As Freedom Day and May Day/ Workers Day approach, recent events provide us with a chance to reflect on the promises made to the majority Black working class of South Africa by the elected representatives during the period of transition, the ANC, and the consequences of the deal brokered between the ANC and the apartheid government.
With rising food prices, uncertainty around the social grants agency (SASSA), continued retrenchments and increasingly vicious, violent crimes against women being just the tip of the iceberg, indications are that the coming winter will be a harsh and cruel one for many people living in South Africa.
But despite this, there is much that points to the possibility of a renewed, more sustained working class struggle taking shape in the future. With the new union federation launch, land occupations, Pepkor’s causualised workers’ significant victory and many other community struggles taking place on the one hand, and the unfolding Zuma succession battle currently underway on the other, the next few months promise to be interesting times.
Yours in solidarity,
Searatoa Van Driel
