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News & Views by Terry Bell
Browsing All posts tagged under »labour«
Playing games with women’s rights
August 9, 2015
Every year as August dawns there is an annual media ritual in South Africa about women’s rights and, on August 9, national Women's Day, a positive rash of declarations. But this year there was great irony in the media murmurings about national “Women’s Month” being eclipsed by news of the awarding of the 2022 winter Olympics to Beijing. And not only because China has a hardly sterling record for human as well as women’s rights.
A case of confusion, contradiction & irony
July 21, 2015
Behind a very flimsy screen of unity and cohesion promoted last week by Cosatu president S’dumo Dlamini, the divisions in the country’s largest labour federation have become even greater. And, amid a welter of contradiction and debates about constitutionality, it is not surprising that so much confusion reigns.
Don’t blame workers for managerial incompetence
May 26, 2015
Don’t blame workers for poor management. And feel some sympathy for any competent managers, whether in a large school, a government department, or parastatal who often have to deal with a legacy of maladministration, all too often accompanied by levels of corruption.
A paradox for post May Day focus
May 3, 2015
It’s a great paradox: as food production has increased, so too, has the amount of hunger in the world. And not because of a rapidly increasing population — there is actually enough food to adequately feed everyone.
Some light amid the labour gloom
April 19, 2015
News on the labour front over the recent past — and the past week — has involved ongoing infighting, death threats, an assassination and the petrol bombing of a union president’s house. Little wonder then that an important labour law development — esepcially the "three-month rule" — has gone largely unnoticed.
Eskom: wake-up call to SA govt & unions
March 22, 2015
The generating and distribution problems at South Africa's power utility, Eskom amount to perhaps the greatest crisis ever to face the country's fragile, non-racist democracy, especially given the global economic climate. It provides a wake-up call to both government and the unions.
Uncertain, rocky road ahead for SA
February 5, 2015
Looking ahead, South Africa seems to be in for a rocky — and perhaps momentous — period, both politically and on the labour front. But there are so many variables in play that what the situation will be at this time next year is anybody’s guess. Although it is more than a year away before […]
Terry Bell Writes 
The sex industry debate in SA
September 4, 2015
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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.?