Previous page | New search |
The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here
Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Accumulation and Labour Relations in the Taxi Industry |
Author: | Khosa, Meshack M. |
Year: | 1994 |
Periodical: | Transformation: Critical Perspectives on Southern Africa |
Issue: | 24 |
Pages: | 55-71 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | labour relations taxis Economics and Trade Labor and Employment |
External link: | https://d.lib.msu.edu/tran/237/OBJ/download |
Abstract: | There is a growing body of literature on the emergence of the black taxi industry in South Africa and the phenomenon of taxi feuds. However, very little attention has been paid to the process of capitalist accumulation and labour relations in this industry. Based on oral histories of some 30 taxi drivers and owners in the Pretoria, Witwatersrand and Vereeniging (PWV) area, and archival material, this paper unpacks the interplay of class and labour relations within the broader process of capitalist accumulation. The author first examines capitalist accumulation and the role of the South African Black Taxi Association (SABTA) in this process. Then he deals with changing labour relations in the black taxi industry in the 1990s. Until the mid-1980s, most taxis were driven by the taxi owners. Now, the most common vehicle on the market is a 10 or 16-seater minibus and the owner-driver has been largely replaced by the employed taxi driver. The growth in economic power of black operators has its unpleasant side in terms of exploitative labour practices. To these practices, taxi drivers have responded in various ways, amongst others by the formation of the South African Taxi Drivers' Union in January 1992. Bibliogr. |