MONDAY, 10.30AM:
THE Presidential Review Commission overseeing government restructuring and service deliery reprimanded the finance department for giving a ”shoddy and flimsy” presentation at a public hearing on Saturday.
Commission chairman Vincent Maphai said that he hoped other departments still to make their presentations to the commission will be better prepared than the finance department, as the commission has a vital role to play in overhauling the public service.
Finance Director-General Maria Ramos, who was abroad at the weekend, will be asked on her return to ”present a thorough submission on the transformation progress in her department”.
”The commission also requires written answers to questions on the repective roles of the departments of finance and state expenditure, the implications of three-year rolling budgets, intergovernmental relations and finance’s transformation programme.”
Housing is another department believed to have disappointed the commission with its submission. The commission said it was left with the sense that departments like finance and housing ”are without any transformation poilicy or that serious transformation is not taking place”.
BUSINESS BRIEFS
MUGABE IN SA ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe paid a rare visit to South Africa on Friday to attend the gala launch of a Zimbabwean investment fund. Mugabe and President Nelson Mandela will jointly launch the multi-million dollar Africa Resources Investment Fund, aimed at Zimbabweans working abroad. About four million Zimbabweans live and work in South Africa lawfully or illegally. The fund has attracted Zimbabwean investors in the United States, Britain and Botswana.
ONE HOUR STRIKE ON MONDAY COSATU’S ”rolling mass action” campaign against the Basic Conditions of Employment Bill begins on Monday with a one-hour work stoppage from 10 to 11am. Workers will down tools and submit their demands to the management of individual companies, but no big rallies have been planned, the union announced on Friday.
The SA Chamber of Business advised members to reach agreement with their workers on moving their lunch hour forward to minimised disruption. The principle of no-work-no-pay should also be applied, Sacob said.