Until we’re honest about the cause of unemployment there will be nothing to celebrate on Workers’ Day
1 May 2021
Today we pause to celebrate workers the world over. One particular set of workers we should be honouring are our frontline healthcare workers, who have stepped up with great bravery and commitment over the past year. They have been true heroes, and yet our government has let them down by failing to secure vaccines to cover even this small critical group, let alone the rest of the population.
As other countries announce major milestones in their vaccination efforts - some even wrapping theirs up already - our is yet to begin. The bulk of our healthcare workers, who did not form part of the Sisonke vaccine trial, are yet to receive their shots and have no protection against a third or fourth wave of transmissions. It is now May and government is yet to administer a single Covid-19 vaccine shot. This is a shameful dereliction of its duty.
In a broader context, South Africa also has very little to celebrate this Workers’ Day. Never before has the plight of the South African worker been more precarious, and never before have the prospects of those looking for work been more hopeless. Our expanded unemployment rate now sits at over 42%. We are world leaders in this regard, and we were world leaders long before Covid-19 struck.
Instead of devoting today to empty platitudes in honour of our labour force or the history of our labour movement, we should use the opportunity to examine, honestly, the cause of this unemployment catastrophe. Because until we are willing to confront the real reasons, and not simply go along with government’s scapegoated reasons, we will make no inroads.