What's happening in SAfrica? Violent strikes 49 dead in 2 months

[alhoon]

http://news.yahoo.com/south-africa-s...--finance.html

What's happening in that corner of the world?

"South Africa's Amplats fired 12,000 wildcat strikers on Friday"
A platinum mining company fires 12000 people to cull the strikes, a Union leader shot, 49 dead in two months of violent strikes... What's happening there? And why?
And it just doesn't stop there.

"When rival Impala Platinum fired 17,000 workers on an illegal strike rooted in the NUM/AMCU struggle, it led to a violent six week stoppage in which the company lost 80,000 ounces in output and platinum prices jumped 21 percent."

17K workers more...

[Gromovnik]

Majority rule.

[Raubritter]

Yeah, blame the Mine for not paying you what you want and dont blame the government for its worthless Paper Currency and its takeover of the economy.

Just glad i buyed a bit platium last year.

[hellheaven1987]

Capitalism in its purest and best form.

[Raubritter]

Capitalism in its purest and best form.

You know that the ruling party in SA is the ANC, a socialist-communsit Party.
It isn't the mines fault if they can't buy anything with the government paper money because the inflation is sky high.




But hey, blame property, trade and ownership just as your KGB run education system told ya.

[alhoon]

You know that the ruling party in SA is the ANC, a socialist-communsit Party.
It isn't the mines fault if they can't buy anything with the government paper money because the inflation is sky high.


But hey, blame property, trade and ownership just as your KGB run education system told ya.

It is the mine companies fault for not giving the workers a hefty rise to follow the inflation. They were selling the platinum in Dollars or Euro. They could give rises according to the needs.

Also, firing 12K employees and 17K employees because they go on a strike for not getting paid enough because of inflation is a capitalist approach. The Socialist approach would be to give them rises.

[hellheaven1987]

The Socialist approach would be to give them rises.

I thought Socialist approach would be everyone receive same minimum pay, CEO or cleaner?

[Raubritter]

It is the mine companies fault for not giving the workers a hefty rise to follow the inflation

Next time i get a job for lets say 5 Bucks per Hour, and than i want more, and my boss refuses me to pay me more than the 5 Bucks and i start rioting and attack police with machete and set things on fire and its the Bosses fault if i act like a Vandal.

Inflation isn't in the hands of the Mines Power. To declair its their fault its just dumb. Has nothing to do with reality.

They could give rises according to the needs.

If they would rise their income just by one dollar per Day, that would be 17.000 Dollar more expenses a day. Which would be 510.000 Dollar more costs every month. Which would be 6.12 Million Dollar more cost each year. Tell me where the money should come from.

Also, firing 12K employees and 17K employees because they go on a strike for not getting paid enough because of inflation is a capitalist approach. The Socialist approach would be to give them rises.

Did you ever worked just a day hard labour in your life? "The Socialist approach would be to give them rises." Is the dumbest dumbshit ive heard since a long time. Why? Because in socialism, there is no privat mine which gives wages. There is no job you can take or refuse. In Socialism, there are quotas. And the only thing that will rise, are the quotas.

Inflation already comes from the Central Bank which prints the legal tender of a nation, which you are forced to acept. A central Bank is one of the basic points for establishing Socialism, so it was wrote in the communist manifest.
But you tell me all this dimbshit about evil capitalism which you heard in debating-class at your school without knowing anything about the basic mechanisms of free market economy. Just go on and blame capitalism for everything, is a good first step to become a public employe and life of peoples taxmoney.

[Axeman]

You know that the ruling party in SA is the ANC, a socialist-communsit Party.
It isn't the mines fault if they can't buy anything with the government paper money because the inflation is sky high.




But hey, blame property, trade and ownership just as your KGB run education system told ya.

I have no love for the ANC and there is a reason I left South Africa before, but Nelson Mandela is not a ing communist. Every time we have "this" thread we go through this discussion. If we call everything that we dislike a communist / fascist / imperialist the words quickly lose their meaning.

The problem is an incompetent central bank and the ANC becoming mired in corruption. Notice how the best parts of SA aren't being run by the ANC? The ANC could be trying to emulate Stalin or Ron Paul it wouldn't matter, the corruption is far more a problem than any other factor.

Vote DA.

[Condottiere 40K]

I'm fairly sure most of the ANC cadre are now rewarding themselves and their cronies for their years of struggle with cushy jobs and nest eggs.

[AqD]

What's exactly an "illegal strike"? How can a strike be illegal?

[justicar5]

What's exactly an "illegal strike"? How can a strike be illegal?

wildcat strikes, taken without a union vote. On topic: the ANC needs to split, it was a one issue (big damn issue don't get me wrong) big tent alliance, of everyone from anarchists to nationalists, it needs to spin off those factions into a proper civil society.

[Raubritter]

What's exactly an "illegal strike"? How can a strike be illegal?

How can extortionate breach of contract be illegal ?

[AqD]

How can extortionate breach of contract be illegal ?

Are you telling me they actually have laws in South Africa that allow companies to force its workers to stay working? It sounds like 21st century slavery to me.

[Raubritter]

Are you telling me they actually have laws in South Africa that allow companies to force its workers to stay working?

No, i don't tell you that they have laws in SA which force people to stay on their working place. You can quit your work any time.

But when you asign to work, you have to work. If you don't do so, you get fired. Like in every other place of this planet.

[Col. Tartleton]

Are you telling me they actually have laws in South Africa that allow companies to force its workers to stay working? It sounds like 21st century slavery to me.

They could be able to fire them for not working and then have law enforcement arrest them for disturbing the peace.

Civil society and all that.

[justicar5]

They could be able to fire them for not working and then have law enforcement arrest them for disturbing the peace.

Civil society and all that.

as long as any boss requiring overtime without prior consent was arrested for extortion, any owner taking more than 1% of revenue as profits was arrested for theft etc etc.

[Princeps]

Blah blah. Interesting to see right wingers blame all of SA's problems on black people and the left.

In truth, South Africa's economic policy has been conservative. It has one of the most secretive, incompetent and unaccountable central banks in the world, which has persisted in maintaining high interest rates for a very long time, thus miring the country in stagnancy.

[Thorn777]

Tell me where the money should come from.

Mining gold?

Seems your not following up on precious metal price developments, far exceeding inflation levels. But I guess the mining companies rather spend some good cash on good London PR bureaus telling SA how it really is.

[Sogdog]

"You know that the ruling party in SA is the ANC, a socialist-communsit Party.
It isn't the mines fault if they can't buy anything with the government paper money because the inflation is sky high."

This is ! Our inflation is around the 5%-6% level. Hardly sky-high! The ANC is not communist nor socialist. It is actually middle-ground. However, the slimey commies have managed to become an alliance-partner within the ANC and combined with ANC leaders that have no intellect whatsoever makes for bad times. The ANC is inefficient and corrupt because its leaders are! Unfortunately our labour laws are restrictive and put in place to protect COSATU, another bum-chum of the ANC. I can understand these strikes, these workers watch as politician drive around in Hummers and BMW's, live in double storey house, send their kids to private schools and go to private hospitals while they have nothing. What I do not condone for one second is the violence that comes with it!

As was said in that movie "Blood Diamonds" (leonardo De Capprio) TIA. "This is Africa". We have a different way of doing things. While I don't expect foreigners to understand I do expect some sort of intelligence when it comes to international affairs. It bothers me that people are very quick to condemn a country because it is black -run! Majority rule is democratic, that is what we have. It is not perfect, we have our issues (as does the rest of the world, even more so than ours), we are finding our feet in resolving them and finding ways to approach them that the government will take us seriously.

I also take offence at the comment that paints our Reserve Bank in a bad light. If one can recall Europe and the US are in the middle of a financial crisis that they started and cannot fix. Their central banks either did not see it coming or supported the sub-prime debacle. Either way makes it look like incompetence. Our Reserve Bank has kept us out of that mess, has kept as solvent and inflation down! The only part of government that actually works is our Reserve Bank. Our private sector is First-World. I challenge any foreigner who has not been to SA to come here before passing judgement as if you know the reasons for what is going on!