With the winter in full effect, people are queuing in petrol stations for paraffin, filling up their gas tanks but most importantly using even more electricity in their homes.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 10 July 2013
Trade unions are irresponsible and greedy, demanding double digit pay rises and so driving up inflation and threatening the stability of the currency and the economy. And while they criticise government policies, protest about the system or refuse immediately to accept government brokered deals, they provide no adequate explanations or alternatives.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 10 July 2013
The advice of the Italian revolutionary, Antonio Gramsci constantly comes to mind these days: 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 | 2 July 2013
It is the 100th anniversary of the Natives Land Act. We spoke to Ben Cousins, a professor at the University of Western Cape and founder of the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies.
Camila Osorio
News | 26 June 2013
Jack Lewis argues that government's transformation plan is based on identity politics and is misguided. He asks people on the political left to speak out against it.
Jack Lewis
Opinion | 19 June 2013
For all the sound and fury of the current fight between poultry producers and meat importers, their dispute may turn out to be only a minor skirmish in what promises to be a war of words and protest action aimed at securing the high ground of economic policy. And central to this will be the question of land.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 19 June 2013
The annual wage bargaining season — erroneously labelled the “strike season” — is upon us. Workers around the country, through their unions and in bargaining councils and bilateral negotiations with employers, are determining wages and conditions for the coming year or more.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 12 June 2013
“Confusion hath made his masterpiece.” That quote from Shakespeare’s Macbeth seems perfectly to sum up the statements, comments, reports and machinations surrounding the Cosatu executive committee meeting last week.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 5 June 2013
Potentially turbulent and conflicting currents among trade union federations have been exposed following an attempt by deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe to calm troubled labour relations waters.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 29 May 2013
Residents of Barcelona informal settlement are living a sanitation nightmare. The company contracted to remove the bucket toilets, Sannicare, has been hit by industrial action and no resolution is in sight.
GroundUp Staff with assistance from Tebello Mzamoand Fergus Turner
News | 29 May 2013
In recent columns I have mentioned the frightening statistic from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) that, on a global level, more than 120 million men and women are now without work — and will probably never work again. This week, an updated figure arrived from the ILO: there are now more than 200 million people who are jobless and with little hope of their circumstances changing.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 27 May 2013
The trade union movement is in a state of flux, with concepts such as centralised bargaining and the “winner takes all” approach of majority — 50 per cent plus one — unionism now being challenged. “Agency shop” agreements whereby majority unions take a slice of the subscriptions paid by members of smaller unions, let alone the much bigger question of party political alignments are also being seriously debated.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 21 May 2013
At the best of times, grassroots democracy, without sound communications infrastructure and the distribution of accurate information, can be a messy business. Add to this, dollops of rumour, some perceptions bordering on paranoia, various interest groups promoting different agendas, a history of distrust and memories of recent bloodshed and you have Marikana and much of the platinum belt today.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 20 May 2013
Low-income earners are people who are unemployed or those making just enough to get by on a single or joint monthly income. What do banks really offer these South Africans?
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 15 May 2013
On Monday Cape Town bus drivers ended their strike after 25 days. They had asked for a wage increase of 18% but settled for a preliminary increase of 9.5% which will increase to 10% from October. What does the strike reveal about how poor people get around in Cape Town, particularly for disabled people?
Nkosikhona SwartbooiAndiswa Hala
News | 15 May 2013
South Africa ruffled political feathers in April this year, after it made it unlawful for Israeli settlement products sold locally to be labelled as "made in Israel". All products made by Israeli businesses operating illegally in the settlements must now be labelled according to where they were produced in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. This is in accordance with international law and South African foreign policy.
Jonathan Dockney
Opinion | 15 May 2013