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 Thursday morning roundup, see
summaries of our selection of recent South African
labour-related reports.
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Two KZN paramedics in ICU after having been shot on Wednesday in scuffles for cellphone The Citizen reports that two paramedics are currently in ICU after being shot by a lone gunman early in KwaMashu, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), on Wednesday morning. According to a statement released by the provincial health department, the gunman gained entry to KwaMashu community health centre with the intention to rob it by scaling a 1.8m perimeter fence. The first paramedic who confronted the gunman got into a scuffle after the man wanted his cellphone. The paramedic was then shot in the abdomen. When other paramedics and security officers heard the gunshot, they ran out to investigate, and another scuffle ensued, resulting in a second paramedic being shot in the chest. The suspect, believed to be in his 20s, was disarmed, but managed to flee the scene before he was then arrested. The paramedics were rushed to a hospital in Durban, where they remain in ICU while receiving medical attention. KZN health MEC Nomagugu Simelane reacted: “We have learned of this incident with shock and dismay. It is spine-chilling to consider that these paramedics could have lost their lives over a mere cellphone.” She lamented that such incidents were “are a sign of the times”, with people’s lives “cheapened to a point that they can be taken over a cellphone.” She added: “It’s even worse when you consider that these paramedics were attacked at their place of work, which is supposed to be a sanctuary.” Read the full original of the report in the above regard at The Citizen Compensation Fund tightens up its relationship with PIC BL Premium reports that the Compensation Fund (CF), which pays benefits to workers who are injured or fall ill at work, is tightening up its relationship with state-owned asset manager the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) so it can have advance knowledge of impairments, among other issues. The Compensation Fund had investments of R85bn in the PIC as at end-December 2021, according to its director of financial reporting, Linda Kotta. It is funded by levies paid by employers. The PIC, which is Africa’s largest asset manager, also invests on behalf of the Government Employees Pension Fund, the Unemployment Insurance Fund and other social security funds. Several of the changes in the relationship between the CF and the PIC are being made to meet the requirements of the auditor-general. CF commissioner Vuyo Mafata said during a presentation to parliament’s employment and labour committee on Tuesday that the fund wanted to be proactive in obtaining information on the status of its unlisted investments and the impairments in the investee companies in which the PIC invests before receiving the annual valuation reports. Advance knowledge would allow for timely intervention in investee companies in financial distress, Mafata said. Among other issues, the CF wants the service-level agreement with the PIC to include penalties for non-performance and non-compliance with the terms of the Intergovernmental Relations Framework Act. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Linda Ensor at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
Covid-19 state of disaster must be lifted, says Solidarity in court application TimesLive reports that trade union Solidarity on Wednesday served court papers seeking the annulment of the Covid-19 state of disaster, saying SA needed to return to a functioning democracy. The union lodged its papers at the High Court in Pretoria against co-operative governance and traditional affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the national coronavirus command council and Dr Mmaphaka Tau of the national disaster management centre. Solidarity contends that the ongoing extension of the state of disaster is irrational and damaging for the economy and social and political norms in SA. “By its own relaxation of regulations, the government has already announced that the disaster is a thing of the past. The Disaster Management Act is intended to create a drastic, yet short-term situation to allow the government to move quickly. It is absurd that the governing party wants to keep us in a semi-autocracy,” Solidarity CEO Dirk Hermann stated. It is Solidarity’s argument that lifting the state of disaster does not imply the virus has disappeared, but rather that the events that justified an initial lockdown no longer exist. “The point is that Covid-19 has become manageable without such drastic measures. All indications point to the disease being endemic. The virus will be with us for a long time, but the disaster is over. To cling stubbornly to the state of disaster will be disastrous in itself,” Hermann pointed out. Read the full original of the report in the above regard at BusinessLive. Read Solidarity’s press statement in the above regard at Solidarity News Other internet posting(s) in this news category
Ramaphosa criticised by Saftu for not standing in solidarity with striking Clover workers EWN reports that the SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) has slammed President Cyril Ramaphosa for failing to stand in solidarity with striking Clover workers. This came after the union hosted a so-called war council meeting on Monday, together with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and various other worker unions. If allowed to continue with planned factory shutdowns and mass retrenchments, some 2,000 Clover workers will apparently be left jobless. Several union members are of the view that the treatment of Clover workers has declined since the company was bought by an Israeli-led consortium, Milko, in 2019. Saftu secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi claimed that the president had strayed from his commitment towards the struggle of black workers and Palestinian victims. The Clover strike action has seen solidarity worldwide, especially from Pro-Palestinian activists. Read the original of the short report in the above regard by Saya Pierce-Jones at EWN
March by security guards and cleaners on Wednesday to demand permanent employment at Gauteng hospitals GroundUp reports that more than 100 security guards and cleaners affiliated to the SA Cleaners, Security and Allied Workers’ Union (SACSAWU) and the National Union of Public Service and Allied Workers (NUPSAW) marched from the Johannesburg Library Gardens to the Gauteng Department of Health in Marshalltown on Wednesday. They were demanding that the department directly employ all security guards and cleaners working at Gauteng hospitals. A memorandum of demands was read out by Sello Molaudzi, NUPSAW provincial secretary. The workers claimed they were exploited and not treated fairly by private companies. Mziyanda Ndevu, NUPSAW chairperson at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, said this was not the first time the group had delivered a memorandum demanding that security guards and cleaners at hospitals be directly employed by the department. “We started by engaging the head of the department in 2020, but we have not received a response,” he indicated. A shop steward from Lillian Ngoyi Community Health Centre in Diepkloof, Soweto, commented: “We work in difficult conditions there. There is no shelter for us at the gates so we get rained on and we get cold. We get exploited and we earn peanuts in return.” A security guard complained that he did not get paid on time and this forced him to borrow money. The unions want the department to stop all advertising for security and cleaning posts until insourcing is finalised. They also want cleaners working at the province’s nursing colleges and forensic pathology services to be insourced. They furthermore want all security guards dismissed at Edenvale Hospital and Sizwe Tropical Diseases Hospital to be reinstated immediately. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Masego Mafata at GroundUp Angry war vets say president didn’t keep promises about pensions and better housing SowetanLive reports that angry military veterans gathered outside the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Monday afternoon to hand a memorandum of grievances to President Cyril Ramaphosa or Deputy President David Mabuza. The military veterans, who among other demands want a better pension fund and bigger houses, marched from Pretoria central to the Union Buildings singing liberations songs. They refused to give Mandla Feni from the office of the president their memorandum, demanding that Ramaphosa or Mabuza should accept the document personally. “We are not happy at all with the president and now all the promises he made were a lie and everything that was supposed to be implemented was not,” said Mzukisi Ronyuza, national task team member of the Liberation Struggle War Veterans. He recalled that in December 2020 they had met with Mabuza and Ramaphosa and agreed that a task team, headed by the deputy president, would be appointed by the president to look into their grievances. A technical task team would also be established to implement the resolutions of the presidential task team. “We are very disappointed that everything that was said at the meeting was not implemented and now we are reaching a deadlock because some agreements have not been implemented,” said Ronyuza. He reported that they had managed to secure a R6,000 monthly military pension, but said it fell short of the R15,000 they had agreed to. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Dimakatso Modipa at SowetanLive
NUM backs Gwede Mantashe in call to sustain coal mining, use Mining Weekly reports that following Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe having voiced his concern earlier this week that SA’s coal mining sector could not be allowed to diminish and fade away, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has added its support for efforts to sustain the industry. Currently, global climate change mitigation advocacy is centred on phasing out coal mining and coal-fired generation plants as burning the fossil fuel adds significantly to greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions. In a statement, the NUM blamed climate change on “developed countries” that have used fossil fuels to build their economies and argued that SA should not have to “sacrifice our economic development so they can continue to pollute”, despite many developed nations having now taken steps to reduce their GHG emissions. Mantashe acknowledged that although SA’s coal mining and coal-burning industries were presented with “binding constraints”, the coal mining industry still needed to take steps to save itself because many people depended on coal mining jobs. He also warned about many jobs being lost if Eskom were to close some of its old and inefficient coal-fired power stations. NUM president Joseph Montisetse says the union fully supported Mantashe despite him being labelled a “coal fundamentalist” and a “fossil fuel dinosaur” by detractors. The NUM said to hoped there would “still be a lot of coal generation in South Africa by 2030, or even after that”, and added that because SA had an abundance of coal reserves, it would be “very irresponsible and reckless” for the country to stop using coal. Read the full original of the report in the above regard at Mining Weekly. Read too, Mantashe tells mining CEOs not to be ‘shy to fight for coal’, at BusinessLive (subscriber access only) Other general posting(s) relating to mining
Nehawu files court papers against ANC, demands party pay staff salaries immediately EWN reports that the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) has filed court papers against the African National Congress (ANC) on behalf of its unpaid members, demanding that their salaries be processed by the party immediately. The union has accused the ANC of deliberately failing to honour its contractual obligations since October last year. It has also labelled this period as sad and traumatic for workers due to the ANC’s inability to pay salaries on time, its non-contribution to the provident and Unemployment Insurance Funds (UIF) and the absence of salary increments over the past three years. Nehawu has moreover slammed the ANC and its president, Cyril Ramaphosa, for consistently making commitments to resolve the situation publicly while not making any efforts internally. Nehawu spokesperson Lwazi Nkolonzi stated: "They've undermined their dignity by not paying them their salaries. They say one thing and then they do another thing. Promises have been made that they're going to sort out the issue of salary payment and yet they've not done that." Read the original of the short report in the above regard at EWN Amid stayaway over nonpayment of salaries, ANC employees insist that retrenchment is a ‘non-starter’ The Star reports that ANC staff say they will remain on what their representatives have labelled a “full-blown stayaway” from party offices due to their employer’s failure to meet contractual obligations, including the party’s inability to pay salaries. According to ANC staff representative Mvusi Mdala, “Luthuli House, Western Cape, Free State and North West had not received salaries for January, while in the North West there were staff members who had last received salaries in October”. He added: “We will be on stayaway until every staff member is back paid their salaries. If tomorrow (Wednesday) every staff member is paid up, and not even a single one is owed his or her salaries, we will reconvene as staff and see what we do.” Following the ANC’s NEC meeting over the weekend, media reports indicated that the party’s national spokesperson and NEC member Pule Mabe had suggested that the ANC should retrench staff members to ease the financial burden on the party. Mdala commented: “That (retrenchments) is a non starter. I think Pule Mabe is just becoming a populist on the approach on this, and also we've noted that when it’s convenient for him, he speaks as a person who’s affected by the non-payment of salaries for opportunistic reasons.” Mdala also called for the ANC to prioritise paying the staff’s provident fund contributions, which he said had last been paid over to the fund in November 2018, and to also pay UIF, which has not been paid for about four years. Mabe said that it was unfair that he was being singled out as an individual NEC member when it had been the NEC that had reached consensus on the issue of organisational redesign, which also included retrenching staff. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Samkelo Mtshali at IOL
Denel hauled to Labour Court by Solidarity as salary woes continue BL Premium reports that the battle between state-owned arms manufacturer Denel and trade union Solidarity over the company’s nonpayment of salaries is set to continue in the Labour Court next week after Denel continuously failed to meet its contractual obligations to employees. In September 2021, after a settlement agreement between Denel and the trade union, the company apparently made partial payment of R12.7m in salaries and employee benefits unpaid for the months of April to July 2020. However, Solidarity says the cash-strapped Denel has failed to pay about R91m in outstanding salaries from August 2020 to now. Should the court rule in its favour, the union wants the outstanding payments to be made within 10 days of the granting of the order. The amounts owed are for Solidarity members in four Denel divisions, namely Denel Corporate Office, Denel Dynamics, Denel Land Systems and Denel PMP, and exclude the amounts owed to employees at Overberg Test Range and Denel Vehicle Systems. Denel, which has not opposed Solidarity’s latest court application, has failed to release its annual results for 2021, prompting the JSE to suspend the company’s bonds from the local bourse. Unions, including Solidarity, Uasa and the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), have all previously taken the arms manufacturer to court over the nonpayment of salaries. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Thando Maeko and Karl Gernetzky at BusinessLive (subscriber access only) Other internet posting(s) in this news category
Axed SABC head of news must accept responsibility for her actions, says group CEO BL Premium reports that SA Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) group CEO Madoda Mxakwe has lashed out at axed group executive of news and current affairs Phathiswa Magopeni, saying she abused her position, distorted facts and refused to accept responsibility for her actions. In a strongly worded, 32-page response on Wednesday to Magopeni’s previous statement of grievances, Mxakwe stated that her claims were riddled with “factual inaccuracies, deliberate distortions of known facts” and were made in bad faith to tarnish his reputation. Mxakwe noted that “this erratic and immature behaviour is not becoming of an executive in her position”. In her grievance to the board, dated 29 November, Magopeni stated how Mxakwe and board chair Bongumusa Makhathini allegedly used their influential positions to try to force her to approve an unscheduled interview with ANC leader Cyril Ramaphosa ahead of the municipal elections on 1 November. The SABC board has established a special committee to probe whether the board chair had a case of misconduct to answer for and to determine if steps needed to be taken. Magopeni was finally fired by the SABC on Friday after a disciplinary hearing held in January found her guilty of misconduct for failing to prevent the broadcast, airing and publication of an interdicted episode of Special Assignment, an investigative news programme. The axe fell on Magopeni despite disciplinary hearing chair Nazeer Cassim having recommended that she be given a warning. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
Labour department warns of bogus inspectors in Merafong area fraudulently ‘fining’ employers The Citizen reports that the Department of Employment and Labour (DEL) has warned the public about several bogus incidents in the Merafong area in Gauteng, where people have been impersonating labour inspectors and Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) officials. These individuals have been swindling money from unsuspecting employers. In a statement on Wednesday, the department said that deceptive individuals posing as labour inspectors were visiting workplaces in Carletonville and Fochville to conduct illegal inspections and then issuing inspection reports and contravention notices to employers. According to the DEL, these individuals were forcing employers to pay fines of R500 or face the consequences. The department emphasised that none of the services provided by its inspectors required payment to them or into their bank accounts. “There are procedures that must be followed after labour inspectors discover non-compliance with labour laws, and an immediate spot fine is not one of them.” To avoid becoming a victim of a con artist posing as a labour inspector, the department advised employers to remember the following: genuine inspectors are easily identified by their inspector identification card, which bears the departmental logo and trademark uniforms. Read the full original of the report in the above regard at The Citizen
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