Poor bleed and rich celebrate

19 January 2020

Conscience of a Centrist

It’s easy to mock Davos – so I will. The opulent ski resort, nested in Switzerland, will this week for the umpteenth time host the annual World Economic Forum where the rich and powerful will pretend to be solving the globe’s socioeconomic ills.

The irony of this event is that no poor person will be on sight. Instead, the ex­travaganza is the perfect stage for cap­tains of industry from the north to the south of the world to fall over them­selves in the pursuit to strike deals.

Politicians, will not be left behind – the event is an expensive public re­lations platform for them to shore up their global image (even our own Ti­to Mboweni will have to wear better shoes for the occasion) and TV stars and celebrities will be in full force in pursuit of promoting their charities (or themselves).

No wonder, President Cyril Rama­phosa decided to skip this year’s edi­tion. His friends, whom the red berets like to call “white monopoly capital”, have time and time again done a num­ber on the president. Despite promising to invest in this economy and create jobs for the destitute, they have ramped up their retrenchments efforts with the speed and shrewdness of a heartless killer.

The Swiss jamboree takes place when capitalism in South Africa and the world is in a crisis. Last week, cor­porate greed raised its ugly head again with nearly 5 000 jobs on the line at Massmart and Telkom and with Sib­anye-Stillwater announcing that 1 142 employees had been ultimately re­trenched at its Marikana operations, while contractors were reduced by 1 709. Yes! This is the same Marikana mine where blood was shed over a la­bour dispute a few years ago.

The cold truth is that there are no eth­ics or social responsibility in large pri­vate corporations, despite what their farcical mission statements may say. They are run simply to maximise div­idends for a select group at the top of the corporate feeding chain.

The present danger from corporate greed is that it not only leads to econom­ic collapse we currently experiencing, but it also destroys social cohesion and trust in institutions. When workers lose their jobs, they cease paying tax and be­gin taking welfare payments.

The spin-off effect of this is less spending power, which, like ripples in a pond, affects others.

The government cannot look at the JSE to grow this economy and create jobs – capital has no soul, never has and never will. The livelihoods of thou­sands of workers are continually put at risk just to shore up the share price of corporates.

This cannot be the moral standard we set for our kids, and this govern­ment ought to side with the people when corporates naturally side with their shareholders.

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