The Cabinet has dismissed suggestions that the government is insensitive to the plight of its employees and called for “responsible leadership” during protest actions around the country, due to start on Friday.
Speaking of responsible leadership, it seems the government has seriously misjudged the mood of its employees and the extent of the chasm between the two camps — the unions are demanding a 12% increase, while the government hasn’t budged from around 6%.
With many public servants taking home less than R5 000, the government’s offer is barely keeping pace with inflation. What was it thinking?
South Africa’s targeted CPIX inflation rose to 6,3% in April, breaching the Reserve Bank’s 3%-to-6% target for the first time since August 2003.
On the other hand, the unions’ demand of a 12% across-the-board increase would add R200-billion to the wage bill in the first year of implementation — more than doubling the current wage bill, according to Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi. That’s no small sum of money, yet the unions have not given any indication of compromising on their demand.
Can workers expect the government to up its offer if they aren’t willing to lower theirs? The spirit of negotiation demands thus, and only if both parties agree to soften their stance will an agreement be reached. Until then, schools will empty, hospitals will be understaffed and police operations will suffer.
| FULL SPEED AHEAD |
NOT SO FAST |
Beeld
Hats off to Afrikaans daily Beeld for its sterling coverage of the botched traffic information system. The transport minister tried to interdict the paper from reporting on security problems with the system. The judge dismissed the case with costs. Beeld‘s revelations about the warning lights ignored by the Transport Department have made for frightening reading. |
 Jeff Radebe
Already looking rather foolish for not acting on a damning report by the Auditor General predicting failure of the new electronic national traffic information system (claiming it was never received), the Transport Minister and his department this week tried to prevent Beeld from publishing further revelations about security risks in the system. The court did not agree to this, leaving Radebe with even more egg on his face. |
Most-read stories
May 24 to 30
1. Tell-all sex blog targets SA celebrities
A new blog that purports to be written by a former male prostitute in South Africa has become the focus of a criminal investigation into claims of defamation.
2. The new tyranny
Atheism sells. Richard Dawkins has been in the bestseller lists on both sides of the Atlantic since The God Delusion came out last autumn following Daniel Dennett’s success with Breaking the Spell. Sam Harris, a previously unknown neuroscience graduate, has now clocked up two bestsellers, The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation.
3. The great Zuma funding mystery
African National Congress (ANC) deputy president Zuma has said through his lawyer that he is aware of a mysterious report seeking to discredit him, and he hopes law-enforcement agencies will take appropriate action.
4. Judge defends Tokyo’s R6,9m ‘gift’
Vuka Tshabalala, the judge president of the KwaZulu-Natal high court received millions of rands worth of shares in the Batho Bonke consortium from businessperson and presidential hopeful Tokyo Sexwale.
5. Mugabe ready to seize foreign firms
President Robert Mugabe’s government is preparing to seize majority shares in all of Zimbabwe’s foreign-owned businesses and mines, a move that economists warn would be as damaging as the widespread land seizures in the country.
6. Five Britons abducted in Iraq
Gunmen in police uniforms kidnapped five Britons from a government building in Baghdad on Tuesday and the deaths of 10 U.S. soldiers were announced, making May the deadliest month this year for the U.S. military.
7. Judge questions Zuma blocking bid
A Durban High Court judge on Tuesday queried Jacob Zuma’s defence team over its efforts to stop the retrieval of documents from Mauritius that might relate to arms-deal corruption.
8. London squatter becomes millionaire landowner
A homeless pensioner who has slept rough in one of London’s plushest beauty spots since 1986 was celebrating on Thursday after winning ownership of his plot of land, turning him into an instant millionaire.
9. A media Frankenstein
Recently something truly amazing happened. Paris Hilton, the United States’s first name in famous-for-being-famous, got her come-uppance: the heiress was sentenced to 45 days in jail for driving without a licence and thus violating the terms of her probation in a driving-under-the-influence incident.
10. First-class seat for doctor after mid-air birth
An Australian doctor on a trans-Pacific flight was upgraded to first class and given a bottle of vintage champagne after delivering a baby for a Brazilian who didn’t even know she was pregnant, news reports said on Sunday.