Empty streets in Johannesburg at the start of the lockdown. The streets were also bereft of Workers' Day celebrations this year. (Pieter du Toit, News24)
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Empty streets in Johannesburg at the start of the lockdown. The streets were also bereft of Workers' Day celebrations this year. (Pieter du Toit, News24)
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As we call on the government to open more industries and other sectors let us keep an eye on the ball: the rising number of those who are positive and the fatalities, writes Mbhazima Shilowa.
Last week we commemorated Workers' Day commonly known as May Day.
For the first time since it was celebrated in South Africa in 1895 by the Johannesburg District Trades Council, there were no rallies.
The majority of workers were at home under lockdown. Trade unions and political parties resorted to live-streaming their messages.
This was a different May Day altogether.
Whereas under apartheid, even with attempts to stop workers from celebrating the day or meetings being broken up, workers still streamed to meetings, hoisting banners proclaiming: “May Day is ours” and “We demand eight hours a day, forty hours a week.”
This time there was no singing of:
“Solidarity forever
Solidarity forever
Solidarity forever
For the union makes us strong”
Nor that song made popular by socialist and communist parties across the world:
“The people's flag is deepest red
It shrouded oft our martyred dead
And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold
Their hearts' blood dyed in every fold
Then raise the scarlet standard high
Beneath its folds we'll live and die
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer
We'll keep the red flag flying here”
During apartheid the focus was on workers' rights and political and socio-economic freedom.
Depending on the industry, workers threw every conceivable demand onto their list:
In later years the issue of a favourable labour dispensation, political rights, the unbanning of political parties, the release of political prisoners and the negotiations of a democratic constitution by a democratically elected parliament were added.
Since 1994, especially after the adoption of the Constitution and a raft of labour laws, the focus has been on celebrating the gains of freedom even as Cosatu in particular lamented the inclusion of the property clause in the Constitution.
This was seen for what it was: entrenchment of property rights, land in particular rather than the protection of a house for Joe Soap.
Because it was always understood that democracy means more than the right to vote every couple of years, issues of economic exclusion, retrenchment and dismissals, a living wage and extension of worker rights to the marginalised workers always gained prominence.
This year would have been no different if there was no lockdown.
In fact the issues of yesteryears are now at the forefront.
Because of the lockdown, many workers are likely to lose their jobs.
Edcon, which had just got rescued a few years back is now under voluntary business rescue, with further jobs likely to be lost.
Comair, which for many years had been held up as an example of how to run a profitable airline has also just indicated that it had decided on voluntary business rescue as well, due in part because of the lockdown.
But even before the lockdown it had given notice of impending retrenchments to the trade unions.
This is in addition to the possible demise of SAA and SA Express, not to mention Prasa which was also placed under business rescue by the government.
All of these will result in massive job cuts unless government is able to put together an economic package for the aviation industry and Prasa.
The irony of the government finding money to rescue Comair, a private airline, after having said there is no more money to throw at SAA, will not be missed.
Who knows maybe that is likely to be the embryo of the mooted new SAA or such similar airline under new conditions and ownership.
These are just a few known cases of possible job losses that those commemorating May Day would have to grapple with even under lockdown.
Then there is the tourism industry, hospitality industry, restaurants, salons and other small, medium and macro businesses all of which will never gain full economic potential even if the lockdown was to end tomorrow.
It is unlikely that people will suddenly flock to restaurants simply because the lockdown has been lifted. A number of restaurants are unlikely to open their doors again.
Yes, there is a lot for workers to celebrate regarding political and certain socioeconomic rights, but the truth is this is the most gloomy May Day ever.
For workers in other parts of the world especially Europe and the US, this must have been only rivaled by the Great Depression and the war years.
South Africans are a noisy lot. Yes we are and we should be. All democracies are noisy.
We would not have defeated apartheid by rolling over and playing dead.
We made noise at home and abroad.
May Day was also the day on which the relaxation of some of the lockdown provisions kicked in: allowing for a once off inter-provincial travel for those who needed to return to work or their homes; and for close to a million and a half workers across the country to return to their jobs in industries deemed able or better prepared to handle the new normal at the workplace including screening, testing, physical distancing and protection of workers.
Whereas these should have been the focus of the debate:
Some in the media and in opposition parties likened the government’s handling of the lifting of the restrictions to Nazi Germany, the Stasi in the GDR and apartheid restrictions.
These were unfortunate especially as they should have known better.
The Nazis targeted a specific race, Jews, which is not the case in South Africa. Many were thrown in gas chambers which again can not be said to be the case here.
While the presence of police and the army to ensure physical distancing in areas where it seemed that people were deliberately flouting the rules is irksome, it really could not be said that the whole country has spies like the Stasi in the GDR.
But also no publication or journalist had been visited or threatened by authorities to back off any story.
Similarly likening these to apartheid is akin to trivialising the impact of apartheid on blacks.
Many people were killed, disappeared and were jailed for challenging the system.
A number of publications were closed with journalists thrown in jail. There were state sponsored assassinations which again can not be said to be the case here.
Yes we should be noisy as is wont in a democracy.
But the exaggeration of the situation only helps those who are happy to debate side issues instead of the real concerns relating to the government's handling of the current situation which is fluid with no easy answers.
It may well be that the government allowing exercise from 6am to 9am is daft, but I think the point is now lost, which is a pity as it would have been possible to make adjustments to a necessary extent.
As we enter the second week of the relaxation of the lockdown, let us spare a thought for those workers who will remember this May Day as the worst ever.
Even for those who remain in jobs, they have no idea of what tomorrow will look like or the day after tomorrow.
As we call on the government to open more industries and other sectors let us keep an eye on the ball: the rising number of those who are positive and the fatalities.
It will be cold comfort to families of those who may die as we further open the economy.
I grew up in the rural areas of Limpopo. At Holofani to be precise.
So I’m in no position to generalise for the whole country.
But in that part of the world I know many fellows who have scars from fires, from climbing trees or from sliding on their backside on wet anthills or river banks.
This was despite our parents saying we would burn if we touched the fire, or would fall if we climbed trees mainly for figs and jackal berries or get injured sliding just for the thrill of it.
We felt we knew better and that they were treating us like children. In most instances it ended up in tears.
In the end the government is likely to be judged on its handling of Covid-19 rather than what happens over the next few years - even as Covid-19 may simply have found fertile ground due to many years of maladministration, fraud, corruption and destruction of the economy and the hollowing out of the state.
Maybe it is no time to commemorate May Day, but to make a Mayday call.
- Mbhazima Shilowa is a former Premier of the Gauteng Province, trade unionist and Cope leader.