This news aggregator site highlights South African labour news from a wide range of internet and print sources. Each posting has a synopsis of the source article, together with a link or reference to the original. Postings cover the range of labour related matters from industrial relations to generalist human resources.
Last Update: 08-08-2025
Sowetan reports that the escape of two prisoners at the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg on Friday has been blamed on inexperienced court orderlies and staff shortages.
Two murder suspects, Andile Ncanyelo and Njabulo Khumalo, who were due to appear at the court, allegedly overpowered court orderlies who were escorting them from a police truck into the holding cells. Their daring escape led to the court precinct being placed under lockdown as police teams searched for them in and outside the building.
Police spokesperson Captain Kay Makhubele said police were still hunting for the pair and that they had been due to appear in court on charges of murder. But court officers who were on duty on the day told Sowetan that 16 suspects, including the two who escaped, overpowered inexperienced court orderlies. Richard Mamabolo, the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union said the problem was that the ratio of police officials to the inmates was low.
“At times you find that there is one official who is responsible for transporting five inmates to different courts in one city. This obviously poses a danger to officials,” Mambolo said.
He said he did not know the number of court orderlies currently placed at the high court but said each court was allocated a number of officials necessary to its needs.
One officer alleged one police officer was stabbed in the arm during the scuffle with the prisoners.
The officer further said that security measures did not appear to have been taken into account on Friday as he saw at least three officers attempting to lead the inmates into the holding cells.
“A total of 16 of them overpowered the police officers who were taking them into the cells. The officers are new and have no experience. They look like they were reservists or came here straight from college,” the officer said.
“On average you find at least four police vehicles escorting a truck of inmates. On Friday there was only one vehicle and I saw only three officers at the time taking inmates into the cells,” the official said. Another official alleged there had been a severe shortage of court orderlies, which had resulted in suspects trying to escape frequently.
“The police are at fault for this escape. These kids don’t know what they are doing. There has been a request sent to the police for more staff to be brought but they do not seem to entertain this request,” said the official.
Makhubele said police had not received a request to beef up security at the high court. “We are not aware of any requests made,” he said.
Makhubele said the pair had not yet been rearrested. Meanwhile, investigations into their escape continues.
This is the second time prisoners have es1aped from the same court in less than two months. Mongezi Mcunukelwa and Sbonelo Nkosingiphe Thwala escaped from the court in December. Mcunukelwa was rearrested six days later and was slapped with two life sentences for the deaths of Mpho Richard Morabe and Mokete Ben Moloi, while murder-accused Thwala remains at large. Makhubele said Ncanyelo was due to appear in connection with a murder he allegedly committed in Randfontein on the west rand in 2017, while Khumalo was to appear for a murder charge opened in Kliptown, Soweto, last year. Friday’s court roll revealed that Ncanyelo was scheduled to appear alongside two other accused for sentencing.
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Mark Cutifani, chief executive of Anglo American Plc, writes that he has dedicated more than 40 years of my life to a wonderful industry that has helped lift countries out of poverty, providing the raw materials which make modern life possible and playing a significant role in the world’s economic activity.
But mining is also an industry at a crossroads as society’s expectations of business rightly grow. For us in mining, we must never think that the status quo is enough. We must strive for step changes in how we mine, how we can enable the full benefits and how we engage with society as a whole.
Put simply, we are the custodians of many of the world’s precious resources. It is with that great responsibility that we must lead our industry with the expectation that mining should be a trailblazer in social and community developments. In our industry, sustainability is not a luxury, it is a business imperative.
At Anglo American, we have recently set out an ambitious sustainability strategy, to transform how our stakeholders experience our business, both locally and globally. Our approach goes far beyond compliance with mining law or regulatory requirements. It is about making a more strategic, holistic, positive and lasting impact – sustainable business in its full and proper sense.
Partnership and engagement are at the heart of this transformative approach. Our efforts to realise longterm and truly sustainable development opportunities are centred on what we call collaborative regional development.
This innovative approach identifies socio-economic development opportunities with the greatest potential in a region, through spatial planning and analysis, and was originally inspired by the Kellogg Innovation Network’s Development Partner Framework.
Spatial planning enables us to start addressing issues in space and context. We can gather, collate, clean, improve and analyse large quantities of spatially referenced data from across a single region. This integrated approach supports us to answer such questions as what and where are the economic opportunities or social challenges? And how are they inter-related?
This work creates the catalyst for partnerships with a broad range of stakeholders, from business to government, researchers to practitioners, and from community representatives to faith groups. By working through partnerships, we are better able to deliver on our commitment to help catalyse and facilitate long-term, sustainable development in our host regions, far beyond the life of the mine.
We began this approach in 2016 at Mogalakwena, our largest platinum operation in the Limpopo province of South Africa. And we are now considering ways to extend it to other countries, including Botswana, Peru and Colombia.
At Mogalakwena, we work with a broad range of stakeholders, including the charity World Vision, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, planning firm Dobbin International, mining company Exxaro Resources and the Office of the Premier in Limpopo Province. A dedicated support organisation staffed by representatives from these partners ensures we all pursue a co-ordinated agenda, measure impact consistently and communicate openly.
It is early days, but we have a chance to work towards the longterm socio-economic development of this region in South Africa. We have already begun pilots in supplier development, agro-processing, the biodiversity economy and access to information technology. And we are exploring other opportunities.
The upside is clear as such a strategy could create substantial economic benefit and employment across Limpopo province. Collaboration isn’t just the right thing to do; it makes good business sense for everyone.
As with any new approach, we have learnt a great deal. First, we’ve recognised that focusing solely on development closest to the mine is not a recipe for success. There is a much wider area of impact that we have a responsibility to consider, which also has a bearing on the local infrastructure and our own.
Second, as collaboration evolves, our partners are discovering that the time frames of different parties can be restrictive. For many organisations, it is tempting to think in short-term cycles. But in reality, we cannot be particularly strategic in short time spans or deliver the most effective outcomes. We need to look at socio-economic development in a different way, where we try to lead developments over a much longer time frame.
Of course, the realities of collaborating with disparate partners can be challenging. Global organisations are usually not geared up for working in a truly collaborative way at the regional level. However, we are already seeing the situation shift in a positive direction within our industry.
Other businesses, including those from the tourism, pharmaceutical and agricultural sectors, are also recognising the intrinsic value of this approach. We need to be working together across industrial sectors, which share a physical space, to maximise the benefits that can be achieved.
In collaborative regional development, the various parties involved are all accountable to their own constituents, which will inevitably mean different organisations have particular
The original of this article appeared on page 16 of Business Report of 4 February 2019
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Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it, in a different form, in very different circumstances. Prescribed assets have been given a rough time since the ANC suggested in their manifesto that their reintroduction be investigated. Handled properly, specifically by experts, under a proper mandate, fit-for-purpose prescribed assets may prove a better solution than the alternatives.
The composition and extent of the liabilities of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) is clearly inappropriate and not sustainable. The problem has got so big it is not easily soluble within the current system, given the state of our sovereign balance sheet and the prospects for our income statements. Some of the funding has to be spent on the past, and that requires force, it seems.
Eskom has been characterised as too big to fail — of course it is, but so is the whole integrated state machinery, obviously, so we have to solve everything — not just to avoid failure, but to invite the prospect of success.
Raising capital outside of the system is part of the solution, but it comes at a price and is not without its unintended consequences.
Privatisation is the common cry. I am not convinced. If we introduce equity capital (either local or international) we’ll have to offer a market-risk return. In an economically polarised society it’s not that simple. SOEs, by their very nature, have a mixture of commercial and public service mandates. We can’t simply maximise return on shareholders’ funds. Whether those mandates are being efficiently executed now or not is a separate matter — we’re arguing funding here, not management. If they were indeed well managed, how should they be funded?
Foreign direct investment is required. We need capital from outside the ecosystem, but we shouldn’t sell state assets to foreign investors — we’ve learnt that lesson. We need to create state capacity, not entrench dependencies, that much is obvious.
We could increase taxes — passing the burden from the electricity users (or whatever service we’re talking about) to the taxpayers at large. Given the skewed tax base, I wonder how different the impact would be on the pool of capital that prescribed assets would indirectly target anyway?
We could prescribe a 15%-per-annum increase for the next three years and watch how that ruins the economy and broadly erodes the tax base.
Whichever way we solve it will require an imposition on the natural market forces of asset allocation. The solution must address the cause.
The system isn’t the answer either. The government takes all the risk and established financial capital gets all the returns, further entrenching inequality.
Essentially, established commercial banks lend money to SOEs against a National Treasury guarantee. Completing the circle, you’ll find that these same banks take deposits from the public to fund their assets (loans), including those risk-free, government-underwritten loans to SOEs, at a substantial margin, not justified by the risk.
The net result is a transfer of value from the relatively poor citizens of SA to the rich owners of capital, underwritten by the state. With something like R500bn of government guarantees in issue (albeit not fully utilised) there is a lot of money in the mix. We need to think about it differently.
Instead of underwriting the banks, or the capital market investors (who are surely clever and capable enough to look after themselves), why don’t we underwrite the savings of our people directly? Instead of putting your money in the bank, why not be able to invest it directly in government-underwritten prescribed assets, at a retail level? There is more than enough space in the retail interest-rate structure to substantially increase the “deposit rate” to individuals and simultaneously lower the cost of funding to the SOEs. The risk to the state is no different, it would just cost less.
More asset managers than you’d expect would welcome this asset class as part of their investment portfolios, given the problems it will solve for the very companies they choose to invest in anyway, and the blended risk-return it adds.
If pension funds don’t want the prescribed assets, they could simply unitise them into the retail market and make some extra money providing liquidity. We have the national infrastructure to do this.
It is obvious that this capital should be raised and managed into properly costed, specifically identified projects that will be professional managed, in an accountable way.
Let’s do it?
The original of this opinion piece by Mark Barnes appeared at BL Premium (paywall access only)
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The Star writes that, with the Tshwane ANC having already declared it wants embattled city manager Moeketsi Mosola to step down amid the GladAfrica tender scandal, the spotlight will shift to the EFF.
During the last council sitting, in November, a motion brought by mayor Solly Msimanga to suspend Mosola was deferred to this month.
With the council sitting on Thursday, Msimanga is expected to table the Auditor-General’s 2017/18 unqualified audit report.
After the sitting, he will vacate his office to focus solely on his role as Gauteng premier candidate for the DA in the general elections.
At the last sitting, both the EFF and ANC agreed that the matter be deferred, without giving any reasons. It will be seen this week if the EFF will follow in the footsteps of the ANC and support the motion to have Mosola suspended for a series of misdemeanours.
In the leaked draft report from the Attorney-General, it was found that Tshwane’s controversial multibillion rand contract with GladAfrica was irregular. The report presents the final financials for the period July 1, 2017 to June 28 last year.
Mosola has fought off efforts to suspend him. He has denied any wrongdoing and successfully blocked the tabling of a Bowmans report into the tender award after obtaining a court interdict in the Labour Court.
The report found that Mosola had allegedly awarded the tender without following due process.
The Attorney-General report leaked last week effectively blamed Mosola for issuing the tender outside the legal prescripts in November 2017.
The project management contract has been at the centre of political bickering between the DA and EFF in the council. The EFF has consistently supported Mosola against allegations of wrongdoing related to the three-year contract. The party also objected to two attempts by Msimanga to suspend Mosola over the allegations of tender irregularities.
EFF leader Julius Malema previously said his party would not support Mosola’s removal or suspension until it was presented with tangible evidence of wrongdoing. “If there is evidence against Mosola, he will go ‘as in yesterday’,” Malema said at the time.
During a media briefing last week, Malema said EFF councillors would take part in the tabling of the GladAfrica report in council. “We hold everyone accountable. Institutions like the Auditor-General help us to hold everybody accountable. We will be there, and once it comes from the A-G, then it will be something tangible. We will deal with it,” he said.
Malema dismissed claims that the EFF had links with GladAfrica. “We have nothing to hide. We have no relationship with GladAfrica. We didn’t bring GladAfrica into Tshwane. We don’t bring any company to any municipality,” he said.
Mosola has refused to be drawn into calls by the ANC for him to step down. He would not be drawn into commenting on whether the city would start legal processes to nullify the contract, for which R317 million has already been paid, according to the A-G’s report.
Mosola also kept mum on the possibility of recouping the money from GladAfrica.
Asked about the possibility of nullifying the contract, finance MMC MareLise Fourie said: “We are waiting for the final report and we will follow the right procedures. Remember, the tender was irregular… to set the tender aside you have to go to a court of law. It is exactly the same thing we did with the Peu electricity smart meters.”
Msimanga’s spokesperson Samkelo Mgobozi said it was premature to contemplate initiating legal processes with a view to nullifying the tender. “We must explore what the options are first.”
In a media statement, GladAfrica Group said: “We… will wait for the City of Tshwane to furnish us with the findings or contents of the A-G’s management report before we comment on the matter.”
The original of this report by Rapula Moatshe appeared on page 2 of The Star of 28 January 2019
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Theto Mahlakoana writes that the hard-fought right of workers to be consulted on workplace services that affect their welfare, such as catering and company transport, has been hijacked by corruption and self-enrichment.
The commission of inquiry into state capture heard last week from former Bosasa COO Angelo Agrizzi how union leaders were bribed to secure contracts worth millions of rand for Bosasa in the companies where they are organised.
The practice is all too common, current and former leaders told Business Day, indicating that it dates back to the 1980s when outsourcing was introduced for services such as catering and later for transport in South African mines and other big industrial plants such as those owned by Sasol.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) was among the organisations that fought to have a stake in the appointment of the service providers, stating that they wanted to have a say in everything that affects workers, including the quality of food.
However, this virtue became the gateway for shop stewards to cut deals with competing companies.
In instances where employers awarded contracts to service providers other than the shop stewards’ preferred bidder, workers would be galvanised to strike, forcing employers to buckle under pressure.
Agrizzi mentioned the names of some of Cosatu’s oldest unions including the NUM, claiming that officials had benefited from tenders that were irregularly awarded to Bosasa by private companies and government departments.
He said the NUM’s former Kloof Gold Mine branch chair, the late Jackson Mafika, was paid bribes by his company to sway decisions over catering contracts in its favour.
Although the NUM said it will investigate the revelations, insiders told Business Day that any shock expressed at the implication of its officials in corrupt dealings is disingenuous.
The corruption is embedded, with branch leaders in mining unions on the gravy train, said a source.
Agrizzi told the commission that a trade unionist from the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) had also received a bribe at GoldFields’ Kloof mine.
The revelations expose another layer of complexity in the persistent violence that has marked the competition for members on the mines. Dozens of lives have been snuffed out by bullets as the rivalry between the NUM and its splinter union, Amcu, raged.
Key to winning the power to influence contracts is for the union to secure majority status, which shuts out rival unions and gives shop stewards access to service providers. The lucrative nature of the position also explains the violent rivalry within unions to elect shop stewards.
The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union rejected claims by Agrizzi that a general secretary of the union was promised R1m for his part in dodgy deals.
Agrizzi also testified that Simon Mofokeng, general secretary of the Chemical‚ Energy‚ Paper‚ Printing‚ Wood and Allied Workers Union (Ceppawu), also a Cosatu affiliate, gave Bosasa inside information for a contract at Sasol.
Mofokeng has over the years fought off numerous court battles, including the labour registrar’s attempts to place Ceppwawu under administration for several irregularities in an attempt to remain at the helm of the dysfunctional union.
He was replaced at the 2018 congress.
Cosatu general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali said the federation does not have a policy to deal with leaders of affiliates who abuse their positions of influence.
He conceded, however, that the revelations threaten the integrity of Cosatu and its members in the light of an already worrying trend, which has seen union investment companies become the source of instability and infighting.
“This is a new area; we never knew we would come to this stage and as a result, we will have to propose policies on how these issues should be treated. We’ll have to discuss it in terms of protecting the integrity of the organisation because it’s not just influence but corruption too,” said Ntshalintshali.
He said the issues will be discussed at Cosatu’s upcoming special central executive committee meeting scheduled for next week.
The original of this article is at BL Premium (paywall access only)
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