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Balancing act: As a country heavily reliant on imported fuel and road transport, increases in diesel and petrol costs affect everything from farming and food processing to distribution and retail. Photo: File
AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS ANC

South Africans hit hard by the rising cost of living

As fuel prices increase, interest rates soar and food prices hit through the roof, citizens face tough times with many households battling to put food on the table

  • M&G Reporters
15 min read
Employers and domestic workers can contribute a national domestic workers’ pension fund operated through mobile-based platforms for easy registration and tracking contributions. (File photo)
COST OF LIVING

Union demands pension fund for domestic workers

About 850 000 people are employed as domestic workers in South Africa, contributing to 5.2% of the country’s total employment

  • Umamah Bakharia
4 min read
Auditor general Tsakani Maluleke has repeatedly made recommendations to improve municipalities’ performances but to little effect. Photo: GCIS
AUDITOR GENERAL

Government wasted R38 billion in overspending, auditor general says

A disregard for the rule of law also saw the country lose R14 billion through payment of goods not received

  • Khaya Koko
5 min read
COSATU

UIF online system still down after six weeks

COSATU has called on the labour minister to intervene

  • Mary-Anne Gontsana
3 min read
Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT

It’s not ANC electioneering, insists Nxesi at launch of two million jobs programme

The minister said R23.8 billion would be allocated to implement the plan, with training opportunities running over the next 12 to 36 months This content is restricted to…

  • Lyse Comins
1 min read
Desperate: People queue outside a labour department office to apply for Unemployment Insurance Fund payouts during the Covid-19 outbreak. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy
COVID 19

Unemployment Insurance Fund fraud is a ‘lifestyle’ in KwaZulu-Natal

A total of R2.6 billion was recovered by the UIF nationally through its ‘follow the money’ project which is auditing companies that benefited from Covid-19 relief scheme

  • Lyse Comins
5 min read
The average domestic worker in South Africa is 37 and earns about R2 989 a month, with domestic work being her only source of income, according to a report released by Africa’s largest home service platform, SweepSouth.
BRAIN DRAIN

Survey: 70% of domestic workers not registered for UIF

In its sixth annual report, SweepSouth attributes poor domestic worker pay to power cuts, inflation, the high cost of living and employers relocating

  • Umamah Bakharia
3 min read
They made arrangements with the provincial treasurers to pay the staff in the provinces, but they don’t seem to know who has been paid and who hasn’t.”  (Photo by Gallo Images/Sharon Seretlo)
ANC

ANC employees paid, but strike not over yet

Workers want UFI, medical aid and provident fund contributions brought up to date

  • Paddy Harper
  • Lizeka Tandwa
3 min read
Brazen: When the government announced a relief package for workers whose livelihoods were affected by lockdowns in April 2020, Lindelani Gumede (above and left) allegedly immediately jumped into action, fraudulently registering three existing companies, and one he created, for Ters payments. He is then alleged to have kept the payouts, which should rightfully have gone to the affected workers. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
FIRST NATIONAL BANK

Luxury SUV allegedly bought with Ters payment fraud

Lindelani Gumede bought himself a luxury Audi Q2 and settled his brother’s R560 000 bond during a spending spree

  • Khaya Koko
6 min read
The 2024 annual report by SweepSouth on domestic worker pay and conditions found that many are drowning in debt and depression because of low wages and non-compliance with working conditions laid out in labour laws.(Gallo)
BASIC CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT ACT

Employers should respect women’s rights and provide domestic workers with employment contracts

About a million women are employed to work in private homes, enabling the economy to function and their employers to work and return to clean homes and cared for children

  • Kelebogile Khunou
  • Amy Tekie
4 min read
Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi.
AUDITOR GENERAL

Nxesi says employment and labour department must ‘talk less’ and do more

The minister and his management team appeared before parliament after another scathing auditor general report was tabled

  • Eunice Masson
4 min read
Danger lurks: A police official ensures people keep their distance. (Nardus Engelbrecht/Gallo Images)
CORONAVIRUS

Eastern Cape citizens don’t have to visit the labour department for UIF

This measure, aimed at slowing the spread of Covid-19, may shortly be introduced in other regions.

  • Tshegofatso Mathe
2 min read
Red sea: The EFF has struggled to get the positive sentiment it gets at events, rallies and on social media to translate into actual voters at the polls. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
BRENDIN HORNER

EFF eyes municipalities ahead of 2021 local government elections

EFF leader Julius Malema says the party is preparing to govern in many municipalities from next year. It is also launching a programme to defend the rights of farm workers

  • Bongekile Macupe
4 min read
The pandemic is testing the resilience of most economies, especially those of developing countries. (Madelene Cronjé)
CORONAVIRUS

All hands on deck, we’re trying to revive the economy

Existing government aid schemes must persist, and new ones created, at the same speed as Ters was set up, if we are to survive and thrive after the crisis

  • Duane Newman
6 min read
Income shocks and the breakdowns in social protection schemes have had consequences for hunger and food insecurity in South Africa
COVID 19

Three million jobs lost and hunger surging amid Covid-19 crisis — survey

Income shocks and the breakdowns in social protection schemes have had consequences for hunger and food insecurity in South Africa

  • Sarah Smit
3 min read
Although the fund paid out close to R28-billion to employees and employers for April and May, the labour department said in a statement that nearly 970 000 employees had not received their Ters payments. (Ntswe Mokoena)
CORONAVIRUS

Labour minister paints four bleak scenarios for the UIF if layoffs go above 41%

The fund has been selling assets to make Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme payouts

  • Thando Maeko
6 min read
Minister of Employment and Labour Thulas Nxesi has warned that large-scale job losses are inevitable. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
CCMA

Possible lockdown retrenchments are already soaring

After just three months of lockdown, more than 100 000 workers could lose their jobs

  • Sarah Smit
3 min read
Scalabrini launched a constitutional challenge against two sections of the Refugees Act as well as parts of its regulations. Photo: (David Harrison/M&G)
ASYLUM SEEKERS

South Africa excludes refugees and asylum seekers from Covid-19 aid

Despite being protected in South Africa by law, these groups have been swept aside when it comes to relief packages

  • Callixte Kavuro
5 min read
With unemployment at all-time highs, the conversation about competition in labour needs to happen
CORONAVIRUS

How to claim the Covid-19 UIF benefit

In a statement, the fund emphasised that all businesses with workers, “from spaza shops to hair salons” who are registered with the UIF can apply for this relief

  • Sarah Smit
1 min read
Tightening the belt: CCMA director Cameron Morajane says cuts will severely affect the commission’s ability to operate, but that it will make the most of its resources. Photo: Alaister Russell/Gallo Images/Sunday Times
AMOS TSHABALALA

CCMA cases stunted by lockdown

Data shows that during the lockdown the statutory body has dealt with 75% fewer cases than during the same period last year

  • Sarah Smit
4 min read