A dream deferred

It is often said in mainstream media that workers are overpaid and over-protected. The truth is different. The fight against apartheid was centred around workers’ struggles and that’s one reason why these rights are in the constitution.

But in 1996, the year the Constitution was finalised, the South African government introduced the free market Growth Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) programme.

State entities were privatised or commercialised; jobs were outsourced, casualised, or lost and workers’ rights were eroded. While most workers suffered, prominent trade unionists were given top government jobs, and corporate shares. As wages fell, and unions weakened, workers fought back.

Recent years have seen huge struggles, sometimes successful, sometimes in the face of repression, like the Marikana massacre. Public institutions are also affected. For example, many at government universities are employed by private companies, on a contract basis, with low pay. The public sector wage bill has reached 36% of the national budget, but this figure includes the lavish salaries of managers and politicians at the top.

The majority of workers at the bottom get only a small share. Even worse, because of privatisation and neo-liberalism, poor working class communities lack basic services, and access to proper education and healthcare.

Black and Coloured workers’ families, especially, are trapped in poverty. The dream of a living wage, and dignity, has been deferred. •PhillipNyalunguisreading towardsthePost-Graduate DiplomainJournalism&Media

StudiesatRhodesUniversity.