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Cape Town - The French gave us the saying: The more things change, the more they stay the same. That is the theme of Terry Bell’s labour wrap this week.
He points out that the former apartheid regime often blamed “white communists” for fomenting rebellion among an allegedly malleable black majority. This week, he says, something similar has emerged, with more than a touch of irony.
Leading communist, former general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers and now secretary general of the ANC, Gwede Mantashe, this week blamed “white foreigners” for the ongoing platinum belt strike. In Bell’s view, such comments by the old and the new regime are “equally arrogant, elitist and fundamentally racist”.
Coming at a time when new Mining Minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi suddenly stepped aside from a mediating role in the dispute, Bell notes that this has raised questions such as: did he jump? Or was he pushed? By whom and why?
Watch
Do you have questions for Terry or anything labour-related you'd like him to cover in his next labour wrap? Drop us an email.
* Terry Bell is a political, economic and labour analyst. Views expressed are his own. Follow him on twitter @telbelsa.
He points out that the former apartheid regime often blamed “white communists” for fomenting rebellion among an allegedly malleable black majority. This week, he says, something similar has emerged, with more than a touch of irony.
Leading communist, former general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers and now secretary general of the ANC, Gwede Mantashe, this week blamed “white foreigners” for the ongoing platinum belt strike. In Bell’s view, such comments by the old and the new regime are “equally arrogant, elitist and fundamentally racist”.
Coming at a time when new Mining Minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi suddenly stepped aside from a mediating role in the dispute, Bell notes that this has raised questions such as: did he jump? Or was he pushed? By whom and why?
Watch
Do you have questions for Terry or anything labour-related you'd like him to cover in his next labour wrap? Drop us an email.
* Terry Bell is a political, economic and labour analyst. Views expressed are his own. Follow him on twitter @telbelsa.
