The cost of government

[Dave A]

For example:

South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said on Wednesday its members had rejected the latest wage offer from Impala Platinum, and demanded a higher wage rise plus housing and transport pay.

Impala Platinum (Implats), the world's No. 2 producer of the metal, is facing a strike by more than 20 000 workers at the company's main mine.

The group had on Sunday offered a one-year wage agreement with a 10% pay increase for all workers.

"They have rejected the offer," NUM spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka told Reuters.

"They want the wage deal to include transport and housing allowances, and they also want a pay rise of 13%."
full story from M&G here

Is there no concept of where inflation comes from, and from there what drives interest rates?

And to extend that line of thought, where does capital formation come from? And how important is capital formation in the creation of jobs?

In lifesaving you are taught the greatest danger to you in the ocean is the drowning person you are trying to rescue. I kinda feel the same way about organised labour at the moment.

[Yvonne]

Our company complied with all the requirements of our SETA.
We use a professional consultant, who submits everything on our behalf.

I don't have the ability to skills to deal with the returns, so have no way of verifying that everything is correctly submitted, as we have no correspondence from the SETA advising a claim is denied, assuming all is in compliance.

We have yet to receive a single cent for rebates in training provided to our employees from the Skills Development Fund.

Yet the TETA claimed they still had the funds available to carry out their committments, now those funds can be diverted?

I have no desire to incur additional wasted time and effort to attempt to follow this up, assuming our rebate is hardly worth the trouble.

But if many small businesses have the same attitude as ours, how much is actually being received in rebates from SETA's?

Yes, Dave your quote comes to mind! -

Understanding the will of the people:
Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent. Napoleon Bonaparte.

better follow this up.

Yvonne

[Dave A]

50% of your contributions are recoverable as a mandatory grant, Yvonne. It's pretty much a case of doing the paperwork and the SETA has to pay up. Given a thrshold of R500k before you have to pay, that's a minimum of R2500.00 per annum that should be coming back.

Not a bad return for filling out some forms.

[Yvonne]

Can anyone tell me this - apart from showboating, name one constructive thing organised labour is doing to turn the tide of this recession?
One concession?
One sacrifice?

This is why I feel discouraged, we need "hope" that there is understanding of the problems in their entirety.
Our country needs the "feel good" stories of concessions and sacrifices made by the "powers in control".

Is it possible to separate organized labour from the ANC, etc. ?
Expanded govt. and public servants ("Filled from labor ranks potentially!), security, vehicle dealerships etc.

I have concerns: the decision process of the industry sectors targetted?
Tenders to SETA's: family, friends and cronies as providers of the training?
Definitely providers favored by B.E.E.

Pockets of the workers?

George said this would be done by ensuring that the R2,4-billion training allowance reached the pockets of working people.

The funds should not "reach" anyone's pockets - the target should be their minds! (Skills)

Darn! that is the basis for all the problems in the first place!
Common Sense has dissapeared!

(Note: sarcasm intended!
I do understand the concept of funds "move from the SETA's into the pockets of the working people" the economy should benefit by increase in spending etc. ), it is just that for me, this confirms the "entitlement" perspective of workers, and the material aspect rather than the emphasis being on the funds being for the ultimate good of increasing the workers skill value for potential employment.

Yvonne

[Yvonne]

Perhaps I dont understand it at all.

The rebate is calculated on your submission of training to be provided (prior year), (Can't remember the name of the return!) then with a formula of the percentage of much of the training proposed was actually carried out, plus proof provided that the courses were undertaken and paid for etc. Providing evidence regarding Accreditation of the provider of the training, that they are in line with the framework applicable for your specific industry etc?

If it is as easy as filling out a form and getting a rebate I am going to be furious with myself.

We pay approx R13,500 to Skills Development, and spend R18,000 per annum for the consultant to keep our own accreditation applications as a training provider in order.

This is my point, how many small business owners have the capacity to handle all these issues.

If the cost of professional assistance is more than the Skills Levy rebate, small business just accept it as a tax.

Do you know of any consultancy that offers a full service to small business at a reasonable cost?

We need a small business in South Africa Business Management for genuine dummies! publication. (Wiki?)

Yvonne

[Yvonne]

Dave, Are you referring to a Learnership rebate?

Not all small business would have learnership potential.
The report I was referring to is the Annual Training Report and The workplace skills plan.

I found a pretty simple site: http://www.labourguide.co.za/sdl.htm for "dummies" like me.

Yvonne

[Dave A]

We need a small business in South Africa Business Management for genuine dummies! publication. (Wiki?)

I really need to get back to working on that.

The report I was referring to is the Annual Training Report and The workplace skills plan.

Yep - we're talking about the same thing. Submit the WSP and ATR and you get the mandatory grant.

One thing to note on this - it's not as if you have to spend as much as you get either. As long as the WSP and ATR are reasonably aligned, you get the grant. It's also not limited to "accredited" training - that's more an issue for getting access to discretionary grants.

We pay approx R13,500 to Skills Development, and spend R18,000 per annum for the consultant to keep our own accreditation applications as a training provider in order.

That pretty much sums up one of the major weaknesses in the system. It's been made so complex, too much money is ending up in the pockets of consultants instead of being invested in training - or as you so aptly put it, getting knowledge "into their minds."

The system is ridiculous. I hate it. But them's the rules to be used and abused. My current theory is the best way to make sure they're changed to something more sensible one day is for them to be raped to the max, because pointing out the flaws and loopholes hasn't had any effect.

[tec0]

If I may be so bold to point out a little thing called cost of living. Now it is true that Eskom is stating that they have lost so much money that it makes me sick to think about it. Fact is why is there no audit being done on Eskom to see where the money is going. After all we are paying more money than ever just to keep the lights on! However let us not forget that Eskom is still Government so this massif negative income will have an effect on us.

Now let us look at you and I. Fact is if you work for someone Government will take TAX from you and they will demand it and take it by force and liquidate you for their money! Who benefits from this money? Fact is you see little benefit if any.

[Dave A]

At least Tokyo Sexwale is setting a good example:

Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale said on Tuesday his department was introducing austerity measures to slash official travel, accommodation and administration costs.

Sexwale and his deputy Zoe Kota-Fredericks this week started flying economy class to Cape Town to attend parliamentary sittings and all staff had been ordered to do the same, his spokesperson Chris Vick said.

Vick said had Sexwale told his staff: "We need to lead by example. We have to tighten up on expenditure, particularly on some of the big-ticket items such as travel."

The department had placed a moratorium on promotional items and instructed officials to share transport wherever possible.

It had also given orders to cut down on printing and photo-copying costs.

Sexwale and Kota-Fredericks have bucked the ministerial trend for acquiring luxury official vehicles at taxpayers' expense.

The minister was using his own car and his deputy used one from the department's fleet, Vick said.

He said the human settlements department was doing a study of how much it could realistically save and would report to the national treasury once it was completed.
full story from M&G here

[Marq]

He said the human settlements department was doing a study of how much it could realistically save and would report to the national treasury once it was completed.

mmmm.....the crux of the message..methinks. A plan to make a plan to see what they potentially could do about this scenario, that has no deadline date and no real intention to do anything. Lets save some paper costs, do a ra ra about that and no one will realise that we are skimming the bucks from these big projects and other tender stuff where he real savings could be made.