In our roundup of weekend news, see
summaries of our selection of South African
labour-related stories that appeared since
Friday, 13 July 2018.
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Over 850 Prasa employees suffered disabling injuries on duty over past three years Timeslive reports that a stunning 869 employees suffered disabling injuries while on duty working for the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) over the past three financial years. Fifteen more people died at the agency's premises during the period between April 2015 and March 2018. This was revealed in Transport Minister Blade Nzimande’s written reply to a parliamentary question by DA MP Chris Hunsinger. The overwhelming number of the disabling injuries (853) were due to assaults by fare evading commuters and the public and also from injuries resulting from company motor vehicles‚ electrocutions‚ smoke inhalations resulting from high tension burnouts‚ trips and falls resulting from uneven surfaces and on platforms and unsafe acts. While some of the fatalities were a result of train accidents, including collisions and staff falling between platforms and trains and being struck by trains as a result of the falls, Nzimande reported that members of the public and commuters were perpetrators of deadly violence in some cases. Nzimande gave the reassurance that all injuries and fatalities had been reported to the Department of Labour as required by the Compensation and Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act. Read this report by Andisiwe Makinana in full at Timeslive Farmworker’s leg crushed in trailer accident in KZN News24 reports that a tractor accident on the north coast of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) has left a farm worker critically injured, paramedics said on Friday. IPSS Medical Rescue spokesperson Paul Herbst said paramedics were dispatched to a tractor accident on a farm in Upper Tongaat earlier on Friday. "Upon arrival, advanced life support paramedics found that three farm workers had sustained injuries. The trailer in which the staff were travelling rolled over and crushed one of the staff member’s legs." Herbst reported that the man sustained critical injuries and was airlifted to Lenmed Ethekwini Hospital for specialist care. This short report by Kaveel Singh is at News24 Other internet posting(s) in this news category
Five miners die, one still missing after being trapped underground at Palabora Copper mine eNCA reports that five miners have died after being trapped underground at the Palabora Copper mine in Limpopo. The company confirmed on Sunday night that it experienced a fire at an underground conveyer belt during the early hours of Sunday morning. Six workers were initially reported to be trapped, while the whereabouts of the sixth worker was not immediately known, or whether he was still alive. The police confirmed that the body of one worker has been brought to the surface, while the bodies of four were still trapped underground. The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) said on Sunday night the high temperatures, which rose to 64 to 67 degrees Celsius underground, made rescue efforts almost impossible. "Breathing is difficult due to ventilation pipes being damaged by the flames, and communication lines have also been compromised," the union stated. The Amcu leadership is currently at the mine, “praying that the situation will change for the good and that the remaining worker can be evacuated alive." Read this report in full at eNCA. See too, Five miners dead after fire breaks out at Limpopo mine, at News24 Bail hearing postponed for men who allegedly torched mineworkers’ bus, leaving six dead News24 reports that the case against five men who allegedly torched a bus in which six miners were killed earlier this year has been postponed until August for a formal bail application. They stand accused of setting a bus on fire which was transporting more than 30 miners. The five men have been charged with six counts of murder, 29 counts of attempted murder, and malicious damage to property. They appeared briefly in the Mecklenburg Magistrate's Court in Limpopo on Thursday before the case was postponed until 6 August for their bail application. The five will remain in custody. At the time of the incident in April, a Limpopo police spokesperson indicated: "Two people who pretended to be mineworkers, got onto the bus and set it alight. They then got out and fled." Six workers were burnt beyond recognition. The bus driver and the 28 other workers escaped through windows. A short report by Jan Bornman is at News24 Cops fight back as heavily armed illegal miners loot mothballed Lily Mine City Press reports that illegal miners have been looting gold from Mpumalanga’s mothballed Lily Mine, but police are on their tracks. Mpumalanga police arrested two suspected illegal miners when they embarked on a clean-out operation last weekend. One illegal miner was shot dead. Lily Mine and its sister mine Barbrook have been under business rescue since 2016 when they were shut down after a shaft at Lily Mine collapsed, burying three workers underground. The mine is now under new majority shareholders after the Sikhula Sonke Empowerment Corporation (SSC) Group secured a R190m loan from the Industrial Development Corporation and bought a 74% stake in Vantage Goldfields SA. Although the Barbrook creditors committee is trying to get the mine liquidated, SSC has been laying the ground to reopen the mine. SSC CEO Fred Arendse said the infiltration by illegal miners was worrying, “but this is a challenge facing all the neighbouring mines in the Barberton area. We’re working closely with the police.” Business rescue practitioner Rob Devereux maintained that illegal miners were not operating where mining was going to take place and that the mine’s assets were safe. Meanwhile, the mineral resources department has completed its inquiry into the Lily Mine accident, but its report has not been released. Lawyers representing the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) argued that Lily Mine’s management could have avoided the accident if they had not ignored a rock mechanic’s advice. Read this City Press report by Sizwe Sama Yende in full at Fin24 Mathunjwa purges rivals in another shake-up at Amcu Mail & Guardian reports that Associated of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) president Joseph Mathunjwa has executed another big purge within his union and is intent on ousting his deputy, Sanele Myeza. This comes as the battle for control of the union heats up, and regions in Gauteng and Mpumalanga prepare to take him on. Amcu currently has grown to 250,000 members, but has been plagued by internal squabbles about transparency and an apparently dictatorial style of leadership by the charismatic Mathunjwa. Myeza said last week that his status within Amcu was a “very sensitive matter,” but wouldn’t comment further on the dismissal of his allies within the union. He had started gaining support among Amcu regions to challenge Mathunjwa for the union leadership and now apparently faces the axe. Those purged include Mpumalanga’s regional organiser, John Tlou, and head office organiser, Thomas Nkosi. In Gauteng, Mathunjwa sacked Desmond Jeza and Ernest Mohale, regional organisers in Carletonville, and Sibongile Tshisa, chairperson of the West Rand region. According to Jeza, Mathunjwa started targeting his opponents in the union late last year, when it became evident the officials in the regions were unhappy with what they saw as his unilateral decision-making and his lack of transparency. The union has failed to hold an elective congress since it rose to prominence in the wake of the six week long strike at Lonmin and the Marikana massacre in 2012. Read more of this Mail & Guardian report by Govan Whittles at SA Labour News Free-carried interest will foster loyalty among mineworkers, Mantashe reckons Mining Weekly reports that Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe has pointed out that the free-carried interest stipulated in the latest draft of the Mining Charter would result in workers deriving immediate value. This would thereby foster diligent performance and loyalty towards employers, as workers strove to enhance and improve “their” mine. He argued at the recent opening of Sasol Mining’s Shondoni colliery that the 5% free-carry stipulation for workers had far more implications than just monetary ones, noting that it effectively amounted to companies investing in their relationship with their employees and affected communities. Mantashe pointed out that communities would be unlikely to embark on violent protests against mines in which they were actively “invested”, while more workers would be more cognisant of the factors and challenges facing the company if they were shareholders. Mantashe also said transformation was not a compliance issue, but a business imperative. On the issue of ‘once empowered, always empowered’, he stated that the problem lay in black shareholders being pushed out of empowerment deals. “In that case, you cannot say they are empowered.” Read this report in full at Mining Weekly Postings on Mining Charter
Other general posting(s) relating to mining
Footwear workers' wage strike set to enter second week on Monday EWN reports that the National Union of Leather and Allied Workers (Nulaw) indicated in a statement on Sunday that footwear workers would be continuing with their nationwide wage strike. General secretary Ashley Benjamin noted that the protected strike by members of Nulaw and the Southern African Clothing and Textiles Workers’ Union (Sactwu) would be entering its second week on Monday. Workers are demanding a 9.25% wage increase, while employers are reportedly offering 6.25%. According to Benjamin, the strike has been peaceful “despite acts of police brutality against striking workers and violent intimidation by one employer”. He called on the employers in the sector to engage with the unions in order to find a solution to the ongoing strike. A short report by Tessa Knight is at EWN. Read Nulaw’s press statement at SA Labour News Communication Workers Union tells MTN it will strike over wages Bloomberg reports that MTN workers are set to go on strike after a breakdown in wage talks between the cellphone company and the Communication Workers Union (CWU). The union sent MTN an intention to strike notice and 120 protesters gathered outside the company’s Johannesburg offices, MTN spokesperson Jacqui O’Sullivan said in an e-mailed response to questions on Friday. The dispute concerned the extent of salary increases from 1 April this year, she indicated. MTN’s operations were "largely unaffected", O’Sullivan stated. The CWU’s move came in the same week as MTN was forced to shut down offices in Nigeria over violent protests by labour groups. This short report by Loni Prinsloo is at BusinessLive
Post Office workers seek minister’s help in pay talks The Sunday Independent reports that SA Post Office (Sapo) workers have called on Telecommunications and Postal Services Minister Siyabonga Cwele to urgently intervene in their wage negotiation deadlock with Sapo management. On Saturday, Aubrey Tshabalala, Communication Workers Union (CWU) general secretary, said they reached a deadlock in negotiations on Friday after his members rejected Sapo’s offer of a 6.5% increase backdated to April. “We rejected the new offer. The view of the workers was that they had initially demanded a 12% increase which was later reduced to 8% following protracted negotiations,” Tshabalala indicated. He added that Sapo also offered to increase the working hours of its part-time workers from 21 hours a week to 25. But, the union has demanded that those workers should be converted into permanent staff, saying most of them had been in their jobs for more than three months. On Thursday, Cwele and Sapo chief executive Mark Barnes expressed their confidence that the wage dispute would be amicably resolved. Read more of this The Sunday Independent report by Baldwin Ndaba at SA Labour News. Read too, Social grant beneficiaries struggle as post office strike continues, at GroundUp. And also, KZN Post Office workers down tools, at The Citizen
Unions claim victory with Nelson Mandela Bay agreement to back pay bonuses GroundUp reports that Nelson Mandela Bay Municipal workers will finally get their long-service back-pay bonuses. On Friday, the city’s coalition government unanimously supported a motion to fork out about R44 million and pay the workers, who had embarked on a week-long strike last month under the banner of municipal unions Samwu and Imatu. Samwu’s Mqondisi Nodongwe commented: “It’s victory to the workers. This is what we fought for. We are happy that all parties supported the motion … The agreement signed is saying that the money must be paid before 15 July. We expect that this will happen as council decisions are implemented immediately.” Workers are expected to be paid R10,000, R16,000 or R21,000, depending on the years they have worked. Executive Mayor Athol Trollip stated: “This coalition government has actually been able to resolve the impasse that has been there for decades. It didn’t start post the 3 August 2016 by-elections.” He, however, expressed much disquiet about the intimation and vandalisation of property that had occurred during the strike. Read this report by Thamsanqa Mbovane in full at GroundUp
Former labour registrar Johan Crouse says something’s rotten in state of unions Business Times writes that according to former labour registrar Johan Crouse, trade unions were fleecing their members, and the government was making it difficult to hold them accountable. Referring to a recent call by Nactu for the government to hold the labour federation’s unions accountable amid claims and proof of rampant corruption and maladministration, Crouse, who was fired by the labour minister for trying to do just that, said in an interview that calls by union leaders for their organisations to be held accountable were "just rhetoric. He also said he found it difficult to take seriously Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini's recent remark about union investment companies being "a cancer ripping us all apart". While agreeing with him, Crouse pointed out that it was Cosatu that got Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant to intervene when he as labour regulator tried to enforce accountability on Ceppwawu, a Cosatu affiliate. Unions have constitutional checks and balances, but these were easily circumvented by strong leaders who ran unions with a small clique of senior office bearers who were close to them, Crouse claimed. Political interference in the work of the labour regulator had become "the standard, the norm", said Crouse. Moreover, the department has been restructured "so that the link of the registrar to the minister and director-general is more direct than in the past" meaning that the oversight and monitoring role of the registrar has been blunted, making it easier for corruption in the unions to flourish. Read more of this Business Times interview by Chris Barron at SA Labour News
Cracks widen between alliance partners Cosatu and ANC in North West ANA reports that the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) in the North West on Thursday blasted the African National Congress (ANC) for boycotting its elective conference in Mahikeng. “Delegates noted with huge disappointment and contempt the conspicuous absence of the African National Congress despite that the organisation was invited,” provincial secretary Job Dliso told reporters in Mahikeng. He said delegates at the 5th elective conference tasked the provincial office bearers to initiate a bilateral meeting with the ANC in the North West to address their continued absence at Cosatu conferences and other pertinent issues affecting the operations of the tripartite alliance. The relationship between the ANC and its alliance partners in the North West have been lukewarm of late. In a statement the ANC in the North West congratulated Cosatu for convening a successful congress. “We will convene a bilateral meeting with Cosatu, to discuss political matters of mutual interest on 16 August 2018,” acting provincial secretary Sussana Dantjie indicated. Read this report in full at The Citizen Other internet posting(s) in this news category
Tshwane mayor Msimanga faces mounting pressure demanding body builder’s exit The Citizen reports that Tshwane executive mayor Solly Msimanga faces mounting backlash from opposition parties calling for the dismissal of bodybuilder turned executive director Stefan de Villiers. But, Msimanga has dug in deeper in his defense for De Villiers following this new jobs-for-pals scandal in the city. According to the job advertisement for the post concerned, requirements included a bachelor’s degree or equivalent and 12 years’ experience, with five at a senior level. But, in his application De Villiers only indicated that he has a matric and a certificate in personal fitness training. He also fell short of the required 12 years’ experience, having nine years’ experience working only for the Democratic Alliance. He had been campaign coordinator during the 2016 local government elections, ensuring the smooth running of the race that led to Msimanga and the Democratic Alliance’s (DA’s) victory. The 34-year-old now earns around a million rand annually has been confirmed to only coordinate the mayor’s diary. The EFF’s Mandisa Mashego accused Msimanga of abusing his position as mayor and said he was obsessed with empowering white people of the DA, with no regard for black graduates who were unemployed. The scandal surrounding De Villiers follows the exit of Marietha Aucamp, former chief of staff, who resigned after her qualifications were questioned. Read this report in full at The Citizen. Read too, This is an 'attack' on us by the ANC, claims Tshwane mayor on underqualified staffer, at News24. And also, Bodybuilder stays in top Tshwane job – for now, at The Citizen Other internet posting(s) in this news category
Manyi’s Afro Voice, formerly known as The New Age, applies for liquidation The Citizen reports that Afrotone Media Holdings headed by Mzwanele (Jimmy) Manyi announced on Thursday that its daily newspaper, Afro Voice (formerly known as The New Age), would be filing for liquidation. Afro Voice closed abruptly on Thursday, 28 June, resulting in panic among its employees, who claimed they were only told on that the day not to come back the following week and that they would only receive salaries for July. In a statement, Manyi said the decline in government and commercial advertising and the closure of the controversial TNA business breakfast forced the paper to close shop. He added: “In addition to being commercially insolvent, Afro Voice also have no sustainable prospects of being rescued from its dire financial position.” The newspaper was launched as The New Age in 2010 by the controversial Gupta family. In August 2017, Manyi bought the daily and the news channel ANN7. He rebranded the paper from its original name to Afro Voice in April this year. Manyi’s news channel, Afro Worldview, is still operating on MultiChoice’s DStv, but that contract ends in August. Read this report by Batandwa Malingo in full at The Citizen
Outa uncovers grossly wasteful expenditure at Services Sector Seta Timeslive reports that the Services Sector Education and Training Authority (Seta) allegedly bought 20‚000 exam pads at R214 each, 30‚000 lanyards at R166.50 each and 30‚000 flash drives at R167 each. These are some of the purchases the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) claimed on Thursday to have uncovered in “damning evidence” they received that allegedly showed “gross wasteful and irregular expenditure” at the Services Seta. Outa’s Dominique Msibi commented: “A quick online search will reveal that basic flash drives can be bought for as little as R59 and lanyards for as little as R3.” Outa added that the invoices for the exam pads‚ lanyards and flash drives, totaling R28.9m, were all paid to the same supplier, which does not have a VAT number which did not charge VAT. The necessary tender procedures had apparently also not been followed. Outa will report the information to the auditor-general of the SA Revenue Service (Sars) and the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC). Read this report by Nico Gous in full at Timeslive
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