Modern slavery in the post-1994 South Africa? A critical ethical analysis of the National Development Plan promises for unemployment in South Africa

Abstract

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.

In Afrika-etiek word die idee van ‘werk’ aan God of gode gekoppel. Werk, of umsebenzi, is uiteindelik vir God of gode; volgens my interpretasie van die Afrika-etiese waardestelsel is werk sonder God gelykstaande aan slawerny. Met so ‘n verstaan van slawerny kan goddeloosheid in werk impliseer dat ons post-1994 na die gode van moderniteit wat God onttroon het, indien nie werk van God ontkoppel het nie, soek. Hierdie artikel kyk na die probleem van werkloosheid deur die Nasionale Ontwikkelingsplan en in die besonder die voorgestelde oplossings vir werkloosheid in Suid-Afrika te analiseer. Die artikel ondersoek en evalueer die taal en grammatika van die NOP as respons op die gewelddadige geskiedenis van goedkoop en gewillige trekarbeid in Suid-Afrika.