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News & Views by Terry Bell
The editor who was a spy
One of the most successful agents of South Africa's apartheid state was the editor in chief of the country’s leading Sunday newspaper, the Sunday Times. This claim is contained in a book by veteran journalist John Matisonn to be released this week.
Posted in: Book Reviews
Time to learn lessons — & face reality
November 29, 2015
True shopfloor democracy and the tolerance of difference may be the only hope left to halt a slide toward irrelevance for South Africa's major trade union federation. And there are lessons to be learned from recent events in Britain.
Posted in: Inside Labour Column
High cost of death for the living
October 4, 2015
Most South African families feel compelled to endure the massive expense that traditional modern funerals entail. But such "traditions" are rooted in commerce and owe little or nothing to cultural prctices.
Posted in: Uncategorized
SA education: testing, love & ANA
September 27, 2015
To test or not to test? That is not the question. But it is the way the current row about basic education has largely been presented in South Africa. And it is a disaster in the making.
Posted in: Inside Labour Column
Coping with the robot revolution
September 21, 2015
If the rise of robots — the spread of automation — is killing jobs and threatening the world with disaster, how can this be seen as potentially beneficial? It’s a question that is frequently asked and seldom answered. But we should welcome developments that minimise drudgery and that produce more and better products more cheaply and efficiently — however, only if they benefit us all.
Posted in: Inside Labour Column
The foulbrood threat to Africa
September 13, 2015
South Africa’s more than R7 billion a year fruit industry is threatened with potentially massive job and financial losses. It is a looming crisis that calls for urgent and comprehensive action at governmental level before the threat, still restricted to the Western Cape province, can spread.
Posted in: Inside Labour Column
The sex work debate
September 4, 2015
Is commercialised sex a crime? Or should only those who sell their services be free of criminal prosecution while those who patronise them or who benefit in any way financially, remain guilty of a crime? Alternatively, should commercial sex be regarded as work, be decriminalised, and be subject to broadly the same labour legislation as any other legitimate means of earning a living.?
Posted in: Commentary
Terry Bell Writes 
November 29, 2015
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