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/ 6 September 2004
Employers can no longer retrench workers to make way for better-skilled employees without making adequate training opportunities available, the Food and Allied Workers Union (Fawu) said on Monday. On Friday, a judge found that South African Breweries (SAB) had wrongly dismissed 115 Fawu members in 2001.
A basic income grant is affordable, sustainable and desirable, a coalition arguing for the adoption of such a scheme said on Thursday. The coalition told journalists at a press briefing at the Turffontein racecourse that giving every South African a basic income of R120 a month would cost between R10- and R24-billion a year.
The Constitutional Court on Wednesday dismissed an appeal by 69 South Africans held in Harare against a judgement by the Pretoria High Court in June that the government be compelled to assist them. The men are being held on charges of plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea.
If government was allowed to procrastinate in assisting 69 alleged mercenaries in Zimbabwe they could be dead and buried by the time help arrived, the Constitutional Court was told on Monday. Advocate Wim Trengove, acting on behalf of the Society for the Abolition of the Death Penalty, told the court that the South African government had a duty to protect the lives of its citizens abroad.
Equatorial Guinea is preparing an extradition request for 69 alleged mercenaries to be sent to that country for trial, the Constitutional Court in South Africa was told on Monday. The court was hearing arguments why it should intervene in the trial of the group, which is facing various charges. They are currently being held in a prison in Zimbabwe.
A lawyer acting for self-proclaimed victims of apartheid abuses will file papers with a United States court on Tuesday to dismiss a motion before it to throw out their case against a list of multinational companies. US attorney Michael Hausfeld is representing about 32 000 South Africans affiliated to an apartheid debt and reparations campaign.
Defence analysts in Pretoria and London were scratching their heads at a reported decision by Zimbabwe to buy 12 Chinese FC1 fighter jets, an aircraft still under development. Opposition Movement for Democratic Change MP Giles Mutsekwa said at the weekend that the Zimbabwe Defence Force (ZDF) had secretly ordered 12 of the fighters and about 100 military vehicles at a cost estimated at US-million.
The reorganisation of the state-owned Denel arms group has been delayed by an anti-corruption drive led by chief executive Victor Moche, defence industry sources say. The group, with effect from April 1, reorganised into two broad divisions, called Denel Land Systems and Denel Aerospace.
The Competition Tribunal has unconditionally approved the merger of LNM Holdings NV and Iscor Limited, the regulator said in a statement on Tuesday. ”Reasons for the decision will be released in due course,” the Tribunal said. LNM Holdings, the world’s second largest steelmaker, intends to increase its shareholding in Iscor to more than 50%, which will give it a controlling interest.
Major General Derrick Mgwebi last week became the first South African to head a United Nations peacekeeping mission when he assumed the command of the UN Operation in Burundi. Mgwebi last Tuesday donned a UN blue beret at a ceremony in Bujumbura to mark the end of the African Union mission in Burundi.