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COSATU Media Monitor
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Spokesperson: Patrick Craven
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COSATU Media Monitor
Tuesday 3 November 2009
Contents
1 Workplace
1.1 NUM reports fatality at Gold Fields Kloof Mine
1.2 Mabasa Sama's new chairperson
1.3 Cosatu demands action after slur on Mandela
1.4 Scrap contracts with Falcon Security - COSATU
2 South Africa
2.1 Nationalise Tokyo's wealth, says union
2.2 Numsa targets Motsepe's R14.2bn
2.3 Fawu says seize AgriBEE ill-gotten gains
2.4 Ruling coalition's newspaper may be given to readers free
2.5 'Shelving airbus deal probe bad'
2.6 Talks on labour broking wait for draft bill
2.7 Regulate, not ban, is sensible path taken by others
2.8 DA claims shake SACP
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1 Workplace
<http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php> 1.1 NUM reports fatality at Gold
Fields Kloof Mine
Business Report, 3 November 2009
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on Tuesday reported a fatality
at Gold Fields' Kloof Mine near Carletonville.
The trade union said the mineworker lost his life after being struck by
a snatch block while working the night shift.
"This brings to 145 the number of mineworkers who lost their lives in
the line of duty this year," said NUM.
"Contrary to what many argue, death in the industry remains a corporate
norm and those who hint that the figures are down may never have gone
through the pain of losing a loved one through deliberate acts of both
ignorance and negligence," the trade union said in a statement.
It called on the Department of Mineral Resources to order shaft closure
and called on its members to observe a day of mourning.
http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5229190&fSectionId=552&fSet
Id=662
<http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5229190&fSectionId=552&fSe
tId=662>
<http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=852816> 1.2 Mabasa
Sama's new chairperson
Sowetan, 3 November 2009
THE South African Medical Association has chosen Dr Norman Mabasa as its
new chairperson, it announced yesterday. Mabasa was unanimously elected
at a Sama national council meeting at Boksburg, Ekurhuleni, said
spokesperson Adri van Eeden.
"Dr Mabasa is widely regarded as a strong conciliator with extensive
experience in the health care arena," said Van Eeden. The association's
new honorary president, Dr Jiyana Mbere, was also inaugurated. Mabasa
said he viewed his election as a challenge. - Sapa
http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1084485
<http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=852816> 1.3 Cosatu
demands action after slur on Mandela
Getrude Makhafola, Sowetan, 2 November 2009
COSATU has given Sun International until today to fire the security
company accused of insulting Nelson Mandela.
They have also called on institutions in the province who are doing
business with Falcon Security to terminate such contracts.
The labour federation has also threatened to lobby 2010 World Cup
tourists and Fifa officials not to stay at Sun City during next year's
soccer spectacle.
"We will not compromise when it comes to Nelson Mandela. We want Sun
International to resolve this by Monday," said Cosatu North West
spokesperson Solly Phetoe.
Cosatu members marched on Sun City and delivered a memorandum to
management on Saturday.
This comes after security boss Ben Burger was arrested after a remixed
national anthem was played at a staff function last week.
The song was said to have ridiculed former president Nelson Mandela,
calling him a "kaffir".
Burger was charged with crimen injuria and is out on R1500 bail.
He is due to appear in court again at the end of the month.
The hotel's security manager, Warren Alberts, was also suspended, while
his colleague, Francois Roberts, was fired for actually playing the
offensive CD.
Another racist incident involved Marietta le Roux, who is accused of
calling employee George Moapaletsela a "baboon".
Moapaletsela told Sowetan that it started when Le Roux entered a room he
was in at work earlier this year.
"She looked me in the eyes and said she could smell baboon. I was
devastated," Moapaletsela said.
He said he had laid a charge against Le Roux with human resources and
the union.
Another employee, Kagiso Mafilika, said her two-year-old son was sprayed
with cold water on a winter's day by the resort's emergency workers.
She said: "I had taken him to work that day because his nanny was sick.
Later I heard him screaming outside. When I went to investigate, I found
him trembling and soaked ."
Sun International director of resorts Kurt Peter said though Cosatu's
deadline was tight, they would engage the labour federation.
http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1084225
1.4 Scrap contracts with Falcon Security - COSATU
Imraan Karolia, Eye-witness News, 3 November 2009
COSATU say it is canvassing in the North West province to assure
contracts with Falcon Security are scrapped immediately.
There was outrage last week, after one of the company's employees played
the national anthem with lyrics referring to Nelson Mandela as the 'k'
word at a Potjiekos competition.
More than a thousand people marched in Sun City at the weekend,
demanding they terminate the company's security contract.
The union is waiting for a reply from Sun International.
"We have started to mobilize a scrapping of Falcon Security company in
the North West province. They must dismiss the company as a matter of
urgency because in our view it is them who are raising racism in Sun
City," said COSATU's Solly Pheteo.
Falcon Security has been unavailable for comment.
http://www.eyewitnessnews.co.za/articleprog.aspx?id=25428
<http://www.eyewitnessnews.co.za/articleprog.aspx?id=25428>
2 South Africa
<http://www.businessday.co.za/News/Home.aspx> 2.1 Nationalise Tokyo's
wealth, says union
Amy Musgrave, Business Day, 3 November 2009
THE National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) is picking a fight with
Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale, and yesterday called for his
wealth to be nationalised.
This follows the Young Communist League labelling African National
Congress treasurer Mathews Phosa as "a golden boy of imperial and white
monopoly capital dominance" after Phosa told a London audience last
Thursday that SA's mines would not be nationalised.
The attacks are likely to worsen tension in the tripartite alliance and
among ANC members on economic policy and ideology.
Sexwale, with R1,162bn from his stakes in Mvelaphanda Group , is number
16 on the Sunday Times annual Rich List, which prompted yesterday's
comment.
Numsa criticised mainly black businessmen on the rich list. They
included Lakshmi Mittal and Patrice Motsepe, the top two, Saki Macozoma
and Phutuma Nhleko. Members of the Oppenheimer family were included.
Numsa said it wanted the "nationalisation and eventually the
socialisation" of their wealth.
Spokesman Castro Ngobese said yesterday the union, one of the most
radical and powerful affiliates of the Congress of South African Trade
Unions (Cosatu), would lobby the South African Communist Party (SACP) to
adopt "progressive" resolutions at its special congress next month on
nationalisation and the ever- widening gap between the rich and the
poor.
The SACP is expected to take a hard line on this, especially as SA has
overtaken Brazil as the most unequal society in the world.
Numsa has called for mines, banks, Sasol and ArcelorMittal to be
nationalised. It says it believes that the Freedom Charter was never
meant to reproduce or replace a white capitalist class with a black
capitalist class or to "co-opt connected politicians to join
exploiters". "We are conscious of the fact that there has never been any
transfer of wealth from the capitalists to the workers and the poor
without any form of force or imposition," Ngobese said.
The union called on the alliance secretariat to discuss privately owned
wealth. An inability to do so would be auctioning the "revolution to the
highest bidders in the market".
Cosatu has said it is ready for future battles over economic policy, and
has reiterated its opposition to businessmen occupying senior positions
in the government.
It says public representatives must choose between serving the country
and business.
Ngobese said Numsa would also lobby other Cosatu affiliates to mount a
"radical and militant campaign" against excessive, privately owned
wealth and salaries, which were reproducing inequalities of the
apartheid era.
http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=85792
<http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=85792>
<http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php> 2.2 Numsa targets Motsepe's
R14.2bn
Business Report, 3 November 2009
The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) called for the
nationalisation of the wealth of South Africa's richest man, Patrice
Motsepe, and Housing Minister Tokyo Sexwale. This comes after South
Africa's rich list was published by the Sunday Times on Sunday. The
list, compiled by Who Owns Whom, showed that Motsepe was the richest
South African with R14.2 billion. "This obscene and massive wealth is
being reported in the midst of the revelations that South Africa has
apparently taken over Brazil as the most unequal country in the world
ever," said Numsa spokesman Castro Ngobese. - Sapa
http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=552&fArticleId=5229046
<http://www.thetimes.co.za/Business/BusinessTimes/Article1.aspx?id=89232
0> 2.3 Fawu says seize AgriBEE ill-gotten gains
Times, 3 November 2009
The Food and Allied Workers Union is calling for luxury items bought
with the AgriBEE fund to be confiscated and officials found guilty of
corruption to be made to pay back the money they stole.
The union said it was "dismayed and disgusted" about reports that funds
from AgriBEE were used to finance the high-living of politically
well-connected individuals.
The Sunday Times reported on October 25 that millions meant for farming
projects went missing from the fund and were allegedly spent on houses
and cars for a number of people, including former Gauteng MEC Dan
Mofokeng.
"It is indeed with shock to note that monies meant to redress the evil
of the past have been misused to the benefits of individuals, instead of
the poor and the dispossessed people of this country," Fawu said in a
statement.
"We are appalled... that allegations have been levelled against senior
Land Bank officials like its former CEO, Mr Phil Mohlalela, and former
Gauteng housing boss Mr Dan Mofokeng to the effect that they might have
used the funds to buy mansions and luxury cars."
The union said it supported a call by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan
for the matter to be urgently investigated and that culprits "should be
brought to book and be compelled to pay back those funds.
"In this regard an asset forfeiture unit should swiftly act to
confiscate all the assets of the individuals involved in this corruption
scandal, as we do not have any place in our society for such
dishonesty."
http://www.timeslive.co.za/business/article176419.ece
<http://www.timeslive.co.za/business/article176419.ece>
<http://www.businessday.co.za/News/Home.aspx> 2.4 Ruling coalition's
newspaper may be given to readers free
Chantelle Benjamin, Business Day, 2 November 2009
PLANS by the African National Congress (ANC) and its coalition members
to counter what it sees as bias in the South African press with their
own newspaper are still on the cards, and the Congress of South African
Trade Unions (Cosatu) says the paper may be given away free.
Patrick Craven, Cosatu spokesman, told community newspaper and radio
stations last week at a meeting to discuss "the implications of monopoly
media ownership for democracy", that the coalition resolved to establish
a paper that countered the "pro- business, pro-private enterprise,
anticommunist, antidemocracy stance by newspapers belonging to the "big
four": Avusa , Naspers , Independent and Caxton .
He told Business Day on Friday that a feasibility study had still to be
conducted, but the federation felt the paper should be established as
soon as possible.
ANC spokesman Brian Sokutu said yesterday talks were being held on a
business model.
Craven said the coalition envisaged a freebie daily using its large
circulation to attract advertisers. "The launch of a daily newspaper
could be the end of the monopoly by Avusa, Naspers, Independent and
Caxton. It would still have to have advertising, but it would have such
a massive reach that advertisers would not dare to dictate the content."
Mark Weinberg of the Alternative Information Development Centre, which
co-hosted the community media meeting with the National Community Radio
Forum, said four big media groups owned the bulk of print media.
The SABC controlled 41,6% of radio and 69,3% of TV audiences.
"SA is facing a deepening social economic crisis.... Yet the SA media is
obsessed with the lives of 'big men', the mafia crime drama of Mr Selebi
or who will coach the national soccer team," Weinberg said.
Prof Anton Harber, head of Wits University's Journalism and Media
Studies Programme, said last year an ANC paper could be a good thing and
"help us keep informed" of ruling party thinking. But he warned against
a daily, saying a weekly might be more viable. Party papers seldom
carried good journalism as they were loath to criticise their parties.
http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=85655
2.5 'Shelving airbus deal probe bad'
Carien Du Plessis, Political Bureau, Pretoria News, 2 November 2009
The DA has expressed disappointment over a decision to put on ice a
proposal for a parliamentary probe to investigate the government's
controversial R47-billion contract to buy eight A400M Airbus military
freight planes.
The Sunday Independent reported yesterday that the proposal for a
multi-party ad hoc committee to scrutinise the deal had been put on hold
pending an announcement by Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu as to whether
the government would go ahead or pull out of the 2005 agreement.
Sisulu is expected to make an announcement on Wednesday .
DA MP David Maynier said in a statement yesterday that there was, "if
anything, now a greater urgency to investigate this (matter), as new and
murky facts emerge about the deal..."
"What we need to know is how we got into such a high-risk procurement
programme without a tender process and against the recommendation of the
Defence Department in the first place."
He also wanted the involvement of colourful businessman Ivor Ichikowitz
in the deal examined. Ichikowitz, who bought BEE shares in Aerosud, was
under investigation some years ago after his Paramount Group allegedly
flouted arms control committee regulations.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=6&art_id=vn200911020415
29370C531642
<http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=6&art_id=vn20091102041
529370C531642>
<http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php> 2.6 Talks on labour broking wait
for draft bill
Samantha Enslin-Payne, Business Report, 3 November 2009
Talks between the Labour Department, the temporary employment services
industry and unions at Nedlac (the government, labour and business
negotiating chamber) on labour broking have been wrapped up until a
draft bill is tabled next year.
This comes after four months of discussions on five principles that the
department submitted in a bid to reach some common ground.
John Botha, the chief operating officer of the Confederation of
Associations in the Private Employment Sector, which represents
temporary employment services, said yesterday: "We have not agreed to a
helluva lot.
"But what has been agreed is that any legislative changes will apply to
both labour brokers and companies that want to employ temporary staff
directly, so that any form of potential abuse of temporary workers can
be addressed."
The debate on labour broking has been raging all year. Last week Jimmy
Manyi, the director-general in the department, said the practice would
be banned.
Yesterday Mzobanzi Jikazana, the spokesman for the Minister of Labour,
said: "Those that operate within the law have nothing to worry about."
Botha said the department made it clear the entire industry would not be
banned. At the most, the department is looking at certain sectors such
as agriculture and the domestic sector.
But Cosatu does not back this softer approach. Patrick Craven, the
spokesman for Cosatu, said the federation was not against temporary
employment as such, but wanted all forms of employment where people were
employed via a third party to be outlawed.
"Greater regulation of this industry will not satisfy Cosatu, but we
will have to see what the bill says," he said.
The five principles discussed at Nedlac were regulation, employer
obligations, the enhancement of dismissal rights, equal pay for equal
work, and organisational rights that would make it easier for temporary
workers to join a union.
Botha said the issue of equal pay was a very broad area, which "we have
not got to the bottom of".
The industry has recognised the issue of vulnerable workers. But the
definition of who is a vulnerable worker has not been agreed. "We
consider the level of skills to be a better determinant of
vulnerability."
http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=561&fArticleId=5228595
<http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=561&fArticleId=5228595>
<http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php> 2.7 Regulate, not ban, is sensible
path taken by others
Dennis George, Business Report, 3 November 2009
Outsourcing, sub-contracting and the use of labour brokers has severely
undermined the quality of employment in South Africa. The growth of
these practices of so-called non-standard employment has a particular
resonance here, where the idea of standard employment was never
well-grounded in the first place.
A study by the Department of Labour has revealed that the number and
scope of operations of temporary employment agencies or labour brokers
have grown rapidly since 1994. More than 500 000 placements are now made
daily, and it is estimated that the temporary employment services (TES)
industry employs 4 percent of the total workforce in a business that
generates R23 billion a year.
Given these facts, it is little wonder that we in the labour movement
have been demanding action to protect the rights and interests of
workers. It is an ongoing battle and one that saw the Federation of
Unions of SA (Fedusa) again raise the matter at our congress in November
last year.
The ANC election manifesto this year also called for laws to be
introduced to address the problems of temporary employment and to
prohibit abusive labour practices while Cosatu's latest congress called
for a total ban on the TES industry.
The DA and Cope have also weighed in with a position paper calling for
the industry to be reformed. These debates are essential, but sight
should also not be lost of the fact that South Africa is not the only
country faced with the undermining of the quality of employment by
employers and where struggles have been waged and steps taken to improve
matters.
For example, the EU directive on temporary agency work, adopted in June
last year, introduced the principle of equal treatment for agency
workers from the first day of their assignment.
The European Trade Union Confederation welcomed the vote in the European
Parliament because it ensured that social partners now have a major role
to play in protecting agency workers.
This seems a sensible approach and one that Fedusa endorses. We feel
that the TES industry should be strictly regulated by the social
partners, by the government, business and organised labour.
Strict and closely monitored regulation can address most aspects of
"decent" work and should ensure that unscrupulous brokers will be
exposed and eventually be forced out of the industry. While we obviously
have to adapt regulations to local conditions, there is no need for us
to reinvent the wheel. There are a number of examples we can draw on.
The "ABU" Agreement in the Netherlands, for example, covers some 90
percent of TES workers, and provides a good model. Another fine example
is the national level agreement concluded in Britain in May last year
between the government, the Trade Union Council and the employer body,
the Confederation of British Industry.
But Fedusa is also encouraging the government to ratify the
International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 181, covering the TES
industry. This convention, as with the other regulatory regimes
mentioned, recognises the role employment agencies may play in a
"well-functioning labour market" and the need "to protect workers
against abuses".
To this end, Leon Grobler, Fedusa's representative at Nedlac, attended
an ILO workshop in Geneva last week on the ratification of Convention
181.
Adoption by the government of this convention could be the first step
towards a regulatory regime that could promote skills development and
decent work for all while preventing human trafficking and other abusive
practices.
The convention was drafted in 1997 and has now been ratified by 21
countries, ranging from Albania to Uruguay. Three African countries -
Algeria, Ethiopia and Morocco - have so far adopted it, Ethiopia and
Morocco having done so in 1999, with Algeria following suit in 2006.
Within the broad framework of the ILO convention, we must draw up our
domestic regulations. We can do so either by national legislation
supplemented by collective agreements or by a national framework
agreement supplemented by sectoral or industry-wide agreements.
But no matter which route we choose, the real issue - as it is now with
existing labour laws - will not be regulation alone, but enforcement.
This must be two-fold, covering both administrative aspects such as
registration and licensing, and conditions in the workplace, such as
hours of work and period of placements.
Administrative regulation could be dealt with through a statutory and
tripartite regulatory body along the lines of a university council of
the governing body of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and
Arbitration. Applying regulations within workplaces is more complex, but
can be managed through a very broad legal framework supplemented by
collective agreements between the social partners.
But we should be aware that most of the problems that we are currently
dealing with were identified and comprehensively analysed in reports of
the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working
Conditions (Eurofound), especially the report on "Temporary Agency Work
and Collective Bargaining in the EU". This body was set up by the EU in
1975 in order to contribute to the planning and design of "better living
and working conditions" in Europe.
Obviously, no European model can or should be imported into South Africa
without proper consideration and adequate prior consultation with all
affected parties. Quite apart from anything else, the countries of the
EU tend to have far superior systems of social security and other state
benefits, from which we could also probably learn.
However, the issues dealt with in the EU parallel those of our own
regarding the TES industry and we would be remiss not to learn from the
best practices already applied anywhere we find them.
Fedusa therefore feels it best to encourage improved efficiency in the
national labour market while ensuring that abuses are removed and that
decent pay and conditions should apply to every worker. On this basis,
we think it is better to promote co-operation between public and private
employment services in various fields - and we cannot afford to
procrastinate.
Dennis George is the general secretary of the Federation of Unions of SA
http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5228569
<http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5228569>
<http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=852816> 2.8 DA claims
shake SACP
Anna Majavu, Sowetan, 3 November 2009
THE SACP in the Western Cape has challenged former ANC leaders Mcebisi
Skwatsha and Max Ozinsky to lay charges of crimen injuria against
Western Cape Premier Helen Zille.
This after Zille claimed in the provincial legislature two weeks ago
that the two leaked information to her when they were still ANC
provincial chairperson and deputy secretary.
The DA is said to have used the information to attack projects started
by then Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool .
Skwatsha has denied the allegations.
But the SACP is not satisfied with his denial alone and says Skwatsha
and Ozinsky must lay charges against Zille to prove that she is lying.
SACP provincial secretary Khaya Magaxa said yesterday Skwatsha's "denial
alone cannot be enough".
http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1084480
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