In our roundup of weekend news, see
summaries of our selection of South African
labour-related stories that appeared since
Friday, 23 June 2023.
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Illegal mining in SA is a thriving business that ‘needs hard-handed military intervention’ The Citizen reports that the deaths of 31 allegedly illegal miners at a mine in Welkom has put the spotlight firmly on the need to find the kingpins and control the trade. The miners, believed to be Basothos, were found dead in a ventilation shaft at Virginia mine in Welkom, Free State. The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) said the miners died in a mine ventilation shaft which was last operational in the ’90s. Other illegal miners retrieved three of the bodies and brought them to the surface. Because of high methane levels, it is currently too risky to dispatch a search team into the shaft, however, the DMRE is considering various options to speedily deal with the situation. Action Society’s community and safety director Ian Cameron said the illegal mining issue was a problem that needed very serious and hard-handed military intervention, which should be undertaken with stakeholders such as private security. In his view, the lack of real military intelligence to determine who the kingpins were played a massive role in how the issue was presently being managed. Cameron indicated: “It is a thriving business. There are some shafts where more than 1,000 miners are working on it. So the arrest of 20 or 30 illegal miners means nothing and in terms of organised crime, the way these illegal miners use illegal or illicit firearms is of serious concern.” In respect of border management, Cameron said a far more heavy-handed approach was needed. Read the original of the report in the above regard by Lunga Simelane at The Citizen (subscriber access only) Methane level still too high to retrieve illegal miners’ bodies from unused mine shaft Sunday Times reports that dangerously high levels of methane in a ventilation shaft of an unused mine have prevented rescue workers from retrieving 28 of the 31 illegal miners who died in a gas explosion last month. The deaths in Virginia, Free State, were announced by the Department of Mineral Resources & Energy (DMRE) on Thursday – more than a month after the incident occurred. Sihle Maake, the spokesperson for Harmony Gold, which owns the mine, said they were working with experts under the guidance of the DMRE in "seeking a solution”. “There are holes for the gas to escape through. Once enough gas has escaped and the levels are safer we can begin to attempt retrieving the bodies. This is a gradual process, and the situation will not change overnight. We are also investigating other options and possibilities,” she advised. The shaft in which the miners died had been unused since the 1990s. Maake said they had alerted the DMRE about the incident more than a month ago. DMRE spokesperson Ernest Mulibana confirmed that the dead were Lesotho nationals, but said no-one had yet been identified. “The moment it is safe enough to enter the shaft, we will commence the retrieval operation,” he indicated. Mulibana refuted Maake's claims that the department had been told about the incident last month, saying it “only found out about the incident last week”. On Friday, police discovered the bodies of eight suspected illegal miners at a dumping site in Germiston on the East Rand. A police spokesperson said it was unclear whether the decomposed bodies were linked to the 31 miners who had died in the Free State. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Hendrik Hancke at Sunday Times (subscriber access only) Mantashe accuses Lesotho of economic sabotage following deaths of 31 suspected illegal miners in Free State The Citizen reports that Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) Minister Gwede Mantashe has accused the Lesotho government of “economic sabotage” following the deaths of 31 suspected illegal miners at unused mine in Welkom, in the Free State. Mantashe said on Friday that the Lesotho government was effectively condoning illegal mining in SA by its citizens by turning a blind eye to the problem. “This incident, more than any other incident, has confirmed our view that this thing of illegal miners is actually economic sabotage [and] war on our economy, and therefore those who died there are almost like soldiers dying in combat… I think it’s a dangerous issue for neighbours to do that to one another,” Mantashe told Newzroom Afrika in an interview. He called on Lesotho to work with the SA government in addressing the issue of illegal miners who crossed into SA and traded in illicit precious metals. The minister noted that the SA government was already working with Lesotho on several matters, including the Lesotho Highlands Water Project Phase 2. “Lesotho must confront [this illegal mining issue] and partner with us in mining if they want to. You can’t have Lesotho having some strange relations with illegal miners who are very active in South Africa, and I think that issue is needing attention on its own,” said Mantashe. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Thapelo Lekabe at The Citizen. Lees ook, Mantashe beskuldig Lesotho van ‘ekonomiese sabotasie’ ná myners’ sterf, by Maroela Media Other labour / community posting(s) relating to mining
Mpumalanga ambulance driver shot and hijacked, medical staff robbed in Carolina hospital IOL reports that the Mpumalanga Department of Community Safety, Security and Liaison has condemned two incidents, in one of which an ambulance was hijacked and in the other of which a hospital was vandalised and healthcare workers robbed while on duty. In the first incident, several shots were fired before criminals hijacked an ambulance at Pholansikazi community health centre on Sunday morning. “According to reports, some unknown men pointed a firearm at security personnel stationed at the entrance of Pholansikazi community health centre on Sunday morning. The men proceeded to fire three shots at the driver of the emergency medical services (EMS) before making off with an ambulance,” spokesperson for the Mpumalanga Department of Community Safety, Security and Liaison, Moeti Mmusi reported. The hijacked ambulance was recovered within two kilometres from the crime scene. The driver of the ambulance was slightly injured and received medical attention. The other incident happened last weekend at the Carolina Hospital in Mpumalanga. When one of the persons taken to the hospital for medical assistance succumbed to his injuries, his associates started vandalising the hospital. They also attacked and robbed the hospital staff on duty at the time. Mpumalanga MEC for Community Safety, Security and Liaison, Vusi Shongwe, condemned the incidents and said “the barbaric and heartlessness displayed towards healthcare workers must never be allowed to thrive”. He indicated that the provincial authorities would continue with ongoing work to identify security threats at healthcare facilities. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Jonisayi Maromo at IOL Other internet posting(s) in this news category
Glencore denies poaching Pilog’s employees and successfully fends off restraint of trade challenge BL Premium reports that Pilog, a global data management group, has accused Glencore of poaching its senior employees to replicate its business model and steal its intellectual property. Pilog, which lists companies such as Harmony, Impala Platinum, BHP Billiton, Vedanta and Xtrata as clients, approached the North Gauteng High Court in a bid to bar its former employees for working for Glencore for a period of a year, saying their continued employment with the Swiss commodities giant exposed it trade secrets. The company had a consultancy services agreement with Glencore to perform specialised data cleansing and data standardisation processes for the mining house. The contract has since lapsed. Glencore embarked on a process to hire more employees due to the business decision to expand its own internal cataloguing department. This saw it hire former Pilog employees Joao Filipe Dos Reis, Karl van Wyngaard and Tshimbalanga Mpindu. Another former Pilog employee, Marius Rautenbach, works for a company doing work for Glencore. Pilog argued in its court papers that Glencore intentionally planned to poach its ex-employees for the purposes of developing its business system. Glencore denied the allegation and said Pilog’s ex-employees were recruited through independent and transparent processes. Glencore also said in its court papers said it had no intention of using Pilog’s software, ontology or taxonomy and had employed the ex-employees for their skill set only. It said it still outsourced the bulk data cleansing and standardisation services, now to Prospecta. Judge Harshila Kooverjie dismissed Pilog’s application and said: “Pilog, during the hearing, merely advanced an argument that the employees’ skill set and know-how are integrally linked to the employer’s proprietary interest without illustrating how such skill set is linked to Pilog’s confidential business system.” Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Kabelo Khumalo at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
Fate of community health workers uncertain amid battle over minimum wage, working conditions Fin24 reports that most community health workers (CHWs) in SA, except those in Gauteng, earn a stipend of around R4,000 per month, without benefits like pension or medical aid, and without the surety of a permanent pay cheque. They have been fighting for better working conditions for almost a decade – with their main goal being to get on the government’s payroll, in line with their colleagues in Gauteng, who are classified as level 2 public servants. At that level, an employee such as a CHW can earn between R9,000 and R10,500, and have benefits like a housing allowance, pension and medical aid. The government, though, wants to set up a "sectoral determination" for CHWs instead, whereby the basic conditions of employment for workers in the field would be standardised. In the case of CHWs, this would include a set minimum wage, possibly a travel allowance when they have to work outside of their usual communities, and suitable housing for those having to work in remote areas, on farms or at mines. Currently, CHWs are contract workers who are employed for 12 months at a time, either by provincial governments or nonprofit organisations. Their salaries have been standardised nationwide since 2018 following a bargaining council agreement. The National Minimum Wage Commission has started looking into how CHWs are employed and is currently sifting through responses from the public after the initial announcement in December that the Department of Employment and Labour (DEL) was looking into a sectoral determination for CHWs. DEL spokesperson Teboho Tejane advised that they were still reviewing the submissions and could not comment on the outcome of the investigation yet. Union bosses, though, say setting up a sectoral determination is a way for the government to wiggle out of incorporating CHWs into their formal workforce, as was agreed to in negotiations with labour organisations in 2018. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Nicole Ludolph at Fin24
Call centres proving to be crucial in absorbing SA’s jobless youth City Press reports that for some time, call and contact centres for a variety of local and international companies have been important job creators for young people in South Africa with little or no work experience. In the four years to 2022, the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector and global business services (GBS, where different companies share services to reduce costs), have created more than 81,000 jobs serving the international market, according to the Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator. The sector employs more than 270,000 people, serving markets such as the US and the UK. Just under 90% of the workers in the sector are young, and more than 63% are women, says Harambee. The GBS sector has benefited from government incentives to role players to create new jobs. These incentives include a target of 20% for inclusive employment. This means employees from diverse backgrounds are employed for greater diversity in the workplace. In 2022, 30% of all new appointments were made according to the principles of inclusive employment in that they were South Africans under the age of 34 who had been unemployed for six months or longer, came from households with an income of less than R6,000 per month and attended extremely under-resourced schools. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Riana De Lange at City Press (subscriber access only)
Jobs axed at Harrismith abattoir, the latest victim of load-shedding and municipal dysfunction Sunday Times reports that the death knell was sounded last week for a major abattoir in the Free State with the loss of 79 jobs due to the usual litany of South African woes – load-shedding, water shortages and rickety municipal services. Blokhuis Abattoir, owned by Midlands Meat, shut its doors on Friday. “The closure of the plant in Harrismith is due to economic reasons: market volatility, operational costs, load-shedding impact and local council infrastructure challenges,” its board indicated. According to the workers, the company retrenched 14 employees last year, saying the costs of bringing water to the plant and running a generator during load-shedding were unsustainable. An employee who worked at the abattoir since 2013 said: “After those retrenchments we thought [the job losses] were over. They came back at the beginning of May to tell us that the failure of the municipality to provide reliable water and the cost of running generators were giving the company big problems. A week later, the same bosses came to inform us the company would close on June 23.” Willem König of the Harrismith, Intabazwe & Tshiame Residents' Association said the loss of the business was bad news for the community. “It is a very sad day. There will be people who depend on those workers who will now have no food. In such tough economic conditions, you cannot let go of workers this way. We are a small town and we don’t have lots of employment opportunities.” Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Penwell Dlamini at Sunday Times (subscriber access only) Other internet posting(s) in this news category
Local government lacks skills of experienced civil engineers BL Premium reports that according to SA Institution of Civil Engineering (Saice) president Steven Kaplan, senior professional civil engineers in local government have progressively been replaced by young graduate technicians and technologists who are not being properly mentored to gain the experience necessary to perform the work. In his view, the lack of professional civil engineers, technologists and technicians was apparent in the lack of infrastructural development and maintenance work in municipalities, whether it be in water and sewage treatment plants, reticulation systems or roads. The lack of clean water in Hammanskraal, which led to a cholera outbreak, was just the most recent example of a lack of expertise in the proper planning, maintenance and renewal of infrastructure. Many professional civil engineers have left local government due to retirement, to join the private sector or to emigrate overseas, with frustration at the way municipal councils function and fail to properly plan and budget for infrastructure probably a contributing cause. Kaplan said there were adequate numbers of all categories of graduates being produced by SA academic institutions. There was, however, a shortage of experienced professionals. Mentoring was critical for those graduate technicians and technologists fresh out of universities working in local government, to gain the necessary experience, Kaplan noted. Tsekiso Machike, spokesperson for the minister of Co-operative Governance & Traditional Affairs, agreed that the observation of the lack of qualified civil engineers in local government was correct. A SA Local Government Association (Salga) spokesperson stressed that all three spheres of government faced skills challenges. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Linda Ensor at BusinessLive (subscriber access only). Lees ook, Kenners waarsku oor inkonk van waterstelsel, by Maroela Media
Eskom under pressure to suspend Jan Oberholzer for his role in R500m Fidelity security contract saga City Press reports that Eskom is under fresh pressure to review and terminate the recently concluded two-year contract of its former chief operations officer, Jan Oberholzer, who is facing criticism for his role in the controversial awarding of a R500 million emergency security contract to the Fidelity Services Group for three months. This comes after Eskom board members were made aware that acting CEO, Calib Cassim, may have ignored a potential conflict of interest when appointing Oberholzer as an operations director to oversee operations at Kusile and Koeberg power stations. The appointment came despite the former COO not only facing an investigation together with the recently suspended head of security, Karen Pillay, for the Fidelity contract scandal, but also because he was simply not outstanding. Oberholzer is the person who put the final signature on the Fidelity emergency award contract. The controversial appointment of Oberholzer had members of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) up in arms, with its chairperson, Mkhuleko Hlengwa, accusing the retired COO of “throwing a javelin and catching it on the other side” and another MP asking that he be removed from his position in the same way that Eskom hah placed Pillay on precautionary suspension. Cassim admitted to MPs that he had to create the operational director position for Oberholzer as it had never existed before, adding that the new position only reported to him as the acting CEO. He further admitted that he had not conducted any due diligence before finalising a contract with Oberholzer. Hlengwa told Cassim and board members that there should have been a skills transfer before Oberholzer’s retirement “so that you don’t have to create another position”. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Nkululeko Ncana at City Press. Read too, Eskom's R500m Fidelity contract modelled on deal which previously cost just R10m a month, at News24 (subscriber access only) Other internet posting(s) in this news category
Six more arrested in Mhlathuze Water Board corruption case News24 reports that six more people have been added to the corruption case involving the alleged looting of R37 million from the Mhlathuze Water Board. They made their first appearance in the Specialised Commercial Crimes court in Durban on Friday. They were arrested earlier in the day by the Hawks' National Clean Audit Task Team on allegations of fraud, money laundering, contravention of the Public Finance Management Act and defeating the ends of justice. The charges stem from an ongoing investigation into a tender that was unlawfully awarded to a law firm by the water board. Nofezile Mhlanga, who is married to prominent Durban lawyer Ralph Mhlanga, will now join her husband, who was previously charged in connection with the matter, in the dock. She has been charged with money laundering amounting to R18 million. The money was allegedly paid by the water board to her company, NCD investments, and then used to build her family mansion in northern KwaZulu-Natal. Another prominent person facing charges in relation to the case is Dr Nonhlanhla Mkhize, the director-general in the office of the KwaZulu-Natal premier. She faces charges of intimidation and defeating the ends of justice. The six accused were released on bail of varying amounts, ranging between R5,000 and R10,000. All 14 accused are expected back in court on Thursday 29 June. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Nkosikhona Duma at News24
Pretoria University vice-chancellor Tawana Kupe was found guilty of sexual harassment at Wits in 2016 News24 reports that Professor Tawana Kupe, who resigned abruptly as vice-chancellor of the University of Pretoria (UP) last week, was found guilty of sexual harassment in 2016 and issued with a final warning. At the time, Kupe was vice-principal and deputy vice-chancellor at the University of Witwatersrand (Wits). He was appointed vice-chancellor of UP in January 2019. Allegedly Kupe did not declare his disciplinary record to UP when he was interviewed for the position of vice-chancellor in 2018. UP seemingly became aware of Kupe's history at Wits when they investigated him for sexual harassment and nepotism – for which he was cleared – at UP. An independent probe into the claims was concluded earlier this year after officials received an anonymous email that made the allegation against Kupe last year. The forensic investigation cleared Kupe after seven months, but brought to light his 2016 verdict and final warning. Kupe's term at UP was due to end in January next year. According to sources with direct knowledge of the 2016 case, Kupe was found to have committed "classic sexual harassment… grooming, commenting on his victims' hair, their clothes, leaving apples on their desks, asking them out on dates". Apparently there were more than two complainants at Wits. He was never alleged to have sexually assaulted anyone. Wits inside sources said there was a general feeling that Kupe was protected by the institution. But, according to a Wits spokesperson, Kupe's employment history was shared with UP at the time of his appointment. Kupe is scheduled to leave UP at the end of July. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Marvin Charles at News24 (subscriber access only)
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