The illegal automatic firearms wielded by criminals in Sunday’s Jeppestown, Johannesburg, shootout have thrown a frightening spotlight on the hundreds of thousands of illegal weapons in circulation in South Africa. Although the South African Police Service has recovered more illegal firearms than those lost or stolen in the past six years, researchers believe 95% of the country’s illegal weapons remain at large.
This week the bloodstained three-month security guards’ strike was finally settled on an effective automatic pay rise of R232, or 19,89% for the lowest paid workers and annual increments for the next three years of 9,25%, 7,25% and 7,25% respectively. Nerine Kahn, director of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, walks the Mail & Guardian down the long road to mediation.
Against a tide of criticism and a government application for his incarceration, the lawyer for deported Pakistani national Khalid Rashid is persisting in his bid to have Rashid’s disappearance declared a crime against humanity in South African and international courts.
The third round of talks to break the 12-week security strike logjam are under way after third parties, including Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille, managed to coax negotiators back to the table.At the same time, the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union gave some indication of the costs of strike action for labour.
As more security-guard-strike-related train violence flared in different provinces, black security employers agreed to sit down for talks with the unions over the weekend. Black employers also plan to meet the South African National Security Employers’ Association on Friday to convince it to join the negotiations on Saturday and Sunday under the auspices of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration.
Questions over possible conflicts of interest involving acting members of the judiciary have been raised by the disclosure this week that advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza has not declared his business involvement since assuming the position of acting judge. In 1999, Ntsebeza was appointed to the board of Barlow World and is currently a non-executive director of the company.
Two striking security guards have been arrested for setting fire to a warehouse at a Mondi paper mill, causing millions of rands in damage — this against a backdrop of intensifying industrial action and solidarity strikes. Business Unity South Africa has urged the warring parties to break the two-month-long strike deadlock.
Metrorail may call in the defence force to combat almost daily deaths on trains in the safety vacuum left by the security guards’ strike. ”We are concerned that almost every day people die or are injured on the trains, because it’s not normal for Metrorail,” said Metrorail spokesperson Thandi Mlangeni.
While an interest in alternative energy and green politics is often seen as the preserve of the chattering classes, working-class people in Jo’burg’s inner city are already using renewable energy in their homes. On a pavement in Joubert Park in Jo’burg, shoppers cluster around Tumelo Ramolefi’s stall exclaiming and asking questions about his products.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions has welcomed, as a turning point, Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana’s about-face on the security guard strike, in which he lambasted the ”arrogance” of security employers and said their agreement with 14 minority unions was ”not worth the paper it was written on”.