By Norm Dixon
Workers in every province of South Africa strongly supported a week of rolling general strikes beginning August 18 to demand changes to the Basic Conditions of Employment Bill.
Employers and COSATU reported that 60-100% of workers joined the strikes. Every major city and town was severely affected. Virtually all major factories and workplaces reported complete support. Large rallies were held across the country.
COSATU's main demands are that employers agree to inclusion in the bill of a 40-hour week, six months' paid maternity leave and the removal of clauses that allow working conditions to be varied downwards by negotiation or at the labour minister's discretion. The African National Congress government has insisted that employers and unions agree to changes before it will alter the bill.
The draft bill contains provision only for a 45-hour week and four months' unpaid maternity leave. The deadline of August 31 for the completion of negotiations passed without progress. Labour minister Tito Mboweni has threatened to withdraw the bill completely, depriving workers of improved benefits contained in the bill.
Around 95% of COSATU members in the Eastern Cape went on strike on August 18. Workers in KwaZulu-Natal (60%) and Mpumalanga stopped work on August 19. On August 20, workers in the Northern Cape (70%), Free State (60%) and the Western Cape (60%) walked out. North West and Northern provinces, and Gauteng, South Africa's industrial heartland near Johannesburg and Pretoria, ground to a halt on August 21.
In Durban, more than 20,000 workers listened as the Communist Party's KwaZulu-Natal secretary, Magwaza Maphalala, told them that the ANC government was betraying workers by refusing to meet COSATU's demands: "Workers did not vote [for the ANC] to sit under the trees on sunny days protesting for their rights".
In Johannesburg, 20,000 COSATU members heard COSATU president John Gonomo defend the call for shorter hours. In Pretoria, 10,000 workers were addressed by COSATU vice-president Connie September, who said: "Black women are equal citizens and have the right to go on maternity leave and be paid. We warn you, if you do not give us 40 hours, we will take it. If you don't give us maternity leave, we will take it. Workers in this country are no longer slaves".
Six thousand marched in the Free State capital, Bloemfontein, and 6000 in the Northern Province capital, Pietersburg. COSATU broke new ground with marches and rallies in dozens of small rural towns.
COSATU expressed dissatisfaction with the attitude of the rising black capitalist class toward COSATU's demands. COSATU said it "had hoped that knowing the plight of workers and the yoke they carried under apartheid oppression and exploitation, [the National African Federated Chamber of Commerce] would have a better understanding of the plight of workers instead of churning out the same old tired arguments of big capital, whose main motive is to preserve apartheid legislation drafted to exclude the black population".
Meanwhile, an opinion poll published on August 21 showed that support for the ANC has fallen 10% over the past three years. Only 53% said they would vote for the ANC, compared to 63% in 1994.
The National Party's support has plummeted from 19% in 1994 to 12%. The Inkatha Freedom Party's support has remained static at 4%, while the Pan Africanist Congress has increased its support form 0.5% to 2%.
The survey's authors noted that sympathy for parties to the left of the ANC — "which does not necessarily translate into electoral support" — has increased from 24% to 29%.