Andries Bezuidenhout is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Pretoria. He holds a PhD from the University of the Witwaters¬rand. Previously, he worked as a researcher at the Sociology of Work Unit (now the Society, Work and Development Institute) at the University of the Witwatersrand, to which he is still attached as an associate

Malehoko Tshoaedi is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Pretoria. She holds a PhD from the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. She has lectured in Sociology at the University of Johannesburg and at the University of South Africa, and has also worked as a researcher in the Sociology of Work Unit (now the Society, Work and Development Institute) at the University of the Witwatersrand

Christine Bischoff (née Psoulis) works for the Wits City Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. She has worked on most of the earlier surveys of Cosatu members and has co-authored book chapters and journal articles on the findings of the longitudinal study. She is currently working on her PhD at the Uni¬versity of Pretoria

Janet Cherry is a South African activist and academic. She is currently Professor of Development Studies at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth. Her main areas of research are human rights, democratic participation, social and political history, gender and sustainable development

Nkosinathi Paul Jikeka is currently a Numsa educator and a student of Develop¬ment Studies at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. He was formerly SACP organiser in Mbuyiselo Ngwenda district (Nelson Mandela Bay)

Boitumelo James Malope is a PhD candidate at the University of Stellenbosch in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, part of the DST/NRF SARChI Sociology of Land, Environment and Sustainable Development team. His areas of interests are labour markets and youth unemployment. He was previously at the University of Pretoria, where he did his BA, honours and master’s degrees

Johann Maree is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Cape Town. He has published extensively in the field of trade unions and employment relations. Among his publications are The Independent Trade Unions, 1974–1984 (editor and co-author) and Taking Democracy Seriously (co-author with eight others), the first book based on a survey of Cosatu members conducted shortly before the historic 1994 election

Sandla Nomvete is an Industrial Sociology and Labour Studies doctoral fellow at the University of Pretoria. His work focuses specifically on the dynamics of contin¬ued mining migrant labour post-apartheid. Previously, he has worked with medi¬cal doctors in his quest to understand the rationale behind South African doctors migrating upon completion of their studies. His research interests also include social and political movements

Ntsehiseng Nthejane has a BA in Social Work from the National University of Lesotho. In 2013, she moved to South Africa to further her studies in the Department of Sociology at the University of Pretoria, obtaining an honours degree in Industrial Sociology and Labour Studies. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in the same field. Her research interests are the phenomenon of illegal mining and the involvement of Basotho migrant workers

Ari Sitas is a sociologist and writer. He heads the Department of Sociology at the University of Cape Town and chairs the National Institute for Humanities and the Social Sciences. His latest publication (in 2016) is a reissue of his labour movement writings from the 1980s, The Flight of the Gwala-gwala Bird

Bianca Tame is a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cape Town. She previously worked as a researcher at the Industrial Organisational and Labour Studies Unit at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Her current research focuses on private employment agencies operating in the domestic sector, the commodification of an intimate work culture, the future of work, and gender and migration