The South African Trade and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) will launch another national strike next week after a wage dispute involving the contract cleaning sector, the union said on Wednesday. The union is demanding that workers be given a 12% increment, and 15 % for those working in rural areas, said spokesperson Dolly Mlotshwa.
The Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa) decided on Wednesday that the October deadline for the launch of a new ”super federation” was unattainable. Fedusa deputy president Koos Bezuidenhout said a meeting had nevertheless decided to continue talks about uniting Fedusa, the National Council of Trade Unions and the Confederation of South African Workers’ Unions.
The body of a child and a skeleton were discovered together outside Modimolle, Limpopo police said on Wednesday. Superintendent Malesela Ledwaba said the discovery was made about 4pm on Tuesday by passers-by. Ledwaba said the corpse was in an advanced state of decomposition and half naked.
South African aid organisation Gift of the Givers will probably travel to war-torn Lebanon over the weekend to deliver humanitarian aid, its chairperson said on Wednesday. Imtiaz Sooliman said the organisation has received all clearances from Syria to fly there and take the goods to Lebanon.
Former deputy president Jacob Zuma, in his capacity as deputy president of the ruling African National Congress, will be one of the guest speakers at this weekend’s celebration of the South African Communist Party’s (SACP) 85th anniversary.
Britain’s most convicted driver, described by his lawyer as a ”likeable idiot”, was sent to prison on Wednesday for five months for flouting his 48th driving ban. Bouncer Jamie Manderson (33) from Swindon, south-west England, has nearly 200 previous convictions, mostly for motoring misdemeanours.
Minister of Public Service and Administration Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi should release transcripts of the African Peer Review Mechanism meetings to reveal how the report was edited, said the independent Public Service Accountability Monitor on Wednesday.
The African National Congress was accused on Wednesday of reintroducing racial categorisation, thereby polarising South African society. The National Democratic Convention (Nadeco) criticised the ruling party for not regarding coloured people as African. ”This … is nothing less than racialism,” the party said in a statement.
South African Minister of Minerals and Energy Buyelwa Sonjica said on Wednesday that the findings made by a Thabazimbi magistrate regarding the mine accident that occurred at the Northam Platinum mine on September 20 2004 sent a clear message that unsafe or unhealthy mine practices will not be tolerated.
South African police and wildlife officials are hunting for at least two crocodiles south of Johannesburg after several sightings. Wild crocodiles are not found naturally in the region, leading to speculation that the reptiles have escaped from farms or zoos.