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Wednesday, 04 July 2018 11:44

Sowetan reports that the Limpopo High Court in Polokwane on Tuesday interdicted illegal strikers in Giyani from polluting and closing water pumps.

Judge Ephraim Makgoba said the illegal strikers were restrained from closing water reticulation sources to Giyani communities.

Makgoba also ordered the police to patrol the Giyani area and protect the assets of the local municipality.

“The police should take all necessary steps to arrest and take into lawful custody any person who contravenes the order,” he said.

This was after angry community members from Khakhala, Gawula, Mahlathi and Hlomela villages blockaded roads with sand and disrupted services in Giyani for the past three weeks. They were demanding roads and water services.

The municipality said the matter was brought on an urgent basis because of the implications it had on service delivery.

In his affidavit, municipal manager Maxwell Chauke said: “The water services have been disrupted by the strikers in circumstances we cannot explain.

“It is likely that the water pumps in the reticulation facility have been blocked and the water is now not fit for human consumption.”

He said there were reported incidents of intimidation of staff and the illegal closure of the main water supply to Giyani communities.

“The strikers forced their way through the gates of the Giyani dam and water treatment plant and dumped sand in the reticulation system.

“What was conspicuously absent was the presence of the police, despite the unrest that reigned around Giyani municipality,” he said.

Chauke said he was told by the municipality’s security officials that there was an illegal strike as well as vandalism in Giyani.

“Upon investigation I established there had been three strikes reported at villages which fall under our jurisdiction.

“I was also informed the strikers went to the Giyani CBD and their demonstration culminated in vandalism.

“On June 25 I was informed that the strikers attempted to enter the municipal offices by force, and blocked the public and municipal staff from gaining access.”

Chauke said he did not receive a memorandum of demands as there had been no written communication from the ward councillor or community representative.

The original of this report by Peter Ramothwala appeared on page 7 of Sowetan of 4 July 2018

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Monday, 02 July 2018 12:47

Sowetan writes that embattled power utility Eskom enters a make or break week as its unions reported back to their members with their latest offer of 6.2% at the weekend.

Eskom spokesman Khulu Phasiwe said they were hoping an agreement would be reached and signed on Friday when the parties reconvene in Woodmead.

“We are hopeful that an agreement can be signed on Friday so that we can focus on keeping the lights on,” Phasiwe said on Sunday.

He said with the cold front fast approaching, it was important for Eskom to focus on its mandate of ensuring that there was constant power supply in the country.

Eskom unions went into this leg of negotiations, initiated by Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, with a mandate that included a demand for housing allowances and double-digit increases among others

However, unions have nothing else but a 6.2% “take it or leave it” offer from the cash strapped power utility to report back on.

National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) spokesman Livhuwani Mammburu said the shop stewards’ council which was initially planned for today would now happen on Thursday to allow for more consultation with members.

“All shop stewards will give us feedback on the Eskom offer before we go back to the negotiations on Friday,” Mammburu said.

An Eskom employee who spoke on condition of anonymity said: “We are not happy that Eskom is not entertaining the housing allowance issue, which is a matter that’s very close to our hearts.

“Eskom is seemingly now coming with a take it or leave it kind of attitude.”

This week will see NUM, the biggest union at Eskom, convening its national shop stewards’ council in Midrand on Thursday, where workers will respond to Eskom’s final offer.

Eskom did not commit on any of the other demands, including the finalisation of the minimum service agreement, housing allowance and the discontinuation of the independent power producers.

NUM and other recognised unions at Eskom, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa and Solidarity presented a joint 9% salary increase demand after meeting ahead of the negotiations and consolidated their mandates.

The original of this report by Isaac Mahlangu appeared on page 5 of Sowetan of 2 July 2018

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Monday, 25 June 2018 10:42

Sowetan reports that more than 500 employees in the Gauteng department of roads and transport are on the verge of losing their jobs due to a new proposed organisational structure.

This is contained in an internal memo signed in August to freeze 513 vacant posts against the current “approved” structure and some which have been filled.  The 75-page document states that MEC Ismael Vadi and head of department Ronald Swartz, working with a team comprising the sub-directorate in organisational development of the department and the provincial treasury, should “assess the current vacancies against the newly proposed structure”.

These retrenchments, which have not come into effect, will reduce the current vacancy rate from 29% to 15%, costing the department about R172-million.

But with the proposed structure, 120 posts will be advertised, which will cost the department over R80-million.  “However, there are no approved posts on the current structure for these positions, but there are vacant posts that are recommended for abolishment which are no longer required by the department and can be used for these appointments until new structure is concurred,” the memo states.

The report, which Sowetan has obtained, was supported by Vadi, Swartz and the department’s chief financial officer, Sanele Zondo, who all signed it between October and November.

Department spokeswoman Melitah Madiba insisted there would be no job losses as a result of the new structure. “There will be no job losses for staff currently employed in the department,” she said.

She confirmed 507 vacant and unfunded posts had been abolished as they were in excess of requirements, and said the posts had not been filled in the last five years.

The original of this report by Neo Goba appeared on page 2 of Sowetan of 25 June 2018

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Monday, 25 June 2018 07:18

The Sunday Times reports that, while some have welcomed new details of the government’s proposed National Health Insurance (NHI) legislation, legal and medical experts said many doctors would reject the planned cap on what they can charge for consultations and surgeries.

Some analysts warned that state-regulated fees would drive doctors to emigrate, leaving the health sector worse off than it is now.

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi on Thursday released the National Health Insurance and Medical Schemes Amendment bills for comment.

Under the NHI Bill, the health insurance fund would be the biggest purchaser of health services in South Africa and consumers would have to contribute to it.

The bill proposes price controls in the private sector: “The fund may withdraw the accreditation of a service provider if the service provider . . . fails to adhere to the national pricing regimen for services delivered.”

Medical lawyer Neil Kirby of Werksmans said that in view of the scarcity of doctors, it would not be a good strategy to freeze out those who did not stick to NHI rates.

“The prudence of excluding healthcare providers, in an already strained system starving from a lack of available expertise, is highly questionable if not irrational,” he said.

Norton Rose Fulbright director Michelle David said doctors would not want to be told what to charge. “It is not likely to be accepted by all stakeholders [doctors and hospitals] that the largest purchaser of services will also be able to set tariffs.”

David said doctors were likely to challenge NHI in the courts, as they had challenged price control before.

Johann Serfontein of HealthMan, a consultancy that represents doctors in private practice, said: “I think there is an underlying assumption that specialists will be employed by private hospitals.”

This is currently not the case as the law ensures doctors work for themselves but are based at private hospitals.

“A survey done by the South African Private Practitioners Forum showed that 55% of specialists do not want to be employed by hospitals. So one can safely assume those will be the ones considering emigration,” said Serfontein.

Graham Anderson, principal officer of Profmed medical scheme, also warned that if doctors were not happy with the tariffs they had to charge they would emigrate. He said emigration was the main cause of members leaving Profmed, which caters to people in the professions.

“Private healthcare is an essential service. If they are going to trash the private sector in order to get the public sector up and running, doctors are going to go. If the doctors emigrate then other professionals, who can afford to leave, will go because they want healthcare for their children.”

But Brian Ruff, a former medical aid executive and founder of private health group PPO Serve, was positive about the focus of NHI. “Private healthcare is unaffordable. It was developed without adequate planning and regulation of how many hospitals and doctors are needed for the [private] population. Nobody is held accountable for the management of the cost or the quality of outcomes of the patients,” he said.

“South Africa has a very hospital-centred system. So much care happens unnecessarily in a hospital bed that could be done outside hospitals, such as at a GP’s office or day clinics.”

The Board of Healthcare Funders of Southern Africa, an industry body that represents 45 medical aids, also supported the NHI proposals. “We are committed to the NHI as a vehicle that will enable the country to achieve universal health coverage, not just for the 8.9 million lives covered in private healthcare but the 56 million of our entire population,” chairman Ali Hamdulay said.

The original of this report by Katharine Child appeared on page 6 of The Sunday Times of 24 June 2018

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Monday, 25 June 2018 05:11

BL Premium writes that, on the surface, with a leadership team of only 55 people overseeing more than six operations in South Africa, Sibanye-Stillwater's management seems stretched to an alarming degree.

That could be one of the factors contributing to its steep rise in fatalities this year. Of the 45 mineworkers who have died in South Africa this year, 20 worked at Sibanye-Stillwater operations. Since the company was founded six years ago, it has had 73 fatalities.

This week, Sibanye appointed a new safety manager to deal with the problem, which has fed into a weakening share price, down 39% this year.

The rise in fatalities comes as the miner is in a battle to rein in debt of R23-billion - more than its market capitalisation - caused by rapid expansion over its short history.

In that time, Sibanye has bought the labour-intensive operation of Gold Fields, the Kloof-Driefontein Complex, as well as Beatrix, a couple of Anglo American Platinum mines and a US miner, Stillwater.

Sibanye's industry peer, AngloGold Ashanti, has 400 employees at its Johannesburg headquarters, including skilled technical staff, overseeing 14 operations in Africa and globally.

Anglo American, the most diversified of the country's mining houses, has a corporate global headcount of 1000 workers. It has 36 assets in South Africa and internationally.

Sibanye CEO Neal Froneman has focused much of his attention on removing hierarchies and making management more centralised, leaving the general managers and vice-presidents of the company's individual mines to focus on operations.

If one adds middle management based at its mining operations, the miner has a South African leadership team of about 137 people.

Asked whether management was stretched, Sibanye spokesman James Wellsted said: "No, absolutely not.

"We took over in 2013 and removed hierarchies. We took the responsibility of unions and DMR [Department of Mineral Resources] and mayors away from them and they only focus on operations, and head office deals with those," he said.

Some analysts have argued that the need to reduce debt came with a lot of cost-cutting, which probably meant that staff in its headquarters and its operations were hard-pressed to meet production targets and management was stretched too thin.

Safety standards may have been compromised by management, say analysts. The fact that there is no new strategy on how fatalities can be avoided in future does not bode well for the miner as the market has more questions than answers.

Leon Esterhuizen, an analyst at Nedbank, said there were just too many questions about how Sibanye approached safety. "But these questions always point back to management. There is always something behind something, and that's really the problem here. Unfortunately, there is going to be a massive focus on Sibanye and its management," Esterhuizen said.

On its worrying fatality numbers, Wellsted said the company had to wait for the investigation to know what to do differently.

"We rolled out a fully revised strategy in 2017, which was successful.

"To say what we are going to do differently now, we don't know. Our systems work quite well; where they don't work we need to understand why."

Analysts said that when assessing fatalities, one had to look at each case on its merits - such as the area where the miners were during the seismic event, and if it was in the mine's "white areas". White areas are parts of the mine that have not been mined out, where there is leftover gold.

Makwe Masilela, chief investment officer at Makwe Fund Managers, said the question was whether Sibanye had enough safety personnel.

"If you had four people in charge of safety before you went too deep, and now because you are much deeper, should you not maybe consider having 50% more safety people or doubling it up?" Masilela said.

The previous owner of Sibanye's gold mines, Gold Fields, had experienced 176 deaths between 2006 and 2012 in the KDC mines, including South Deep.

Shut down

This poses a question about the risk of the operations. They have been historically problematic to mine because of their depths, reaching some 4km, and their labour-intensive nature.

Masilela said he was waiting for the day when a South African mining company would shut down for safety reasons instead of having the government do it.

"If they [mining companies] would say something like, 'We know that there is ore there and we can make money, but our worry is safety, so we need to stop mining', that would be a good change of mentality towards safety," Masilela said.

Wellsted said Froneman and the rest of management were taking the rise in fatalities hard. "It takes its toll on everyone."

By the end of the year, Sibanye is expected to acquire troubled platinum miner Lonmin, which will add a further 20000 employees at Marikana to its roster, bringing the total number of its workers to 85000.

The original of this report by Lutho Mtongana appeared on page 8 of Business Times of 24 June 2018

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