Few workers turned up to listen to President
Those who did drowned him out with chants of "Cyril must go!"
The face-off with the president at the
A bid at damage control
Ramaphosa's hasty retreat in an armored police truck was televised live.
"I could not believe it when the whole thing was unfolding. In fact, I was saying to my wife when the president was chased away that I could not believe it,"
In the days since Ramaphosa was booed off stage, his ruling
Ramaphosa quickly released a statement expressing the need for a "fair" wage settlement for the miners.
"The wage grievances of the workers in Rustenburg deserve the attention of all stakeholders, employers and labor so that a fair and sustainable settlement can be reached," Ramaphosa wrote in a newsletter this week. "As government, we are committed to play our part."
A crucial time
But the country's working class and the poor are refusing to be gaslit, with many saying they agree with the crowd's anti-Ramaphosa actions at the
Political parties and analysts are paying close attention to the situation.
Not only are municipal by-elections currently underway in three provinces, internal power struggles are flaring within the ANC and Ramaphosa faces a bid for reelection as ANC leader next year.
"One could say that he is gradually losing credibility among workers who want shop-floor issues to be addressed by the government," said Brian Sokotu, a
The two biggest mine unions are demanding a pay increase of
The mine wants to give its workers only
An open wound
The disgruntled workers in
At the time, Ramaphosa was a non-executive director of Lonmin, the multinational that ran Marikana.
Lonmin, which has since been acquired by
The massacre marked a low-point in post-apartheid
During the apartheid era, Ramaphosa was the leader of the
He accumulated considerable wealth under the black economic empowerment initiatives after the end of white minority rule in 1994.
Today Ramaphosa's fortune is estimated to be in the triple million dollar digits.
Who trusts Ramaphosa?
The issue Ramaphosa faces is how to reconcile the needs of workers with the demands of big mining and business enterprises.
"In theory, he is embedded in both institutions -- the workers' movement and business. However both institutions do not trust him for his lack of decisiveness in key challenges facing the country,"
"For workers, he is seen as a proxy of business. He is aloof, lonely, and under him
"The economy is very bad. Everything is going down. Food prices are going up. Everything is expensive -- accommodation is expensive and there are no employment opportunities right now because most of the companies are closing because of the economy, " Mbele told DW.
"So to me it seems that the president is not doing enough to help the situation in the country right now."
Four years into a new chapter
After Ramaphosa won the 2018 presidential elections,
But Ramaphosa had inherited trouble and has had to oversee an inquiry into the state capture corruption that peaked under his predecessor, ANC veteran
Meanwhile, government figures show that 18 million citizens are dependent on its social grant program.
The number of youth aged between 15 and 24 who are jobless hit a record high in late 2021.
"In terms of the unemployment in the country, if the country has a 66.5% youth unemployment, that's really quite high," said Brian Sokutu, the political reporter.
"People are really crying out for jobs through youth empowerment."
Mining and corporate fat-cats
Last year,
At the same time, the mining industry estimated that it would cost
Often the remuneration of
The average worker in the country earns
The country's youth are especially critical of figures like the
"The criticism is justified in a country with deep economic and political challenges," says the economist Mondi.
However, he added, South African companies need leaders that "understand the challenges of community, climate change, governance and sustainability."
In order to attract these, he said, they need to be remunerated similarly to their counterparts around the world.
Ramaphosa's outlook
Political analysts expect Ramaphosa to stay on as president after the next general election in 2024 even though the ANC is facing several serious internal challenges, including ill-disciplined members and internal rivalries that have, in some cases, led to murder.
But, at the same time, the ANC has traditionally counted on workers to secure its majority vote at the polls.
While the
Zwelinzima Vavi, the secretary general of the
Capitalism and intimidation by employers were to blame, he said.
Last month, the hard left
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