Do whatever it takes to save our steel industry, pleaseĀ
Itās been just under a week now that a chapter of world politicsā equivalent of the greatest comeback since Lazarus was concluded with the second inauguration of one unhinged fellow as president of the United States.Ā Ā
A little more than four years ago, Donald John Trump was beaten in the race to the White House by one-termer Joe Biden. The Orange Man has made a rare return to the Oval Office, defying those who had penned obituaries on his political career. He is only the second man to do so.Ā Ā
Many have since warned the world to prepare for a bumpy ride, courtesy of the maverick at the helm in the US, as if there was much going for Bidenās presidency. The aged and near-senile former president has bequeathed the globe a chaotic legacy marked by the genocide in Palestine and the Russo-Ukrainian war.Ā
The question for us on the southern-most tip of the mother continent is: What now? What does the Trump return mean for South Africa?Ā
For starters, the fellow in the White House has proved himself to be an inward-looking bumbling buffoon who has never shied away from always putting Uncle Samās interests first, whatever the cost. It may well be argued that that is the driving mantra of any potus, but Trump has proved this week with his inauguration speech that the worst is still to come.Ā
However, every dark cloud has a silver lining, and SA may find that in taking some lessons from Trumpās approach to global politics. One of those is that globalisation is not always what it is made out to be, and acting in the best interests of the republic is not criminal.Ā
A couple of weeks ago ArcelorMittal SA, formerly Iscor, warned that it will be closing its long-steel plants in Newcastle and Vanderbijlpark, leading to losses of thousands of jobs. It cited among its reasons high energy costs, poor rail service and the flooding of the local market with low-cost imports.Ā
Then this past week two SA-based car manufacturers Toyota SA and Volkswagen SA warned the government of the implications and dire consequences of ArcelorMittal closures to their sector. They implored, as reported by Bloom-berg, that the government and the steel giant seek to delay the closure of the plants or better still, avert it altogether.Ā
They warned that thousands of the 106ā000 jobs in their sector will be threatened if nothing is done.Ā
It requires no rocket science to decipher the problems faced by ArcelorMittal were partly, and mainly, caused by the unpoliced globalisation that opened Africaās biggest economy to vagaries such as dumping, which we must admit is done by superpowers such as China, our supposed friend, and the US.Ā
We have witnessed the devastation of such sectors as the textile industry, which ironically, thrived under apartheid but were left unprotected to the elements once the country opened up to the rest of the world with the dawn of democracy.Ā
We would like to believe that there were lessons learnt there, and those should come in handy as we seek to avert another catastrophe in an economy that can ill-afford to shed jobs willy nilly.Ā
Please save our steel industry, and put South Africa first, always.Ā
