Economy

South Africa should learn from Brazil’s Bolsa Familia

BRICS has come and gone. It has been driven from the headlines by Jacob Zuma using the hopes and aspirations of the millions who vote for the ANC as a means to enrich his narrow circle of crony capitalists through misuse of the SANDF in the Central African Republic. But before the memory of BRICS fades, let's remember the B in BRICS is for Brazil, a country with which South Africa is often compared.

Jack Lewis

Opinion | 3 April 2013

Facts and myths about the wineland value chain

The causes of the poor and the dispossessed continue to be manipulated by politicians
and unscrupulous individuals bent on accumulating power, personal wealth or both.
As a result, there is much cynical use and distortion of the evidence and of statements
emanating from painful occurrences such as the deaths at Marikana or the conflict in
the Boland winelands.

Terry Bell

Opinion | 27 March 2013

Everything you need to know about the minimum wage

GroundUp sat down with Ingrid Woolard, Associate Professor in Economics at UCT and chair of the Employment Conditions Commission to talk about what goes into setting the minimum wage.

Kezia Lilenstein

News | 13 March 2013

The South African labour market: All the facts

The South African workforce is composed of all the people who are either working or available to work and are actively seeking work. Not everyone of working age participates in the work force. In South Africa the overall percentage of the working age population that participates in the work force is about 62%.

Issa Saunders

News | 13 March 2013

Women’s day ideals: still a long way to go

It was International Women’s Day (IWD) on Friday. And it seemed an appropriate
time for a reminder about the labour movement origins of the day and of its noble
aims and egalitarian promise. This because several recent studies reveal that the
female half of humanity is once again bearing the brunt of the global economic crisis.
After all, when it began in 1910, IWD was rich with the promise of equality.

Terry Bell

Opinion | 13 March 2013

South Africa under construction: Give public works a chance

The Expanded Public Works Programme aims to create millions of short-term jobs every year while also providing the county with much needed infrastructure such as roads, hospitals and schools in areas that need it.

Amelia Midgley

Opinion | 13 March 2013

Farmers strike back against insurgent farmworker movement

Cancellation of a planned march by the farmworkers coalition against alleged intimidation by farmers has led to claims that the City of Cape Town is complicit in undermining the new R105 minimum wage.

Benjamin Fogel and Jeanne Hefez

News | 6 March 2013

Constitutionally speaking about the 2014 election

The 2014 election campaign has clearly begun and promises to be long and almost
certainly very bitter. Labour relations — and relations with labour — are likely to be
in the forefront, with Cosatu, as a member of the governing tripartite allliance, in the
thick of it.

Opinion | 27 February 2013

Stock wanted

During my lunch break on 26 February 2013, I walked past a worker, resting in his wheelbarrow with a bottle of Coca Cola in his hand, beneath a sign that reads, “Stock wanted”.

Gregory Solik

News | 27 February 2013