STEEL INDUSTRY
having to deal with the SEIFSA-legacy
similarities with the
ZIMBABWE/Mugabe endgame
The eventual political demise of Robert Mugabe has a surprisingly number of similarities with the dilemma Seifsa is facing:
• both caused their areas of influence – Zimbabwe and the Steel Industry respectively – unimaginable hardship (in the case of Zimbabwe) and deindustrialisation and steady decline (in the case of the Steel Industry); and all of this through hostile, outdated and self serving policies;
• both refused to read the signs of the times – Robert Mugabe refused to recognise the political tide turning against him; Seifsa refuses to recognise that the Steel Industry is rejecting their unaffordable, business destructive wage deals which they continuously attempt to enforce on the rest of the Industry;
• when Robert Mugabe lost the popular vote in Zimbabwe, he forced his will on the people through dictatorship. When Seifsa lost the support of employers in the Steel Industry, they proceeded to extend their Industry hostile agreements through unlawful and fraudulent means – to an Industry which has made it abundantly clear that they do not accept it;
• Robert Mugabe’s decision to promote his wife in order to position her to become president, was a tactical blunder of such magnitude that it brought about his political demise. Seifsa’s decision to attempt (once again) to extend their agreement with Numsa to non-parties – after they admitted that doing so in 2011 and 2014 was a grave mistake – has confirmed, if there was any doubt, that Seifsa can never be trusted. Their interests are in conflict with that of the Steel Industry and that will never change; their DNA will not allow that. They, like Robert Mugabe, have to be forced out of the Industry;
• Robert Mugabe’s time has just come to an end; the end of Seifsa, for the sake of the Steel Industry, cannot happen soon enough; they have caused enough damage;
• Contrary to the situation in Zimbabwe, however, the army is not going to play a role in removing Seifsa; the Industry will have to do it; and we will – through sheer organising.
If employers are freed from the unlawful Seifsa/Numsa/Department of Labour-shackles, once and for all, if employers are allowed, once again, to conduct business without external interference, growth and prosperity will return to the Industry – it depends on us, it’s all in our hands.
This is the exact purpose of the Steel Lobby
Therefore:
• if you are already a NEASA member but wish to join the Steel Lobby, click here;
• if you want to join this fight for Industry freedom, you can do so by joining NEASA;
• if you want assistance to escape the Seifsa web, click here.
Kind regards
Sure I am this day we are the masters of our fate, that the task which has been set before us is not above our strength; that its pangs and toils are not beyond our endurance. As long as we have faith in our own cause and an unconquerable will to win, victory will not be denied us.
Winston Churchill