FITTING THOUGHT
1
While it lasts,
enjoy the RWC2019
afterglow!
South Africa has a bright light shining on us at the moment, but
beyond that spotlight there’s the black hole that’s the economy
and labour relations, and the two are utterly intertwined.
In some respects, the plumbing industry is in a
fortunate position having so little unionisation.
According to the World Economic Forum’s latest
World Competitiveness Report South Africa has
the worst labour-employee relations in the world,
ranking 137 out of 137 countries. We also have
one of the highest unemployment figures in the
world. With labour unions in the tripartite alliance,
where they dictate economic policy, we are also
one of the most socialist countries in the world.
Therefore, our economy is in a trajectory of steady
decline. We are distributing a shrinking cake,
instead of baking a bigger cake. Some say all the
bakers have left the country.
This scenario is a blueprint for economic failure. The
efficiency of a country’s labour market is directly
linked to GDP, long-term growth, overall prosperity and
competitiveness on a global scale.
Companies that will benefit the most are the ones where
they have least exposure to unions and employ skilled
to highly skilled employees, preferably with a focus on
exporting products. That’s why in this and future issues of
Plumbing Africa we will take a long look at the training of
licensed plumbers.
But if unions are being self-interested, it’s easy to see
where they got the idea. It is also difficult to focus on
skills development while ignoring the issue of corporate
corruption. Labour is one way for man to satisfy his wants.
Another is by seizing and consuming the products of the
labour of others. This process is the origin of plunder. An
integral element of skills development and encouraging
labour therefore has to be stopping the plunder by making
it more painful and dangerous than labour. Man is naturally
January 2020 Volume 25 I Number 11
inclined to avoid pain and labour is one form of pain: it
follows that men will resort to plunder whenever plunder is
easier than work. It has to be made more risky. It is evident,
then, that the proper purpose of law is to use the power
of its collective force to stop this fatal tendency to plunder
instead of to work. All the measures of the law should
protect property and punish plunder.
Labour can also point to the involvement of the private
sector in corruption and state capture. For a number of years
now, South Africa has been dealing with an ethical crisis. The
disclosures being made at the Zondo Commission of Inquiry
have highlighted just how severe and far-reaching corruption
was at state level, as well as the private sector.
State capture is not a purely public sector problem. It
required the involvement of private sector players – as
beneficiaries, enablers and willing participants. Allegations
of fraud and other irregularities have been hugely damaging
to the share prices of a number of JSE-listed companies,
especially Steinhoff, but several others too.
We have built a culture among the privileged part of South
Africa whereby one’s social approval does not depend on
one’s knowledge or character, but what possessions one
has, one’s address, and what one drives. If you create a
society that accords massive social power to material wealth,
people naturally learn that if they want to be accepted, they
must increase their private wealth one way or the other.
Do not tell us your purpose is to make as much money as
possible. Money can never be a purpose. It is a means to an
end. The question is, what is that end? PA
Eamonn
Eamonn Ryan, Editor
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