Today's Labour News

OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY

Man arrested after spate of attacks on Intercape bus drivers in Cape Town

News24 reports that Western Cape MEC for Mobility, Daylin Mitchell, has welcomed the arrest of a 28-year-old man in connection with a string of attacks on Intercape bus drivers. Police spokesperson Brigadier Novela Potelwa said the suspect was arrested in Klapmuts in the Cape Winelands during a tracing operation.   He faces murder and attempted murder charges relating to the Cape Town attacks on the buses in March and April this year. In April, 35-year-old Intercape driver Bangikhaya Machana was shot, resulting in him sustaining serious injuries.   He died three days later in hospital. In the attack in March, shots were fired at another Intercape bus.   Three attacks have taken place this month alone. The suspect is expected to appear in Bishop Lavis Magistrate’s court on Monday.

Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Cebelihle Mthethwa at News24. Lees ook, Man aangekeer wat van aanvalle op Intercape verdink word, by Maroela Media

Durban construction worker fighting for his life after structural collapse

Daily News reports that a Durban construction worker is fighting for his lives after sustaining injuries following a structural collapse. The incident occurred on Saturday afternoon in Durban North. Emer-G-Med spokesperson Kyle van Reenen said that their paramedics responded to the scene of a structural collapse on a construction site on Mackeurtan Avenue. “Reports from the scene are that a male worker was busy on a ladder when a wall collapsed, crushing his leg between the wall and the ladder,” Van Reenen indicated. He said that advanced life support intervention was needed to stabilise the worker before he was rushed to a nearby hospital for further definitive care.

Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Thobeka Ngema at Daily News. Lees ook, Werker veg om sy lewe ná muur ineenstort, by Maroela Media

STRIKES

SARS wage strike suspended as unions give talks a chance

Fin24 reports that the SA Revenue Service (SARS) has announced that unions have suspended their strike at the tax body and have reported for duty, with the wage negotiations process to continue. SARS said in a statement on Friday that the Public Servants Association (PSA) suspended its industrial action first and that the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) suspended its strike last Monday. This came after strike action caused disruptions at customs offices and branches around the country. At the height of the action, as many as 18 branches around the country were closed during the day, with SARS urging taxpayers to use its online services instead of visiting branches. SARS said the suspension of the industrial action allowed all parties in the wage negotiations to work towards progressing the talks and settling the dispute. The tax agency said follow-up discussions, as well as the national bargaining process, would resume soon. Nehawu spokesperson Lwazi Nkolisi indicated: "Yes, I can confirm that we have suspended the strike action on the eighth to give space for negotiations and discussions at the SARS National Bargaining Forum." The demand from organised labour is a CPI plus 7% wage increase, but SARS has previously said this demand would be unaffordable until it received further funding.

Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Khulekani Magubane at Fin24. Read too, Striking SARS employees return to work, at Moneyweb

Eastern Cape towns without water for two weeks, but striking Amathole workers say they’re not to blame

GroundUp reports that on Wednesday, Eastern Cape Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Xolile Nqatha lashed out at striking municipal workers and blamed them for triggering panic and a water crisis affecting tens of thousands of Amathole District Municipality residents. The municipality also blamed the strike for the water outages and said there had also been sabotage of infrastructure. But workers at Amathole Municipality said the MEC was ignoring the issues and instead inciting the community against them.   Workers claim they have not had a salary increase for three years and they are also demanding Covid allowances, which they say were promised but never paid. According to residents, taps ran dry in Butterworth and Fort Beaufort the week before last. But, the workers maintain that they only went on strike on Wednesday last week, after talks with acting Municipal Manager Moatlhodi Mosala broke down. SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) shop steward Lorna Lubedu said the real cause of the outages was management failing to service pumps and maintain the water infrastructure. She denied worker involvement in sabotage. Mongezi Mabhece of the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union (Imatu) blamed dismissed municipal manager Thandekile Mnyimba for the strike.   “There was a collective [bargaining] agreement that was signed by all the parties for three years, but Mnyimba decided willy-nilly as a municipal manager that he was not going to implement it,” said Mabhece. A meeting was due to be held on Friday between the Amathole leadership and union representatives. Meanwhile, water outages remain in palce across the enormous municipal district.

Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Johnnie Isaac & Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik at GroundUp

PUBLIC SECTOR WAGE TALKS

Government 'stuck at 2%' in public sector wage talks, sees cost containment proposals as a way to raise offer

Fin24 reports that public service wage talks between government and unions are "stuck" as the state is struggling to move beyond its offer to public servants of a 2% wage increase without drastic cost-containment measures. Public Servants Association (PSA) spokesperson Reuben Maleka reported that there had been no movement in meetings with the employer on Friday and that the government remained "stuck" at 2%. Maleka said the union could not agree to the cost-cutting and cost-moderation measures proposed at the meeting. He was referring to a government memo which stated:   "Any pensionable salary adjustment above the 2% shall be subject to the employer introducing the cost containment measures in the public service. Such measures would allow for the sourcing of the additional 1% required to cover any baseline increase above the 2% over the 2022/23 medium-term expenditure framework." The memo said measures might include, but were not limited to, filling only posts identified as critical, early retirement without penalties, exit mechanism for employees at ages of 60 and 64, and voluntary severance package subject to an assessment of critical skills.

Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Khulekani Magubane at Fin24. Read too, Godongwana’s meddling stalls wage negotiation process, says PSA’s Reuben Maleka, at IOL

SOCIAL COMPACT

Government, labour and business agree on social compact working groups

Bloomberg News reports that the SA government, trade unions and business representatives have agreed to form working groups with the aim of finding agreement on a plan for reviving the nation’s ailing economy. Stakeholder representatives at the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) on Thursday night made the decision to split into smaller groups to work on elements of a so-called social compact – an accord that President Cyril Ramaphosa said in February he expected to be agreed upon within 100 days.   He has missed that deadline.   “There is no definite time frame, but we want the process to be completed before the State of the Nation Address that will be delivered by the president” in February, Matthew Parks, parliamentary coordinator for the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), indicated. Ramaphosa said last February that by bringing together the government, business, labour and civil society, he expected to chart a path forward for an economy that has been languishing for over a decade. Unemployment is at a near-record high, sovereign debt is climbing and a litany of corruption scandals have eroded faith in the government.

Read the original of the report in the above regard by Paul Vecchiatto at Fin24

ILLEGAL MINING

JMPD officers stop zama zamas from attempting to set up in Braam Fischerville

News24 reports that on Friday, Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) officers stopped suspected illegal miners from attempting to establish a new settlement in Braam Fischerville. "Information was received from the community that illegal miners, who were forcefully evicted from the Westrand, Kagiso, and Randfontein, were allegedly attempting to establish a new settlement in the area," JMPD spokesperson Xolani Fihla indicated. Together with two private security companies, the officers demolished and removed about 44 unoccupied shacks in Braam Fischerville Phase 2. Fihla said the community welcomed the operation and the removal of the illegal structures.

Read the original of the report in the above regard by Iavan Pijoos at News24

Authorities were warned years ago of security risk at mines due to illegal mining

Business Times reports that precious metals producer Sibanye-Stillwater believes criminal activity at SA's abandoned mines could have been avoided had authorities taken heed of calls by the industry for tighter policing. Sibanye spokesperson James Wellsted indicated last week that illegal mining has been an issue since Sibanye was established in 2013. The company has been flagging the rise in illegal mining consistently with the government since 2017 when it shut its Cooke 4 mine.   Wellsted said gold mining houses were struggling to contain violent crime on their properties. In June 2022, a Sibanye electrician was shot dead while repairing a transformer at the closed Cooke mine, allegedly by zama zamas (illegal miners). “A few months ago 150 people attacked our engineers who were repairing a transformer that illegal miners had sabotaged. They shot one of the engineers dead,” Wellsted pointed out.   He said illegal mining was rampant in gold mines and cable and copper theft was problematic in platinum group metals mines. Peter Steenkamp, CEO of Harmony Gold, estimates that the industry loses roughly R7bn a year to crime, including illegal mining. Minerals Council SA spokesperson Allan Seccombe said council members spent an additional R2.5bn on extra security annually. He said crime was of enormous concern to members.   At the end of March 2022, the auditor-general reported that there were 6,100 derelict and ownerless mines in SA.   The AG called for stricter management of mines and for the Department of Mineral Resources & Energy (DMRE) to compile a comprehensive national mine closure policy and an implementation plan that included opportunities for different land use to reduce government’s liability to close these mines where possible.

Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Dineo Faku at Business Times (subscriber access only)

Gauteng’s abandoned mines will take 17 years to be completely closed

TimesLive reports that briefing the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) on Thursday, Department of Mineral Resources & Energy (DMRE) Minister Gwede Mantashe said it would take 17 years to completely close Gauteng’s known abandoned mines to stop illegal mining. His comments came after protests in parts of the West Rand about rising crime blamed on illegal miners. Mantashe said the country needed a dedicated team to clamp down on illegal mining. “Over the past three years, 135 holes were closed in the Witwatersrand. In the West Rand alone, 52 were closed. In terms of our statistics, 20 holes are outstanding. At the rate we are going, it is going to take us 17 years to close the known holes.   Check the [number of] holes that have been closed and what is outstanding. It will give the NCOP a better picture of what is happening rather than say nothing is being done. There is a lot being done,” said Mantashe.   According to Police Minister Bheki Cele, the attack on, and rapes of, women in Krugersdorp have heightened awareness about illegal mining. Eight women were raped in West Village while on the set of a music video shoot.   The rapes sparked violent protests in the West Rand. Cele said Gauteng was not the only province in which illegal mining took place. He indicated that there was also illegal mining in Mpumalanga, Limpopo, the North West, Free State and Northern Cape.

Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Unathi Nkanjeni at BusinessLive

Other internet posting(s) in this news category

• Police take bribes from artisanal miners, West Rand residents say, at Mail & Guardian
• Government too incompetent to deal with zama zama ‘cancer’, at City Press (subscriber access only)

EXTENSION OF MEIBC WAGE AGREEMENT

Neasa, Saefa to challenge 'unconstitutional' extension of metal and engineering wage deal

Fin24 reports that two employer associations are planning to take the Metal and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council (MEIBC) to court later this month to prevent it from extending an "unaffordable" wage deal. The National Employers Association of SA (Neasa) and the SA Engineering and Founders' Association (Saefa) are heading to the Labour Court on 23 August to block MEIBC and trade unions from applying for the extension of the wage deal.   Neasa and Saefa oppose the gazettal extension of the deal, which they say they cannot afford. The wage deal in question is a 6% increase to the minimum rate in the metals and engineering sector. There are 24 employer organisations registered with MEIBC, including Neasa and Saefa. The two associations are opposed to the extension of the wage agreement on grounds of procedural breaches. They are also challenging the constitutionality of Section 32 of the Labour Relations Act (LRA) and its provision for the extension of bargaining council wage deals. Neasa CEO Gerhardus Papenfus noted that parties at MEIBC wanted to request that Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi extend the agreement to employers represented by Neasa, even though those employers were not specifically represented at the council's negotiations. "We have already filed an urgent application to stop them.   On Monday I will publish a newsletter, but we will be in court on the 23rd. We are stopping it because we are completely against this arrangement where parties impose their agreements that they made on their own to everyone else," said Papenfus. Saefa’s Gordon Angus advised that his association was also party to the challenge. He said both associations anticipated that the parties at the MEIBC would try to extend the deal to non-parties in the sector, and they had planned accordingly.   The Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of SA (Seifsa) said it had had no knowledge of constitutional or procedural breaches in the gazettal extension of the deal.

Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Khulekani Magubane at Fin24 (subscriber access only)

MTN RETRENCHMENTS

MTN denies Solidarity's claim of retrenchments at the mobile network operator

Fin24 reports that MTN has refuted a statement by trade union Solidarity which cited pending retrenchments at the mobile network operator. The company said it would be continuing with its digital transformation strategy, which will result in 450 new jobs. The telecoms giant found itself in the crosshairs of Solidarity after it recently served its employees with section 189 notices. In a statement on 5 August, the union lashed out at MTN for planning a "retrenchment process", describing it as a callous and immoral move given the compasny’s strong financial performance.   Solidarity also slammed the timing of MTN's announcement, saying with inflation and fuel price increases, people were already struggling to stay afloat. "Solidarity ... believes it is difficult to see these retrenchments through a lens other than one coloured by MTN’s intended takeover of Telkom," it said. But the mobile operator has defended the notice, saying it was served as a formal notice of its transformation process, which began in 2020. The 450 new jobs will be in digital, technology, financial technology and wholesale. MTN's corporate affairs executive Jacqui O'Sullivan argued that the notice was a legal requirement to inform employees of the transformation process and that it would be affecting some roles. This meant that 173 people would have to apply for 205 new or restructured roles, while some of the positions would be outsourced.   O'Sullivan said that the group would be focused on reskilling, upskilling and moving employees to other parts of the businesses, with retrenchments being a last resort.

Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Penelope Mashego at Fin24

ALLEGED FRAUD

Social Justice Coalition's suspended general manager Xolani Klaas charged with fraud in excess of R730,000

GroundUp reports that Xolani Klaas, the suspended general manager of the Social Justice Coalition (SJC), was granted bail on Friday in the Khayelitsha Magistrate’s Court. Klaas was arrested on Wednesday after SJC staff members opened a case of theft and fraud against him last month. According to the charge sheet, Klaas is accused of fraud in excess of R730,000. In June, a GroundUp investigation revealed that Klaas appeared to be using SJC funds to pay for a large number of suspicious purchases. In addition to furniture and household appliances, Klaas had bought luxury clothes, watches, groceries, and expensive technology, totalling hundreds of thousands of rands. Klaas was suspended and SJC staff laid criminal charges against him at the end of June. At Klaas’s bail hearing on Friday, state prosecutor Leandre Speelman told the court that the state would not be opposing bail. Speelman revealed Klaas had two previous convictions for theft and fraud from about eight years ago. Klaas was granted R10,000 bail. He is expected to return to court on 27 October. The SJC has been one of SA’s leading activist organisations, with a long history of advocacy for improved conditions in informal settlements, including advocating for more police resources, better public lighting and sanitation.

Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Mary-Anne Gontsana at GroundUp

OTHER HEADLINES / ARTICLES OF INTEREST

• ‘Versigtig optimisties’ oor omkeerplan vir Denel, by Maroela Media
• Poor working conditions for police in crime-ridden Umlazi in spotlight as top brass pledge to help, at TimesLive
• Onnie mag appelleer teen skuldigbevinding, by Maroela Media