Cosatu has asked ANC president Jacob Zuma to add two more of its leaders to his Cabinet to strengthen the left’s influence in government.
Reports that South Africa is on the brink of a national fuel shortage are exaggerated, the petroleum industry association said on Tuesday.
A Chinese ship carrying a shipment of arms and ammunition destined for Zimbabwe was not in South African territorial waters, a Defence Ministry spokesperson said on Monday in reaction to a claim that the An Yue Jiang was ”passing through South Africa’s territorial waters” in violation of a court order.
A campaign to prevent arms currently aboard a Chinese ship from reaching Zimbabwe gained momentum on Monday with trade unions calling on their counterparts not to allow the vessel to dock at any African port. The Congress of South African Trade Unions called for an international boycott of the vessel.
Opposition to a shipment of arms being offloaded in Durban and transported to Zimbabwe increased on Thursday when South Africa’s largest transport workers’ union announced that its members would not unload the ship. A government spokesperson said the country could not stop the shipment from getting to its destination.
Transport workers in pay negotiations with South African Airways (SAA) said on Wednesday their 4 000 members would not take the decision to strike lightly. ”We are not strike hungry here. We have made the sacrifice in terms of wage freezes,” said the secretary general of the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union.