Yesterday afternoon I get a call from Vincent saying that he had just spent a good ½ hour trying to rescue a mouse from one of my seven cats. He finalyy caught the little critter & had is safely tucked away in a basket. Now comes the question “Can I keep it, it has a nice little house & is safe & will be in my room” My question “what about the cats, they will think it is Kentucky fried Mouse” Him “mom the cats do not come into my room”

Then comes the big one… “mom Keira wants to talk to you”
Keira “hello mommy, I got a likkle mouse, Keira wants to keep it”
Me “we will talk to daddy”

Yeah I know I am a sucker. Anyway in the mean time Vincent had organised a cage for mouse & set it up with food, water, house & toys.

On the way home I break it to DH that we have a mouse in the house & its not dead & Keira wants to keep it. So being a good dad he calls home to talk to Keira he get the story that Vincent had to chase it around the house & it was in mommy’s plants & that it was a brown baby mouse, it was a girl & she wants to keep it. So daddy agreed ok you can keep it.

15minutes later we get a call from Vincent & we can hear Keira howling in the background, the mouse had made an escape & was nowhere to be found.

Now if I was a mouse in my house & noticed 7 cats I would also have made a hasty escape. Well done Mighty Mouse!

I CAN HONESTLY SAY THAT I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS CRAP, PEOPLE ARE DYING BECAUSE OF THIS STRIKE & THINGS ARE ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE.

Police threaten to join strike
11/06/2007 21:20

Johannesburg - The Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) warned on Monday that the public service strike could soon "turn violent".
"Workers will be soon angry, they will be frustrated, and they will see anybody going to work, irrespective of how genuine their reasons are, as basically betraying their cause," said general secretary Zwelenzima Vavi.

Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi has already hit out at the "unprecedented" violence and intimidation which has characterised the strike.

On Monday alone, 31 strikers were arrested for trying to enter Bloemfontein's Pelonomi hospital.

"They intimidated working staff and two wards had to be closed," said police spokesperson Captain Magda Muller.

In Middelburg, Mpumalanga, 10 strikers jumped the fence of the Steelcrest High School and started toyi-toying.

Public service unions are also thought to be losing public sympathy for their cause with the deaths of infants and the elderly blamed on the absence of nurses and ambulances.

Government welcomed new wage proposal

In KwaZulu-Natal, domestic worker Busi Dlamini was told there were no workers and nobody at the hospitals when she called an emergency number for help for her pregnant daughter.

Thabile Mthembu, 19, waited 12 hours for an ambulance, only to deliver a still-born child on Monday.

The government has welcomed a 7.25% wage hike proposal by two independent mediators, but Cosatu has rejected it as not substantially different from government's offer.

The unions initially demanded a 12% increase, but later reduced this to 10%.

The government has increased its offer from 6% to 6.5%.

"The complete rejection by labour unions of the salary offer by government... raises the question whether there are not other more politically inclined motives from labour bosses," the Afrikanerbond said.

The Police and Prisons Civil Rights (Popcru) union on Monday threatened to join the strike if the wage dispute was not resolved.

'No dispute' with Samwu

Until now, there has been no disruption of policing or prisons services - out of respect for the safety of South Africans, Popcru said.

Popcru would give negotiators a week to come to an agreement, said its president Zizamele Cebekhulu. "If they fail to solve it, we're going to strike."

At the start of the strike on June 1, Cosatu called on metal, mine and transport workers to down tools in solidarity with public servants. It plans national strike action on Wednesday.

However, the Labour Court, in Johannesburg, will on Tuesday hear an urgent application by the SA Local Government Association (Salga) to stop municipal workers joining the action.

Salga maintains that it has "no dispute" with the SA Municipal Workers' Union or any other union, and its workers are therefore not entitled to strike.

Samwu expects 60% of its 120 000 members to participate in the public service action.

Backtracking on its earlier refusal to strike in sympathy with public service workers, the National Union of Metalworkers of SA said it was now appealing to its members to participate or hold lunch-time pickets on Wednesday.

Attempt to crush workers' resolve

Meanwhile, provincial health departments on Monday started making good on a directive by health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang to fire strikers.

In Gauteng, 380 health workers were dismissed, including drivers, cleaning staff, nurses, porters, security guards, laundry staff, food staff and porters.

In the Western Cape, 75 were fired - only 15 of them nurses.

The National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union described the move as an attempt to crush workers' resolve to strike.

It was "a clear attempt to witch-hunt union activists and try to intimidate workers into ending their strike," added Cosatu.

Cosatu president Willie Madisha said those dismissed should "rest assured" the sackings would not be allowed to be effective.

"We will make sure that no one is dismissed," he said, adding that there would be no wage deal unless they were allowed to return to work.

A simple symbolic act might end the war over wages
Published:Jun 11, 2007

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


More than two million striking workers are set to bring South Africa to a complete standstill on Wednesday.

If the labour action is not headed off in the negotiating chamber over the next 48 hours, this country will see the biggest confrontation between workers and the state since the mass stay-aways that helped end apartheid.

It is, of course, ludicrous to compare those protests with the current war over public-service wages.

These protests are perfectly normal expressions of power in a perfectly legal wage-bargaining process.

There is, perhaps, a political agenda of sorts. The unions have made it plain that they do not respect the current government and President Thabo Mbeki, whom they blame for a conservative economic agenda and a generally pro-business orientation.

But the strike has not been about bringing the government to its knees — it has been about the widely held belief that workers are not sharing in the enormous economic advances made under Mbeki’s rule.

There is a belief that the elite — Mbeki has just been awarded an increase of more than 50 percent on his salary — are feathering their nests at the expense of the poor.

The fact that Mbeki’s increase was decided on by an independent judge is not sufficient to placate these increasingly restless workers.

From where they are sitting, it looks like one member of the elite handing a giant cheque over to a fellow elitist.

The merits of government’s argument against the inflationary effects of a large wage increase for public servants are not being considered because of the emotion generated over increases for “fat cats”.

The truth is that the government perpetually underestimates the importance of symbolic actions. How much would have been achieved by the President publicly taking an HIV test? It would be of little significance in and of itself, but it would send a giant signal to the people that the cranky Aids theories are finally out the window.

Mbeki probably deserves a big increase, but does he really need it?

If he were to state that he would take the same increase as public servants, you can be sure the strike would lose its impetus.

Pupil choked by protesting teacher
Buyekezwa Makwabe and Prega Govender Published:Jun 10, 2007

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Traumatised: Tasneem Beukes was choked by a striking teacher at her school while she was writing an exam. Picture: Esa Alexander


Tasneem Beukes spent three gruelling days studying for her maths exam.

She was only 30 minutes into her questionnaire when striking teachers burst into the exam hall, tore her mathematics paper to shreds and throttled her.

Beukes, an 18-year-old pupil at Malibu High School in Cape Town, is just one of the victims of violence that has marred the national strike for better pay.

At the start of the exam on Monday, the pupils could hear singing outside.

“We complained to the teachers that we couldn’t concentrate and they told us to wait until they stop singing and then continue, but it was getting loud,” said Beukes.

“The song was in Xhosa; all we could hear was the whistling,” said a classmate, Ashlyn La-Meyer, 17.

Then all hell broke loose when teachers from the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union danced their way into the school hall.

When the pupils defied orders to stop writing, strikers started grabbing exam papers. Beukes held on to hers.

“When that man choked me, I let go my paper and he let go of me. I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m gonna die.’ When he let go, I walked out,” she said.

Beukes said her assailant looked aggressive when she refused to let go of her paper. She thought he was going to hit or punch her. Instead he grabbed her by the neck and wrestled for the paper with his other hand.

Beukes was not the only one who suffered trauma. Hysterical pupils burst into tears and a Grade 11 pupil, who was writing a geography paper, suffered an asthma attack.

The incident has been condemned by Western Cape Education MEC Cameron Dugmore and outraged parents who volunteered to act as bodyguards while pupils wrote exams later in the week.

Malibu principal Ricky Esterhuizen said: “[The teachers] told me that a collective strike means that everyone should participate.”

Esterhuizen said a group of teachers tried to stop exams at neighbouring Kleinvlei High School, but were prevented from gaining access to the classrooms.

“Of 51 teachers at my school, only 15 went on strike on Monday and by Wednesday the number had gone down to nine,” said Esterhuizen.

Provincial education spokesman Gert Witbooi said several school principals in the Western Cape had been threatened.

He said 16000 of 30000 teachers went on strike this week.

On Friday the department called on the union leadership to restrain members from intimidating pupils and teachers.

“We’re very concerned that strikers are traumatising learners and they are going to make the parents angry. I got a call from a parent from Paarl. He was complaining that his daughter came home crying; apparently some of the strikers intimidated learners and traumatised the child. And the parent was saying that if the department cannot protect our children we are going to take the law into our own hands,” said Witbooi.

Areas where schools were worst hit by the strike includes Guguletu, Crossroads, Nyanga and Mitchells Plain. Some schools have closed indefinitely, including Zisukhanyo High School on the Cape Flats.

Nationally, mid-year examinations at schools in five of the nine provinces have been postponed by provincial education departments.

Examinations in the Free State, Northern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and North West will now be written only once the public servants’ strike is over.

Limpopo’s Education Department, which admitted that the majority of schools had been affected by the strike, had not taken a decision on whether or not to postpone the examinations.

Limpopo spokesman Ndo Mangala said pupils in some schools were writing mid-year examinations.

“Our Grade 12 trial examinations have not been affected because we decided to schedule it for August and September,” he said.

A similar situation exists in Mpumalanga where some schools have already written the examinations while exams at other schools that were disrupted by the strike would be rescheduled.

Johannesburg - There will be no schooling from Friday when the country's largest teachers' union goes on "indefinite strike action", said the SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu).

General secretary Thulas Nxesi said after a meeting of the union's national strike council in Johannesburg: "On Friday morning in our sector there will be no schooling.

"There will be picketing, mass meetings and marches to mobilise our members."

Sadtu has 230 000 members and represents almost two-thirds of the country's teachers.

The indefinite strike would be called off only once union demands were met.

Nxesi said any disruption to services would be the employer's responsibility.

Must be a 'real offer'

"The blame must be put at the door of the employers who have dragged negotiations for eight months."

"Negotiations will depend not just on pussy-footing...negotiations can happen only when there's a real offer."

He said the government had brought nothing new to the negotiations at Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council this week.

The last-minute talks called by the government broke down in the early hours of Wednesday.

At a lunchtime media briefing, Sadtu president Willie Madisha said unions had not received a revised offer of 6.5%.

Madisha was referring to media reports on Wednesday on a discussion document drawn up by a technical committee consisting of government and union negotiators.

It was said to contain a proposal that the wage increase should be between 6.5% and 9%.

Nxesi said the union could comment only on an official offer.

The union remained committed to negotiations, he said.

"Any settlement will come from negotiations. We remain committed to negotiations (and) will never refuse negotiations."

Madisha said: "We want to see real negotiations... a real offer on the table."

The bargaining council was set to meet again on Wednesday afternoon.

The government had stuck to its 6% wage increase offer and the public service unions still demanded 12%.

Calls for support

Madisha condemned the government's assertion that workers did not understand the state's offer as it "undermines the intelligence of the workers".

He urged South Africans to support the public-service workers.

Nxesi said school principals had the right to take part in the industrial action.

Sadtu is the largest union in the public service and is affiliated to the Congress of SA Trade Unions.

the North West, eight schools girls who were arrested after an altercation with striking teachers were released into the custody of their parents.

Police spokesperson Captain Lesego Metsi said the girls from Kebonang High School in Mmabatho were charged for public violence and common assault.

The girls were allegedly part of a group of enraged pupils who barricaded roads with burning tyres and pelted passing motorists with stones in protest against teachers going on strike.

Spokesperson for the North West department of education Charles Raseala said pupils at the school became enraged when a group of teachers who were union members tried to enter the premises to "intimidate" teachers who were not part of the strike action.

"The girls apparently got upset when union leaders went to their school on Monday morning... they wanted to be taught."

When police arrived at the scene, pupils threw a stone at one of them, leading to the arrest of the eight girls.

Striking teachers tore up exam scripts and manhandled a pupil at Malibu Secondary School, in Blue Downs in Cape Town, said the Western Cape education department.

Education MEC Cameron Dugmore had been outraged to learn of the incident, involving about 30 strikers, said his spokesperson Gert Witbooi.

The strikers arrived at the school and asked the principal if they could speak to union members at the school.

While waiting for the principal to arrange the meeting, they allegedly entered the school hall where Grade 11 and 12 learners were writing geography and maths exams.

They demanded the pupils exam papers and scripts, some of which they tore up, said Witbooi.

"One of the group manhandled a female learner who refused to hand over her script, grabbing her around the neck, according to our report from the school."

The exams were abandoned. The pupils would be offered counselling by school psychologists on Tuesday.

He said the group of strikers moved on to Kleinvlei Secondary School in Eerste River where the principal refused to allow them onto the premises.

Western Cape education department head Ron Swartz said the department would investigate fully with a view to disciplinary action.

A group of protesting teachers also allegedly went on a rampage and ransacked a primary school in Ennerdale, south of Johannesburg, before assaulting the principal and stealing from him, Vaal Rand police said.

Spokesperson Inspector Trudie Wilken said the group allegedly trashed the St George's Primary School building and damaged some of the equipment.

"They also assaulted the principal and some of the teachers on duty, then took the principal's laptop and a cellphone."

The principal has since opened cases of assault, malicious damage to property and theft at a local police station, she said.

Other teachers assaulted have not yet opened cases but police are investigating the incidents. No arrests have been made.

In Cape Town Monroe Mkalipi, Western Cape chairperson of the Congress of SA Trade Unions provided some amusement saying the current "harsh" conditions faced by public service employer influenced more than just their income.

"The harshness that we have in all our workplaces is so severe to such a point that when you get home at night it becomes a problem expanding our families," he said. - Sapa