SOUTH Africa is being held to ransom by trade union leaders. Their actions imperil the economy. The labour aristocracy believes — with justification — that it can behave as it pleases with impunity. The culture of endless expectancy, assiduously cultivated by union bosses and aided by captains of industry ever willing to capitulate, will take us apart.In May, Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant revealed that a total of 17.3-million working hours were lost last year to illegal or unprotected strikes. Her department recorded 99 strikes, of which nearly half were illegal or unprotected. Of a total of 118,215 workers involved in these, 100,847 (85%) were in the mining sector. It is an industry out of control.The country is under siege from a battalion of strikers: car workers who are members of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) have been on strike for nearly three weeks.They have won increases so far out of line with inflation that it beggars belief. The cost to th...
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