Latest news with #Workers'Day
The Citizen
11-07-2025
- Politics
- The Citizen
Security guards march for fair treatment
The Security Officers and Cleaners Alliance (SOCA) recently marched from the old Marabastad Depot to Tshwane House in protest over nearly a decade-long insourcing delays. The march came after the Tshwane metro announced that 1 283 municipal workers would be employed by the municipality. The metro recently inducted the first 100 cleaners at the Ou Raadsaal earlier this month. The municipal workers currently employed by outsourced companies will now be employed by the metro. This means they will receive benefits associated with working for the city, including group scheme coverage, a 13th cheque, pension fund contributions, medical aid subsidies, and housing allowances. SOCA members consist of more than 2 000 guards and cleaners who have been seeking to be insourced into the metro since 2018. The metro at the time resolved to employ 4 000 guards directly, but to date, only phase 1, the employment of 1 302, has been completed. The project was then scrapped. The group met with members of the Mayoral Committee before the insourcing announcement at Church Square on Workers' Day. The guards, however, say they are fed up with delays and false promises. 'As we speak right now, we are security officers who have been left out of the process, and we felt that the process was not fair. We are demanding that the city treat us fairly. We are playing a vital role in the City of Tshwane, safeguarding the assets and infrastructure of the city,' SOCA chairperson Joshua Modau said. The additional phases, which were scrapped, included Phase 2: 1 500 officers for the financial year 2021/22 and Phase 3: 1 000 officers for 2022/23. 'They [MMCs] came to us on May 1 at Church Square, and promised they would look into our issue.' Modau said it seemed they were waiting for the budget to be approved. 'When the budget gets approved, and we try to engage with them, we get stories. 'They are playing political tactics so that we don't understand, and we are kept out of the loop. We are saying now, get your house in order, because these MMCs are going around promising this and that, I'm not sure if it's politically motivated or what, so we took it upon ourselves to march and make sure our demands are met,' Modau said. Spokesperson Hlengiwe Ngwenya said the guards are tired of dealing with private companies where they are subjected to mistreatment. 'We're tired of these private companies; they don't pay us on time. We don't care for mafias and their threats; we are the ones on the ground working and not them. Right now, I'm not working; they've fired me because I'm a comrade, and that's fine because that won't change,' Ngwenya said. Ngwenya said the higher-ups would be in for a shock during the next elections should their long-standing plight not be resolved. The security guards demanded to hand over their memorandum to either the Mayor, Dr Nasiphi Moya, or Community Safety MMC, Hannes Coetzee. MMC for Corporate and Shared Services, Kholofelo Morodi, accepted the memorandum on behalf of the Mayoral Committee as Moya and Coetzee were both unavailable. During her address to the rowdy crowd, Morodi assured the guards the committee is working to resolve the issue, but the processes take time. 'I want to make it clear that we're not saying vote for us and we'll insource you. We want to insource because insourcing is part of ending exploitation. It's part of doing the right thing and building internal capacity. We came into government in October, and the first thing we did was start that process of building internal capacity.' Morodi said they want to insource different kinds of workers, not just security guards. 'We've said we wanted to insource cleaners and have started with that first 100. 'We said we want to insource guards as well, and during the coalition with the DA, we began that, but it only started a new kind of exploitation whereby we had untrained and unarmed guards, putting lives in danger,' Morodi said. Morodi said the insourced guards still have to undergo processes that will ensure they are equipped to defend themselves and the metro. She added that when those processes are completed, the metro will begin looking into absorbing the rest. The crowd wanted to know when that would be. Morodi empathised with the crowd's grievances, insisting that this too is not a fight that is new to her. 'We said that we are going to sort out the first batch that was improperly insourced in 2021, that is what we are doing. 'What we don't want is to insource, and you are stuck again and at risk. I can't lie to you now and say we are going to insource you immediately, it's a struggle, it's not easy, but we will insource, have confidence in us,' Morodi said. The group has given the metro 14 working days to respond to its memorandum or face further action. Do you have more information about the story? Please send us an email to [email protected] or phone us on 083 625 4114. For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord's websites: Rekord East For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram or TikTok. At Caxton, we employ humans to generate daily fresh news, not AI intervention. Happy reading!
Indian Express
30-06-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
Kolkata's Indian Statistical Institute marks Mahalanobis's birth anniversary, celebrates 75 years of NSS
By Shambhavi Pandey The Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Kolkata, commemorated the 132nd birth anniversary of its founder, Professor Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, on Sunday. Observed nationally as Statistics Day and internally as Workers' Day, the celebration this year focused on '75 Years of the National Sample Survey,' one of Mahalanobis's most enduring contributions to India's statistical infrastructure. The ceremony opened with faculty, students and guests garlanding Mahalanobis's bust and planting a sapling on the Amrapali Lawn. Dr. Paramita Das, recalling the early resistance Mahalanobis faced in establishing statistics as a discipline, quoted Sir Ronald Fisher and highlighted current infrastructural constraints at ISI. In her address, Director Professor Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay called for honest self-assessment and urged the community to recognise ISI's global impact in data science. Dean of Studies Dr. Biswabrata Pradhan emphasised the need to close funding gaps and expand international collaborations to strengthen the Institute's world standing. Chief guest Professor Shrikrishna Gopalrao Dani, a Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate, lauded Mahalanobis's visionary planning work, likening him to the divine architect Vishwakarma. He also praised ISI's willingness to confront its challenges openly. Former faculty member Professor Manoranjan Pal offered personal recollections of Mahalanobis's mentorship and institutional leadership, underscoring his dual legacy as scholar and builder. Cultural performances by ISI club members followed, and the gathering concluded with a collective rendition of the national anthem. Speakers agreed that preserving Mahalanobis's spirit of scientific service, equity and national progress must guide the Institute's path forward. (Shambhavi Pandey is an intern at the Kolkata office of The Indian Express)
Daily Maverick
19-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
Reassessing SA's political holidays: Are they still relevant in our changing society?
While our public holidays that commemorate important events in our history should have a place in the calendar, it can sometimes feel as if fewer people care about the real reason for the day off. This apparent feeling seems to mirror the ANC's political decline. The two may well be related. South Africa, like many other countries, has public holidays that commemorate important political events. Who can deny the importance of 27 April? If you were alive in 1994 you may well remember voting yourself, or watching other people voting for the first time. Each of our political holidays (as opposed to religious and international holidays like New Year's Day or Christmas Day) commemorates something important. But they are also the result of the settlement involving the forces that were dominant during the early 1990s. For example, Cosatu and the union movement were powerful enough to ensure that there was a Workers' Day. If there had to be a negotiation process now, it is not certain that unions would have the power to force their will on this issue. At the time, there were only two major players. Famously, when there were negotiations on issues like public holidays, decisions were made by the concept of 'sufficient consensus'. In practice that came to mean when the ANC and the National Party agreed. It also meant that there were some clever solutions to difficult problems. The 16th of December is now the Day of Reconciliation. Battle of Blood River But its date was chosen to allow people to continue their celebrations of their victory over the Zulu nation in the Battle of Blood River in 1838 (the fact this battle occurred should put to bed the colonial myth that South Africa was 'empty' when white people moved into the interior of the country). While it could be argued that we most certainly do need a day of reconciliation, no one would argue now that it should be held on that date. But something else may now be happening. As we move further away from the historical events they are supposed to commemorate, they feel less important. If you were alive during the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960, you might well remember the horror when it emerged that so many people had been killed by the police in one incident. If you were not alive during that time, you might well ask why it is that Human Rights Day falls on that day, and not on the date of the Marikana Massacre (16 August 2012)? Especially, as the argument would go, when that date marks a moment when a democratic state used police to defend the interests of capital against workers. This was always foreseeable. While our society is still defined by racialised inequality, personal memories of apartheid may recede. This then leads to a question about whether or not our political public holidays should continue or if there should be a change. It is likely that the ANC would argue they should all remain. But in fact, it is possibly because of the ANC that there is also less support for some of our current holidays. For many years it has been common practice for government figures, who were all from the ANC at the time, to almost monopolise these events. The PAC has always been almost ignored on Human Rights Day for example, when it was they who led the march on the Sharpeville Police Station. Generations have now grown up who have seen only ANC figures on a stage during a public holiday commemoration. Strategy At the time, the ANC was doing this deliberately. It was part of a strategy to remind people that they must vote for the ANC because it was the ANC that had fought for freedom from apartheid. The impression being given was that the ANC was using these events to campaign. There were government stages and sound systems and celebrations, but all presided over by ANC figures. But as the ANC has lost credibility, so it may also have weakened the credibility of our political public holidays. It is true that some figures from other parties are now joining these events through the coalition. PA leader and Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie presided over the national government's Youth Day event on Monday, 16 June 2025. Interestingly, President Cyril Ramaphosa was not there. The keynote address was given by Deputy President Paul Mashatile. And his critics might well accuse him of using the event to campaign. Because while he is correct to say that youth unemployment is a 'moral emergency', it is interesting that he is only entering this debate now, while campaigning for the position of ANC leader. It is a well-known facet of human culture that the meaning and importance of past events shifts according to present-day dynamics. From time to time events and figures rise and sink in prominence as present day politicians seek to use them for their own ends. It is entirely possible, for example, that someone like Julius Malema could seek to make 16 December less about reconciliation, and more about a day to commemorate how white people took land from black people through violence. The fact that both the ANC's armed wing Umkhonto weSizwe and Jacob Zuma's MK were formed on 16 December suggests this date might well continue to carry important significance. Zuma could certainly continue to use the day to stir an ethnic nationalism of some kind. But some of our other public holidays might simply continue to recede to the point where questions are asked about why we retain them. National Dialogue This could be one of the questions that the National Dialogue has to grapple with. And it could reveal the relative strength of certain constituencies. For example, it seems unlikely that unions will have the power to make Workers' Day great again. And thus it could lead to that day falling away. Women's Day is both a symptom of the government's weakness (it has failed to stop so many women being killed by so many men) and a reminder of how deep the need for change is. But political formations formed to serve only the interests of women have failed to make important headway in our society in the past (the last party that tried this approach, Women Forward, won just over 6,000 votes in 2019). This suggests that few people will stand up to defend Women's Day, even if there is an important need for it. If there ever is a proper national debate about our public holidays, that will be a sign that the end of apartheid is no longer the foundation of our society. And it will reveal how power is shifting into a proper post-apartheid nation. DM
IOL News
30-05-2025
- Business
- IOL News
Closing the skills gap: how training programmes are reshaping the workforce
Jennifer Mdluli is a radio broadcaster, Head coach and Founder of Emerald Gymnastics Club, and facilitator dedicated to youth and community development. As South Africa observes Workers' Day in May, the occasion carries a bitter undertone for many young people. For them, this time no longer symbolises hard-won labour rights or economic progress; it is instead a reminder of exclusion, unemployment, and unfulfilled promise. According to Stats SA, the unemployment rate stood at 31.9% in Q1 2024 and rose to a staggering 32.9% in Q1 2025. The expanded unemployment rate, which includes discouraged job seekers, reached 43.1%. Among the youth, the picture is even bleaker. While time-related underemployment remains at 4.6%, suggesting some are working fewer hours than they are willing and able to, the broader concern is the quality and accessibility of jobs. Distressingly, only 9.8% of employed youth are graduates, highlighting a harsh truth: higher education, while essential, no longer guarantees employment. This disconnects between education and economic opportunity reveals systemic issues. Many young South Africans remain locked out of the workforce, not because of a lack of will or potential, but due to structural inequalities, limited access to quality education, a lack of job creation, and persistent socio-economic barriers. The growing number of NEETs (youth not in employment, education, or training) is perhaps the clearest indicator of a generation at risk of long-term marginalisation. Without targeted interventions such as inclusive labour market policies, youth-focused entrepreneurship support, and stronger links between education and industry, South Africa risks losing the demographic dividend its youth could offer. As we reflect this workers month, let us not only honour the workers who built and sustain our economy, but also confront the realities faced by those still striving to enter it. South Africa cannot afford to leave its youth behind. The Urgent Call for Skills Training With traditional job pathways shrinking, young people are turning to alternative ways of becoming employable. Skills training has emerged as a practical and empowering solution - one that not only teaches job-ready competencies but also boosts confidence, independence, and long-term resilience. Recent data shows that youth with some form of experience are significantly more successful in transitioning into employment than adults. Between quarters, 12.3% of youth moved from unemployment or inactivity into work, compared to 7.4% of adults. This highlights the importance of early exposure to real-world work environments and practical skills. Community-Based Change: The Mordecai Ndlovu Foundation In response to this urgent need, organisations like the Mordecai Ndlovu Foundation are stepping up to close the gap from the ground up. Through initiatives such as the Waste Management Skills Programme, the foundation is equipping young people with accredited, industry-relevant skills that address local employment gaps. More than just training, these programmes offer: Stipends to alleviate financial pressure during the learning process Hands-on practical experience to ensure real-world readiness Structured mentorship and support, helping youth navigate the pathway into work As Mordecai Ndlovu, a passionate member of the Activate! Change Drivers and Generation G Champion, explains: 'I've had the privilege of driving social discussions around youth development in communities such as Tembisa, Orange Farm, Katlehong, and the Vaal. Our focus has been on creating meaningful programs and dialogues that address the unique challenges faced by young people. Through skills training, we bridge the employment gap by ensuring our youth are not only employable but equipped with practical industry skills.' Work, gender, and justice: a generation's call for change The future of work must also be gender-just. South Africa cannot address youth unemployment without tackling the deep gender inequalities that restrict access to opportunities and perpetuate violence. The Generation Gender (Gen G) program - a partnership between Activate! Change Drivers, ActionAid, and Sonke Gender Justice - is a vital response. Gen G works to build gender-equitable, violence-free societies, empowering youth as agents of change, especially in addressing the persistent crisis of gender-based violence (GBV). Skills training, therefore, must do more than prepare people for jobs - it must be transformative. Programmes must intentionally dismantle gender stereotypes, promote safety in training and workspaces, and ensure that young women, queer youth, and non-binary individuals are fully included. For example, the Waste Management Skills Programme not only creates green jobs but also challenges male-dominated norms, opening up new possibilities for inclusion and leadership. The political moment: from symbolism to structural change With South Africa entering a new political phase under a Government of National Unity (GNU), the country is presented with a rare opportunity for collective, forward-thinking action. Workers' Month in May must be more than commemorative; it must become a moment of commitment. The GNU must mainstream youth employment and gender justice into national policy, from funding inclusive skills training to protecting vulnerable workers from exploitation and harm. Partners like those in the Gen G alliance are already doing the groundwork, hosting dialogues, training changemakers, and shifting norms at the grassroots. Now, national leadership must match this momentum with bold reforms. This includes scaling up community-based innovations, strengthening industry-education partnerships, and ensuring that youth are not just beneficiaries of programs but leaders of change. The bigger picture: skills, not just jobs Statistics show that 65% of employers report skills shortages, not a lack of applicants. The most in-demand attributes aren't just technical skills, but soft skills like communication, adaptability, and problem-solving. These are competencies that programs like the Waste Management Skills Programme actively develop. In this light, training programs are not just a stopgap, they are a sustainable pathway to a reimagined workforce that values adaptability and lifelong learning. They also promote social inclusion, dignity, and a renewed sense of purpose for young people. A call to action South Africa's youth face a challenging job market, but hope lies in proactive, community-driven initiatives. Skills training offers more than employability; it offers empowerment. Organisations like the Mordecai Ndlovu Foundation are proving that with the right support, potential can be unlocked, and futures reshaped. Let this Workers' Day be more than a symbolic gesture. Let it be a call to invest in our youth, in skills development, and in programs that uplift from the grassroots. * Jennifer Mdluli is a radio broadcaster, Head coach and Founder of Emerald Gymnastics Club, and facilitator dedicated to youth and community development. A member of Activate! Change Drivers, an organisation that fosters youth leadership and inspires social change through creativity and engagement, Jennifer is committed to supporting efforts that promote equality, inclusion, and empowerment for all individuals.
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The Citizen
26-05-2025
- General
- The Citizen
Play area transformed after collective community effort [Pics]
WHAT began as a simple Facebook post turned into a strong show of support from the community, which came together on Workers' Day to revamp the children's play area in Hutchison Park. When Bronwyn Andrea Bewick took to social media to complain about the state of the park, local businesses, individuals and organisations, including Salajees Hardware, Easigrass, Holm Fabrications, Kings Hardware, Pinetown Poles, Franco Molato and Love Cities, Love Toti, banded together to make a difference. Also read: Kingsway's water polo coach brings provincial prowess Kathy Sinclair of Love Cities, Love Toti said, 'We are convinced that the solutions to our crumbling communities can only be found in unity. Finding like-minded people, co-creating solutions and buying into a collective vision is key to rebuilding our towns and cities in South Africa. We made a difference and made a playground safe for the children again and in the process, we had fun.' For more South Coast Sun news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can also check out our videos on our YouTube channel or follow us on TikTok. Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter and get news delivered straight to your inbox. Do you have more information pertaining to this story? Feel free to let us know by commenting on our Facebook page or you can contact our newsroom on 031 903 2341 and speak to a journalist. At Caxton, we employ humans to generate daily fresh news, not AI intervention. Happy reading!
