In our afternoon roundup, see summaries
of our selection of South African labour-
related stories that appeared thus far on
Tuesday, 18 June 2019.
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Limpopo police constable dies in hospital after being shot by hijackers TimesLIVE reports that a Tubatse policeman who was shot and injured while chasing hijackers in Limpopo succumbed to his injuries on Sunday night after three days in hospital. Police spokesperson Colonel Brenda Muridili said in a statement on Monday that Constable Alfred Mathabatha, 30, and his colleagues had responded to a hijacking in progress along Majaditshukudu and Ohrigstad roads on 13 June. "When they spotted the suspects, a chase ensued and the suspects started firing shots at the police. Constable Mathabatha was injured and taken to hospital where he succumbed to his wounds last night [Sunday]," Muridili reported. Read the full original of the report by Nico Gous on the above at TimesLIVE Joburg health officials held hostage on Friday by two patients demanding to be treated TimesLIVE reports that two Soweto residents held Johannesburg city health officials hostage on Friday at the Protea South Clinic in Soweto, demanding to be treated. Staff reportedly remained at the primary healthcare clinic after the 4pm closing time on Friday as they waited for an ambulance to move a patient to a nearby hospital. Health and social development MMC Mpho Phalatse indicated in a statement what transpired: "It is alleged that two patients arrived at 4.10pm, demanding to be serviced. The staff referred the two patients to Chiawelo CHC across the road, or gave them the option to come back the following day. This request was declined, and the six staff members were held hostage in the facility by the two patients." At 4.30pm, the staff called the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD). While waiting for the ambulance and the police to arrive, they decided to attend to the two patients. The ambulance later arrived for the transfer. Neither the staff nor the patients sustained injuries. Read the full original of the report on this story by Nico Gous at TimesLIVE
Daring mission being planned to recover trio at Lily Mine City Press reports that fed up and disillusioned, former workers of a closed Mpumalanga gold mine are prepared to risk their own lives by launching a daring attempt to recover the bodies of their three former colleagues who have been buried 60m below the surface since 2016. The entrance to the Lily Mine in Louisville near Barberton caved in on 5 February 2016. Professional mine rescue teams abandoned the site three years ago after realising that it was going to be a mission impossible because of the unstable ground to reach the container office that had plunged down with the three workers inside without risking their own lives. The trio’s bodies were left buried underground. In the meantime, the families’ grief has been prolonged with corporate wrangling over the sale of the mine. Emboldened by the zama-zamas who have been mining illegally at Lily Mine, nine former workers went underground last week to assess the situation for themselves – an action which the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) is unhappy about. They came out knowing exactly what they needed to do next. But, their mission will not come cheap. Firstly they need equipment such as a water pump, a Tractor Loader Backhoe, chain blocks, timber, protective clothes and lights. Secondly, the team will also need the expertise of a safety officer, a geologist and a surveyor. As a result, they have started negotiations with various retired experts to help. DMR spokesperson Ayanda Shezi said the department was totally opposed to the workers’ initiative to go underground. Read the full original of Sizwe Sama Yende’s report in the above regard on page 13 of City Press of 16 June 2019. Read too, Creditors and bidders clash over Lily Mine, on page 18 of The Sunday Independent of 16 June 2019 Other general posting(s) relating to mining
Naamsa seeks quick end to wage negotiations in auto sector Engineering News reports that the National Association of Automotive Manufacturers of SA (Naamsa) wants the quickest possible resolution to the looming wage negotiations between vehicle manufacturers and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa). Naamsa’s Mike Mabasa indicated that a strike in the automotive sector would put “significant pressure” on the industry in the current challenging economic environment. “Our biggest ask is for the original vehicle manufacturers (OEMs, or vehicle manufacturers) and unions to find each other as quickly as possible,” he stated. In 2016, the automotive sector and Numsa signed a three-year wage agreement, for a 10% increase in the first year and 8% in the consecutive years. This agreement comes to an end on 30 June. Negotiations in 2016 were completed without strike action. However, 2013 saw a three-week strike in the vehicle manufacturing industry and a four-week strike in the component sector. Numsa’s leadership has already met with the top brass of the seven vehicle manufacturers in SA, in an effort to draft the bargaining process agreement that will guide the negotiation process. Wage negotiations between Numsa and the vehicle manufacturing sector are normally followed by negotiations in the component manufacturing and retail sector, as well as the tyre manufacturing industry, sometimes leading to protracted strikes affecting vehicle output in SA. Read the full original of the report in the above regard at Engineering News
R65m in pensions meant for impoverished orphans of deceased mineworkers laundered through Satawu City Press reports that one of SA’s biggest unions was used as a conduit to launder about R65 million in pensions allegedly plundered from impoverished orphans of deceased mineworkers. Bongani Mhlanga, the erstwhile owner of financial services group Mvunonala, allegedly used the SA Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) as a conduit to move pension funds into his family’s trust and a company owned by him. Details of the money laundering web are contained in a hard-hitting set of findings by forensic investigations firm SekelaXabiso Chartered Accountants. In November 2017 a Satawu interim task team commissioned the firm to look into the union’s finances for the period January 2012 to May 2015. This followed the discovery of suspicious transactions that had the hallmarks of “insider trading, money laundering, theft, fraud and corruption”. SekelaXabiso’s report shows that R65 million from the Bophelo Beneficiary Fund was transferred into Satawu’s investment arm, Bashumi Investment Holdings. Bank statements seen by the firm’s investigators reveal that Bashumi later transferred R44.5 million to two entities which were under Mhlanga’s direct control. The report shows that Bashumi had received a total of R77.9 million. All the money was later paid to other companies, including the Gasela Family Trust and Nzalo Afrika. The Mvunonala Group crashed in March last year after VBS Mutual Bank was placed under curatorship by the SA Reserve Bank. VBS was owned by Vele Investments, which had acquired Mvunonala for about R500 million in September 2017. Read the full original of Sipho Masondo’s report on this story at City Press
SABC had to choose at end of May whether to pay salaries or keep the lights on The Sunday Times reports that faced with an unenviable choice last month -- either cough up to service its eight-figure municipality account, or settle its salary bill – the SA Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) took the high road and paid its staff. And while the lights are still on in Auckland Park – for now, anyway – the public broadcaster is desperately hoping a R3.2bn government guarantee will entice commercial banks to provide the loans it needs to stay afloat. SABC board chair Bongumusa Makhathini said last week: “I’m not sure how we are going to pay for salaries come end of June. We have also not maintained any of our infrastructure and a communication blackout is imminent. We anticipated Day Zero in March, but we have managed to stay on air until now.” The broadcaster will meet with the municipality this week to discuss its debt, which was confirmed by a municipal spokesperson. The broadcaster also owes Sentech – a state-owned business that provides broadcasting signal distribution – about R317m, and the Multichoice division SuperSport R208m. Read the full original of Mpumzi Zuzile’s report on this story on page 1 of The Sunday Times of 16 June 2019. Read too, SABC faces 'extremely uncertain' financial position, at Fin24
In race to digitise, SA’s big banks battle it out to recruit scarce computer skills Reuters writes that a severe shortage of computer skills in SA has left the country’s major banks fighting over a limited pool of people with the skills they need to upgrade technology platforms and keep pace with changing customer demands and competition from new rivals. The country’s four biggest lenders – Absa, Standard Bank, Nedbank and FirstRand – indicated that it was hard to access the skills they needed to rapidly digitise – a response to growing demand for online and mobile banking and the arrival of a host of digital-only banks trying to steal their customers with slick apps and cut-price fees. All four said they had taken a number of measures to address the shortage. These included changing their hiring strategies, for example by implementing ‘speed dating’ style events where large numbers of candidates underwent short interviews in one go, and by developing training programmes. But in some cases lenders said it still took months to hire and they were paying ever-rising salaries to attract talent. The problem was particularly acute for positions that did not exist just a few years ago, such as cloud engineers, said Standard Bank Group Chief Information Officer Alpheus Mangale. Banks could expect to pay a 20-30% premium when they do find such skills, he indicated. Specialist recruitment agency Acuity Consultants said salaries for software developers had also leapt by up to 30% over the past year. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Emma Rumney and Naledi Mashishi at Moneyweb
MEC claims there’ll be cop on standby for each Gauteng school SowetanLive reports that each public school in Gauteng will be assigned with one police officer that the school can call on whenever there is a problem. This was recently revealed by Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi. "A police will be allocated to a school in an event a school needs police, then the said officer will assist accordingly. We are also working with mobile companies so that when one presses number nine on their cellphone and holds it for more than 30 seconds it will ring to the nearest police station, alerting the police identified to work with that particular problem," Lesufi indicated. However, despite Lesufi's explanation that the officers would be on standby at their stations, police spokesperson Lungelo Dlamini said police could not act as security guards: "Police can't be assigned to stay at schools. The department must employ security guards," he pointed out. In the last few months, Gauteng has experienced a surge of violence at public schools. Education spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga observed that most of the violence happened outside the schools: "These are not random acts of violence, the origins of the problems are out there in the streets of society. The solutions are not with the department, but with the people themselves, the police, the justice system and all other stakeholders. The streets around the schools are battlegrounds," he stated Read the full original of Yoliswa Sobuwa’s report in the above regard at SowetanLive
Task team appointed to advise higher education minister on fourth industrial revolution BusinessLive reports that a task team has been established to advise the minister of higher education, science and technology on how to manage the threats and opportunities posed by the fourth industrial revolution. The term is used to describe the rapid innovation under way in fields like artificial intelligence, 3-D printing and robotics, which is expected to disrupt just about every sector, from manufacturing to the service industry. The automation expected to flow from the fourth industrial revolution threatens almost 6-million jobs in SA over the next seven years, according to a study by global consultancy firm Accenture. These occupations include clerks, cashiers, bank tellers, construction workers, mining and maintenance staff. The appointment of the task team was one of former higher education and training minister Naledi Pandor’s last official acts before she relinquished the portfolio at the end of May. The task team is expected to identify the priority areas and interventions that should be undertaken by the minister of higher education, science and technology to “advance digital skills and absorption by industry”, according to a Government Gazette notice published on 7 June. President Cyril Ramaphosa has also established an advisory committee on the fourth industrial revolution, but it has a broader mandate as it is not confined to the higher education sector. Read the full original of Tamar Kahn’s report on the above at BusinessLive
Cosatu argues for worker representation on PIC board News24Wire reports that the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has argued for worker representation on the board of the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), saying this would help keep looting in check and increase workers' trust. Matthew Parks, the federation's parliamentary coordinator, was on the witness stand at the judicial commission of inquiry into the PIC on Tuesday. The commission is investigating allegations of wrongdoing at the state-run asset manager, which manages about R2.2-trillion in investments on behalf of public servants. Parks told the commission that the trust of workers had been abused for far too long. He observed: "[Workers] really want to have representation on the PIC board. The asset manager had failed to keep workers updated on the scope and reasoning behind its investments.” While Cosatu has representation on the board of the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF), it does not have members on the PIC's board. The PIC invests on behalf of the GEPF, as well as the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) and the Compensation Fund. Parks also proposed that all PIC investments should be made public and no senior PIC executive should be allowed to conclude investments without oversight. Read the full original of the report on the above at Engineering News
UIF apologises for glitches with new uFiling system, but blames users EWN reports that with more users of the Unemployment Insurance Fund’s (UIF’s) online filing system complaining about its failures, the fund has apologised, but has blamed the problems on consumers. The uFiling online service is used to submit UIF declarations and for the payment of monthly contributions by employers. The system has been experiencing challenges for months now, with consumers complaining they are unable to access it, among other glitches. Assistant director at the UIF, Masechache Molefe, said the problem was brought on by the introduction of a new system that users still have to get familiar with. "We have modernised uFiling on the system. I think the problem is our clients having challenges in trying to log on. Most of the clients log their accounts," he stated. Yet, when users complained in May of not being able to register or even file claims on the system, the UIF attributed the failures to upgrades after the relocation of its data centre. Read the original of this report by Theto Mahlakoana at EWN. Read too, UIF’s uFiling system glitch stumps clients, on page 5 of The Citizen of 14 June 2019
Old Mutual dismisses suspended CEO Peter Moyo BusinessLive reports that Old Mutual has fired its CEO, Peter Moyo, weeks after announcing his suspension over a conflict of interest. The financial services group said on Tuesday: “The board wishes to inform stakeholders that Mr Moyo has, on 17 June 2019, been given notice of termination of employment.” Moyo was suspended in late May over a disagreement as to how the company should engage with investment firm NMT Capital, which he founded and in which Old Mutual Life Assurance Company, a subsidiary of Old Mutual, is an investor. The group confirmed on Tuesday that Moyo’s conflicting interest in the NMT group of companies had been declared. But, in the second half of 2018, board members requested a report on his related-party transactions, and this led to “various concerns”, including two declarations of ordinary dividends by NMT Capital during 2018, with Moyo’s share being R30.6m. These dividends were declared in breach of Old Mutual’s rights as preference shareholder. Old Mutual said it would soon start the search for a new CEO and, in the meantime, Iain Williamson would continue to act as CEO. Read the full original of Nick Hedley’s report on this story at BusinessLive
Gauteng to vet minibus taxis before they can operate on reopened Soweto routes ANA reports that the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG) on Tuesday said it would vet minibus taxis before they would be allowed to operate on reopened Soweto routes. Earlier this year in March, authorities shut down six Soweto routes because of a violent dispute between the Nancefield Dube West Taxi Association (Nanduwe) and the Witwatersrand Taxi Association (Wata). The affected routes included the Dube taxi rank, Uncle Tom’s, Jeppe station, Mofolo Park and Makita. Nanduwe and Wata recently signed a "peace treaty" paving the way for the routes to be reopened. The GPG’s statement on Tuesday indicated that, as stated in the agreement, common stickers would be affixed on all 200 taxis operating from various loading points. The vetting would further ensure that stickers were not issued to illegal taxi operators. Verified vehicles would be able to immediately resume with operations. “It is important for us to verify and authenticate the operators so that we avoid a situation where we have illegal taxis operating on the disputed routes and ranks. We will not compromise on the verification process as this will help us find a long-lasting solution,” said Roads and Transport MEC Jacob Mamabolo. Read the full original of the report on this story at Engineering News
New union plans to act against rising gang violence in Cape Town ANA reports that the Service and Allied Workers Union of SA (Sawusa) says it will “with immediate effect” embark on anti-crime campaigns to counter the rising number of murders linked to gangsters in Cape Town. The union said it noted “with concern” the crime statistics that indicated that in the past six months about 2,000 people were murdered on the streets of the Cape Flats. Police are on record as saying there are as many as 150 known gangs operating in the city. Sawusa, which was launched last month, said it was “deeply concerned” with the escalation in wanton acts of crime and violence that has culminated in the callous murder of young people, especially among the working class communities on the Cape Flats. “SAWUSA will, with immediate effect, embark on, and spearhead a series of anti-crime campaigns involving all sectors of our society through the creation of awareness crusades including the convening of an inter-faith forum to address the challenges confronting the working class on the Cape Flats,” said Samantha Cloete, general secretary of the union, at the weekend. The union also said it was well aware that Cape Town remained one of the most unequal societies in the world. Read the full original of the report on the above at The Citizen
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