COSATU Blinks

Farrel — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 11:32:00 -0500

The Western Cape provincial branch of COSATU is about to withdraw from the nationwide public services strike. I assume this means they have decided to accept the government’s latest salary increase offer.

I think this is a bit of a watershed moment in labour/government relations. Not only is there a split in the ANC/COSATU/SACP tri-partite alliance but it seems there might even be splits amongst COSATU itself, both at a national level (between Willie Madisha and Zwelinzima Vavi) and now on a regional level. It will be interesting to see how other COSATU provincial branches react.

It’s also interesting to note that many people suspected COSATU planned to use the strike in order to influence the upcoming ANC policy committee meeting. Now COSATU are going into the meeting with even less power than before.

Cooling Off Period For Civil Servants On The Horizon

Farrel — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 15:10:00 -0600

This has been a loooooooong time coming.

Cooling-off period looms for civil servants

After years of policy uncertainty, the Public Service Commission wants to prevent companies that do business with the government from hiring senior public servants, as a way to curb the ethical headache of conflict of interest.

Another concern is company shareholdings as a civil servant might not be an employee but they might be a part owner. However we are seeing some positive signs in this area, witness the looming court battle between current national lottery operating company Uthingo and new licensee Gidani, who just happen to have Minister of Education Naledi Pandor as a shareholder.

Politics.za: Category Public Services & Administration

COSATU Blinks

Cooling Off Period For Civil Servants On The Horizon