Reflections on 50 years of data, facts and people

The South African Labour and Development Research Unit (SALDRU) at the University of Cape Town (UCT) marked its 50th anniversary with an afternoon of reflection, a trip down memory lane, critique, and celebration.

SALDRU's 50th-anniversary celebration, held under the evocative theme "Hearts on Fire, Heads on Ice" - borrowed from a line often quoted by the late Emeritus Professor Francis Wilson - brought together generations of scholars, policy makers, students, and partners to reflect on the unit's half a century of impact.

Through three plenary discussions, speakers traced SALDRU's journey from its origins under apartheid to its current role as a continental leader in poverty and inequality research.

It was, as incoming SALDRU director, Professor Vimal Ranchhod, said "an overwhelming afternoon" - one that laid bare the depth of SALDRU's intellectual legacy and the profound human networks it has nurtured for five decades.

"SALDRU has always been about people."

"What is astounding is what this institution has done for so many people," Professor Ranchhod reflected. "SALDRU has always been about people; people trying to make contributions, starting with Francis Wilson. And now we find ourselves at a moment of transition.

"[Professor] Murray [Leibbrandt] has taken SALDRU forward with distinction, and I am honoured to step in as the new director of a UCT Research Centre that is bigger than ever. SALDRU is no longer just an acronym; it's a living institution shaped by generations."

He extended his thanks to Tania Hendricks and the administrative team: Hajirah Esau, Pippa Green, and the community of staff whose often unseen labour "makes everything possible".

Facts matter

In the first of three plenary discussions titled, "Facts Matter - SALDRU's Beginnings, 1975-1990", with Green as the moderator, the panel revisited the unit's formation under Emeritus Professor Wilson, who founded SALDRU on the belief that rigorous evidence could cut through apartheid's distortions.

Lindy Wilson, Wilson's wife, described how his commitment to using irrefutable facts as a tool for exposing and critiquing apartheid shaped SALDRU's ethos. She recalled how his early research revealed that black miners' wages had declined over 50 years - an explosive finding in the 1970s.

"Francis believed deeply that meticulous, grounded facts were a tool for exposing apartheid's racist economic policies," she said. "His work showed that in 50 years, black miners' wages had declined, and the mining industry could not refute it. That belief in irrefutable evidence became the foundation of SALDRU and everything it did."

Labour researcher Debbie Budlender spoke about her early work with trade unions and her unusual distinction at the time.

SALDRU's 50th-anniversary celebration brought together generations of scholars, policy makers, students, and partners to reflect on the unit's half a century of impact.

"My one stage of fame is that I was probably the only person banned from SALDRU," she recalled. "But walking back in after being unbanned felt like coming home. It was an environment that felt safe and welcoming."

Najwah Allie-Edries, who started as an intern at SALDRU and is now a senior policy maker, said SALDRU was a lifeline: "I'm the great-granddaughter of a fisherman; my mother was a garment worker. SALDRU was my safe landing, an anchor in a time of great uncertainty. It gave me a community that believed in young people from underrepresented backgrounds. It was home."

The panel reaffirmed something fundamental: methodological rigour mattered, but so did creating a space where excluded people could learn, work and imagine futures different from the constraints of apartheid.

The foregrounding of evidence

The second panel, titled "The Interregnum and Democracy, 1990-2015: The foregrounding of evidence", traced SALDRU's shift from exposing apartheid's harms to building the empirical bedrock of the new democracy. This included the landmark Project for Statistics on Living Standards and Development (PSLSD) in 1993, the Cape Area Panel Study (CAPS), and the launch of NIDS, South Africa's first national longitudinal study of households.

Cally Ardington, a director at SALDRU, moderated the panel. Former Finance and Planning Minister Trevor Manuel emphasised the urgency of evidence in the early 1990s.

Academic collaborators described how SALDRU's ethos shaped global partnerships. Professor David Lam recanted his first encounter with Wilson and the early commitment to open data.

"SALDRU created an enormous opportunity: to build a democracy on evidence, not assumption."

"We didn't have a reliable data set going into democracy," Manuel said. "The official data excluded the homelands; it was the worst possible thing for South Africa. SALDRU created an enormous opportunity: to build a democracy on evidence, not assumption."

Professor Lam added: "We immediately bonded over the idea that data should be publicly available. SALDRU's insistence on open data was extraordinary - and it echoed the best traditions of the University of Michigan."

Professor Jim Levinsohn from Yale University highlighted how capacity-building with SALDRU extended well beyond UCT into the country's historically disadvantaged universities and the policy sphere. Within government, Mastoera Sadan spoke candidly about anchoring NIDS as a national resource.

"If you wanted sustained government engagement, the study had to serve a broader agenda," Sadan affirmed. "We needed data that the state could own, understand and use - not just admire."

UCT's Associate Professor Cecil Mlatsheni reflected on how training in Michigan and work in SALDRU shaped his contributions to labour policy: "You cannot separate SALDRU's research from national policy processes. The relationship is deep and it's built on decades of rigorous evidence and human investment."

A new era

The third and final panel, "A New Era, 2015-2025 - Innovation, Partnerships and Policy Reach", was moderated by Ariane De Lannoy, the deputy director at SALDRU. This panel examined the last decade - a period defined by institutional expansion, international partnerships and the pivot from documenting problems to testing solutions.

Dr Nicola Branson highlighted the coherence of SALDRU's recent work: "Looking back, I'm surprised at how coherent our work has been. We've deepened the core themes of poverty, inequality and labour markets, but we've also built toolkits, the Community Youth Explorer, inequality measurement libraries, that allow others to do this work. That is impact."

From the French Development Agency (AFD), Dr Anda David reflected on why SALDRU is a unique partner. The impactful work that SALDRU is doing is not only valuable for Southern Africa or even the greater African continent, but also for the broader global community.

"SALDRU isn't extractive. It's embedded. It answers real national needs."

"SALDRU isn't extractive. It's embedded. It answers real national needs. Its work on inequality diagnostics is now used across South Africa, Colombia, and Indonesia. And SALDRU's kindness, its humanity, is what makes these partnerships work."

Representing the Presidency, Rudi Dicks offered an honest appraisal of what researchers sometimes get wrong - and what SALDRU gets right: "I would ask researchers: 'How is this going to help me?' With SALDRU, the answer was clear during COVID-19. The NIDS-CRAM data was phenomenal.

"We could take the results straight to the Cabinet. You could immediately see the impact in the outcomes for the next month. That was evidence in the national interest."

Josh Budlender reflected on joining the COVID-19 response team as a young researcher.

"It felt like people wanted answers, and SALDRU was a place they trusted. We learned to ask not just what the data tells us, but what policy makers need. It was a unique moment that showed the value of SALDRU's credibility."

From the Department of Science and Innovation, Imraan Patel described SALDRU itself as a case study in the science-policy interface.

"Facts matter, but so does theory. SALDRU shows what happens when rigorous data and strong institutional partnerships converge. We need to study that, replicate that, and fund that."

And finally, Professor Murray Leibbrandt, who led SALDRU for two transformative decades, described the serendipity that built the African Centre of Excellence for Inequality Research.

"ARUA [African Research Universities Alliance] gave us the structure to do what we'd always wanted: forge lasting partnerships across the continent. We could embed tools and capacities indigenously - not swoop in and leave. It was an extraordinary alignment of mission and opportunity."

A research centre, not just a research unit

Closing the event, Ranchhod returned to the human thread woven through every panel. The newly appointed director made a significant announcement about the phase SALDRU is embarking on.

"SALDRU's impact has always begun with people: researchers, administrators, fieldworkers, partners, funders, students. As we move into the next 50 years, we remain committed to rigorous research and partnership."