The next African National Congress (ANC) president should be biased towards the working class, gender sensitive and a unifier, said the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on Friday. The NUM said the government should own the mines to create employment and generate revenue towards education.
Union leaders sought to draw other sectors into their wage dispute with the government on Friday as thousands of public servants countrywide downed tools. The first day of what the unions said would be an indefinite strike passed without major incident and had a patchy effect on service delivery.
A massive stayaway by public servants will hit the country on Friday even if last-gasp efforts to settle their pay dispute with the state succeed. ”Friday’s strike is going to go ahead because all the unions have committed themselves to the action,” Congress of South African Trade Unions Western Cape secretary Tony Ehrenreich said on Thursday.
The Education Department must do something about school security, a school principal pleaded on Thursday after the ”horrific” stabbing of one of his pupils with a pair of scissors. Another three school pupils have died in violence throughout the country this week, including an eight-year-old hacked to death by two classmates.
The Labour Court in Cape Town on Thursday granted an order interdicting unions from calling on immigration officers to join Friday’s national strike. Judge Deon Nel also ruled that the statutory essential-services committee should hold a hearing not later than June 15 to decide whether the officers are essential-services workers.
Unions on Thursday rejected the minister of public service and administration’s announcement of a breakthrough in negotiations and that a 6,5% salary increase was on the table. Representatives of 16 unions that plan to strike on Friday told a press conference that there was no such offer.
One of the two units at the Koeberg nuclear power station near Cape Town was unexpectedly shut down on Thursday morning because of a technical problem, Eskom said. Eskom chief executive Jacob Maroga said there was no need for concern, as Eskom had enough reserve capacity to supply the Western Cape.
Western Cape police are still searching for the gang which gunned strip-club owner Yuri Ulianitski and his young daughter in Milnerton on Tuesday night. Ulianitski’s wife Irina survived the attack and is in a stable condition in the Milnerton Medi-Clinic.
The ”Green Scorpions” begin an inspection of Mittal Steel’s Vereeniging plant on Tuesday, the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism said. The inspection, to last several days, marks the launch of a national environmental compliance campaign in the iron, steel and ferro-alloy industry.
The multiparty committee that will decide whether Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool misled the legislature plans to hold open hearings ”as soon as possible”, its chairperson said on Monday. Provincial deputy speaker Yousuf Gabru, who is chairing the six-person committee, said the committee sees its work as ”quite important”.
International Cricket Council president Percy Sonn, who died on May 27, will be remembered as an able administrator and a firebrand who sometimes spoke his mind too freely for his own good. He was a major figure in the racial unification of South African cricket and served as president of the United Cricket Board from 2000 to 2003.
Public-sector unions on Friday warned the government of ”indefinite labour action” if their demands for better pay and working conditions were not met. The unions outlined six demands in a two-page memorandum submitted to the government in mass marches across the country.
A ”standstill” can be expected in South Africa if the government does not act on public-service workers’ demands, Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) president Willie Madisha told thousands of marchers in Cape Town. Speaking outside Parliament, Madisha called on the government to ”negotiate seriously and properly”.
News that three highly qualified medical doctors nominated for posts in two under-staffed public hospitals have been rejected by the Western Cape provincial health department — because they are white — has been slammed by Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille.
More than 10 000 public-service workers started marching in Pretoria on Friday demanding better pay and working conditions. Much of the protesters’ anger was aimed at Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi. Protesters sang songs blaming her for the breakdown in pay talks between the unions and the government.
Severe shortages of health staff in four Southern African countries is the main barrier to expanding HIV/Aids treatment, according to a Medecins sans Frontières report released on Thursday. The report, Help Wanted indicates that more than one million people need Aids treatment but are not getting it.
Failed land-reform projects threaten food security in South Africa, warns a study by the FW de Klerk Foundation, launched in Cape Town on Thursday. The document — titled Land Reform: A Contextual Analysis — says the country’s food security is already under pressure.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) expects about 20Â 000 public servants to take part in Friday’s march through central Cape Town, the first called by the federation in the city since last year’s security sector protest. That event was marred by looting, violence and damage to public and private property before it was broken up by police.
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 City of Cape Town on Wednesday unveiled a two-year plan to provide essential services to all 222 informal settlements within its boundary. The plan, which would see every household given access to water, sanitation and area lighting, would cost R63,4-million, Mayor Helen Zille told a media briefing.
The Freedom Front Plus (FF+) on Tuesday promised to fight the National Sport and Recreation Amendment Bill in every available forum, including in the International Court for Arbitration in Sport. With the acceptance of the Bill in the National Assembly last week, the government had gone too far, FF+ MP Willie Spies said.
A merger of the Eastern and Western Cape could be good news for both provinces, Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool said on Tuesday. This would resolve the issues of shrinking allocations to the Western Cape and poor delivery in its neighbour, he told the provincial legislature.
The South African Weather Service recorded 54 weather records in the icy wet and snowy weather this week. On Monday, there were 34 new temperature records and on Tuesday another 20. At least 17 people were reported dead from exposure or in fires trying to keep warm in the icy wet weather gripping the country.
Interest shown by synthetic-fuel firm Sasol in the pebble-bed modular reactor is evidence of private-sector interest in nuclear power, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin argued on Tuesday. He was speaking in his policy debate in the National Council of Provinces.
Passengers on board the train that left Johannesburg for Cape Town on Monday will want to wrap up warmly, especially those in third class. When it passes through the Karoo railway junction town of De Aar in the small hours at about 11pm, the mercury will be on its way to plummeting down to minus eight degrees Celsius.
The Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors has raised the alarm over a shortage of coloured auditors in South Africa, as currently only 38 in the country are registered to sign audit opinions, it was reported on Monday. Kariem Hoosain, Irba CEO, says that the figure is "worrying".
An enormous gulf exists between the levels of service provided by different provinces, a Democratic Alliance (DA) study has found. ”If you are poor and reliant on the state for health, education and housing, the best provinces to live in are the Western Cape, Gauteng and the North West,” DA spokesperson Willem Doman said on Monday.
The trial of two men charged with the murder in April last year of actor Brett Goldin and fashion designer Richard Bloom is scheduled to start in the Cape High Court on Monday. Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe on March 5 postponed the trial to Monday.
Predatory imported fish including trout, bass and carp are crowding out many local species in one of the few places in the world still rich in biodiversity. Introduced in the 18th century and popular with both local and foreign anglers, these fish form an integral part of a burgeoning recreational fishing industry.
Residents of the western parts of the Western and Northern Cape provinces have been warned to brace for severe weather on Saturday, Cape Town’s disaster management said. Very cold, wet and windy conditions were expected on Saturday, would spread to the entire Western and Northern Cape on Sunday and persist until Monday, said a spokesperson on Friday.
South African rugby this week found itself once again dancing to the strains of a political orchestra
A row over selection for the national training squad has overshadowed what should be South Africa’s biggest week of celebration since the Springboks won the World Cup on home soil in 1995. Durban’s Sharks and the Bulls from Pretoria contest the first all-South African Super 14 final on Saturday before a 54Â 000-strong sell-out crowd in Durban.