Civil service pay rises too high

[duncan drennan]

I saw this on the news recently and was shocked. Civil service pay rises are going to be 10.5%.

Public Service Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi announced in Parliament this week that civil servants would receive a 10,5% cost of living increase from July.

This creates a problem for the whole economy and poor Tito who is trying to hold things together.

"As soon as government concludes a wage agreement like this, it sets the tone for private sector negotiations," he [Kevin Lings] said.

It just seems irresponsible and inflation fuelling to act like this. The government is basically saying that they do not buy into the inflation target that has been set. Or possibly don't understand there role in containing inflation.

[Dave A]

Same as last year

Gov took the easy way out last year too. And look what happened.

[duncan drennan]

Same as last year

There were just fewer rubber bullets and stun grenades this year.

[Dave A]

Yeah. If they were going to cave anyway, at least they saved us that.

[duncan drennan]

The sucky thing here is that to a lot of people the government comes out smelling like roses (meanwhile they are actually negatively impacting the economy), and Tito is the bad guy (meanwhile he is actually fighting the good fight for the man on the street).

Next year is an election year - what is a government to do?

[Dave A]

Next year is an election year - what is a government to do?

At times I wonder if they don't go to the Robert Mugabe school for politicians. Here are a few ideas:

• Negotiate reduced electricity consumption from mines and other major industrial consumers to keep the flow going to the voters.
• Increase the earnings threshold for access to government child care grants
• Reduce the pensionable age
• Increase the housing subsidy

I've probably missed a few. Any others floating around?

[duncan drennan]

I've probably missed a few. Any others floating around?

Expropriation of land

[Dave A]

Now that is an interesting story.

South Africa's Cabinet has approved a Bill that would speed up its land reform programme aimed at transferring 30% of farmland to black ownership by 2014, a government spokesperson said on Thursday.

And yet just last week the DA was taken to task for "misinterpreting" the effect of this bill. The argument there was that the bill empowers the Minister of Public Works, not Land Affairs! This meant it could only be used for land needed for expansion of public utilities.

So who is BS'ing who on this one?

[duncan drennan]

There was some commentary on the bill on the news last night (eTV). My interpretation of what they were saying is that any piece of land can be bought for below market value. Without having seen the bill I'm not sure under what circumstances this could occur.