Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Editorial Note
- FIRST KEYNOTE ADDRESS: Fragmentation and Cohesion in the ANC: The First 70 Years
- SECOND KEYNOTE ADDRESS: A Continuing Search for Identity: Carrying the Burden of History
- Chapter One One Hundred Years of the ANC: Debating Struggle History After Apartheid
- Chapter Two Religion And Resistance In Natal, 1900–1910
- Chapter Three Christianity and African Nationalism in South Africa in the First Half of the Twentieth Century
- Chapter Four Charlotte Maxeke: A Celebrated and Neglected Figure in History
- Chapter Five Imagining the Patriotic Worker: The Idea of ‘Decent Work’ in the ANC's Political Discourse
- Chapter Six Popular Movements, Contentious Spaces and the ANC, 1943–1956
- Chapter Seven Unravelling the 1947 ‘Doctors’ Pact’: Race, Metonymy and the Evasions of Nationalist History
- Chapter Eight The Politics of Language and Chief Albert Luthuli's funeral, 30 July 1967
- Chapter Nine Robben Island University Revisited
- Chapter Ten Shishita: A Crisis in the ANC in Exile in Zambia, 1980–811
- Chapter Eleven Comrade Mzwai
- Chapter Twelve Revisiting Sekhukhuneland: Trajectories of Former UDF Activists in Post-Apartheid South Africa
- Chapter Thirteen Regeneration of ANC Political Power, from the 1994 Electoral Victory to the 2012 Centenary
- Chapter Fourteen The ANC: Party Vanguard of the Black Middle Class?
- Chapter Fifteen Globalisation, Recolonisation and the Paradox of Liberation in Southern Africa
- Contributors
- Index
Chapter Five - Imagining the Patriotic Worker: The Idea of ‘Decent Work’ in the ANC's Political Discourse
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 April 2018
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Editorial Note
- FIRST KEYNOTE ADDRESS: Fragmentation and Cohesion in the ANC: The First 70 Years
- SECOND KEYNOTE ADDRESS: A Continuing Search for Identity: Carrying the Burden of History
- Chapter One One Hundred Years of the ANC: Debating Struggle History After Apartheid
- Chapter Two Religion And Resistance In Natal, 1900–1910
- Chapter Three Christianity and African Nationalism in South Africa in the First Half of the Twentieth Century
- Chapter Four Charlotte Maxeke: A Celebrated and Neglected Figure in History
- Chapter Five Imagining the Patriotic Worker: The Idea of ‘Decent Work’ in the ANC's Political Discourse
- Chapter Six Popular Movements, Contentious Spaces and the ANC, 1943–1956
- Chapter Seven Unravelling the 1947 ‘Doctors’ Pact’: Race, Metonymy and the Evasions of Nationalist History
- Chapter Eight The Politics of Language and Chief Albert Luthuli's funeral, 30 July 1967
- Chapter Nine Robben Island University Revisited
- Chapter Ten Shishita: A Crisis in the ANC in Exile in Zambia, 1980–811
- Chapter Eleven Comrade Mzwai
- Chapter Twelve Revisiting Sekhukhuneland: Trajectories of Former UDF Activists in Post-Apartheid South Africa
- Chapter Thirteen Regeneration of ANC Political Power, from the 1994 Electoral Victory to the 2012 Centenary
- Chapter Fourteen The ANC: Party Vanguard of the Black Middle Class?
- Chapter Fifteen Globalisation, Recolonisation and the Paradox of Liberation in Southern Africa
- Contributors
- Index
Summary
It is a proposition submitted to employ [the natives’] minds on simple questions in connection with local affairs; it is a proposition to remove the liquor pest; and last, but not least, by the gentle stimulant of the labour tax to remove them from a life of sloth and laziness; you will thus teach them the dignity of labour, and make them contribute to the prosperity of the state. (Cecil Rhodes, describing the aims of the 1894 Glen Grey Act)
The able-bodied should enjoy the opportunity, the dignity and the rewards of work. We would rather create work opportunities than have an income grant. (Joel Netshitenzhe, member of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress and head of the Government Communication and Information Systems, 2002)
The policy case for a massive programme of public employment in South Africa is strong … What is required is a fiscal and policy commitment to build the institutions and capacity required to take this to scale, as a vital part of rebuilding a sense of the dignity of labour amongst those who have no alternatives. (Presidency of the Republic of South Africa, Towards an Anti-Poverty Strategy for South Africa: Strategy and Action Plan, Conceptual Framework, 2009)
WORK AND DIGNITY IN SETTLER COLONIALISM: FROM ANTAGONISM TO CONFLICT
At the end of 2010, the African National Congress (ANC) government announced a New Growth Path (NGP) as the country's macroeconomic strategy. Prominent in the NGP was the promise, made a year earlier by newly elected President Jacob Zuma, that ‘the creation of decent work will be at the centre of our economic policies and will influence our investment attraction and job creation initiatives.’ The document went on to recognise that, despite years of sustained economic growth, inequality and joblessness had remained at unacceptably high levels and even ‘amongst the employed, many workers had poorly paid, insecure and deadend jobs.’ The remedy of ‘decent work’ explicitly referred to a concept advanced by the International Labour Organization (ILO), which defines it as employment that incorporates essential organisational rights and freedoms, social protections, adequate working conditions and social dialogue.
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- One Hundred Years of the ANCDebating Liberation Histories Today, pp. 111 - 134Publisher: Wits University PressPrint publication year: 2012