The Democratic Alliance (DA) has pledged support for a separate bargaining chamber for health workers proposed by the African National Congress (ANC) health committee. ”There is no doubt that nurses and doctors should get a pay boost above the inflation rate,” DA Gauteng health spokesperson Jack Bloom said in a statement.
Clubbing in the new South Africa is still a divided affair, reports Kwanele Sosibo
A ”facade” of unity in the tripartite alliance based solely upon the need to look united to the world is not sufficient, African National Congress secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe said on Thursday. ”No less than at any other point in our history, South Africa today needs the alliance to lead the struggle for a new and fundamentally better society,” he said.
The African National Congress (ANC) has retained a key seat in a municipal by-election in the Theewaterskloof municipal area while it lost a seat to an independent in the Western Cape’s Saldanha Bay. The independent candidate was backed by the Independent Democrats and Democratic Alliance.
The United States House of Representatives passed legislation on Tuesday to combat the criminal use of internet spyware and other scams aimed at stealing personal information from computer users. Spyware, said the Bill’s Democratic sponsor, Representative Zoe Lofgren, ”is one of the biggest threats to consumers on the internet”.
The issue surrounding salary discrepancies in the workplace needs to be taken seriously, the Commission on Gender Equality said on Wednesday. The commission was responding to reports indicating that women are still being paid lower salaries than their male colleagues. What struck a cord was a report that the media is among the defaulters.
South African money market rates are currently close to factoring in a full chance of a rate hike of 50 basis points in June. In a speech earlier in the month the central bank governor, Tito Mboweni, sounded hawkish as he highlighted risks to the inflation outlook.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu is leading a full life with prostate cancer, his office said on Tuesday. ”Archbishop Tutu has got prostate cancer but his health is being monitored by his doctors and he’s leading a full life,” said an assistant. The cancer had resurfaced some time ago after it had been remission, the assistant said.
The government is doing everything in its power to get rid of the taxi industry to pave the way for other modes of transport, the National Taxi Alliance (NTA) said on Monday. Reacting to plans for a R12-billion monorail between Johannesburg and Soweto, NTA secretary general Alpheus Mlalazi said: ”The government did not consult with the taxi industry about this.”
Transcendental meditation does not appear in any government guidelines for handling tertiary mergers, but it seems to work for University of Johannesburg vice-chancellor Ihron Rensburg.A year after taking the reins at one of South Africa’s largest universities, Rensburg appears unfazed by the complexities of an especially volatile merger.