The Western Cape High Court judgement which found government’s deals with various countries on nuclear energy were unlawful and that it’s process to roll out nuclear power was unconstitutional refers.
As Numsa we are not opposed to an energy mix which could include nuclear energy as a matter of principle.
However, in a country such as ours, where we should be moving urgently to resolve the needs of our people, and where the need to industrialise is primary, our starting point should be to protect, expand and democratise the current capacity for manufacturing.
We should do nothing that reduces the already dangerously few jobs in the current capacity of manufacturing. Whatever measures we take should champion a jobs-led industrial strategy which is needed to build a modern economy.
In the energy sector, the goal should be a just transition from fossil fuels without destroying jobs.
Sadly, this is not what this government is aiming for.
Instead, the ANC-led government voluntarily chose not to restructure the economy and has for 23 years refused to address the fundamentals of ownership and control.
Furthermore, it chose not to champion a jobs-led industrial strategy with a state that intervenes in the economy.
These were all conscious choices.
Instead the ANC government wanted to be the darling of the World Bank, the IMF, the WTO and the rest of the Davos crowd. As a result, they adopted policies that destroyed both the economy and jobs.
It was the ANC government that, against our explicit objection as Numsa, went ahead and reduced import tariffs (by even more than what is stipulated by the WTO). This allowed the dumping of goods and has led to wide-scale destruction of jobs and a high level of de-industrialisation in many sectors – the exact opposite of what we require as a country.
In this the ANC government cannot claim ignorance. As Numsa we warned them at every point. The government, in its permanent state of ideological confusion, removed exchange controls allowing even more money to flow out of the country, both legally and illegally.
The government is so confused that it resisted the simple act of banning the export of scrap metal. This has seen the closure of more than seven foundries and has destroyed thousands of jobs.
The permanent confusion and ideological impotence permeates right through the alliance.
In their myopic confusion, the government forgot fundamentals such as the economies of the US and Europe being built on the back of fossil fuels, and is now held hostage by the same imperialist forces.
To satisfy the North, the ANC-led government, with their so called communist partners, was quick to make energy commitments to reduce emissions by moving to renewables. They did this without advancing the interests of the working class by, for example, demanding that all technology used on renewables should be produced and manufactured locally.
They failed to insist we should have a wholly South African owned sector structured from the onset to benefit the black majority. Instead the ANC and its partners-agreed to a green revolution without addressing the fundamental socio-economic and political context.
Their green revolution is nothing more than a second phase of Africa’s colonisation and dominance by the North in the renewables front.
By failing to seek clarity, to study and to analyse the global political economy properly, the alliance betrayed the values of OR Tambo.
Numsa does not suffer any confusion, ideological or otherwise. We are clear on Eskom’s core mandate – to electrify the country and to deliver affordable electrify to society and the economy. This will help to deal with unemployment and can be used to SA’s competitive advantage.
We lost that advantage the day Eskom mines were ceded to the private sector to mine on Eskom’s behalf – at an exorbitant cost.
Now that Eskom electricity prices have become unaffordably high, the primary victims are poor, urban and rural communities who frequently suffer cut offs and of course, the economy.
Against this background Numsa is totally opposed to the opportunistic introduction of new nuclear power stations in SA by the ANC government and is dismayed by the rash and senseless act of implementing the nuclear deal at all costs.
The ANC government is prepared to close five coal power stations, thereby destroying close to 40000 jobs.
There is no sane reason to justify a move from paying 35 cents per kilowatt to paying R2.40 cents, as will happen once the renewables are on-board.
It is patently obvious that with the coming onto the national grid of the Medupi, Kusile and Ingula power stations, this country has enough electricity for the foreseeable future, especially since we are already at surplus electricity production – according to Eskom themselves.
We do not need the nuclear option yet, which is in any case unaffordable and will result in further increases in electricity prices. Manufacturers and SMMEs, already struggling to afford the current tariffs, will have to close shop. This will destroy whatever jobs remain in the industrial sector.
In addition, the closure of these stations will reduce vast swathes of rural Mpumalanga where the power stations are located to ghost areas. No impact study for the closure of these stations has been conducted on the associated value chain.
The public can expect a blood bath of job losses.
That is why Numsa has notified Nedlac of its intention to embark on the mother of all strikes to protest against this senseless decision. We will also continue to be vigilant on the nuclear power issue because these decisions were not made with the interest of the majority in mind.
The decision to embark on nuclear energy was motivated by greed from within the ANC as it continues to seek new ways to loot the state.
What would help the ANC government and its alliance partners is:
l To stop the empty rhetoric on radical economic transformation and actually carry this out in practice, as only actions, and no amount of talking, will solve the serious problems that face this country;
l T0 get serious about corruption and stop the myriad scandals bedeviling both their government and party. Instead they should focus on nationalisation of all key sectors of the economy by placing them firmly under worker control. For instance there is nothing stopping this government from nationalising the steel industry and the whole value chain and placing it under worker control in order to create jobs;
l The ANC should stop being a prisoner of rating agencies;
l The government should reconstitute all the SOE (State Owned Enterprise) boards with credible people from all sectors of society, particularly workers. The focus should be on implementing a turnaround strategy to transform the SOEs from institutions riddled with cronyism and corruption to institutions that are sources of national pride, which contribute to the economy, serve the well-being of workers and their families, drive the economy and advance the technological and societal development of all South Africans;
l This government should with speed move away from a tendering system and move back to building the capacity of the state by employing workers directly to build infrastructure such as roads, houses and schools;
l Fill all vacancies in the public service;
l The government has a duty to professionalise its education, health and security services and to restore pride and dignity to teachers, nurses, traffic and police officers as these form crucial sectors of the state’s provision of services to citizen. They should also pay these workers respectable wages and endeavour to improve their conditions, while professionalising their jobs so that vastly improved services can be provided that reflect the principles of Batho Pele or the People First.
Sadly, we do not believe the ANC or its partners are capable of changing course and reorienting the country away from the disastrous debt driven, failed “trickle-down” growth economics that have been espoused by the neo liberal West, to a socialist, worker controlled and radically transformed economy that creates jobs and benefits all South Africans.
That is why Numsa is working to build a workers’ party that will be a real agent for change in South Africa.
Irvin Jim is the general secretary of Numsa