This study argues that the automobile sector’s body shop is fully automated, the paint shop is 80% automated, there is about 20% technology utilization in the car assembly line, and the supply for logistics is making a lot more use of machines as well. These percentages are an indicator of how workers have lost the contest with technology in the industry. Many workers are being deskilled and the remaining workers are being reshuffled to assembly lines likely to be automated with time. There should be interventions to ready the workers to adapt to society and the economy, or there will be massive unemployment.
AdlerPS (1990) Marx, machines, and skill. Technology and Culture31(4): 780–812.
2.
AmbeIMBadenhorst-WessJA (2013) Challenges of locally manufactured vehicle supply chains in South Africa. Journal of Transport and Supply Chain Management7(1): 1–8.
3.
BarchiesiF (2000) The automobile industry in South Africa: Liberalization adjustment and challenges for labor. In: Lean Production and Labour Force in the Car Industry: The Forms of Implementation of an Epoch-Making Model, International Workshop, Università della Calabria, 25–27 March 2000.
4.
BarchiesiF (2010) Informality and casualization as challenges to South Africa’s industrial unionism: Manufacturing workers in the East Rand/Ekurhuleni region in the 1990s. African Studies Quarterly11(2–3): 67–85.
5.
BarnesJBlackAMonacoL (2018) State–business bargaining, localisation and supply chain development in the South African auto industry. In: 4th Annual Competition and Economic Development (ACER) Conference, Johannesburg, South Africa, 19–20 July 2018.
6.
BlackAHassonR (2012) Capital intensive industrialisation and comparative advantage: Can South Africa do better in labour demanding manufacturing? In: Strategies to Overcome Poverty and Inequality ‘Towards Carnegie III’ Conference, University of Cape Town.
7.
BlackACraigSDunneP (2016) Capital intensity, industrial policy and employment in the South African manufacturing sector. REDI3X3 Working Paper 23, November.
8.
BlackACraigSDunneP (2017) Capital intensity, employment and sustainability in the South African manufacturing sector. In: Trade & Industrial Policy Strategies Conference. Available at: http://forum.tips.org.za/images/forum
BravermanH (1998) Labor and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century. New York: NYU Press.
11.
BrynjolfssonEMcAfeeA (2011) Race Against the Machine: How the Digital Revolution is Accelerating Innovation, Driving Productivity, and Irreversibly Transforming Employment and the Economy. Digital Frontier Press.
12.
ButolloFJürgensUKrzywdzinskiM (2019) From lean production to Industrie 4.0: More autonomy for employees? In: MeyerUSchauppSSeibtD (eds) Digitalization in Industry. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 61–80.
CodyJ (2015) How labor manages productivity advances and crisis response: A comparative study of automotive manufacturing in Germany and the US. Global Labour University Working Paper.
Department of Trade and Industry (2018) Industrial Policy Action Plan: Economic Sectors, Employment and Infrastructure Development Cluster 2018/19–2020/21. Pretoria: Department of Trade and Industry, South Africa.
GelbSKhanA (2016) Towards a complete jobs picture: a new lens on labour data gaps and on automation. ODI briefing paper. London: Overseas Development Institute.
23.
GleesonBMacleanKHaddadiA, et al. (2013) Gestures for industry: Intuitive human-robot communication from human observation. In: ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, Tokyo, Japan.
24.
GumedeV (2017) Leadership for Africa’s development: Revisiting indigenous African leadership and setting the agenda for political leadership. Journal of Black Studies48(1): 74–90.
25.
HarveyGHodderABrammerS (2017) Trade union participation in CSR deliberation: An evaluation. Industrial Relations Journal48(1): 42–55.
26.
HicksMJDevarajS (2015) The myth and the reality of manufacturing in America. Center for Business and Economic Research, Ball State University, 6.
27.
HlatshwayoM (2017) Technological changes and manufacturing unions in South Africa: Failure to formulate a robust response. Global Labour Journal8(2): 100–119.
28.
HlatshwayoMBuhlunguS (2017) Work reorganisation and technological change: Limits of trade union strategy and action at ArcelorMittal, Vanderbijlpark. African Sociological Review/Revue Africaine de Sociologie21(1): 126–152.
29.
JaimovichNSiuHE (2012) Job polarization and jobless recoveries. No. w18334, National Bureau of Economic Research. Available at: www.nber.org/papers/w18334
30.
KerrAWittenbergMArrowJ (2014) Job creation and destruction in South Africa. South African Journal of Economics82(1): 1–18.
31.
KomlosJ (2016) Has Schumpeterian creative destruction become more destructive?Tiempo y Economía3(1): 9–18.
32.
LorentzenJBarnesJ (2004) Learning, upgrading, and innovation in the South African automotive industry. European Journal of Development Research16(3): 465–498.
33.
MacDuffieJPPilFK (1997) From fixed to flexible: Automation and work organization trends from the international assembly plant study. In: ShimokawaKJürgensUFujimotoT (eds) Transforming Automobile Assembly. Berlin: Springer, pp. 238–254.
34.
MashiloA (2010) Changes in work and production organisation in the automotive industry value chain: An evaluation of the responses by labour in South Africa. University of the Witwatersrand.
35.
MasondoD (2018) South African business nanny state: The case of the automotive industrial policy post-apartheid, 1995–2010. Review of African Political Economy45(156): 203–222.
36.
MasondoT (2010) Worker participation in workplace restructuring in the automotive industry: A comparative study of German and South African Volkswagen plants, 1970–2009. Doctoral dissertation.
37.
MilkmanR (1997) Farewell to the Factory: Auto Workers in the Late Twentieth Century. Berkeley: University of California Press.
38.
Mueller-HirthN (2016) Corporate social responsibility and development in South Africa: Socio-economic contexts and contemporary issues. In: VertigansSIdowuSOSchmidpeterR (eds) Corporate Social Responsibility in Sub-Saharan Africa. Cham: Springer, pp. 51–68.
39.
NAAMSA (2019) Quarterly review of business conditions: New Motor vehicle manufacturing industry / automotive sector: 2nd quarter2019, 14August.
40.
NaudéWSzirmaiAHaraguchiN (2015) Structural Change and Industrial Development in the BRICS. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
PorterMEKramerMR (2006) The link between competitive advantage and corporate social responsibility. Harvard Business Review84(12): 78–92.
47.
PrattGA (2015) Is a Cambrian explosion coming for robotics?Journal of Economic Perspectives29(3): 51–60.
48.
PrevitaliFSFagianiCC (2015) Deskilling and degradation of labour in contemporary capitalism: The continuing relevance of Braverman. Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation9(1): 76–91.
49.
RasiahR (2011) Ownership and technological capabilities: Evidence from automotive firms in Brazil, India and South Africa. International Journal of Institutions and Economies3(2): 203–234.
50.
RodrikD (2016) Premature deindustrialization. Journal of Economic Growth21(1): 1–33.
51.
SchumpeterJA (1947) The creative response in economic history. Journal of Economic History7(149): 149–159.
52.
ThompsonP (1983) The Nature of Work: An Introduction to Debates on the Labour Process. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
53.
ThompsonP (2010) The capitalist labour process: Concepts and connections. Capital & Class34(1): 7–14.
54.
VidalM (2007) Manufacturing empowerment? ‘Employee involvement’ in the labor process after Fordism. Socio-Economic Review5(2): 197–232.
55.
VulavalaHUlmerJM (2014) Importance of robotics in automotive manufacturing. Insights to a Changing World Journal4: 20–33.
56.
WCED (1987) Our Common Future, 17. Geneva.
57.
WebsterEMasondoTBischoffC (2019) Workers’ participation at plant level: A South African case study. In: BergerSPriesLWannöffelM (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Workers’ Participation at Plant Level. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
