South Africa: False Narrative Feeds a Potentially Ruinous Respect for Unions

opinion

Johannesburg — WHETHER under apartheid or democracy, SA's politicians have always liked to admonish the country's businessmen. Apartheid politicians believed corporate profit-making undermined white baasskap, while SA's current rulers believe that corporate profit-making is antithetical to black empowerment.

Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel should thus be commended for breaking with tradition and calling on the business community to counter the influence of labour unions. For almost a century, South African governments have championed the interests of labour unions through discriminatory and distorting regulations that harmed businesses and SA as a whole.

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