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.
Ann Crotty writes that strangely the Democratic Alliance (DA) appears to be the loudest opponent to what has been described as possibly the most regressive national budget since 1994.
The party is rallying its troops to fight the increase in VAT announced by the minister of finance last week and is also opposing the hike in transport levies. There’s also been a commendable pushback from civil society, but there hasn’t been the traditionally raucous response from the big guns — namely labour federation Cosatu and the SA Communist Party (SACP), which could always in the past be relied on to churn out righteous indignation at the drop of a hat. Within hours of the budget, parliamentary finance committee chairman Yunus Carrim was talking about a pushback and hinting at the possibility that, for the first time since 1994, the budget might not be approved in its entirety. Sadly, the DA’s loud opposition to the VAT move may have killed any hope of a reversal. The reality is that as much as the ANC’s rank-and-file MPs feel instinctively opposed to a VAT increase, they will not want to be seen to be backing a DA-led campaign.
- Read this opinion piece in full at BusinessLive (paywall access)
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page