Southern Africa
ANC imposes back to work drive amid sharp rise in South Africa’s coronavirus cases
By Stephan McCoy, 20 June 2020
More than 84,000 people—25 percent of Africa’s confirmed cases—have now been infected with the virus, which has claimed the lives of almost 1,800 people.
African economies in free fall as coronavirus pandemic worsens
By Stephan McCoy, 11 April 2020
An African Union study predicts that some 20 million jobs are at risk in Africa due to the impact of the pandemic.
Africa’s elite build VIP hospitals for themselves, leaving workers to die
By Stephan McCoy, 8 April 2020
The response of the African ruling elite has been to cocoon itself in luxury, distancing from the impoverished masses it views with hostility and fear.
Africa’s confirmed cases rise to 7,600, as 314 die from the coronavirus
By Stephan McCoy, 4 April 2020
The response of African governments has been to ramp up the powers of the state and impose brutal lockdowns with virtually no mass testing, contact tracing or isolation taking place.
South Africa: State of national disaster declared as coronavirus hits and social tensions mount
By Stephan McCoy, 21 March 2020
The African National Congress (ANC) government lost weeks doing nothing to prepare for the inevitable arrival of the virus.
South African jazz musician Abdullah Ibrahim returns with The Balance
By Hiram Lee, 7 August 2019
This latest work stands out as an unusually open and humane collection of songs in a genre that has been lacking in those elements far too much in recent years.
South African elections
Ramaphosa elected to full term as president amid record low ANC vote
By Eddie Haywood, 13 May 2019
The election marks the first time in the ANC’s post-apartheid history that its vote has fallen below 60 percent.
Extreme social crisis ravages Mozambique in wake of Cyclone Idai
By Eddie Haywood, 30 March 2019
The devastation in the storm’s wake has produced a full-blown humanitarian crisis, exposing the impoverished conditions already present before Cyclone Idai hit.
Historic humanitarian disaster unfolds in southeast Africa in the wake of Cyclone Idai
By Niles Niemuth, 22 March 2019
The powerful storm has tragically exposed the dire social and economic conditions facing millions in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Madagascar.
Zimbabwe: Mnangagwa government clamps down on popular opposition
By Stephan McCoy, 18 February 2019
The ZANU-PF regime has responded to rising social discontent by unleashing the military.
Zimbabwe: Violence follows disputed re-election of President Mnangagwa
By Chris Marsden, 6 August 2018
Mnangagwa, who came to power in a coup against President Robert Mugabe last November, advances himself as the strongman required to restore the order necessary for resumed investment by the major corporations.
In South Africa speech deploring “exploding inequality”
Obama boasts: “I’m surprised how much money I got”
By Barry Grey, 19 July 2018
Obama may be surprised at his recent entry into the American financial oligarchy, but it’s not for lack of effort on his part to “join the club.”
The inauguration of Ramaphosa and the degeneration of the ANC
By Chris Marsden, 17 February 2018
Two things recommend Ramaphosa to the world’s bourgeoisie—his fabulous wealth and the fact that he earned it through a readiness to deal ruthlessly with the working class.
Cape Town, South Africa to become first city in the developed world to run out of water
By Genevieve Leigh, 29 January 2018
Local government in Cape Town, South Africa continues to implement drastic water saving measures in a last-ditch attempt to stave off a complete water shutoff.
Zimbabwe graphite miners strike at former German-owned mine
By Dietmar Henning, 8 January 2018
More than 200 miners in northern Zimbabwe have been on strike since the end of December protesting the fact they have not received their wages for more than a year.
South Africa’s ANC taps multi-millionaire ex-union chief Cyril Ramaphosa as leader
By Eddie Haywood, 21 December 2017
Since coming to power in 1994, the ANC has represented a corrupt layer of the black elite, ruling at the expense of the masses of workers.
IMF lays down the law for Zimbabwe post-Mugabe
By Chris Marsden, 27 November 2017
The International Monetary Fund is demanding that Zimbabwe curb “excessive government spending” and impose massive austerity cuts to “restore fiscal and debt sustainability.”
The way forward in Zimbabwe after Mugabe
By Chris Marsden, 24 November 2017
The goal of the new Zimbabwean president, Mnangagwa, is to impose an adrenalized version of the capitalist policies that have already created so much suffering.
Zimbabwe: Defying calls to step down, Mugabe faces impeachment
By Eddie Haywood, 21 November 2017
The Zimbabwean military appears anxious to avoid its intervention provoking any popular movement among the masses.
Campaign to force out Mugabe escalates in Zimbabwe
By Chris Marsden, 18 November 2017
It is China's support for the coup, rather than a supposed desire for a "democratic transformation," that accounts for the cautious reaction in the United States, Britain and other Western powers.
Military stage coup in Zimbabwe
By Chris Marsden, 16 November 2017
Zimbabwe’s army staged the coup in response to President Robert Mugabe’s November 6 sacking of his former vice president, Emmerson Mnangagwa.
South Africa: Police open fire on Modimolle water protests
By G.T. Maqhubela, 23 February 2016
Police opened fire last week with rubber bullets on residents who had gathered to protest against water shortages amid the worst drought in recent memory.
ANC in crisis as President Zuma struggles to reassure big capital
By G.T. Maqhubela, 16 February 2016
The Economic Freedom Fighters, led by Julius Malema, are making political capital from the crisis confronting the ANC by posturing as a “left” anti-corruption alternative.
South Africa’s politically connected elites profit amid power outages
By Thabo Seseane Jr., 29 January 2015
On Monday, ESKOM, the largest South African power utility, began implementing “managed” blackouts, cutting 2,000 megawatts from its grid.
South Africa: ANC and unions exploit popular anger over electronic toll collections
By Thabo Seseane Jr., 14 October 2014
In its efforts to limit its losses in the municipal elections due in 2016, the Gauteng ANC is relying on the services of COSATU.
South African miners speak: “We are striking so our children don’t also end up with nothing”
By our reporters, 29 May 2014
The World Socialist Web Site conducted an interview with two South African miners.
South Africa’s platinum strike in its 10th week
By Thabo Seseane Jr, 10 April 2014
Some 70,000 members of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union have been on strike at the three largest platinum producers since January 23.
South African police evidence in tatters as Marikana Commission enters phase two
By Thabo Seseane Jr., 4 April 2014
At the Farlam Inquiry into the police murder of 34 striking miners in Marikana, evidence was heard that the victims were surrendering when they were killed.
ANC and its competitors stir up racialism in advance of South African elections
By Thabo Seseane Jr, 3 April 2014
Some 500 people joined an African National Congress march in Cape Town on March 26 to demand better sanitation, housing and land from the ruling Democratic Alliance.
North West police commissioner appears before inquiry into Marikana massacre
By Thabo Seseane Jr., 27 February 2014
Evidence belies the testimony of Police Commissioner Zukiswa Mbombo that the massacre at the Lonmin mine in 2012 was not a premeditated bloodbath.
South African unions vie for control of militant workers
Part one
By Thabo Seseane Jr., 20 February 2014
This is first in a two-part comment on the manoeuvres of South Africa’s trade unions to contain the growth of militancy in the working class.
Robert McBride appointed as South Africa police watchdog: The ANC’s “answer” to police brutality
By Thabo Seseane Jr., 11 February 2014
Police brutality is rising amid protests that show no sign of abating.
South Africa: Economic Freedom Fighters target voters fed up with African National Congress
By Thabo Seseane Jr., 29 January 2014
The EFF, led by ex-ANC leader Julius Malema, have targeted North West province's Madibeng municipality over water shortages amid the district’s worst drought in 80 years.
Security forces fire rubber bullets at striking South African miners
By Thomas Gaist, 24 May 2013
Police fired volleys of rubber bullets at striking South African miners at a mine owned by Lanxess Chrome Mining Ltd on Tuesday, near the city of Rustenburg.
South African police murder Mozambican taxi driver
By Mike Jones, 5 March 2013
Opposition grows to the killing of 27-year-old taxi driver, Mido Macia, by South African police on February 27.
South African police fire on striking farm workers
By Joshua Lumet, 11 January 2013
Confrontations between striking farm workers and South African police and private security guards have left several people wounded and some 50 arrested.
Trade unions shut down South African farm workers strike
By Iqra Qalam and Jashua Lumet, 8 December 2012
The Congress of South African Trade Unions has called off a strike in the Western Cape Province in a bid to contain growing anger and resistance among farm workers.
The failure of land reform in South Africa
By Iqra Qalam and Joshua Lumet, 6 December 2012
The failure of the agrarian reform policies of the African National Congress has exposed the bourgeois nationalist liberation movement’s inability to resolve the land question.
South African farmworkers speak on issues in strike
By Joshua Lumet and Iqra Qalam, 26 November 2012
The trade unions and the political establishment are seeking to demobilize the farmworkers’ struggle, which follows and has been motivated by the eruption of strikes in the mining industries.
South African farm workers’ strike spreads
By Joshua Lumet and Iqra Qalam, 21 November 2012
The three-week-long strike by farm workers in the fertile farmlands of the Boland in South Africa has now spread to 24 different areas and has led to further violent clashes with police.
South African farm workers’ strikes inspired by events at Marikana
By Joshua Lumet and Iqra Qalam, 16 November 2012
Militant struggles among South Africa’s impoverished workers have spread to the Western Cape province’s farms, following on months of upheavals in the mining industry.
Charges of evidence tampering at South African mine massacre inquiry
By Julie Hyland, 12 November 2012
The inquiry into the South African police massacre of striking miners at Marikana heard evidence that police tampered with the scene to justify the killings.
Unions collude in repression as South Africa’s strike wave ebbs
By Chris Marsden, 5 November 2012
The South African Police Service is waging a brutal campaign of intimidation facilitated by the suffocation of strikes in the mining sector by the COSATU.
South African miners shot dead by security
By Bill Van Auken, 1 November 2012
Mine security guards shot and killed two striking coal miners in KwaZulu-Natal on Wednesday, amid continuing tensions and clashes in South Africa’s mining sector.
Striking South African miners oppose rally called by official unions
By Julie Hyland, 29 October 2012
Saturday’s rally by South Africa’s COSATU union federation and the National Union of Mineworkers only exposed the hostility of broad masses of workers toward the official unions.
South Africa's unions use mass sackings and murder to suppress miners
By Chris Marsden, 26 October 2012
Mass sackings, police intimidation and brutality are being employed in an effort to bring the wave of strikes in South Africa’s mines to a close.
Strike leaders arrested following testimony before Marikana massacre inquiry
By Chris Marsden, 26 October 2012
Four miners who testified Tuesday before the Farlam Commission into the Marikana massacre were immediately arrested by police. They are to be charged with murder.
South African miners defy repression
By Chris Marsden, 20 October 2012
Tens of thousands of South African workers remain in struggle and a new strike by platinum miners at Lonmin’s operation in Marikana delivered a blow to efforts to stem the working class upsurge.
President Zuma calls on trade unions, state forces to end South Africa’s strike wave
By Chris Marsden, 20 October 2012
The main instruments of Zuma and the African National Congress for suppressing the mass strike movement are the Congress of South African Trade Unions and its affiliate, the National Union of Mineworkers.
Strikes continue in South Africa amid deepening repression
By Robert Stevens, 15 October 2012
Tens of thousands of South Africa miners remain on strike in wildcat action, following a breakdown in talks between trade unions and management.
Strikes spread across South Africa despite mass sackings
By Robert Stevens, 11 October 2012
In the face of a growing wave of walkouts by workers across South Africa, mining companies are announcing mass layoffs of striking employees.
Silicosis rampant in South Africa’s mines
By Eric Graham, 9 October 2012
South Africa’s miners are among the workers worst affected by silicosis in the world.
South African unions, government seek to quell spreading wildcat strikes
By Joseph Kishore, 8 October 2012
The state and the unions are attempting to gain control of a spreading wave of strikes that have erupted across South Africa.
12,000 miners fired as South African strike wave grows
By Bill Van Auken, 6 October 2012
Anglo American Platinum fired 12,000 striking South African miners Friday as the transnational corporations, the ANC government and the COSATU union federation sought to quell a growing wave of wildcat strikes.
COSATU federation leader expresses fear of social explosion in South Africa
By Eric Graham, 2 October 2012
In the midst of an escalating wave of wildcat strike action by miners, South Africa’s biggest trade union federation, COSATU, convened its 11th national congress.
South Africa’s strike wave hits whole mining sector, spreads to transport
By Chris Marsden, 28 September 2012
The strike wave that began at Lonmin’s Marikana platinum mine is now engulfing South Africa’s platinum, gold and coal mining industries and has spread to transport and other sectors.
Miners’ strikes add to fears of South African economic downturn
By Jordan Shilton, 26 September 2012
The African National Congress government has reaffirmed its determination to pursue right wing economic and social “reforms.”
ANC President Zuma authorises use of South African army against miners
By Julie Hyland, 22 September 2012
As miners at the Lonmin platinum producer in Marikana returned to work Thursday, President Jacob Zuma authorised the domestic deployment of the military to deal with continued unrest in the mining sector.
Marikana massacre: France’s NPA sows illusions in South African government, unions
By Anthony Torres and Alex Lantier, 21 September 2012
It took three weeks for France’s New Anti-capitalist Party to write on the massacre of 34 South African miners on August 16 at the Marikana mine.
Political and historical issues in the South African miners’ revolt
By Julie Hyland, 20 September 2012
The massacre of striking South African platinum miners and the spreading confrontation between miners and the ANC regime have exposed the reactionary character of racial and nationalist politics.
South Africa: ANC orders security clampdown against miners’ revolt
By Julie Hyland, 17 September 2012
A march by hundreds of striking miners in South Africa’s platinum mining belt was blocked and dispersed by police on Sunday.
State of alert declared as unrest spreads in South Africa
By Chris Marsden, 13 September 2012
The South African army has been put on a state of high alert, amidst an escalating strike-wave involving platinum and gold miners.
More ANC leading figures embroiled in gold mines asset stripping scandal
By Eric Graham, 12 September 2012
The liquidation of the South African company Pamodzi Gold Limited led to the awarding of rights to the Orkney and Grootvlei gold mines to Aurora Empowerment Systems (AES) in 2009.
Strikes spread in South African mines
By Kate Randall, 11 September 2012
Gold Fields Ltd.’s KDC gold mine has been hit by strike of 15,000 workers, the second wildcat action at the company in less than a week.
South African miners speak on Marikana massacre
By Iqra Qalam, 11 September 2012
More than three weeks after the Marikana massacre, families are still searching for their missing siblings and husbands in hospitals and jails.
South Africa: Corruption exposed at Orkney and Grootvlei mines
By Eric Graham, 10 September 2012
Investigations into the Aurora Empowerment Systems, which has not paid workers at the Orkney and Grootvlei mines for years, have revealed a tangled and dirty web of criminality.
South Africa’s miners and the fear of “contagion”
By Bill Van Auken, 5 September 2012
The miners’ struggles have evoked a “fear of contagion” in ruling circles, as the issues confronting this oppressed layer of workers resonate not only in South Africa, but internationally.
Four South African miners shot as strikes spread after Marikana massacre
By Alex Lantier, 4 September 2012
Four gold miners were hospitalized after being shot at Gold One’s Modder East operation yesterday in South Africa.
Funerals of slain South African miners held as unrest spreads
By Julie Hyland, 3 September 2012
Burials for most of the 34 platinum miners massacred by police on August 16 took place Saturday.
South Africa after the Marikana massacre
By Chris Marsden, 1 September 2012
The police massacre of striking miners at Marikana is a watershed for post-apartheid South Africa.
South Africa to prosecute strikers targeted by police massacre at Marikana
By Alex Lantier, 31 August 2012
In an act of naked class justice, South Africa is using an apartheid-era law to lay bogus murder charges against striking miners targeted by police in the Marikana massacre.
More join South African strike as autopsies show miners were shot in the back
By Julie Hyland, 29 August 2012
Many more have joined the strike at South Africa’s Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana, scene of the brutal police massacre of 34 workers on August 16.
Rising incidence of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in South Africa
By Eric Graham, 28 August 2012
The increase in the prevalence of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in school-aged children in the Wellington area of the Western Cape is bound up with the appalling levels of social inequality in South Africa.
South Africa’s day of mourning fails to stem anger over Marikana massacre
By Julie Hyland, 25 August 2012
Anger continues to mount over the August 16 massacre of 34 striking miners at South Africa’s Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana despite official efforts to lower tensions.
The unions, the pseudo-left and the South Africa massacre
By Joseph Kishore, 24 August 2012
The massacre of 34 striking workers at Lonmin’s Marikana mine in South Africa has cast into sharp relief the role of the official trade unions.
South African platinum miners’ strike spreads
By David Walsh, 23 August 2012
The strike by thousands of South African platinum miners, which led to the police murder of 34 workers August 16 at Lonmin’s Marikana mine, is spreading to other companies in the industry.
South African miners defiant in face of government, company threats
By Bill Van Auken, 21 August 2012
Four days after 34 of their comrades were massacred by heavily armed police, striking South African platinum miners defied a company ultimatum to return to work or be fired.
French Communist Party backs killing of South African miners
By Alex Lantier, 21 August 2012
The World Socialist Web Site notes with contempt the French Communist Party’s defense of the massacre of 34 striking South African miners by police at Marikana.
South African miners continue strike in aftermath of massacre
By Chris Marsden, 20 August 2012
South African platinum miners have continued their strike in the aftermath of the August 16 police massacre of 34 of their comrades in a hail of bullets that left another 78 wounded.
South Africa’s mine massacre
By Bill Van Auken, 18 August 2012
The massacre of striking platinum miners in South Africa has laid bare the irreconcilable conflict between the working class on the one hand and the ruling ANC and the unions allied to it on the other.
Letter from a South African reader on the Marikana miners massacre
18 August 2012
The WSWS received this letter from a reader on Thursday’s police massacre of striking miners in South Africa.
South African police massacre striking miners
By Bill Van Auken, 17 August 2012
South African paramilitary police sent by the ANC government gunned down as at least 30 striking miners.
Forty arrested at Cape Town Occupy
By Iqra Qalam, 31 January 2012
Forty people were arrested last Friday in a brutal police crackdown on an Occupy Rondebosch Common demonstration in Cape Town, South Africa.
Social tensions rise as South African economy slows
By Zac Hambides, 17 January 2012
With real unemployment at 36 percent, social tensions are mounting in South Africa amid a marked economic slowdown.
South Africa’s ANC at 100: A balance sheet of bourgeois nationalism
By Bill Van Auken, 11 January 2012
The centenary celebration by South Africa’s ruling African National Congress provides a fitting occasion for a balance sheet on the character and fate of bourgeois nationalist movements.
Municipal Workers join South African strike wave
By Susan Garth, 30 August 2011
Municipal workers organised in the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) and the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union (Imatu) have joined South Africa’s continuing strike wave.
Record level of strikes in South Africa
By Susan Garth, 1 August 2011
The number of days lost in strikes across South Africa approached 30 million at the end of July.
State repression stepped up as strike wave grows in South Africa
By Susan Garth, 18 July 2011
Engineering workers in South Africa are in the second week of a strike calling for a 13 percent pay rise.
Letter from South Africa
Malema prophesies ‘nationalisation’ of mining
14 September 2010
South Africa’s black economic empowerment legislation has become the preferred route to riches for the ANC elite while the majority continue to struggle.
China-South Africa deals highlight great-power rivalry in Africa
By Zac Hambides, 13 September 2010
To the consternation of the Western powers, the Chinese regime is seeking to exploit Africa’s vast natural resources, cheap labour and new markets via South Africa, which is the largest investor in the continent, outside of the US and Europe.
International lessons of the South African public service strike
By Ann Talbot, 13 September 2010
Union leaders were chased out of a meeting in Johannesburg when they told striking public service workers that their three-week strike was over.
South African unions attempt to impose settlement on striking public service workers
By Ann Talbot, 9 September 2010
The three-week strike by 1.3 million South African public service workers, including teachers, hospital workers and civil servants, ended on Monday when unions instructed the strikers to return to work pending further discussions.
Class struggle erupts in South Africa
By Ann Talbot, 27 August 2010
The strike by 1.3 million public service workers in South Africa represents a significant escalation of the international class struggle in response to the global recession and the austerity measures that governments have adopted worldwide.
South Africa: ANC government uses police, army and courts against strikers
By Ann Talbot, 23 August 2010
Strikers at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto and Helen Joseph hospital in Johannesburg were attacked by South African police using water cannon and rubber bullets last week.
More than one million public workers strike in South Africa
By Hiram Lee, 19 August 2010
More than one million public workers in South Africa went out on strike on Wednesday demanding higher wages.
Claims of African economic growth hide stark divisions of rich and poor
By Barry Mason, 25 June 2010
Recent reports show growth of a stark divide between rich and poor in Africa.
South Africa: Riot police attack World Cup stewards pay protests
By Robert Stevens, 16 June 2010
South African riot police respond to protests by thousands of stewards at the soccer World Cup, with tear gas attacks and rubber bullets.
Book bares Israeli nuclear arms deals with apartheid regime
By Bill Van Auken, 25 May 2010
Israel agreed to sell nuclear arms to South Africa’s apartheid regime in the 1970s, according to a book published today. The revelation has surfaced at an inconvenient time for the US as it campaigns for increased sanctions against Iran.
South African transport workers strike hits rail, ports
By our reporter, 14 May 2010
Workers at state-owned Transnet, the logistics company that runs the rail network and ports facilities in South Africa, are on strike.
Murder of white supremacist leader Eugene Terreblanche destabilises South Africa
By Brian Smith, 12 April 2010
Eugene Terreblanche, a white supremacist leader in South Africa, was murdered in his sleep on his farm outside Ventersdorp, 100 miles west of Johannesburg, following a dispute over wages with a young man and a youth in his employ.
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