WEEKLY MAIL, March 16 to ll/tarch 22 1990 3

Minister to revise Labour Act afterjoint talks

MANPOWER Ministcr Eli Louw last the govemment, was included in the draft legislation, which was complet- OIt scraps all time limits regarding
night agrecd to push a new Labour delegation which mct the minister By EDDIE KOCH ed at the weekend but has not yet dispute resolution procedures and
Relations Act through parliament this yesterday. been made public, includes the fol- lays down retrenchment and dismis-
year a movc ttnt is bound to boost The dramatic zmnouncement came lowing provisions: sal standards that are in line wittr In-
-
the proccss of negotiation in South after a ten-man labour delegation yes- fore being sent. to the minister. temational Labour Organisarion prin-
Africa. OIt cunails powers that employers ciples.
terday flew into Cape Town for talks A joint statement by the unions and
This is the first time that tripartite with Louw aimed at preparing for re- enjoy under the current law to squa.sh
Louw last night said the draft would strike
negotiations between organised la- vamped labour legislation in South action by using industrial court OIt removes the right that employ-
be submitted to the minister as soon interdicts.
bour, big business and the state have Africa. ers have to sue unions for damages
as possible, who would send it to the
resulted in a common commitment to The draft of the new labour law is lost during illegal strike action and
the National Manpower Commission OIt removes the existing defini- or-ovides for the automatic publication
revising a major piece of apartheid being jointly negotiated by organised for its urgent attention. tions of unfair labour practices
"0n receipt of the NMC's propo- (JLPs) and suggests a retum to the of all industrial court
legislation. industry and a team from the Con- judgments.
The meeting was also significant gress of South African Trade Unions sals, the minister will give this his situation that applied before 1988. The draft thus meets all the interim
because a leading representative of (Cosatu) and the National Council of priority attention and endeavour to This laid down a general statement of demands put
on the uble by the un-
the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), Trade Unions (Nactu). put it through parliament in the cur- faimess but relied on industrial court ions at ttre talks with the South Afri-
Cuningham Ngcukana, who had re- It still has to be endorsed by the rent, session." judgments to elaborate on the defini can Committee on Labour Affairs
jected the notion of negotiation wittr membership of the ttrree parties be- According to union sources, lhe tion of what constitutes a ULP. (Saccola).
i

ll RenAmo's SACP veterans

-i
seek citizenship
covert By LINDA VEBGNANI
FORMER Communist exiles Profes-

network sor Jack Simons and his wife Ray Al-

exander have filed a Supreme Court
application against the minister of
home affairs seeking to restore their

inside SA citizenship.
The couple, who last month became
the first ANC exiles to return to
lFrom PAGE 1
South Africa, lost their citizenship af-
farmer and cafe owner from the Ko-
ter a1977 amendment to the Suppres-
matipoort area, who informants say sion of Communism Act, under
dragoon Mozambican refugees into which they had been banned.
Renamo, train them to use weapons The couple, who were given three-
and ferry them across the the border month visitors' permits after their ar-
so that they can undertake operdtions
rival in Cape Town from Lusaka, say
in Mozambique.
they never intended renouncing their
The names have been passed on to citizenship after t}ry left Sonth Africa
the Department of Foreign Affairs so in 1965.
that the claims can be investigated. "When we left the country after my
The farmer allegedly supplies Rena- banning order effectively paralysed
mo bands with clothing, food pro- me, we did so legally," said Simons.
duced on his farm and other provi- He said ttrousands of exiles were in
sions by making regular clandestine a worse situation, as they had left ille-
trips across the border. gally without any documents.
He is a former Mozambican who are t the urler nrrflind