April 10, 2014
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Motshabi Hoaeane.
Making headlines:

Statistics South Africa says unemployment remains high in South Africa.

The DA says an ad hoc committee is the first step towards President Jacob Zuma’s impeachment.

And, Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant says South Africa still faces the remnants of apartheid.

Employed South Africans are highly likely to stay in their jobs, while the unemployed will find it increasingly hard to find work, Statistician General Pali Lehohla said on Wednesday.

"In South Africa 93% of those [employed], which will be in the region of about 13-million [people], remain in employment," Lehohla said while releasing the latest labour market dynamics report.

The report draws on the comparison of results from the quarterly labour force surveys of the third and fourth quarters of last year.

"If you look at those who are unemployed, which is about 4.7-million [people], only 13% find jobs," Lehohla explained.

The trends over the past few years suggested they could remain unemployed for an extended period of time.

 

The ad hoc committee formed to consider the submissions made by President Jacob Zuma in response to Public Protector Thuli Madonsela's report on upgrades to his Nkandla homestead was the first step towards his impeachment, the Democratic Alliance (or DA) said on Wednesday.

The party welcomed the move by the Speaker of the National Assembly Max Sisulu to form the committee.

"This bold move by the Speaker is a victory for Parliament, the Constitution and accountability," DA Parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko said in a statement.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Parliament said the ad hoc committee would be made up of seven African National Congress members, two from the DA, one from the Inkatha Freedom Party, one from the Congress of the People, and another single member from an unnamed party.

Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant said that, twenty years since South Africa's first democratic election, remnants of apartheid remained in the workplace. She was addressing the second Employment Equity and Transformation Indaba on Wednesday.

Oliphant said 20 years of freedom in South Africa had not been enough to fully address the legacy of apartheid, saying it was impossible that more than 300 years of discrimination could be reversed in such a short period.

Earlier this year, the labour department published employment equity regulations for public comment. The regulations gave effect to the Employment Equity Amendment Act, which provides practical guidelines on how to implement employment equity law in the workplace.

The regulations highlighted the revised definition of designated groups, criteria and methodology for assessing work of equal value, guidelines for assessing compliance, and enforcement mechanisms.

Oliphant said the regulations in no way intended to disadvantage any of the designated groups, particularly Indians and coloureds.

Also making headlines:
 

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa says an agreement between MultiChoice and the South African Broadcasting Corporation will be investigated for alleged “restrictive horizontal practice”.

An ILO report on global employment trends for 2014 said transitioning to a green economy could help the world mitigate rising unemployment levels, particularly at a time when youth unemployment was peaking.
 

Agang SA says the ANC’s suggested SME Ministry is simply ‘buying time’.  

And, two French soldiers are wounded in the Central African Republic capital a day before the United Nations Security Council was due to vote on a new peacekeeping force.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.