As we come out of Freedom Day which we celebrated on the 27^th April 2024 and we move directly into Workers Day, we need to reflect on the workers lot in South Africa.

Where they are coming from and where they are going to. The reality check has to take into account the working environment in our South African jurisdiction and its current state of affairs. With the advent of democracy and the physical freedom granted on the 29^th April 1994 we indeed had a lot to celebrate.  With the trade unions at the helm of the fight for democracy we were able to see the fruits of our physical freedom.  At last workers were fully recognised and  within one year our government was able to activate the Labour Relations Act No 66 of 1995(as now amended). Coupled with the Labour Relations Act outlining rights and duties of both employers and employees we saw a plethora of regulations, determinations and updated bargaining councils enforcing workers rights.  Our constitution, which is a superb document, fully recognised all workers in South Africa and it proved to be a shining beacon of workers rights heralded around the world. 

The advent of the Labour Court and the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration were there to ensure that the trade unions and the individual workers had both a sword and a shield in enforcing their rights throughout the country.  The Labour Ministry reconstituted itself to enable these rights to be properly interpreted and eventually enforced.  In those early days I partook in numerous workshops and training sessions so that both workers and their trade unions were fully cognizant of their rights and duties.  The long and arduous journey of educating the employers of South Africa had begun.  In those heady and early days during 1995 I was extremely excited to partake in the early conciliation board hearings at the Department of Employment and Labour which very quickly morphed into the constitution and the rules of the CCMA.  Those exciting conciliations and arbitrations at the CCMA with brand new freshly trained Commissioners proved to be the first early green shoots of the protection of the workers of South Africa.  

Unemployment was at an all-time low and academics, sociologists and economists had high hopes for our economy and employment for those who had been defined outside of the economy.  We had other legislation being passed to ensure that the injunctions and instructions contained in the constitution would be respected and enforced in our law. 

The first constituted government under President Mandela was heavily supported by all the other political parties to ensure that labour peace was restored, and that the economy would grow.  The business community and government worked hand in glove to ensure that our educational systems were properly geared up to feed trained and educated workers into the workplace.  The employers invested into machinery and computerisation and other tools of trade so as to benefit and profit from our new found freedom.

Unfortunately, these dreams were shattered within those first few formative years.  Even in those heady days under the Mandela Government did we see our government commit itself to an arms deal which we could ill afford and certainly didn’t need.  Very, veery expensive nuclear armaments and such like equipment was purchased and never to be used.  Already we could see the cracks appearing in the perfect dream of freedom and democracy.  We had some of those early Members of Parliament within the ANC who started to expose the rot.  One such person, Andrew Feinstein wrote a book called “After The Party”.  This book came as a shock to many of us in those early days. Very quickly came the President Mbeki reign which seemed to dissolve into a nightmare of aids denialism and strong support to a despot in Zimbabwe.  We started seeing the employment figures dropping and the misery of the working class started to appear.  Although our economy held firm and big business in South Africa appeared to be thriving, I started noticing the fraying of the edges of small business. 

As a practicing young labour lawyer under President Mbeki, I started to hear the complaints from the small business environment about the rules and regulations and the interference in their businesses.  These small businesses started, even then, to withhold investment into their own businesses.  Very, very unfortunately within a few very short years we experienced the tyranny of an ANC government under President Zuma.  At this point things fell apart for the workers of South Africa.  Throughout this period Cosatu, the strongest umbrella body of the trade union movement remained steadfastly in partnership with the ANC.  This partnership did nothing for employment in South Africa and certainly appeared to be there purely to ensure that the leadership of Cosatu could take up fancy positions in government and parastatals.  This was the beginning of Cadre Deployment and millionaire managers in the civil service.  Although the workers at that point had not become aware of their dwindling numbers and their decreasing ability to live decent lives there were rumblings from many of the smaller trade unions outside of the Cosatu fold.  Sadly, under the Zuma tyranny unemployment grew and grew. 

Today nothing has stemmed the tide of this disastrous situation.  Top politicians in the governing party were able to enrich themselves and were able to plunder government funds at an alarming rate.  This period of the ANC as guided by Zuma proved to be absolutely disastrous for the workers of South Africa.  We reached almost unbelievable unemployment heights taking us to the worst in the world.  Our productivity dropped to the second worst in the world in categories of individuals such as the youth and the previously disadvantaged were very severely struck down.  Today, the uneducated youth from previously disadvantaged areas are at almost 80% unemployment.  In other words the vast majority were and are unable to find gainful employment.  One cannot only blame the politicians but other events had not been properly handled and were exacerbated by negative laws and restrictive regulations.

Today, as we celebrate Workers Day, I think it’s important for us to celebrate not where we are right now as that is depressing but to celebrate the fact that our democracy still stands intact and the workers do have the right to vote and to change our trajectory on this slippery slope downhill.  We still have a chance to stop this slope and to reverse the trend.  We are a young country with competent people and an economy that is still able to be corrected.  We know that the new government as from the first few weeks of June 2024 will take into account those early dreams of the worker movement in 1994. 

Unfortunately that alliance between Cosatu and the ANC has proved to be completely wrong and although it has let the workers down, the workers can now stand up and speak for themselves.

Michael Bagraim is a labour lawyer and has been practicing for over 30 years in South Africa.