Skip to content

Wiehahn Commission of Inquiry into Labour Legislation reports and White Paper

Literature › Primary sources
Kind commission or official report
Producer Wiehahn Commission
Coverage 1977-1981
Works using it 26

Debates

Debate Works
Black trade unions: growth, wage effects, Wiehahn and strategy 13
The job colour bar, white labour and its erosion 9
Racial wage gaps, wage convergence and wage determination 8
Liberal vs revisionist: was apartheid functional or dysfunctional for capitalist growth? 7
Why apartheid ended: reform, transition and elite bargaining 5
Sanctions, disinvestment and the anti-apartheid movement 5
Cheap labour thesis and the function of the reserves 4
Post-apartheid economic policy, governance and corruption 4
Did the apartheid economy fail? Growth, productivity, investment and the post-1970s crisis 3
Education, Bantu Education and skills 2
White electoral politics, delimitation and party systems 1
Farm labour: mechanisation, labour shedding, wages and labour control 1
Industrialisation, protection and industrial structure 1
Origins, coherence and ideology of apartheid and Afrikaner nationalism 1
Worker consciousness, strikes and conflict on the mines and shop floor 1

Works using this source

Work As cited Period How used
Bendix (1989) Wiehahn Commission recommendations (Commission of Enquiry into Labour Legislation) 1979 Explains the origin of the Industrial Court and the 1979 reforms.
Budeli et al. (2008) Report of the Commission of Enquiry into Labour Legislation (Wiehahn Commission), Part I RP 47/1979, with Reports 38 of 1980 and 27 of 1981 1977-1981 Shows that the Commission proposed freedom of association for all employees, non-racial union registration, abolition of job reservation and an Industrial Court, which drove the 1979-81 reforms.
Charney (1984) Wiehahn Commission, Riekert Report and de Lange Committee reports late 1970s-early 1980s Cited as exemplars of the technocratic approach and as the basis of Botha's labour and education reforms; not read directly.
George (2006) Wiehahn Commission (1977) recommendations on labour legislation 1977–1979 Context for emergence of registered black trade unions, via the SEIFSA brochure account.
Gould (1981) Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Labour Legislation (Wiehahn Commission), Part I, 1979, with 1980 second report reported via press 1977-1980 Main object of analysis: recommendations on freedom of association, migrants, registration, industrial court; also supplies data on committees and migrant numbers.
Gould (1981) White Paper on Part I of the Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Labour Legislation (1979) 1979 Shows which Wiehahn recommendations the Government accepted or rejected (migrants, registration, job reservation, committees).
Greenberg (1983) Commission of Enquiry into Labour Legislation (Wiehahn Commission) report c. 1979 Quoted for its free-market statement, as an example of 'revisionist historiography' that denies the state's historic role in the economy.
Hirschsohn (1998) Wiehahn Commission (state-appointed) and the 1979–81 labour law reforms 1979–1981 Establishes the opening of the syndical opportunity structure; the Commission's strategy of formal recognition and registration is cited via Maree (1985), not from the report itself.
Hofmeyr and Lucas (1998) Wiehahn Commission recommendations late 1970s Cited as the origin of the 1979 legislative change that opened collective bargaining to African workers.
Kraak (1995) Reports of the Wiehahn, Riekert, De Kock and De Lange Commissions (1977-1980) 1977-1980 Described as the reform impetus for abolishing job reservation, recognising black unions, and expanding urban rights and black education; known via secondary sources.
Lemon (1982) Wiehahn Commission reports on labour legislation (via SAIRR Survey of Race Relations 1979, 1980) 1977-1980 Used to show government reluctance to table or act on labour reform recommendations before the election.
Lowenberg (1997) Wiehahn and Riekert commission reports (late 1970s), via McGrath (1990) late 1970s Establishes that the commissions recommended abolishing job reservation, recognising black unions and easing urban mobility before sanctions.
Macun and Wood (2001) Wiehahn Commission (1979), Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Labour Legislation, RP 47/1979 1979 Cited for the recommendations that African unions be legally recognised and registered and for the new industrial court, shaping the institutional-change argument.
Malherbe and Segal (2001a) Wiehahn Commission report (1979) 1979 Cited as the trigger for legalising African trade unions, part of the account of business's political and social role.
Maller (1994) Wiehahn Commission of Enquiry into Industrial Relations (1979-80) and Labour Relations Act of 1981 1979-1981 Cited as the origin of the legal recognition of African workers and the 1981 deracialization of industrial relations.
Maree (1985) Wiehahn Commission of Inquiry into Labour Legislation (as described; no report citation) 1977-1979 Its recommendations (registration of African unions, industrial court) explain the 1979 shift in state policy; the report is not cited directly.
Mariotti and Fourie (2014) Wiehahn Commission recommendation on job reservation late 1970s Used in the Mariotti and Van Zyl-Hermann paper, as summarized, on the decline and abolition of statutory job reservation.
McGrath et al. (2004a) Riekert (RSA 1979), Wiehahn (1982) and Kleu (RSA 1983) Commission reports 1977–1983 Evidence of the late-apartheid shift to market-led, employer-led training and the Manpower Training Act 1981.
McGrath et al. (2004b) Riekert Commission (RSA 1979), Wiehahn Commission (Wiehahn 1982), Kleu Study Group (RSA 1983) 1977-1983 Establish the shift to market-led, employer-led training policy in late apartheid.
Mohamed (1991) Report of the Commission of Enquiry into Labour Legislation (Wiehahn), Part 2, Department of Manpower Utilisation, 1980 1979-1980 Used for apprenticeship practices, exclusion of Africans from skilled work in urban areas, and government training policy.
Moll (1991a) Wiehahn Commission report (1979) 1979 Cited as basis for phasing out statutory job reservation by 1984.
Moll (1993c) Wiehahn Commission (appointed 1977) 1977-1979 Mentioned as the government's response to unrest that led to the legalization of African unions.
Phakathi (2012) Wiehahn Commission of Inquiry reports (1977-1981), incl. 'Industrial relations in the mining industry' 1977-1981 Cited, via Crush et al., as the state's response to 1970s mine unrest and its recommendation that black unions be recognised.
Siebert (1987a) Wiehahn Commission (1979), Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Labour Legislation, Part I, RP 47 1979 Establishes recognition of black unions and the number of workers in unregistered unions, and rationale for registration.
Siebert (1987b) Wiehahn Commission (1979), Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Labour Legislation, Part I, RP47 1979 Source for the registration of black unions, the number of black workers in unregistered unions, and the 1978 estimate of unregistered membership.
Siebert (1987c) Wiehahn Commission (1979), Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Labour Legislation, Part I, RP47 1979 Documents the recommendation to register black unions and the 50,000-70,000 workers in unregistered unions.
Van Wyk (2005) Commission reports: Wiehahn (1979), Riekert (1979), Theron (1973-76), President's Council, and 1969 security commission 1969-1982 Described as the basis of Botha-era labour, urban and constitutional reforms, but known only via secondary summaries.