The construction sector has grown enormously in the last 20 years, but the old system of cheap labour still prevails, writes Eddie Cottle.
Eddie Cottle
Opinion | 5 January 2015
As another year draws to a close, the advice usually attributed to the Italian revolutionary, Antonio Gramsci constantly comes to mind: exercise pessimism of the intellect, but optimism of the will. I must admit that it has become a great deal easier over recent months to exercise pessimism of the intellect — and increasingly difficult to exercise optimism of the will to do something about changing things, domestically or globally.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 22 December 2014
When it is late at night and Cape Town’s streets are quiet, Mark Philander’s faint hammering at his pavement workshop on Hope Street can still be heard.
Daneel Knoetze
Feature | 18 December 2014
The low wage argument is a red herring, argue Gilad Isaacs and Ben Fine in the latest contribution to the minimum wage debate.
Gilad Isaacs and Ben Fine
Opinion | 17 December 2014
Rana Plaza was the deadliest factory disaster in history. On April 23 last year a shoddily built eight-storey building in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, collapsed.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 15 December 2014
The Department of Labour is investigating allegations of child labour on a grape and mushroom farm in the Hex Valley, outside De Doorns.
Daneel Knoetze
Feature | 15 December 2014
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
Farmworkers union Csaawu has launched an online crowd-funding campaign to save it from bankruptcy.
Daneel Knoetze
Brief | 8 December 2014
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
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
A Robertson farm worker has laid a charge of assault against his employer after allegedly being “slapped and choked” on Wednesday morning. The attack, he said, was punishment for inviting a farm workers’ union leader onto the property. A case of assault is being investigated by the police.
Kimon de Greef
News | 4 December 2014
Too many employers of domestic workers refuse to comply with the Unemployment Insurance Fund, leaving their employees seriously short changed.
Zintle Swana
News | 3 December 2014
The powerful International Finance Corporation has been sharply rapped over the knuckles in an ombudsman’s report on its US $50 million investment in Lonmin.
Alide Dasnois
News | 3 December 2014
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
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
The increase in minimum wages for domestic workers of R1 an hour is not enough, says Myrtle Witbooi, general secretary of the South African Domestic Service and Allied Workers Union (SADSAWU).
Thembela Ntongana
News | 26 November 2014