OPSEU in South Africa and Malawi: March 14, 2008

The “Slow Foot King Brothers” entertained guests at the Ministry function

After an early morning flight from East London to Durban, we drove straight into the city of Durban and began our meetings with Kessie Moodley and staff from the Workers’ College. OPSEU Social Justice Fund recently supported a project with the workers’ college regarding RPL (or Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition – PLAR) and I would really like to see this program expanded and some exchanges made between South Africa and Canada on the issue too. The college also runs Diploma courses for trade unionists and community activists and a Research Action component. We spent a great afternoon and evening with Kessie and “comrades”!

Smokey Thomas with staff at the Workers’ College in Durban
(Kessie Moodley on the top right).

We had a brief chat with the students in one of their programs – all of them workers or community activists from different countries. I was amazed at the level of complexity in the questions they posed to us – and the general knowledge of the politics of a country like Canada…

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