Labour In South Africa Research Articles

The employment history of day labourers in South Africa and the income they earn - A case study of day labourers in Pretoria

Formal sector unemployment forces many workers to venture into the informal sector. The activities of day labourers are no exception. The aim of this paper is to address the lack of research on informal labour markets by focusing on the day labourers in Pretoria as a case study and to investigate the employment history of and income earned by day labourers in Pretoria. Day labourers involved in this study were mainly male, young, low skilled, earning low and uncertain levels of income and working under harsh conditions. A significant portion of day labourers in Pretoria previously held formal sector occupations. Long spells of unemployment can make it difficult for day labourers to return to the formal sector. Many activities in the informal sector can never provide a permanent solution to unemployment.

Developing a Competitive Skills Immigration Policy for South Africa

Since skills shortages is a global phenomenon, there is fierce competition amongst countries to attract skilled labour so as to improve their competitive footing in the global economy. One major way that these countries strive to achieve their goal, is through promoting targeted skills immigration programmes to attract skilled workers. South Africa takes lessons from these countries in its attempt to alleviate its skills shortages and be part of this global economy. A literature review of South Africa's immigration policy was undertaken with a view to evaluate its approach for skills immigration.. A survey-based research design was adopted using a closed questionnaire to determine the respondents view on enlisting skilled labour for the purpose of reducing skills shortages in the country. The sample consisted of 800 organisations/businesses that seek to employ skilled foreign labour in South Africa. The outcome of this paper pointed to a general consensus that South Africa's policy on skills immigration is in need of radical review. It is highly restrictive, bureaucratic, user-unfriendly and costly to administer. Moreover, it serves as an impediment for business and industry to recruit skilled foreign labour into the country as a result of excessive, and often, unnecessary regulations and procedures.

Modern slavery in the post-1994 South Africa? A critical ethical analysis of the National Development Plan promises for unemployment in South Africa

In African ethics, work is not work if it is not related to God or gods. Work, or umsebenzi , is for God or gods ultimately; work without God is the definition of slavery in my interpretation of the African ethical value system. If one succeeds from that understanding to define what slavery is, then God-lessness in work might imply the need for us to search for the gods of modernity post-1994 that have dethroned God, if they have not disentangled work from God. This article looks at the problem of unemployment by analysing the National Development Plan (NDP) and in particular the solutions proposed in relation to unemployment in South Africa. The article examines the language and grammar of the NDP to evaluate its response to the violent history of cheap, docile and migratory labour in South Africa.

Explaining the paradoxical effects of intergroup contact: Paternalistic relations and system justification in domestic labour in South Africa

Recent research has shown that contact with the historically advantaged can have paradoxical effects on the political attitudes of the historically disadvantaged, reducing outgroup prejudice but also reducing the motivation to acknowledge and challenge social inequalities. These effects have been attributed primarily to the role of intergroup contact in decreasing the salience of intergroup differences, encouraging common identification, and creating warm feelings. This paper explores a related but distinct process through which contact may have paradoxical consequences, focusing on its capacity to act as a vehicle for the transmission of systems-justifying ideologies. The paper presents a qualitative study of domestic labour relations in post-apartheid South Africa. Analysis of interviews with domestic workers and employers demonstrates how intergroup contact in this context was typically organised and defined in terms of paternalistic values, beliefs and practices. Interview accounts were designed to resolve the moral and political tensions associated with participation in the historically racist institution of domestic labour by (re)constituting everyday relations between ‘maids’ and ‘madams’ in the language of caring, helping and reciprocal exchange.

Labour migration, settlement and mine closure in South Africa

ABSTRACTThis article brings together two sets of literature: that on migrant labour and that on mine closures. We argue that while the literature has highlighted the inhumane nature of migrant labour, few researchers have reflected on settlement in mining areas in relation to mine expansion and/or the subsequent implications of mine down-scaling. This article refers to two case studies of mining and migrant labour in South Africa. In the first case study, we explore the impacts of mine closure in the Free State Goldfields and argue that migrant labour was, to some extent, a blessing in disguise for the area. In the second case study of the new iron-ore mining area of Kathu, Northern Cape Province, we explore housing developments and argue that many of the same mistakes that occurred in places like the Free State Goldfields are being made in an attempt to reduce the impact of migrant labour.

Explaining Migrant Wages: The Case Of Zimbabwean Day Labourers In South Africa

There has been an increasing inflow of migrants and refugees into South Africa during the last two decades. The origin of these migrants is mainly from South Africas long-established sources of migrant workers, including countries from the Southern African Development Community. Over the last decade, African immigrants have encountered brutal manifestations of resentment at their presence in South Africa. The reasons for this are multifaceted, but one of the pertinent perceptions is that immigrants from the countrys northern borders are taking South Africans jobs. It is often claimed that casual immigrant workers are willing to work for very low daily wages. In doing so, they get temporary employment in the informal and formal economy at the expense of South African workers, who have much higher reservation wages in the same informal labour market. This is the first study to focus on the wages of migrant day labourers in South Africa by investigating the determinants of day labour wages for migrant day labourers from Zimbabwe. The respondents for this study were interviewed during the first countrywide survey of day labourers in South Africa during 2007. The paper concludes that the income from migrant day labourers from Zimbabwe often exceeds that of the average day labourer in South Africa. The Zimbabweans are, in many cases, better qualified than the average day labourer in South Africa. The main determinants of these migrant wages are their formal level of schooling, language proficiency and the completion of vocational training courses.

‘Guard Your Interests and Read The Worker’: The Rise and Demise of The Worker, Mouthpiece of the South African Labour Party

In the run-up to the unification of South Africa labour politics were decentralised in the four British colonies. In order to voice the opinions of the South African white working-class and to promote the political amalgamation of the various labour and socialist parties and trade unions before union and the first national general election of 1910, The Worker was established in January 1909, originally under the auspices of the South African Typographical Union. The paper was followed by the founding of the South African Labour Party (SALP) in October 1909. The Worker then became the party's official mouthpiece. This article traces the rise of The Worker and the financial difficulties experienced by the management board to keep it solvent. The working class politics espoused by the paper and some counter-reactions to its editorial policies will also be investigated. By taking a militant editorial stance during the industrial strikes of 1913 and 1914, The Worker reached the zenith of its influence among the white working class. However, by October 1914 the economic consequences of the First World War would eventually force the paper to close due to paper shortages and insurmountable debts. Finally, the article also concentrates on the unsuccessful efforts to revive The Worker as mouthpiece of the SALP.

Impact of Labour Law on South Africa’s New Corporate Rescue Mechanism

South Africa's recently enacted Companies Act introduces a new corporate rescue mechanism known as 'business rescue'. One of the aims of corporate rescue is the resuscitation or reorganization of companies in financial distress. The legal disciplines of labour, insolvency, and corporate law interact during business rescue proceedings. In this contribution, the question is posed whether an appropriate balance has been struck between employees' and creditors' interests in this new corporate rescue mechanism. The investigation is conducted against the background of International Labour Organization (ILO) and European Union (EU) standards and South Africa's labour, insolvency, and corporate law frameworks. The conclusion is drawn that the potential success that this rescue mechanism has to offer could be weakened due to provisions that result in the over-protection of employees.

Sugar and Gold: Indentured Indian and Chinese Labour in South Africa

This article proposes to compare the Indian and Chinese indentured labour systems introduced into colonial South Africa in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Between 1860 and 1911 the Colony of Natal imported 152 184 Indians to work primarily on the sugar plantations, and between 1904 and 1910 the Transvaal Colony reverted to the importation of 63 695 Chinese to work exclusively on the gold mines. While both the Indian and Chinese labour schemes have received considerable academic attention in their own right, relatively little work has been done in terms of a comparative dimension. This may partly be ascribed to the inherent differences between the two schemes, despite the fact that the British authorities orchestrated both. It will be shown that to a large extent the experiences of the Indian labour system informed and determined the nature of the Chinese scheme. It will however be argued that the impact of the one upon the other went far beyond the legal parameters of the indenture contracts and regulations, having ramifications which swept across the broader societal domain and which impacted on the very different place and perception of these two minorities in subsequent South African history.

Identity and Belonging in Post-Apartheid South Africa: The Case of Indian South Africans

This paper examines Indian identities in the post-apartheid period, focusing in particular on the vexed issues of identity and belonging. The inauguration of Nelson Mandela as President of a non-racial democratic South Africa on 10 May 1994 denoted the de-territorialisation of old apartheid racial identities. Race separateness was no longer codified in law and common citizenship was meant to glue all into a South African nation. The process has been far from simple as 'Indian' identity has been constructed, deconstructed and re-made over the years. A central dynamic of this process has been the tension between the way the state has tried to define identity. In the post- apartheid period too, there is unraveling of Indian identities in response to external factors such as the rise of the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) in India, the struggle of Tamils in Sri Lanka, and the Global War on Terror, while the state continues to play an interventionist role through its race-based affirmative action policies. All of this underscores tensions among Indians on how best to assert their belonging in Africa. As this article is being written there is a growing interest in the commemoration of 150 years since the arrival of Indian indentured labourers in South Africa in 1860. The present conjuncture opens possibilities to debate issues of identity and belonging. If access to resources continues to be defined exclusively by race then one can expect increasing frustration on the part of the poors who will most likely be susceptible to racial and ethnic overtures. On the other hand, the middle classes, living in the same gated communities and enjoying the same sports like cricket and golf, may witness bonding across racial lines. Just as none of us is outside or beyond geography, none of us is completely free from the struggle over geography. That struggle is complex and interesting because it is not only about soldiers and cannons, but also about ideas, about forms, about images and imaginings (Said 1993: 7).

’n Teologies-etiese beoordeling van onwettige immigrasie

A theological-ethical judgement of illegal immigration The immigration of people is a growing global phenomenon. People immigrate to South Africa mainly for economic purposes. Not all immigrants are,however, legally in the country. It is not certain how many illegal immigrants are in the country. The South African government does not have a clear, effective policy on how to solve the problem of illegal immigration. In this article the influence of illegal immigration on the South African labour sphereis analysed. The aim of the article is to give guidance from the Bible to role players on how their disposition should be concerning the problem of illegal immigrant workers. In the article the extent and causes of illegal immigration are investigated. Thisis followed byprobing into the effects of illegal immigration on the South African labour sphere and the action taken by the authorities to solve the problem. The influence of illegal immigration on labour in South Africa is judged according to biblical principals. In the assess-ment guidance is given as to what the disposition of different role players should be concerning the set problem.

The sex profile of skeletal remains from a cemetery of Chinese indentured labourers in South Africa

For a short period of time in the early 20th century, indentured labourers from China were imported to work on the South African gold mines. The Raymond A. Dart Collection of Human Skeletons contains 36 skeletons sourced from a Chinese cemetery of this time period on the site of the old Witwatersrand Deep Gold Mine. An earlier morphometric study on this collection recorded a high number of female individuals. However, the general historical records from the early gold mining era conflict with the results of this study, stating that very few Chinese females were among those to arrive in South Africa. In this study, the sex profile of this collection was analysed using molecular sex identification through the amelogenin gene. Results were obtained for 13 (41.93%) specimens, all of which were determined to be male – data that correspond well with the historical records.

The Principles and Modalities of EU-India Cooperation on African Development

IntroductionAfrica is in a historic trap. Its integration in the global system has been historically conditioned against Africa's best interests. Africa is caught to this day at the lowest value chain in global production and exchange. Ideally, Africa should seize the present crisis of capitalism as an opportunity to assert its independence to create the terms and modalities under which it would want to be integrated in the global system and do business with Europe and India. Africa is resurging, but the main challenges still lie ahead. If Europe and India wish to play a useful role in Africa then they need to help reverse the processes by which Africa is integrated in the global system.Defining the Basic Principle of EU-India Cooperation on African DevelopmentThe colonization of Africa by Europe in the nineteenth century and early part of the twentieth century enlisted the services of the Indians (among others such as the Lebanese) in the colonization process. Indians acted variously as providers of indentured labour in parts of Africa (for example in the sugar plantations of South Africa); as skilled and semi-skilled artisans and workers (as in the building of railways in East Africa); as traders and providers of goods and services imported from Europe and India; as middle and low level civil servants in the colonial administration; and in professional field as doctors, lawyers, accountants and managers. The beneficiaries were overwhelmingly the Europeans as the colonial masters. They benefitted out of the appropriation of the natural wealth of Africa in the form of minerals and products of land and cheap labour. The Indians, although a subset of the exploited, also benefitted in various ways and in varying degrees. At the lowest end of the 'development' chain, the indentured labourers in South Africa and the railway workers of East Africa, for example, secured jobs and wages when prospects for either were almost non-existent in colonial India. At higher levels as traders, civil servants and professionals, they became the colonial middle class with corresponding financial and social benefits.Colonial historians and apologists would argue that Africans also benefitted. They benefitted from having their 'backward' continent 'developed' not only in concrete economic terms (such as having sugar plantations, the railways, and shops from which to buy modern goods), but also broadly in the form of education through, among others, the work of missionaries, and acquiring knowledge of modern administration in matters of state and economy. Africa, the apologists argued, was taken out of darkness into enlightenment. I do not wish to enter this debate. It is not worth giving respectability to colonial conquest. Even if those involved in the process during the period of colonization sincerely believed that they were in a civilizing mission in Africa, they were in reality pillaging Africa. Africa's plunder was all the more cruel because it deprived Africans the time and the opportunity to develop themselves by their own means and institutions. Africans were deprived of the opportunity to control their own destiny and to evolve in their own pace and time. Many of contemporary problems have their roots in this deprivation. The phenomenon of the so-called 'failed state' in Africa is part of this colonial heritage. It is as if Africans have to rewind the clock back into history, and relearn the process of governing themselves.It might be argued that was history. It is not likely to recur in our own times. Africans now have political independence and can take their own decisions. Besides, Europe no longer has absolute hegemony over the fate of Africa. And India is no longer a passive intermediary ready to serve colonial powers.There is a grain of truth in all the above propositions. However, fundamentally, the power asymmetry remains an abiding feature of this triangular relationship - the Europeans still occupy the top rungs of the power and economic hierarchy; the Indians occupy, essentially, a middle role; and Africans are still at the lowest rungs, except for a tiny minority of individuals who are in state power or as partners or shareholders in European or Asian commercial companies. …

LABOUR INFLUENCE IN THE NEW SOUTH AFRICAN GOVERNMENT

South Africa's labour movement has unprecedented access to state power in Pretoria via SA Communist Party ministers and a new ministerial post devoted to economic development held by a labour leader. But this power comes with structural constraints, no matter the courage of leaders. The economic collapse suffered since 2008 is only the latest stage in an unfolding crisis of accumulation which South African capital has only shaken since the 1970s through escaping the country's shores, through financialisation, and through imposition of neoliberal policies on the society. But these have not generated a sustainable growth path, but instead, yet more social tensions. How labour marshals and channels these tensions is the crucial test of the coming period.

Should subsistence agriculture be supported as a strategy to address rural food insecurity?

At first glance South Africa's black farming sector appears to contribute rather minimally to overall agricultural output in South Africa. However, despite the complexity involved in this sector and the often marginal conditions in which agriculture is practised it appears to be important to a large number of black households. Furthermore, the significance they attach to subsistence agriculture as means of supplementing household food supplies seems to heavily outweigh other reasons for engaging in agriculture. Some South African researchers have indicated the contribution subsistence production makes to household food security, despite the prevalent complexities and the low input nature of this production. Statistics South Africa's Labour Force Survey data from 2001 to 2007 and a case study of subsistence farming in Limpopo Province are used to support the argument that, despite the complexity of this sector, the more than 4 million subsistence farmers, need and merit greater support. Such support should be based on the local context, build on and, where appropriate, improve existing local practices, while addressing various existing threats to this type of production. Recommendations are made as to what policy makers need to consider when considering how best to support subsistence production.

Day Labourers, Unemployment and Socio-economic Development in South Africa

One of the most visible forms of unemployment is the men who stand at the side of the road or on corners daily, waiting for any job that may come their way. It is estimated that there are nearly 1,000 places in South Africa where a minimum of about 45,000, mostly black African men, stand, waiting to be picked up. The South African space economy is characterised by an uneven distribution of economic activities. International empirical studies have shown that there is a geographical or spatial coincidence between levels of unemployment and levels of gross domestic product per capita. The first objective of this article is to highlight some of the basic demographic dynamics of day labourers. The second is to investigate the spatial distribution of and the relationship between day labourers, unemployment and the general level of socio-economic development in South Africa. Day labourers share a number of common characteristics, but there were also obvious differences in their morale and spirit. The analyses showed that there is also a general spatial coincidence between levels of socio-economic development and the numbers of day labourers in South Africa, with a relatively high correlation coefficient between the two.

’n Teologies-etiese beoordeling van kinderarbeid in Suid-Afrika

A theological-ethical judgement of child labour in South Africa Throughout the world child labour is a problem which has been under especially close scrutiny for the past three decades. Although child labour is not such a serious problem in South Africa as is the case in some other countries, unacceptable forms of child labour also occur here. Socio-economic circum- stances force most child labourers to work in order to survive. The result is that these children are deprived of a good edu- cation and training in order to occupy positions as adults in order to earn a living wage. In this article child labour is judged as it occurs in South Africa. Child labour is judged in the light of theological-ethical utteran- ces on children as well as on labour. Although the demand to labour is universal (and thus also applies to children), it is obvious that they cannot labour in the same way as adults. Children should rather be educated and equipped to develop their abilities in order to utilise it to the maximum as adult workers.

Determinants of the demand for regular farm labour in South Africa, 1960–2002

This paper estimates long-run price (wage) elasticities of demand for regular farm labour in South Africa using both Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression and a Two-stage Least Squares (2SLS) simultaneous-equation model for the period 1960–2002. Both models include a piecewise interactive slope dummy variable with 1991 as the threshold year to reflect South African (SA) commercial farmers' expectations that farm labour costs would increase as new labour legislation was introduced from the early 1990s onwards. The long-run price (wage) elasticity of demand for regular farm labour in South Africa during 1960–1990 was estimated as −0.25 for OLS and −0.23 for 2SLS regression, respectively. For the period 1991–2002, this elasticity estimate rose to −1.32 and −1.34 for OLS and 2SLS regression, respectively. These results suggest that a marked structural decline in the demand for regular labour has occurred since 1991 that raises questions about the appropriateness of labour laws and minimum wage legislation that have increased the cost of regular farm labour in South Africa.

Mamdani and the politics of migrant labor in South Africa: Durban dockworkers and the difference that geography makes

One of the more notable attempts to understand the civil violence that affected large parts of the South African province of KwaZulu–Natal in the late 1980s and early 1990s was that of Mahmood Mamdani. Mamdani framed the violence with respect to his arguments about the bifurcated state. In areas subject to the customary rule of the chiefs, Africans acquired identities around ethnicity, patriarchy, and the tribal. Experience as migrant workers in the cities of South Africa brought them into contact with different political agendas working against their own interests as migrant workers. It was in this context that the Zulu nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) tried to mobilize them against supporters of the African National Congress through an appeal to these traditional identities. Mamdani has a geography, therefore, but it is a quite simplified one. In particular, he abstracts from the variable way in which migrant workers put down roots in the urban areas; there are also complications resulting from quite sharp regional differences in KwaZulu–Natal. Drawing on a sample of (migrant) Durban dockworkers, what we find is that support for the IFP is indeed related to traditional identities. The translation into voting is more complex, however. Regardless of identity or urbanizing status, no migrant workers from the south of KwaZulu–Natal vote for the IFP. It is only among those from the old Zulu heartland in the north of the province that urbanization seems to be related to voting preference.

An inquiry into factors impacting on the competitiveness of the South African wine industry

This article is aiming to provide a comprehensive and understandable statement about the competitiveness of the South African wine industry. A measurement of the competitive performance of the South African wine industry—the WINE COMPETITIVENESS INDEX (WCI)—indicates that South Africa's wines are internationally highly competitive with a sustainable and increasing positive trend over recent years. The wine industry in South Africa also shows positive trends in competitiveness in the long run and it should not lose its competitiveness status in the near future if its dynamic ability to continue to trade is sustained. An analyse of the key success factors that established competitive advantage and constraints that impacted negatively on competitiveness of the wine industry through the—WINE EXECUTIVE SURVEY (WES)—indicates that for the present intense competition in the market, the production of affordable high quality products, stringent regulatory standards in the industry, efficient supporting industries, and the availability of internationally competitive local suppliers of primary inputs are the major success factors to the competitiveness of this industry. The major factors that impact negatively on the competitive success of this industry are the strong Rand, fluctuations in the exchange rate, trust in the political support system, competence of personnel in the public sector, crime, South Africa's labour policy and the growth and size of the local market. These factors should be crafted into a Strategic Plan for the industry.