| SOUTH AFRICA
A legislative package constituted by the National Minimum Wage Bill, together with amendments to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act and the Labour Relations Act is now before Parliament. Its agenda constitutes a significant setback for the working class and its ability to represent its interests. businesslive.co.za/
 Parliament is currently considering amendments to the Labour Relations Act, which, if passed, will dramatically alter the constitutional right to strike. The justification the Department of Labour provides in the impact assessment for the amendments is that strike action and, particularly, violent and protracted strike action is at an all-time high. The evidence, however, indicates the truth is otherwise. businesslive.co.za/
Neither the advisory panel that determined the national minimum wage nor the NEDLAC agreement that approved it dealt in any depth with how existing legislation will facilitate its introduction. The Labour and Enterprise Policy Research Group at UCT try to answer this aspect. nationalminimumwage.co.za/ [615KB pdf]
As the ANC disintegrates, Sam Asman, Zachary Levenson and Trevor Ngwane chart the fortunes of organisations to the left and right of the crumbling incumbent. catalyst-journal.com/
The Office of the Public Protector is investigating allegations of corruption, extortion, fraud, bullying, intimidation and mismanagement by the head of the country’s financial services regulator. news24.com/
Under the land that belongs to the Bakgatla Ba Kgafela lie the richest platinum deposits on Earth. But a toxic alliance between government, traditional chieftaincy and major mining houses has stood between the community and its wealth. Could this be the largest state-sanctioned, business-perpetrated fraud in the history of Big Mining in South Africa? dailymaverick.co.za/
Rescue operations have been suspended after two trapped miners were confirmed dead at the Kloof Ikamva shaft of Sibanye-Stillwater’s mine in Gauteng, after a fall of ground early on Wednesday morning. dailymaverick.co.za/
The private sector took a battering at the People’s Tribunal for Economic Crimes at Constitutional Hill in Johannesburg on Tuesday. The penultimate day of the tribunal, which organisers say aims to “join the dots” between corruption in the apartheid era and democratic South Africa, probed State Capture – and traced where the rot began. dailymaverick.co.za/
 Human rights lawyer Charles Abrahams told evidence leaders and a panel chaired by Justice Zac Yacoob that, while the TRC made visible many apartheid atrocities, its focus on civil and political violations without due regard for the crimes of economic actors such as multinational corporations meant its work was incomplete. huffingtonpost.co.za/
The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform published its audit of land ownership in South Africa. It should settle questions on agrarian reform that has been stunted by a lack of information on who owns what of the country. ruraldevelopment.gov.za/ [2MB pdf] |
In addition to slamming the broader and long-standing facts of American life that consistently put the U.S. behind other wealthy nations, Pyongyang also took aim at the Trump administration, which it characterized as a collection of racist “billionaires” and “their mouthpieces” who only serve the “interests of a handful of the rich circles.”
Private companies are in the process of privatizing the largest reserve of water, known as the Guarani Aquifer, in South America. The aquifer is located beneath the surface of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay and is the second largest-known aquifer system in the world. 
Canadian Labour Congress has sent shockwaves through all unions and it threatens not just national programmes but co-ordination between unions at the regional and local levels. 
