HOW DID THE END OF APARTHEID affect South Africa’s white workers? An excellent question. And the answer can go a long way towards explaining some of the more virulent politics evident today. But the question is rarely asked because – so the assumption goes – there are...
labour
Marikana: Old Apartheid Social Power Relations meet Democratic South Africa | by Gunnett Kaaf
Revolutions distinguish themselves as phenomena that change those who wield social power, replacing old ruling classes with new classes of rulers. In South Africa, the revolution that culminated in the 1994 April Democratic Breakthrough is always thought of as having...
What Have We Learned from the Farlam Commission? | Amandla! Correspondent
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...
“Sinkholes, Starvation and Suffering”: the Legacy of Coal Mining in South Africa? | by David Van Wyk
Even as South Africa marks the two-year anniversary of the Marikana massacre – which marked a decisive turning point for the country's platinum mining sector – extensive new research indicates that the coal mining industry poses a wide range of serious challenges of...
Reclaiming Our Unions: The Crisis in SAMWU and the Continuing Fight for Democracy from Below | Amandla! Correspondent
As this issue of Amandla! goes to press, we read disturbing accounts of South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) shop stewards being prevented by private security personnel from entering the union's Johannesburg headquarters, and being physically attacked with...
Amandla! Speaks to Firoz Manji, former editor of Pambazuka News and current director of the Pan-African Baraza, at the NUMSA International Symposium
Firoze Manji is the founder and former editor of Pambazuka News and now director of the Pan- African Baraza. A!: How do you understand what is referred to as a "NUMSA moment"? FM: First of all, I think it's important to say that what is referred to as the "NUMSA...
Department of Labour: Toothless as a snail
President Zuma has signed a contentious round of amendments to the Labour Relations Act into law. After protests from Cosatu, the government withdrew the proposal of compulsory secret balloting among union members before a strike, as demanded by the DA and the...
What, really, did the ANC deliver? Tokenistic social policy
What has the South African government delivered in 20 years? A massive welfare state with 16 million grant recipients (nearly a third of the population); 95% of the people served with clean water access; a rising rate of matriculation by 12th graders; a dramatic...
Putting the rights of cleaners at the centre of the struggle for transformation of universities: The case of UJ cleaners
The debate on transformation of universities tends to focus on changes in colour and gender, as well as access to these institutions. These are vitally important questions, because they seek to cure the ills of colonialism and apartheid in university education. On the...

