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Proteas

Ptaeroxylon obliquum - Sneezewood

Queen Proteas

Regional educators’ workshop on trade union history in South Africa

  • Date: 19--?
  • Subjects: Labour unions -- South Africa -- History , Labour movement -- South Africa -- History
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , pamphlet
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/112014 , vital:33538
  • Description: The sun is beginning to rise on the workers. Fears of intimidation and victimisation are being dried up by this rising sun of workers strength. I tell this story to remind you of your life. I tell you this story so you will remember your struggle and the story of the struggle we fight. AMANDLA! I came to the urban areas with someone from home. I found the city a strange and ugly place. Finding work was not an easy task. But I found work at the foundry called Rely Precision Castings and I worked there for over seven years until May 1980 when Management fired all of us because of a strike. The work in the foundry was hard and dangerous and the hours were long. But I stuck out the tough and unsafe working conditions because there was no other place to go. We were the only people who could do this kind of work, and this was well known to our employers. Many of them knew migrant workers were the best workers. We were also prepared to do the heaviest of work. But they still treated us badly and still didn’t treat us like human beings but like animals. They knew that as soon as they expelled us we would lose a place of residence, because we would not be able to pay the hostel fees without the money we earned. Then the pass office would be indifferent and instruct us to go back where we came from. That is very painful. But what is more painful is this. It is clear that profits mean more to the bosses than our lives. Our children could die in the countryside but they would still fire us. Our work was tough, especially after the new machine was bought by the bosses in the foundry. But we were not afraid of hard work. We did not complain about the work. The grievances were about those things that prevented us from doing our work. The bad and unsafe working conditions were dangerous to our health and lives. These things are important. But most of our grievances at Rely were about the bad treatment we received from the indunas and foremen. The indunas did not support us when the struggle for better wages and working conditions began. They were only concerned with organising things in the foundry which made their own lives easier. The indunas at Rely were supposed to be the workers’ voice but we have seen that this was not true. So we had no voice. We could not make our complaints heard. That makes a person very angry. And so my fellow workers and I decided to do something about this. We began to stand together and build workers’ strength and unity in the foundry. Our combined strength would be a very loud and confident voice. One day one of us suddenly said: "There is a place that can help us." This worker had been to the Union with his brother-in-law who works at another factory. We wanted to know what that could be. We said we knew a union called ‘Let-us-bury-each-other’. This is a union that cheats people. They say when you have given a lot of money to them then they will build you a big house or buy you a car. The guy said, ‘No. that’s not what I mean.’ ‘It’s a place to go as we are not being treated well in the firm. When we all join they will represent us. They will speak to the employers.’ At first many of the workers at Rely were scared about joining the Union. Others were cautious. We first started joining in twos and threes until we were thirty. The meetings we had with the Union organiser were important. We talked and discussed problems for a long time on Saturday afternoons. Inside the foundry there was even more talk and discussion. During lunchtimes meetings were held over the road from the foundry under the shade of a tree. At these meetings everybody had a chance to speak. Some people wanted to move quickly, while others were more cautious. Some people were afraid for their families and others did not want to lose their jobs in the foundry. Many workers had worked at Rely for a long time and had good service records and so we were hesitant. The discussion was often long and serious. Slowly the fear began to get less as people learned more about the Union from friends and relatives in other factories. Some of these factories were already organised. But it was the meetings among ourselves which helped the most. In the evenings also, at the hostels, people discussed Union business and one thing began to become very clear. Everyone had to stand together and speak with one voice if we were going to be strong inside Rely. After many meetings and much talking we decided there would never be safe conditions if everyone did not join the Union. Wages would never rise without the force of all the workers. But when the indunas saw unity among the workers they were afraid. We even told them that through this unity their postions would soon end. Our unity had already begun to change things in the foundry. The bosses and their children, the impimpis and indunas, were not so sure of their position and began to fear workers. This was happening all over the East Rand where the Metal and Allied Workers Union was building workers’ unity. (In May 1979, the workers went on strike.) We stopped work to ask Management why they fired Zondiwe. Our bosses did not know what to do when 55 workers stood in front of them to protect Zondiwe. They called the Employers’ Association. They called the Department of Labour. They called the police. We were a small group of people. They tried to crush us. But we fought them all in different ways. We were unemployed. And when you are out of a job, you realise that the boss and the government have the power to condemn you to death. If they send you back home, and back home now there’s a drought, and you can’t get any new job, it’s a death sentence. The countryside is pushing you into the cities to stay alive; the cities are pushing you into the countryside to die. You get scared. It’s a fear that you come to know after a week without any food. After six weeks we all went to court. The court found us all guilty of striking illegally. We were all fined. But the Union paid the fines from the subscriptions. We had been fired from our jobs. We had been beaten by the SAP and now we were guilty of striking. We were very sad but we were not defeated. We continued our struggle. Our struggle at Rely was important. We are not afraid to say it. We showed how even a small group for workers can stand up against the bosses. And it was important in another way as well. Our strike was the first in our big strike wave which hit the East Rand. From 1980 and 1981 many, many thousands of us metal workers went on strike. We were not alone in our struggle. It was not just 55 of us at Rely. Our struggle was in May 1980. By the end of that year there were 12 000 in our Union, the Metal and Allied Workers Union. The next year was the year of strikes. From July until the end of 1981 many of our fellow metal workers went on strike. There were 50 strikes. There were 25 000 of us on strike. Next time we will be united. At Rely our struggle started when we united. But in the factory it ended when we were not united to our brothers in other factories. But we have learned. And you too. You must not make the same mistake. The big factories must help the small one. If you are organised in a trade union when you go on strike, unite with those who are not organised. Together call the communities to our side. Then we will be united. And we know that when we make our unity, the sun shall rise for the workers.
  • Full Text:
  • Date Issued: 19--?

Salix babylonica - Weeping willow

Salix babylonica- Weeping willow

  • Authors: Skead, C J (Cuthbert John)
  • Date: 19uu
  • Subjects: Salix babylonica - South Africa -- Photographs , Trees -- South Africa -- Photographs
  • Language: English
  • Type: mixed material , photographs , landscape photographs
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/118275 , vital:34615
  • Description: Caption "Weeping willows on 'Longwood' farm, Geo. Wienand, 6 m. west Bedford. Brought from Longwood, St. Helena by original Wienand, planted at Bellevue farm next door and then slips brought to 'Longwood' farm next door to Bellevue.”
  • Full Text: false
  • Date Issued: 19uu

Schotia Speciosa - Boerboon

Seed pods of Protea subvestita

Sideroxylon inerme - White Milkwood

Sneezewood

Socio-economic processes in the rural areas of Region E

  • Authors: May, Julian
  • Date: 19--?
  • Subjects: Poverty -- South Africa , Income distribution -- South Africa , Household surveys -- South Africa , Rural poor -- South Africa , South Africa -- Rural conditions
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , book
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/75421 , vital:30416
  • Description: The social conditions in the rural areas of South Africa are by now widely known and numerous researchers have documented the poverty stricken quality of life which generally prevails amongst black families in these areas (Wilson and Ramphele, 1989). The vast majority of rural households have incomes which are below subsistence levels and in the Homelands, agricultural productive ability has become so eroded that rural household income is now chiefly derived from remittances from migrants in the towns or from the wages of farm labourers (Nattrass and May, 1986). As such, at present the majority of black rural households living in Region E make up consumer communities which must purchase the majority of their subsistence needs, rather than producer communities in which subsistence needs can be met from the utilisation of local resources (Derman and Poultney, 1983). Despite this unpromising situation, the diminishing importance of agricultural production to the South African national economy (Bethlehem, 1989), and the dominance of urbanisation as a social force, it can be argued that the rural areas of Region E will be directly and substantially affected by efforts to restructure the South African economy as a whole. Consequently, revitalising the rural economy in a restructured social and economic system would be a concern in itself, even though the effect of this for a future growth path for South Africa may be uncertain (Kaplinsky, 1991:54). The report will first examine the broad demographic changes in Region E noting the impact of these changes on the rural areas. Thereafter, the economic processes which characterise the rural areas will be discussed, in particular, employment, income levels and income distribution. This will feed into a discussion of the social processes which will include changing dynamics of migration, and a socio-economic profile of rural households. The paper concludes by briefly examining access and usage of basic services and facilities in the rural parts of Region E.
  • Full Text:
  • Date Issued: 19--?

Strelitzia reginae

Strelitzia reginae

Strelitzia reginae

Strelitzia reginae

Strelitzia reginae

Strelitzia reginae

Strelitzia seeds

  • Date: 19uu
  • Subjects: Strelitzia -- South Africa -- Photographs , Strelitziaceae -- South Africa -- Photographs
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , landscape photographs
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/108638 , vital:33003
  • Description: Transcrit: "Babiana's answer is that strelitzia seeds are notoriously difficult to germinate but a little easier if the seed is very fresh and the skin not yet hardened and become impervious to water. For interest's sake you could try filing the seeds until the skin is rubbed almost through before planting them by pressing them into the moist surface of a seed box containing compost and coarse sand. It is hardly worth the trouble, however, as seeding Strelitzias take about seven years to flower."
  • Full Text: false
  • Date Issued: 19uu

Sugarbirds and Protea subvestita

Teargas

  • Authors: Health Information Centre (HIC)
  • Date: 19uu
  • Subjects: Uncatalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: book , text
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/60350 , vital:27772
  • Description: This booklet, compiled by the Health Information Centre (Johannesburg), is intended to provide information about the use of teargas by police in riot control, and how the use of teargas affects people. In addition the booklet provides information on what to do should you be in an environment where teargas was used.
  • Full Text:
  • Date Issued: 19uu
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