President Jacob Zuma has to stamp his authority as head of government as union bosses are abusing the rights of workers to push their own political agenda within the tripartite alliance, and most significantly, against the National Development Plan, lamented leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA) in Parliament, Mmusi Maimane.
Maimane said he empathise with Zuma’s predicament. “He is left with a hard choice:whip the divided alliance behind the NDP or abandon the alliance.”
Pursuing NDP would cause more fissures within the alliance while abandoning would cause economic stagnation, Maimane explained..
To demonstrate that unions were not willing to compromise, Maimane referred to the statement which National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa’s (NUMSA) Irvin Jim made late last year. Said Jim: “2014 must see the mother of all battles as we wage war on the NDP, e-tolls and labour brokers.”
The counter-productive actions of trade unions, seen to be at the forefront of the fight of workers, are to the detriment of those South Africans who desperately need the NDP to create jobs for them, observed Maimane. “The NDP has polarised the tripartite alliance and the ANC along with it. But the ANC cannot move South Africa forward without also moving the alliance forward.”