Rallying behind former deputy president Jacob Zuma is a coalition of trade union, communist, youth and regional interests organised into the Friends of Jacob Zuma Trust. Borrowing the idea from the anti-apartheid struggle, the trust will raise funds from sympathetic business people and members. It plans a million-signature campaign as well as rallies and protests during Zuma’s October trial.
A troika of laws under government review seek to further centralise political power by strengthening the government’s hold over its lower tiers. The Intergovernmental Relations Bill, amendments to the Public Service Act and the draft Municipal Employees Bill will enable the national government to set goals from the centre, monitor administration and exercise overall supervision of provincial government and local councillors.
A bellwether report has found that the number of malnourished people in Africa has increased from 88-million in 1970 to 200-million today, 35% of the continent’s population, as a result of ill-conceived agricultural policies and trade barriers imposed by wealthy countries.
”Touchdown and toyi-toyi” — that is the mantra for the week ahead as hundreds of South African Airways pilots and thousands of gold miners prepare to meet on the ground for another wave of crippling strikes. On Thursday the South African Airways Pilots Association was locked in a meeting with SAA management and the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration in an attempt to reach an agreement on a labour dispute
Recently President Thabo Mbeki announced the appointment of a task force to push South Africa’s growth to 6%. He said he is considering importing skills, renewing focus on the labour market as a key constraint to achieving higher growth. However, it appears that the government has an inadequate grasp of exactly what skills it requires and where.
Senior Inkatha Freedom Party officials say that IFP chairperson Ziba Jiyane has fallen into a carefully laid trap by letting himself be drawn into a public slanging match with party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi. A member of the party’s national executive committee told the <i>Mail & Guardian </i> that Buthelezi’s strategy was to "send out his lieutenants", to vilify Jiyane and draw him into political mudslinging.
The Johannesburg Greater Metropolitan Council stands accused of wrecking the livelihood of the city’s 15 000 street traders in its pursuit of a "world-class city". Researcher at the Centre for Policy Studies Paul Thulare, who is studying the effects of the Jo’burg 2030 plan, said it "has undermined the city’s weakest members".
A revolutionary discussion document presented at an Inkatha Freedom Party national parliamentary caucus has called for "fundamental changes" to the party’s identity and leadership to stem voter decline and ensure the party’s survival. The document has angered party president Mangosuthu Buthelezi to such an extent that he recalled all copies after the meeting.
In a move aimed at boosting its stagnating membership, the Congress of South African Trade Unions will shortly launch a new trade union for workers in the burgeoning informal economy. The decision was taken at a national workshop in February attended by Cosatu affiliates, former members of the defunct Self-Employed Women’s Union (Sewu), Sikhula Sonke and StreetNet.
A hard-hitting study has found that trade union investment companies have a prodigious R2-billion asset base but, in general, lack a ”union agenda”. The findings were presented at a Cosatu central executive committee meeting in May and have been kept under wraps. However, a preliminary copy was leaked to the Labour Bulletin, which will print them this week.