Today's Labour News

TOP STORY – TRUCKING SECTOR VIOLENCE

Delivery truck petrol-bombed on N1 in Cape Town on Wednesday morning

TimesLIVE reports that a truck was petrol-bombed by three men on the N1 in Cape Town on Wednesday morning.  Traffic chief Kenny Africa indicated that the truck, which was loaded with groceries and was travelling on the N1 towards Worcester, stopped due to rocks blocking the road.  Three men forced the driver at gunpoint to get out of the truck and then petrol-bombed it.  They fled the scene in a vehicle with no number plates.  Roads heading towards Worcester were then closed.  In Gauteng, looting ensued after a truck accident on Allandale Road in Midrand.  The driver and assistant were injured.

Read the original of the above report by Iavan Pijoos at TimesLIVE. Read too, N1 near Worcester closed after truck petrol-bombed, at News24

Cost of trucking sector strife ‘could run into billions of rands’

The Citizen writes that according to economist Mike Schűssler, if all the knock-on effects of the ongoing trucking sector violence were taken into account, the final costs to the country could run into billions of rands.  He warned on Tuesday that the xenophobic strife, sparked by unhappiness over the employment of foreign truck drivers, was “too costly to continue”.  With a single vehicle costing R2 million, an employed long-distance driver losing R60 per hour and a three-hour delay on the N3 highway translating to R540,000 per truck, the costs held serious implications all round, Schűssler cautioned.  He commented further:  “We are dealing with one of the most important sectors of our economy, which is the transport of goods from SA to neighbouring states and to the southern Democratic Republic of Congo.”  In the second quarter of 2019, the truck logistics industry contributed 11% of SA’s gross domestic product (GDP), estimated at R1.26 trillion.  Schűssler pointed out that the burning of one truck on the N3 highway, which was a long-distance corridor in SA, affected the movement of 6,000 others.  He warned that unless the authorities, labour and other stakeholders moved fast to quell the violence, SA’s economic stability and growth was threatened.

Read the full original of the above report by Brian Sokutu at The Citizen

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH & SAFETY

Cape Town worker’s life saved thanks to co-worker's first aid skills

Cape Argus reports that a worker's first aid skills played a big role in helping save a colleague’s life on Tuesday.  Ross Campbell, ER24 Spokesperson indicated:   "A 56-year-old man who collapsed at his workplace in Parow Industria this morning is fortunate to be alive thanks to the Designated First Aider who initiated CPR (Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation)."  ER24 paramedics arrived at the factory at 8:55 am on Tuesday to find the man unresponsive.  Campbell explained further:  "They were informed that he had clutched his chest just before collapsing and that the First Aider had been administering CPR for 10 minutes.  Our medics were able to successfully resuscitate the man with the use of a defibrillator, rushing him to Tygerberg Hospital for further treatment.  Our paramedics said that it was the patient's quick thinking co-worker who called the Emergency Services and initiated CPR straight away that saved his life."

Read the original of the above report at Cape Argus

Gang robbery at Durban private hospital leaves staff and patients traumatised

TimesLIVE reports that a gang of men overpowered guards at Durban's St Augustine's Hospital before brazenly robbing staff and making off with televisions, cellphones and a microwave in the early hours of Wednesday morning.  Hospital manager Heinrich Venter reported that four individuals, some of whom were armed, entered the hospital after holding up security guards, while one remained in a getaway vehicle.  The robbers held up four staff members, who were robbed of their personal belongings.  One of the robbers also entered the room of a patient, but left without taking anything when the patient shouted at him to get out.  The robbers also took two television sets and a microwave from the coffee shop located in the main reception.  A security guard received a blow to head, while a staff member was hit in the face.  They were treated in the emergency department and discharged.  Venter said staff members, security personnel and affected patients would receive trauma counselling.  He added that while security at the hospital was of a "very high standard", it would be "reviewed in consultation with the contracted security services provider to ensure the safest possible environment for all on the premises.

Read the full original of the above report by Suthentira Govender at TimesLIVE

Gauteng Health blasted over extension of irregular hospital security contracts

ANA reports that the Democratic Alliance (DA) advised on Wednesday that irregular Gauteng hospital security contracts worth R650 million annually that were awarded in 2014 have been extended on a month by month basis for three years.  The DA's shadow MEC for health in Gauteng, Jack Bloom, said the revelation came from a written response to his questions in the legislature from health MEC Bandile Masuku.  "The security contracts were awarded in October 2014 for a two year period, but instead of advertising for new contracts to start in October 2016 the old contracts have been extended every month since then.  This is despite the fact that a forensic audit found irregularities and criminal charges were laid against the chairperson of the bid evaluation committee that awarded the contracts.  Furthermore, the auditor-general last year criticised the renewed contracts as irregular expenditure," Bloom indicated.  He added that the extensions were in breach of Treasury regulations which stipulated that extended contracts should not increase in price by more than 15%.

Read the full original of the above report at Independent News

Cape Town doctor forced to quit hospital in gang-infested area because of 'burnout'

Cape Times reports that a Cape Town doctor has spoken out about the burnout he suffered while working in a public hospital that treats 4,500 patients a month and handles as many as 80 acute trauma cases a day in one of the city’s notorious gang-infested areas.  The physician highlighted his experience in the latest World Health Organisation (WHO) news bulletin.  He was one of four consultant physicians working in the hospital’s emergency section before his burnout forced him to leave.  He said it was the chaos he experienced daily - and not the stress of dealing with so many acute trauma cases - that made him feel like giving up.  “I would get home to my wife and say ‘I’ve achieved nothing today’, even though I’d been working flat out,” said thedoctor.  Unable to cope and experiencing an overwhelming sense of futility when his burnout crisis began, he had felt a compulsion to prove himself.  “I tried harder.  Got in earlier, worked late.  It made no difference and in the end I decided to leave the hospital,” the doctor stated.  International Occupational Medicine Society Collaborative (IOMSC) co-chairperson Dr Richard Heron said burnout was not just linked to the health of the doctor, but affected the safety of the patient.  Common drivers of burnout included excessive workload and high patient expectations, coupled with an increased number of patients with chronic diseases, said Heron.

Read the full original of the above report by Raphael Wolf at Cape Times

Eastern Cape seeking to make sex work safer through provincial decriminalisation

City Press reports that the Eastern Cape government is embarking on a process that could see sex work being decriminalised in the province.  Eastern Cape department of social development spokesperson Gcobani Maswana confirmed that the department was undergoing a consultation process with the aim of decriminalising sex work.  He said this was one of the ways to protect sex workers, who worked under dangerous and risky conditions as a result of the industry not being regulated.  Maswana pointed out that sex workers were prone to abuse from clients who took advantage of their vulnerability and that the issue of decriminalising sex work had come to the fore very strongly in a stakeholder engagement recently held.  Maswana explained further:  “We were warned as the department of social development to really look at the space in which sex workers operate because this is where drugs are used, where human trafficking is rife and where most of the crime emanates from.  If sex workers come with strong views that sex work should be decriminalised, the department has no problem and will support that.  But the process is still in its initial stages and there are lots of discussions yet to take place.”

Read the full original of the above report by Lubabalo Ngcukana at City Press

MINING LABOUR

Q(h)ubeka silicosis trust has already paid out R166m to 1,626 qualifying beneficiaries and dependants

Mining Weekly reports that the Q(h)ubeka Trust has so far paid out R166-million to 1,626 qualifying beneficiaries and dependants since its inception in March 2016.  The trust was formed to allocate funds to silicosis-affected mineworkers in a legal settlement between former gold mineworkers and Anglo American SA and AngloGold Ashanti.  The trust is processing the claims of a closed list of 4,365 named claimants, of whom about 3,500 have been referred for medical assessments.  Of these 3,500 claimants, more than half have been determined to be suffering from silicosis and its effects.  Q(h)ubeka chairperson Dr Sophia Kisting-Cairncross said in a statement on Tuesday that the processing of claims of deceased claimants, which represent around 20% of all claimants, continues to be a challenge because of the lack of medical records.  The trust is working with specialists to develop an instrument that can determine whether, in the absence of medical records, a claimant who died may have had silicosis.  According to Kisting-Cairncross, the medical process was more complex and more difficult than initially envisaged.

Read the full original of the above report at Mining Weekly

SOEs IN CRISIS

SABC CEO tells inquiry of ‘dire situation’ after years of problems at the public broadcaster

BusinessLive reports that Madoda Mxakwe, CEO of the SA Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), says his team inherited an organisation in financial ruin stemming from years of disregard for internal controls and governance processes.  Testifying at the state-capture inquiry on Tuesday, Mxakwe described a dire situation at the public broadcaster, which is technically insolvent, overburdened by staff salaries, and drowning in irregular expenditure.  The SABC has asked for a R3.2bn government guarantee to stay afloat and to pay off some of its debt, but its bid for funding has so far been unsuccessful, largely due to its failure to meet some of the Treasury’s conditions.  “The SABC is technically insolvent.  We run an organisation where every single month employees are very depressed.  They don’t know whether they will be able to get their salaries.  Every month, R265m is dedicated toward paying salaries.  Once we have done that, we have absolutely nothing left,” Mxakwe told the inquiry.  He said there was previously a “complete disregard” for policies and processes and 186 cases of wrongdoing were found.  “Disciplinary processes had to be enacted in every case concerned…  We’ve been subjected to a lot of backlash as a result of this…  We are dealing with all of those cases, but at the same time we are strengthening internal corporate controls,” Mxakwe advised.

Read the full original of the above report by Amil Umraw at BusinessLive

EMPLOYMENT EQUITY

White men still rule, but government is pinning its transformation hopes on employment equity bill

City Press reports that government is pinning its hopes on the pending Employment Equity Amendment Bill to allow it to speed up transformation in the workplace.  Stronger legislation and an increase in enforcement in workplaces are just some of the interventions the Department of Employment and Labour (DEL) hopes will change the poor state of transformation in the SA labour market.  Speaking after the recent release of the Employment Equity (EE) report, labour minister Thulas Nxesi said the DEL was hoping that the passing of the bill, which was currently in Parliament, and increasing the number of inspectors would assist in changing the bleak situation.  “Our intention is to resuscitate legislation that could not go through [Parliament].  We hope Parliament will prioritise the bills because their amendments were at an advanced stage,” Nxesi said.  Among the major amendments Nxesi hopes will get the green light is the review of section 53 of the act that will require the issuing of an annual certificate of compliance to organisations doing business with the state and its organs.  The EE report, which was officially handed to Nxesi by Commission for Employment Equity chairperson Tabea Kabinde, shows that white men, despite being a minority, remain the majority in top management positions across the country.  At least 65.5% of the positions in senior management were occupied by the whites, followed by Africans at 15.1%, Indians at 9.7%, coloureds at 5.3% and foreign nationals at 3.4%.  The most untransformed sector, according to the report, was agriculture which still has white men occupying 72% of top management positions.

Read the full original of the above report by Lesetja Malope at City Press

RESIGNATIONS / SEPARATIONS

ANC leadership confirms Zandile Gumede’s removal as eThekwini mayor

BusinessLive reports that the ANC top brass on Tuesday confirmed that controversial eThekwini metro leader Zandile Gumede had been officially ousted as mayor.  ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte confirmed that Gumede and other senior party members had been removed from the powerful, decision-making executive committee (Exco), but would remain as ordinary councillors.  The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal in August asked Gumede to resign.  She did so on Monday last week, but later withdrew that resignation letter and sought an audience with party bosses at Luthuli House.  Duarte advised that the decision to remove Gumede and the entire ANC Exco was about the generally poor running of the municipality, and was “less about” the criminal charges being faced by the now-ousted mayor.  Duarte said:  “We’ve agreed not to take disciplinary action against comrade Gumede.  What we have done is sit with her and to understand her reasons [for withdrawing her resignation].  She gave us her reasons and we’ve accepted that…  The reasons for her and Exco being removed have little to do with her arrest and much more to do with the general assessment of the performance of the municipality.  She’s accepted that.”

Read the full original of the above report by Orrin Singh at BusinessLive. Read too, ANC upholds decision that Zandile Gumede and others must step down, at News24. And also, Leadership crisis in eThekwini a concern as sub-committee meetings not held, at Daily News

COMMUTING / TRANSPORT

Unrest, violence sees City of Tshwane suspending bus service again

EWN reports that the City of Tshwane has suspended bus services once again following several days of violence in the capital this week.  Last week, the city also instructed bus drivers not to operate, citing safety concerns.  The violence was sparked when a taxi driver was shot and killed after he allegedly confronted a group of people dealing in drugs.  The city's transport MMC Sheila Lynn Senkubuge commented:  "This is going to have a huge financial impact, looking at the numbers.  TRT are the ones who own the buses so inevitably we're going to feel the pinch of it financially in a big way, it will definitely be in the millions considering the daily running of the bus service and what we collect."

Read the original of the above report by Mia Lindeque at EWN

OTHER REPORTS

Guard who murdered colleague during cash-in-transit robbery in 2009 gets life

TimesLIVE reports that a security guard who murdered his colleague in a cash-in-transit robbery has been jailed for life.  Zwelinkosi Tsolo, 40, who worked for SBV, shot the guard as he was delivering cash to an ATM in Cape Town in 2009.  He was sentenced at the Cape Town High Court on Friday, and given an additional 10 years imprisonment for each of three counts of attempted murder of two members of the public and another guard.  He also received a 15-year sentence for armed robbery.  Tsolo and his accomplices attacked two SBV guards at Nyanga Junction in Manenberg and fled with cash and firearms.  The Hawks arrested Tsolo and five others three months later, but the others were discharged during their trial due to inconclusive evidence.

Read the original of the above report at TimesLIVE

OTHER NEWS HEADLINES AND PRESS STATEMENTS

• Mining, manufacturing contribute to 3.1% GDP growth in second quarter, at Mining Weekly
• Electricity the major constraint on investment, says Gwede Mantashe, at Mining Weekly
• Jobs crisis tops list of risks for Africa’s businesses, new WEF analysis finds, at Engineering News