Various trade unions representing public servants including nurses, doctors and police officers will hold mass picket demonstrations across the country on Monday as they push for big wage hikes.
In a statement, the unions, which include the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union, Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union and the SA Policing Union and others, said the demonstrations come as a result of the collapsed public service wage negotiations. On the same day, there will be a conciliation hearing at the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council.
Unions demanded a 10% rise when negotiations began in May but went down to 6.5%.
Last week, acting public service & administration minister Thulas Nxesi pushed through a 3% wage deal which includes a R1,000 monthly gratuity until the end of March next year. He cited section 5 of the Public Service Act which empowers the minister to unilaterally implement the final offer on condition that any such offer does not reduce existing pay or other service benefits.
“The decision of the minister of public service and administration together with his finance counterpart to implement the offer rejected by workers doesn’t in any way resolve the dispute, hence we [are] proceeding with the conciliation. As trade unions, we have joined hands to fight back [against] the attitude and the neoliberal policies of the employer that have introduced austerity measures which are directed at public servants and the working class,” the unions said in a joint statement.
Meanwhile on Thursday, President Cyril Ramaphosa will be in parliament for another question-and-answer session. He will be quizzed about the crippling load-shedding, social infrastructure development and the contentious BEE policies.
Ramaphosa has been in the spotlight in recent times because of the alleged cover-up of the theft of US dollars at his luxury Phala Phala farmhouse.
The scandal, which has heaped pressure on Ramaphosa amid heightened tension in the governing ANC ahead of the party’s elective conference in December, stems from former spy boss Arthur Fraser bringing a criminal complaint against the president, including allegations of money laundering, kidnapping and corruption.
Fraser, said to be an ally of former president Jacob Zuma and the so-called radical economic transformation faction, said in an affidavit that Ramaphosa had concealed more than $4m on his Limpopo farm, Phala Phala, in 2020.
Greylisting
On Tuesday, parliament’s joint committees on finance and appropriations will be briefed by the parliamentary budget office and the Financial and Fiscal Commission (FFC) on the midterm budget policy statement.
The standing committee on finance will consider for adoption a report on the General Laws (Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Terrorism Financing) Amendment Bill.
The cabinet recently approved the bill, which will tighten the law relating to the beneficial ownership of companies, trusts and non-profit organisations.
The measures are a crucial step for SA to avoid greylisting by the Financial Action Task Force, an international body that establishes standards for the combating of money laundering and the financing of terrorism. Greylisting, which essentially means the country is seen as a high-risk jurisdiction in which to transact, will have dire consequences for the economy and in particular the financial sector.
On Friday, the standing committee on finance and the select committee will hear the National Treasury’s response to submissions received on the revised fiscal framework and revenue proposals.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, Ramaphosa will host the Presidential Summit on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide in Midrand under the theme “Accountability. Acceleration and Amplification, Now.”
The conference will reflect on the work undertaken since the first presidential summit in November 2018, report on key successes and challenges, and outline clear strategies to overcome them.
The leader of the opposition in Gauteng, Solly Msimanga, and the DA Gauteng spokesperson for infrastructure development, Nico de Jager, will on Monday lay a complaint with the SA Human Rights Commission in Braamfontein regarding the water crisis in the province.
“For many weeks our residents have been left with limited access to water and electricity. Rand Water has been calling on our residents to use water sparingly, yet during our recent oversight inspection of the pumping station and water reservoir in Eikenhof we discovered that there is a water leak right outside their premises,” the DA said.
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