Minister Lindiwe Sisulu requested to investigate corruption allegations

By Nico Strydom

Trade union Solidarity this week, in a letter addressed to Public Service and Administration Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, called for an investigation into allegations of corruption in which high-level police members are implicated. This follows on reports in the weekend press that a police colonel has been unsuccessfully trying to expose corruption within the South African Police Service (SAPS) for years.

Col. Johan Roos, who is being represented by Solidarity in a Labour Court case against the SAPS, said in a protected disclosure that the Minister of Police, the Commissioner of Police and various specialist investigating units are aware of the corruption, but it is being swept under the carpet. Johan Kruger, spokesperson for Solidarity, says Minister Sisulu recently declared war against corruption, saying it will not be tolerated. Kruger says these allegations are an ideal opportunity for Sisulu to prove that she is serious about fighting corruption in the public service. ‘We call on Minister Sisulu to make this matter the first assignment for her department’s new anticorruption bureau. Such a step would confirm that Minister Sisulu is indeed serious about clamping down on corruption.’

Rapport and City Press reported at the weekend that they are in possession of a file containing secret reports and official documents regarding the looting of a secret police fund as well as Roos’s urgent attempts to report the looting to his bosses. The startling allegations emanating from the file include, among other things, that agents who had close ties with high-level police members allegedly received in excess of R8 million in claims and payments, that false claims were submitted and that close to 250 posts were filled by top police members’ friends and family members.

Solidarity is representing Roos in a discrimination case in the Johannesburg Labour Court. The information that came to light over the weekend is a central part of the case. Kruger says that although Solidarity can assist Roos only in so far as the labour dispute is concerned, no stone should be left unturned to thoroughly investigate the allegations of corruption that has gone unpunished. ‘Intervention by Minister Sisulu in circumstances where high-ranking government officials were apparently unwilling to have any allegations of corruption investigated in spite of damning evidence submitted by Roos, will prove she is serious in her intention to get tough on corruption,’ says Kruger.

The case in which Solidarity is representing Col. Roos in the Labour Court is in an advanced stage and a trial date is expected to be received soon.

By Nico Strydom

The Chamber of Mines' opening wage offer of only 4% for employees in the gold industry and the fact that after seven meetings no agreement could be reached regarding a document on the 'house rules' is an indication that the 2013 negotiations with the Chamber would be exceptionally challenging, the Solidarity trade union said this week. Solidarity is demanding an increase of 10%.

According to Solidarity General Secretary Gideon du Plessis, Amcu proposed drastic changes to the document on ‘house rules’ agreed upon last week, making it impossible for the other parties to sign it. ‘This is a further indication of the tough negotiations ahead. It also seems that Amcu's decision maker is not part of the negotiations, but operates under remote control from the outside. The Chamber's introductory presentation today further outlined a dismal picture with about 60% of the country's gold mines being unprofitable, 14 000 jobs lost over the past two years and South Africa not the world's top gold producer for the first time in 10 years, but relegated to the sixth position.’

Du Plessis said that in order to reach a settlement without a strike, employers would be required to offer an increase above the budgeted figure. ‘The Chamber would have to raise its offer dramatically to create the atmosphere for a settlement. Union members will also have to accept a lower-than-expected increase. The Chamber also reacted with caution to the unions' other substantive claims. Strong leadership from both employers and unions will be needed to place the country's interests first and to reach a settlement that will put the gold industry back on track.’

The next meeting is scheduled for July 24 when the unions will react to the Chamber of Mines' feedback.

By Nico Strydom

Trade union Solidarity said it was disappointed with Eskom’s latest wage offer of 5,6% and furthermore expressed its concern over the electricity giant’s proposal for a five-year agreement. Meanwhile, Eskom has referred the matter to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), claiming the negotiations reached a deadlock, although trade unions wanted to continue with the negotiations.

Deon Reyneke, Head of Solidarity’s Metal, Engineering and Electrical Industry, said trade unions had called for the wage negotiations to carry on, as the talks had according to them not reached a stalemate yet. Eskom turned down the request, however, and referred the matter to the CCMA. ‘It is worrying that Eskom’s offer is still below the current inflation rate. Bearing in mind that the CPI inflation rate may increase by the end of the year and given that fuel and food prices have risen sharply, Solidarity had no choice but to turn down Eskom’s wage offer for a 5,6% increase,’ he said.

Eskom attributes its paltry wage offer to the fact that Nersa had turned down its application for a 16% tariff increase and granted just 8%. Solidarity is demanding a 12% wage increase. ‘We are, however, still more than willing to negotiate with Eskom and will submit any fair offer from the employer to our members.’

By Cilleste van der Walt

Oupa Magashula, commissioner of the South African Revenue Service (Sars), last week stepped down with immediate effect after admitting that improper behaviour on his part constituted a failure to promote and maintain the high standard of professionalism and ethical behaviour expected of a Sars commissioner.

Pravin Gordhan, Finance Minister, initiated an investigation in March to probe allegations of impropriety which surfaced through the media, leading to Magashula’s resignation. 

The inquiry, undertaken by a committee headed by retired Constitutional Court Judge Zak Yacoob, found that Magashula had not committed a crime when he inappropriately offered a 28-year-old chartered accounted a job, but that he had placed the reputation and credibility of Sars at risk.

Ivan Pillay, deputy commissioner, will head up Sars as acting commissioner until a replacement has been found for Magashula who had been the head of the revenue service since 2009.

University brain drain due to low salaries
By Reint Dykema

The Times reports that academics are hitting the road for the promise of big money in the private and public sectors.  The trend has prompted a study by Higher Education SA which has members in all 23 of SA’s universities. 

Jeffrey Mabelebele, the body’s CEO, said ‘there is recognition that the salaries of academic workers do not keep pace with those of employees in other sectors of the economy.’ ‘[We are] conducting a study on academic salaries across the entire public university sector with a view to determining a benchmark,’ he indicated. 

Dr Geoff Heald of the Wits Business School said higher salaries were ‘undoubtedly’ luring brilliant young academics with ‘exceptional qualifications’ away from academia. ‘The risk on the other side of the coin is that the low salaries could attract mediocre academic bureaucrats to our universities who simply can’t cut it,’ said Heald.

MY WORK

Unauthorised use of vehicles and accidents
By Lelanie du Plessis

Question:

My employer dismissed me for the unauthorised use of their motor vehicle and for being in an accident at the time. They have held a disciplinary meeting beforehand. It is the employer’s policy that we may not use their vehicles after hours between 19:00 and 05:00 and that we have to obtain permission to do so from our managers. I called my manager and he refused to give me permission to use the vehicle after hours to drive back from the area where I had been working during the week. He said I had to sleep another night in the guesthouse since it was a long drive. However, I wanted to be back at the office early the next morning and left at 02:00 to drive back. There were roadworks and I rolled the vehicle shortly after I left. My employer did not reclaim the damages to the vehicle from me. I have a clean disciplinary record and I have worked at the company for two years. I am of the opinion that my dismissal was unfair, although my employer followed the correct procedure. Surely, I should have received three warnings first. If I wanted to refer the matter to the CCMA, what would my chances of success be? 

Answer:

When determining the fairness of a dismissal, two aspects should be taken into account, namely the procedure followed and the substance (reason for dismissal). I conclude from the above that the procedure followed by the employer before your dismissal is not in dispute, only the substance.

In this case, you have been accused of serious misconduct, which could lead to dismissal even if it was your first offense. It is a misconception that an employer has to give an employee three warnings before dismissal could take place. The seriousness of the charge is the decisive factor. The situation was worsened by the fact that your manager explicitly forbade you to drive the vehicle back after hours and that you disobeyed his instructions. An employer is not only responsible for their vehicles, but also for their employees using the vehicles on public roads, and could therefore devise rules and regulations for safety purposes.

The fact that you made an accident with the vehicle ​​shortly after you left, further contributes to the severity of the case and in the past the fair dismissal of several employees have been confirmed by the courts and the CCMA, especially if the unauthorized use of a vehicle resulted in a car accident or was associated with negligent driving. That was also the ruling in the case of NUM OBO Nabe v Eskom Adelaide (2012) 8 BALR 875 (CCMA).

With the information you have provided, there does not seem to be any merit in referring a case of unfair dismissal. Furthermore, you must take into account that your employer could sue you for damages caused to the vehicle because you did not obey their rules for the use of their vehicle. 

Mortgage payments from 2005 to 2013 and CPI
By Paul Joubert

People often complain that the official rate of consumer price inflation (CPI) does not reflect the actual increase in their cost of living. There is often good reason to feel this way, as the composition of any consumer price index’s basket of goods and services is an average for an entire country’s consumers. Because consumers have diverse spending patterns, no CPI basket is ever a reflection of a specific household’s spending patterns.

Of course, families’ spending patterns also change over time because of two possible reasons: a change in lifestyle, or relative changes in the prices of different products. If a consumer’s cost of living changes because he has adopted a more lavish lifestyle, there isn’t much reason to complain. If someone buys an expensive new luxury car and then encounters financial difficulty because his new car’s repayments are considerably higher than his previous car’s repayments, no one else is to blame for it. Relative changes in prices, particularly of products with an inelastic demand (such as petrol and electricity) could, however, have a significant impact on a household’s spending patterns without the household having done anything to cause those changes.

Mortgage payments represent a significant relative price change that occurred in several households’ budgets over the past few years. The prime lending rate has dropped from 15,5% to 8,5% since 2008, freeing up large portions of the budgets of households with mortgages to cover other expenses.

Consider the following example of a person who bought a house when the previous interest rate cycle – in 2005, when the rate was 10,5% – was at its lowest point. If someone had a gross income of R20 000 and took out a 20-year mortgage of R750 000 at the prime rate in 2005, then the new homeowner would have had to spend 37% of his gross income on the mortgage payment. Suppose the homeowner’s gross income subsequently increased annually in January by the same percentage as the average increase in the consumer price index. This increase would come to 3,9%, 4,6% and 6,5% in 2006, 2007 and 2008 respectively – by no means unrealistic increases. In spite of these annual increases, the homeowner’s mortgage payment would have increased to approximately 44% of his income in 2008 as the prime rate rose from 10,5% to 15,5%. Since then, if the homeowner’s income continued to increase at the same rate as the average increase in the CPI, the chunk that his mortgage payment took from his income would, however, have decreased systematically. In 2010, when the prime rate once again reached 10,5%, the payment would have taken up just 27% of his gross income. Now, in 2013, the homeowner will need only 20% of his gross income to cover the mortgage payment. Such a homeowner is, as far as his mortgage payment’s contribution to his cost of living is concerned, in a much better financial position than before.

This relative price change, which benefited many homeowners, is of course of little consolation to people who rent accommodation. Rental costs rose persistently throughout the whole period.  This once again goes to show that no country’s CPI basket can ever exactly reflect a specific household’s spending patterns.

By Inge Strydom

More than 5 700 flood victims still missing in India

A total of 5 748 people who are missing after last month's floods in northern India are presumed dead. According to Vijay Bahuguna, chief minister of the Uttarakhand state, anyone still untraced would be declared dead to allow the government to start paying their families compensation. The government would pay 500 000 rupees (R82 584) for each victim, he said. Heavy monsoon rains in mid-June caught thousands of pilgrims visiting Hindu shrines in the Himalayan region, tourists and locals, triggering devastating landslides and flash floods. The earlier confirmed death toll was around 900. Piyush Rautela, director of Uttarakhand's disaster management division, said the exact number might never be known.

Eighteen dead, thirty-four injured in Indonesian riot

Police said on Monday that at least 18 people died and 34 others were injured during a riot and stampede at a local boxing match in Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua. Supporters began rioting at midnight after the judges awarded victory to the opponent of their favourite contender in the Nabire district. Agus Tebay, one of the spectators, told Metro TV that the hall was packed because the organisers did not charge an entry fee. ‘They didn't anticipate the huge crowd,’ he said. ‘There was pushing and shoving as people struggled to get out of the building.’

Man dies after cow falls on his bed

A Brazilian man died after being crushed by a cow that fell through his roof and landed on his bed. Joao Maria de Souza was lying on his bed in his home, which is built below ground, when a grazing cow stepped on the tin roof above and came crashing through. The accident took place on Wednesday in the south eastern province of Minas Gerais, a mountainous area where cattle are raised. According to his family, the man was still conscious while being treated at a local hospital, but died later of internal bleeding.

By Inge Strydom

Knight

This week’s knights are the two retired men from Gauteng who donated R215 000 to the Reach for a Dream Foundation. Louis (Loneranger) Cole (60) and Paul (Blue Max) van Schalkwyk travelled about 5 200 km in their microlights within 50 days. The two men flew across parts of South Africa and Namibia to realise their dream of helping children with life-threatening illnesses. The men had initially hoped to raise at least R125 000, but this target was more than doubled thanks to private donations. Through this money they will now be able to help fulfil the dreams of 43 children.

Knave

This week’s knaves are the heads of two police units that deal with firearms and firearm licences who were suspended on Sunday for alleged corruption. Brig. Mathapelo Merriam Mangwane, head of the Central Firearms Registry, and Brig. Hlamane Elias Mahlabane, head of the unit dealing with firearm licences, were suspended with immediate effect. Mangwane is reportedly being charged with accepting bribes from a Johannesburg firearm dealer, allegedly to speed up the issuing of firearm licences to the dealer’s clients, among other things. Meanwhile, Solidarity this week called for an investigation into allegations of corruption in which high-level police officials are implicated in a letter addressed to Public Service and Administration Minister Lindiwe Sisulu. This comes after reports in the weekend press that a police colonel has been unsuccessfully trying to expose corruption in the SAPS for years.

 

When you focus on being a blessing, God makes
sure that you are always blessed in abundance.
- Joel Osteen

This is how you can join the Solidarity Running Club

You can join the Solidarity Running Club by contacting club chairman Hendrik van der Westhuizen on 082 851 9451 for more information or send an email to atletiek@solidariteit.co.za.