A sad reflection, 50 years on

Several vital points have been missing in all the debates I have seen and heard about the strike by a section of public sector workers that ended this week.  In the first place, this was a strike by one union out of 16 in the sector and the dispute was about last year’s arbitrarily imposed […]

The poor — and children — again pay the price

(First published on Fin24 and in City Press 05/03/2023) The latest national Budget, generally lauded by business, did nothing to halt the ongoing shedding of jobs or the fact that more and more families are being thrown into abject poverty. The situation has also probably worsened over the latest period of level six load shedding, […]

Unions and an out of touch elite

(Pre-ANC conference copy published in City Press 18/12/2022; update [below] on Fin24 19/12/2022) The national — and, to some degree, international — focus this past weekend has been on Nasrec and the now established survival but potential demise of Cyril Ramaphosa as president of the governing ANC and of South Africa.  But despite the outcome, […]

The nasty role of competitive sport

First published on Fin24 an d in City Press, South Africa There can be no normal sport in an abnormal society. This was a slogan that highlighted the gross abnormality of racial discrimination in apartheid sport. But it remains as valid today, in a global society where even more liberal nation states exhibit various levels […]

Embattled SA state buys time

First published on Fin24 and in City Press, South Africa Today (Tuesday 22/11) provided a good indication of how angry and united public sector workers are at the government’s decision to unilaterally impose a 3% pay rise that all but the teacher unions have rejected.  And workers in the education sector only “very reluctantly” agreed […]

Lessons of South Africa’s Transnet strike

First published on Fin24 and in City Press on 16/10/2022 After being out of the country for two months, I have returned to find, perhaps unsurprisingly, that nothing much has changed: the trade union movement has not fragmented, crippled state owned enterprises stagger on, prominent corruption accused retain their ;positions and major political arguments continue […]

Latest in the Wayward Boy series