Saturday, 18 May 2013 12:12

Lynley Donnelly reports that Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba has called for a pact between labour and government to ensure that labour unrest does not derail the country's plans to roll out infrastructure. He also condemned the violence that has characterised many recent labour protests and called on union leaders to "show leadership" in containing the bloodshed and growing inter-union rivalry. Gigaba said that, on major infrastructure projects like Eskom’s Medupi and Kusile power plant construction sites, labour relations had been managed on a project-by-project basis. But a broader agreement had to be reached at the presidential infrastructure co-ordinating commission level between government leaders and unions. Unions had to develop "a different understanding" of the infrastructure programme, because it was "of national interest". "We all benefit from its successful implementation," he said.

• Read more at Mail & Guardian

Saturday, 18 May 2013 10:45

Lynley Donnelly writes that SA is facing a "fiscal cliff" in coming years if the state does not drastically reduce the growth of social assistance payouts and government employee wages. Should current trends in this spending continue unabated, all the government's revenue will be eaten up by grant payments and civil servant pay by 2026. This is according to research done by Professor Jannie Rossouw, Fanie Joubert and Adèle Breytenbach of Unisa, which was presented at a workshop held by Economics Research Southern Africa on Thursday. The research also shows that, even if additional tax revenue could be sourced, for example by increasing personal income tax, corporate tax and other types of taxes, the fiscal cliff would be staved off only for a further two years.

• Read this article at Mail & Guardian