Updates

CWAO Radio Updates bring weekly, relevant news to you as a worker – from rights to strikes, legislation to campaigns, and everything else affecting the working class.
Weekly English South Africa Non-Profit · News Narrated by Muzi Mzoyi
41 Episodes
1 – 20

Update Special: Uproar over Draft Code of Good Practice on Dismissal

Thirty workers and social rights organisations have filed a joint submission to the Department of Employment and Labour and the Parliamentary Committee on Employment and Labour calling for the new Draft Code of Good Practice on Dismissal to be scrapped. They are also demanding public hearings to be held with…
4 Apr 9 min

Arbitration for Mr Sweet workers

Last year Mr Sweet fired several workers who went on a protected strike. Fifty-seven of them approached the CCMA and last week they got a decision there that they were satisfied with. Host: Muzi Mzoyi Produced by Charles Leonard; Engineered by Muzi Mzoyi
1 Apr 3 min

Migrant workers say it is enough now

This week we look at the treatment of migrant workers in South Africa and what is being done to organise them. More info: www.cwao.org.za
25 Mar 5 min

How government is trying to cut public service jobs

The government is trying to entice public servants over the age of 55 to take early retirement as part of its austerity measures. More details are expected in the National Budget speech. But at what cost?
11 Mar 3 min

Vegetable farm workers win at CCMA

ZGG farmworkers celebrate after winning yet another case at the CCMA against their employer in a series of battles since 2023. Anchor: Muzi Mzoyi Guests: Joshua Hlungwa; Phineas Ngobeni Credits: Produced and Engineered by Muzi Mzoyi; Edited by Charles Leonard Recorded in February 2025
3 Mar 6 min

Bosses going after their own foreign workers

Employers are using the lack of work permits to victimise their own foreign national workers who dare stand up for their rights. This is happening even though the Labour Relations Act also applies to migrants, even if they don’t have a valid work permit.
25 Feb 4 min

Updates: End of Mr Sweet strike

Workers at the Mister Sweet confectionery factory in Wadeville, Gauteng, began a strike on 19 August, which ended 11 weeks later. The company is owned by Premier FMCG, one of the oldest food and consumer packaged goods businesses in South Africa. Premier FMCG’s chief executive officer, Kobus Gertenbach, earns R18.8…
25 Nov 2024 4 min

Buwa Basebetsi Updates: Labour Rights Week

A five-day Labour Rights workshop for activists on the frontline of defending workers was hosted in Joburg. Hosted by the CWAO and Foundation for Human Rights, this five-day workshop is for activists (Human Rights Defenders) from 30 organisations who are all on the frontline of defending workers against exploitation and…
22 Nov 2024 6 min

Buwa Basebetsi Updates: Labour Law Amendment Bill

On the 9th of October 2024, the Department of Employment & Labour issued a press statement where they shared their readiness of their inspectors to be deployed to enforce another “wave” of labour law amendments. Muzi Mzoyi sat down with John Appolis of the Casual Workers Advice Office, who broke…
14 Nov 2024 20 min

Buwa Basebetsi Updates: Mr Sweet Protest - Two months into strike

This week marks the 9th week since the start of Mister Sweet strike. On the 19th of August Workers at Mister Sweet went on strike demanding a R19000 basic salary as their main bone of content, but there are more issues than what meets the eye as we previously reported…
24 Oct 2024 3 min

Buwa Basebetsi Updates: Mr Sweet Protest - A worker's story

This week marks the 8th week since the start of Mister Sweet strike. On the 19th of August Workers at Mister Sweet went on strike demanding a R19000 basic salary as their main bone of content, but there are more issues than what meets the eye as we previously reported…
16 Oct 2024 5 min

Buwa Basebetsi Updates: ZGG foreign national workers barred from work

ZGG a vegetable and flowers farm west of Johannesburg has ordered 37 of its foreign national employees to stop coming to work if they do not have work permits or Asylum Seekers documents. They have been given two weeks or kiss their jobs a goodbye. This is even though some…
11 Oct 2024 3 min

Buwa Basebetsi Updates: Mr Sweet Protest - Latest Press Statement

We, the 25 social movements listed below, from six provinces across South Africa, hereby announce that we will ramp up our boycott of Mister Sweet products. Collectively, we are alarmed and dismayed at the highly abusive behaviour of Mister Sweet against the workers who have been on strike since 19…
30 Sep 2024 3 min

Buwa Basebetsi Updates: Mr Sweet Protest - Latest Press Statement

We, the 25 social movements listed below, from six provinces across South Africa, hereby announce that we will ramp up our boycott of Mister Sweet products. Collectively, we are alarmed and dismayed at the highly abusive behaviour of Mister Sweet against the workers who have been on strike since 19…
30 Sep 2024 3 min

Buwa Basebetsi Updates: Namibia Blocks Ship

Today we’ll be looking at an article published by BBC News titled Namibia blocks ship over Israel war concerns. A vessel suspected by the Namibian authorities to be carrying military cargo intended for Israeli use in the ongoing war in Gaza has been blocked from docking in the southern African…
26 Sep 2024 3 min
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