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Thursday 02 July 2009
Contents
1 Workplace. 1
1 POPCRU; 2 SADTU; 3 Docs; 4 NUM; 5 CWU.. 1
1.1 Pregnant women hurt as cops fire on strikers. 1
1.2 Teachers give state chance to fix wages. 2
1.3 Strike to continue if KZN doctors not reinstated. 3
1.4 Pay strike looms at 2010 stadiums. 4
1.5 SABC stance 'wont work' 4
2 South Africa. 5
1 COSATU; 2 DENOSA; 3 COSATU; 4 CEPPWAWU; 5 FAWU; 6 ANCYL; 7 SA Government; 8 ANCYL; 9 SABC interim Board. 5
1.1 We'll continue to expose DA's racist practices - COSATU NW.. 5
1.2 Two out of every three nurses may quit. 6
1.3 Moeletsi Mbeki's comments slanderous - Zwelinzima Vavi 7
1.4 Fuel price summit soon. 13
2.5 Food price hikes increase suspicion of collusion. 13
2.6 'Nationalise mines' - Malema calls for control 15
2.7 Premier warns officials on laziness and idling. 15
2.8 Malema opens political school 16
2.9 ANC names five for SABC interim board. 17
3 International 19
1 COSATU.. 19
3.1 Cosatu slams trade agreement breakaways. 19
1 Workplace
1 POPCRU; 2 SADTU; 3 Docs; 4 NUM; 5 CWU
1.1 Pregnant women hurt as cops fire on strikers
Mawande Jack LABOUR CORRESPONDENT - 2009/07/02
AN ongoing strike by Tenneco workers in Struandale turned ugly yesterday when police clashed with the group and fired rubber bullets, injuring dozens of the strikers who included pregnant women.
The workers, who are members of the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), have been on strike for two weeks over what the union says are the "racist attitudes" of management towards the workers.
Workers have refused to work, demanding that the company should implement the Employment Equity Act, ensuring blacks and women are also part of senior management, the union said.
Two Numsa shop stewards who were picketing have been arrested and taken to the Algoa police station while special transport was organised to rush those injured to Livingstone and Mercantile hospitals.
Police spokesman Captain André Beetge confirmed that there were clashes between police, who were called by the company to protect non-striking temporary workers, and workers who are on strike.
He said the shooting incident took place at about 6.30pm after the group, which had been ordered by the police not to toyi-toyi on the road and interrupt the flow of traffic, did not heed the instruction.
"They disobeyed the picketing rules. Police arrested two of them who were charged with public violence and intimidation. This angered the group who began to throw stones at the police," Beetge said.
Police used two stun grenades to disperse the angry crowd and then fired rubber bullets after they refused to disperse. Beetge said he had not been informed of any injuries.
Numsa regional secretary Zanoxolo Wayile called the shooting "apartheid-style barbarism".
http://www.weekendpost.co.za/article.aspx?id=440560
1.2 Teachers give state chance to fix wages
Sapa and Harriet Mclea - Jul 02, 2009
TEACHERS' unions yesterday said they would give wage negotiations a chance before embarking on a strike, as the deadline for agreement on occupation-specific dispensations approaches.
Teachers frustrated by wage talks
At a press briefing in Boksburg, east of Johannesburg, yesterday, the SA Democratic Teachers' Union said, however, that a strike, intended to force the state to take the talks seriously, could not be ruled out.
"We have given the employer [government] some time to fix the mandate. A strike is the last option - but that option remains open," the unions' acting general secretary, Mugwena Maluleke, said.
"We are not going to go on strike [today] . We would like a solution," he added.
The union tabled new demands on Friday that reduced its initial demand for a pay package of R25-billion to R8-billion.
Entry-level salaries of R180,000 a year for newly qualified teachers and an accelerated pay progression were also part of the unions' demands.
Yesterday, state officials tabled an unchanged offer of about R1.5-billion .
SADTU media officer Nomusa Cembi said: "We committed ourselves to negotiations and will consult our members as negotiations continue. "
1.3 Strike to continue if KZN doctors not reinstated
BONGANI MTHEMBU | DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA - Jul 02 2009 07:21
KwaZulu-Natal doctors on Wednesday vowed to continue with their strike if government did not reinstate more than 200 fired doctors.
"We will continue with the strike even if government gives us a good offer, to show solidarity to our colleagues who have been fired," said Dr Shailendra Sham during a press briefing in Durban on Wednesday.
On Monday 244 doctors were served with dismissal letters by the KwaZulu-Natal health department. They were dismissed after they defied a Durban Labour Court interim interdict compelling health care professionals to return to their posts.
Provincial health minister Sibongiseni Dhlomo said his department would get doctors from other countries to fill up vacant posts. He said fired doctors would be allowed to reapply.
Addressing the media on Wednesday, Sham said striking doctors would not go back to work if fired doctors were not reinstated.
The government signed a revised pay offer for public sector doctors on Tuesday in the hope of ending weeks of picketing and strikes that saw many hospitals turning away patients.
Reading a prepared statement, Sham said that among doctors fired were three heads of department at the KwaZulu-Natal's Nelson Mandela School of Medicine, specialists, principal medical officers, registrars in specialist training and interns.
The department on Wednesday said a majority of doctors who previously participated in a strike were back at work. It called on doctors who had legitimate claims to prove that they had been working and had been erroneously put on the absentee lists and thus received letters of dismissal to come forward.
The department said most of eThekwini's hardest hit hospitals, were returning to normality. Attendance was between 60% and 85% on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Sham said the Nelson Mandela School of Medicine's medical faculty had expressed its full support for the mass action, saying that heads of department had resolved to stop working until fired doctors were reinstated.
"Medical school teaching has been put on hold in the absence of these clinical heads. The medical students have been angered by the dismissal of their colleagues and have also expressed their support," he said.
He dismissed reports that there was a political motive and third force behind the strike.
"It is also not true that non-striking doctors have been intimidated. It has always been clear that the decision to engage in mass action is left to the individuals. The decision will always be respected."
Doctors went on strike last week to protest against poor pay and working conditions. The striking doctors have set up an SMS line to raise funds to cover their legal costs. - Sapa
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-07-02-strike-to-continue-if-kzn-doct...
1.4 Pay strike looms at 2010 stadiums
By Bonile Ngqiyaza and Sapa - 2 July 2009, 07:22
Construction workers at World Cup stadiums, including Soccer City in Johannesburg, are planning to down tools next Wednesday because wage negotiations have failed.
National Union of Mineworkers spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka said on Wednesday the construction workers were in a dispute with the employer body, represented by the South African Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors (Safcec).
Seshoka said the employees had lowered their pay increase demand from 15 percent to 13 percent for a one-year wage agreement, while Safcec had increased its offer to 10 percent.
http://www.thestar.co.za/?fSectionId=&fArticleId=vn20090702053408467C...
1.5 SABC stance 'wont work'
1 July 2009, 17:54
The SABC's "no work, no pay" principle was not a threat, the Communication Workers' Union (CWU) said on Wednesday after employees won the right to strike.
CWU's general secretary Gallant Roberts said they had been aware of the SABC stance for a while.
"We are aware of the principle, but it is not going to stop us. A draft memorandum of our action programme from Friday will be distributed to our members in the SABC by late on Wednesday," he said.
"The draft includes details of how we are going to move forward from Friday in terms of go-slow, stay-away and marches that are going to be carried out throughout the country," Roberts said.
Roberts was responding to the broadcaster's response when earlier the Johannesburg Labour Court dismissed a bid by the SABC to stop its workers from striking.
SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago said the anticipated strike by members of the CWU and the Media Workers' Association of SA would not affect the broadcaster's operations.
"They have the right to go on strike, but they must give the necessary notice [to conduct the strike] and we will kick in our plans. They must also know that the principle of no work, no pay will apply," he said.
"Whether there is a strike or not, we would like to assure the public that operations will continue."
Kganyago refused to disclose what plans the broadcaster had in place, saying it did not want anyone planning against them.
Wednesday's court decision followed an application by the SABC to have the strike certificate, issued to the unions by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) two weeks ago, reviewed.
The application led to the unions abandoning the use of the CCMA certificate until the Labour Court had made a decision.
The unions went to the CCMA when the SABC revised a 12,2 percent multi-term pay offer it was supposed to have implemented in April, to 8,5 percent. - Sapa
http://www.thestar.co.za/?fSectionId=&fArticleId=nw20090701161922704C...
2 South Africa
1 COSATU; 2 DENOSA; 3 COSATU; 4 CEPPWAWU; 5 FAWU; 6 ANCYL; 7 SA Government; 8 ANCYL; 9 SABC interim Board
1.1 We'll continue to expose DA's racist practices - COSATU NW
COSATU - 01 July 2009
Response by Solly Phetoe to an attack by DA MPL Chris Hatting in the North West legislature
COSATU North West press statement on DA attack on COSATU
The Congress of South African Trade Unions in the North West Province condemns the personal attack by DA spokesperson, Mr. Hatting, on the COSATU North West Provincial Secretary [Solly Phetoe] and farm workers, during the debate in the legislature on 30th June 2009. We are not members of the legislature, so it is not procedural for the DA spokesperson to attack the COSATU leadership during the debate on the killing of farm workers in the legislature when he knows that we will not be able to respond. We are an independent trade union federation; we don't need permission from an apartheid party or from Hatting, whom we know now after his racist attack to COSATU on the issue of killing farm workers in the province. We do not expect DA or Hatting to be different for its leader, Helen Zille, who is based in the Western Cape Province. We do not need scientific doctors or investigations. These killings, assaults and abuse of farm workers in the province are let by racist farmers. Hatting's personal attack on the COSATU Provincial Secretary during the debate in the legislature will not stop us exposing the DA's racist practices including those by its spokesperson, Mr. Hatting.
We are happy to report to the people of this province that at least now we know who are the senior racist leading the perpetrators of the abuse, assaults and killings of farm workers. We know who has been leading the threats against the COSATU Provincial Secretary and his family since the racial killing of members of the Skierlik communities by Johan Nel who is in jail serving his life sentence.
We know that this is a clear response from those who supported Johan Nel during his trial, following the shooting attack on 14th January 2008.
Mr. Hatting must respond to the racist killing of farm workers carried out by white farmers and bring some solution to these animals, who are led by him, who is opposed to democracy, revolution and human rights.
Racist leaders like Mr. Hatting and Helen Zille must know that they are wasting their time. Their apartheid regime will not be back. COSATU and its alliance will continue to be strong for the next 100 years to make sure the ANC leads this country. The apartheid political party will not lead this country anymore; they will continue to be the opposition in those small numbers as they are.
Statement issued by COSATU NW Provincial Secretary, Solly Phetoe, July 1 2009
http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page7165...
1.2 Two out of every three nurses may quit
2009/07/02
ONLY a third of South African nurses think they will still be in the profession in five years' time, a survey has found.
Nurses have a different outlook in other parts of the world, the Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA (Denosa) said on Wednesday.
Denosa general secretary Thembeka Gwagwa said the survey asked more than 2000 nurses around the world, including 200 in South Africa, about the problems and opportunities facing nurses.
"Despite advances made so far in our democracy, significant challenges for South Africa's nurses remain at cross-roads with regards to adequate and equitable distribution of healthcare infrastructure and health human resources," Gwagwa said.
"In a country like South Africa, with staggering disease rates and high patient to nurse ratios, it comes down to fight or flight.
"Do we allow the continued flight of nurses out of South Africa, or do we fight as a nation to address nurses' concerns and protect the healthcare system so we can provide quality care to our patients," she asked.
According to the survey, on which the International Council of Nurses and Pfizer collaborated, more than half of nurses (53percent) in South Africa said their workload was worse today when compared to five years ago.
Nurses in South Africa indicated that the least favourable aspects of their profession were overwhelming workloads (32 percent), insufficient pay and benefits (22 percent), lack of recognition (11 percent), budget cuts and inadequate healthcare systems (11 percent) . - Sapa
1.3 Moeletsi Mbeki's comments slanderous - Zwelinzima Vavi
01 July 2009 - COSATU
The COSATU general secretary dismisses criticism of the educational attainments of the current union leadership
Zwelinzima Vavi's opening address to the COSATU Skills Conference, Johannesburg, July 1 2009
I very much appreciate the opportunity to open this historic, very important - and very necessary - skills and education conference. I would like to welcome all of you here today and congratulate the organisers of the conference.
I want to congratulate our new Minister of Higher Education and Training, our very long-standing friend and comrade - the much loved Comrade Blade Nzimande, who will be here tomorrow. I am absolutely confident that he will overcome the immense challenges he faces and preside over the transformation of our higher education system.
Over the next three days we shall be assessing government's existing education, training and skills programme and how well or badly these have served workers and the poor. We shall also critically evaluate the effectiveness of COSATU's own policies and strategies in this area, their strengths and weaknesses.
We shall also need to examine how we can develop a better, more coordinated strategy to ensure that future education policies play their full part in our overall strategies for transforming our society as a whole, in line with our 2015 Plan.
I trust that you will lay the foundations of a comprehensive response to the range of education, training and skills challenges facing the working class, which will then have to be discussed at the COSATU 10th Congress and beyond.
To understand our situation today, we have to look at the way education and training were manipulated and deformed under apartheid, in its drive to impoverish and disempower our people. The foundation of apartheid's discriminatory path was the denial of access to formal education and skills for the majority of our people. Even the four-year education colleges were largely barred to black people, which left black teachers with only the lowest paid teaching jobs.
As a result, many workers learned their skills at the workplace, informally, and without receiving any certificate. Remember the stories about 'spanner boys' or even what they used to call 'pikinini' who did all the work, but no matter how skilled they were, they were still classed as 'elementary workers' because they did not have pieces of paper to formalise their real qualifications. This meant workers could never get promoted or move to other jobs because their qualifications competencies were never recognised.
Moeletsi Mbeki should have remembered this too, before making his slanderous comments about trade unions leaders being 'ignorant' and 'uneducated'. Many of them achieved brilliant educational successes despite have been disempowered under apartheid.
Many have gone on to play pivotal roles in government and business. And contrary to what our former comrade alleged, they have been, and are still being, replaced by new generations of workers-intellectuals, whose studies began in the universities of the trade unions and the workplace.
With the transition to democracy, the unions worked with the democratic movement to try to overcome the divisions and unfairness in the education and training system, which we inherited. But we still have very far to go.
We still have huge inequalities, based now on class rather than formerly on race. Because most of the upper class is still white, however, racial differences still pervade the education system. In 2003, just over half of white learners got a matric exemption, but only a tenth of Africans. Not surprisingly, our universities are still about half white. And about three quarters of management in the private sector is still white.
In the area of skills development, the main target post-1994 was to improve access to higher and further education for black workers, so that they could achieve qualifications, improve their levels of skills and their career prospects and reverse the discrimination of the past.
The importance of skills development cannot be overestimated. Unless we reverse the racist and discriminatory education policies of the apartheid era, we will never be able to reach all the other goals we have set ourselves in the struggle for the socialist transformation of our society.
That is why the skills development system, spearheaded by the SETAs, is particularly important for the workers and labour movement. Indeed, we owe the very fact that we have such structures as SETAs to the campaigns waged by unions, especially the metalworkers, during those hard years of apartheid.
But SETAs have been around now long enough to enable us to assess their successes and failures, particularly their effect on economic growth and the levels of unemployment. While we acknowledge their many important achievements, we have to admit that they have not lived up to many of our initial expectations.
The trade union movement must share the blame for some of the failures of the SETAs, which represent the best example of COSATU's ability to bang the doors until they open, then fail to walk through the open doors. Employers too, despite largely picking up these gains, have not driven the skills revolution for the benefit of the economy as a whole.
This conference provides us the opportunity to address this weakness. Skills development to workers is one of the cornerstones of economic empowerment.
The goal when SETAs were established was to ensure that training responded to the real needs of the economy and society, rather than just becoming a paper chase to provide workers with useless and irrelevant qualifications.
Finally, we wanted to ensure that every South African can read and write. Estimates of illiteracy range widely, but probably around one in six people - mostly rural and older - are still illiterate. If people are denied access to basic literacy and numeracy, they cannot take their rightful place in society either as citizens or as workers. They will remain marginalised, at a huge personal cost to themselves and an equally great cost to society.
Comrades
Can we claim that we have succeeded in our efforts to transform the skills training system? Despite all our work and accomplishments, we have to say no; we still have very far to go.
A major concern is that the systems for recognising prior learning are still not generally in place. Consequently workers, especially black workers, still suffer from historic injustices. Where the systems do exist, they often need so much theoretical work that ordinary workers cannot afford to get the qualifications anyway.
A second concern is that most workers still do not have access to training. According to the Labour Force Survey, white men are still more likely to get training than black workers. Elementary workers have almost no access to any training. The skills levy is still low compared to more successful Asian countries, and even so much of it remains unspent. That is a major cause for concern.
There are various reasons for the problems facing the skills development system. Firstly the planning process in most companies remains firmly in the hands of management. We have not sufficiently empowered workers and shop stewards to develop demands and fight for them.
Many employers regularly, and illegally, refuse workers paid time off for training. So they are left having to take courses at weekends or in the evening, which is difficult, especially for people with families.
The SETAs are not blameless. Too often, their extensive planning requirements, even if well intentioned, have stalled progress. We must focus on getting more training to more people, and less on establishing bureaucratic systems and commissioning endless consultants' reports.
Finally, we have not linked skills development sufficiently to employment equity. Many companies have separate committees to deal with the two issues. Yet for workers one of the main aims of skills development is so that they can advance their careers and overcome the historical racial barriers imposed under apartheid.
Some unscrupulous racist employers not only fail to train black workers but then hand the top jobs to white workers, hiding behind the excuse that "black workers are unskilled and unqualified", which of course is their fault in the first place.
In response to these challenges, the government has pushed the concept of learnerships, particularly to involve unemployed people, and asked labour and business to improve their representation on SETA boards.
But those strategies fail to address the core problem - the failure to ensure that ordinary workers have a voice in defining skills needs and programmes. That is what COSATU must do much more consistently. The skills development programme after all reflects our demands; now we have to make it work.
We cannot afford just to discuss skills any longer in a strange jargon that that disempowers ordinary workers. We have to empower workers and their shop stewards to identify what they want from skills plans and negotiate and campaign for it.
Comrades
How does all this relate to the unemployment crisis? Unemployment does not arise primarily because of low skills and education. The average unemployed youth - and young people make up two thirds of the unemployed - has had 11 years of formal education, far more than in most developing countries, which nevertheless have much lower unemployment. We even have many unemployed university graduates.
To keep blaming unemployment on poor education and skills essentially is to blame the victim. It plays into the racist notion that black people are too uneducated to function in the formal economy. This is sheer nonsense.
Unemployment is so high because the economy is not creating jobs, and now that we are in a recession it is shedding jobs at an alarming rate. That in turn arises from low levels of investment and the emphasis on capital-intensive industries like metals, auto and heavy chemicals. It also results from highly concentrated ownership of industry that prevents growth in other sectors.
Unless we address these challenges, no amount of skills development will lead to job creation.
We very much appreciate the commitment of government, business and labour - in the historic Framework Agreement as South Africa's Response to the Global Economic Crisis to prioritising training and skills development. It rightly identifies improving the quality of the learnership programmes, as one of the ways to avoid retrenchment.
I particularly like its proposal for 'training layoffs', financed by the NSF and SETAs, for workers whose employers would ordinarily retrench them and which can be introduced on terms that would keep them in employment during the economic downturn but re-skill them as an investment for the future economic recovery.
This does not mean that better education and training will not create more jobs and help the economy to grow. Education and skills development will address unemployment best however by meeting the needs of the economy for practical, technical and management skills.
Comrades and friends,
Clearly it is very hard to reconstruct the education and training system after so many decades of racist oppression. And we cannot do it from above through elitist, technical processes. We have to find ways to empower shop stewards, organisers and workers to identify what skills they want and how they can best get them.
Unless we win this battle, the danger is that millions of our people may be condemned to lives of poverty and unemployment. Our people need help and training, not only through the expanded public works programme but a range of other interventions.
These may include courses on how to organise themselves into co-ops or open small business, or how can they avoid falling prey to the omashonisa, but without misleading them into believing that all trained people will become millionaire business men or women.
We must go back to the basics of the skills development system: recognition of prior learning and a huge increase in access to training for ordinary workers, including ABET. We will beat unemployment, not by using the training system to create artificial positions, but by through a vigorous development strategy supported by a much stronger education and training system.
The struggles for education and training have a rich history in South Africa. The draft discussion paper circulated to stimulate debates in this conference reminds us of the principles underlining education and training. These principles remain relevant today. Many of them have been achieved but many still have to be achieved.
Let us remind ourselves that 70% of our schools do not have libraries and 60% do not have laboratories. Let us all recall that 60% of children are pushed out of the schooling system before they reach grade 12.
This reflects a number of challenges we still face. These include the fact that the quality of teacher education and professional development is inadequate. Today 55% of those in this profession would leave if they had a chance. Indeed 30 000 of teachers leave the profession annually.
The quality of South African education leaves much to be desired. We cannot compete with many African states on basic survival skills. Take the example of Zimbabweans. When they arrive here they simply outperform their South African counterparts on many fronts. This reflects the superior education they receive. Our basic education and higher education, working together with the labour movement and the rest of society, has to ensure an improvement of education.
A key ingredient though, is that education must function in the traditional black schools - African schools in particular. We welcome the commitment to make education one of the five priorities for the period moving forward.
Our commitment must be to help to make this priority achievable and do everything not to frustrate the endeavour. The ANC and SADTU negotiated what they called are the non negotiables - "that teachers are in school, in class, on time, teaching, that there is no abuse of learners and no neglect of duty".
COSATU strongly supports these non-negotiables and will do everything in our power to ensure that all play their part to ensure their success. We do recognise that whilst we are trade unionists, we are at the same time parents and therefore key stakeholders in the education system. We are members of our communities before we are unionists. As parents we must ensure that we play our role in the education of our children.
The two-week long unprotected strike by Soweto educators recently has brought these discussions to the fore. We have asked for a meeting with the leadership of SADTU in Soweto in order to receive a briefing on the purpose behind this unprotected strike.
We are concerned that a revolutionary trade union movement must never act in a manner that isolates itself from the broader working class. We are a leading detachment of the working class. We call ourselves a revolutionary and transformative trade union precisely because of our ability to act to advance the broader interests of the working class.
In the same vein we welcome the tentative agreement reached by the majority of unions with the Department of Health yesterday which may end the unprotected strike by the doctors. COSATU fully supports the demands of the doctors and have, more than anyone else, ensured that the doctors' concerns received attention at the highest level of our government authorities.
We are however concerned that in the current strike the people who are being turned away from the public hospitals are largely the black working class who, because of inequities and our history, use the public hospitals.
Whilst the doctors' demands must not be counterposed to other priorities, we cannot close our eyes to the fact that we will lose public sympathy if this strike is not resolved soon, and if bigger and bigger numbers of our people die and/or are pushed into the private hospitals that are way beyond their means.
Lastly the conference must also address our own internal education and training programmes. In particular we will check if we implemented the policy of ensuring that we spend at least 10% of our income on educating and training our members, leaders and staff. We must ensure that before we blame everyone else we must clean our own house first.
I wish you all a very successful conference and look forward eagerly to reading the statement of your conclusions on Friday.
http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page7165...
1.4 Fuel price summit soon
July 01 2009 at 04:12PM - Barbara Cole
Concerned about rising fuel prices - which again shot up at midnight - the Minister of Energy, Dipuo Peters, is to call a summit of all stakeholders to discuss the issue.
But even before then, she is hoping to convene a meeting with representatives of the five big oil companies in the South African Petroleum Industry Association, the Minister's media spokesman, Bheki Khumalo, said last night.
"She is hoping that will be in the next two or three weeks," he said.
Trade union representatives from the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers Union (Ceppwawu), who have called on the Minister to convene a meeting to discuss the "unjustifiable" fuel hike, will be invited to the summit.
"We are still working on the date and the structure of the summit. We expect it to be very, very soon," Khumalo said.
As well as discussing the increase in petrol and diesel, the Minister was also "very concerned" about the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), which was unregulated, he said.
"Nine kilograms of LPG has gone up by R2,20 and that is very expensive. Many poor people cannot afford it," he said. Ceppwawu said this week that it was "perturbed" as it was the workers and the poor who were going to be affected by the latest fuel increases.
It was "disturbing" that they came at the time when international oil prices are fairly low and it was unjustifiable given the current economic situation, they said.
Saying that the price of petrol (95 octane) and diesel was to increase by 40c a litre, and 93 octane petrol by 37c, the Automobile Association said the price hike would have a negative impact on the price of consumer goods due to increased freight costs being inevitably being passed on to consumers.
"The latest increases will definitely touch the pockets of consumers and commuters alike," said spokesman Gary Ronald.
However, he added that he thought taxi owners would try their best to keep prices down as an increase of 20c or so in a fare would make a big difference to people on a minimum wage and could mean some having to go without meals.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=594&art_id=vn2009070...
2.5 Food price hikes increase suspicion of collusion
2009/07/01
The alarming increase in the cost of basic foods over the past year has increased suspicion of possible collusion along the entire food value chain, the Black Sash said on Wednesday.
"The Black Sash welcomes the Competition Commission's food price probe into South Africa's biggest supermarket chains," it said in a statement.
"The alarming increase in the cost of basic foods over the past year, coupled with the uncovering of various cartel activities in the milling, dairy and poultry industries, has increased suspicion of possible collusion along the entire food value chain."
This followed the announcement on Monday by the Competition Commission that it had initiated an investigation into major South African supermarket chains for possible contraventions of the Competition Act.
The Black Sash added that the public had the right to know exactly what was happening in the supermarket industry. "We salute the commission for their interventions to root out any immoral profiteering from food." The organisation maintained that there was more than an abstract principle at stake.
"Collusive business practices have a very real and severe impact on the quality of life of ordinary South Africans who struggle each day to put a meal on the table, especially during our current recession."
Recent research by Unisa showed that the poorest 20 percent of households spent 57 percent of their total income on food. High food prices also eroded the gains made by the government in rolling out social security to the most vulnerable members of our society. "A recent example of this is the effect of high prices on the purchasing power of social grants and the subsequent adjustment that government has had to make to address this impact."
The Black Sash intended following the Competition Commission's investigation very closely.
"We will continue to advocate that any fines imposed on those found guilty of anti-competitive practices be based on the full extent and duration of their illegal activity, and that penalties are imposed not just on the companies involved, but also on their chief executive officers (who are ultimately responsible)." As an organisation that fought to make human rights real, the Black Sash said it was only fair that monies recovered through fines be used to compensate consumers and support food security programmes. In a statement on Wednesday, the Food and Allied Workers Union (Fawu) also welcomed the commission's probe into food price-fixing.
"Fawu has always believed that anti-competitive conduct, such as price-fixing and excessive pricing, is behind skyrocketing food prices.
"Fawu feels vindicated by this investigation."
The union called on the four retail companies mentioned by the commission -- Pick n Pay, Shoprite-Checkers, Woolworths and Spar -- to fully co-operate and fully disclose all required information.
The commission would also investigate the major wholesaler-retailers, Massmart and Metcash, for alleged contraventions of sections 4(1)(a), 5(1) and 8(c) of the Competition Act. (source:Sapa)
http://www.supermarket.co.za/news_detail.asp?ID=1601
2.6 'Nationalise mines' - Malema calls for control
Zukile Majova - 02 July 2009
ANC Youth League president Julius Malema has called on President Jacob Zuma to seize the moment and nationalise the mining industry and manufacturing sectors amid the confusion brought about by the global financial crisis.
Speaking at the launch of the youth league's National Political School and Train the Trainers workshop in Krugersdorp yesterday, Malema said Zuma should fast-track the implementation of the aspirations of the Freedom Charter of 1955, which declared that "the wealth beneath the soil, monopoly industry and banks should be transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole".
Malema said: "At this moment, when the imperialist forces are accepting the failure of capitalism, we should ask whether the time has not arrived for the government to make sure that the state owns the mines and other means of production as called for in the Freedom Charter."
Malema said the youth league understood that implementation of some of the aspirations of the document would not be welcomed by all citizens.
Zuma's government is already battling criticism and perceptions that its dominance by members of Cosatu and the South African Communist Party could result in a shift to the left.
Cosatu and its affiliates have launched a campaign to force the Reserve Bank and its monetary policy committee to do away with inflation targeting.
They have also opposed the privatisation of state-owned enterprises, with the latest showdown being about the recent sale of Telkom's 15percent share in Vodacom to Vodafone for R22billion.
This week Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said the union would oppose the introduction of a private electricity supplier into the South African market, saying the government should find ways to finance Eskom's expansion programme.
http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1027149
2.7 Premier warns officials on laziness and idling
02 July 2009 - Mhlaba Memela
PREMIER Zweli Mkhize has warned civil servants that his administration will not tolerate "laziness, shuffling of papers and rocking on chairs" while people depend on them to do their jobs properly.
Addressing officials in a packed Durban City Hall at the launch of Public Service Week, Mkhize said public servants who just waited for tea breaks, took extended lunch breaks and left work early "are not needed" in government.
"There is no place for rudeness to ordinary people or an attitude of superiority to people who are responsible for your employment and retirement package.
"And there is no space for party loyalties to determine which community will or will not receive services."
Mkhize also told officials that they should understand that President Jacob Zuma was "not a government".
"The fact that people voted for the president does not mean it is his government. Each and every clerk (working) at the window that services people is government."
Mkhize said despite the lack of resources, the community needed the government to deliver on its mandate.
"Those who are elected come and go, but officials remain to serve the public.
"Government programmes are implemented by civil servants and we want that to be done with the will of the people.
"We are facing huge challenges in budget and resources but civil servants need to understand that we need to be creative, cut down on extra costs, using our professional judgement," Mkhize said.
"Integrity, respect, honesty and hard work" are the words that should characterise a civil servant, the premier said.
http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1027128
2.8 Malema opens political school
Livhuwani Mammburu Published:Jul 02, 2009
ANC Youth League president Julius Malema says his organisation has established a political school to prevent the ruling party from becoming another Zanu-PF.
He said the "school", which was officially launched in Krugersdorp yesterday, will also help instil discipline among ANC Youth League members - and put a stop to the chaotic behaviour that characterised the league's national conference last year.
At the conference, which was held in Bloemfontein, a league member was photographed parading his buttocks during a protest against Malema's election as president.
There were also reports of drunk delegates disrupting the conference.
Malema yesterday blamed this on "new members" who "had no clue at all [about] the politics of the ANC and the importance of national congresses".
He said the establishment of the political "school" would put an end to such behaviour.
But news that the league has established a "school" for its members revived old jokes about Malema's lack of formal education and his dismal Matric results - which included a "GG" for woodwork.
The most popular joke doing the rounds in political circles is that Malema will appoint himself the "principal" of the "school".
Malema, however, insisted the school would save the country's "revolution" from falling apart.
Revolutionary struggles in other countries, he said, failed when the new ruling parties neglected to provide political education for their members.
"Zimbabwe would not be where it is today if [Zanu-PF] was guided by proper, consistent revolutionary theory," Malema said.
He said President Robert Mugabe's party had become "the enemy of the people of Zimbabwe" because its members had abandoned its "very good and clear policies".
The ANC and its youth wing, he added, could suffer the same fate if young members were not taught party propaganda.
Yesterday's launch in Krugersdorp was attended by 50 ANCYL members who are to be trained as educators who will establish branches of the "political school" nationwide.
Malema said the school will teach members about "the direction of the national democratic revolution", the Freedom Charter and the values of the party.
Malema said participants would have to write examinations, "and we expect all disciplined cadres to pass their exams with distinction".
http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1027182
2.9 ANC names five for SABC interim board
Buddy Naidu and Dominic Mahlangu Published:Jul 02, 2009
THE ANC has compiled a list of five people it believes can rescue the embattled SABC.
The Times has established that the party has submitted the following names:
Entertainment specialist lawyer Lesley Sedibe;
Advocate William Rasenga Mokhare;
Former Independent Communications Authority of SA councillor and media consultant Libby Lloyd;
Former Sowetan journalist Phillip Mtimkhulu
Former trade unionist turned businesswoman, and former MTN director, Irene Charnley.
The five might lead an interim board to oversee an organisation in financial and management crisis.
Yesterday, Parliament dissolved the current board and it is now up to President Jacob Zuma, as the appointing authority, to ratify the firings.
Parliament agreed to the auditor-g eneral investigating a rash of allegations of financial mismanagement and corruption, made by board members, managers and the unions.
The SABC posted losses of R839-million in the past financial year and wants a R2.4-billion government bailout.
ANC p arliamentary c aucus spokesman Moloto Mothapo confirmed that the party had submitted its nominations for the interim board to the chairman of Parliament's communications portfolio committee, Ismail Vadi.
He would not confirm the names, saying that only Vadi knew who was on the ANC nominations list.
"I don't have the list so I can't confirm or deny the names that you have," he said.
DA spokeswoman Lindiwe Mazibuko said her party was finalising its list of people whom it wanted to serve on the interim board. She said a full list would be submitted later today .
"Given the short notice, we are only able to make our submission tomorrow . After the submissions are made, it is understood that the [portfolio] committee will discuss the composition of the board."
Mazibuko said that, though her party agreed that the board should be dissolved, the DA was ready to take on the ANC in ensuring that it did not unfairly favour its own political cadres.
"We are going to choose people who will not represent political parties, but South Africa.
"We must have people who are the best placed to take the SABC forward."
She said the DA agreed that the auditor-general should conduct a full investigation into the SABC to identify weaknesses.
ID leader Patricia de Lille said her party supported the interventions by the auditor-general, but it wanted a forensic audit of the SABC.
"For the sake of the SABC workers, and the public, the ID supports dissolving the board.
"But we must be honest and admit that the board and the executive management must take collective responsibility for the mess at the SABC."
De Lille said that the interim board should not be made up of political appointees.
The "chief people officer" at the SABC, Phumelele Ntombela-Nzimande, said the decision yesterday to investigate the allegations of wasteful expenditure was welcomed.
http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1027186
3 International
1 COSATU
3.1 Cosatu slams trade agreement breakaways
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA Jul 02 2009 07:07
The Congress of South African Trade Unions on Wednesday strongly criticised countries which have made trade agreements outside of the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu).
"Cosatu condemns these countries for sacrificing regional integration and the future of African integration in return for short-term benefits by increasing their exports to the [European Union]," said spokesperson Patrick Craven in a statement.
Two weeks ago, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, all members of Sacu, signed interim Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) with the EU. Mozambique is also believed to interested in signing an EPA.
"Subsequent to the signing off on the EPAs there has been media speculation about the possibility of Sacu being dissolved, because of South Africa's possible withdrawal," said Craven.
"This may be premature and unfortunate, as Sacu is an established regional institution despite weaknesses and disagreements among its member states."
Craven said the union federation was concerned that "cheap European imports" would be able to enter South Africa via those countries which had already signed EPAs.
"This might make it necessary for South Africa to put up border controls and demand rules of origin certificates in order to prevent this from happening. This would seriously undermine the basis of Sacu," said Craven.
He also criticised the EU for ignoring the integration ambitions of Southern African nations. Craven said the EPAs would only create access for EU companies who would exploit African mineral wealth, and to encourage deregulation and privatisation in those countries which had signed the agreements.
"That is why Cosatu supports the South African, Angolan and Namibian governments for standing firm against the bullying arm twisting tactics of the EU," said Craven.
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-07-02-cosatu-slams-trade-agreement-b...
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