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.
In our afternoon roundup, see summaries
of our selection of South African labour-
related stories that appeared thus far on
Monday, 24 June 2019.
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Cop killers should be tried for treason, says police minister Cele EWN reports that according to Police Minister Bheki Cele, criminals who killed police officers should be tried for treason. He made the comments after visiting the family of a slain police officer in Soweto on Sunday. Constable Nhlamulo Vukeya was shot and killed during an operation at the Nancefield Hostel in Soweto on Thursday. Cele reiterated his view that an attack on a police officer was an attack on the state and that those found to be responsible should not merely be prosecuted for murder. “In many countries that’s what happens, you kill a police officer, you’re tried for treason and not just murder,” Cele noted, adding that such action could see the number of police killings declining. Read the original of this report by Robinson Nqola at EWN Two Limpopo traffic cops robbed after stopping car for speeding TimesLIVE reports that two Limpopo traffic officers were robbed on Friday afternoon after pulling over a car for speeding. Police spokesman Colonel Moatshe Ngoepe said the officers, who were conducting speed trap duties along the Slaagboom road outside Groblersdal, stopped a grey VW Polo TSI without number plates with five occupants for exceeding the speed limit. “While they were busy issuing the driver with a written notice, three passengers alighted, two of them armed with rifles and the other one with a pistol. They robbed both the officers and took two cellphones, a firearm, and the equipment before they fled the scene. The suspects are unknown and no arrest has been made and the investigation is continuing,” Ngoepe indicated. He added that a multi-disciplinary task team had been established to hunt down the suspects. Read the original of this report at TimesLIVE Other internet posting(s) in this news category
Over 200 miners stay underground at Lanxess mine in protest against sexual harassment of female worker Business Report writes that more than 200 employees at Lanxess Chrome mine in Rustenburg have staged an underground sit-in to protest against the sexual harassment and victimisation of a female worker. The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) said on Friday that its members had been underground for days without food and clean water to demand that management should immediately suspend and discipline the alleged perpetrator. The union has also called for the mine’s HR manager to be suspended for failing to provide a conducive and caring work environment for victims of sexual harassment and for colluding with the perpetrator. Numsa spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi said on Friday that the alleged perpetrator had never been suspended and no disciplinary action had been taken against him, despite the incident having been reported in August last year. Hlubi alleged that the mine captain concerned had tried to demand sexual favours from the woman in exchange for a full-time position. The underground sit in began on Wednesday. A Lanxess spokesperson said the company took these developments seriously and went on to indicate: “We have repeatedly made clear the company’s availability to discuss all matters once the workers are back on surface, but that we do not engage with colleagues while they are underground.” Read the full original of Dineo Faku’s report on the above story at Business Report. Read Numsa’s press statement at Polity Other general posting(s) relating to mining
Kruger National Park resolves weekend labour dispute, says visitors are welcome ANA reports that the Kruger National Park (KNP) has resolved labour disputes that resulted in some workers failing to report for duty at the weekend. In a statement on Monday, SA National Parks (SANParks) management indicated: “Services at two rest camps in the KNP were affected when members of staff failed to report for duty at Letaba and Olifants on Sunday 23 June 2019 due to a labour dispute.” Management and union shop stewards met until late on Sunday afternoon when it was resolved that workers would return to their posts while their concerns were being addressed. Reacting to the weekend dispute, the managing executive of the KNP, Glenn Phillips, said: “We are happy that our colleagues have agreed to return to work and I sincerely apologise to our visitors who were inconvenienced during this time.” SANParks said visitors who were intending to travel to the KNP for the school holidays were welcome and that there was no need to cancel any bookings as the situation had been resolved. Read the original of the report on this story at The Citizen
CEO of Afrikaans teacher union who rakes in millions reportedly being probed for ‘fraud’ The Citizen reports that members of the Afrikaans teachers union the Suid Afrikaanse Onderwysers Unie (SAOU), which has just over 37,000 members, are asking serious questions about its CEO’s astronomic annual salary of more than R3.6 million. Not only does Chris Klopper earn about six times more than his counterpart at the much larger SA Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu), he earns almost as much as President Cyril Ramaphosa. A member, who did not want to be named, commented: “He calls himself a CEO (chief executive officer) to justify his super salary. There is no one in his position who earns so much money. He, together with his cronies, created the position of a CEO so he could earn big bucks. Where have you heard of a CEO in a union? The position is not provided for in the union’s constitution.” An internal investigation conducted last year confirmed that Klopper took home R3,651,851 from the “group entities”, plus a “motor benefit”. The investigation, which members have rejected as a farce, indicated that the salary package included R1.6m that Klopper earns from the SAOU, R1.9m from the SA Education Foundation (SAEF), which does business with the union, as well as R57,735 from the TO Strand company. Police are currently probing the union’s top brass on allegations of fraud, corruption and contravention of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act. Read the full original of Sipho Mabena’s report on this story at The Citizen
Lawyers take justice minister to court in row over race and gender quotas for provincial legal practice councils The Sunday Times reports that a race and gender row is rocking the legal fraternity because of a “one size fits all” policy that dictates how many white and black men and women can sit on new provincial watchdog bodies. Elections for the new Legal Practice Council (LPC), which replaced the Law Society of SA and provincial law societies, were held in March. The regulatory body covers advocates and attorneys, and each provincial council has four advocates and six attorneys. In the Western Cape, the “unintended, perverse result” of strict race and gender rules is that a black woman has been left out in the cold in favour of a black man, even though she got almost three times the number of votes. Now the Cape Bar has launched a high court application seeking to have the quota rules declared unconstitutional and discriminatory. The targets of the litigation are the justice minister, who is responsible for promulgating the Legal Practice Act, and the LPC. The Bar wants the quota system replaced with something more workable and fair. It has launched a similar application in the Equality Court and wants both cases to be heard at the same time. The quota rules dictate that the four advocates on each provincial council must consist of a white man, a white woman, a black man and a black woman. In Limpopo, two black women advocates who received a high number of votes were ousted by a white man who got only four. Read the full original of Tania Broughton’s report on this story at TimesLIVE (paywall access only)
Over 360 employers have applied for exemption from national minimum wage Mail & Guardian reports that over 360 employers, employing over 42,000 workers, have applied to be exempt from the R20 an hour national minimum wage (NMW). A presentation to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office last week by the employment and labour department revealed that, out of 367 applications for exemptions to the NMW, 231 were granted, 8 were still being processed, 41 were deferred because of outstanding documentation and 86 were refused. The presentation outlined the number of exemption applications between 1 January, when the National Minimum Wage Bill was signed into law, and 12 June. If all 367 exemptions were to have been granted, 42,496 workers would have been affected. The presentation did not indicate how many workers would be affected by the granting of the 231 exemptions. In his State of the Nation address last Thursday, Ramaphosa indicated: “To address the problems of the working poor, the national minimum wage has been in place now for six months and there are early indications that there are many companies who are now complying.” The presentation revealed that the highest number of exemption applications (110) came from non-profit organisations and the second-highest number (80) came from the manufacturing sector. Read the full original of Sarah Smit’s report in the above regard at Mail & Guardian
SA needs 60,000 more cops to meet UN standard, says police minister Cele News24 reports that according to Minister of Police Bheki Cele, South Africa is 60,000 police officials short of achieving United Nations standards. The former national police commissioner revealed this during an SABC News interview on Sunday. Presently, the country has more than 193,000 officers, but an extra 60,000 officers would help meet the basic ratio of one police officer for every 200 people, Cele pointed out. Currently, SA has one officer for every 383 people – almost double the ratio the UN has set. "The president (Cyril Ramaphosa) talks about 5 000 [trainees] and this is what we have in colleges at the present moment. He continues to call us to put more. Next year we will have 7 000 (trainees) and the following year we will have an extra 7 000. It is a chicken and an egg because we talk about the economy that doesn't grow. Indeed in the criminal situation, [we] can't grow. You need to fix the crime situation for the economy to grow," Cele said in the interview. He also indicated that it would take around five years for the police service to meet its employment target. Read the full original of Ntwaagae Seleka’s report on this story at News24 On day shift, Tembisa Hospital has ‘two midwives for 96 pregnant moms’, claims union The Citizen reports that the Young Nurses Indaba Trade Union has accused the government of Gauteng of poor planning in light of several overcrowding incidences highlighted on social media last week. The union expressed outrage after images of pregnant women sleeping on benches at Tembisa Hospital on the East Rand went viral on Facebook and Twitter. Union president Lerato Maduma-Gova said it had received confirmation that just two midwives had to care for 96 pregnant mothers during the day shift, while three took care of 97 patients in the evening. Despite the hospital disputing these facts, Maduma-Gova insisted that this was the reality and that the neonatal ward, with capacity for 40 babies, was overcrowded by over 80%. According to Maduma-Gova, government was using an archaic human resource management system which, she felt, had not been changed significantly since the dawn of democracy. Meanwhile, a visit by Jack Bloom, Democratic Alliance (DA) shadow health MEC, to Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria showed overcrowding there was also a big concern. Bloom and another party member, Alan Fuchs, visited the hospital at 4am on Thursday to find “patients started queuing at that time, to ensure they were seen by a doctor that day”. Read the full original of Simnikiwe Hlatshaneni’s report in the above regard at The Citizen. Read too, Overcrowding at Tembisa Hospital 'exaggerated', says management, at SowetanLive Other internet posting(s) in this news category
Unions opposed to planned MultiChoice job cuts EWN reports that some of the unions representing workers at MultiChoice have indicated that they strongly opposed the pay-TV operator's plans to cut more than 2,000 jobs. The company announced last week it would begin a consultation process as it could no longer avoid restructuring the business. This came after the company warned last year that it might have to cut jobs as its customers abandoned call centres and other traditional contact centres for digital services. MultiChoice said it would start Section 189 (i.e. retrenchment) consultation processes with over 2,000 employees at its call centres and walk-in services over the next two months. The Information Communication Technology Union's (ICTU’s) Thabang Mothelo said they were against this move by MultiChoice and went on to state: “The union is completely opposed to the idea of retrenching. We’re saying this lacks sense, MultiChoice announced that it has made R18 billion on 18 June and only five days later, they announce that they are laying off 2,000 employees.” The union accused MultiChoice of failing to inform them of its plans, but the company was apparently expected to meet with ICTU on Monday morning. Read the full original of Thando Kubheka’s report on the above at EWN
Four Mpumalanga traffic cops and two police officers nabbed for bribery ring targeting tourists TimesLIVE reports that acting Mpumalanga Hawks head Brig Obed Ngwenya on Sunday welcomed the arrest of four traffic officials and two police officers on Friday for allegedly soliciting bribes from motorists. He indicated that more arrests were imminent. The six were arrested by the Hawks’ Serious Corruption Investigation in collaboration with the National Traffic Anti-Corruption Unit. It is alleged that since April this year, the suspects solicited bribes from motorists along the N4, between Komatipoort and Middleburg. It was established during a two-month investigation that the suspects were operating with impunity demanding bribes from unsuspecting tourists, threatening them that they would be arrested if they failed to pay the bribes, the Hawks indicated. Three of the suspects appeared in the Komatipoort Magistrate’s Court on Friday and were granted R1,000 bail each. The three other suspects were due to appear in court on Monday. Read the full original of Ernest Mabuza’s report on this story at TimesLIVE. Read too, Crackdown on ‘cooldrink cops’, on page 5 of The Citizen of 24 June 2019
Protesters set another Golden Arrow bus and a truck alight in Philippi on Monday Cape Times reports that another Golden Arrow bus and a truck were set alight on Monday morning in Govan Mbeki Road in Philippi in a protest-related incident. Cape Town’s Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson Jermaine Carelse said: "Three fire-fighting appliances with 12 staff members were dispatched. Upon arrival, it was found that in addition to the Golden Arrow bus, a truck was alight as well.” Golden Arrow spokesperson Bronwyn Dyke-Beyer told Cape Talk that a group of unknown protesters had surrounded the bus and threw stones at it, forcing the driver and passengers to flee, before they set the bus alight. No injuries were reported and the motive for the attack is as yet unknown. Buses in the area between Swartklip and Eisleben Road were diverted. On 12 June, three vehicles, including a Golden Arrow bus and a security company vehicle, were torched on Govan Mbeki and New Eisleben roads in protest-relation action. At the end of April, a Golden Arrow bus caught fire at Cape Town station. Read the original of the report on this story at Cape Times Other internet posting(s) in this news category
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