LETTER: Unions have helped create a sorry, broken state

Bheki Ntshalintshali should know that no state can underwrite employment (“Neoliberal Treasury is making workers pay for politicians’ errors”, March 4). Not too long ago Nelson Mandela remarked that everyone in the ANC seemed to have forgotten that “government is not an employment agency”, especially if workers provide little value.

Most government departments and state-owned enterprises are functionally broken, brought down by managerial incompetence and an attitude that public servants are beyond reproach. This insolence is driven by the very Cosatu unions that have an unstated policy to protect members from disciplinary action, whether or not they are guilty.

On the matter of a “neoliberal framework”, Ntshalintshali can thank the Chinese, who have systematically destroyed the once thriving industries that were created during the apartheid era. This government, under the stewardship of the ANC and with trade union backing, was quick to open the economy, which resulted in a rush of cheap imports and at the same time created market friction and transactional burdens that reduced the competitiveness of most of our industries.

Who carries the burden of corruption? It will always be the employees and those dependent on the state for their existence. The increasing wealth gap in SA is the doing of this government and the unions, which painstakingly supported idiotic economic policies and turned a blind eye to corruption.

John Catsicas
Via e-mail

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