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News & Views by Terry Bell
Browsing All Posts published on »November, 2012«
Some clarity — and more arms deal murk
A small part of the murk surrounding South Africa's multi-billion dollar arms deal cleared slightly, but only to reveal still greater depths to be plumbed. And it has now eerged that a Swedish businessman with a highly chequered past was also involved with all sides concerned with the controversial multi-billion dollar arms deal.
The myth of a ‘Lula moment’
November 30, 2012
Zwelinzima Vavi, general secretary of South Africa's major trade union federation, Cosatu, has proposed a "Lula moment" to defuse the country's "ticking time bomb" of poverty and unemployment. But there is a growing band of doubters who see this belief that Brazil's former president has — or had — a cure-all recipe for poverty, unemployment and economic growth as a myth.
Another front opens in SA arms deal scandal
November 27, 2012
Another crack has opened up in the facade of secrecy surrounding South Africa's controversial multi-billion dollar arms deal. It came on November 21 on Sweden’s TV4 channel in the first of two special reports by the Kalla Fakta (Cold Facts) investigative team.
Marikana, farms and forestry
November 24, 2012
There are none so blind as those that will not see. It is a saying popularised more than 300 years ago and it has had marked resonance following the bloody events at Marikana and the more recent upheavals among the fruit and wine farms of the Western Cape. At Marikana, 34 striking miners were shot […]
SA unrest: explosions waiting to happen…
November 16, 2012
There should have been no surprise or outrage expressed by mining companies, agribusiness, and government officials about the recent explosion of strikes and protests on mines and farms. And trade unionists across the board should not have been caught flat-footed by the outbursts of anger that erupted in the North West, Limpopo and now in […]
Trade unions and the need for transformation
November 8, 2012
It can be argued today that trade unions are more necessary than ever; that the organisations that played major roles in improving the political and economic lot of people around the world, have a huge task ahead of them. Yet much of the labour movement internationally is in a state of flux or stagnation and, in South Africa, there are signs of considerable disarray.
End of the “rainbow nation” fairy tale
November 6, 2012
The last remnants of the South African fairy tale were put to rest in London’s influential Frontline Club in October. A packed audience comprising mainly media workers and more than a handful of public relations and investment advisers clearly concluded that the rainbow nation was no more than a myth. Yet, once upon a time, and not very long ago, when concerned investment groups started casting about to find somewhere outside of the industrialised world to increase the size of their cash piles, they looked to South Africa.
A Cold War shadow looms in South Africa
November 6, 2012
In the face of the ongoing global economic crisis, with massive unemployment and a wage and welfare gap perhaps second to none anywhere, South Africa is now confronting the shadow of the Cold War. And it looms large in the background, despite most of the current media focus on the recent strike wave and the impending elective conference of the governing African National Congress.
Terry Bell Writes 
November 30, 2012
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