Is AMCU’s Joseph Mathunjwa the new Nongqawuse?

In 1856, a fifteen year old Xhosa orphan had a vision where ten young men said if her people slaughtered their cattle and destroyed all their crops, dead warriors would be resurrected and drive the Europeans into the sea. Nongqawuse's uncle, one Umhlakaza, started killing his beasts, one a day. Word soon spread and a ten month orgy of destruction followed. First of the Xhosa wealth, then of the newly impoverished nation's power. Its starving people were forced to seek work and shelter from the very people they wanted to chase away, leaving their vacant land for the settlers to move onto.

Today's developments in the platinum mining sector have scary parallels. AMCU's charismatic leader, Joseph Mathunjwa, has a vision of forcing a minimum wage of R12 500. His members are betting everything on a strategy almost as foolhardy as Nongqawuse's, reinforced by an emotional argument of a century of alleged abuse. The only problem is meeting Mathunjwa's demand would put the mining companies out of business. Even if management wanted to, it doesn't have the money to cave in. Despite the efforts of a new mining minister from the suddenly aware Zuma Government, the deadly impasse continues.

A century and a half back, missionaries, the colonial government and other tribal leaders tried in vain to convince the Xhosa people of their folly. The nation refused to see reason. Only when the miracle never came on the appointed day, 18 February 1857, did the consequence of their failed gamble become apparent. The laws of nature were always going to beat Nongqawuse. Economic laws are stacked against Mathunjwa. Will he prove to be the Nongqawuse of South African miners?

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