WATCH | Unions responsible for rising unemployment — Mkhwanazi

KZN police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkwanazi has blamed South Africa's rising unemployment rate on trade unions, which he says continually demand more money for their members.

“We need to interrogate this thing. Premier, you said this country is going down in front of our eyes; the reality is that we have too many things that are wrong in our country that contribute, and labour laws are one of those,” said Mkhwanazi, who was speaking during premier Thami Ntuli’s stakeholders’ engagement on crime prevention in the province.

He criticised the unions for why many South Africans are unemployed, saying the police, for example, were unable to hire more officers due to unions demanding salary increases for their members.

“The population of KZN is growing but the number of police officers is going down, thanks to the unions ... the labour people who say, ‘We want salaries for our members.’ So the more [the] government increases salaries, the less [people] they employ and the more [unemployment there is].”

Mkhwanazi said it pained him to watch National Union of Metalworkers of SA's general secretary Irvin Jim talk about the closure of tyre manufacturer Goodyear, which shut their Kariega, Eastern Cape, plant after 78 years in SA, leaving about 1,000 people jobless.

“When you have companies that are starting to shut down, you need to ask yourself ... the higher the salary we need, the less employment [there is] and that is a reality we can’t avoid, It’s a fact. We must face it, it is there. We experience it in the police, and so does everyone. We have to employ other means to try to balance this.”

SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi said Mkhwanazi's perspective risked distorting public understanding of a far more serious issue: decades of neoliberal austerity and budget cuts that have hollowed out the police service, which he said was a crisis that deepened insecurity for all South Africans.

Budget cuts, not wage demands, are the real crisis, said Vavi.

“While Saftu stands firm in defending workers’ rights to fair compensation, we align with commissioner Mkhwanazi in his call for a better-trained and better-supported police force,” he said.

Vavi said among the things that needed to be done were for the urgent restoration of policing budgets and the reversal of the 9% cut to scale up and match population growth and service demands.

“Fill all funded but vacant posts. Austerity must not continue to hollow out capacity in the name of fiscal restraint.

“Provide living wages that reflect the risks and responsibilities of policing, as well as the rising cost of living. Invest in training, tools and accountability structures, so each officer is equipped, professional and trusted by the communities they serve.”

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