Decent Work Fundamentalism and Job Destruction in the South African Clothing Manufacturing Industry

2019 ◽  
pp. 101-138
Author(s):  
Nicoli Nattrass ◽  
Jeremy Seekings
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
South African ◽  
Manufacturing Industry ◽  
Minimum Wages ◽  
Decent Work ◽  
The South ◽  
Rise Of China ◽  
History Of ◽  
Wage Regulation ◽  
Regional Location

Chapter 6 reviews the history of collective bargaining in the South African clothing manufacturing industry. We show that its profoundly dualist character (high- and low-productivity firms co-existing) has historical and market-related roots and highlight the role of wage policy during and after apartheid in shaping the regional location of firms. The rise of China as a global producer of clothing had a profound impact on the South African industry—but it was the simultaneous introduction of national collective bargaining and the enforcement of minimum wages on relatively low-wage labour-intensive firms that drove the job losses. We describe the 2010/11 ‘compliance drive’ that resulted in legal action against the National Bargaining Council for the Clothing Manufacturing Industry by low-wage employers, including the Chinese firms (that is, owned by people who originated from Taiwan, Hong Kong, or China) in Newcastle seeking to obtain relief from the imposition of sector-wide minimum wages on their labour-intensive firms. Whilst trade union strategy as well as government policy adapted to some extent and many employers transformed their enterprises into workers’ co-operatives, that is to circumvent wage regulation, the outcome was nonetheless the preclusion of employment growth in this crucial sector.

scholarly journals Kollektiewe bedinging binne die Suid-Afrikaanse vervaardigingsbedryftak

1984 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. O. L. Kamffer ◽  
B. C. Lessing ◽  
M. M. Fouché
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
South African ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Manufacturing Industry ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
West Germany ◽  
Development Work ◽  
The South ◽  
Differences Of Opinion

A comparative literary study of the collective bargaining systems of four countries (U.S.A., Britain, West Germany and South Africa) is presented in order to facilitate the identification of conflict issues in the South African collective system. 165 Employers and 75 trade unions in the South African manufacturing industry were used as u randomly selected sample. A Likert questionnaire was designed to measure the attitudes of the sample employers and unions regarding conflict issues. The results indicate strong differences of opinion between the participating groups about the efficiency of the present industrial relations and collective bargaining systems in South Africa. An explanation for obtained results is given and recommendations for further research and development work are made. OpsommingDie gebrek aan konsensus aangaande 'n ideale nywerheidsverhoudinge en kollektiewe bedingingsisteem vir Suid-Afrika kan toegeskryf word aan die verskillende houdings van die onderskeie partye daarby betrokke. Dit lei op sy beurt weer tot konflik tussen die onderskeie partye. 'n Vergelykende literatuurstudie van die kollektiewe bedingingsisteem van vier lande (tewete V.S.A. Brittanje, Wes-Duitsland en Suid-Afrika) is gedoen ten einde konflikaan- geleenthede in die Suid-Afrikaanse kollektiewe bedingingsisteem te identifiseer. 'n Ewekansige steekproef van 165 werkgewers en 75 vakbonde in die Suid-Afrikaanse vervaardigingsbedryfstak is in die studie betrek. Die houdinge aangaande die geïdentifiseerde onflikaangeleenthede is met behulp van 'n Likertvraelys verkry. Die resultate dui op sterk meningsverskille tussen die deelnemende groepe omtrent die doeltreffendheid van die bestaande nywerheids verhoudinge en kollektiewe bedingingstelsel in Suid-Afrika. Aanbevelings vir toekomstige navorsing en ontwikkelingswerk word gemaak.

Postcolonial Liberation: Decolonizing Biblical Studies in the South African Postcolony

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald O. West
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
The South ◽  
Biblical Hermeneutics ◽  
The Bible ◽  
African Black ◽  
History Of ◽  
Land Economics ◽  
The 1960S

Liberation biblical interpretation and postcolonial biblical interpretation have a long history of mutual constitution. This essay analyzes a particular context in which these discourses and their praxis have forged a third conversation partner: decolonial biblical interpretation. African and specifically South African biblical hermeneutics are the focus of reflections in this essay. The South African postcolony is a “special type” of postcolony, as the South African Communist Party argued in the 1960s. The essay charts the characteristics of the South African postcolony and locates decolonial biblical interpretation within the intersections of these features. Race, culture, land, economics, and the Bible are forged in new ways by contemporary social movements, such as #FeesMustFall. South African biblical studies continues to draw deeply on the legacy of South African black theology, thus reimagining African biblical studies as decolonial African biblical studies—a hybrid of African liberation and African postcolonial biblical interpretation.

scholarly journals Factors that Inhibit Sustainable Adoption of Industry 4.0 in the South African Manufacturing Industry

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1013
Author(s):  
Whisper Maisiri ◽  
Liezl van Dyk ◽  
Rojanette Coeztee
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Education System ◽  
Industry 4.0 ◽  
Manufacturing Industry ◽  
Youth Unemployment ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
The South ◽  
Qualitative Descriptive ◽  
Cultural Construct ◽  
Sub Saharan

Industry 4.0 (I4.0) adoption in the manufacturing industry is on the rise across the world, resulting in increased empirical research on barriers and drivers to I4.0 adoption in specific country contexts. However, no similar studies are available that focus on the South African manufacturing industry. Our small-scale interview-based qualitative descriptive study aimed at identifying factors that may inhibit sustainable adoption of I4.0 in the country’s manufacturing industry. The study probed the views and opinions of 16 managers and specialists in the industry, as well as others in supportive roles. Two themes emerged from the thematic analysis: factors that inhibit sustainable adoption of I4.0 and strategies that promote I4.0 adoption in the South African manufacturing industry. The interviews highlighted cultural construct, structural inequalities, noticeable youth unemployment, fragmented task environment, and deficiencies in the education system as key inhibitors. Key strategies identified to promote sustainable adoption of I4.0 include understanding context and applying relevant technologies, strengthening policy and regulatory space, overhauling the education system, and focusing on primary manufacturing. The study offers direction for broader investigations of the specific inhibitors to sustainable I4.0 adoption in the sub-Saharan African developing countries and the strategies for overcoming them.

scholarly journals The Representation of Religion in Religion Education: Notes from the South African Periphery

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdulkader Tayob
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Educational Practice ◽  
The South ◽  
Policy Document ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Representation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Pluralistic Approach ◽  
Religion In Public Life

Scholars of Religion Education (RE) have promoted a non-confessional approach to the teaching of religions that explores and examines the religious history of humankind, with due attention paid to its complexity and plurality. In this promotion, the public representation of religion and its impact on RE has not received sufficient attention. An often hegemonic representation of religion constitutes an important part of religion in public life. Moreover, this article argues that this representation is a phenomenon shared by secular, secularizing, and deeply religious societies. It shows that a Western understanding of secularization has guided dominant RE visions and practices, informed by a particular mode of representation. As an illustration of how education in and representation of religion merges in RE, the article analyses the South African policy document for religion education. While the policy promotes RE as an educational practice, it also makes room for a representation of religion. This article urges that various forms of the representation of religion should be more carefully examined in other contexts, particularly by those who want to promote a non-confessional and pluralistic approach to RE.

scholarly journals Over Hesperiaanse Melancholie: Eugène Nielen Marais en de Geschiedenis van een poëtische Gemoedsgesteldheid

Werkwinkel ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-73
Author(s):  
Ruben van Luijk
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Human Behaviour ◽  
Field Observations ◽  
The South ◽  
Morphine Addiction ◽  
History Of ◽  
Human Psyche ◽  
American Psychoanalytic Association

Abstract The article gives a brief ‘idea history’ of Hesperian melancholy a.k.a. Hesperian depression, the fleeting state of dejection that some humans and animals experience at dusk. The term was apparently coined by the South African poet and naturalist Eugene Marais (1871-1936), who noticed the phenomenon during his field observations of baboons. Marais' observations of primates were in the first place an attempt to shed more light on the evolutionary roots of the human psyche and its afflictions - not in the least his own. A personal focus seems probable in his notes on the use of euphoria-inducing substances among animals and humans, which are an evident reflection of his own morphine addiction; but also in his writings about Hesperian depression. During his lifetime, Marais only published about Hesperian depression twice, once in a very concise article in English, and once in more elaborate form in Afrikaans. The term ‘Hesperian depression’ only became more current when his manuscript on primate behaviour, The Soul of the Ape, was posthumously published in 1963. Since then, the term and its description sometimes appear in (popular) publications of paleobiologists and scholars of the evolution of human behaviour. In psychology and psychiatry, the term was introduced by the eminent American psychoanalyst William G. Niederlander, who presented it in a 1971 article in Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association as an idea of his own. It is evident, however, that he took his cue from Marais, who thus was posthumously plagiarized.

Evolution of South Africa's Racist Constitutions and the 1983 Constitution

1987 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-23
Author(s):  
Xia Jisheng
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
State Law ◽  
The South ◽  
Constitutional Development ◽  
The Third ◽  
Fundamental State ◽  
History Of ◽  
South African Constitution

Since the enforcement of 1983 constitution, several years have passed. The 1983 constitution is the third constitution since the founding of the Union of South Africa in 1910. By observing the history of the constitutional development in more than seventy years in South Africa and the content of the current South African constitution, it is not difficult to find out that the constitution, as a fundamental state law, is an important weapon of racism. South Africa's white regime consistandy upholds and consolidates its racist rule by adopting and implementing constitutions. The aim of this article is to analyze and expose the essence of the South African racist system in mis aspect.

scholarly journals Kerk, volk en owerheid in die 1858-grondwet van die Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek

1995 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
W. A. Dreyer
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
South African ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
The South ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of The South ◽  
The Church

Church, people and government in the  1858 constitution of the South African Republic During the years 1855 to 1858 the South African Republic in the Transvaal created a new constitution. In this constitution a unique relation-ship between church, people and government was visible. This relationship was influenced by the Calvinist confessions of the sixteenth century, the theology of W ά Brakel and orthodox Calvinism, the federal concepts of the Old Testament and republican ideas of the Netherlands and Cape Patriots. It becomes clear that the history of the church in the Transvaal was directly influenced by the general history of the South African Republic.

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