Police fired rubber bullets at protesting guards after they apparently set alight a security van in Pretoria on Thursday afternoon. Guards made their way to Church Square, trashing rubbish bins and causing havoc in the city centre. Shops were also set alight. The violence came on the first day of a security-guard strike in seven provinces.
Security-guard employers were reporting little absenteeism in Johannesburg and the East and West Rand on Thursday, the first day of a two-day security-industry strike in six provinces. In the Cape and Pretoria, however, some companies experienced 80% absenteeism, and cases of intimidation were reported.
An estimated 90 000 security guards from 13 unions will strike for two days from Thursday, South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) security industry coordinator Jackson Simon said on Thursday. The figure is down from the 150 000 mooted on Wednesday.
Thirteen security guard unions will embark on a two-day strike in six provinces on Thursday and Friday, in support of higher wages and better working conditions — including the right to lunch breaks and using a toilet without being charged for deserting a position of duty.
”Theft” of water by South African farmers upstream the Nkomati River has prompted a complaint from downstream Mozambique, after the river’s flow dropped to a trickle last year. The department of water affairs’ executive manager for institutional oversight, Silas Mbedzi, said the Mozambicans had been very upset when the river ”almost stopped” flowing across the international border.
Sasol Mining’s black economic empowerment (BEE) ownership component will reach about 20% by 2009 and full compliance with the Mining Charter by 2014, the company said on Thursday. The wholly-owned coal-mining business of Sasol Limited said the first phase of its empowerment strategy entailed the formation of Igoda Coal.
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South Africa has taken a giant step towards the goal of gender equality and the emancipation of women in the recent municipal election, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday. The election results show the success the African National Congress has achieved to increase the numbers of women in the municipal system, he said.
An increase in minimum wages for farm workers — introduced on March 1 — is not the main reason for dismissals in the agricultural sector in Mpumalanga. This is according to Glen Cormark of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), who also noted that there were 600 cases of unfair dismissal in the sector since last April.
Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana on Saturday said he was pleased that farmers were agreeing with minimum wage legislation. He was speaking at the signing of a memorandum of understanding between organised labour, organised business and the Mpumalanga provincial government on bettering labour relations on and union access to farms.
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The African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) has called for a multi-party governance system in the Western Cape after Wednesday’s local government elections. The party’s leadership made the call on Friday after no single party won an absolute majority in Cape Town, paving the way for political parties to form coalitions.
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Provisional results show a 46,72% poll with just more than 14-million votes cast from a pool of 21Â 054Â 957 registered voters. The African National Congress had swept the board in the Northern Cape by 9.45am on Thursday, and the DA’s worst fear seemed to have come true in the Western Cape.
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South Africa’s third local government election since the advent of democracy in 1994 took place in a low key and peaceful manner on Wednesday. ”The voting process has proceeded smoothly throughout the country,” the Independent Electoral Commission said in a brief statement.
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Voting got off to a good start despite a few problems, including flooding, at some voting stations, the Independent Electoral Commission said on Wednesday. By 9am, 99% of voting stations were open. Police used rubber bullets to disperse youths in Khutsong and extinguished burning tyres with a water cannon.
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Khutsong community stalwart Jomo Mogale on Wednesday called for a by-election in the troubled township where residents are boycotting the local government poll. He said the few voters who had trickled in to cast their ballots were mainly candidate councillors themselves.
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/ 28 February 2006
The Pretoria High Court on Tuesday dismissed urgent applications by four municipalities to stop the transfer of their assets and services to other provinces. The Merafong Demarcation Forum applied to restrain government from handing over at midnight on Tuesday their assets and service duties from Gauteng to the North West province.
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/ 28 February 2006
Heavy rains in Thabazimbi, Limpopo, have caused several houses and shops in the town to be flooded, resulting in thousands of rands in damages, a municipal spokesperson said on Tuesday. Segale Pilane said a municipal task team was on its way to the affected areas to assess the extent of the damage.
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/ 27 February 2006
Heavy rains accompanied by misty conditions in Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni resulted in more than 80 accidents on Monday, according to metro police and emergency services. Meanwhile in areas of Mpumalanga, disaster-management teams have been dispatched to minimise the effects of possible flooding.
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/ 24 February 2006
The African National Congress has cautioned against ”alarmist responses” to the electricity outages that have affected especially the Western Cape over the past couple of days. In a statement on Friday, the ruling party criticised ”some parties” that ”seek to gain political mileage from these technical problems”.
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/ 22 February 2006
The current Transnet workers’ strike will continue if management refuse to engage unions constructively, the United Association of South Africa (Uasa) said on Wednesday. ”We are receiving conflicting messages from the trade and industry minister [Alec Erwin],” said Uasa official Leon Grobler.
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/ 22 February 2006
Power utility Eskom on Tuesday backed away from assurances given the day before that power supply to the Western Cape would be fully restored by mid-week. The assurance was given by Eskom chief executive Thulani Gcabashe during a meeting with the Minerals and Energy as well as Public Enterprises departments to discuss the recent power outages.
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/ 21 February 2006
The current strike by Transnet workers was misguided and had no clear objectives, Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin said on Tuesday. He said there had been ”more than enough opportunity” for consultation on the structure of Transnet.
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/ 21 February 2006
Metrorail on Tuesday again appealed to train commuters in Gauteng to use alternative transport as the strike by Transnet employees entered its second day. Spokesperson Brenda Motau said a partial service would again be offered during the morning peak, supplemented by buses where possible.
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/ 20 February 2006
Transnet’s strike badly affected Metrorail in Gauteng but left the company’s other operations in the country unaffected, the firm said on Monday. Metrorail, one of Transnet’s divisions, was, ”as expected”, affected by the first of day of strike, which left only a handful of trains operating in central Gauteng during peak hour on Monday.
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/ 20 February 2006
The blame for power cuts that hit large parts of the country over the weekend and continue in the Western Cape lies squarely with Minister of Minerals and Energy Lindiwe Hendricks and the African National Congress, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday. The Western Cape, including Cape Town, was without power for most of Sunday.
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/ 20 February 2006
The Transnet strike has severely affected Metrorail in the West Rand — most seriously in Soweto — an official said on Monday. ”We are not able to run a service, even with our contingency plan on the Soweto line,” said Thandi Mlangeni, Metrorail’s spokesperson.
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/ 19 February 2006
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Municipal councillors are the servants of the people and not the bosses of the communities, Inkatha Freedom Party president Mangosuthu Buthelezi told party supporters in Piet Retief, Mpumalanga, on Saturday. Buthelezi was speaking during the IFP’s local government election campaign in the province.
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/ 15 February 2006
A Transnet strike in the Western Cape and Northern Cape kicked off on Wednesday with rail services in the Cape Town area severely affected. The South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union said more than 5 000 employees downed tools to protest ”management’s unilateral decisions about restructuring the company”.
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/ 10 February 2006
The police’s water wing and the Ekurhuleni emergency services had to evacuate Atlasville residents from homes flooded in a heavy downpour on Friday. Police said several blocks of the Boksburg suburb were flooded by a cloudburst. The storm, accompanied by hail, delayed outgoing flights at Johannesburg International airport.
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/ 8 February 2006
South African President Thabo Mbeki has himself been frank about the failure of his ruling-party-controlled municipalities to deliver services, Cape Town’s Democratic Alliance mayoral candidate Helen Zille said in Parliament on Wednesday as opposition parties commented on Mbeki’s State of the Nation address last week.
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/ 7 February 2006
South African farmers called for compromise on Tuesday after the lands commissioner said that large-scale expropriation of farms would start next month. ”It is in everyone’s interest that land claims be completed as soon as possible but it needs to take place in a fair manner,” said Annelize Crosby, land affairs adviser at Agri South Africa.
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/ 7 February 2006
South Africa will from next month start large-scale expropriations of land from white farmers after years of compensation negotiations proved unsuccessful, a top official said on Monday. South Africa’s chief land-claims commissioner said the willing-buyer, willing-seller model will no longer apply to land-restitution claims.
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/ 6 February 2006
Host nation South Africa is to refurbish five existing stadiums and build five new venues for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, in terms of an agreement with international football association Fifa. Five new stadiums will be built, including ones in KwaZulu-Natal’s eThekweni metro and in Cape Town.