The seventh South African election under universal suffrage proved to be a turning point for the party that negotiated the ending of apartheid 30 years ago, the African National Congress (ANC).

Anti-apartheid activist and liberation theologian Desmond Tutu has died after a long battle with cancer, aged 90.

‘NEGOTIATIONS ARE about give and take … We are not cowards because we have taken a compromise,’ said the self-styled ‘socialist revolutionary’ Irvin Jim, general secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa). Immediately after, he ordered 155,000 steelworkers back to work, ending their three-week strike. This wasn’t just ‘compromise’; it was […]

By Jeremy Dewar MANY SCHOOLS, Labour councils and community groups will be celebrating Black History Month by re-telling the inspiring story of the anti-Apartheid struggle. And so they should. But, only to tell the story, as if the struggle for equality had ended with the dismantling of the Apartheid system, would do a disservice to […]

NUMSA announces new 'Revolutionary Workers' Party' 

SOUTH AFRICA’S student movement has closed down many of the country’s universities for nearly a month now in their campaign to abolish fees. In one of the world’s most unequal societies, the battle encapsulates the frustrations and anger of the vast majority of black people, who still face poverty, unemployment and exclusion, despite the fall […]

By Jeremy Dewar South Africa, one of the world’s major emerging markets, is about to tip into recession. Its currency has slipped to a historic low against the dollar. The country’s stock exchange, at 320 per cent of South Africa’s annual GDP possibly the world’s most over-valued, is set for an almighty crash. Indeed, the […]

The giant metalworkers’ trade union Numsa has been campaigning for the labour movement to break with the ruling ANC and form a new working class party. Now union federation Cosatu is threatening its expulsion. Jeremy Dewar reports As we go to press, the South African labour movement faces a historic crisis. Cosatu, the 2.2 million […]

  Statement of the League for the Fifth International 20 August 2012 The League for the Fifth International condemns the brutal massacre – reminiscent of the Apartheid era – of 34 striking miners at the Marikana platinum mine, Rustenburg, South Africa. We condemn the actions of the British-based Lonmin owners for refusing to negotiate an […]