Johannesburg - South African business has largely remained silent about the wave of student protests over university fees that is sweeping across the country and threatens to unnerve investors and hurt business confidence.
Yesterday, students preparing for today’s mass protest at the Union Buildings in Pretoria took to social media to canvas for support for the march but Business Report learnt yesterday some companies had rebuffed the pleas for help.
“We tried to call major companies to support us with supplies like water but we were told they can’t assist,” Nthanteng Mathebula, a law student at Wits University, said.
She said they contacted companies including Makro, a division of Massmart, Aquelle and Coca-Cola.
The companies could not immediately be reached for comment.
“We decided to raise donations so we buy the water,” Mathebula said. “We plan to make the loudest noise today.”
The protests represent the biggest challenge to the ANC government in addition to a stagnant economy, high unemployment and rising state debt.
Analysts said the protests would be closely watched for the government’s response.
“Generally, investors care little about domestic idiosyncratic issues until media headlines start crossing. This happened on Wednesday with the disruption in parliament of medium term budget policy statement,” said Peter Montalto, an emerging market economist at Nomura in London.
The protests were “now firmly on investors’ radar”, Montalto added.
Meanwhile, unions and civic organisations chose to come out openly in support of the “Fees Must Fall” campaign.
Gift of the Givers said in a Twitter post, that it was looking to provide 32 tons of supplies as support for the Union Buildings protest.
Cosatu and the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa stopped short of declaring mass action.
Cosatu spokesman Sizwe Pamla said: “We are working in co-operation with the students. We are not trying to hijack their march but we are saying we are offering support as parents and workers who will ultimately be paying these fees.”
Pamla said Cosatu would not be rash and call for workers to march without getting approval in terms of Section 77 of the Labour Relations Act, which allows workers to protest to promote or defend socio-economic interests, and was merely mobilising its structures so that workers, who were available, could march in solidarity with students if they allowed it.
Econometrix chief economist Azar Jammine said the student protests were likely to have very little impact in the short term.
The government has budgeted to spend R63.7 billion during the fiscal year to February on post-school education and training.
“However, I am very concerned by the longer-term impact. If the protests do go on for long, then this could lead to people becoming disillusioned and this could lead to a serious exodus of people from South Africa. Foreign academics present in South Africa could become disillusioned and leave and this would result in a skills shortage,” he said.
The National Union of Metalworkers in SA (Numsa) called on members, as parents of students, to join the demonstrations, as a way of providing support and solidarity.
“The proposed increases, if they go ahead, are going to have a serious and disastrous impact on the livelihood of workers, who are the hardest hit by meagre wages, amid the escalating cost of living in modern day colonial and capitalist South Africa,” Numsa said.
Black Business Council chief executive Mohale Ralebitso said that the students’ action had brought into sharp focus that it was urgent to repair “the fault lines in our current approach which risks maintaining the apartheid status quo, which none of us regard as being legitimate”.
BUSINESS REPORT