A crunch point has this week been reached in the platinum sector. Stockpiles are all but exhausted and striking miners are starving. In normal circumstances this would be the time when compromise is reached, a matter of who blinks first.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 8 April 2014
In 1997 15 workers at the Sasol Secunda plant were burned to death in what was described at the time as a “catastrophic fire”. What caused the blaze that killed them, how did they die and could they have been saved? These were questions the next of kin and their union wanted to know.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 31 March 2014
About 1,000 to 1,500 members of the National Education Health and Allied Workers' Union marched through town on 27 March to the offices of the Western Cape government.
GroundUp Staff
Brief | 27 March 2014
In an unequal society where conflict between employers and employees is inevitable, the role of mediators who help to minimise the damage to protagonists and to society at large, is an honourable one. Such is the role of the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).
Terry Bell
Opinion | 24 March 2014
This week we cover the NUMSA Day of Action for Youth Jobs and the TAC’s People’s Health Manifesto campaign.
Brent Meersman
News | 19 March 2014
Unless bridges are built between competing sides, legacies of bitterness, hatred and fear, often distorted by prejudice and myth, can persist for decades, even generations. And when there are are fairly recent incidents, especially those involving bloodshed and human loss, feelings, particularly among those who identify as victims, are all the more acute.
Terry Bell
News | 17 March 2014
Four days after the bloodletting that has become known as the Marikana massacre, my Inside Labour column supported the call for a comprehensive and independent inquiry. And it noted, reflecting a widespread view within the labour movement: “The Lonmin tragedy is a wake-up call that South Africa will ignore at its peril.” Now, 19 months later and with the strike on the platinum belt having gone on for nearly two months, that warning seems even more appropriate. Below is an updated commentary that first appeared on the first anniversary of Marikana.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 10 March 2014
This week we have reports on civil society’s response to the budget and a documentary hosted by Sonke Gender Justice.
Compiled by Brent Meersman
News | 26 February 2014
The curse of spin and speculation is well and truly upon us. It could hardly be otherwise, with a major strike on the platinum mines underway, a general election looming and the labour movement facing the biggest crisis in its history.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 18 February 2014
The Legal Resources Centre (LRC) hosted a special event on 5 February 2014 to highlight its landmark silicosis case and the implications for future legislative and policy reform in South Africa.
Sibusiso Tshabalala
News | 6 February 2014
Vague ideas of transformation are all the rage these days. Take the latest bun fight in Davos, for example. The annual gathering of the grandly named World Economic Forum (WEF) that ended last weekend met under the heading: “The Reshaping of the World: Consequences for Society, Politics and Business.”
Terry Bell
Opinion | 31 January 2014
About 40 protesters gathered outside the Cape Town CCMA offices this morning in solidarity with Alide Dasnois, former Cape Times editor.
Sibusiso Tshabalala
News | 24 January 2014
Terry Bell is a regular contributor to GroundUp. In addition to occasionally writing original material for first publication on GroundUp, he also kindly allows us to republish his Business Report column.
GroundUp Editor
News | 22 January 2014
Given the potentially highly volatile social, political and economic situation in South Africa today it would be foolhardy to forecast in any detail how the country and its people — let alone the labour movement — will fare in 2014.
Terry Bell - Inside Labour
Opinion | 22 January 2014
Since starting in November, some Khayelitsha refuse collectors say they still haven’t received uniforms or protective gear to wear while doing their jobs. Their employer says it is all lies.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 22 January 2014
Far from the bustling streets of downtown Johannesburg, much of it built by the bounty of South Africa’s gold mines, thousands of former mineworkers suffer from painful diseases contracted on the job. These men labour to breathe, their lungs degraded by the occupational diseases of silicosis and tuberculosis.
Ryan Boyko, Seyward Darby, and Rose Goldberg
News | 20 January 2014