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 Tuesday morning roundup, see
summaries of our selection of recent South African
labour-related reports.
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Cosatu and Saftu to down tools on Wednesday over ‘impending economic collapse’ Business Report writes that SA’s two largest trade union federations have put their differences aside in a bid to tackle the country’s worsening economic crisis and rising unemployment. Thousands of workers affiliated to the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) will on Wednesday down their tools and join the national strike against what they believe is impending economic collapse. Giving an update on Sunday, Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi said the socio-economic strike represented a push back and a response by the workers to the ongoing class warfare directed at them by both public and private sector employers. She said the growing frustration in the country was mainly being fuelled by policies that favoured the elite at the expense of the poor, especially the austerity budgets within the government. “The intention of the strike is to demand urgent action from policymakers and decision makers to take drastic steps to avoid an economic collapse that is threatening the lives of millions of workers and the poor,” Losi said. Saftu general-secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said they expected all workers to participate in the stayaway, except essential workers, as the strike was protected under the Section 77 of the Labour Relations Act. Vavi advised that they have six demands on a variety of issues, including the escalating cost of living as the food basket had increased by 14% this year, and by 49% from a year ago. “Saftu and many other workers’ formations, including Cosatu, are saying this is totally unsustainable and we cannot allow them to just twiddle our fingers and do nothing,” he stated. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Siphelele Dludla at Business Report R1-trillion needed to reignite economy, says Saftu ahead of national shutdown on Wednesday BL Premium reports that the SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) has called on the government to set aside at least R1-trillion – or one-fifth of GDP – to address the socioeconomic crises dogging the country and create much-needed jobs through re-industrialisation. Saftu said the state also needed to increase the ballooning wage bill by employing more public servants, increase the minimum wage of R23.19 per hour to R12,500 per month, implement a R1,500 basic income grant (BIG) and end austerity measures. “We are sitting right on top of a powder keg, a ticking time bomb, if you look at all the social aspects we are beginning to experience in our country. Act now and avoid a calamity,” said Saftu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi on Monday. He was addressing the media ahead of the federation’s national shutdown march to the Union Buildings on Wednesday to protest against unemployment, load-shedding and high food, fuel, transport and electricity costs, among other things. The ANC-aligned Cosatu also plans to march to the Union Buildings on the same issues on Wednesday. The two labour federations account for more than 2.2-million members. Vavi said workers needed to unite around the same programme of action as they faced the same socioeconomic challenges. “The principal demand is that we want jobs for youth and black women. That can only be achieved if the government restructures the current economy and change the growth path ... to meet the most basic needs of workers,” Vavi argued. He also said the national shutdown on Wednesday would not be an isolated event: “Post August 24, we will assess government’s response and sustain the programmes of action for a long period to force the government to change the current strategies it has been pursuing over the past 28 years. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive (subscriber access only) Vavi acknowledges that Wednesday's national shutdown probably won't draw large protest crowds Fin24 reports that SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi has acknowledged that Wednesday's national shutdown demonstrations will not draw numbers onto the streets remotely close to the mass protests in 2018. However, he said Saftu and other labour formations expected the mass action to shut the economy down if workers around the country agreed to withdraw their labour and stay home. "We are not emphasising the numbers of people. In fact, we will not see anything close to what we saw in 2018 because there are no trains in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Taxis can support us, but they only take a handful at a time. We are emphasising the need for workers to stay at home," said Vavi. Saftu is one of many organisations planning demonstrations against the rising cost of living set for Wednesday. Demands include a R1,500 basic income grant, the de-escalation of the interest rates, fuel, electricity, and food costs, an end to the privatisation of government institutions, as well as an end to wage cuts and below-inflation wage increases in the private and public sector. Cosatu has also planned a national shutdown for Wednesday. The two federations have agreed to cooperate in demonstrations. Vavi said the national shutdown enjoyed the support of over 200 organisations along with left-leaning parties including the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) and the Workers and Socialist Party (WASP). Demonstrations on Wednesday will include a march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria, a march to the Parliament in the Western Cape, a march to the Free State Premier's office in Mangaung, and a march to Eskom Park in Witbank, Mpumalanga. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Khulekani Magubane at Fin24 Other internet posting(s) in this news category
PSA reaches agreement with Sita on 6% pay increase TimesLive reports that the Public Servants Association (PSA) on Friday reached a salary agreement with the State Information Technology Agency (Sita) that will see employees getting an increase of 6% for the 2022/2023 financial year. Employees will receive the increase in September and backpay with effect from 1 April. The PSA initially tabled a salary demand of 12% across the board and a standby allowance of R300. A dispute was declared with the CCMA after the employer's failure to respond to the demand for three months. Conciliation took place on Friday when the employer tabled an offer of 6% for all employees within the scope of the bargaining forum. The increase also covered employees earning above the maximum threshold of salary scales. “The PSA was mandated to accept the employer's offer by most members and the collective agreement was concluded on August 19,” the union indicated in a letter to its members. The CCMA dispute was withdrawn after the conclusion of the agreement. Salary increments for employees outside the bargaining forum will be determined by the Sita board. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Ernest Mabuza at TimesLive
Joint discussions commence to resolve unrest in Middelburg Maroela Media reports that following the devastating strikes of recent months, joint discussions between employees of the Steve Tshwete district municipality at Middelburg and the municipality’s management commenced on Monday. DA councillor Hennie Niemann advised that the mayor and speaker were currently involved in talks with the workers’ trade union. The hope is to eventually bring the ongoing strikes to an end so that normal service delivery can resume. The talks follow a recent incident in which four protestors, including some municipal workers, were shot by private security guards after they tried to force their way into the municipal offices. One of the protests was shot dead, while the others are in hospital. Some of the municipality’s employees have been striking since September over various grievances. Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, last week sent a team to the municipality to work with the parties concerned to find solutions to the crisis. The situation in Middleburg on Monday was calm. It is not clear how long that talks between the parties concerned will last (loosely translated from Afrikaans) Read the full original of the report in the above regard in Afrikaans at Maroela Media
Less than 4% of Zimbabwe Exemption Permit holders have made representations to Home Affairs News24 reports that less than 4% of Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP) holders have made representations to the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) to say why their documents should not be terminated later this year. This emerged in court papers the department filed at the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria. The ZEP is a special dispensation permit that was established more than 10 years ago, providing legal protection to an estimated 178 000 Zimbabweans who live, work and study in SA. In January, Cabinet decided that the arrangement should be terminated by December and that permit holders should apply for a visa to remain in SA on the basis of a list of critical skills. In the case before court brought by the Helen Suzman Foundation (HSF), the department said that only 6,000 out of the 178,000 permit holders responded to the call made by DHA Minister Aaron Motsoaledi last year for Zimbabweans to state their case before the dispensation lapsed. According to the HSF, the decision to terminate the permit will turn ZEP holders in SA into undocumented migrants. However, in the court papers, DHA director-general Livhuwani Tommy Makhode said the minister had allowed ZEP holders to apply for visas as contemplated by the Immigration Act. Makhode also said a decision not to grant further exemptions had not been made. He also lambasted the HSF for not putting up evidence on how many ZEP holders intended to lodge or have lodged applications for general work visas or how many were not able to meet the requirements. "On the evidence, HSF cannot demonstrate that any application for permanent residence made in terms of s26 by ZEP holders will be rejected," Makhode pointed out. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Jeanette Chabalala at News24
Eskom, CPUT join forces to reskill workers as Komati is earmarked for repurposing to renewables Fin24 reports that Eskom has signed an agreement with the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) for reskilling workers at the Komati power station, which is due for decommissioning at the end of September. An agreement was signed by Eskom CEO André De Ruyter and CPUT Vice-Chancellor Professor Chris Nhlapo at the SA Renewable Energy Technology Centre on Monday. Nhlapo explained that it provided for the upskilling and reskilling of workers and communities dependent on the coal-value chain in Mpumalanga and surrounds, using accredited courses and programmes from CPUT. De Ruyter indicated that the last unit at Komati was due for decommissioning in September and Eskom had been looking to repurpose the plant. He remarked: "We had two options. On the one hand we could put a padlock on the gate, and walk away and leave a community that has served Eskom and South Africa well for decades in the lurch. Or we could make an alternative plan and make sure that we provide a new future and new horizon for the people of Komati and the surrounding area." Among the initiatives to repurpose and repower the power station include building a 100 MW solar plant and looking into the feasibility of a 40 MW to 70 MW wind plant at the site. There are also plans to install a micro-grid manufacturing facility. Apart from the physical infrastructure, Eskom considered the social impact of the transition to renewables and the need to re-empower the human capital at Komati, which includes direct employees, contractors, the local community and surrounding towns. For this reason, Eskom has set out plans for a training centre for workers and others to be able to participate in the renewable energy industry. Initially, the focus of the training will be at Komati, with the aim to roll this out for all Eskom workers, contractors and others interested in working in renewable energy. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Lameez Omarjee at Fin24 Labour Department to pursue demand-led skills development rather than “willy-nilly” funding of training Engineering News reports that the Department of Employment and Labour (DEL) has put a stop to the “willy-nilly” funding of skills training programmes, after some resulted in poor employment outcomes. This was indicated by DEL Minister Thulas Nxesi on Friday at the ten-year celebrations of the University of the Witwatersrand’s Centre for Researching Education and Labour. He noted that when he started in his role as minister of the department, it was facilitating and funding training which was only minimally informed by labour market research and skills planning. “In some ways, we had a bizarre supply-led training model, with training institutions largely setting the agenda for skills training,” he noted. The “very real” downside of this approach was that, when unemployed people received training that was not aligned to the needs of the labour market, such individuals remained unemployed, Nxesi pointed out. He advised that the Unemployment Insurance Fund’s (UIF’s) Labour Activation Programme (LAP) had taken a strategic direction in which training of the unemployed would be skills demand-led, leading to employment at the end of the training period. “The employers and partners who participate in the [Training of the Unemployed] Programme commit to ensuring that the trainees will be absorbed,” said Nxesi. To that end, he highlighted that the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education, for instance, had already absorbed over 14,000 participants from one of the projects funded through the LAP. Read the full original of the report in the above regard at Engineering News Nurses’ union to picket outside Northern Cape health department over the looming closure of only nursing college in the province The Citizen reports that the Young Nurses Indaba Trade Union (YNITU) is set to picket outside the Department of Health in the Northern Cape on Tuesday, as the only nursing college in the province is on the brink of closure. While the demonstration takes place, Health MEC Maruping Matthews Lekwene will be meeting with the union’s Northern Cape leadership regarding Hendrietta Stockdale Nursing College (HSNC). According to the union’s general secretary Lerato Mthunzi, the college faces closure because it has not been accredited by the Council on Higher Education (CHE) and the SA Nursing Council (SANC). Apparently, the nursing regulatory and accreditation bodies stated they could not accredit the college because it lacked proper basic infrastructure, training resources and adequately qualified nurse educators. The students at the college study under very poor conditions. “Students are studying in temporary dilapidated structures. They do not have a well-resourced library, a working printer or access to Wi-Fi. They do not have proper classrooms, textbooks or stationery,” Mthunzi lamented. “We will also be staging a peaceful picket outside the department of health to highlight these and other issues and hand over a memorandum of demands,” she added. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Kgomotso Phooko at The Citizen Teacher assistant programme is helping the youth, says President Ramaphosa TimesLive reports that President Cyril Ramaphosa says he is encouraged by the success of the schoolteacher assistant programme, which is part of the Presidential Employment Stimulus. Writing in his weekly newsletter on Monday, Ramaphosa said that at the end of August, the second cohort of 245,000 young people would finish their 10-month placements in schools. They will join the ranks of about 600,000 young South Africans who have participated in the initiative since its launch in 2020. This will bring to almost one-million the number of participants since the programme was launched. The school assistants have either supported teachers in the classroom or performed school maintenance, security, food garden production and other upkeep activities. Ramaphosa said of about 60,000 teachers and principals surveyed, more than 95% said the programme had greatly improved the learning environment in their schools and wanted it to continue. “They say it has enabled them to focus more of their time on teaching,” Ramaphosa noted. Beyond the monthly stipend, the programme has provided young people with work experience and skills. “They have received accredited training across several disciplines, ranging from digital literacy to basic bookkeeping, from child and youth care to bricklaying, plastering and plumbing,” the president pointed out. Read the full original of the report in the above regard at BusinessLive Other internet posting(s) in this news category
‘Larger number' of staff implicated in tainted “ghost accounts”, says Standard Bank CEO Fin24 reports that Standard Bank has confirmed that more than 59 of its employees have now been implicated in suspect activities to activate MyMo accounts. These further staff members have not yet been suspended. It was previously reported that employees and their managers signed up customers by depositing small amounts of their own money – and allegedly also money from a communal "kitty box" – to activate “ghost” accounts, which helped them to reach company targets. Dismissed staff members claim the instruction to open the accounts came from their superiors. "A larger number of people [have been] implicated and are being investigated… It's larger than 59, but we are not disclosing numbers," said Standard Bank CEO Sim Tshabalala. He contended that the number of people under investigation was constantly changing, but didn't elaborate on why some had been suspended and others not. Standard Bank has also not broken down the numbers to indicate how many of the fired and suspended employees were managers. The bank previously said it would communicate the findings of its investigation and ensure that these were independently reviewed. Tshabalala said those investigations were still under way. But, he added, initial indications were that this was not widespread behaviour in the bank and that “the number of accounts in question is very minimal. It's less than 0.1%.” Tshabalala also said it was incorrect to call them "ghost accounts" – even though many of them have never had any active transactions other than the few rand deposited by the now-suspended staff members. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Londiwe Buthelezi at Fin24 (subscriber access only)
Sama chairman hid in bushes after being stabbed on Saturday night near Spaghetti Junction in Durban TimesLive reports that a bleeding Dr Mvuyisi Mzukwa, who is chair of the SA Medical Association (Sama), had to “run for his life” and hide in bushes next to the N2 freeway when he was attacked on Saturday night. He was on his way home from King Shaka International Airport when he had car trouble near the EB Cloete interchange, commonly known as Spaghetti Junction, and stopped his car on the side of the road. “Out of nowhere some people approached him and started breaking his car window with a brick. He was then asked to get out the vehicle and then they stabbed him multiple times,” Sama board member Dr Akhtar Hussain reported on Monday. He said Mzukwa managed to flee and hide in bushes. “Metro police were driving by and stopped to see why a car was parked on the side of the road. That’s when they found him and rushed him to hospital.” Hussain said Mzukwa was lucky to be alive and was very traumatised. “As doctors, we do everything for the community ... for the nation and then this is what happens,” Hussain lamented. Sama expressed concern about the high levels of crime in the country, with the latest statistics showing an increase in hijackings compared to 2021. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Nivashni Nair at BusinessLive. See too, Wounded SA Medical Association chairperson drives himself to hospital after stabbing, at News24
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