When the apartheid system was dismantled, some members of the African elite in government, civil service and security services responded with impressive flexibility. By quickly adapting to the new environment, many of them not only retained their valuable positions in the bureaucracy, but also gained new respect from old adversaries. While the ANC assumed responsibility for the security establishment, police and intelligence services, ANC leaders were often able to work closely with Africans who had once so effectively excluded blacks from the political process. After the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, the ANC and SACP co-founded uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) in 1961, and most of Sactus` leaders, who were also members of the ANC, joined the underground military organisation. Meanwhile, seven trade unions, known as the Magnificent Seven, joined the United Democratic Front, and the UDF prepared to protest the upcoming tricameral parliamentary elections in August and September 1984. On September 3, riots broke out in the Vaal Triangle, which became the most enduring challenge to the apartheid government in the country`s history. On 30 November 1985, more than 760 delegates from 33 unions came to the sports hall of the University of Natal in Durban to inaugurate the new trade union federation. After his previous success as an organizer in Ipeleng, Ramaphosa led the launch. Fighting broke out for control of dormitories and food, and workers were attacked in various ways: the electricity to the dormitories was cut off, the police were called and opened fire with live ammunition and rubber ammunition, workers were sprayed with tear gas and forced into hiding, and many have been arrested. No one denies that, despite these problems, the workers` movement has grown considerably. “The rise of the black workforce has broken the authority of the white boss and with it this racist and dictatorial form of control in the workplace,” the pro-union South African Labor Bulletin said in a recent poll on the impact of black unions on the traditionally autocratic style of white management.
“Instead, employers had to negotiate new `rules of the game` – such as grievance procedures, disciplinary procedures and collective bargaining mechanisms.” The state, for its part, declared a second state of emergency and launched a vicious campaign of arrests and raids. Many trade unionists have been arrested or harassed, including Jay Naidoo, whose home was raided by plainclothes security agents on the first night of the state of emergency, 12 June 1986. At the time of the Soweto riots in 1976/77, black trade unions had no legal status. In 1979, however, as part of an official reassessment after the Soweto violence, they were legalized by the white government to embrace — and control — a struggling workforce of about six million blacks. His manner also reflects the development and new self-confidence of the black labor movement seven years after its legalization. In 1979, the government`s intention seemed to be to avoid chaos in the labour market by allowing black unions to thrive in a controlled manner. Many employers have supported this ambition. However, the creation of COSATU, which Mr. Ramaphosa helped orchestrate, seemed to indicate that state control over black workers would be much more difficult to achieve than the authorities might have initially believed. Indeed, under the leadership of Mr.
Ramaphosa and others, stimulated by the country`s violence, the workers` movement has irrevocably embarked on a path of political confrontation with those who have promoted its legitimacy. The political value of unions lies in the fact that they can put pressure on the industry through strikes and stays on the sidelines, which can lead to unrest. Trade union movements rarely agree on political issues, and this lack of workers` solidarity reduces the ability of organizations to play a meaningful role. But workers also fought back. Hundreds of people went on strike to protest the arrests. When five NUM regional leaders were arrested in Kimberly, 2,000 workers at four mines went on strike, one of many such incidents. In some cases, the new elites seemed to have more in common with members of rival political organizations than with their own members. Several new heads of government, for example, have been recruited from traditional African elites – royal families, chiefs and influential clans. President Mandela, although a lawyer by academic training, is also a descendant of a ruling family among the Thembu (Tembu), a Xhosa subgroup. Like Mandela, the prominent Zulu leader and Minister of the Interior, Mangosuthu (Gatsha) Buthelezi, has a university education and is the product of aristocratic origin. Buthelezi, a member of the Zulu royal family, is also a chief within the Buthelezi subgroup (also “tribe”) of the Zulus.
On the night of 9 August, 75,000 workers did not report for night work, and the next day, another 300,000 responded to the call to strike. Anglo-American mines have been hit harder than any other. After peaking at 340,000 on the second day, the number remained stable at 300,000 for the next two weeks. By 1959, Sactu had 46,000 members in 35 member organizations. But state repression led to the arrest of many Sactu leaders and members in the early 1960s, and in 1965 Sactu was decimated, leading to frenzied debates about the relationship between unions and liberation movements. The Industrial Relations Act was adopted in 1995 and substantially amended in 1996,[15] 1998,[16] and 2002. [17] Its stated objective is to “give effect to Article 27 of the Constitution” by regulating the organizing rights of trade unions, promoting collective bargaining, regulating the right to strike and the use of lockouts, and providing for dispute resolution mechanisms and the establishment of labour tribunals and labour appellate courts as superior courts, “having exclusive jurisdiction to decide matters arising under the Act”. The Act also deals with worker participation in decision-making and international obligations relating to industrial relations. [18] There are several important trade union coordination centres. In the 1980s, entrepreneurs and management organizations such as the Afrikaanse Handelsinstitut (AHI), which had represented the business interests of Africans since the 1940s, were forced to negotiate for the first time with black union leaders. To adapt to the new working environment, they formed the South African Employers` Advisory Committee on Labour Affairs (SACCOLA) to represent landlords in lobbying and collective bargaining.
By the 1930s, the South African Trades and Labour Council (SATLC) had united much of the country. SATLC maintained an explicitly non-racist position, accepted membership in black unions, and demanded all legal rights for black trade unionists. [6] Some black unions joined SATLC, while others joined the Council of Non-European Trade Unions in the 1940s, bringing it to a peak of 119 unions and 158,000 members in 1945. White South Africans had their first strong impression of union power in November 1984, when an estimated 800,000 workers stayed off their jobs to protest the deployment of troops in South Africa`s black townships. The action brought whites too short against outbuildings that were so old that they were taken for granted: white managers were suddenly forced to manage supermarket checkouts; The maids left the linen with Madame; Factories slowed down, some stopped. In the early 1990s, these political and power elites developed, as South African writer Shelagh Ggastrow`s authoritative survey shows. Gastrow divided South Africa`s top political leaders into four main categories: political leaders within the African community, who are most associated with the NP; an older generation of black opposition leaders, mostly within the ANC; a younger generation of leaders from the Black Consciousness Movement; and a new group of union leaders that had gained prominence with the rise of the labour movement in the 1970s and 1980s.