Between market, state and society : labour codes of conduct in the southern African garment industry

This paper compares the way garment factory workers in South Africa, Swaziland and Lesotho experience the interaction between mechanisms for inspecting labour codes of conduct and government functions and trade unions. In South Africa and Swaziland there was little awareness of the potential impact of such instruments on working conditions. In Lesotho, where there is a high profile campaign, workers are more aware of the codes, but confusion over who visitors to factories are, and corporate whitewash, limit the impact of instruments. In all three countries workers perceived the impact of codes of conduct on labour rights as negligible. This differed between firms, with workers in firms supplying to the higher end of the South African market being more positive. Given the absence of coherent global governance of trade in the garment industry, codes of conduct will remain an inadequate response to the abuse of workers’ rights, worldwide and in southern Africa.http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cdsa20gv201

Enclave Rustenburg : platinum mining and the post-apartheid social order

In the absence of a levelling out of income and resources, as well as arbitrary violence in everyday life, the post-apartheid social order is characterised by the formation of various enclaves. In the platinum mining town of Rustenburg, these enclaves are constructed on the foundations of the apartheid categories ‘suburb’, ‘compound’, ‘township’ and ‘homeland’. Such enclaves include security villages, converted compounds with access control, and informal settlements with distinctive gender, linguistic and class formations. The article draws on David Harvey’s formulation of absolute, relative and relational space and the case of Rustenburg to elaborate the concept of enclave further.[L’enclave Rustenburg : la mine de platine et l’ordre social post-apartheid.] En l’absence d’un nivellement des revenus et ressources, en plus d’une violence arbitraire dans la vie de tous les jours, l’ordre social post-apartheid est caracte´rise´ par la formation de diffe´rentes enclaves. Dans la ville des mines de platine de Rustenburg, ces enclaves sont construites sur les fondations des cate´gories de l’apartheid « suburb » (ou banlieue), « compound » (habitations dans un enclos), « township » (bidonville) et « homeland » (bantoustans ou foyers nationaux). Ces enclaves comprennent des villages se´curise´s, des compounds convertis avec un controˆle d’acce`s, et des implantations informelles avec des formations distinctives de genre, de langue et de classe. L’article se base sur la formulation de David Harvey de l’espace absolu, relatif et relationnel et sur le cas de Rustenburg pour de´tailler davantage le concept de l’enclave.http://tandfonline.com/loi/crea202016-12-31hb2016Sociolog

The Garment Industry in its Economic, Political and Social Context

This special CBDS Working Paper originates from a longer-term collaboration between Associate Professors Søren Jeppesen, CBS and Andries Bezuidenhout, UFH. The collaboration started more than 10 years ago and will have its main output with the forthcoming book (preliminarily) titled, ‘Enclave Development: State, Market, And Society in Lesotho, South Africa and Swaziland’s Garment Manufacturing Industries’. The collaboration has benefitted from primary and secondary data from two research projects and support from our institutions. The first project was part of a large research project, titled ‘The Outsourcing for Development project’, based at CBS and Aalborg University, Denmark. The project was funded by the Danish Development Research Council and investigated different aspects of the contemporary situation among firms from developing countries in an era of globalisation and outsourcing of production from North to South. As part of a sub-study on ‘CSR, Development and Outsourcing’ we undertook a comparative investigation of the impact of codes of conduct on working conditions in garment factories in different countries in Southern Africa. The second project was part of a large comparative study on the role of Labour movements in Southern Africa, anchored at the Sociology at Work Unit, Witwatersrand University, South Africa. The project also supported the comparative study of the impact on codes of conduct, with funding from the Norwegian Development Agency (Norad). Over the years, our respective institutions (Department of Intercultural Communication and Management, later renamed Department of Management, Society and Communication (MSC) at CBS and Sociology of Work, Wits University, Department of Sociology, University of Pretoria and lastly Department of Development Studies (DDS), University of Fort Hare (UFH)) have supported us collegially and with funds for travel, student assistance and more. We highly appreciate this. During the project, we have benefitted from the work of numerous student and research assistants. They include; Lasse B. Jensen, Alvin P. Ljosa, Sameer Azizi, Amanda Haarmaan, and Zartashia Ahmed (CBS), and Hamadziripi Tamukamoyo, Wits University (and other SA assistants). We would like to thank all for the great help

Erythrocyte, Platelet, Serum Ferritin, and P-Selectin Pathophysiology Implicated in Severe Hypercoagulation and Vascular Complications in COVID-19

CITATION: Venter, C. et al. 2020. Erythrocyte, Platelet, Serum Ferritin, and P-Selectin Pathophysiology Implicated in Severe Hypercoagulation and Vascular Complications in COVID-19. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 21(21). doi:10.3390/ijms21218234The original publication is available at https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijmsProgressive respiratory failure is seen as a major cause of death in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2)-induced infection. Relatively little is known about the associated morphologic and molecular changes in the circulation of these patients. In particular, platelet and erythrocyte pathology might result in severe vascular issues, and the manifestations may include thrombotic complications. These thrombotic pathologies may be both extrapulmonary and intrapulmonary and may be central to respiratory failure. Previously, we reported the presence of amyloid microclots in the circulation of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Here, we investigate the presence of related circulating biomarkers, including C-reactive protein (CRP), serum ferritin, and P-selectin. These biomarkers are well-known to interact with, and cause pathology to, platelets and erythrocytes. We also study the structure of platelets and erythrocytes using fluorescence microscopy (using the markers PAC-1 and CD62PE) and scanning electron microscopy. Thromboelastography and viscometry were also used to study coagulation parameters and plasma viscosity. We conclude that structural pathologies found in platelets and erythrocytes, together with spontaneously formed amyloid microclots, may be central to vascular changes observed during COVID-19 progression, including thrombotic microangiopathy, diffuse intravascular coagulation, and large-vessel thrombosis, as well as ground-glass opacities in the lungs. Consequently, this clinical snapshot of COVID-19 strongly suggests that it is also a true vascular disease and considering it as such should form an essential part of a clinical treatment regime.https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/21/21/8234Publishers versio

Post-colonial workplace regimes in the engineering industry in South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe

This paper considers the nature of workplace regimes that are constructed on the ruins what has become known as the 'apartheid workplace regime' by analysing a sub-sector of the engineering industry as a case study. In the context of the breakdown of the racial division of labour in the workplace, wage and job colour bars still operate informally. With the racial structure of power in the workplace no longer supported by the state, the language of 'flexibility' and 'globalisation' reinforce the arbitrary exercise of power over a layer of contract workers. Migrant labour remains as a key characteristic of the labour market in Southern Africa as such, and this is reinforced by the segmentation of the labour market into 'permanent' and 'contract' employees. While the segregation of facilities according to 'race' is no longer sanctioned by the state, workers experience segregation along company lines of hierarchy as 'racial'. The location of the industry in the industrial geography of apartheid is replicated in the context of Southern Africa, specifically because of the state formation of Swaziland, and the resemblance this has to the former Bantustans under apartheid. The concept 'post-colonial workplace regime' is developed in order to describe and understand these transitions

Veelvuldige gebruike vir huishoudelike toestelle

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2013.AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die eerste gedeelte van hierdie tesis ondersoek die ruimtelike basis vir morele agentskap in Gert Vlok Nel se digbundel om te lewe is onnatuurlik. As teoretiese raamwerk word daar van die teoloog/letterkundige Wesley Kort, die letterkundige/sosioloog Irma du Plessis en die radikale geograaf David Harvey se werk gebruik gemaak. Kwessies soos die (i) wisselwerking tussen omvattende, sosiale en intieme ruimtes deur narratiewe ruimtelikheid in poësie, (ii) die onstandvastigheid van die onderskeid tussen private en openbare ruimtes en (iii) verkillende vorms van ruimtelikheid, soos absolute, relatiewe en relasionele ruimtes, asook materiële ruimte, gerepresenteerde ruimte en ruimtes van representasie kom aan die bod. Daar word aangevoer dat Gert Vlok Nel se bewustelike plasing van homself as randfiguurdigter binne die Afrikaanse literêre sisteem as vorm van morele agentskap gesien kan word. Verder word getoon dat, as om te lewe is onnatuurlik in geheel en as familiekroniek gelees word, die onderskeid tussen private en openbare ruimtes waar geweld en trauma plaasvind ondergrawe word en sodoende politieke magskwessies as persoonliketiese kwessies herdefinieer. Laastens word argument gevoer dat, alhoewel die sprekerdigter in die bundel (“Gert”, of “Gertjie”) op die oog af gebrekkige agentskap blyk te toon, die besonderse tydruimtelike plasing van die spreker-digter die moontlikheid vir verruiming van agentskap skep en sodoende die idee van versplinterde subjek uitdaag. Hierdie akademiese opstel hou verband met die kreatiewe gedeelte van die tesis, digbundel getiteld Veelvuldige gebruike vir huishoudelike toestelle, waarin huishoudelike ruimtes as vertrekpunt gebruik word om kwessies soos morele verantwoordbaarheid, kreatiewe aandadigheid, post-koloniale manlikheid, sosiale verandering en trauma te ondersoek.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The first part of this thesis investigates the spatial grounds for moral agency in Gert Vlok Nel’s collection of poems om te lewe is onnatuurlik [“to live is unnatural”]. The works of theologian/literary theorist Wesley Kort, literary theorist/sociologist Irma du Plessis and radical geographer David Harvey are used as theoretical framing. Matters such as (i) the interplay between encompassing, social and intimate spaces through narrative spatiality in poetry, (ii) flawed distinctions between private and public space, and (iii) different forms of spatiality, such as absolute, relative and relational space, as well as material space, represented space and spaces of representation are explored. It is argued that Gert Vlok Nel’s conscious positioning of himself as poetic outsider within the Afrikaans literary system can be seen as a form of moral agency. Furthermore, it is pointed out that a reading of om te lewe is onnatuurlik in its entirety, as family chronicle, destabilises the distinction between private and public spaces where violence and trauma occur, thereby recasting political power as questions of personal ethics. Finally it is argued that, although the narrator-poet in die collection (“Gert”, or “Gertjie”) seems to lack agency, the peculiar spatio-temporal placing of the narrator-poet nevertheless opens up room for the possibility of agency and by doing this, challenges the idea of a splintered subject. This academic essay is related to the creative part of this thesis, a collection of poems titled Veelvuldige gebruike vir huishoudelike toestelle [“Multiple uses for domestic appliances”], in which household space is used as a vantage point from which to interrogate issues such as moral responsibility, creative complicity, postcolonial masculinities, social change and trauma