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In African ethics, work is not work if it is not related to God or gods. Work, or umsebenzi , is for God or gods ultimately; work without God is the definition of slavery in my interpretation of the African ethical value system. If one succeeds from that understanding to define what slavery is, then God-lessness in work might imply the need for us to search for the gods of modernity post-1994 that have dethroned God, if they have not disentangled work from God. This article looks at the problem of unemployment by analysing the National Development Plan (NDP) and in particular the solutions proposed in relation to unemployment in South Africa. The article examines the language and grammar of the NDP to evaluate its response to the violent history of cheap, docile and migratory labour in South Africa.

The focus of this contribution is the issue of poverty reduction within the South African and Chilean contexts. It is rooted in the academic field of Christian Ethics and also draws on several texts from the human and economic sciences. Policies adopted and practical steps taken to overcome poverty by the respective governments between 1990 and 2012 are evaluated and the theological and practical implications of poverty for the church are briefly highlighted. Despite differences between these two countries, South Africans can learn much from the Chilean policy and its implementation.

As the nature of armed conflict continues to change, so the living ethical traditionthat is just war theory has to adapt to meet new challenges. This paper offers aproposal for extending just war theory by incorporating into its framework a humancapabilities-based ethic drawn from the work of Martha Nussbaum. This newapproach is analysed in the light of two important recent challenges to just wartheory: David Rodin’s critique of the principle of national defence, and the emergingdoctrine of humanitarian intervention. While the results of this analysis can only beconsidered to be preliminary, the authors argue that indications are thatsupplementing just war theory with Nussbaum’s human capabilities-based ethic, orsomething similar, could yield significant benefits for the ethical analysis ofcontemporary armed conflicts.