2020

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH:

20 MAR | 03 APR | 08 MAY 2020
SWOP Breakfast Seminar Series - First Semester 2020
Presenting new research by SWOP
Please note that breakfast will be served from 7h30, the presentations will begin at 8h00 for 20 - 25 minutes, followed by a discussion.
20 MARCH | 08h00 - 09h30: Is any job better than no job? A view from ‘unemployed’ youth in urban South Africa
Presenter: Hannah Dawson
03 APRIL | 08h00 - 09h30: “We fought for inkululeko not democracy”: Re-thinking democracy and the
continued struggle for inkululeko
Presenter: Hlengiwe Ndlovu
08 MAY | 08h00 - 09h30: "Hunter being hunted": Politics, extraction and bloodsucker violence in rural Malawi
Presenter: Daniel Nkhata
VENUE:
Hoymeyr House, between Jubilee Hall & International House, Wits University
East Campus, Braamfontein (Parking available)
RSVP:
email: gugulethu.mabena1@wits.ac.za | call: 011 717 4460

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH:

21 FEB | 2020
First Semester 2020
Presenting new research by SWOP
Please note that breakfast will be served from 7h30, the presentations will begin at 8h00 for 20 - 25 minutes, followed by a discussion.
21 FEBRUARY | 08h00 - 09h30: Discussion and Launch of 'Bonds of Justice: The Struggle for Oukasie'
Speakers: Kally Forrest, Tshidi Mangoathe, Jacob Moatshe, Gille de Vlieg
VENUE:
Hoymeyr House, between Jubilee Hall & International House, Wits University
East Campus, Braamfontein (Parking available)
RSVP:
email: gugulethu.mabena1@wits.ac.za | call: 011 717 4460
2019

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH:

23 AUG | 20 SEP | 04 OCT | 18 OCT | 2019
Second Semester 2019
Presenting new research by SWOP
Please note that breakfast will be served from 7h30, the presentations will begin at 8h00 for 20 - 25 minutes, followed by a discussion.
23 AUGUST | 08h00 - 09h30: Marikana and its aftermath
Presenter: Naadia Munshi
20 SEPTEMBER | 08h00 - 09h30: Traditional authorities and the politics of labour recruitment in Zimbabwe's platinum mining industry
Presenter: Joseph Mujere
04 OCTOBER | 08h00 - 09h30: A Just Transition from Coal: Implications for coal workers and coal affected communities
Presenters: Jacklyn Cock, Dineo Skosana and Victor Munnik
18 OCTOBER | 08h00 - 09h30: What right to food? The absence of food justice in Johannesburg
Presenter: Brittany Kesselman
VENUE:
Hoymeyr House, between Jubilee Hall & International House, Wits University
East Campus, Braamfontein (Parking available)
RSVP:
email: gugulethu.mabena1@wits.ac.za | call: 011 717 4460

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15 FEB | 15 MAR | 03 MAY | 2019
Presenting new research by SWOP
Please note that breakfast will be served from 7h30, the presentations will begin at 8h00 for 20 - 25 minutes, followed by a discussion.
15 FEBRUARY | 08h00 - 09h30: The politics of corruption: From Zuma to Ramaphosa...and after?
Presenter: Karl von Holdt
15 MARCH | 08h00 - 09h30: Easy to replace? Decent work deficits and organising experiences of petrol attendants in Tshwane
Presenter: Carmen Ludwig
03 MAY | 08h00 - 09h30: Grave matters: Dispossession and the desecration of ancestral graves by mining corporations
Presenter: Dineo Skosana
VENUE:
Hoymeyr House, between Jubilee Hall & International House, Wits University
East Campus, Braamfontein (Parking available)
RSVP:
email: gugulethu.mabena1@wits.ac.za | call: 011 717 4460
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH:

2018

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IN PARTNERSHIP WITH:

24 AUG | 28 SEP | 12 OCT | 2018
Second Semester 2018
Presenting new research by SWOP
Please note that breakfast will be served from 7h30, the presentations will begin at 8h00 for 20 - 25 minutes, followed by a discussion.
24 AUGUST | 08h00 - 09h30: From protest to politics and back: 10 years of mobilisation in Piet Retief
Presenters: Karl von Holdt and Tasneem Essop
28 SEPTEMBER | 08h00 - 10h00: Economic and social upgrading in the global production networks: The components sector in Gauteng
Presenter: Alex Mashilo
12 OCTOBER | 08h00 - 09h30: Markets on the margins: Lessons for development strategy - from enterprise development to job guarantees
Presenter: Kate Phillip
VENUE:
Hoymeyr House, between Jubilee Hall & International House, Wits University
East Campus, Braamfontein (Parking available)
RSVP:
email: gugulethu.mabena1@wits.ac.za | call: 011 717 4460

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06 APR | 20 APR | 11 MAY | 2018
First Semester 2018
Presenting new research by SWOP
Please note that breakfast will be served from 7h30, the presentations will begin at 8h00 for 20 - 25 minutes, followed by a discussion.
06 APRIL | 08h00 - 09h30: Life without work: experiences of unemployment in in the dying gold fields of the Free State.
Presenter: Thabang Sefalafala
20 APRIL | 08h00 - 10h00: Whose frontier is it anyway? Reclaimer 'integration' and the battle over Johannesburg's 'waste-based commodity frontier'
Presenter: Melanie Samson
11 MAY | 08h00 - 09h30: The Organisation Workshop (OW): a catalyst for autonomous development from below? The CWP in Munsieville and Bekkersdal
Presenter: Themba Masondo
VENUE:
Hoymeyr House, between Jubilee Hall & International House, Wits University
East Campus, Braamfontein (Parking available)
RSVP:
email: gugulethu.mabena1@wits.ac.za | call: 011 717 4460
2017

25 AUG | 22 SEPT | 2017
Movements. Whiteness. A Fresh Look.
Presenting new research by SWOP
This semester SWOP returns to old themes with fresh eyes. Is there something new emerging in the field of movements and popular politics, or are we repeating old patterns? Whiteness is associated with domination - so what does it meant when poor whites struggle for survival in a black shack settlement.
25 AUG | 08h00 - 09h30: A new movement landscape in South Africa? Repetition and innovation
Speakers: Karl von Holdt & Prishani Naidoo (SWOP)
22 SEP | 08h00 - 09h30: Whiteness re-aligned: the narratives of ‘poor whites’ from Munsiville
Speaker: Nonkululeko Mabaso (SWOP)
VENUE:
Graduate Seminar Room, South West Engineering Building, East Campus, Braamfontein
RSVP:
email: info.swop@wits.ac.za | call: 011 717 4460
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03 MAR | 24 MAR | 21 APR | 26 MAY | 2017
Work, water, community and livelihood in peril
Presenting new research by SWOP
These papers document the destruction of work, water, community and livelihoods by the current wave of intensified marketisation, posing the question of alternatives to social crisis.
03 MAR | 08h00 - 09h30: Money for Nothing, Work for Love: Radical Imaginaries of the Future of Labour and Distribution
Speaker: Liz Fouksman (SWOP)
24 MAR | 08h00 - 10h00: Coal, water and mining: flowing badly
Speakers: Kally Forrest & Lesego Loate (SWOP)
21 APRIL | 08h00 - 09h30: Dispossessing the Dispossessed? Mining and Rural Struggles in Mokopane, Limpopo
Speakers: Sonwabile Mnwana, Farai Mtero & Michelle Hay (SWOP)
26 MAY | 08h00 - 09h30: Dealing with the tribe: the politics of the Bapo/Lonmin royalty-to-equity conversion
Speakers: Stanley Malindi & Gavin Capps (SWOP)
VENUE:
Graduate Seminar Room, South West Engineering Building,
East Campus, Braamfontein
RSVP:
email: info.swop@wits.ac.za | call: 011 717 4460

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29 JULY | 23 SEPT | 21 OCT | 2016
Platinum: crises of capital and community
Launching the three working papers from SWOP's Mining and Rural Transformation Project.
Once the rising star of the post-apartheid mining sector, platinum is now mired in crisis. At one end of the industry, corporate profitability has plummted as the demands of international investors arise. At the other, rural communities bearing the brunt of mine expansion have exploded in anger at the dispossession of their land and unaccountable deals of their chiefs.
29 JULY | 08h00 - 09h30: Dilemmas of distribution: financialisation and inequality in the platinum industry
Speaker: Andrew Bowman (University of Edinburgh)
Graduate Seminar Room, South West Engineering Building, East Campus, Braamfontein
23 SEPT | 08h00 - 10h00: Dealing with the tribe: the politics of the Bapo/Lonmin royalty-to-equity conversion
Speakers: Stanley Malindi & Gavin Capps (SWOP)
Senate Room, 2nd Floor, Senate House, East Campus, Braamfontein
21 OCT | 08h00 - 09h30: Mining, land and livelihoods in Mokopane: A comparative study
Speakers: Sonwabile Mnwana, Farai Mtero & Michelle Hay (SWOP & Wits History)
Graduate Seminar Room, South West Engineering Building, East Campus, Braamfontein
RSVP:
email: info.swop@wits.ac.za | call: 011 717 4460
2016
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH:




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18 MAR | 15 APR | 20 MAY | 2016
Decolonisation and the new student movement
A new wave of student protests has gripped South African universities since October 2015. The movement has shaken universities and government, and triggered an alliance between students and outsourced workers. Critical issues raised by this movement include decolonisation, free education, labour outsourcing and the general character of the post-apartheid social order. The first semester SWOP Breakfast Series will interrogate these issues.
18 MAR | 08h00 - 09h30: Student movements, old and new
Speakers: Ntokozo Moloi (#FeesMustFall) and Nompendulo Mkhatshwa (SRC President)
15 APR | 08h00 - 09h30: Students and workers - forging a few alliance
Speakers: Deliwe Mzobe (Workers committee representative) and Naadir Munshi (Wits Workers Solidarity Committee)
20 MAY | 08h00 - 11h30: Student movements and politics on the continent
Speakers: Paul Chimhosva (University of Zimbabwe, SRC President 1991-1992), Munyaradzi Gwisai (General Secretary University of Zimbabwe SRC, 1988-1989) and a Student Leader Activist from Egypt.
VENUE:
Senate Room, 2nd Floor, Senate House
East Campus, Braamfontein, Wits
RSVP:
email: makane.phiri@wits.ac.za | call: 011 717 4460
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH:

CO-HOSTED:

2015

27 FEB | 13 MAR | 24 APR | 2015
Resistance!
Launching three new Working Papers
New forms of resistance are emerging among previously unorganised sectors of South African society – casual workers, rural villagers, farmworkers. Repertoires include novel forms of organisation and disruption, violence and the contestation of customary law. SWOP is launching there new Working Papers on these topics in the first semester of 2015.
27 FEB | 08h00 - 09h30: Fighting their Own Battles: The Mabarete and the End of Labour Broking in the South African Post Office
Speaker: David Dickinson (Sociology, Wits)
13 MAR | 08h00 - 10h00: ‘No Chief ever bought a piece of land!’ Struggles over property, community and mining in the Bakgatla-ba-Kgafela Traditional Authority Area, North West Province
Speaker: Sonwabile Mnwana (SWOP)
24 APR | 08h00 - 09h30: Farmworkers rising in the Western Cape: organisation and action
Speakers: Jesse Wilderman (Global Labour University, Wits).
VENUE:
Senate Room, 2nd Floor, Senate House
East Campus, Braamfontein, Wits
RSVP:
email: abnavien.king@wits.ac.za | call: 011 717 4460
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04 SEP | 18 SEP | 16 OCT | 2015
Mining, metal & society
Mining and mineral benefication are held up as the path to economic development for South Africa. Yet these processes are often brutally disruptive for environments and communities. This semester we explore some of their devastating consequences for workers, communities and the nature that we all depend on for life itself.
04 SEP | 08h00 - 09h30: The Marikana Commission: unearthing the truth, or burying it?
Speaker: Kally Forrest (SWOP)
18 SEP | 08h00 - 09h30: ‘The MPRDA: developmental or destructive?
Speakers: May Hermanus, Ingrid Watson and Joshua Walker
16 OCT | 08h00 - 09h30: The Arcelor Mittal Case: the power to pollute and the politics of knowledge
Speaker: Victor Munnik
VENUE:
Graduate Seminar Room, South West Engineering Building,
East Campus, Braamfontein, Wits
RSVP:
email: makane.phiri@wits.ac.za | call: 011 717 4460