# ANALYSIS: Ramaphosa puts worker ownership of companies on the table

- Link: https://dearsouthafrica.co.za/2019/10/01/analysis-ramaphosa-puts-worker-ownership-of-companies-on-the-table/
- Published: 2019-10-01T14:27:36+02:00
- Author: dearSA

![](https://cdn.dearsouthafrica.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/20191240/Ramaphosa.
png "Ramaphosa")

President Cyril Ramaphosa upped the game when he put worker ownership of companies
on the table at the congress of the SA Clothing and Textile Workers Union last week.

Ramaphosa told members of Sactwu that securing co-ownership was important to give
workers a say in industries, and to prevent the increasing conflict that has sparked
a wave of strikes.

Banking union Sasbo was on Thursday interdicted from proceeding with what would 
have been the biggest banking strike in 99 years, and which would have taken labour
action decisively into the services industry. The idea of workers as owners is gaining
currency as the model of twenty-first-century capitalism comes under increasing 
scrutiny.

Piketty recently said worker ownership would allow “new social groups to become 
owners and shareholders”.

While employee share ownership schemes are touted in black empowerment laws as a
more legitimate form of black economic empowerment than the crony deals that characterised
the first era of BEE, they have not been successful. Journalist Carol Paton, writing
in Business Day about mining sector deals, noted that workers had not made significant
gains.

It is a method favoured by both the ruling African National Congress and the official
opposition the Democratic Alliance.

In its election manifesto ahead of the May 2019 national election, the ANC promised
to “introduce legislation for the extension of company ownership to a broad base
of workers through an employee ownership scheme and similar arrange arrangements
to supplement workers’ incomes and build greater partnerships between workers and
owners to build these businesses,” according to its manifesto.

“Social partners (government, labour and business) will put together the minimum
thresholds and conditionalities to govern the establishment of worker-ownership 
funds, paving the way to empower millions of workers across the economy.”

The ANC said in its manifesto that the government would provide public assistance(
which means state funding) to help workers buy shares.

With a depleted fiscus, the assistance is unlikely in the short term, but the idea
is now on the table.