Much has been made about the 'good story to tell' as a basis for reflecting on the state of our nation 20 years after the 1994 democratic breakthrough. Though some South Africans may identify with the successes that are being celebrated, the reality is that the lot of the working class remains the same. Today, 20 years after the ‘democratic transition’ nothing best confirms this than the fact that out of the 26-million South Africans who, live in abject poverty, 25-million are African. Very little real wealth has been redistributed and, as a result, education, housing, water services, sanitation, electricity, distance from quality social and economic productive activities continue to be real challenges for black and African people of this country. Post 1994, South Africa has become the most unequal and socially violent place on earth today.

Given the experience of political freedom so far, it is not surprising that in all black and African communities, there is a state of restlessness and there are widespread protests, now increasingly turning violent, against the bitter and cruel conditions of life in these communities.

The fundamental question we need to ask ourselves is why we are in this condition and what we can do to get out of it.

As we approach our twentieth year of democracy, we need to acknowledge that the economic policies championed by government since 1994 have been incapable of defeating the effects of apartheid capitalism, but have in fact fostered the manifestation of our new biggest challenge that we face as a country: the triple crisis of unemployment, poverty and inequality. The structure of the South African economy has not changed since 1994. It remains the same as it was under apartheid . . . the same dependence on the export of raw minerals, and the same enslavement to the minerals, energy and finance complex.

It is the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa’s view that, in order to address this crisis, we need to kick-start the economy in a completely new way, based on the simple adage that manufacturing matters.

We are convinced that there is only one way to create the number of jobs that are needed in South Africa – a number the National Development Plan can only dream about:

• we must harness the surplus of the mining and financial sectors;
• we must place this surplus in the control of the people through democratic state ownership and worker control;
• we must use this surplus to build a manufacturing industry as the centrepiece of infrastructure and social service delivery; and
• we must create a conducive environment for a thriving manufacturing sector

This is why we call for the nationalisation of the mines, the financial sector and other monopoly industries: for the purpose of fostering industrialisation. It is not some dogma from the past. It is an immediate and urgent requirement to save our economy for the majority of South Africans, who are the working class and the poor. That is the only viable future for a South African economy, for an economy that will serve the masses and not just the interests of a capitalist elite.