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Thursday, 14 February 2019 10:26

The Citizen reports that according to a a labour expert, close to 400,000 jobs must be created per year, with both the government and the private sector playing active roles in the process, or the country will face many more strikes, says.

Innovative Staffing Solutions managing director Arnoux Mare said strikes such as yesterday’s national mass action organised by the trade union federation Cosatu could not be avoided unless unemployment was reduced.

He said strikes over the high rate of unemployment and job losses would continue if the government did not create secure employment at a faster rate than envisaged.

Such strikes inconvenienced both the public and private sectors, devastated the economy and affected investment prospects.

Instead of helping to end unemployment, strikes worsened it, because employers were put under duress due to loss of profits.

This would, in turn, result in many employers considering retrenchments.

National strikes also cost the country billions of rands in lost production and wages.

Cosatu attempted to mobilise its two million members to join yesterday’s national strike demanding an end to the current jobs bloodbath that has seen the official unemployment rate shoot to 27.5% and the unofficial rate exceed 35%.

The unions were protesting retrenchments in the private sector, especially in mines where at least 75 000 jobs were lost over the past three years, with close to 100,000 to go with the pending closure of five coal mines in Mpumalanga.

Mare said President Cyril Ramaphosa’s promise to create more than 270,000 jobs a year was not enough to make a dent in the unemployment rate.

“The country needs to create between 350,000 and 400,000 jobs per year in order to keep the nation at work.

“The private sector, especially entrepreneurs, are the biggest creators of jobs and they must look at how to do more to solve joblessness in the country.” Presently, South Africa’s employment situation was unfavourable, considering the recent Statistics South Africa report finding that 6.1 million people were without jobs.

The statistics indicated the country also had 2.9 million discouraged job seekers and another 12.6 million people who were not economically active.

“The government cannot create mass employment fast enough to eradicate poverty or bring the unemployment rate down to zero,” Mare said.

“Private companies need to assist the stimulation of the economy by creating jobs.

“Our business model has proven successful and has offered our clients the room to focus and grow their companies, which ultimately leads to more people being employed.”

Mare said Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni’s budget speech next week would serve to gauge how the government would adapt its current strategies to provide for the envisaged job creation in both the public and private sectors.

Labour lawyer and partner at Hogan Lovells South Africa, Osborne Molatudi, said the Cosatu strike was a clear political statement to the government that it has to do something about unemployment.

Government cannot create jobs fast enough

The original of this report by Eric Naki appeared on page 2 of The Citizen of 14 February 2019

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Wednesday, 13 February 2019 11:22

Sowetan reports that a last-minute payment of more than 200 intern doctors on Monday averted a legal showdown with the Gauteng department of health.

The doctors had not been paid the January salaries, leading to their association serving the department with an ultimatum to pay or face court action.

The department failed to meet a January 31 deadline for salary payments due to administrative delays, placing scores of intern doctors under financial strain. Yesterday, the South African Medical Association (Sama) said it had served the department with a letter of demand on Friday, with a view to heading to the high court today if the 222 doctors were not paid.

However, spokesperson for health MEC Dr Gwen Ramokgopa, Khutso Rabothatha, said intern doctors had been paid by midday yesterday, adding that there was no need for Sama to approach the high court for relief. “There won’t be any need for that anymore because people were paid,” Rabothatha said. Yesterday, Sama board member Dr Rhulani Ngwenya said they served the department with a letter of demand after some people were still unpaid by February 7. Ngwenya said the aim was to seek an urgent interdict forcing the department to pay salaries.

He said Sama would verify the list of doctors to ensure that everyone was covered. Frustrated doctors had taken to social media to share pictures of their colleagues counting coins to buy food, while some posted videos of themselves singing songs about going hungry. Yesterday, DA health spokesperson MEC Jack Bloom said the payments were a relief, however, the salary crisis reflected poor planning and a lack of proper administration on the part of the department.

“People called me saying that they have been paid, which is good but it is unacceptable for people to get their January salaries 11 days into February.

“This is not a good way for doctors to start the year,” Bloom said.

The original of this report by Zoë Mahopo appeared on page 6 of Sowetan of 12 February 2019

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Tuesday, 12 February 2019 14:30

Sowetan reports that a sixth suspect in the cable theft at the Gupta-owned Gloria Coal Mine in Mpumalanga last week has been released as police conduct more investigations over the incident. Brig Leonard Hlathi told Sowetan yesterday the man was released yesterday because the police had to conduct further investigations as directed by the public prosecutor. The new development came as employees at the mine continued to halt the search and rescue operation for the remaining trapped cable thieves underground.

“The rescue operation won’t continue today [Monday] because we have the employees who won’t permit us to continue the operation until they are paid their salaries‚” business rescue representative for the mine Mike Elliot said yesterday. The disruption started late last week.

Elliot said there was no money to pay the disgruntled employees. In business rescue we were generating money for the employees‚ they have been receiving their salaries all the way up to the end of October [2018]. Basically‚ the cash got used to pay Eskom and other creditors to keep the mine operations running,” Elliot said.

“Eventually, the bills far exceeded the amount of income. We just ran out of cash and there wasn’t production to look after it.” The Gloria mine forms part of the Optimum Coal assets bought by the Gupta family in 2016. They were put into business rescue early last year. Several thieves were trapped underground after a gas explosion on Wednesday while stripping cables at the mine‚ which has been closed for months. Elliot said they received information from the community last week that at least 22 people were trapped underground. “The community thought that there had been some sort of explosion. We went out and examined the main fans and we found that the blast doors‚ which protect the fans against an explosion‚ had been blown off.” Elliot said the atmosphere in the mine was full of poisonous gases‚ including carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. “We couldn’t get to where the community told us that these people were. We can’t reach it with our oxygen set‚ it’s too far. We must re-establish power to the mine that the copper thieves cut‚ [because] they cut the overhead power lines and made them fall down.” Elliot said the copper thieves had also stolen the Eskom supply cable. The bodies of five suspected thieves were recovered.

The original of this report by Iavan Pijoos appeared on page 10 of Sowetan of 12 February 2019

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Thursday, 07 February 2019 10:51

The Star reports that a new mother was among a large number of patients who were barred from either entering or leaving Leratong Hospital due to a strike over staff shortages and alleged nepotism.

Ambulances and patients were turned away at the main entrance as hospital workers, including doctors, nurses and support staff, protested. Their grievances included the alleged “selling” of posts at the hospital on the West Rand.

Staff on night shift on Monday were locked inside the institution.

The new mother, who asked not to be named, said she had given birth at the hospital two days before. She and her baby boy had been discharged, but the child needed to be readmitted for further observation.

“It was stressful (giving birth) and I was delighted when the doctor discharged us.

“I could not wait to get home. As we were about to leave at about 8am, we were told that there was a strike and no one was allowed to come in or leave,” she said.

“We have been sitting outside, waiting to leave, for hours now. I haven’t had a proper meal all day.”

Twitter user @funo_deluxe, who was worried about her mother, who worked night shift on Monday, posted: “My mother went to work last night (Monday) at Leratong Hospital and she hasn’t returned home because there is a strike happening, and they are locked inside the hospital.”

Hospital spokesperson Fikile Oyekanmi said the strike started in the morning, adding that it would not continue today, as hospital management had met with unions to discuss staff grievances.

She said the hospital had more than 1 700 employees.

“Some staff members were inside the premises, helping in the wards. There were patients who were denied access at a certain time and obviously, because there were fewer staff working, we wouldn’t have performed like we normally do.

“There haven’t been any reports of anything drastic happening,” added Oyekanmi.

She confirmed that allegations had been made that posts at the hospital were being sold.

The Star understands that workers are frustrated after posts that were advertised late last year were frozen.

Kagiso police spokesperson Captain Solomon Sibiya dismissed reports of a hostage situation at the hospital. “The workers are protesting peacefully. There was no violence reported but police monitored the situation.”

The original of this report by Sibingile Mashaba appeared on page 2 of The Star of 6 February 2019

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Monday, 04 February 2019 14:05

Sowetan reports that senior officials at the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) have been accused of rigging an interview process for the post of facilities manager in order to appoint their preferred candidate.  This was the finding of an arbitrator at a bargaining council hearing which found that Linda Mphuti was deprived of the appointment to a job after acting in the role for four years.

Mphuti had filed a dispute after another candidate was appointed to the role. He said the interview process had been flawed and skewed in his competitor’s favour.

Arbitrator in the matter Itumeleng Williams recommended that the appointment of another official into the post be set aside because she was allegedly given interview questionnaire prior to her being interviewed.

“The third party [successful candidate] was party to the circumvention of a fair and objective recruitment process,” Williams said.

“There is overwhelming evidence that she had either direct or indirect access to the executive director or the human resources manager, or both, before the interview process.”

Williams said the appointment of the successful candidate was unfair and that the failure to appoint Mphuti as facilities manager constituted an unfair labour practice.

“On the day of the interview, I walked into the waiting area at the venue and found the other applicant going through a set of questions. I knew that something wasn’t right at that moment but didn’t think much of it,” Mphuti told Sowetan. The hearing also found that this was done in a bid to manipulate the recruitment process for the preferred applicant. But a frustrated Mphuti said the appointment was yet to be reversed nearly a year after the finding of the arbitrator. City of Johannesburg spokesperson Nthatisi Modingoane said the city was not obliged to abide by the arbitrator’s award. He said the city has approached the labour court to review and set aside the award.

“This matter is sub judice and before the labour court and no action can be expected until such time that the court decides on the application for review,” Modingoane said.

However, in March JMPD chief David Tembe instructed the acting executive director to intervene in the matter. “The evidence showed Mr Linda Mphuti acted with some urgency in referring the dispute to arbitration. “The delay in having the matter heard seems to be systematic in nature. The human resources department should implement the arbitration award as per the ruling.”

This matter is sub judice and before the labour court

The original of this report by Tankiso Makhetha appeared on page 8 of Sowetan of 4 February 2019

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