Army could help curb crime

January 30 2007
Sending young men to the army could help end violent crime, Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana said at the weekend.

"The worrying trend whereby our youths are involved in the current spate of armed robberies and other related violent crimes that are ravaging our country could be reversed once they join the army," he told a ceremony to commemorate King Mampuru of the Bapedi nation and King Nyabela of amaNdebele at Mamone village in Limpopo.

This was according to a statement issued by his department on Monday.

Quoting from the African National Congress' strategy and tactics document, Mdladlana continued: "Conscripting our young people would not only help inculcate discipline but make them understand better the importance of defending our hard-earned liberation."

It was at the same ceremony that Mdladlana invited the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) to watch a bull-slaughtering ceremony at his Eastern Cape village on Saturday.

The invitation follows senior ANC member Tony Yengeni's reportedly spearing a bull before it was slaughtered at his parent's home in Guguletu, sparking accusations of animal cruelty.

The SPCA has declined the invitation.

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SPCA accepts Mdladlana’s invite to ritual ceremony

Business Day: 30 January 2007
AFTER initially declining, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) today accepted an invitation by Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana to attend a ritual ceremony where a bull will be slaughtered.

"As a leader of our country the minister is sure to uphold the law and we are confident that no suffering will take place during the traditional slaughter, said SPCA executive director Marcelle Meredith.

"We are assured there is no suffering, if the slaughter is carried out in the traditional manner by a skilled person taking into account the transport, handling and restraining of the animal," said Meredith.

Mdladlana’s traditional ceremony will take place at his Eastern Cape rural home on Saturday. Mdladlana said the bull would be slaughtered "without being anaesthetised".

His invitation followed a furore that erupted after former ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni reportedly speared a bull before it was slaughtered at his parents’ home in Guguletu, Cape Town, last weekend. The slaughter was part of a cleansing ritual following his recent release from prison after serving four months of a four-year sentence for fraud.

Meredith said this would not be the first time the SPCA attended a religious or traditional ceremony as they were present at Steve Biko commemoration, and at a cleansing ceremony at Vlakplaas, a former apartheid death-squad farm where people opposing apartheid were killed.

They had also been to Moria in Limpopo where the Zion Christian Church gather for their annual pilgrimage during the Easter holidays.

"We respect the rights of religious and traditional beliefs and have worked together with the leaders of organisations for many years," said Meredith.

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SPCA refuses to be baited by minister

January 30 2007
The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) on Monday declined an invitation by Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana to the ritual slaughter of a bull at a ceremony.

The SPCA would not allow the minister to bait it, said its executive director Marcelle Meredith.

"For now we have no further comments. We might possibly send a media release tomorrow," she said.

Mdladlana said that the bull would be slaughtered without being anaesthetised.

"We want the bull to bellow - and then we'll sing the praises of our ancestors," Mdladlana told a ceremony to commemorate King Mampuru of the Bapedi nation and King Nyabela of amadebele in Limpopo on Saturday.

A furore erupted when Tony Yengeni reportedly speared a bull before it was slaughtered at his parent's home in Gugulethu last weekend in a cleansing ritual after his release from prison after serving four months of a four-year sentence for fraud.

The SPCA at first said it would investigate, but on Friday said it had insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges against Yengeni.

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Striking guards urged to find a solution

January 18, 2007
South Africa labour minister Membathisi Mdladlana urged striking USB security guards and their employers on Thursday to settle their differences as they entered the second day of a strike.

The SA Transport and Allied Workers' Union (Satawu) - to which the guards are affiliated - said while "things were looking up", it was not calling off the strike.

"It is not like we are not talking (to the employers) or anything. There is no violence," said spokesman Ronnie Mamba.

Mdladlana urged both parties to use all legal mechanisms at their disposal to ensure the dispute did not get out of hand.

A solution had to be found as quickly as possible to avoid "regrettable scenes" similar to those that marred a dispute last year, he said.

About 1000 USB guards - tasked with protecting mainly government, municipality and Telkom premises - marched to their employer's Johannesburg headquarters on Wednesday.


Their main grievance was the money being deducted by the company "as some sort of penalty" for their participation in a dispute last year, said Mamba.

They were also unhappy at not receiving leave pay and over the non-payment of bonuses, he said.

Mamba said the guards' employer had acknowledged the problems and "they are going to pay".

The company was in the process of obtaining the money in the form of a loan, which was to be finalised on Wednesday with payment expected on Thursday.

He said talks between the union and the employers would resume at 9am on Thursday.

"We are hopeful that we are going to sort the issue out."

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Anti-Affirmative Action Campaign Launched

One thousand balloons were released on Tuesday by the Solidarity Youth Movement on top of a hill in the administrative capital of Pretoria “to symbolise the plea of head boys and girls from schools across the country to be exempted from affirmative action”.

The chairperson of the youth wing of the largely white trade union, Solidarity, Ernst Roets, said in a statement that the balloons were released from a hill which overlooks Freedom Park—which honours the liberation struggle.

“At the moment freedom is out of our reach—we can see it, but we cannot experience it. That is why we picked a hill overlooking Freedom Park rather than Freedom Park itself,” said Roets.

The movement announced that it was planning a campaign in 2007 to demand that young people be exempt from affirmative action. The campaign will include music concerts, campus referendums and petitions to Parliament.

The occasion was also used to release data obtained by a Markinor survey showing that 53% of people from all race groups between the ages of 18 and 23 felt that young people should be exempt from affirmative action.

“Exempting young people from affirmative action is not just the right thing to do, it is the democratic thing to do,” Roets said.

“We will not cease our campaign until we have achieved our objective. Matrics who finished their final school year in 2006 completed their entire education during the post-1994 era. They should not be disadvantaged on the grounds of affirmative action. This is a generation free from the apartheid past. By imposing affirmative action on them on the grounds of the so-called wrongs of the past violates their human dignity, since they are being accused of something in which they played no part,” Roets said.

“The response of head boys and head girls was amazing.”

He reported that about 95% of the respondents supported the call for exemption from affirmative action.

“These young people are not only angry about being discriminated against—they are embittered,” he said.

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Fight against work-equity violators to intensify

The new year would see "an even more" intensified fight against employment-equity violators, Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana said on Monday.

He was addressing the launch of a new multimillion-rand computer literacy skills centre for people with disabilities in Richards Bay in northern KwaZulu-Natal.

Mdladlana said the department's investigation of such companies -- which led to much controversy this year -- was just the beginning. "The issue of employment-equity violation is going to be my project next year," he said in a speech reported by his ministry.

"Employment equity reports indicate that [in] eleven years since our democracy, we have not moved much in the higher echelons of industry in terms of race and gender, while skills development reports indicate that only 2% of people with disabilities are participating in our programmes despite the new incentives that we have introduced.

"These are the kinds of things that make people uncomfortable," he said.

The input of workers and the current labour legislation are the primary reasons the country's economy is doing so well, he argued.

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Labour Department under scrutiny

The National Department of Labour (DoL) is in hot water with the national legislature's Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa).

The department has not taken “adequate action” to withdraw more than R45,5 million from its Seta Zero fund.

A Scopa report said “At year-end the nature or purpose of the monies in the Seta Zero account could not be verified.”

Only money gathered from skills development levies are supposed to be paid into this account, which is then supposed to be allocated to the relevant skills development agencies.
According to Scopa, the DoL could not provide documents to back R90,1 million in claims owed to them.

The DoL was rapped on the knuckles by Scopa for not implementing “elementary” aspects of proper financial administration.

According to the Scopa report, the DoL is guilty of “various instances of non-compliance with the Public Finance Management Act and Treasury Regulations”.

It recommended the department’s accounting officer report back to the Minister of Labour, Membathisi Mdladlana, within 30 days on how this was being addressed.

The department also has to hand in a detailed report on why performance management bonuses to the value of 5,06% of its personnel expenditure were paid out.

Public Service directives determine that performance bonuses should not be paid out in excess of 1,5% of a department's personnel expenditure.

The DoL indicated it would comment on Scopa’s findings as soon as it had consulted relevant parties.

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