Workers' Day and the TRC anniversary: SA's unresolved legacy of injustice

HOLIDAYS in South Africa are slowly becoming devoid of their political significance, and generally appear to be periods where some South Africans immerse themselves in social media and doom scrolling, idling around, and satiating their addictions in alcoholism and other vices.

- YUSUF ISMAIL

NELSON Mandela receives five volumes of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's final report from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in Pretoria, on October 29, 1998.

(AFP)

And yet two significant milestones occur this month which most would have ignored.This Friday is Workers' Day and was first recognised in 1995 as a celebration of workers' rights and a commemoration of the labour movement's struggle against apartheid. April also marks the 30th anniversary of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), commemorating its commencement in April 1996, to investigate apartheid-era human rights violations.

While South Africa has one of the most progressive labour law frameworks in the world, the practical enforcement and enjoyment of these rights are low in many sectors, according to recent union analysis.

Workers in domestic, farm and informal sectors are particularly vulnerable, often facing lack of social fortification, and slave-like working conditions.

Immigrants, on the other hand, especially those in informal or low-skilled jobs, face exploitation, and are often subjected to harassment and abuse, and experiencing inadequate protection under current and proposed labour regulation, and the rise of xenophobia.

Despite the fight for rights, the wage gap remains excessively wide, with many workers still earning salaries below the cost of living, and facing significant precarity. The poorest of the poor have simply been forgotten.

In The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein argues that post-apartheid South Africa experienced a “betrayal” where formal political democracy was exchanged for continued economic subjugation.

She argued that the ANC was forced into a “shock” transition where it gained political power while allowing the apartheid-era elite to retain economic power and control of banks.