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.
City Press reports that hundreds of police, naval officers and other government officials were locked out of their offices due to a rental dispute between the state and the owner of the buildings they occupy.
The Bothongo Group, which owns several buildings that the state rents in the Pretoria city centre, closed down its buildings because the state apparently owes it about R50 million in rent for January, February and March. However, the public works and infrastructure department claims that it was forced to stop paying rent due to Bothongo’s excessive rent. The buildings that were closed were: The Sedibeng building on 185 Francis Baard Street, which is rented on behalf of the water and sanitation department, where R15 million in rent is outstanding; Peterson Bothongo House in Visagie Street used by the SA National Defence Force, the SA Police Service (SAPS) and the justice department (R16.6 million); the General Piet Joubert building at 224 Visagie Street, which houses the SAPS, the army and the specialised commercial crimes court (R6.1 million); Bothongo Plaza West on Francis Baard Street, where the police crime records centre is located (R11.1 million); and the Voortrekker building on Visagie Street, which houses the Navy headquarters. From correspondence between the Bothongo Group and the public works department, it appears that the dispute involves far more buildings than the five that were closed. Bathongo apparently leases 13 buildings to the state, all of which house critical government departments and institutions. Arrears for rent in all the buildings apparently amount to more than R124 million. Meanwhile, the department said that Bothongo Group was one of several landlords who were overpaid for rent in the past. Imtiaz Fazel, acting director-general of the department, said in a statement that they were negotiating with these landlords to reclaim some of the money.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Hendrik Hancke at City Press (subscriber access only)
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page