Rise of workers
BLACK workers – have a sad history of exploitation at the hands of white bosses. Systematic patterns of abuse started almost as soon as the first white colonialists arrived at the southern tip of Africa in 1652.
We believe it has not stopped even though South Africa now calls itself a democracy.
Exploitation of black people started with the Dutch trying to turn the indigenous Khoikhoi and San people into servants. It continued with slavery and persisted with the system of inboekselings, where black children in the interior were kidnapped by Boer land-grabbers and turned into “apprentices” (slaves).
And it continued further into the 1900s, with the promulgation of legislation – most notably the 1913 Natives Land Act – which aimed to drive black people off their land and into wage labour. During World War I and its aftermath, there were a number of strikes by white and black workers.
In May 1918, when 152 black sanitary workers, the so-called “bucket boys”, went on strike, they were arrested and told by Johannesburg’s chief magistrate that they would not be paid for three months – in addition, they would be shot if they deserted and flogged if they refused to work.
IN 1922, white mineworkers, marching under the slogan of “Workers of the world fight and unite for a white South Africa”, fought running battles with armed forces of the government of Jan Smuts.
Pushing and pulling between state and workers continued into the turbulent 1970s and ‘80s.
In 1972, a wave of strikes began in Durban, and eventually led to the appointment of two commissions of inquiry – one under Nic Wiehahn, which urged the government to recognise black trade unions, and the other under Piet Riekert, which recommended freedom of movement for black workers.
The state’s response led to the formation of Cosatu in 1985. After the fall of apartheid, initial optimism that black workers would at last break the shackles of poverty wages quickly dissipated. Twenty-four years into our democracy, workers are as poor as they’ve ever been.
Whatever business and some political parties may argue, the national minimum wage of R3 500 a month is an insult. Perhaps the time has arrived for workers to flex their muscles once more.