October 27 2014
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Sane Dhlamini
Making headlines:

Government’s involvement in industrial relations operational matters is undesirable, according to Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant. 

Botswana's ruling Botswana Democratic Party secured 33 of 57 Parliament seats in the national elections, initial results showed.

And, Two South African brothers are facing indictment in the US over illegal rhino-hunting expeditions and related activity.

Government’s involvement in industrial relations operational matters is undesirable, said Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant at the KwaZulu-Natal economic summit on Friday. She said government had created institutions for this purpose.

Oliphant said intervention by government carried the real danger of undermining the very institutions it created in the first place. She added that it was necessary to use the National Economic Development and Labour Council (or Nedlac) platform to engage on policy matters and other pressing socioeconomic problems. 

Nedlac remains one of the platforms through which government, labour, business and community organisations aim to cooperate, through problem-solving and negotiation, on economic, labour and development issues.

Oliphant said it was disappointing that workers downed tools, even when the gap between their demands and the employer offer was small, saying that, in most strikes involving collective bargaining issues, workers downed tools when the gap between what employers were offering and what workers were demanding was so minute that striking for weeks did not make social and economic sense.

Botswana's ruling Botswana Democratic Party (or BDP) secured 33 of 57 Parliament seats in national elections, initial results showed, putting President Ian Khama at the helm for a second five-year term.

Residents of the Southern Africa nation, who voted on Friday, re-elected the BDP, which has ruled the diamond-producing country since gaining independence from Britain in 1966.

Provisional results show the ruling party’s main rival, the Umbrella for Democratic Change, with 14 seats, while the Botswana Congress Party managed to secure two seats.

Eight seats are yet to be declared. This will be Botswana's most closely contested election and is likely to result in the BDP's majority being sharply reduced from the 79% of seats it won in the 2009 election.

President Khama's party still enjoys the support of a generation of voters won over with high spending on education and welfare benefits. However, there is growing discontent among younger voters and the urban middle class, who say change is due after nearly five decades of the ruling party being in charge.

Two South African brothers face indictment in the US over the sale of illegal rhino-hunting expeditions, the Department of Environmental Affairs said on Friday.

South Africa’s elite crime-fighting agency, the Hawks, had assisted the US Justice Department's environment and natural resources division with its investigation into the case of Dawie and Janneman Groenewald.

The Department of Environmental Affairs understands there is a criminal case against Dawie Groenewald and ten co-accused, who are expected to stand trial in South Africa in August 2015 on 1 872 charges, including racketeering, illegal trade in rhino horn, fraud, corruption, assault and the illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.

On Thursday, the US Justice Department said in a statement that the brothers had been charged with conspiracy to sell rhino- hunting expeditions in South Africa to defraud US hunters.

The indictment entails charging the brothers and their company, Valinor Trading CC (trading as Out of Africa Adventurous Safaris) with conspiracy, Lacey Act violations, mail fraud, money laundering and structuring bank deposits to avoid reporting requirements.

The Groenewalds allegedly recruited hunters at US conventions and gun shows from 2005 to 2010 while Janneman Groenewald lived in the US state of Alabama.

Hunters were misled into believing that the rhino to be killed needed to be culled.

US Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama George Beck Jr said that, in addition to breaking South African laws, the Groenewalds allegedly laundered the funds raised through Alabama banks. 

According to a previous statement on the US Justice Department's website, Dawie Groenewald was previously fined $30 000 for illegally importing a leopard carcass in April 2010.

National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Nathi Mncube said on Friday that the authority was unaware of any extradition process for the brothers.

Also making headlines:

Global development lenders, including the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the European Union, pledged more than $8-billion to boost economic growth and reduce poverty in eight countries in the Horn of Africa.

The White House is pressuring the governors of New York and New Jersey to reverse orders that impose quarantine on all medical workers who had contact with Ebola patients and were returning from West Africa.

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That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.