Risk-management group TransUnion on Wednesday announced that it has completed two separate black economic empowerment (BEE) transactions, with a market value of more than R80-million, in the local credit-data sector. The deals involved the Cida Empowerment Fund and Safika Investments.
Close to 3 000 members of Solidarity and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa are on an indefinite strike at steel producer Highveld Steel’s Witbank plant. Solidarity spokesperson Jaco Kleynhans said the unions are standing firm on their wage demand of an 8% increase.
Trade union Solidarity on Wednesday expressed its misgivings about the course of the Department of Labour investigation into the cause of the Sasol Unit 24 explosion last September. Solidarity said in a statement that it is also concerned "that lego-technical procedures may affect the legitimate outcome of the investigation".
The South African Local Government Association (Salga) on Tuesday said it was dismayed to find out in the media that municipal workers will embark on another three-day strike next week. A South African Municipal Workers’ Union spokesperson said the union will give formal notice for the strike before the end of the week.
The Nation Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) and Solidarity on Monday said they are still consulting their members on whether to accept the new wage offer from electricity utility Eskom. Numsa spokesperson Dumisa Ntuli said that Eskom has increased its wage offer from 5,5% to 6,5%.
Business and labour have expressed satisfaction that they will be able to "influence" the final draft of the empowerment codes of good practice that measure the implementation of black economic empowerment (BEE), BuaNews reported on Wednesday. The codes of good practice were released last month.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on Wednesday stated that after reaching an agreement on benefits and conditions of employment with platinum producer Angloplat, it is confident that a settlement on wages will be reached. The NUM cut its wage demand from 15% to 8% while Angloplat had increased its initial offer of 2,5% to the level of CPIX inflation, currently running at around 4%.
The Johannesburg municipality says that essential services won’t be affected by Tuesday’s strike as it is putting contingency plans in place to minimise disruptions. South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) spokesperson Chichi Selepe has warned that essential services will be affected by the protest.
General Motors (GM) South Africa will not be affected by job cuts intended for the corporation’s United States operations, GM US spokesperson Toni Simonitte said on Wednesday. Simonitte said the group’s chairperson and CEO, Rick Wagoner, has stated categorically that other regions, including South Africa, are performing quite well.
Black-owned agricultural services company Umlimi Services on Tuesday announced in a statement that it has launched as an empowered service provider to the agricultural sector. Umlimi will act as a service agent to farmers and manage the substantial chain of costs that occur beyond the farm gate.