Another week, another series of strikes and service delivery protests in South Africa. Wonkie was holding back, hoping there would be something more entertaining to report on, but sadly there was not. Below is a summary round-up of the latest South African news:
Petrol Attendant’s Strike
Hanky Panky at Cosatu
3. Eastern Cape health care mess – Speaking of hospitals, the state of Eastern Cape health care, or rather the lack thereof, made the news again. A mole living on Collins Chabane’s performance monitoring couch, allegedly reported that the number of accidental deaths due to incompetence and lack of resources was well within the government’s Key Performance Metrics. In fact, South Africa needs at least another 2,500 baby deaths a year before anybody need be concerned.
Protea Glen Service Delivery Protests
5. Protection of Information Bill – The Secrecy Bill, seen by just about everybody except Mac Maharaj and the ANC as a means to streamline corruption and illegal government dealings, was sent back for parliamentary review. Apparently there are a lot of spelling and grammatical errors – yes, like that’s the problem with the secrecy bill. The DA is optimistic that the bill will be made properly constitutional. Wonkie believes they stand a better chance of winning if they bought a lottery ticket online, but let’s be optimistic.
Thuli Madonsela – Public Protector
7. Northern Cape Premier sadly misunderstood – Sylvia Lucas was exposed for bingeing on junk food. She spent a massive R53,159 on the likes of KFC in her first 10 weeks using tax payers money. Wonkie would like to formally reprimand the Sunday Times for insensitively exposing Sylvia’s comfort-food habit – Wonkie understands that it’s tough and lonely at the top. Sometimes, only a lekker KFC bucket or ten can help ease the pain.
COMMENT on Strikes in South Africa, and the latest South Africa news.
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Related articles on strikes, Cosatu, and dodgy government behaviour:
- Zuma’s Nkandla Upgrade
- Jacob Zuma name-dropping to get ahead
- Thuli Madonsela – South African role model
- Cosatu – Bad Behaviour
COMMENT on Strikes in South Africa, and the latest South Africa news.
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It’s a striking country indeed – too bad about that. I hear you about holding off for more entertaining news… although if you did Wonkie might never write again about South Africa.
Striking will only stop when employers stop compromising. By doing so they empower the unions which are S.Africa’s economic downfall.
Giving in to strikers means that there will be a repeat next year again. Employers should set the wage initially and stick to it with a warning that the offer will be reduced by 1% per week striked and stick to it. It will mean a longer strike but better than an annual strike.
Do you think it can be done this way Bill? There are such a lot of legal requirements from employers nowadays. They make it harder and harder to take on staff. In the end it will be better do have a family business where all family members rally together and run the business. Not worth appointing people who do not really want to work and want an astronomical wage for the little they do. Since when can unschooled laborers demand to receive salaries in the same category as the counterparts who studied and worked hard to come to where they got. How stupid can people be to think they can demand more for the same or even less work, damage property, burn down buildings etc and then get a better salary??? You need only one and a half brain cell to work out that if you burn down the bosses property, if you strike and not work 1. the boss will have to rebuilt the property you burned down – that means, less money to keep or pay workers. 2. If you strike, it means no production = income lost, result in less money going around to pay for the loss of income. How hard is it to work it out? And do these uneducated, ignorant masses not realize that there are overhead costs to keep the business running. The fact that the boss drives a better car than you, lives in a better house than you, can take care of his children (without the government grant), is not because he receives money he does not deserve. It only means: a. the boss either studies for many years, paid off his study loan, started a business by borrowing money (and paying it back for many years to come plus the interest on the loan), used this money to get the business off the ground. Get the infrastructure in place (which, surprise, surprise, also costs a barrel full of money which the boss either borrowed or remortgaged his house/business. Then he start to appoint personnel which he has to pay regularly. The boss has to take out insurance against damages, against people hurting themselves while on the premises etc etc the list goes on and on. Then this boss, who worked so hard to get where he and the business are, has to carry the responsibility of the whole business with all its staff. He has to face any and every risk and must make provision for the unforeseen. Now when this boss, who did all this and take all the responsibility, drives his better car etc, the workers who contributed nothing to start up the business but do add a certain value to it, start to strike, burn down etc a vicious circle because they want just what the boss has. And that without having done what the boss has and are doing daily. He gets what he deserves. He didn’t get a free handout from the ANC government to get to where he now is. HE WORKED FOR IT. HE WORKED HARD FOR IT. How difficult is that to understand????
The problem is that most union workers do not have one and a half brain cells.
Practically all the strikes embarked on in South Africa are as a result of differences in interest especially when it becomes obvious that the government is not awake to their responsibilities.
On the other hand, employees need to consider the fact that owners of businesses run it in such a way that they are meant to survive and that pushing for increment unnecessarily will only cause employers to seek for alternatives.
Olly, you are preaching to the intelligent or the converted.
The problem is how to convey intelligence to the powers that be.
The government and the unions do not have the savvy to understand simple economics and the majority, including union members, some disadvantaged by inferior Bantu education and the rest now condemned by ANC education.
The unions will not change their stance on destroying the economy because they will lose financially. The ANC will not change their stance on destroying the economy because they will lose votes. Only the EFF will gain temporarily until they DO destroy the economy, but then it will be too late.
Would be interesting to know how much of an increase/cut the unions will be taking from the workers salary increases.
Talk about Striking. Why are the Unions not representing their Marikana Members with fully Paid Legal Assistance.
I Mean if I belong to a Union, the Union must pay me while I am on strike and fight my case for me in Civil Actions and Courts of Law while not working or is it that the Unions responsibility ends when they have received the Members Monthly Contributions.
Contributions in the Billions and where is that MONEY, being paid for Luxury cars, Knock Shops and the Good Malema life style and other Shenanigans.
Strikes? When will they end? They will end when Mercedes Benz in East London finally decide that they have had enough of this b–ls–t and close down their plant permanently. It can happen! !
It will end when foreign investors take their investments in SA and run and Rand R20 to the £.
All the unemployed will have a lot more time to make more babies, what a Utopia we will be living in then.
Brilliant! Striking country indeed. Never gonna stop though. The white man stole from the black man, what the black man never knew he had.
Strue bru.
Not soon – too many non-thinkers running the show !
“There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labour of thinking” – Thomas Edison
Seems Vavi failed to observe the 11th Commandment:
“Thou shalt not put thy rod in thy staff!”
If these silly people want to strike , strike by all means BUT leave those people that want to work alone. Some people do have a bit (or a lot) more brains and know that striking is NOT going to help the economy and ultimately them selves.
Excluding a 2 week annual holiday, each of the remaining 50 weeks in a year represent 2% of the workers year. Thus each week on strike means that the worker loses 2% of his annual wages.
A recent strike lasted 6 weeks resulting in those strikers losing 18% of their annual wages so if they eventually agreed to a 12% increase they were still disadvantaged by 6%. The employers possibly initially offered 8% resulting in an actual 10% loss of income. The employers lost 6 weeks of production, the workers lost financially (5 weeks of overall pay) and only the union benefitted through increased union fees.
The disadvantaged workers, being poorly educated, were incapable of calculating the damage inflicted on them by their union. Education of the workforce might be a simple solution to avoid the annual strike season
Don’t hold your breath Tony – even advantaged, better educated workers in ‘first world’ countries, are incapable of calculating their self-inflicted damage. The annual strike, always in summer (in north america at least), is a sacred cow. Union leadership is just another political system, of a different stripe, taking advantage of their sheep.
The lack of service is an offshoot of the employing or placing of officials in positions they cannot even spell the name of and the disgusting salaries and bonuses paid to people who slimed their way into positions of trust who the continue to abuse their positions at will.
In the midst of unemployment, indescribable hardships, homelessness and almost blanket lack of performance, outrageous salaries and perks are being paid to civil servants in both government and local government, as well as organisations polluted by state ownership or participation. Let us never forget that incumbents are voted into these positions of trust by an electorate that have been misled and brainwashed by political charlatans bent on the good life.
All these people are being paid by way of funds generated from money emanating from bled dry and overtaxed people who fairly earn their money by the quid pro quo system, and they do not have the automatic right to be paid in advance for services not rendered, nor likely ever to be rendered, merely because of their job title.
What gives these parasites on society the right to contemptuously drive by poverty and suffering in their unearned luxury vehcles on their way to another totally unneccessary overseas junket or other activity preplanned to cater solely for their own pleasure and contributing nothing to the welfare of our people with no check on their attainments measured against objectives?
Every incumbent should be required to comply with the following criteria:
They should be required to present a comprehensive job description of the position they occupy, as they understand it, setting out fully how they intend to attain the targetted level of results for each segment of their responsibilities.
A clear description of their understanding of the procedures to be followed to attain the preset targets and the estimated additional cost involved of appointing consultants to bolster their own lack of knowledge and experience.
Monthly reporting of the status of ongoing projects and activities pertaining to the implementation of preset objectives with a variation analysis and corrective action procedure record where pre-planned activities and expenditure targets are not being met.
In the interim they should be paid a salary which enables them to live comfortably, without the unearned outrageous perks and benefits and only when they have delivered on the preset targets should they then be paid commensurate with the results attained.
Bonusses should be paid only when results justify this and there should be a mechanism measuring results against the preset expected attainment targets.
Everybody knows that these conditions will never be met because only a very small percentage of incumbents, including those in national government, have even a fraction of the ability or knowledge it takes for success. Once people are appointed because of their abilities and experience, and not because of their political affiliation things will start happening in our country, until then nepotism, cadre deployment and every other undesirable and crooked system will be utilized to the benefit of the undeserving and the detriment of our suffering populace.
I stake all I have got that if the above system is implemented the list of aspirant political vultures will dwindle significantly, leaving only people of integrity who genuinely care about the plight of our people and selflessly serve the huge preponderance of people needing to know that there really are people that care and do not just see them as vote fodder.
Well said, Douw Steyn. Wish you were in parliament. Maybe things will get going then.
7. “Sylvia Lucas was exposed for bingeing on junk food. She spent a massive R53,159 on the likes of KFC in her first 10 weeks using tax payers money.”
What’s the fuss? – This is only R 5 315,90 per week or R 23 541,84 per month and, after all, ANC is a PARTY!!! So why not PARTY!!!
The strikes will end when every employer pulls out of South Africa and the ‘sheep’ can go back to the bush where the men sit in the shade drinking marula beer and the women till the vegei patches. Only then will they be satisfied.
Eish, the white man only brought misery in the form of work to Africa!
Besides the union bosses wanting to line their pockets through successful strike action, I am strongly of the opinion that there is a ‘third force’ behind the strikes. Somebody or some group of people are trying to make the country ungovernable and bring it to its knees financially. Then they can walk in and take over Zuma’s throne with all its perks.
I haven’t recieved any cartoons from you for a long time. I tried to subscribe but I’m told I’m already subscribed?????