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[dreamingofkaggen]

Over 30 farm workers have taken the owners of Paardekop Vrugte in Citrusdal in the Western Cape to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), claiming unfair dismissal. They also argue that their eviction from hostels on the farm was illegal.

On 10 March, the migrant workers from Lesotho returned to work after a week’s leave to find their belongings dumped outside and were told that they no longer had employment. The farm workers claim that some of them had been working on the farm since 2008.

Farm worker and supervisor, Eketsang Mohlomi, said he has been working on the farm for 12 years. “We had gone back home to Lesotho for a week with transport provided by the company. While away, we got calls from other colleagues telling us that our belongings like clothes and appliances, were sitting outside,” he said.

[dreamingofkaggen]

Ignoring a Parliamentary resolution to introduce legislation with a view to shutting down the captive lion industry, the Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries Barbara Creecy has instead appointed a High-Level Panel with terms of reference intended to side-step the resolution and produce a predetermined outcome.

A Parliamentary colloquium passed by “overwhelming consensus” a resolution in August 2018 to implement legislation with a view to ending captive lion breeding. This was subsequently adopted by the National Assembly “as a matter of urgency initiate a policy and legislative review of Captive Breeding of Lions for hunting and Lion bone trade with a view to putting an end to this practice”.

In a case of asking the same question again but in the hope of getting a more convenient answer, the Minister has now appointed a high level panel tasked to evaluate the management, breeding, hunting, trade and keeping in captivity of elephants, rhinos, lions and leopards. Surprisingly, there is only one elephant and two lion experts serving on the panel, and not a single rhino or leopard expert.

[dreamingofkaggen]

Founder and first president of the Pan Africanist National Congress, Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe (54), passed away in the Kimberley General Hospital between midnight and 01h00 on February 27, 1978. Sobukwe died of lung complications after having been hospitalised in 1977. His medical doctors requested that he should be granted freedom of movement on humanitarian grounds, as he was banned to Galeshewe Township, Kimberley, but it was turned down by the authorities. The day is now celebrated by PAC members as Sobukwe day.  

[dreamingofkaggen]

President Cyril Ramaphosa is to place bulk infrastructure development across the continent at the centre of his year-long reign as chairperson of the African Union.

Ramaphosa is due to assume the position of AU chairperson at the continental body's heads of state summit taking place this weekend in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.

Ambassador Mxolisi Nkosi, the deputy director-general for multilateral relations in the international relations department, said Ramaphosa had planned to ensure that rapid development of infrastructure was fast-tracked in a bid to stimulate economic growth across the continent.

[dreamingofkaggen]

I wonder this, pigeons in the Oppenheimer Park

are never arrested and prosecuted for trespassing

on private property and charged public indecency.

Every day I see these insolent birds perched

on "Whites Only" benches, defying all authority.

Don't they know of the Separate Amenities Act?

A white policeman in full uniform, complete

with a holstered .38 special, passes by

without raising a reprimanding finger

at offenders who are flouting the law.

They not only sit on hallowed benches,

they also mess them up with birdshit.

Oh! Holy Ideology! Look at those two at the crest

Of the jumping impala, they are making love in full

view of madams, hobos, giggling office girls.

What is the world coming to?

Where is the Sacred Immorality Act? Ag! Sies!

- Mbuyiseni Oswald Mtshali

[dreamingofkaggen]

Telkom has formally notified labour unions of its plan to retrench 3000 workers.

This announcement comes shortly after Massmart announced the closure of 34 stores, thereby making 1440 of its employees redundant.

SAA is in business rescue.

If that process fails – and it’s more likely than not – 10 000 people may lose their jobs.

There’s also the imminent closure by ArcelorMittal of Saldanha Steel.

[dreamingofkaggen]

Socialism is about decent shelter for those who are homeless. It is about water for those who have no safe drinking water. It is about health care, it is about a life of dignity for the old. It is about overcoming the huge divide between urban and rural areas. It is about a decent education for all our people. Socialism is about rolling back the tyranny of the market. As long as the economy is dominated by an unelected, privileged few, the case for socialism will exist.

Chris Hani

[dreamingofkaggen]

She has returned home for the first time since she was crowned Miss Universe in December. After spending time with her family at Esidwadweni village at Tsolo, Tunzi attended homecoming celebrations organised by the OR Tambo district municipality.

She expressed gratitude for the support she had received from South Africans during the Miss Universe competition and said she was ready to do her part. "I'm very much excited to start working in South Africa for the things I said I want to fulfill. I'm so grateful to have been able to go to the world and tell the story of South African women and South African children. As I stood there for Miss Universe, I spoke about leadership and I spoke about empowering young women and young boys as well."

[dreamingofkaggen]

Mgarimbe - Sister Bethina

[dreamingofkaggen]

It may have been mere coincidence, but news over the past week focused on two contrasting perspectives of how apartheid affected the lives of South Africans.

On the one hand, there was former president FW de Klerk trying so desperately to dispel any notion that apartheid, as bad as it may have been, was ever a crime against humanity.

De Klerk granted interviews this week to mark 30 years after his announcement of the unbanning of liberation movements, the release of political prisoners including Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Ahmed Kathrada, and the setting in motion of steps towards a negotiated political settlement.

In those interviews, he was at pains to assure South Africans that although apartheid could not be justified, it could not be equated to genocide.

This despite a UN resolution which officially designated it a crime against humanity.

[dreamingofkaggen]

The name Agnes Sithole is now imprinted in South Africa’s law books after the 72-year-old housewife from Pinetown in Durban scored a significant legal victory that gives financial security to about 400 000 black women in South Africa. Under apartheid laws, these women were automatically deemed married out of community of property.

So egregious is the offending law that KwaZulu-Natal Deputy Judge President Isaac Madondo said in his judgment that it should not be permitted to remain on the statute books any longer.

“All marriages of black persons concluded out of community of property under sections of the Black Administration Act (of 1927) before 1988 are hereby declared to be in community of property. The recognition of the equal worth and dignity of all black couples of a civil marriage is well overdue and no case has been made out why it should be delayed any further,” he said.

[dreamingofkaggen]

African National Congress (ANC) Chairperson, Gwede Mantashe says if the South African Airways (SAA) cannot sustain itself it must be sold to a willing buyer. Earlier this week, the airline announced its decision to cancel most domestic, as well as some international, routes in an effort to make it financially sustainable.

SAA was placed under voluntary business rescue in December 2019. It has received more than R20 billion in bailouts over the last three years.

Speaking at the party’s 108th anniversary celebrations in Komga in the Eastern Cape, Mantashe said the government could not continue to bailout an entity that was failing to make money.

[dreamingofkaggen]

Nombuso says the incident was a homophobic attack as the perpetrator was against Lindo being gay, “the culprit said in his life he has never seen a beautiful guy who is famous and loved by many people.”

Nombuso described Lindo as a loving person, “Lindo was a chubby young man who was always laughing, smiling and somebody who wouldn’t even kill a fly.”

[dreamingofkaggen]

Swazi - 75 x 65 , Stab 173,3 cm

[dreamingofkaggen]

We do not want to be reminded that it is we, the indigenous people, who are poor and exploited in the land of our birth. These are concepts which the Black Consciousness approach wishes to eradicate from the black man’s mind before our society is driven to chaos by irresponsible people from Coca-Cola and hamburger cultural backgrounds.

Steve Biko, The Quest for a True Humanity, I Write What I Like, 1978.