In our roundup of weekend news, see
summaries of our selection of South African
labour-related stories that appeared since
Friday, 11 December 2020.
|
KwaZulu-Natal sees a significant rise in Covid-19 infections among healthcare workers News24 reports that there has been a significant uptick in Covid-19 infections among health workers in KwaZulu-Natal, Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu indicated on Sunday. "It is with a deep sense of concern that we, indeed, confirm a significant rise in Covid-19 infections among health workers, which has become noticeable in recent weeks," Simelane-Zulu stated. She added that frontline workers, such as nurses, doctors, as well as allied health workers, administrative clerks, and general orderlies, were the most affected. Simelane-Zulu gave a breakdown of numbers, stating that at Addington Hospital, 38 staff members had tested positive since the start of December: "This includes five doctors, 11 nursing staff, one allied worker and 21 support staff members. However, Addington Hospital continues to function, and is accepting all walk-in patients. Only those who are picked up by ambulance are being diverted to Prince Mshiyeni Memorial and King Edward VIII hospitals." Simelane-Zulu said at RK Khan Hospital in Chatsworth, 23 staff had tested positive, which included seven nurses, 10 doctors, two radiologists, three clerks and one general orderly. "Contrary to unfounded reports, RK Khan Hospital is also open and rendering healthcare services, while following strict Covid-19 infection prevention and control protocols," Simelane-Zulu clarified. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Kaveel Singh at News24 Eastern Cape health MEC Sindiswa Gomba tests positive for Covid-19 News24 reports that Eastern Cape Health MEC Sindiswa Gomba has tested positive for Covid-19, her office announced on Sunday evening. “The MEC is at home for isolation as per the protocol of Covid-19," department spokesperson Judy Ngoloyi indicated. She added that Gomba had advised all those whom she had come directly into contact with to get tested. "She has begun her isolation period commencing today. She is asymptomatic and will continue with her duties working from home. MEC Gomba would like to urge people to wear their masks, keep social distancing, wash and sanitise their hands frequently," Ngoloyi stated. Gomba's infection comes under a week since Health Minister Zweli Mkhize declared that SA was in a second wave of infections. The Eastern Cape together with the Western Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) are among the provinces identified as second wave hotspots. In a broadcast on Wednesday, Mkhize said the new cases were believed to be due to a large number of parties involving young people drinking alcohol with no adherence to non-pharmaceutical interventions. Wearing of masks, social distancing or hand sanitising were apparently not taking place. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Kaveel Singh at News24 Other internet posting(s) in this news category
Director of NGO in Atlantis, Western Cape, arrested for allegedly stealing Covid-19 relief money meant for employees News24 reports that the Hawks last week arrested a director of a non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Atlantis in the Western Cape who allegedly stole an undisclosed amount of money in Covid-19 Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (Ters) funds. According to Hawks spokesperson Zinzi Hani, the director allegedly claimed Ters funds from the Department of Employment and Labour on behalf of 36 employees who were working for him during the Covid-19 pandemic. It is alleged the money he claimed never reached the pockets of the workers, but was instead used for the director’s own benefit. The 44-year old man was due to spend the weekend behind bars and was scheduled to appear in the Atlantis Magistrate’s Court on Monday on charges of fraud. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Riaan Grobler at News24
Seven arrested, R8m in items seized from illegal gold processing refinery on West Rand News24 reports that seven people were arrested, and items valued at approximately R8 million were seized from an illegal gold processing refinery on the West Rand last Wednesday. The arrests were as a result of investigations by the Hawks’ Serious Organised Crime Investigation team focusing on precious metal, and Sibanye Stillwater Protection Services which were surveying different premises in the area after the Local Municipality received tips off of illegal mining in the area three months ago. The team raided premises in Westonaria and Kocksoord. "Amongst other seized items from both premises in Westonaria and Kocksoord worth approximately R8 million, police confiscated about 300 tons of gold bearing material, seven man-made pendukas, ten bags of carbon and two water pumps, as well as electronic gadgets and documents for further investigation,” said Captain Ndivhuwo Mulamu on Friday. The group appeared in the Westonaria and Randfontein magistrates’ courts respectively on Friday. They face charges of illegal possession of unwrought precious metals, illegal immigration, and polluting the area with cyanide under the Environmental Act. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Lwandile Bhengu at News24 Exxaro’s Belfast Coal qualifies over 60 local trainees through skills development programme Mining Weekly reports that Exxaro Resources’ Belfast Coal recently completed a R1.5-million training programme that benefitted over 60 unemployed young people from Emakhazeni local municipality. The programme mainly targeted young black women from farming communities as part of the mine’s social licence to operate. But, Exxaro indicated that this initiative went above and beyond Belfast Coal’s social and labour plan commitments, thus reaffirming the mine’s desire to power resilient communities and contributing towards youth employability. The training programme included 30 participants who were trained in the field of mining machine operation (working with machines such as excavators, front-end loaders, and graders), and a further 30 who were trained as security guards. At the certificate handover ceremony in November, business unit manager Londolani Rampfumedzi addressed the graduates and said: “We want to make sure that the livelihoods of the communities in which we operate are significantly improved and sustainable post the life of the mine.” Executive mayor of Emakhazeni municipality, Councillor T D Ngwenya, committed to prioritising the graduates for absorption, with 20 security guard and nine traffic officer job opportunities available within the municipality. Read the full original of the report in the above regard at Mining Weekly
SAA staff salaries a point of contention as Solidarity makes new payment proposal City Press reports that employees of SAA, who have not been paid for eight months, may receive their salaries for three months this week if trade unions accept a new proposal made by Solidarity. However, if the unions agree this does not mean the employees will be forfeiting the other five months’ salaries, says the union’s Derek Mans. “It does not serve as a final settlement and outstanding payments will be postponed until the business rescue process is completed,” he pointed out. According to Mans, the Department of Public Enterprises as well as two unions – the Aviation Union of SA and the National Transport Movement – have agreed to Solidarity’s proposal. It is now up to the department to submit the agreement to the business rescuers. The staff of SAA Technical, who currently receive only a quarter of their salaries each month, are excluded from the proposal. The department tried to resolve the salary payments matter last week by offering SAA workers three months’ outstanding salary, but then they would forfeit the other five months. The idea was that R600 million would go to the staff and the balance would still be spent to help the SAA subsidiaries. However, there was doubt whether the business rescue practitioners were legally entitled to pay the money to the subsidiaries even in those circumstances. According to Mans, Solidarity’s proposal meant the SAA staff would at least have something in their pockets and could still keep their claims open for the balance. But time will tell if the other unions will accept this. In a sharply-worded statement, the National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa) said Gordhan was “playing games with the workers’ bread and butter”. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Antoinette Slabbert at City Press (paywall access only) Numsa blasts public enterprises, SAA, over 'misleading' SAAT workers, warns against 'unlawful' actions Engineering News reports that the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) has blasted the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) concerning its behaviour regarding maintenance and repair organisation SA Airways Technical (SAAT). SAAT is a subsidiary of the state-owned airline SA Airways (SAA), which has been under business rescue for the whole of this year). According to Numsa, the DPE has “deliberately” misled both workers and management at SAAT. In a statement, Numsa said: “The DPE has created the impression that a portion of the R1.5-billion which was allocated to [the] SAA Business Rescue Practitioners (BRPs) would be used on subsidiaries of SAA, including [low cost carrier] Mango, SAAT and [airline caterer] Airchefs. This has created chaos and has disrupted the workplace at SAAT because workers there have only received 25% of their salaries for the last eight months. Workers are angry and are under the mistaken impression that the BRPs at SAA are withholding the money, and therefore withholding their salaries. They are frustrated and [on Wednesday] they wanted to march to SAA to demand money from the BRPs, when in fact, this money had not been allocated to them.” Numsa pointed out that when the government started the SAA business rescue process, it had deliberately decided to exclude the airline’s subsidiaries. The union said it would not allow the DPE to reverse this policy, for that would be “patently unlawful” and acquiescence in such a move would be “irresponsible”. “It would be immoral to take money from one group of workers, in order to pay another,” stressed Numsa. Read the full original of the report in the above regard at Engineering News. Read too, Gordhan 'playing chess' with workers' livelihoods, says Numsa, at News24
Solidarity threatens Health Department with legal action for 'failing' to place medical graduate News24 reports that the Department of Health (DoH) is facing legal action for allegedly "refusing" to place a medical graduate at a state facility to complete her internship and community year. Solidarity launched the urgent legal proceedings on behalf of Dr Bianca Lucas on Thursday. According to the trade union, the DoH failed to place the young doctor, after she completed her studies, at any medical centre or hospital. According to a lawyer's letter sent to the DoH in July, Lucas electronically applied, on the department's Internship Community Service Programme (ICSP) website, for enrolment as an intern in 2021. The ICSP required Lucas to apply in three different provinces and at five different hospitals, which she did. Lucas received a response which indicated that her placement would be finalised by 20 November. The last communication indicated that feedback would be provided by no later than 4 December. To date, Lucas has still not been able to secure an intern post and is in limbo because she doesn't know where she will work next year. "It is outrageous that the state will oblige young doctors to go through a process, which then is delayed by the state due to their own incompetence. Doctors are expected to complete additional internships and community years after years of study. Yet, one cannot even rely on the government to manage the basic placement within this system," said Anton van der Bijl, head of labour law services at Solidarity. Solidarity sent a letter of demand to the DoH in which it demanded that Lucas be placed. The department was threatened with further legal action that would radically review the system. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Riaan Grobler at News24 Western Cape welcomes 120 graduate agricultural interns Engineering News reports that about 120 graduate agricultural interns took up their two-year internship within the Western Cape agriculture sector on 9 December. Western Cape Agriculture Minister Ivan Meyer welcomed the placement of the interns, saying that the provincial department had prioritised the structuring of education and training, as well as farmer support and development. According to Meyer, his department was seeking to improve the employability of agricultural graduates through on-the-job experience at major agricultural host farms and entrepreneurial entities. “The initiative targets qualified unemployed graduates in agriculture, who want to venture into entrepreneurial projects related to agriculture. The key placement areas within agriculture are livestock rearing and poultry production, horticulture/crop production, aquaculture production, viticulture, agroprocessing, agricultural extension and agricultural economics,” he indicated. Meyer said the internship created a pool of future farmers and entrepreneurs among young people and reduced youth unemployment. “We must provide a platform for the active participation of youth in the agriculture value chain and create an enabling environment to support the establishment of youth-owned and/or managed enterprises,” he pointed put. Read the original of the report in the above regard at Engineering News
Pretoria High Court sets aside education department’s decision to have two matric exam papers rewritten BusinessLive reports that Judge Norman Davis of the North Gauteng High Court last week set aside the Department of Basic Education’s (DBE’s) decision to have two leaked matric examination papers rewritten. On 4 December, DBE Minister Angie Motshekga announced the rewrites of a maths paper and a science paper, giving pupils less than two weeks to prepare. Four separate groups, including the SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) and Afriforum, brought the case against the education minister, provincial MECs and exam accreditation body Umalusi. Davis concluded that Motshekga’s decision was so irrational that no other decision maker or reasonable person would have made it. He sided with Sadtu, which claimed that the minister had made the decision because she was “panic stricken and extremely fearful” of Umalusi. The union claimed Umalusi had told the minister it would not certify the exams due to the leak. The judge found it irregular that the certification body had come to a conclusion about the exams before the scripts had even been marked and before it had been determined if there were any statistically significant irregularities. Davis also found no evidence the exams were widely leaked or went “viral” as Umalusi had claimed. The DBE was ordered to pay the legal costs of the four groups that brought the case as well as those of the Suid Afrikaanse Onderwysers Unie, which had acted as a friend of the court. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Katharine Child at BusinessLive. Read too, Unions vindicated by exams rewrite ruling, at Sunday Independent
NSFAS bursaries reinstated after litigation brought by Solidarity Solidarity reports that following litigation brought by the trade union, the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) undertook on Thursday to reinstate the suspended bursaries of members on whose behalf Solidarity had acted. In a settlement agreement with the union, the NSFAS undertook to henceforth fulfil all its financial and contractual obligations to Solidarity’s members. “Solidarity welcomes the NSFAS’s sudden willingness to reinstate the bursaries. The irregularities at the NSFAS were immediately addressed by Solidarity, and Solidarity insisted that the NSFAS should fulfil its obligations. We were ready to go to court tomorrow to continue the fight. We and our members are delighted that the NSFAS, after sustained pressure, was finally forced to realise its actions were unjustified,” said Paul Maritz, manager of Solidarity Youth and Career Development. According to Solidarity, the cancellation of these students’ bursaries had been unlawful. Solidarity argued that the contract between the NSFAS and its bursary holders was binding and could not be changed unilaterally by the NSFAS without proper justification. The case had been due to be heard in the Western Cape High Court on Friday Read the full original of Solidarity’s press statement in the above regard at Solidarity News Low-income earners will suffer if tax benefits for bursaries and scholarships are changed BL Premium reports that in a bid to curb tax abuse and boost the state’s dwindling coffers, the National Treasury has pushed for an amendment to the Income Tax Act, potentially making it harder for thousands of low-income families to receive tax-exempt bursaries for their family members. The bill on the proposal was recently passed by the National Assembly, and the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) concurred during a vote last week. It is now awaiting President Cyril Ramaphosa’s signature before promulgation. Critics of the proposed amendment to the Income Tax Act say the beneficiaries are mostly black, low-income households and this change, should it go ahead, will severely affect thousands of families’ ability to pay for education. The current act contains provisions that provide exemption in respect of bona fide scholarship or bursary granted by an employer to an employee or relative of qualifying employees, subject to certain monetary limits and requirements. According to the Treasury, such arrangements have often been abused. “Government has noticed that a number of tax schemes have emerged in respect of employer bursaries granted to the relatives of employees ... for example, these schemes are developed by an institution other than the employer and marketed to the employer and seek to reclassify ordinary taxable remuneration received by the employee as a tax-exempt bursary granted to the relatives of employees,” the Treasury stated. Critics have argued that reinstating the salary sacrifice requirement undermines the government’s objective for skills development. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Bekezela Phakathi at BusinessLive (paywall access only)
Pensions of 1,600 municipal employees lapse due to non-payment by councils of employer contributions News24 reports that a parliamentary reply has revealed that several municipalities across the country have defaulted on paying over employer contributions to workers’ pension funds. Due to the failure to transfer the contributions, the pensions of about 1,600 municipal employees have lapsed, and 64 employees have been unable to retire because they were precluded from accessing their retirement funds. Cillier Brink, the Democratic Alliance’s (DA’s) spokesperson on local government, said the party would be lodging criminal complaints against the municipal officials involved. "Hundreds of millions in interest has also accrued on these outstanding pension transfers - effectively for the account of residents and ratepayers," Brink added. In a reply to a parliamentary question, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni revealed the Free State, North West and Northern Cape were the provinces mostly affected by the default in pension fund contributions. Mboweni added: “The provinces that do not seem to have cases of non-payment of pension fund contributions are Gauteng (GP), KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), Mpumalanga (MP) and Western Cape (WC).” He added that National Treasury would engage with the relevant authorities (provinces, regulators and national departments) to consider more effective and quicker responses in respect of such non-payment of contributions to retirement funds by any organ of state. Mboweni advised that the practice of non-payment of pension contributions to pension funds by employers was a criminal offence in terms of Section 13A of the Pensions Fund Act after the act was amended in 2013. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Jason Felix at News24
|
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page