The proceedings of the Farlam Commission of Inquiry into the killings at Marikana have been widely criticised for their many shortcomings, but a number of important points of evidence have emerged in key thematic areas. What follows is a brief overview of the most...
evidence
Knowledge. The final frontier
Some suggest that unemployment rates are high because of laziness or a dependency effect created by social grants, but numerous studies have failed to find empirical support for these claims. The one drum of this kind that continues to be beaten is the claim that...
Farm strikes: Radical changes needed.
Farm workers began the centennial year of the 1913 Land Act with a continuation of the most militant industrial action in the sector in decades. On January 9th, various Western Cape farming towns were turned into warzones as protestors demanding an increase to a...
Marikana mine massacre: why British lawyer has joined fight for justice
James Nichol explains his decision to volunteer to represent forgotten families of dead strikers When South Africa's apartheid police massacred 69 people in Sharpeville in 1960, the revulsion spread as far as northern England. James Nichol, then 15, took part in his...
AMCU at the Commission: “It was one big crime’ | by Jeanne Hefez
In its first months of hearings, the Farlam Commission has shown us clear evidence of a bungled police cover up of a massacre, the National Union of Mineworkers' (NUM) own attempt to hide its role, and an alarming level of complicity between state and capital. The...
Rebuilding the Zimbabwean state: an idea whose time has come? | by Thomas Deve
Beginning in 2000, Zimbabwe experienced a decade of unprecedented political and economic crisis that was only temporarily alleviated by the inception of a government of national unity in 2010. Despite the occasional populist and radical pronouncements of the head of...
Slaughter at South Africa’s Marikana mine: the bloody politics of platinum | by Charlie Kimber
Striking South African mineworkers were gunned down by police on Thursday. Charlie Kimber looks at events leading up to the massacre—and the business interests behind it Police in South Africa have opened fire at striking workers at the Marikana platinum mine near...
Humanoids of the World Unite
by Jared Sacks As the world continues to go down the road of self-destruction, we, the enslaved humanoids of planet Earth, are slowly realising that we are at a crossroads in history. War, economic collapse, rampant militarism, and a political culture of fear is...
Another Myth about the Youth Wage Subsidy | by Christopher Malikane
The National Treasury, informed by its discussion document, “Confronting Youth Unemployment—policy options for South Africa” published in February 2011, has set aside R5 billion to finance the youth wage subsidy. This subsidy aims to close an alleged gap that exists...






