President Cyril Ramaphosa will this week join five other African heads of state on a peace mission to Russia and Ukraine with the aim of finding a peaceful resolution to the conflict in that region.
Ramaphosa will be joined by the heads of state of Zambia, Senegal, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Egypt. They are expected to meet Russia President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss ways of ending the war.
The planned visit to Russia and Ukraine comes against a backdrop of Pretoria taking flak for refusing to condemn Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. SA has denied this and has maintained that it remains neutral in the conflict.
The talks come as Moscow is preparing for its second summit with African countries, scheduled for the end of July in St Petersburg.
SA is set to host the Brics summit in August at which Putin’s attendance is uncertain after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest. As a signatory to the Rome Statute, SA would be compelled to detain the Russian leader.
In a separate statement, the presidency said Ramaphosa had discussions with both Putin and China’s President Xi Jinping to brief the leaders on the Africa-led peace mission as well as the upcoming Brics summit.
“Ramaphosa noted the peace plan that has been proposed by China and affirmed SA’s and the African leaders’ support of initiatives that are aimed at a peaceful resolution of the conflict,” presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said.
Deputy President Paul Mashatile will lead Youth Day commemorations in the Free State on Friday. Mashatile will also be in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), where he will be answering questions from delegates in the house.
Ministers will also answer questions from MPs in the NCOP, beginning with the economics cluster and governance cluster on Tuesday, followed by the peace & security cluster on Wednesday.
The National Assembly will hold its last sittings for the second term before members of the house take a 10-week constituency period until August 28. The NCOP constituency period is scheduled from June 26 until September 4.
Eskom
Eskom management and unions will hold another round of talks after parties could not reach agreement during wage talks in May. The cash-strapped power utility started with an initial offer of 3.75%, which it adjusted to 4.5%, before settling on 5.25%. All these offers have been rejected by unions demanding increases of up to 12%.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), the two largest unions representing the majority of Eskom’s estimated workforce of 42,000, initially demanded increases of 15% but are now demanding 11% and 12%, respectively. Solidarity members demanded an increase of 3% above the average inflation rate, which advanced to 7.1% in March from 7% in February.
The DA’s court case against sections of the Employment Equity Amendment Act will be heard in the high court in Pretoria. DA leader John Steenhuisen said the party will demonstrate in its court submission that the term “numerical targets” is a misnomer and that in reality the act sets rigid racial quotas for four job levels across 18 economic sectors.
The legislation allows the employment & labour minister Thulas Nxesi to set employment equity targets for specific economic sectors and to prescribe demographic targets for employers with more than 50 employees. Companies seeking to do business with the government will need a certificate of compliance from the department.
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