The South African Informal Economy

2021 ◽  
pp. 756-776
Author(s):  
Michael Rogan ◽  
Caroline Skinner
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
South African ◽  
Informal Economy ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Large Degree ◽  
The South ◽  
Informal Workers ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
Key Policy ◽  
Degree Of Heterogeneity

The literature and key policy debates on the South African informal economy are reviewed through the lens of Chen’s taxonomy of informal economy debates into legalist, dualist, voluntarist, and structuralist schools of thought. Previous insights are supplemented with an empirical analysis of the South African informal economy, using Statistics South Africa’s Quarterly Labour Force Surveys. Together these analyses suggest that the post-apartheid informal economy is characterized by a large degree of heterogeneity by status in employment and sectoral distribution and is highly gendered in its segmentation. Further, earnings are low for all but a few groups of informal workers. Much of the existing evidence also suggests that, somewhat in contrast to conventional economic theory, the South African informal economy does not absorb newcomers easily, and particularly not in times of crisis. The chapter concludes by reflecting on the primary thrust of post-apartheid policy and by examining South Africa’s response to the global call to promote the formalization of the informal economy.

Mozambican Labour Regimes and the Eastern Main Line

2021 ◽  
pp. 37-56
Author(s):  
Charles van Onselen
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Mining Industry ◽  
Main Line ◽  
Market Forces ◽  
The South ◽  
Forced Labour ◽  
Line P ◽  
Voluntary Basis ◽  
Low Wages

The South African mining industry profited from the slave- and forced-labour regimes that preceded it in the adjacent Portuguese colony of Mozambique. Many of the earliest migrants were part of a labour force ‘recruited’ through coercion. Black Mozambicans later preferred to work as cheap, indentured migrant labourers rather than face working for no or low wages in their own country. The chapter explains how this helped underpin the illusion that black labour was somehow free, mobile and voluntary. But as southern Mozambique became progressively more underdeveloped economically, the need to coerce black labour became less necessary and the system was said to be operating on a wholly voluntary basis as part of an economy dominated by ‘market forces’.

scholarly journals The assessment of joint purchasing: Can too much ‘buying power’ ever be a problem

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 113-132
Author(s):  
Paul Anderson ◽  
Fatima Fiandeiro ◽  
Keshav Choudhary
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
South African ◽  
Welfare Effects ◽  
Selling Price ◽  
The South ◽  
Direct Benefits ◽  
Legal Perspective ◽  
Per Se ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Monopsony Power

The creation of ‘buying power’ through joint purchasing agreements is often seen as positive, with direct benefits for consumers in the form of lower prices. Even where joint purchasing agreements lead to the creation of a monopsonist, economic theory suggests that the welfare effects of monopsony power depend greatly on the market context, with some economists proposing that the probability of harm in cases involving monopsony power is considerably lower than in cases of a monopoly. Despite this view, section 4(1)(b) of the South African Competition Act classifies the ‘fixing of a purchase or selling price or any other trading condition’ by competitors as a per se prohibition. This implies that from a legal perspective purchasing agreements may be afforded the same draconian treatment as selling cartels. This paper considers whether this potentially punitive treatment of joint buying arrangements under section 4(1)(b) is warranted and indeed whether the equivalent treatment of joint buying and selling agreements under this section of the Act is appropriate.

The Recruiting of Chinese Indentured Labour for the South African Gold-Mines, 1903–1908

1977 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
South African ◽  
Vertical Integration ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Mining Industry ◽  
The South ◽  
Gold Mines ◽  
South African War ◽  
Northern Chinese ◽  
High Degree

One of the responses of the Transvaal gold mining industry to the economic crisis after the South African War of 1899–1902 was to import Chinese indentured mine labour. To facilitate this process and to integrate it with the overall demands and requirements of the industry, the mining companies established a recruiting and shipping company in 1904, known as the Chamber of Mines Labour Importation Agency. This short-lived company, which was characterized by a high degree of vertical integration, operated as recruiting and shipping agency in China, receiving agent in Natal and co-ordinating and advising agent in the Transvaal. Despite complex arrangements designed to exploit the Chinese labour market, the company was, generally speaking, successful in securing the requisite labour force of suitable size and quality for the Transvaal mines. However, it showed a longer-term susceptibility to competitive pressures in the northern Chinese labour market. The company was amalgamated with WNLA in 1908.

scholarly journals Graduate unemployment in South Africa: Perspectives from the banking sector

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Faith Oluwajodu ◽  
Derick Blaauw ◽  
Lorraine Greyling ◽  
Ewert P.J. Kleynhans
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Banking Sector ◽  
Survey Design ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
The South ◽  
Problems And Solutions ◽  
African Context ◽  
Value Add ◽  
Graduate Unemployment

Orientation: South Africa is experiencing growth in its graduate labour force, but graduateunemployment is rising with the overall unemployment rate. Graduate unemployment isproblematic, because it wastes scarce human capital, which is detrimental to the economy inthe long run.Research purpose: This study explores the perceived causes of graduate unemployment fromthe perspective of the South African banking sector.Motivation for the study: Researchers have conducted various studies on graduateunemployment in South Africa and across the globe, but few studies have beenconducted on the causes of graduate unemployment. There appear to be some gaps in theliterature; therefore, other problems and solutions to graduate unemployment have to beexploredResearch approach, design and method: The researchers followed a survey design. Questionnaires and face-to-face interviews were used as research instruments to identify theperceived causes of graduate unemployment in the banking sector of South Africa. Researchparticipants were unemployed graduates, recently employed graduates and graduaterecruitment managers in the banking sector.Main findings: The study shows that several factors are perceived to be the causes of graduateunemployment in the South African banking sector. These include: skills, institution attendedby graduate and differences in expectations from employers and graduates.Practical/managerial application: The findings have implications for educational institutionsand companies that are encouraged to consider possible solutions to resolving the causes ofgraduate unemployment.Contribution/value-add: This study is one of the first papers to investigate the causes ofgraduate unemployment in the South African banking sector. It provides a rich platform forfurther studies and replication in other sectors, especially within the African context.

Gendered inequalities in the South African informal economy

Agenda ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 91-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Rogan ◽  
Laura Alfers
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Informal Economy ◽  
The South

scholarly journals Is Informal Sector Employment Marginal to Formal Sector Growth?

2012 ◽  
Vol 51 (4II) ◽  
pp. 543-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadia Tahir ◽  
Pervez Tahir
Keyword(s):  
Informal Sector ◽  
Informal Economy ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Value Added ◽  
The State ◽  
Formal Sector ◽  
Informal Workers ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
The Government

Pakistan has adopted a neoliberal regime to open the economy to global competition and reduce the role of the state. This directional change brought increased flow of overseas remittances, speculative investment, and consumerism. Consequently, the economy in mid-2000s grew but commodity-producing sector contracted. Public sector spending has been falling, especially on social sectors. There are inadequate provisions for social security and employment based income guarantees. However, this growth and stability was short lived and there is now a fragile state and slowing economy. In the absence of an effective regulatory role of the state, and due to the failure in developing a long-term strategy to harness the labour force potential, there is a huge informal sector existing side by side with the formal economy. Almost 22 million of the employed labour force is earning its livelihood in streets and the government has no record of it. The informal workers can be categorised as self-employed workers and wage workers, doing diversified jobs from petty traders to small producers and from rickshaw driver to shoe shiners. It is difficult to measure the value added contribution of the informal sector in Pakistan. Indirect estimation approaches on the basis of employment and hours worked have been used to estimate the contribution of informal economy. For instance, Idris (2008) estimates the share at 36.8 percent of GNP, which is significant. Arby, Malik and Hanif (2010) measured the size of informal economy in Pakistan through a monetary approach. They find that the size has declined considerably.

A business model to overcome barriers to entry in the South African downstream petroleum industry

2005 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 4-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
JKJ Mokoena ◽  
PJD Lloyd
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Market Share ◽  
Petroleum Industry ◽  
Barriers To Entry ◽  
The South ◽  
Policy Objective ◽  
Oil Companies ◽  
Key Policy ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact

The South African downstream petroleum industry was in the hands of Whites and Multinational Oil Companies during the apartheid era. Many Historically Disadvantaged South Africans (HDSA’s) were excluded from the mainstream industry through, among other instruments, laws passed by the government such as the Petroleum Products Act 120 of 1977. Against this background, the newly elected democratic government instituted a policy process aimed at restructuring and transforming the petroleum industry to allow HDSA’s to enter the industry, in order to achieve sustainable presence, ownership and control of approximately a quarter of the industry by previously disadvantaged individuals. Since the introduction of this process, which culminated in the release of the White Paper on the Energy Policy of the Republic of South Africa (1998), little progress has been made towards achieving this government’s key policy objective. Instead, there is still little entry into the industry by HDSA’s, and the Black Oil Companies (BOC’s) that are in the industry continue to struggle to increase their market share. This paper discusses the possible constraints on achieving the objective, by looking at barriers that impede HDSA’s from entering the industry and BOC’s from increasing their market share significantly. There are three possible categories of barriers in the downstream petroleum industry, namely, economic barriers to entry, noneconomic barriers, and cross-sectoral barriers to entry, which are discussed in this paper. These categories of barriers prevent entry by HDSA’s into the industry and hinder BOC’s from increasing their market share. To circumvent these barriers, and in order to make progress towards achieving the government’s key policy objective of control by approximately a quarter of the HDSA’s, a black economic empowerment model was developed. This model seeks to increase the market share of the BOC’s and the presence of the HDSA’s in the industry in a sustainable way without significantly harming the multinational oil companies. It foresees Government licensing BOC’s to purchase up to 5% of the existing South African fuel demand at an Import Parity Price (IPP) that is significantly less than the Basic Fuel Price (BFP). The reason for this difference is that the BFP is based upon the supply of the totality of South Africa’s needs from elsewhere, whereas the IPP merely supplies up to 5% of South Africa’s needs, and can therefore source the product from refineries that are closer, so reducing the transport component. The impact of the loss of 5% of the internal market for petrol and diesel on the revenues of the MOC’s is less than 0.5%, because the difference between the IPP and BFP is a small fraction of the BFP. 

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