THE announcement by sections of the eThekwini business community that they will embark on a skills development programme for South Africans following the departure of foreign nationals should not be received as a moment deserving of celebration.
Rather, it should be understood as an unintended exposure of one of the South African economy’s enduring Achilles’ heels, namely, the persistence of a cheap labour regime that has survived the democratic transition despite three decades of public investment aimed at transforming the economy and broadening employment opportunities.
The significance of this intervention lies not in the skills programme itself, but in the uncomfortable question it compels the nation to confront.
Why, after thirty-two years of democracy, has the training of South African workers suddenly become an urgent priority? If South Africans can be trained today, why was this not undertaken systematically over the past three decades, while these sectors benefited from substantial government support and public resources?
This question cannot be answered through the narrow prism of immigration. It requires a political economy analysis rooted in South Africa’s historical development and the enduring relationship between the State, capital, and labour.
Few scholars understood this relationship better than the renowned South African political economist Professor Harold Wolpe. In his seminal Cheap Labour Thesis, Wolpe demonstrated that apartheid was not merely a racial project, but an economic system deliberately designed to ensure a continuous supply of cheap Black labour to South African industry and mining.
