In our Friday morning roundup, see
summaries of our selection of recent South African
labour-related reports.
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De Ruyter briefed national police commissioner on Eskom corruption News24 reports that President Cyril Ramaphosa, his Cabinet, and the ANC have all called for former Eskom CEO André de Ruyter to report knowledge of criminal activities at the power utility involving senior government officials to the police. But, the calls ignore the fact that not only has De Ruyter already reported the matter to the most senior police official in the country, but an investigation is also already underway. A senior police official is apparently looking into the evidence that led De Ruyter to say he believed a senior government official was involved in corruption at Eskom – evidence that has already led to arrests. De Ruyter personally briefed national police commissioner General Fannie Masemola on allegations of corruption at Eskom and the alleged involvement of two senior ANC government officials. Masemola acted on the information and tasked a senior police official to investigate the matters raised by De Ruyter. The briefing to Masemola included information around four syndicates operating in Mpumalanga, where most of Eskom's coal-fired power stations are located. The information stemmed from a privately funded investigation by a forensic firm as well as other details of alleged corruption De Ruyter became aware of through the course of his duties at Eskom. Section 34 of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act (Precca) places a legal obligation to report acts of corruption by "any person who holds a position of authority" who knows, or ought reasonably to have known or suspected that any other person has committed acts of corruption, fraud, theft, extortion, forgery, or uttering involving an amount of R100,000 or more. Ramaphosa called this week for De Ruyter to report the Eskom corruption to the police – which De Ruyter had already done in 2022 – and was supported by his Cabinet for calling for the matter to be reported. The ANC meantime threatened to lay charges against De Ruyter if he failed to report the matter to police within seven days. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Kyle Cowan at News24 (subscriber access only) Other internet posting(s) in this news category
Unions urge health department to ensure safety of staff and patients across Gauteng hospitals The Star reports that the Health and Allied Workers Indaba Trade Union (Haitu) and the Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA (Denosa) have condemned the recent stabbing incident at Helen Joseph Hospital, which resulted in serious injuries to a nurse on duty. Criminals pretending to be the escorts of an injured patient stormed into the hospital and attacked nursing staff on Sunday. A male nurse was stabbed in the abdomen. On Wednesday, Haitu issued a statement asserting that the incident was the fault of the Gauteng Department of Health. “Haitu visited the hospital, and we have engaged workers there regarding the horrific incident. There is a lot of fear and uncertainty because of the high crime rate and also because these assailants have not been arrested yet. There is fear they may return and attack more people,” the union indicated. Denosa called on members of the community to help law enforcement agencies with information and details about the incident to help towards the apprehension of those involved. Both unions called for the department to increase and intensify its security across all healthcare facilities across the province. "We are repeating our demand that the Gauteng Provincial Health Department take the safety and security at our hospitals seriously. Last year in April, Haitu (formerly known as YNITU) marched to the offices of the Gauteng department of health and handed over a memorandum of demands," Haitu pointed out. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Siyabonga Sithole at The Star
Labour Court orders reinstatement of mineworkers who refused to work overtime Pretoria News reports that the question of whether it is a dismissible offence not to work overtime when requested to do so if a worker does not have an agreement with his or her employer in regard to the matter, recently came under the spotlight in the Labour Court. The court concluded that if there was no agreement to work overtime, an instruction to do so was unlawful as it was against the Basic Conditions of Employment Act. The issue was raised by the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) on behalf of four of its members working for the Andru group. On the day in question, the four employees’ normal working hours were from 6am to 4pm. Their site manager instructed them to work overtime to meet production targets, but they refused. The four were charged with gross insubordination and fired for the refusal to obey an instruction to work overtime. The union, on behalf of the employees, turned to the CCMA to dispute the dismissals, but it was found that these had been substantively fair. It then approached the Labour Court to have the CCMA’s finding overturned. It emerged that one of the fired miners, according to his contract of employment, had not agreed to work overtime when he started to work at the mine. The contracts of employment of the others had an overtime clause in terms of which they had consented to work overtime. But, the court was told, by the time the instruction was issued to work overtime in 2017, the overtime clause in their contracts had already lapsed. Judge Portia Nkutha-Nkontwana ruled that, with no agreement in place to work overtime on the day in question in 2017, the manager’s instruction was unlawful. She also found no evidence that supported the CCMA’s finding that there had been an implied or tacit agreement to work overtime. The judge ordered that the workers be reinstated with backpay. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Zelda Venter at Pretoria News
National minimum wage up by more than 9%, but unions say that soaring food costs means this is not enough GroundUp reports that on Wednesday, SA’s new minimum hourly wage rate came into force, rising 9.6% from R23.19 to R25.42 per hour. But many workers will not feel the effect of the increase, despite it being above CPI. With food inflation rates of 13.4% in January 2023, which affects poor people disproportionately, labour activists at the Casual Workers’ Advice Office (CWAO) called the increase a “political attack on the working class”. From 2022, the minimum wage for domestic and farm workers has been the same as for general workers, but workers on the expanded public works programme (EPWP) receive a lesser hourly wage, which will now be R13.97 per hour worked. Eunice Dhladhla of the SA Domestic Service and Allied Workers Union (Sadsawu) said the union was thankful for the increase, but “we cannot say it’s enough”. According to Dhladhla, many employers do not want to comply with the minimum wage laws. She said the union knew of cases where employees earned as little as R1,500 for working more than nine hours for a full month’s work, with no overtime paid to those workers. Pinky Mashiane of the United Domestic Workers of SA commented: “We’re not excited about the national minimum wage. For those who are underpaid, it is not a living wage. A person cannot live on R4,000 a month.” Cosatu in Gauteng welcomed the increase but called it “a drop in the ocean compared to the daily needs basket of the workers”. The labour federation called on the labour minister “to compel employers to comply with this increase without failure, by vigorously implementing inspection and enforcement”. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by James Stent at GroundUp Other internet posting(s) in this news category
SAB starts retrenchment process, but promises 'very small' number of job losses Fin24 reports that SA Breweries (SAB), the local unit of global brewing giant Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev), has embarked on a retrenchment process at its local operations that could affect some 40 jobs. SAB confirmed on Thursday it had embarked on a restructuring process and had started consultations with affected employees, but said that only a "very small amount – less than 0.01%" of the group's 5,000 permanent South African jobs would be affected. It also planned, where possible, to absorb affected staff into other areas of its business. The company said the restructuring process followed it having reviewed its operating models across the business in line with its "continuous improvement processes and a dynamic environment globally". This review recommended changes to human resource allocations. Earlier on Thursday, AB InBev reported that SAB had delivered record total-full-year volumes after its beer market share moved ahead of its pre-pandemic levels. Explaining the strong performance, AB InBev said a "focused commercial investment" and consistently executing its strategy for increasing the brand power of its "beer and beyond beer portfolios" had helped drive the South African performance. But the fourth quarter of 2022 had brought some headwinds for its SA operations due to production constraints at its Prospecton brewery, caused by floods in KwaZulu-Natal Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Nick Wilson at Fin24
KZN doctors angered by 0% increase in their fees by municipal workers medical scheme TimesLive reports that members of the SA Municipal Workers’ Union Medical Scheme (Samwumed) in KwaZulu-Natal may have to pay cash to see a doctor after the scheme failed to give general practitioners an annual increase for services. In a letter to members, the KwaZulu-Natal Doctors Healthcare Coalition (KZNDHC) told doctors that it had written to Samwumed expressing its dissatisfaction. The organisation said that at a meeting arranged by the union to discuss the 0% increase, it was alarmed to find out that while member fees went up by 10% and all other providers – including specialists, pathology, radiology and hospital groups – received an increase, general practitioners were exempt. “Samwumed wanted us to explore options to help reduce their costs further. This was despite GPs being the lowest-cost drivers, and specialists and hospital groups being the higher costs drivers. Their “reason” (excuse) behind their 0% increase was that they had felt GPs were paid a far higher rate historically by the scheme,” KZNDHC CEO, Dr Neven Govender, indicated. He said they alerted the scheme to the fact that their costs have increased disproportionately to their tariff rates and that they have been at the mercy of looting and floods, but to no avail. One of the doctors who will be prejudiced commented: “The doctors have now resolved that we will see Samwumed members but we will ask them to pay us cash, give me a receipt and then they can claim from the medical aid. Most of the doctors who have agreed on this are from KZNDHC – which is about 1,500 doctors.” The scheme said it was aware of the matter and would be tabling KZNDHC’s request to revisit the decision at the next board meeting later this month. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Sakhiseni Nxumalo at TimesLive
UCT expected to bring back a retired maths prof as interim vice-chancellor after Phakeng departure drama News24 reports that the University of Cape Town (UCT) is expected to appoint retired mathematics professor, Daya Reddy, as its interim vice-chancellor following the dramatic exit of Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng. None of the university’s three deputy vice-chancellors are apparently in the running to take over Phakeng's position on an interim basis. Reddy will likely be appointed when the council convenes next week and is expected to serve a term of about six months while the recruitment of a new vice-chancellor is undertkaen. Reddy, who retired in 2020 from the university, was a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics and the director of UCT’s Centre for Research in Computational and Applied Mechanics. Phakeng was placed on special leave with immediate effect on Wednesday. It followed the leaking of a confidential letter to the university's executive on Monday, in which she confirmed she was leaving UCT on Friday and described the past 10 months as having been "untenable". She wrote the letter days before her departure as vice-chancellor after reaching a negotiated R12.5 million exit deal with the council last week. In an hour long interview on Wednesday evening on eNCA, Phakeng hailed herself as a "change maker" and said she rattled the cage of discriminators. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Marvin Charles & Adriaan Basson at News24 (subscriber access only). Read too, ‘I’m a change maker, I rattled cages of racial discrimination’, Mamokgethi Phakeng says after leaving UCT, at IOL
Company must pay out ex-employee who claimed CEO had sneak peek over a stall wall to watch him urinate News24 reports that an engineer, who was unfairly dismissed after accusing his boss of peeking over a stall wall to watch him urinate, has been vindicated by the Labour Court. In October 2019, Ali Rooi Nkabinde, who had been with the company since 2013, alleged that the CEO of Endeto Engineering, Raymond Lovett, peeked over the stall wall to look at him while he was urinating. A formal grievance was lodged against the CEO, who "vehemently disputed the allegations". Nkabinde was charged with misconduct for "falsely accusing" the CEO. He was also charged with failing to undergo a polygraph examination, despite having agreed to do so. Nkabinde pleaded guilty only to the second charge. He was dismissed following a disciplinary hearing in December 2019. Nkabinde then referred an unfair dismissal dispute to the bargaining council, which found in his favour and awarded him eight months' salary as compensation. The company then took the decision on review, but the Johannesburg Labour Court agreed with arbitrator’s decision. It found that Nkabinde's grievance being transformed into a disciplinary hearing against him, and the disproportionate reliance on the result of Lovett's own polygraph test results, had been unfair in the circumstances.” It also found that Nkabinde's guilty plea on the second charge of failing to attend the polygraph test would not have constituted a dismissible offence. The judge dismissed the company’s review application, saying the decision in the arbitration award had been reasonable. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Jeanette Chabalala at News24 (subscriber access only)
Samwu wants heads to roll over irregular JRA spending of more than R418m BL Premium reports that the SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) has expressed concern about the failure of the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) to act against officials implicated in a report on more than R418m in irregular spending five years ago. The audit report indicated that some procurement processes the agency relied on in awarding contracts to service providers for infrastructure projects – including the repair and rehabilitation of roads and bridges during the 2018/2019 financial year – contravened the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA). In a media briefing on Thursday, Samwu Gauteng secretary Mpho Tladinyane said that because no action had been taken against those implicated, the Cosatu affiliate had written to executive mayor Thapelo Amad and acting city manager Bryne Maduka demanding that “disciplinary action be taken against all employees identified” in the audit report. “Given the above, we will be affording the city an opportunity to investigate all these allegations. If they fail to do so they will be complicit in the fraud and corruption within the JRA, and as such, the union will be left with no option but to lay criminal charges in terms of Prevention of Organised Crime Act,” Tladinyane indicated. The JRA is an entity of the City of Johannesburg and falls under the transport portfolio now led by Patriotic Alliance councillor Kenny Kunene. He indicated on Thursday: “I’m three weeks into the job and as such I have not seen the report. They [Samwu] have not come to me to brief me on the report. Let me go and be briefed by officials on these reports and once we familiarise ourselves we will be able to answer.” Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive (subscriber access only) Other internet posting(s) in this news category
Joburg City places senior officials from Group Forensic and Investigation Services on precautionary suspension The Star reports that the City of Johannesburg has placed senior officials from the Group Forensic and Investigation Services (GFIS) department on precautionary suspension pending an investigation into allegations levelled against them. "Allegations of serious misconduct have been levelled against the officials that include, but are not limited to, circumventing council processes and thereby preventing council from exercising oversight in accord with applicable with laws and regulations," the department said on Wednesday. The city said that while it has been hard at work developing methods to decrease unlawful, irregular, pointless and wasteful expenditure, some of the claims have led to financial prejudice. "Furthermore, in light of the recent efforts put by the City in stabilising its finances, these acts of maladministration cannot be tolerated, especially within a department that is mandated to fight maladministration, fraud, and corruption with the City of Johannesburg," the department indicated. The officials have been placed on precautionary suspension because of the seriousness of the allegations and to allow due process to unfold without any hindrance. Read the original of the short report in the above regard by Chulumanco Mahamba at The Star
Admin and training support officer found guilty of defrauding Coega Development Corporation of over R6.6m News24 reports that an Eastern Cape administration officer has been convicted of defrauding the Coega Development Corporation to the tune of R6.6 million. On Wednesday, the Gqeberha Specialised Commercial Crimes Court convicted Bathandwa Matikinca, 37, of fraud and money laundering. He had been employed as an administration and learner support officer at the Coega Development Corporation, The court heard that between March 2013 and February 2021, Matikinca used the details of those who had left training programmes and substituted their banking details with his own. He received their stipends in various bank accounts. Hawks spokesperson, Captain Yolisa Mgolodela, reported: After further investigation, it was discovered that the accused also paid funds into his wife's bank account. The Hawks investigation found that the Coega Development Corporation suffered losses of more than R6.6 million. Matikinca was arrested on 26 May last year. He is expected to appear in court again for his sentencing on 9 May. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by compiled by Nicole McCain at News24
Msunduzi traffic warden nabbed for allegedly demanding cash from a motorist after accusing him of skipping a traffic light Daily News reports that a Msunduzi traffic official was scheduled to appear in court on Thursday for extortion after allegedly demanding cash from a motorist he accused of failing to stop at a traffic light. Police spokesperson Constable Thenjiswa Ngcobo said police in Pietermaritzburg were investigating a case of extortion following an incident that occurred on 28 February on Burger Street. “It is alleged that the suspect demanded cash from a motorist after accusing him of failing to stop at a robot. A 42-year-old man was arrested and he is appearing before the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, March 2,” Ngcobo indicated. The suspect, who is a serving Msunduzi traffic warden, was detained at SAPS Mountain Rise for extortion and a case docket was submitted to SAPS Pietermaritzburg for registration. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Thobeka Ngema at Daily News Other internet posting(s) in this news category
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