This book addresses the complex labour and life conditions faced by workers in the agricultural borderlands of northern South Africa.

‘My hope is that people can grow to appreciate this sector – its challenges and opportunities, but most importantly, the role agriculture can play in improving South Africa’s rural economy, creating jobs and bringing about much-needed transformation (or inclusive growth).’ Wandile Sihlobo is perfectly positioned to provide a well-rounded, accessible view of agriculture in South Africa. He spent his school holidays in the rural Eastern Cape, studied agricultural economics at university, has worked in private-sector agriculture, consulting with farmers across the country, and has been an adviser to government as part of South African policymaking bodies. Finding Common Ground is a selection of key articles from Sihlobo’s regular Business Day column, framed with insightful commentary and context. The book covers the broad themes that have marked current discussions and outlines the challenges and opportunities faced by South Africa’s agricultural sector, including: The contentious and complex issue of land reform; The potential for new leadership to revive the sector; How agriculture can drive development and job creation; Cannabis as an exportable commodity; The urgent need for agricultural policy to address gender equity and youth involvement; Technological developments and megatrends that are underpinning agricultural development; The importance of trade in growing South Africa’s agriculture; and Key lessons that South Africa and other African countries can learn from one another. Ultimately, Sihlobo is optimistic about the future of South Africa’s agricultural sector and shows us all – from policymakers to the general public – how much common ground we truly have.

Compilation of conference papers on Black agricultural workers on White African farms in South Africa R - discusses state intervention with regard to labour supply and labour demand in the agricultural sector, working conditions, living conditions, wages, education and training of labourers, labour relations and obstacles to agricultural development, etc. Bibliography pp. 202 to 213, graphs and statistical tables. Conference held in cape town 1976 September.

The overall objective of the study was to obtain accurate information on the extent, nature and impact of evictions from farms and for this to be used in developing future legislative and programmatic interventions. Its key finding was the vast scale of the problem: almost 1.7 million people were evicted from farms in the last 21 years from 1984.

Title first published in 2003. In recognition of the power of organised labour, the ANC Government elected in 1994 granted South Africa's unions unprecedented legal and constitutional rights. Despite these gains, the country's unions have faced a fresh set of challenges, many of them emanating from their political allies in Government. From Parliament to the factory floor, South Africa's unions are now confronted with threats as dangerous as those they confronted when organising illegally in the heyday of apartheid. The purpose of this book is to examine how South African unions have responded and how well prepared they are to meet the challenges that confront them in the new millennium.

Publisher description

This report is based on field work carried out in the Akyem Abuakwa area of the forest region of Ghana, a section of the country rich in agricultural land, gold, and diamonds. Through the field work which was undertaken and the empirical material generated, the author attempts to chart the processes and patterns of differentiation connected to land and land use in contemporary Ghana.

This book is made up of over 100 interconnected short stories that document moments in the lives of children who worked in the heart of South Africa's wine industry between 1996 and 2010, and are framed further by the farm uprisings of 2012. The children in the book - not all of whom managed to survive AIDS - are now young adults in a new South Africa that ostensibly offers them certain freedoms to overcome the shackles of race and class domination. However, without the kind of radical economic restructuring that would make this possible, all of the children remain extremely poor adults. As documented by the author, child labour of the 1990s inevitably gave way to adult labour, with the breath between childhood and adulthood as tender as it is tenuous. We are a nation that has managed to end the brutality of apartheid, but not one that has managed to replace brutality itself.