http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e6e197d8-79fe-11de-b86f-00144feabdc0.html
Tens of thousands of South African bus drivers, refuse collectors and other municipal workers will stop work on Monday, disrupting services in already turbulent black townships.
Their action intensifies pressure on President Jacob Zuma, who came to power promising to make reducing poverty the cornerstone of his administration.The strike, in pursuit of a 15 per cent wage increase, is part of a wave of action by labour unions that backed Mr Zuma’s election campaign in April. It follows several weeks of protests in more than 20 poor black urban areas, where residents complain of corruption and the government’s record on housing, water and electricity.
The government has taken a tough line, with police firing rubber bullets and tear gas on several occasions – but this weekend Mr Zuma urged protesters to give his administration more time to “clean out” lazy and inefficient councillors and to get new structures to work.
“We have put in place new structures, filled by good men and women, who want to work to deliver for the people. Give us a chance,” he told a crowd in Mpumalanga township outside Durban on Saturday.
But as recession bites and public finances strain, the government has limited room to manoeuvre. Analysts reckon the president may soon have to intervene more forcefully.
“This is a very critical moment for Zuma,” said William Gumede, a Johannesburg-based analyst and author of a best-selling book about former President Thabo Mbeki.
Part of the problem is that during the election campaign, Mr Zuma was presented as something of a new broom.
His “man of the people” image contrasted with the detached and remote style of Mr Mbeki. As a result, expectations were whipped up – but it has taken time even to shake up central government, let alone the diverse local authorities responsible for many local services. Worse, the economic downturn has increased unemployment. Now a bitter winter is making life especially hard for the poor.
In Orange Farm, a sprawling settlement to the south west of Johannesburg that has seen repeated service delivery protests in recent years, post-election disappointment has aggravated simmering frustration.
Bricks Mokolo, a former professional footballer and community activist, said: “They see Zuma moving around the world – but they don’t see him on the ground. Johannesburg talks about being a world-class city but they only focus on the northern [mainly white] suburbs.”
“People are impatient and feel dissatisfied,” Mr Gumede added. “The problem is ANC councillors and officials at a local level just don’t respond. When people complain they hear nothing.”
The government is preaching austerity and restraint, but conspicuous consumption by some of Mr Zuma’s allies has made matters worse. The widely reported acquisition by two ministers of two top-of-the-range luxury cars each has caused particular consternation.
There is an ugly, unpredictable mood among South Africa’s poor. Karen Heese, an analyst with Municipal IQ, a Johannesburg-based research company, said that, while protests during recent years have tended to focus on specific problems such as housing or water, the recent series of actions has been “more generalised and more violent”.
There have been signs, too – although isolated to date – of a return of attacks on foreign immigrants that shook the country last May, claiming more than 150 lives and leaving tens of thousands homeless.