no government minister is called to testify. With the enquiry looking like a whitewash and no-one being charged, the demand for the wage rise is the only way for justice. Seeing the bosses’ stubbornness, a mineworker remarked, “Now I think we should demand $1,500.”
The most effective way to ensure that the strike succeeds is to get all the social movements behind the mineworkers. The mineworkers’ fight is our fight as well. The people we are fighting are all the same. That’s why unity is important. A mine-worker puts it this way:
“We need to unite – all the organisations need to unite – to fight the union bosses and the state. You see, now the state is in the middle of the workers and is supporting the side of the capitalists. So when any support, even 10 cents is contributed towards the strike, it helps us because we can’t turn away from those who cannot manage to have their own reserves. They feel the hunger because that’s the only strategy the companies can use, to hit us on the hunger.”
Whatever the outcome of the mineworkers’ strike, one thing is certain: the South African working class will not be the same.
[Ashley Fataar is a member of Keep Left in South Africa.]

South African government response to COVID-19 crisis: profits matter more than workers’ lives

South African students resume their fight and face repression

Fee protests point to a much deeper problem at South African universities

The fight for the soul of South Africa’s labour movement

South African mineworkers on strike for 5 months

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