This news aggregator site highlights South African labour news from a wide range of internet and print sources. Each posting has a synopsis of the source article, together with a link or reference to the original. Postings cover the range of labour related matters from industrial relations to generalist human resources.
BDLive reports that Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant has confirmed that her department’s chief director of legal services, Adv Nkahloleng Phasha, remains suspended on full pay, making him one of 16 suspended departmental officials, costing R5.2m a year.
He was suspended in October 2011 for reasons that have not yet been made clear. This raises serious questions for a department that should set the tone for dealing expeditiously with employee matters and oversees the implementation of labour law, said Democratic Alliance (DA) labour spokesman Ian Ollis. The Sunday Times also reported at the weekend that Oliphant had attempted to keep secret a forensic report into her special adviser Herbert Mkhize which had found that he and then chief financial officer at the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac), Umesh Dulabh, had racked up R2 in bills for, among other things, power tools and DVDs on council credit cards. Yet, the government’s inability to timeously finalise disciplinary procedures against its employees has prompted moves to ensure departments receive technical assistance. Cabinet approved the creation of a pool of labour-relations specialists and legal experts to assist with the huge backlog in disciplinary cases. An announcement on the creation of a structure for this pool to commence its work is expected later this month.
- Read this report by Karl Gernetzky in full at BDLive
- Read too an article by Ian Ollis on this matter at allAfrica
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page