State-owned freight logistics company Transnet will be back at the negotiating table early in the week to resume wage talks with organised labour.
This comes after a two-week cooling-off period during which some unions said they had rejected the employer’s revised offer.
Earlier this month, the United National Transport Union and the SA Transport and Allied Workers Union rejected Transnet’s revised above-inflation wage increase offer, which includes 5.5% for the first and second years and 5% in the last year of the agreement.
This has raised the spectre of industrial action that could disrupt rail and port operations in SA and blight the struggling economy.
It will be a busy week for President Cyril Ramaphosa, who will address the annual official opening of the National House of Traditional and Khoisan Leaders and meet the Gates Foundation.
The latter meeting is timely as the Gates Foundation has a significant history of working with UNAids, including a $750m pledge to the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and a long-term commitment of $100m to Unitaid to improve access to health products in low- and middle-income countries.
The meeting between Ramaphosa and the Gates Foundation follows the Trump administration’s abrupt termination of funds for HIV/Aids organisations in SA earlier this year.
US President Donald Trump issued an executive order pausing all foreign aid pending a review of whether the aid aligns with his foreign policy agenda.
Also on Tuesday, deputy president Paul Mashatile will chair a meeting of the government of national unity (GNU) clearing house mechanism, which is supposed to resolve disputes in the coalition government at national level.
The Sunday Times reported the GNU is headed for another battle, this time over the replacement of Ebrahim Rasool as SA’s ambassador to the US.
It was reported that the DA wants Ramaphosa’s appointment to be a decision of the GNU, while the ANC contends that the GNU partners agreed that foreign policy would not be within the purview of the governing coalition, which includes 10 parties.
Meanwhile, parliament’s two finance committees will hold public hearings on Tuesday on the fiscal framework tabled by finance minister Enoch Godongwana, which includes a VAT increase that has been rejected by most opposition political parties.
All eyes will be on parliament as the April 3 deadline to pass the budget approaches, with the two largest parties in the GNU disagreeing over its contents.
In the end, Godongwana had to reduce the VAT hike to two increases of half a percentage point each in 2025 and 2026, which is still not acceptable to the DA.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.