 Prepaid water meters declared unlawful and unconstitutionalCoalition Against Water Privatisation
JOHANNESBURG, 30 April 2008 — In a historic and ground-breaking judgement, the Johannesburg High Court today declared that the City of Johannesburg’s forcible installation of prepaid water meters in Phiri (Soweto) is both unlawful and unconstitutional. Judge Tsoka further ordered that the limitation of free basic water to the present 6 kilolitres per household per month, be set aside and that the City of Johannesburg and Johannesburg Water must supply Phiri residents with 50 litres per person per day. Furthermore, the court declared that the choice given to residents of either a prepaid meter or a standpipe for water provision in Phiri is also unlawful and directed the City to provide residents of Phiri the option of an ordinary credit metered water supply. Judge M.P. Tsoka also determined that the City should bear all the legal costs of the applicants since 2006.
Pictured right is Grace Munyai, applicant #2 in the case, speaking to the media outside the Court..
Read the rest of the Coalition Against Water Privatisation's press release.
Here for the Centre for Applied Legal Studies's press release.
Read the full text of Judge Moroa Tsoka's judgement [.pdf]
The City of Johannesburg take it on the chin: City Manager, Mavela Dlamini says "the judgment will not distract from our commitment to provide quality basic services to all our people."
 No to Eskom's 53% tariff increase
JOHANNESBURG, 23 APRIL 2008- The Anti Privatisation Forum, Earthlife Africa, Landless People's Movement - Protea South, and the Greenhouse Project marched this Wednesday on the Offices of the mayor, the Department of Minerals and Energy and Eskom.
Eskom has proposed a 53% increase in the tariffs charged for electricity and Joburg City is not resisting the proposal. The shortage of electricity has made the electricity producer institute scheduled load shedding. While those lucky enough to be inconvenienced by the blackouts, 30% of the country is still without any electricity and now with even less hope of connection to the electrification grid.
See pictures of the march.
 Riots against the high cost of living in west Africaby PCint Thursday, Apr. 10, 2008
After demonstrations and riots in Burkina Faso and the bloody repression of the riots (perhaps 200 dead) and demonstrations by young people and workers in Cameroon at the end of February who have been sentenced to prison, it is the turn of the Ivory Coast and Senegal to undergo demonstrations, struggles and... repression.
... read more
Wave of labour militance in wake of public sector strike
JOHANNESBURG, 9 July 2007 - The public sector strike of last month has sparked off a wave of industrial action across South Africa. Workers in the metal and engineering industries started their strike today with marches in Johannesburg and Cape Town. The six unions involved are demanding a 10% wage increase – ‘the slice of windfall profits companies have made in the last two to three years’ according to the memorandum submitted to the Steel and Engineering Industry Federation of South Africa.
The General Industries Workers Union of South Africa (GIWUSA) announced yesterday that its members will go on strike on 16 July in support of wage demands in the chemicals sector after reaching deadlock in the National Bargaining Council for the Chemical Industry. GIWUSA is leading a strike at Thorpe Timbers in Wadeville, an industrial area on the east rand of Johannesburg. The strike started on Friday, 6 July, when non-union members joined in to remind the management there that production could not continue without their labour.
 Outsourced workers protest at The Independent NewspapersJOHANNESBURG, 1 July 2007 - While articles published in newspapers belonging to the Independent media group have decried labour abuses on South African factory floors, workers pushing out their Johannesburg retailed newspapers have accused the company of turning the same screws on its own employees. Nightshift workers employed by the Independent Newspapers Company (INPC) in Johannesburg demonstrated against conditions of employment at the company on Friday, 22nd June 2007. Organised under the General Industries Workers Union of South Africa (GIWUSA), the workers had come out to demand that labour outsourcing at the INPC stop and that the company respond to their litany of grievances. Chief amongst these is that there are just 6 permanent workers in a workforce of 500.
Read the statement issued by GIWUSA for the protest action.
The holding company, Independent News & Media, has also come under fire from the small-'i' independent media. Earlier this year, the company refused to make its cases of civil litigation where it has been the respondent available to the Cape Town-based Alternative Media Forum (AMF). The AMF argues that this breaks the Press Code of Professional Conduct by which the company is bound to avoid conflict of interests amongst its executive board members.
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