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News & Views by Terry Bell
A reason for sadness at the death of F.W. de Klerk
Had justice and the rule of law prevailed in South Africa in 1993, Frederick Willem — FW — de Klerk, the last apartheid president, would have been in jail and not flying to Oslo to be jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela. He, alongside a number of other ministerial securocrats, would have […]
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An horrendous, but unquantifiable Covid-19 cost
November 15, 2021
(First published as Inside Labour on Fin24, September 19, 2021) The newest coronavirus, in whatever variation, has underscored one outstanding fact: that there is a single human race on this planet that was unequally prepared, but quite equally threatened, by a pandemic. It seems to give added resonance to that fundamental call of the labour […]
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A reason for sadness at the death of FW de Klefrk
November 15, 2021
Had justice and the rule of law prevailed in South Africa in 1993, Frederick Willem — FW — de Klerk, the last apartheid president, would have been in jail and not flying to Oslo to be jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela. He, alongside a number of other ministerial securocrats, would have […]
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The tech conundrum for labour
September 7, 2021
(First published on Fin24 & in City Press, South Africa) Shoprite, South Africa’s largest food retailer and a major employer, is on course to launch fully automated supermarket checkouts. And that announcement last week should have sent shivers of apprehension throughout the working class and trade union movement, especially coming in the same week that […]
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Job or jab? It really is as simple as that
August 22, 2021
(First published on the Fin24 website and in City Press) No Covid-19 vaccination equals no job. Nor any welcome in any public gathering. That — allowing for a tiny minority of individual exceptions for legitimate medical reasons — would not only be legal, it would be the morally correct way forward. And trade unions in […]
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A diet of bananas on the cusp of history
August 22, 2021
Reflections of a Wayward Boy (Available on Daily the Maverick site) Fascinating as the island of Fernando Po (now Bioko) was, with its sea-breached volcanic crater harbour, loomed over by the lushly green decked bulk of the Pico Basilé (formerly Pico de Santa Isabel) mountain, its history and its people, Barbara and I had no […]
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Covid-19 vaccination: ethical & legal
August 16, 2021
A diplomatic and scientifically based educational approach by trade unions that highlights health and safety legislation, along with regulations gazetted by the government in June should finally put paid to the claim by anti-vaccination campaigners that workers may refuse, with impunity, to be vaccinated., For the most part, this claim is based on a misrepresentation […]
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Forgotten heroes of Women’s Day
August 16, 2021
To promote their own narrow interests, political and commercial organisations frequently hijack national and international high days and holidays, in the process creating myths and distorting history. Women’s Day, both national and international, are classic examples. …………………………………… March 8 — International Women’s Day (IWD) — came and went, with the history and purpose of the […]
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Terry Bell Writes 
November 15, 2021
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