Previous page | New search |
The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here
Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Great expectations: working conditions in South Africa since the end of apartheid |
Authors: | Pons-Vignon, Nicolas Anseeuw, Ward |
Year: | 2009 |
Periodical: | Journal of Southern African Studies |
Volume: | 35 |
Issue: | 4 |
Pages: | 883-899 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | working conditions economic policy |
External link: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03057070903313236 |
Abstract: | The end of apartheid created great expectations for the majority of South Africans in terms of political, but also social and economic change. Now, 15 years into democracy, many feel that their expectations have not been met, and their frustration is turning violent, as demonstrated by several large-scale strikes since 2006. This article explores these frustrations through the evolutions that have taken place in the workplace - a central locus of exploitation under apartheid - since the late 1980s; it highlights the necessity of an analysis that goes beyond the sole prism of labour market legislation. Drawing on extensive empirical research, it focuses on the evolution of working conditions in three key sectors of the South African economy - mining, forestry and agriculture. It argues that the postapartheid era has witnessed a marked increase in the precariousness of workers' status and situations. Despite formal labour market regulation, processes of externalization have been pervasive, turning previously oppressed wage labourers into poor, casualized workers eking a living in a liberalized economy. South Africa's social and economic policies have decisively contributed to this outcome. The paradox is all the more significant when it is pitted against the high expectations associated with the transition; it epitomizes the difficult restructuring of South African society and the uncertainty surrounding its future. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract, edited] |