Troop deployment queries to ignite debate
AFRICAN affairs and labour relations are likely to be the main topics of interest this week, peppered with news emerging from Parliament, which returns to work after Easter.
President Jacob Zuma will visit Algeria today and Nigeria tomorrow on a working visit that is likely to include discussions of the continuing crisis in the Central African Republic, and the situation in northeast Democratic Republic of Congo where South African troops have been deployed to take on the rebels. The troubles in Mali and the strengthening of the African Union will also feature prominently in the talks. The Democratic Alliance (DA) will continue to press for more dis- closure about the deployment of the South African troops to the Congo.
On the labour front, the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) will begin a four-day conference tomorrow in Pretoria.
Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim and Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi will address about 450 worker representatives attending the conference, which will discuss, inter alia, the bargaining strategy to be adopted in the year ahead, and minimum wages.
The conference is intended to consolidate collective bargaining demands in sectors such as vehicle assembly, motor components and retail, rubber and tyre manufacturing, Eskom and smelting establishments. It is likely attention will be given to the malaise in the trade union movement in general, and within Cosatu in particular. Mr Jim will probably take another swipe at the National Development Plan and the labour reforms of which Numsa slates as “reactionary and neoliberal”.
The stalemate in education will continue as the South African Democratic Teachers Union plans to maintain its go-slow. The union’s leadership will meet tomorrow to discuss the state of the go-slow and decide on any change in strategy.
The African National Congress is dealing with the growing alienation of its supporters, a topic that its 2014 election team grappled with during a weekend strategic election workshop. Details of the deliberations could trickle out during the course of the week.
The DA in the Western Cape will hold a press conference today on the likely effect of e-tolling on the province, a plan strongly opposed by the DA-controlled Cape Town council. Tomorrow, the party will launch a community safety bill against rape in the rape-plagued province of Limpopo.
The parliamentary session gets into full swing, with much of the work of portfolio committees concentrated on the strategic and performance plans of departments.
At tomorrow’s meeting of the communications committee, MPs will be briefed by the auditor-general on the SABC and the Post Office, and by the Independent Communications Authority of SA. Also tomorrow, the energy committee will be briefed on the Department of Energy’s strategic plan and budget, followed on Wednesday by a briefing by the Central Energy Fund on its strategic plans, and on Thursday by a PetroSA briefing.
The labour and justice committees sit jointly on Wednesday to consider overlapping issues in the Labour Relations Amendment Bill, and the standing committee on appropriations will be briefed on the government’s ability to pay suppliers within the stipulated 30 days.