Economy
National Minimum Wage: Cosatu calls for R4,125 to R5,276 a month
At Cosatu’s 12th national congress, delegates resolved to support a call for a national minimum wage of between R4,125 and R5,276 a month. Here is an edited summary of the congress declaration.
Cosatu
Analysis | 2 December 2015
National minimum wage part three: the options
Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa is hosting a social dialogue between business, labour and other constituencies over setting a national minimum wage (NMW). This is the final installment of a three part series by two University of Cape Town professors.
Nicoli Nattrass and Jeremy Seekings
Analysis | 26 November 2015
What are the financial implications of insourcing at UCT?
On 28 October, University of Cape Town management signed an agreement with NEHAWU (the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union) which commits the university to employ catering, transport, cleaning, security, and maintenance workers who work at UCT but are employed by outside companies. This promise of “insourcing” came in response to longstanding worker demands, and a period of intense protest in which outsourced workers were joined by many students and some UCT staff.
Ben Stanwix
Analysis | 26 November 2015
Socialism: myths, prejudices and reality
The global economic crisis continues and makes for a widespread and desperate need among the lowly paid, the poor and the hungry for something better to look forward to.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 26 November 2015
National minimum wage part one: Comparing South Africa to other countries
Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa is hosting a social dialogue between business, labour and other constituencies over setting a national minimum wage (NMW). Minimum wages currently vary from sector to sector. A NMW would set a national wage floor applying to all workers irrespective of existing collective agreements and sectoral wage determinations. What level should the NMW be? This is the first of a three part series by two University of Cape Town professors.
Nicoli Nattrass and Jeremy Seekings
Analysis | 24 November 2015
We will close the N2, threaten fed-up residents
More than 1,000 residents of KwaMsane in Mtubatuba, KZN, took to the street last week to demand services. After years of fruitless complaints and meetings, the protesters plan to close the N2 on Thursday.
Ntombi Mbomvu
News | 23 November 2015
Meet the Senegalese man who teaches South Africans how to make and sell crafts
Seeing how many unemployed young people there are in Imizamo Yethu informal settlement, Moustapha Fall, originally from Senegal, decided to teach them craft skills.
Bernard Chiguvare
News | 23 November 2015
Living off vegetables from a dump site
Like others in Sobantu township where she lives, 42-year-old Nokhukhanya Myeza wakes up at 5am and dresses for work. But while others put on their best clothes, Myeza gets into old sneakers, torn jeans and an old T-shirt, and walks to the New England Landfill dump site in Pietermaritzburg to search and pick up food.
Ntombi Mbomvu
News | 16 November 2015
The debt machine and the politics of 0%
The current wave of student protests in South Africa has been mostly analysed from a national and local perspective.
Achille Mbembe
Opinion | 13 November 2015