The #Work of History
- Prishani Naidoo
It is the work of history to show the importance of the University as a space for the autonomous production of knowledge about work itself.
Through research that is critical, independent, and open to critique Wits has, over time, taken the side of social justice.
Maria Dlamini was a 45-year-old contract cleaner at Wits in 2004. Andries Bezuidenhout and Khayaat Fakier, then researchers in the Society, Work and Politics Institute (SWOP), came to know her as they shared the same place of work. In an article titled Maria’s Burden: Contract Cleaning and the Crisis of Social Reproduction in Post-apartheid South Africa, they tell her story. In an intimate account of Maria's daily life, they show how the paid work she does at the university, and the unpaid work she does in her home and community in Soweto allow her to navigate the challenges confronting her.
Burden of labour
Their broader research shows that Maria's experience is not unique and is shared by others in similar situations. It argues that the racial and gender inequalities of the apartheid labour system still exist today under a new guise of flexible, neoliberal work environments. These changes place an even greater burden on poor communities, with African women bearing most of the responsibility for unpaid caregiving and household work.
Published in 2006 in the journal Antipode, Maria's story is a window into the history of work in South Africa. At the same time, it is also part of a growing global experience in which stories like Maria's are increasingly common.
Gold mines and trade unions
During the preceding 20 years, research on work was premised on different social and political circumstances, with mines and factories the main focus of studies. While race and class were key problematics in case studies, full time waged work still held the promise of social justice, with the expectation that trade unions would be the key political custodians of change, heralding a non-racial future. The 1973 Durban strikes provided the longer historical backdrop for many scholars, including Eddie Webster (1942-2024), who established SWOP in 1983.
SWOP undertook its first research project with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), looking at health and safety in the gold mines. While the findings empowered workers, they angered mine managers who argued that the research was biased, and they felt betrayed by the University. Fast forward to 2012 and the Marikana massacre, and it would be NUM that found problems with SWOP’s research.
A luta continua
In 2000, SWOP researchers challenged the outsourcing of certain categories of workers by Wits management, predicting Maria’s burden as one of its outcomes. Despite being joined by others in their protests, they lost. In 2015, ten years after the research shared in Antipode, the demand for outsourcing to “fall” was won at Wits in renewed struggles led by a different generation.
(It is with great sadness and immense gratitude that we have the honour of publishing one of the last articles written by Dr Prishani Naidoo, who passed away in December 2024.)
- Dr Prishani Naidoo was the Director of the Society, Work and Politics Institute and holds a PhD in Development Studies. Her intellectual interests have been shaped by being part of different political communities since the 1990s. At their centre sit questions that seek to understand, find, and reveal possibilities for alternative ways of life that lie beyond the limited imaginaries produced by the wage, the state, and the party.
- This article first appeared in?Curiosity,?a research magazine produced by?Wits Communications?and the?Research Office.
- Read more in the 18th issue, themed #Work, which delves into the evolving nature of work, shaped by societal shifts, technological advances, and equity challenges.