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Viewing cable 08JOHANNESBURG41, SOUTH AFRICA: FEBRUARY LABOR NOTES

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
08JOHANNESBURG41 2008-03-03 15:07 2011-08-24 01:00 UNCLASSIFIED Consulate Johannesburg
VZCZCXRO3371
RR RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHJO #0041/01 0631507
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 031507Z MAR 08
FM AMCONSUL JOHANNESBURG
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6118
INFO RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHINGTON DC
RUCNSAD/SADC COLLECTIVE
RUEHJO/AMCONSUL JOHANNESBURG 2877
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 JOHANNESBURG 000041 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DOL FOR ILAB 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB ECON PHUM SF
SUBJECT: SOUTH AFRICA: FEBRUARY LABOR NOTES 
 
REF: CAPE TOWN 36 
 
JOHANNESBU 00000041  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
1.  Summary: Finance Minister Trevor Manuel announced in his 
February 20 budget speech that the amount of the child support 
grant would be increased to R220 per month and that eligibility 
would be extended up to age 15.   The Treasury also plans to 
combine all social insurance into one mega-fund.  COSATU's 
Central Executive Committee fired its President Willie Madisha, 
ostensibly about financial irregularities concerning a donation 
to the South African Communist Party.   Mining company 
Goldfields announced it would shed 13 percent of its workforce 
over productions cuts forced on it by government-mandated 
reductions in electricity consumption and supply.  Emigration of 
skilled labor from South Africa is rapidly increasing according 
to newspaper reports.   Two accidents at ferromanganese smelters 
claimed seven lives in February.   End Summary. 
 
Finance Minister Raises Amount of Child Support Grants and 
Increases Eligibility 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
---------------------------------------- 
 
2.  Finance Minister Trevor Manuel announced in February 20 
budget speech that the amount of the child support grant would 
be increased to R220 per month and that the age of eligibility 
would be extended up their 15 th  birthday as of January 2009. 
The ANC policy document of January 2008 called for child support 
grants to be gradually extended up to age 18.  However, the 
Treasury's estimates are that increased costs of the child 
support grant and old age pensions will add R12.5 billion to the 
budget over the next three years.   In addition, the budget 
proposed higher expenditures on school infrastructure, early 
childhood development programs and tertiary education for a 
total for R121 billion expenditure our of a R716 billion budget. 
 The budget also included a R9 billion conditional grant for 
school books and buildings and nutritional programs. 
 
Electricity Supply shortages cost jobs; Union threatens Strike 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
--------------- 
 
3.   The decision by the South African government to limit the 
amount of power available to the mining sector in light of 
ongoing electricity supply problems is having repercussion on 
employment.   Mining firm Goldfields announced on February 25 
that it might cut up to 13 percent of its 53,000-strong 
workforce to meet the imposed 10 percent cut in power use. 
Many of the 6900 miners facing layoffs or early retirement are 
members of the National Union of Mineworkers, which reacted 
unsympathetically to the news and announced that it was 
considering a mass action to protest electricity shortages and 
associated job losses.  Gold miner Harmony, according to 
newspaper Business Day, cut 5000 jobs between October-December 
2007.  It and other mining firms have so far not announced any 
additional layoffs. 
 
COSATU Rivalries Cause Shakeup 
------------------------------------------ 
 
4.  COSATU's Central Executive Committee (CEC), meeting in 
Braamfontein from February 25-27, unanimously resolved to fire 
its President Willie Madisha, a member and currently also 
president of the South African Democratic Teachers Union. 
Madisha got into hot water over the issue of unaccounted-for 
funding to the South African Communist Party (SACP), which 
Madisha claimed to have delivered to its General Secretary. 
Madisha, considered by some COSATU members to be close to 
President Mbeki, had also accused COSATU General Secretary 
Zwelinzima Vavi of credit-card misuse.   An interim President is 
to be elected at the May CEC.   COSATU's Education Secretary, 
Anthony Dietrich, told us that the imterim President was likely 
to be Sduomo Dlamini, a Swazi-born trade unionist coming from 
NEHAWU, the health care workers union. 
 
5.  Meanwhile, COSATU's Western Cape Provincial Secretary, Tony 
Ehrenreich, has been accused by his SACP provincial counterpart 
of pushing COSATU members closer to the Democratic Alliance, 
after Ehrenreich allegedly insisted that a COSATU event take 
precedence over a rally organized by the SACP.   Ehrenreich, who 
has led a variety of events to draw attention to the plight of 
shack-dwellers, the poor and the jobless, was accused of being 
part of a "right-wing tendency." 
 
Unified Social Insurance Fund Planned 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
6.  The Treasury's Budget Review statement contained a proposal 
to merge existing social insurance funds in order to achieve 
both administrative and financial economies.  Currently, South 
Africa has separately administered funds which fall under the 
Social Welfare Department, the Labor Department, the Transport 
 
JOHANNESBU 00000041  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
Department and the Health Department.   The proposal will first 
be discussed in NEDLAC, the National Education Development and 
Labor Advisory Council. 
 
Industrial Accident Claims Six Lives 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
7.  Six workers died in an explosion at the Assmang 
ferro-manganese smelter in Cato Ridge on Sunday, February 24. 
A furnace explosion sufficiently powerful to knock out the  wall 
separating it from the control room killed one worker on impact 
and left others with burns sufficiently severe to result in 
their deaths at the hospital.   Other workers remain 
hospitalized and the death toll may rise further.  The chief 
executive of the ferrous division of African Rainbow Minerals 
said that the furnace would be out of commission for the 
following six months, though other parts of the plant would 
resume operations as soon as workers were convinced it was safe 
to return to work.   Assmang has already been under 
investigation by the Department of Labor for ongoing workplace 
health violations, as several workers have recently died of 
manganese poisoning. 
 
8.  An explosion related to a converter at the Samancor 
ferrochrome smelter in Witbank also killed one worker on 
February 17. 
 
Newspaper Reports that Skilled Labor Leaving South Africa 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
-------------- 
 
9.  Daily newspaper "the Star" reported in its February 11 
edition that skilled labor was leaving South Africa.   The paper 
claimed that South Africa ranked as the fifth largest supplier 
of skilled immigrants to New Zealand and Australia, with 
migrants with a mining background being actively recruited to 
work in Australia.    The Star cited Ian Petty, the chairperson 
of the Professional Movers Association, as saying that currently 
three containers of household effects were being exported for 
everyone imported, compared to a one-to-one ratio a year ago. 
Petty said that inquiries about services were soaring.  The 
paper also quoted a service advisor at the British council 
offices who commented that they had received a massive increase 
in the number of candidates wanting to write the English 
language tests required of potential migrants to the UK, Canada, 
Australia and New Zealand.   (Note: Consulate has been told that 
the South Africa Statistical Service does not keep records on 
emigration.  End Note.) 
COFFMAN