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After the announcement of a national lockdown by the South African state in March 2020, university students and lecturers had to conduct learning activities online. In countries where reliable information and communications technologies exist, this transition was relatively smooth. Students were able to learn using internet-based online learning systems. This is not the case in South Africa. Based on in-depth interviews with some students and lecturers and the use of internet resources, this article demonstrates that the participation of students from poor and working-class households evinced many deficiencies. This is because South Africa's information and communications technology infrastructure disadvantages poor and working-class households. The poor access to online learning that students from working-class and poor households experienced demonstrates that in South Africa the argument about the promise of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which must supposedly be embraced by everyone, is simply not tenable and is not supported by any evidence. Instead, many working-class and poor South Africans, as shown by facts presented in this article, have not even realised the assumed benefits of the Third Industrial Revolution, which comprises information and communications technologies. For the students who participated in this study, poor information and communications technology infrastructure and the challenges pertaining to access to laptops and computers made online learning during the lockdown very difficult.

Zimbabwean migrant women encounter numerous challenges from their homes to the borders of Zimbabwe and South Africa, as well as upon arrival in Johannesburg, and during their stay there. In addition to the decision to move to South Africa, particularly Johannesburg, these migrant women from Zimbabwe plan their journeys from their homes to the border and carry them out with many considerations that they made while planning the journey at home, a process that is not extensively covered in the literature. Based on in-depth interviews with some Zimbabwean women migrants, the article reveals that these women plan their journeys by incorporating religious and cultural practices and using road transport to move from their homes to places near the borders. Upon reaching the borders, some cross the Limpopo river on foot, while others enter South Africa via Botswana. Relatively few women follow the normal, formal border route to enter South Africa. Many either bribe border authorities, while others take the risky route of traveling on foot and crossing the dangerous Limpopo river. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In South Africa, with few exceptions, scholarship on the modern labour movement which emerged after the Durban strikes of 1973 tends to focus on trade unions that constituted the labour movement, strikes, collective bargaining, and workplace changes. While all these topics covered by labour scholars are of great importance, there is less emphasis on the role played by labour support organisations (LSOs) which, in some cases, predate the formation of the major trade unions. Based on an analysis of historical writings, some archival and internet sources, this article critically discusses the contribution of LSOs and their use of workers' education to build and strengthen trade unions, which became one of the critical forces in the struggles against racial capitalism in the 1980s. In particular, it critically examines the work of the Urban Training Project (UTP) and the South African Committee for Higher Education (SACHED) workers' education programmes as a contribution to building the labour movement. The relationship between trade unions which had elaborated structures of accountability and LSOs which were staffed by a relatively small layer of activists also led to debates about accountability and mandates.

Debates on the Fourth Industrial Revolution have tended not to focus on the direct relationship between all four technological revolutions and transportation -- a crucial element of all technological surges. At the same time, scholarship on transportation has generally ignored the significance of transportation in all the revolutions. This article therefore seeks to strike a balance between these two extremes by showing that all the technological revolutions were also about transportation. In other words, the debates on the technological advances provide scholars, researchers, engineers, and working-class organisations with the space to foreground transport as an issue requiring special attention, especially in South Africa where the public transport system faces many challenges. Critically applying the prism of the four industrial revolutions, the article demonstrates that South Africa lags behind from a transport perspective, and still relies on the transportation of the Second Industrial Revolution when other countries are utilising technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Compounding matters is that even transport technologies invented in the 1800s are being stolen and vandalised, and the maintenance of the system is extremely poor. The article then submits that these transport problems may be solved by mobilisation and advocacy led by working-class and poor communities negatively affected by the crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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There is a growing literature on the conditions of Zimbabwean women working as migrant workers in South Africa, specifically in cities like Johannesburg. Based on in-depth interviews and documentary analysis, this empirical research paper contributes to scholarship examining the conditions of migrant women workers from Zimbabwe employed as precarious workers in Johannesburg by zooming in on specific causes of migration to Johannesburg, the journey undertaken by the migrant women to Johannesburg, challenges of documentation, use of networks to survive in Johannesburg, employment of the women in precarious work, and challenges in the workplace. Rape and sexual violence are threats that face the women interviewed during migration to Johannesburg and even when in Johannesburg. The police who are supposed to uphold and protect the law are often found to be perpetrators involved in various forms of violence against women. In the workplace, the women earn starvation wages and work under poor working conditions. Human rights organizations and trade unions are unable to reach the many migrant women because of the sheer volume of violations against workers' rights and human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]