The Aim and Legacy of the Commission of Inquiry into Labour Legislation (Wiehahn Commission), 1977-1980

Abstract

The South African economy experienced slowing economic growth in the late 1970s, as a result of the international economic recession and the oil crisis of the early 1970s, and the system of apartheid was declared a crime against humanity in 1973. The 1970s saw the country experiencing renewed industrial and collective mass action, most notably the Durban strikes of 1973 and the student uprisings of 1976. The Wiehahn Commission was established in 1977 to respond to African labour militancy through a reconstruction of the then dual labour relations framework. The Commission’s stated goals were the stabilisation of labour relations and the facilitation of economic growth. This reform process led to the liberalisation of labour legislation in South Africa and additionally to the inclusion of African trade unions into the state collective bargaining system, provided these unions registered. By positioning itself within the ‘School of Continuity’, the paper disputes the notion of the discontinuation of colonialism as a result of the ‘Democratic transition’ of 1994, by proposing that this transition was but a logical progression of colonial social engineering achieved through the co‐optation of African labour in the 1970s. The research proposes that the Wiehahn Commission succeeded in creating a Black middle class that continues to act as a buffer from the rest of the African population. In addition, the long‐term objectives of the apartheid state were fulfilled with the institutionalisation of the Growth, Employment and Redistribution macroeconomic policy of 1996.