Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant says government will name and shame employers who fail to comply with the national minimum wage.

The National Minimum Wage Act came into effect at the start of this year and stipulates that employers should pay employees a minimum hourly rate of R20. For farm and forestry workers, the amount is R18 per hour, domestic workers R15 and for workers of the Extended Public Works Programme (EPWP), the amount is R11.

Speaking at an International Labour Organisation (ILO) event earlier this week, Oliphant said her department is on a national blitz to “assess levels of the National Minimum Wage Act in businesses with over 1 300 inspectors assigned to monitor compliance”.

“Already the department is in the process of naming and shaming employers who fail to comply by publishing them on the department’s website.”

“Government’s political will is to ensure the tough enforcement of the implementation of the minimum wage,” said Oliphant.

She added that her department is aware of a “new tactic that was gathering traction – that of firing workers to undermine the labour laws that seek to address unemployment, inequality and poverty”.

The department will stop these tactics in their tracks, Oliphant warned.

Increase budgets

The minister said laws such as the Labour Relations Act (LRA) exist to strengthen relationships between employers and employees.

She also pledged that government will look to increase budgets for the inspectorate and the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA). 

“Ours as a government is to strengthen the inspectorate and the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) monitoring roles.”

Oliphant went on to reassure that government was also committed to investing in the economy of the country to create much-needed jobs.

“I was interested in finding out about the person who now occupies one of the most powerful positions in the ANC.”

This much, author and investigative journalist Pieter-Louis Myburgh said when he launched his book, Gangster State: Unravelling Magashule’s Web of Capture at CapeTalk in Green Point on Thursday evening.

The discussion was led by News24 editor-in-chief, Adriaan Basson, at the new venue offered by the radio station.

At the eleventh hour, Exclusive Books at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town – which was meant to be the venue – withdrew from hosting the launch

News24 earlier reported that Donald Kau, head of PR and communications at the V&A Waterfront, said, after a three-way meeting between the V&A Waterfront, Exclusive Books and the South African Police Service, a decision had been taken to cancel the launch, “primarily informed by the safety of our patrons”.

READ: V&A Waterfront book launch cancelled amid security fears, venue changed

At the launch, Myburgh told the crowd: “When I started taking close interest in [Ace] Magashule, I realised that he needed more scrutiny. His operations were akin to that of former President Jacob Zuma.”

He qualified the statement by saying that Magashule had used public resources for private gains, and like Zuma, used his family and friends as proxies for corruption and dodgy dealings.

In his explosive book, Myburgh ventures deeper than before into Magashule’s murky dealings, from his time as a struggle activist in the 1980s to his powerful rule as premier of the Free State for nearly a decade, and his rise to one of the ANC’s most influential positions – secretary general. 

“While premier of the Free State, Magashule was involved in everything that happened, from the hiring of municipal managers to the awarding of toilet paper tenders,” charged Myburgh.

This, added Myburgh, allowed Magashule the influence needed to cripple the Free State.

Myburgh also commented on the feedback he received since the book was released some two weeks ago.

He said, notwithstanding the ANC’s statements and the disruption at the Sandton launch in Johannesburg, the feedback has been positive. 

WATCH: Pieter-Louis Myburgh encouraged by discussions around ‘Gangster State’ book

“It’s a book in the public interest of South Africans. And the feedback has been mainly positive,” added Myburgh.

The ANC Youth League in the Free State cancelled its plans to set copies of his book alight at the Mangaung rubbish site next week, after the ANC’s leadership at Luthuli House intervened and condemned their intentions.

Magashule has publicly denied any wrongdoing during his time as leader of the Free State.”We will prove in court that the man is a blatant liar,” Magashule told eNCA at one stage.

The ANC says the death of South African Communist Party general secretary and struggle icon Chris Hani robbed the liberation movement in South Africa of one of its best cadres.

Hani was remembered on Wednesday on the 26^th anniversary of his death.

He was assassinated at his home in Dawn Park, Johannesburg on April 10, 1993. 

“We celebrate the life of a comrade and friend who devoted most of his life in the service of his people; a humble yet fierce fighter against apartheid injustice and all its manifestations. Indeed, this was a man whose spirit refused to succumb to tyranny and repression,” the ANC said.

READ: Hamba kakuhle, comrade Chris: My memories of a charming revolutionary

The party added that in Hani’s name, corruption and state capture should be fought and tribalism rejected.

“In the name of Chris Hani, we must fight capitalist greed and exploitation with every available weapon at our disposal. In the name of this distinguished revolutionary, let us work tirelessly towards the renewal of our movement.”

Speaking at Hani’s commemoration on Wednesday SACP general scretary Blade Nzimande said shortly before Hani was killed, he pointed out that there was a danger that the movement would be hijacked by self-serving interests once it ascended to government. 

Nzimande said in memory of Hani, self-serving interests should therefore be dealt with. 

“The clean-up of the state that we fought for, the clean-up momentum that has started under the leadership of President Cyril Ramaphosa, must now be consolidated and accelerated. The crooks and traitors must go to jail. The billions of rand that have been stolen, the billions that have been illegally exported to Dubai and elsewhere must be returned,” he said.

Right-wing politician Clive Derby-Lewis and Janusz Walus were sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder.

Their death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment in November 2000.

Walus was denied parole in January. 

This was because there was contradicting information in psychological reports, that made it difficult to determine whether Walus should be placed on parole, Justice Minister Michael Masutha said at the time.

A planned archeological survey of human bones found last year on Robben Island could peel back yet another layer of the island’s centuries-old history.

This comes as Robben Island Museum is advertising for someone to conduct an archeological survey and rescue operation of the exposed human remains discovered at the beginning of 2018.

Spokesperson for the museum, Morongoa Ramaboa, said they were discovered in the maximum security precinct and near the Muslim Kramat by a doctor visiting from Argentina.

“Because of the shallowness of the grave, they were beginning to protrude and became visible,” she said.

At first a femur was found, and on further examination, there were more remains. So, the relevant specialists were called in to investigate. 

“Judging from the shallowness of the graves (10cm) it is suspected that the site was most likely levelled during construction of the prison in the early 1960s,” Ramaboa said.

“Ex-political prisoners have recorded the discovery of human bones during the extension of buildings of the maximum security prison in earlier years.”

The SA Police Service’s pathology unit and officials from Heritage Western Cape carried out an inspection at the maximum security precinct on February 28, 2018.

Once appointed, the archeologists will conduct an archaeological survey of the demarcated land area using less-destructive methods, such as ground penetrating radar.

WATCH: 12 couples tie the knot on Robben Island – ‘a monument of love’

They are also expected to conduct physical testing of the human remains in the hope of determining the age and gender.

This will help determine which period the remains belong to in Robben Island’s multi-layered history. 

The island, named after the Dutch word for “seals”, holds deep reminders of many periods throughout history, mostly of isolation of the ill, or of political opposition or people who would not obey colonial authorities. 

Robben Island Museum notes that it is actually a submerged mountain which is linked by an undersea saddle to Blouberg on the West Coast.

It understands that some Khoi Khoi were banished to the island for resisting colonisation.

In its more recent history, it is famous for the jail that housed three South African former presidents, Nelson Mandela, Jacob Zuma and Kgalema Motlanthe.

It was also a treacherous stretch of the sea for colonial sailors who bashed their galleons and clippers into its shallow rocks.

The prison itself was constructed over some leper graves but there is also an Irish graveyard, and near the Kramat of the Prince of Madura Sayed Adurohman Moturu, one of Cape Town’s first Imams, there are unmarked graves of early Muslim exiles who were banished to the Island in the 1700s. 

Part of the survey process will include consultative meetings and at the end of the service provider’s study, the remains will be reburied within the guidelines of the National Heritage Resources Act.

Ramaboa said the archeological work will not affect visitors in any way.