Vol. 73/No. 31      August 17, 2009

Inflation in South Africa is currently at 7.2 percent, according to a Bloomberg survey, and Reuters reports that nearly one in three workers are unemployed. Some 40 percent of the population there lives below the official poverty line.

Such conditions and the resulting protests highlight the challenges faced by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) government of President Jacob Zuma in addressing the legacy of sharp inequality faced by Africans under apartheid rule, which massive protests succeeded in overthrowing in the early 1990s. Nelson Mandela, the central leader of the ANC, was elected president of the country in 1994.

Police have arrested some 200 people around the country protesting poor living conditions and inadequate government services such as water, electricity, and housing. Some 200 protesters burned vehicles and blocked roads with burning tires in the township of Thokoza, where cops have used rubber bullets and tear gas in response to the protests.

“We’ve been given promises for all these years,” Sipho Duma of Thokoza told Agence France-Presse. “We are tired, enough is enough.”

On July 31, 150,000 municipal workers ended their strike after accepting a 13 percent pay increase from the government. The union had originally demanded 15 percent. Earlier that week, gold miners negotiated increases of 9 percent to 10.5 percent.

More than 3,500 telephone workers at Telkom, the country’s largest fixed-line phone company, conducted a two-day strike August 3-4 in four of South Africa’s nine provinces. The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) also threatened “radical measures” if state power company Eskom did not meet its wage demands. “This might include pulling off the plug and unleashing a blackout if need be. But we do not want to get to that point although Eskom is pushing us to that direction,” NUMSA said in a statement. Eskom raised electricity prices by 31.3 percent in July.

The South African budget is based on projections of a 1.2 percent growth in the gross domestic product. However, economists now expect it to contract by around 2 percent. Manufacturing fell by 15 percent in February compared to a year earlier and retail sales by 4.5 percent. Mining output, which accounts for more than half of South Africa’s exports, declined by 14.5 percent in May from a year ago. The value of mineral sales in April dropped 19.4 percent.

Despite deepening economic crisis the ANC still enjoys the support of the country’s largest trade union, the Congress of South African Trade Unions. It also maintains an alliance with the South African Communist Party.

Seven positions in Zuma’s 34-member cabinet were given to former trade union officials, including the labor and economic development posts. Four others went to officials in the South African Communist Party, including the trade and industry ministry. Zuma has set up a new National Planning Commission to guide “socio-economic development.” Its leader is Trevor Manuel, the “market-friendly” former finance minister, reported the Economist.
 
 
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