Herbert Jauch

Biography

Herbert Jauch has been associated with the Namibian labour movement for 30 years. He was a founding member of the Namibia National Teachers Union (NANTU) and served as its national secretary in the early 1990s. He was also a member of the economics and land sub-committee of the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW) from 1993 - 1995. He holds 2 teaching degrees as well as a MA degree in Political Studies.

In the mid-1990s, he became a labour researcher, first with the International Labour Research and Information Group (ILRIG) in South Africa and then with Namibia's trade union-based Labour Resource and Research Institute (LaRRI). He was LaRRI’s founding director and served the organisation from 1998 until 2010. During that time, he was involved in various research and education projects for trade unions in Southern Africa, including research on Export Processing Zones (EPZs), privatisation, labour hire and the impact of globalisation. Most of his publications are available at: www.vivaworkers.org.na

Herbert was also instrumental in introducing a labour diploma course for Namibian trade unionists in 2002 and he was a founding member of the Africa Labour Research Network (ALRN), which brought together union-based researchers in the fields of labour and development across the continent. He co-authored regional publications on alternative development options for Southern Africa, on Chinese investments in Africa and on inequality in Southern Africa.

Between 2010 and 2020, Herbert worked as labour researcher and educator with various organisations in Southern Africa, including the Workers’ College in South Africa, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and various Namibian trade unions. From 2015 until 2018, he coordinated the education centre of the Metal and Allied Namibian Workers Union (MANWU). He currently serves as the chairperson of Namibia’s Economic and Social Justice Trust (ESJT)