Comment by RICHARD PITHOUSE In recent days and weeks the liberal consensus on which the post-apartheid order was founded has been burnt away like morning mist giving way to the heat of the rising sun. From our liberal universities to the streets of Durban and Johannesburg, liberal values have been spurned. This is not a new…
As Latin America’s Pink Tide sweeps across Europe, what are the prospects for a more progressive brand of politics in South Africa? By FAZILA FAROUK Analysts argue that the expulsion of Zwelinzima Vavi and Numsa from Cosatu, by a faction sympathetic to President Jacob Zuma, have clear consequences for a major re-alignment of labour in…
By FEMKE BRANDT The Labour Relations Amendment Act of 2014 (Section 198 of the LRA) introduces important new rights for labour broker, contract and part-time workers. Two issues emerge in relation to how these new labour rights affect farmworkers in the Karoo. Firstly, it is highly unlikely that the amendments will improve the lives of…
By DALE McKINLEY Amongst its many other attributes, South Africa could arguably be called the commission capital of the world. While there is no official list of how many commissions of inquiry there have been in the 20 years since 1994, suffice to say that the numbers are impressive. In the last 14 years…
BY JANE DUNCAN In the broader scheme of things, how significant are the recent wave of protests that have engulfed South Africa over the past decade? Are they another means of pressurising the ruling African National Congress (ANC) into delivering better services, or do they represent a new form of anti-systemic politics that promises to…
By STEVEN FRIEDMAN If that well-worn cliché about never wasting a crisis applies to anything, it is the labour movement today. Contrary to some current rhetoric, the movement does not need to return to what it was: it needs to become something different. Deepening tensions in Cosatu, which saw the departure of the National Union…
Does the ANC intend to expropriate land in South Africa any time soon? President Jacob Zuma doesn’t appear to care for the landless at all. He doesn’t seem to believe that landlessness is even a problem. Zuma caused alarm last week when he claimed that South Africans were going hungry and living in squalid conditions…
A commitment to changing society must include an openness to the unexpected moment in which new modes of politics appear By RICHARD PITHOUSE If you’re up early in Dakar and decide to take a walk along the shorefront before the day gets going you may see fishermen setting out on a raft cobbled together from…
By MANDISI MAJUVA who asks if Black South Africans are expected to talk about colonialism in a manner that doesn’t cause discomfort to Whites It has taken the University of Cape Town (UCT) 15 years to seriously consider the views of its black students concerning the statue of Cecil John Rhodes. Way back in 1999, Melissa…
By GLENN ASHTON Both the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party and the South African flag have prominent splashes of green featuring in their respective colour schemes. After 1994 the new government was keenly focussed on demonstrating its green credentials in line with our constitutional commitment to environmental protection and sustainable use of our diverse…
