Zwelinzima Vavi, general secretary of Cosatu, thinks that potential job losses due to the Walmart entrance into SA is more important than the renewed competition in the sector that has resulted in lower prices being charged to the entire buying public, including those people who are already unemployed, living off their savings, or on fixed salaries.
What Vavi doesn’t understand is that it is the point of a progressing economy to increase the productivity of labour while simultaneously increasing the real purchasing power of society. This process over time results in fewer man hours worked, and a reduced dependence on employment.
With Vavi’s flawed logic, he may soon start to argue for the banning of washing machines and automated dishwashers in homes and restaurants, because the use of these have destroyed the jobs of people who used to wash clothes and dishes by hand.
