Everyday working class life is a life of pain. It is a life in which no ordinary person is free of oppression and exploitation. If you do not have a job, you are a victim. If you have a job, you are the victim of exploitation and alienation. That ...
Trevor Ngwane is an activist for human and political rights. He was active in the struggle agains... more
Trevor Ngwane is an activist for human and political rights. He was active in the struggle against apartheid and continues the light in post-apartheid society. He has previously worked as a Sociology lecturer at Wits University where he helped found the Wits Workers' School, a project to teach literacy to the cleaners and gardeners working on campus. He worked for a while as the national education officer for the Transport & General Workers Union, a COSATU affiliate. In 1995 he was elected ward councillor for Pimville Zone 5 and 7, Soweto, on an African National Congress ticket. In 1999 he was expelled by the ANC for publicly opposing Igoli 2002, a plan to comprehensively privatise municipal services by the Johannesburg City Council. In 2001 he helped found the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee (SECC) and a year later, the Anti-Privatisation Forum, both campaigning organizations fighting for free basic services for all and against privatisation of public services. He is employed as the organiser of the SECC. From May 1, 2009 he is taking 6 months' time off from work to study full-time for a Masters' degree in Sociology at the Centre for Civil Society, University of KwaZulu-Natal, where he will reflect and write on his experiences in the struggle. He is a member of the Socialist Group, a small collective of socialists active in the social movements and trade unions. His group has recently developed an interest in environmental issues and is busy finding ways of rooting the struggle against global warming and climate change among ordinary workers.
