There is no denying that the rift between the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) and Cosatu is becoming a chasm. Nevertheless, Cosatu said yesterday that thousands of workers had poured onto the streets in its rolling three-day mass action against e-tolling last week.
“Despite the challenges we face, our campaign of rolling mass action showed that Cosatu is still a powerful revolutionary force,” the labour federation said.
“We must, however, prioritise workers’ unity and speak with one clear voice.”
But the mass action was not supported by Numsa, the biggest affiliate of the labour federation.
Explaining Numsa’s decision not to take part, general secretary Irvin Jim said yesterday that the union did not believe that it was a useful exercise to wait for 12 months until President Jacob Zuma had signed the e-toll bill into law before engaging in mass action to oppose it.
Also, Numsa had just come out of a long strike in the automotive industry.
“But those members who went to the marches vented their anger at Cosatu’s failure to convene a special national congress of the federation.”
Cosatu president S’dumo Dlamini was booed as he spoke at one of the rallies.
Although Dlamini has acceded to the holding of the special congress of Cosatu, it remains to be seen how keen the labour federation’s national office bearers will be in organising it.
For them it would be like a turkey voting for Christmas, because on the agenda would be their election or ousting.
The issue of funding of the special national congress has already emerged as a stumbling block.
Zingiswa Losi, the second deputy president of Cosatu, said: “The funding of the special congress has to be resolved. Cosatu has not budgeted for it and has only budgeted for the congress of September 2014.”
She said Cosatu must talk about how to get the money.
Advertising
There is nothing quite like perusing a set of SABMiller results to put things into perspective. Currency depreciation, national strikes, social unrest, sluggish to zero economic growth – these it seems are not peculiar to the South African environment. They are aspects of business life that are to be found across the globe.
Even the threat of banning alcohol advertising is not unique to South Africa. It is a threat that has been implemented in several other jurisdictions and, according to the alcohol industry, has generally been ineffective. But of course the alcohol industry would say that, and of course the print media industry, which carries some of this advertising, would repeat it.
There is still no sign of the bill from the Department of Health dealing with the issue, but the industry has moved into full battle mode, so it will be a tough one for the health minister to win.
SA Breweries’ Norman Adami certainly isn’t taking the issue lightly. He acknowledges that although only a small minority of drinkers abuse alcohol, it has an impact on society at large. But he urges the government to support the responsible trading and drinking programmes instead of opting for banning advertising.
Perhaps one trading characteristic that is unique to South Africa concerns the issue of illegal traders or shebeeners – in particular the bizarre situation that prevails in the Western Cape.
How can it be that there are about 1 000 on-premise liquor licences in the V&A Waterfront and only about 850 in townships across the whole of the Western Cape? The grim history of townships only partly explains this situation.
The Western Cape government’s decision to deal with the highly sensitive political issue by being totally inflexible also explains it. By preventing the development of legal operators the provincial government is surely guaranteeing the spread of illegal ones. page 19
No Name
Low-cost retailers’ private labels are significantly less advanced in developing countries where consumers need cheaper products the most, when compared with First World countries.
In South Africa products in private label ranges such as Pick n Pay’s No Name brand are often just a rand or two cheaper than established brands.
Analysts put this meagre difference down to the absence of a reliable supplier base which is willing to supply at lower prices and in bulk.
Planet Retail analyst Tatjana Wolff said, from a consumer point of view, cheaper private labels would be helpful, but that South African retailers were unlikely to enlarge their private labels significantly as “they themselves do not want to demolish their price levels and they won’t find a sufficient number of manufacturers that are willing to reduce their prices neither”.
“This could be dangerous in terms of a good quality guarantee. And to maintain a good quality is crucial, if a retailer intends to sell private label on a mass market,” Wolff said.
Locally, high-end retailer Woolworths’ private label has been successful in terms of its penetration and sales, but the prices are not significantly lower.
Private labels allow retailers to gain better control of every level of their products, from production to marketing to point of sale. Retailers also have exclusivity over the label, which provides an opportunity for brand strengthening. Fundamentally, most retailers enter private labelling to support their margins.
Wolff said it could be difficult to rescue margins if a retailer sold its products for much less, but for some product categories, a retailer-owned brand could reduce costs and therefore increase the margin from the other side.
That said, it was still necessary to be able to sell products at a certain volume.
Edited by Banele Ginindza. With contributions from Wiseman Khuzwayo, Ann Crotty and Zandi Shabalala.