The government has shocked public service unions by declaring a dispute following two months of wage negotiations in Centurion, unions said on Friday. A Department of Public Service and Administration spokesperson said the government feels there has been no ”movement” since the start of negotiations.
Prison warders will be back at work nationwide this weekend after a last-minute resolution to the staffing crisis, the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) said on Friday. The Department of Correctional Services has agreed to increase the weekend staff component back to 46% of weekday numbers.
Millions of dollars in smuggled Central African diamonds are being routed through Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates to evade intensifying controls at the world’s main diamond market, say investigators trying to curb trade in conflict diamonds. The investigators have called for ”urgent corrective action” by the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Aids activists in South Africa hope that the inclusion of sex workers in an HIV research project will draw attention to the need for outreach programmes targeting this often marginalised group. About 600 female sex workers in and around Durban in KwaZulu-Natal are expected to participate in the study.
Telkom claimed victory on Friday in its dispute with Transtel regarding the provision of international landline telephone links and threatened to sue the Transnet division for damages. The dispute arose after Transtel filed a complaint against the former state utility at the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa.
The African National Congress has blamed its local leaders and those of the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) for the violent protests in Diepsloot earlier this week. ”They allowed the situation to get out of control,” Pule Buthelezi, the general secretary of the ANC in the greater Johannesburg region, said on Friday.
The United Nations’s top court, the International Court of Justice, ruled on Friday in The Hague that Israel’s separation barrier in the West Bank is in violation of international law and that the parts that encroach on Palestinian territory should be dismantled. The Palestinians hailed the judgement as an historic decision.
The Democratic Alliance on Friday renewed its call for South African Airways (SAA) to be privatised. ”Transnet has provided the Public Investment Corporation with a very sweet deal by issuing a secret corporate bond this week,” DA public enterprises spokesperson Ian Davidson said in a statement.
The Democratic Alliance has asked the auditor general to investigate the case of a battling self-help dairy project near Hartebeesfontein in the North West. ”The destruction of a top Holstein stud on a top milk-producing farm within two years is indicative of the status of land reform,” the DA said on Friday.
The Lesbian and Gay Equality Project and 18 other applicants on Thursday filed an application in the Johannesburg High Court challenging the laws that prevent two people of the same sex from entering into a legally recognised marriage. The Equality Project’s Wendy Isaacks said such acknowledgement is long overdue.