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COSATU joins calls for establishing inquiry into corruption allegations against police, judiciary
CAPE TOWN - The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) has joined calls for the establishment of a commission of inquiry into allegations of corruption levelled against the police and judiciary. The union federation said the allegations made by KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi linking Minister Senzo Mchunu to the criminal underworld are too serious and undermine confidence in law enforcement. ALSO READ: - Mkhwanazi names man with alleged links to Mchunu as central to meddling in police cases - Mkhwanazi raises concerns about classified police files being compromised by outsiders - Mkhwanazi alleges political involvement in cases being investigated by the police COSATU's call followed a similar call by Police Portfolio Committee chairperson Ian Cameron, who also wants an independent probe. Cameron on Monday gave a list of suggestions on how to get to the bottom of the allegations made by Mkhwanazi, which includes lifestyle audits of all senior police. 'Some of the following immediate solutions could be considered and this is specifically regarding the integrity challenges within the South African Police. "The first one is an appointment of some kind of an ad hoc inquiry or commission with a clear timeline to investigate the allegations.' COSATU parliamentary coordinator Matthew Parks said given the 'grave nature of the allegations', the federation also urged President Cyril Ramaphosa to appoint an independent commission of inquiry. He said while South Africans may be wary of another inquiry, the nature of the allegations 'cannot be left unattended and would best be done by an independent inquiry'. Parks also said the federation supports Ramaphosa's appeal for calm as he returns from Brazil to attend to the matter.
Eyewitness News
02-07-2025
- Business
- Eyewitness News
Malema's private member's bill to nationalise SARB gets mixed reaction during public hearings
Babalo Ndenze 2 July 2025 | 11:33 FILE: EFF leader Julius Malema in Parliament. Picture: Parliament/Phando Jikelo CAPE TOWN - Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema's private member's bill aimed at nationalising the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has a received a mixed reaction during public hearings. Some organisations like labour federation, COSATU, voiced support for Malema's South African Reserve Bank Amendment Bill, while others warned that it could have serious repercussions for the economy if the current model was tampered with. COSATU, the National Treasury and other organisations made submissions before the Standing Committee on Finance on Wednesday, seven years after the bill was first introduced in Parliament. The Standing Committee on Finance continued public hearings on Malema's private member's bill, which was submitted in bill aims to amend the South African Reserve Bank Act and proposes changes to the appointment of the bank's directors. The bill also wants the state to be the sole shareholder of the central bank, which has two million shares held by private and foreign investors. COSATU's Tony Ehrenreich said that they supported this move. "The ownership of the South African Reserve Bank must only be vested with the state in line with international norms." But Christopher Axelson, National Treasury's deputy director-general for tax and financial sector policy, said they don't support the bill, warning that it could have serious implications. "The governance arrangements could also be weaker and may negatively impact the independence of the SARB and so we don't support the bill." The committee will now further process the submissions before a motion on the bill's desirability is considered.
IOL News
24-06-2025
- Business
- IOL News
Home Affairs ID verification fee hike sparks debate amid push to end ‘system abuse'
Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber described the changes as a 'matter of national security, plain and simple.' Image: Ntswe Mokoena/GCIS The Department of Home Affairs has announced a massive 6 500% increase in the cost charged to companies for verifying identities against the National Population Register (NPR), citing 'unsustainable under-pricing' that has crippled its systems and threatened national security. The new fee structure, gazetted on Monday, will raise the cost of real-time ID verification via the Online Verification System (OVS) from just 15 cents to R10 per transaction. A more affordable R1 rate will apply to batch verifications conducted during off-peak hours. Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber described the changes as a 'matter of national security, plain and simple.' 'For years, financial institutions and private companies have effectively been subsidised by the state,' Schreiber said. 'That model is no longer sustainable. The failure to properly fund the NPR has contributed to severe system outages and increased vulnerability to identity fraud.' The OVS has been in use since 2013 by banks, insurers, mobile network operators and other third-party entities to verify customers' identities in real time, helping to prevent fraud and identity theft. But the department says it has been severely strained by excessive traffic and misuse, largely due to the rock-bottom cost of accessing the service. In a statement, the department warned that the 'extreme under-pricing' led to overwhelming volumes of verification requests that caused failure rates of over 50% and contributed to the notorious 'system offline' problems at Home Affairs offices nationwide. 'These outages have had cascading consequences — from financial exclusion to failed document applications — and have weakened the integrity of our entire civil registration system,' the department said. The new price structure and upgraded verification system will take effect from 1 July. The department says the upgraded OVS has already cut failure rates to below 1%, allowing for real-time verifications without delays. The overhaul has received support from the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), which said the previous pricing created 'a decades-long de facto subsidy for financial institutions.' 'This perverse arrangement resulted in the NPR being overwhelmed and Home Affairs staff bearing the brunt of public frustration,' COSATU said in a statement. 'Workers have lost wages while queuing for days because of system crashes.' However, the trade union federation warned it would closely monitor how private companies respond. 'COSATU will engage affiliates in the financial and retail sectors to ensure that banks and insurers do not use this adjustment as an excuse to increase fees on customers.' Analysts say that while the new fee structure makes economic sense, it raises concerns about whether companies will pass the additional costs on to consumers. Despite this, the department remains firm in its stance that the upgrade is necessary to restore public trust and national data security. 'The state has a duty to ensure the NPR functions as a modern, secure system,' said Schreiber. 'This reform puts us on the right path — for citizens, for financial integrity, and for the future of digital public services in South Africa.'
IOL News
17-06-2025
- Business
- IOL News
R770 million National Dialogue bill sparks uproar: final say lies with finance minister
Finance Minister, Enoch Godongwana will have the final say regarding funding amid widespread criticism from trade unions and political parties. Image: Armand Hough / Independent Newspapers As questions swirl around the projected R770 million price tag for the forthcoming National Dialogue, Deputy President Paul Mashatile has confirmed that the ultimate decision on funding will rest with Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana. Last week, the National Dialogue preparatory committee announced that the process could cost as much as R770 million. This announcement has triggered public outcry and political scrutiny regarding government spending, with South Africa's largest trade union, Cosatu, and several political parties criticising the estimated figures. "COSATU like other sober-minded South Africans was amazed that anyone could even suggest the Dialogue should be allocated R700 rash thumb-suck budget figure should be dismissed as a verbal gaffe and a reckless typo better left deleted and forgotten," Matthew Parks COSATU Parliamentary Coordinator said. Deputy President Paul Mashatile confirms that Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana will hold the final say on funding amid widespread criticism from trade unions and political parties Image: GCIS The National Dialogue was initiated by President Cyril Ramaphosa and aims to promote inclusive discussions on the country's most pressing social, economic, and political challenges. "The dialogue will be a people-led, society-wide process to reflect on the state of our country in order for us to reimagine our future," Ramaphosa said. Speaking to journalists outside the North West University's Rag Farm Stadium on Monday, Mashatile said the minister of finance will have the last say on the budget. "Trade unions, the churches so it's going to be everybody what we are trying to come together as South Africans talk about our challenges but also solutions to our challenges. We want to come out of that dialogue and say this is the South Africa we want to build together," Mashatile said. "The issue of the costs, obviously, will be looked upon by the minister of Finance, and normally when there are activities like this, officials will start planning and projecting the costs. The minister will decide whether funds are available in that regard or we need to cut down". [email protected] IOL Business Get your news on the go, click here to join the IOL News WhatsApp channel
IOL News
16-06-2025
- Business
- IOL News
Cosatu: The importance of BBBEE in addressing inequality in SA
Unsplash BBBEE is merely one tool, among many, to address the legacies of the past and the inequalities of today. This is a key prescript of the Constitution and an obligation of the state to society, the writer says. Image: Unsplash Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) remains an important tool to address our deeply ingrained levels of inequality. It would be strange for any democratic government of a nation emerging from three hundred and fifty years of the most brutal and institutionalised forms of discrimination that left over 90% of society consigned to the most poorly paid form of manual labour, not to embrace state supported economic empowerment programme. It would have been tantamount to endorsing South Africa's status as the world's most unequal society, something clearly the fringe right wing extremists wish for. BBBEE is merely one tool, among many, to address the legacies of the past and the inequalities of today. This is a key prescript of the Constitution and an obligation of the state to society. BBBEE in short seeks to give a fair opportunity to millions historically denied such due to their race, gender or disability. People, in particular the race baiting fringe right wing, ignore its inclusivity. BBBEE includes Africans, Coloureds, Indians, plus women, workers and persons with disabilities of all races. In short it covers about 97% of society! BBBEE is not just the 30% shareholding option but also equity equivalents where investors can offer similar investments supporting local companies, creating jobs and investing in communities. All equally important. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad Loading It includes Employee Shareholder or Worker Ownership Programmes (ESOPs). This has been an initiative COSATU and many unions have championed. In the recent past few years, it has seen over 550 000 workers become shareholders in their companies. This has given them a stake in the companies' well-being and growth, but also crucially put money in their pockets. Some critics lament that BBBEE has failed and must be scrapped. Yet they are silent on its role in creating a growing Black middle class. They deride efforts to create Black industrialists yet miss the point of their role in opening factories and companies, and the jobs these create in local communities. Is BBBEE perfect? Of course not. Does it need to be adjusted, lessons learned, mistakes corrected? Without a doubt. Cosatu does have many concerns with the implementation of BBBEE, notwithstanding appreciating its successes in many instances. BBBEE does need to be adjusted to learn from challenges experienced, to avoid repeating them and to ensure its progressive objectives reach those most in need of empowerment, the millions of working class residents living in townships, informal areas, rural towns and villages across the nation. A discussion needs to be had about the once empowered, always empowered notion. Do we want BBBEE to continue to benefit those already empowered? Or can it be adjusted to prioritise those still in need of empowerment? How can this be practically done? An elegant solution is needed lest BBBEE be dismissed as benefiting only the wealthy. How can SMMEs, especially emerging ones, and particularly those in townships and rural areas, be elevated? We should not continue to normalise township and rural economies to be composed of taxis, petrol stations, hawkers and taverns alone. An inclusive targeted approach to these communities where the overwhelming majority of South Africans live, is needed. Can more be done to eliminate fronting where White South Africans merely add the name of a Black employee or partner to their ownership papers or where a Black owned company simply imports goods from Asia? BBBEE is not about names on a letter head. It is meant to reach those in need of empowerment. It cannot be about enriching importers when we need to elevate local procurement and give support to local businesses, Black and White, and not sacrifice them in pursuit of cheap imports. Public procurement with an annual budget of over R1 trillion, from departments to municipalities, entities and State-Owned Enterprises, has a key role to play in supporting BBBEE and more critically making sure it reaches those who need it, not the nouveau riche. The recently assented to Public Procurement Act elevating this important objective across the state will be an important boost in this regard. Public representatives across the three spheres of government need to hold the executives accountable in this regard. The private sector too, in particular large mining, manufacturing, financial and other well-resourced sectors with large procurement budgets, need to provide more solidarity and support to local companies, in particular BBBEE compliant ones. This is key not only to transformation and empowerment, but also to boosting localisation and stimulating badly needed economic growth and tackling unemployment. Whilst Cosatu supports the thrust of BBBEE, the heart of our support and in fact our passion, lays in ramping up ESOPS or Worker Ownership Programmes. We want workers to live a better life, to boost their earnings, to have more money to pay their debts, to feed their families and to buy the goods local companies produce and thus spur economic growth and sustain and create more jobs. We want workers to become co-owners of their companies as this gives them a stake in their success and a direct motive to boost productivity and again spur economic growth and sustain and create jobs. We want to end the still painfully prevalent apartheid scars that are the feature of almost every township, village and community. We want workers, African, Coloured, Indian, White, women and with disabilities, to be co-owners in this economy, including on the JSE. We want this better life now, not in some indeterminate future promised on a Jpeg by irrelevant populists. Workers are the backbone of the economy. They have made South Africa the industrial hub of the economy. Many have grown wealthy off of their sweat and blood, it is time that this wealth is shared with the working class. ESOPs are a critical path to doing that. BBBEE is not perfect, but its objectives remain as valid today as they were in 1994. Adjustments are needed, in particular to make sure the SMMEs in our townships, local manufacturers, and most importantly workers are elevated and prioritised at all times. Solly Phetoe is the General Secretary of Cosatu. Solly Phetoe is general secretary of Cosatu. Image: Doctor Ngcobo / Independent Newspapers.
