This book argues that the contours of the labour structure in South Africa first emerged in the agricultural and pastoral economy of the Cape colony under the Dutch East India Company (DEIC) from the mid seventeenth century onwards. This period set the division of labour along crude racial lines. This structure has come to permeate all workplaces in the country up to and including the current period whether in the mining, manufacturing and service industries. Where there has been significant transformation since 1994 has only been in the public sector.
