Mgomo mkubwa wa wafanyakazi Afrika Kusini

South African labor unions will go on a one-day nationwide strike today to force the government to scrap short-term work contracts and highway tolls, threatening to shut down 40 percent of Africa’s biggest economy.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions, the nation’s largest labor federation representing about 2 million workers, has planned 32 marches across the country, including to the Chamber of Mines in Johannesburg and to Parliament in Cape Town, spokesman Patrick Craven said in a phone interview yesterday.

The nation’s biggest mining, manufacturing and transportation unions have backed the one-day protest.

“There is huge support on the issues,” Craven said. “It is going to cause disruptions across the board.”

Cosatu, an ally of the ruling African National Congress, is pushing President Jacob Zuma to ban labor brokers that arrange short-term contracts as a way to force employers to hire workers on a permanent basis. The labor federation has criticized the government for not doing enough to slash a jobless rate of 24 percent and curb costs as inflation erodes wage gains.

“This may give them bargaining power on issues going forward,” Steven Friedman, director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy, said in a telephone interview from Johannesburg. “Workers get more militant during hard economic times.”
Mineworkers to Strike

The National Union of Mineworkers, which represents miners at Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. (IMP), Anglo American Plc (AAL) and AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (ANG), has called on its members to heed the strike, Lesiba Seshoka, a union spokesman, said by phone yesterday.

Anglo American and AngloGold said yesterday it was too early to predict the impact of the strike, according to spokesmen of the two companies. Harmony Gold Mining Co. (HAR) said in an e-mail that miners affiliated to NUM, excluding essential services employees, won’t be at work and won’t be paid.

A one-day strike may impact about 30 percent to 40 percent of the economy, Mike Schussler, chief economist at Economists.co.za, an advisory service, said in a phone interview from Johannesburg. The South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry estimated the cost to the economy may be $2 billion to $10 billion.

Consumer prices increased 6.3 percent in January from a year earlier, the highest since December 2009. The central bank expects inflation to remain above its target band of 3 percent to 6 percent for the rest of the year, adding to pressure on Governor Gill Marcus to raise interest rates.

The rand fell 1.3 percent to 7.6482 against the dollar late yesterday, trimming its gain this year to 5.6 percent.

Cosatu is opposed to labor brokers because they drive down wages and undermine workers’ rights, Cosatu General-Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said yesterday. The planned toll roads around Johannesburg will add to the burden of poor consumers, he said.

“Our campaign against both labor broking and inner-city tollgates is part and parcel of the war we are waging to salvage the working class from a further assault on its living standards,” Vavi told reporters in Johannesburg.

The chamber of commerce, which represents about 20,000 businesses, supports labor brokering because it reduces costs and gives companies “flexibility” in economic cycles, Neren Rau, the chamber’s chief executive officer, said in a phone interview yesterday. The strike is “unconstructive and counterproductive,” he said.
Road Tolls

The South African National Roads Agency will begin charging motorists on roads in Gauteng province from April 1 to finance 20 billion rand ($2.6 billion) spent on expanding and renovating highways. The government, which delayed the start of the levy in March after labor unions first threatened strikes, allocated 5.8 billion rand to the road agency to help pay its debt and halve the toll to 30 cents a kilometer.

The ruling ANC said in an e-mail yesterday Cosatu’s concerns about the impact of the tolls on low-income earners are “over-exaggerated, especially after government intervention on the matter.”

General Motors Co. (GM)’s South African unit is planning normal operations today and will apply a “no work, no pay” principle for workers that are absent, Chris Thexton, vice president for human resources, said in an e-mail.

“We are extremely concerned with the potentially negative impact that such strike action could have on the automotive industry specifically, and the economy as a whole,” Thexton said.