Opinion and Analysis

UCT responds on minimum wage

UCT's Deputy Vice-Chancellor responds to the article by Budlender and Lorenzen that criticised UCT's policy for next year on minimum wages.

Francis Petersen

Opinion | 10 December 2014

UCT’s muddled minimum wage

Josh Budlender and Johan Lorenzen argue that the reasons given by the University of Cape Town (UCT) for the minimum wage of outsourced workers in 2015 do not make sense.

Josh Budlender and Johan Lorenzen

Analysis | 8 December 2014

Why domestic workers keep fighting

Nearly 17 years ago, sitting behind a slightly battered desk in Cape Town’s Salt River, Myrtle Witbooi told me that the dream of domestic workers being “treated like other workers” would not die. “We want a living wage and proper hours. It is a dream…but we will get there,” said the woman who, in Cape Town in 1965, convened the first organisational meeting of domestic workers.

Terry Bell

Opinion | 8 December 2014

Some lessons for South Africa’s sectarian middle-class lefties

Some NGOs with no membership that cast themselves as "radical" misuse grassroots organisations for their own purposes, writes Ayanda Kota.

Ayanda Kota

Opinion | 4 December 2014

Vaal Environmental Justice Alliance claim court victory

Steel Valley communities’ victory against ArcelorMittal is a victory for pollution-affected communities across the country, writes Melissa Fourie.

Melissa Fourie

Opinion | 3 December 2014

Militarisation and depoliticisation in South Africa today

One of the striking features of South African politics in recent years is its re-militarisation - a tendency for political issues to be addressed or resolved by force. This is part of a wider problem of violence suffusing South African society in general - that people, especially men, vent their anger with violence rather than discuss what has caused them to be annoyed in areas unrelated to politics, for example so-called “road rage”.

Raymond Suttner

Opinion | 2 December 2014

SACP: the biggest potential loser in Cosatu crisis

Politically, the biggest potential loser in the ongoing and increasingly bitter fracas within Cosatu and its affiliates is the smallest member of the ANC-led tripartite alliance, the South African Communist Party (SACP). That party’s Medium Term Vision (MTV), described in some party documents as a “ten-year plan” looks close to being in tatters.

Terry Bell

Opinion | 30 November 2014

What is at issue in the minimum wage debate?

Wages should be regulated, but minimum wages should be set at levels that do not destroy jobs, write Jeremy Seekings and Nicoli Nattrass.

Jeremy Seekings and Nicoli Nattrass

Opinion | 27 November 2014

Trade union supported political parties: lessons to be learned

Learning from the mistakes of others, and being aware of the basis of those mistakes, helps us not to repeat the same errors. This is something to which those individuals, groups and unions now agitating to move South Africa onto a new political trajectory via a trade union supported political party would do well to pay heed.

Terry Bell

Opinion | 24 November 2014