The 2010 World Cup raises a number of issues for employers to consider. These same issues are likely to emerge with any major sporting event that is of great interest to a broad section of the workforce. SuperSport reports that the South African Football Supporters Association (Safsa) is calling upon employers to allow staff to work flexi-time during the 2010 World Cup.
Cosatu on Thursday threatened strikes before October over big electricity price rises and declined to say whether action could start before the Soccer World Cup in June. ’The last thing we want to do is disrupt the World Cup but our interest is bigger than the World Cup,’ Cosatu secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi told reporters. Cosatu, consumers and businesses have condemned the power regulator’s decision to grant Eskom average annual price increases of more than 25% over the next three years to fund a badly needed increase in capacity.
Trade union Solidarity claims Telkom will urgently have to tackle its labour relations problems to ensure that the 2010 World Cup goes off without a hitch, says a report in The Herald. ’Employees of all three trade unions in Telkom’s largest single unit, Data Advance Services (Das), are unhappy about salary discrepancies between them and employees of the company’s Merlot project, a unit responsible for the telecommunications company’s largest contracts,’ Solidarity said.
Employers warned for tired workers during WC - 21/02/2010
The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration said it had set up special units in all major host cities to arbitrate, because there was an expectation that industrial action and cases between worker and employer will rise during the 2010 World Cup. CCMA Director Nerina Khan said: ’It may seem silly, but it’s not uncommon to have such cases. We’ve not hosted an event of this magnitude, so we don’t know how prevalent it will be but we fully expect to be called up to deal with these issues. What we’ve seen before is employers complaining that their workers come back to work tired and uninspired, and that will be the case again during the World Cup,’ Khan said.
Workers angered by foreign WC contracts- 11/02/2010
Irate workers have demanded that FIFA stops importing football World Cup-related clothes and mascots from China at the expense of local workers and manufacturers. According to a report on the IOL site, angry traders and workers led by Cosatu protested outside FIFA’s Cape Town offices yesterday and submitted a memorandum to Local Organising Committee (LOC) officials. They said clothing, scarves, fleece blankets, flags and caps were being imported from sweat shops in China. ’The manufacturing of Zakumi (the World Cup mascot) in China is the tip of the iceberg and many other products have now been discovered to have been bought outside South Africa,’ they said.
Local companies to get slice of WC cake – 10/02/2010
Half the licensed products for the 2010 World Cup are being manufactured by South African enterprises, said FIFA’s licensing company. ’We have appointed 38 South African based licensees, which account for 128 different official licensed products and product categories,’ Global Brands Group general manager Paul Zacks said in a statement. According to Business Report, his comments followed claims by the Congress of South African Trade Unions that Bafana Bafana supporter apparel was being made overseas.
People who threaten to disrupt the much awaited 2010 World Cup in June will face the full might of the law, said Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa. ’Any criminal or would-be-criminal who threatens the safety of the World Cup will meet the full might of the force.’ He said a number of groups and protesters had used the tournament to bargain for their demands. Mthethwa said a group of reservists who marched in Port Elizabeth last week had threatened to make the make the 2010 World Cup ungovernable if their demands were not met.
Volunteers for the 2010 World Cup will be trained to help with, among other things, communications, ushering services, translations and protocol. Interviews are planned for volunteers, with people to be placed in various functional areas during the tournament. Some 650 people who applied for the programme in Johannesburg will be selected to serve in specific functional areas during the month-long tournament. Of the 68 000 applicants received from South Africa and the rest of the world, Johannesburg, with two World Cup venues - Soccer City and Ellis Park - had 16 280 applications, almost twice the number received in Tshwane/Pretoria, the city with second highest applications.
Metal worker’s union Numsa on Wednesday called on World Cup organisers to reduce ticket prices. ’We strongly believe that the low purchases of the tickets are a manifestation of the sharpening class realities in our country and beyond our borders, wherein the ordinary people can’t even afford basic necessities such as bread, milk and a decent meal,’ spokesperson Castro Ngobese said in a statement. On Tuesday 2010 Local Organising Committee (LOC) head Danny Jordaan expressed concerns that locals were not buying tickets, especially for Bafana Bafana games.
Cosatu’s branch in the North West said it is holding talks with affiliates concerning provincial action during the 2010 World Cup. Members of the South African Commercial Catering and Allied Workers’ Union (Saccawu) have been on strike since December 4 last year because of a wage dispute with the management of Sun City. The trade union is attacking Sun International CEO David Coutts-Trotter because he went on holiday in December in the middle of the strike. Cosatu is now demanding a full inquiry into the roles of the North-West Gambling Board and the Tourism Board in Sun City and the game reserves.
The 2010 World Cup will make parking in South Africa’s already congested cities even more scarce - and expensive. Maybe local home-owners should take a lesson from their UK counterparts. They’re earning as much as £5500 (R66 000) a year from renting them out to drivers looking for somewhere to park on a regular or one-off basis. Off-road parking spaces near stadiums, airports and stations are in particular demand. Susan Omar has six spare spaces on her driveway, five minutes from Bournemouth airport, which earned her more than £1700 (R20 000) in 2009.
Trade union SACCAWU has called on the Local Organising Committee for the 2010 Soccer World Cup to intervene in their wage dispute with Sun International. The union has threatened to strike during the World Cup if workers are not given a 13 percent across the board salary increase. They also want their members to keep all the tips they are given while on the job. Dozens of workers affiliated to SACCAWU held a demonstration outside Sun City on Thursday.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions in Limpopo has demanded that hawkers not be removed from their places of trade during the 2010 Fifa World Cup. Limpopo secretary Dan Sebabi said Cosatu, along with other lobby groups and the South African Municipal Workers Union, were busy organising hawkers in Polokwane to ensure that their strategic place in the city’s economic activities was not undermined during the soccer spectacle next year. ’We have already had several preparatory meetings with hawkers and our partners, and we will be officially launching the initiative early next year.’
While many South Africans will be relaxing over the holiday season, the 2010 Fifa World Cup Organising Committee (OC) will still be hard at work preparing for the task at hand next year. For the OC volunteer department, the New Year will bring with it the conclusion of the selection process and the beginning of training for the 15 000-strong group of volunteers that will help make 2010 happen.
In January, the selection of the final 15 000 volunteers who will provide support at the 2010 Fifa World Cup will begin in earnest. These volunteers will be selected from a shortlist of 37 080 who were pre-selected from a total of 64 500 initial applications received from South Africa and abroad.
The rigorous process of identifying the 15 000 volunteers needed for the 2010 World Cup is just weeks away, notes a Cape Argus report. While most South Africans will be relaxing over the holidays, the 2010 Organising Committee and the more than 37 000 shortlisted volunteers will be hard at work. The selection process begins in earnest next month, said committee spokesperson Rich Mkhondo. Volunteers would be selected from a shortlist of 37 080 people, who were pre-selected from 64 500 initial applications from South Africa and abroad.
The process of selecting volunteers for the 2010 World Cup will begin in earnest next month. The LOC says the new year will herald a rigorous selection process and the start of training for 15 000 volunteers for the tournament. Sunday World reports that they will be selected from a shortlist of 37 080 applicants pre-selected from 64 500 initial applications received from South Africa and abroad. Interviews with pre-selected applicants will be conducted in January and February, while foreign applicants will be interviewed in their country of origin, and in some instances, through video conferencing. The successful local volunteers will undergo training in March and April, while international volunteers will be trained over the Internet.
Economic impact of WC under the spotlight – 06/12/2009
More than 2.2m additional foreign tourists will visit South Africa between 2008 and 2015, thanks to next year’s 2010 World Cup. FIN24 reports that this is according to Gillian Saunders, a tourism expert at Grant Thornton, which recently announced the latest forecasts about the economic impact of the tournament. If one considers that 2.19m overseas tourists visited the country last year, the World Cup soccer tournament effectively gives the industry an extra year of foreign tourism. She expects the tournament to contribute R55.7bn to South Africa’s GDP, and 415 400 jobs to be created.
SA in desperate need of IT skills for 2010 – 29/11/2009
Graduates are running abroad and South Africa’s feeling the pinch. The Times reports that with less than 200 days left before kick-off of the 2010 World Cup, there is still much to be done - the stadiums might be nearing completion, but South Africa’s IT skills are woefully scarce. Many of the big projects aimed at meeting the needs of the event require highly specialised IT skills. But many of these skilled individuals have taken advantage of the competitive global market and found work abroad. About 11 500 IT professionals would be needed to sustain and implement the World Cup. A tour by a FIFA delegation in October found that many areas in the IT sector required improvement which would require specialised IT skills.
Sex workers from across the country have called for the decriminalisation of their trade and the creation of a safer working environment ahead of the 2010 World Cup. This, the workers say, will ensure they increase their fees during 2010. The Sowetan reports that they also fear they will encounter stiff competition from ’outsiders’ and organised criminals during the soccer spectacle. They also plan to dump the rand in favour of the US dollar when they target foreign fans and tourists.
NUM pleads on behalf of construction workers – 21/11/2009
Frans Baleni, the general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), has issued a plea for 2010 construction workers’ jobs. ’Employers must absorb these workers into other projects that are available, rather than just dumping them into poverty,’ Baleni said after a meeting of the union’s national executive committee. NUM estimates that at least 30000 workers will be without jobs by April next year, when construction projects for the 2010 World Cup come to an end.
Calls for retrenchments to be avoided - 18/11/2009
The retrenchment of construction workers on 2010 projects now concluding must be avoided, said the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). ’Employers must absorb these workers into other projects that are available other than just dumping them,’ said NUM general secretary Frans Baleni. According to a report on the News24 site, the union also expressed concern over the planned retrenchments at Harmony Gold’s Evander mines and retrenchments resulting from the liquidation of Pamodzi Gold.
Tens of thousands of people face a bleak Christmas as 2010 projects and upgrades near completion. The Pretoria News reports that in KwaZulu-Natal, many people have already lost their jobs as work on the Moses Mabhida Stadium winds down, although construction at La Mercy Airport continues apace. Clive Coetzee, an economist with the KZN treasury, said construction companies had been able to permanently employ some workers who had gone through skills training programmes, but the present economic situation would probably not allow any major developments to replace the 2010 projects.
Hundreds of Zimbabweans apply to volunteer in 2010 – 09/11/2009
Taurai Chigumbate, one of almost 500 Zimbabweans who have applied for the 2010 World Cup Volunteer Programme, is crossing his fingers as FIFA goes through a meticulous verification exercise that will see only 15 000 people being selected out of a total 67 999 applicants. The Zimbabwean reports that the screening is expected to last until the end of this month, with interviews of those shortlisted following in December 2009. While volunteers for the World Cup will not be fully employed by FIFA, they will receive a token of appreciation, expected to exceed R1000, for their services, which will include ushering, media accreditation, hospitality, stewardship and crowd control.
With the excitement mounting a month out from the Final Draw for the 2010 World Cup, 362 people who’ll be serving as volunteers during the event gathered in Cape Town to start their training, notes a FIFA.com report. The 4 December show will primarily be about the not so little matter of deciding who will play who and where during the 2010 World Cup but for South Africa, and particularly Cape Town, it presents another opportunity to showcase that the country is ready to welcome the world - and have fun. The volunteer team recruited by the 2010 LOC for the all-important day represents the cream of the crop from the 1965 applicants featuring some familiar faces.
LOC CE Danny Jordaan has urged employers to build stronger working relationships with staff to avoid large-scale industrial action during the 2010 World Cup, notes a Cape Argus report. Addressing MPs at a tourism portfolio committee meeting in Parliament, Jordaan said his team was ’in continuous talks’ with the labour federations to ensure a strike-free event. But he warned that employers, especially those in the hospitality industry, should ensure that workers were kept happy. ’We must especially work on the relationship with workers at hotels, health workers and those in the taxi industry,’ said Jordaan. ’We will continue to speak to the different labour federations ... and have to ensure that there are no disruptions.’
The debilitating effects of the economic recession on the local and international job markets, combined with a desire to be in South Africa for the 2010 World Cup, has generated a surge of applications to South African business schools for next year’s MBA programmes. According to Professor Wim Gevers, associate director: academic at the University of Stellenbosch Business School, the institution had already seen the impact of the economic crisis on applications. The Times reports that Gevers said that business school applications had been further boosted by the World Cup, with prospective students looking to combine their studies with the opportunity to be in the country during the soccer spectacle. ’2010 is expected to be an exciting time for companies operating in South Africa and some interesting case studies will emerge on how organisations look to leverage opportunities presented by the World Cup,’ Gevers said.
South Africa’s economy is showing signs of picking up but that’s also raising fresh concerns about the nation’s power supply as the 2010 World Cup nears, analysts said. Officials at the parastatal energy giant Eskom say they are confident they will not have any blackouts during the matches, which kick off on June 11 and run for one month, notes a report on the IoL site. But South Africans have sharp memories of nationwide power failures in January 2008, which shut down the critical mining sector, hobbled factories and left cities plunged into darkness for days.
Motlanthe encourages crafters to use skills wisely – 28/09/2009
Acting President, Kgalema Motlanthe, has called on all South Africans, who have craft skills, to creatively use their skills for income generation to minimise the effect of the global recession. He said one of the strategic objectives of this year’s Heritage Month is ’to showcase the contribution of crafts to economic development’ and demonstrate the potential of arts and crafts to in ’creating jobs, alleviating poverty’. He further encouraged South Africans to take advantage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup to showcase the country’s rich heritage, craft, music and dance.
2010 calls for enhanced hospitality training - 21/09/2009
Without the necessary tools on hand, how can hospitality staff be expected to live up to international guest expectations? In addition, can on-the-job training, passed down from employee to employee, really provide the insight necessary to become a master of their role and ’wow’ our international and local guests? According to a Skills Portal report, Johan van der Berg, successful entrepreneur and MD of Grace Staffing Services has combined forces with Nelson Mawema, a hospitality industry veteran with 16 years local and global hospitality experience, to uplift the industry in the wake of 2010 service expectations and beyond.
Stellenbosch under the spotlight over stadium jobs – 16/09/2009
While Stellenbosch municipal heads visited three sites to symbolically kick off the upgrading of nine 2010 World Cup viewing stadiums, Cape High Court Judge Elizabeth Baartman heard arguments on why the controversial project should be halted. The Cape Argus reports that the sod-turning celebrations went ahead at the Raithby, Jamestown and Kayamandi stadiums to mark the start of construction - with the DA’s Stellenbosch caucus officially staying away from what it branded ’the ANC sod-turning roadshow’. The court action is being brought by the Stellenbosch Ratepayers Association. A third group has added its discontent to the mix, with a Cloetesville community representative charging that locals are irate because the jobs they were promised as part of the motivation for the project have never materialised.
