SAFTU, along with its affiliates, observes Workers' Day in the Joburg CBD. Members gathered at Beyers Naude square to march to the legislature to hand over a memorandum.
Image: TIMOTHY BERNARD
As South Africa marked another Workers' Day yesterday, the annual occasion increasingly feels more like a sombre mourning of more jobs lost. With the official unemployment rate stubbornly high at 31.4%, the national conversation must change from celebration to a critical examination of the structural decay within our economy that leads to jobs being shed. The transition from a stable, labour-intensive industrial base to a fragmented, technology-driven market has left millions of semi-skilled citizens, especially women in the manufacturing sector, particularly vulnerable.
The manufacturing industry, once the bedrock of formal employment, has been hollowed out by a deluge of cheap imports. The clothing, textile, footwear, and leather sectors have faced sustained de-industrialisation, losing thousands of jobs annually as local producers struggle to compete with low-cost goods and customs fraud. While these imports offer consumers immediate, welcome price relief, they come at the devastating cost of local industrial margins and long-term job security. This structural imbalance is further evidenced by a widening trade deficit that undermines our productive capacity. Compounding this crisis is the inevitable march of technological advancement.
While Artificial Intelligence and automation promise enhanced productivity, they currently threaten a "productivity paradox" where workloads increase for those workers lucky to retain their jobs. In our fragile labour market, technology risks creating a situation where routine manual tasks are automated, leaving behind those without tertiary qualifications. Simultaneously, the declining influence of organised labour has weakened the workers' voice in policy-making. The erosion of trade-union power, coupled with rigid labour legislation, has hindered the country's ability to adapt to global shifts effectively.
Technological advancement is unavoidable and brings undeniable benefits, yet it must not be allowed to become a tool for exclusion. To save and grow jobs, South Africa requires a co-ordinated industrial policy that prioritises localisation and the enforcement of trade protections. Crucially, we must bridge the skills gap through learning and aggressive reskilling programmes. By training workers to collaborate with emerging technologies rather than being replaced by them, we can ensure that progress does not come at the cost of jobs.