Today's Labour News

TOP STORY - POLLING WORKING CONDITIONS

We just work here, say IEC staff members after abuse by frustrated voters

News24 reports that while voters were frustrated by the long waiting times and snaking queues at voting stations on Wednesday, voting station staff were equally frustrated by the failing system and voters' insults. According to one of the temporary staff members employed by the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC), it was an extremely difficult time for them. A man, who worked at the Signal Hill Primary School voting station in Mahikeng said they had to deal with angry voters who blamed them for everything that was going wrong. "Voters told us we are incompetent and should never have been hired.   They didn't want to understand that the system was failing us and had nothing to do with our competency," he lamented, adding that hat he had worked for the IEC in two previous elections and Wednesday was his worst experience. The man spoke of exhaustion as they had had to work until the early hours on Thursday. Although additional staff was employed to assist with the counting, he said they worked extremely long hours that he had never worked before. Meanwhile, IEC staffers at voting stations in Cape Town said they had no idea election day would turn out to be such a nightmare.   Working for the IEC for the first time, one staffer, who was working at a Cape Flats voting station, said the entire process had been exhausting and stressful. "I had no idea we would be pulling an all-nighter," he said. He claimed staff members were not well-equipped to deal with the crowd's rowdiness.

Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Belinda Pheto, Lisalee Solomons & Alex Patrick at News24

'We want to go home', exhausted election officials plead

TimesLIVE visited some voting stations around Pretoria on Thursday and was met by tired and dissatisfied officials. Staff at one station said they had finished counting votes at about 10am but at 12pm they were still there, waiting to sign a register to get paid. They complained they had gone the whole of Wednesday and overnight without food or water. “They gave us money to buy food but they didn't give us time to go buy the food.   We were locked inside here since 5am [on Wednesday]. They just said we must find someone to go buy for us. Who, we don't know,” one said. An official in Hatfield said she had to leave her house at 3am on Wednesday to get to the voting station in Hatfield at 5am. “I have been here since then. I have had enough of this, I have a child and I want to go home,” she said at 9.30am on Thursday. A woman catching some sun while clutching her fleece blanket, said they had not been allowed to go outside earlier. On the long voting process, she said: “It's been hell. We didn't get any relief.” Another said: “I will never ever in my life work for the IEC again, not even if they say they will pay me R5,000. The money we are getting is so little, it's like we are volunteers.”

Read the original of the report in the above regard by Shonisani Tshikalange at DispatchLive

Exhaustion for Hatfield officials as ballots cast until 5am on Thursday

TimesLIVE reports that according to political party agents at a voting station in Hatfield, Pretoria, the last people to vote cast their votes just after 5am on Thursday, but many voters had given up and left beforehand. Many of the voters were students from the University of Pretoria (UP), who are writing exams this week. The queues were fine in the early part of the day but lengthened in the evening when late voters arrived. By 10.30am on Thursday morning, the electoral staff, whom agents said had worked throughout the night, were counting the first of four regional ballot boxes.   ANC party agent William Mahlabana said while there had been no major delays in the morning, the IEC officials encountered two issues: “They had only one voting booth and one ID scanner. They did not have sufficient staff and resources to ensure the voters coming here were catered for.”   He added: “So the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) in that regard have failed us. After being notified about the shortage of staff they should have deployed more people to run the place more efficiently. The IEC blundered on that.” EFF party agent Itumeleng Mokwane said the student turnout had been great: “UP students showed up and they endured until the last minute. We had long queues, I think they were slow inside. Students wanted to leave, we had to beg them to stay and vote. We had to provide transport, to ensure that students return to their places of residence safely.”

Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Shonisani Tshikalange at TimesLIVE

KZN voter killed after falling off moving bakkie, IEC official assaulted and another arrested

IOL News reports that the IEC's Provincial Electoral Officer in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), Ntombifuthi Masinga provided an update on the elections on Thursday at the Durban ICC. She indicated that some incidents had been reported in KZN, including where an IEC official was allegedly assaulted by a voter because the person’s name did not appear on the voters’ roll. Masinga added that they sadly heard of two incidents where two people lost their lives. “In the first instance, a voter fell off a bakkie that was transporting people and was run over by the vehicle. In the Harry Gwala District a voter was stabbed outside a voting station. It was unfortunate incident, that had nothing to do with the electoral process.”   Masinga also confirmed that an IEC official in Plessislaer in the KZN Midlands had been arrested. She said the official, who was an area manager, had realised that a box of ballot papers had been left at the storage site during distribution. “The official, after realising they had left one box during the dispatch, decided to take it to the voting station, he was then accosted by political parties and they called the SAPS. It was a sealed box of additional ballots, but because the SAPS were advised that all ballots had been issued, the official had to go and answer to the police.   The box of ballots was confiscated as part of the evidence. We have been informed and we have shared our version.”

Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Jolene Marriah-Maharaj at IOL News

IEC claims inexperienced young workers could have contributed to problems at voting stations

The Citizen reports that the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has blamed the glitches experienced during voting on Wednesday on a number of factors, including the inexperienced young people who were employed by the commission. There had been complaints from various parts of the country about long queues, dysfunctional scanners, and the conduct of IEC staffers, which led many to question if they were adequately trained. The IEC’s Chief Electoral Officer, Sy Mamabolo, however, on Thursday said staff had received enough training, which had lasted over four days. He opined that the employment of inexperienced young people “impaired” the quality of the process slightly. Mamabolo pointed out that the commission had contributed to job creation through making work opportunities available to South Africans around this time. Meanwhile, he said three audit firms had been appointed to ensure quality checks on the results which have been slowly trickling in since the early hours of Thursday.

Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Itumeleng Mafisa at The Citizen

FARMWORKER APATHY

Voter apathy shown as many farmworkers stay away

Cape Times reports that there was voter apathy among farmworkers in the 2024 national election, with many deciding to stay away from the polls because they continue to face social and human rights issues. This sentiment was expressed by both farmworkers and a farmworker union, the Commercial, Stevedoring, Agricultural and Allied Workers Union (CSAAWU).   National organiser Karel Swart commented: “There has been mixed reactions from farmworkers in this election because they feel their issues are not being addressed. They still face evictions every day, social decay on farms, living conditions, transport, electricity. Not one political party has addressed these issues. They have voted since 1994 and very little has changed for farmworkers.” He went on to say: “At our May Day rally workers also raised the fact that they work on farms for 20 to 30 years and retire with nothing. Then from the R2100 social grant they receive they must pay the farmer R700 to R800 for electricity. They can’t live, there’s no money for food.” Farmworker and mother of one, Lolita Faroa from Rawsonville said evictions persisted and when people retired they were charged high rent by farmers. “Everything is still the same as before. Political parties come during election time then you don’t see them again,” she observed. Farmworker Valencia George, a mother of five from McGregor, said on their farm there were only about 15 people who decided to vote.   “There’s only a few that went to vote; most of the young people didn't vote. They asked why they should vote and who must they vote for. There is huge unemployment and lots of matriculants are sitting without work,” she remarked.

Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Nicola Daniels at Cape Times

OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY

Limpopo Education MEC to visit families of teachers who died in horror crash

EWN reports that Limpopo Education MEC Mavhungu Lerule-Ramakhanya is expected to visit the families of the ten teachers who died in an accident in Polokwane. It is understood that the taxi they were travelling in collided with a truck in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The teachers, whose identities have yet to be released, were employed at various education institutions in the Senwabarwana area. Spokesperson Matome Moremi Taueatsoala said that the MEC would release the names of the victims after meeting with their families.

Read the original of the short report in the above regard by Noluthando Ngeno at EWN

Other internet posting(s) in this news category

• Step-by-step guide for burns and the proper first aid actions to follow, at Sunday Tribune

COST OF LIVING

Reserve Bank keeps repo rate steady at 8.25%, warns about ‘sticky’ inflation

BL Premium reports that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the SA Reserve Bank has kept the repo rate steady at 8.25%, but continues to warn about sticky inflation being a hindrance to cuts any time soon. Governor Lesetja Kganyago said the bank now expected inflation to return to the midpoint of its 3%-6% target band in the second quarter of 2025. This was an improvement on comments from the previous MPC meeting in March, when the committee said it expected to reach that goal only by the end of 2025. Kganyago did warn, however, that “the task of achieving our inflation objective is not yet done” and added that the committee “remains concerned that inflation expectations are elevated.” There was still considerable concern about the global inflation outlook, Kganyago added, while noting that recent inflation data had come out slightly better than expected. Regarding economic growth, Kganyago said economic activity in the first quarter was worse than expected “despite reduced load-shedding”. While “we expect slightly weaker growth in the first quarter, this should improve in the second”, he stated.

Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Andrew Linder at BusinessLive (subscriber access only). See too, SARB repo rate unchanged, at Moneyweb. En ook, ‘Rentekoers al vir te lank te hoog’, by Maroela Media

South Africans are buying less food

The Citizen reports that as their spending power declines, South Africans are buying less food, while statistics show that one in four households in the country go hungry. In 2023, the volume of food and beverages sold per capita at South African grocery stores and supermarkets declined by an estimated 3.2% when accounting for population growth of an estimated 1.0% during the year.   Data from Statistics SA shows that inflation-adjusted sales at general retailers representing retail trade of food and beverage products at non-specialised stores declined by 2.2% in 2023. According to PWC’s latest economic outlook for SA, the decline in food and beverage sales volumes was strongly influenced by a weakening of consumer buying power, alongside elevated inflation and reprioritisation of spending amid elevated interest rates. El Niño could cause a 25% drop in local white maize production this year, which would increase the cost of staple maize meal products, Lulu Krugel, chief economist for PwC SA, warned. According to the PWC report, 2023 was the second year that the real buying power of salaries and wages declined due to elevated inflation. Salaries and wages increased by around 5.0% last year, while consumer price inflation averaged nearly 6.0%. The financial strain caused by these and other structural factors, such as unemployment and poverty, resulted in two out of five South African adults needing to borrow money to buy food in 2023, according to data from FinMark Trust.

Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Ina Opperman at The Citizen

FAKE MEDICAL DOCTORS

Unregistered doctors arrested in Durban

Daily News reports that investigations by the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) led to the arrest of illegal practitioners in Durban recently. Officials, investigating a complaint of an unregistered person in the Durban Central area, discovered that a 39-year-old was practising illegally in violation of the Health Professions Act of 1974. The HPCSA’s Priscilla Sekhonyana advised that the woman had been advertising services as a legitimate medical practitioner on various popular social media sites. Upon arrest, she was detained at Durban Central SAPS, denied bail by the magistrate’s court, and is expected to make another court appearance soon. In a separate incident in Sydenham, Durban, authorities found another doctor practising while not registered with the council as a medical practitioner.   “The culprit was arrested for illegal medical practice and detained at the Sydenham SAPS. During his initial court appearance, he was denied bail and is scheduled to appear in court again at a later stage,” Sekhonyana reported.   She said the council was intensifying its efforts to combat bogus and unregistered practitioners, which was evident in a significant increase in the number of arrests by the Inspectorate Office. During the 2023/24 financial year, 24 illegal medical practitioners were arrested nationwide. Since the current financial year began in April to date, 10 more arrests have already been made.

Read the full original of the report in the above regard at Daily News

MUNICIPAL PENSION FUND

Bombshell accusations rock Municipal Employees Pension Fund

Fin24 reports that the Municipal Employees Pension Fund (MEPF), which manages the savings of more than 30,000 workers at 117 municipalities, is at the centre of a legal battle, which has exposed accusations of a suspect marital link between key parties, an alleged vindictive business move, overcharging and all-round poor governance. In October 2023, the MEPF summarily terminated its mandate with Mergence Investment Managers, which managed more than R7 billion of the fund's investments. It accused Mergence of overcharging discrepancies in the fund manager's fees and unauthorised offshore exposure. Mergence hit back and in November launched a high court application to set aside the termination and to reinstate its mandate. It accused Margaret le Grange, the then principal executive officer of the MEPF, of abusing her position to further the ambitions of Zamani Letjane, the owner of Akani Retirement Fund Administrators.   Akani administered the MEPF and Letjane is its sole shareholder. Letjane was also married to Le Grange, who died earlier this year. Mergence claimed Letjane was trying to settle scores over an unrelated dispute. After some 100 members complained that the fund's trustees were not properly elected, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) found in October last year that the MEPF board was not properly constituted in terms of the Pension Funds Act and said it would appoint an independent board. The MEPF applied to the Financial Services Tribunal to reconsider the matter. The tribunal is still receiving the pleadings of the parties in the matter and will schedule the hearing once it has received all documentation.   According to Peter Modike, chairperson of the board of MEPF trustees, the board "is functioning properly as duly elected fiduciaries" who were elected in November 2021. As part of its probe, the FSCA also found that Le Grange was "not independent from Akani", and its report details that she had two children with Letjane, her husband, and shared a home.   Good corporate governance practice demands the executive head of the pension fund be seen to be independent of the fund's administrator and to vigorously pursue their fiduciary duty to the members of the fund.

Read the full original of the extensive report in the above regard by Sikonathi Mantshantsha at Fin24

ALLEGED CORRUPTION / FRAUD

Current and former North West health directors face fraud charges involving R75m

Cape Times reports that a current and former director at the North West Department of Health (DOH) have been released on R5,000 bail following their arrests on charges related to fraud involving R75 million. This followed an investigation into tender irregularities between 2008 and 2009 when the North West government sought to build two hospitals in Ledig (Moses Kotane Hospital) and Vryburg (Joe Morolong Hospital). Police said the investigation found that Ntelaleng Matlapeng, director at the DOH, and Elliot Motene, former director at the DOH, certified payment vouchers for exchange rates of R75m when the contract and specifications did not allow the exchange rates to be claimed. Matlapeng faces one count of fraud, while Motene faces two counts. They will be joined by the other five accused when they appear in the Mahikeng Magistrate’s Court on Thursday. Suspects include Andrew Lekalakala, a former head of the DOH, who is facing charges of contravening the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) and two charges of fraud. Another former head of the DOH in North West, Lydia Keneilwe Sebego, faces two charges of contravening the PFMA, while Vuyo Mbulawa, chief director at the DOH, is charged with 10 counts of fraud. The department’s service provider, Roulph Lotwane Mabe, faces six counts of fraud, while Joseph Leshabane, another service provider, faces six charges of fraud.

Read the full original of the report in the above regard at Cape Times

OTHER REPORTS OF INTEREST

• Opinion: Hold officials personally liable to strengthen our democracy, at Moneyweb
• Rod Crompton steps down from Eskom board for 'personal reasons', at Fin24