On the face of it, Mamphela Ramphele's long political Calvary has not seemed so strange. It has been clear ever since she returned to South Africa, flushed with neoliberal propaganda and plugging effortlessly into the right-wing smear campaign against President Mbeki,...
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Whose strike to whose gain? | by Christian Selz
Alongside the prominent demand for R150 a day, striking farm workers in the Western Cape are demanding an end to labour brokering – an uphill battle that they are likely to lose given that some of their perceived leaders appear to trade in that very business. It is...
The strike committees: Organising against all odds | by Amandla! correspondants
Whether the aftermath of Marikana will spell the downright end of the National Union of Mineworkers, the resentment against the traditional structures of bargaining and the union leadership is palpable in the platinum belt, sometimes bordering on murderous anger. The...
Tebogo: the plight of a female mineworker| by Jeanne Hefez
My name is Tibugo, I'm one of the strike committee leaders at Anglo American in Rustenburg. I work as a PTV (personnel transport vehicle operator) at Amplats, I do mostly pipe work. Sometimes I clean the tunnels. It's extremely labor intensive. I've been here for a...
Voices from Marikana
"They killed us with hippos" Eyewitness account (interpreted from SeTswana): 'They killed us with Hippos. These Hippos arrived here, ran over people. People ran the opposite side (gestures towards 'Killing Koppie')...and the police still went and shot them. When they...
Interview with Bench Marks Foundation chief researcher David van Wyk
Amandla (A!): Some labour experts insist that the platinum mines, which you call the wealthiest in the world, cannot accede to miners' wage demands and pay for corporations' social responsibility to affected communities. To what extent is labour broking affecting...
September National Imbizo Report on Marikana
Bloody Marikana: What the media didn’t tell you! from September National Imbizo (SNI) Earlier today (Sunday, 19 August 2012), SNI members set off to Marikana, thecrime scene at which several black workers were shot and killed last week.Getting into the town is not an...
What now, now that the bullies have won? | by Jeremy Gordin
Jeremy Gordin's nine points about the ANC, The Spear and City Press 1. Little Story When I was 14 or 15 and had just discovered thoughtful writers such as, for example, George Orwell, and compassionate ones such as Alan Paton, I mentioned to my father that I was being...
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