Eddie Webster leaves a legacy of advocacy for social justice that transcends academia

Born in 1942, Edward Charles Webster dedicated his life to understanding and advocating for the rights of South African workers. His academic journey began at Rhodes University, followed by studies at Oxford and York universities.

He earned a PhD from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), where he would later become a Professor Emeritus. He was also the founder of the Society, Work and Development Institute (Swop) at Wits. 

Edward Webster was a colleague and friend of the late Rick Turner and his partner Foszia Turner-Stylianou at the University of Natal (Durban) in the early 1970s. They established the Institute of Industrial Education and the South African Labour Bulletin. In December 1975 Eddie was arrested under the Suppression of Communism Act and acquitted a year later for, inter alia, calling for the release of Nelson Mandela.

He was the Distinguished Research Professor at the Southern Centre of Inequality Studies and the founder and past director of the Society, Work and Politics Institute (SWOP) at the University of the Witwatersrand. He was the author of seven books and more than 120 academic articles. He was a Senior Fulbright Scholar at the University of Wisconsin (Madison) and the first Ela Bhatt Professor at the International Centre for Development and Decent Work (ICDD) at Kassel University in Germany. His co-authored volume, Grounding Globalisation: Labour in the Age of Insecurity, was awarded the American Sociological Association award for the best scholarly monograph published on labour.

Webster’s impact on South African academia is undeniable and he is widely credited as being the pioneer of the country’s sociology of work and labour studies. His seminal work, Cast in a Racial Mould, remains a cornerstone text, analysing the intricate relationship between the labour process and the evolution of the South African labour movement.

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Beyond his scholarship, he was a passionate advocate for social justice. Webster actively participated in the South African Sociological Association and he co-founded the South African Labour Bulletin, a platform for critical analysis of labour issues.

Speaking to Daily Maverick on Tuesday, sociologist and Wits University Professor Karl von Holdt described the late Webster as “an extraordinary force actually in the field of sociology. He was one of the main founders of industrial sociology in South Africa.”

“He always was an institution builder,” said Von Holdt, “although he was already effectively at pension age, he basically built two other institutions, the Chris Hani Institute, which is based at Cosatu, and then the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies at Wits. He had this incredible energy for building institutions and bringing others in with his energy and vision.” 

His dedication, however, extended well beyond academia as he actively engaged with policymakers and trade unions, bridging the gap between research and real-world application. The Human Sciences Research Council has said of Webster that “he is credited with influencing several generations of sociology students at Wits, transforming the sociology curriculum at the university, and producing a new generation of black sociologists.”

#COSATU conveys its heartfelt condolences to the family of Prof #EddieWebster, who passed on today. Prof. mentored many workers on labor studies at Global Labor University. May his soul rest in peace ? @GlobalLabourCol @GlobalLabour @ILOACTRAV @ILOAfrica #HambaKahleEddieWebster pic.twitter.com/snqHu6NLsv

— @COSATU Today (@_cosatu) March 5, 2024