TUC to submit memo on new wages
Attack on First Lady’s convoy
Dossena is out!
No time for vengeance
Gbeho pushes Sowu out
Jerry and co overturn taxi
Asbestos is a killer
TUC to submit memo on new wages
The Daily Graphic, in its banner story, says the Trades Union Congress (TUC) yesterday undertook to submit proposals for the determination of a new minimum wage to the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare (MESW) before July 31 for consideration.
Consequently, representatives of the government and employers on the National Tripartite Committee, the body responsible for negotiating wage levels, have called on the TUC to call off the intended three-hour demonstration scheduled for Tuesday in the supreme interest of promoting peace and stability.
The paper reports that a release signed by Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, MESW Minister, after a reconvened meeting of the committee, urges a halt to the industrial action.
The release, according to the paper, said the committee would reconvene to continue deliberations on the national daily minimum wage for this year on receipt of the proposals.
It is said to have stated that the government and organised labour agreed to drop their initial positions on the minimum wage and resort to dialogue in finding an acceptable position to all partners. All parties re-affirmed their confidence in the tripartite machinery and the principles for determining the minimum wage.
In a related story that is also given a front-page capture, Graphic says the leadership of the TUC has said the three-hour demonstration scheduled for Tuesday, July 25 will go on as planned.
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Attack on First Lady’s convoy
A number of persons including the Chief of Gani, near Navrongo, Pio John Adorbah, have been interrogated by the police in connection with the damage caused to two vehicles in the First Lady’s convoy during her tour of the Upper East Region, reports the Daily Graphic.
A police statement signed by Mr. H.B. Abdulai, Deputy Commissioner of Police, issued at Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region, said the police have begun full-scale investigations into the incident.
Preliminary investigations however indicate that the two vehicles, which were stoned were the third and fourth vehicles in the convoy of the First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, after attending a durbar at Gani last Thursday.
The statement, according to the story, said one was hit just as it took off from the durbar grounds and its driver quickly informed the Commander of the convoy who put the security men on the alert.
The statement, according to the Graphic, added that some stone-throwing persons at about 100 metres away from the Gani grounds, in the bush who targeted the convoy, missed the First Lady’s vehicle, which was the second but hit the third, cracking a portion of its windscreen in the process.
The first four vehicles reportedly sped off but the fifth, carrying security personnel, halted and searched fruitlessly for the culprits.
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Dossena is out!
The Ghanaian Times reports that Coach Giuseppe Carlos Dossena’s position as the technical head of the senior national soccer team, the Black Stars, will be over at the end of this month.
The lead story of the Times says this was the outcome of a meeting between the Ministry of Youth and Sports Advisory Committee and the Management board of the Ghana Football Association (GFA).
The committee, according to the paper, in a majority decision based on the Italian’s non-performance, was of the view that he should not be given another term of coaching at the end of his two years renewable contract, ending July 31.
The paper quotes as among the yardstick for his assessment, his failure to win major tournaments like the qualifying match for the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics, the CAN 2000 and the FIFA under – 20 World Championship.
Dossena’s contract with Ghana entitled him to $10,000 a month, out of which he was supposed to pay his assistant.
The paper continues that the coach is presently flirting with South African and Italian clubs.
Times says the exit of Dossena brings to about seven, the number of expatriates who had been discharged in about a decade, among them Germany’s Burkhard Ziese and Otto Pfister.
Jurgen Larsen (Denmark), Ishmael Kurtz (Brazil), Petre Gavrila (Romania) and Isreal Rinus (Holland) are reported as the other victims.
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No time for vengeance
The Statesman says in its banner story that the NPP flagbearer, J.A. Kufuor, has assured Ghanaians that an NPP government will not waste precious time and energy settling old scores saying, “we’ll rather strive to reconcile the nation to ensure rapid development, of a country, which is now at the crossroads.”
The paper quotes him as saying that the depth of Ghana’s economic crisis, as a result of 20 years of (P)NDC mismanagement, demands a concerted effort to remedy the situation and bring improvement in the lives of the suffering masses.
Mr. Kufuor, said to be speaking at the opening of the Kumasi Nasara club, on Sunday, told the gathering that Ghanaians look up to the party to salvage the ailing economy and they dare not fail them.
“I have prayed to God and I appeal to Ghanaians to vote the NPP into power this year to enable an NPP government to unite and develop the country for the good of us all,” he was quoted.
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Gbeho pushes Sowu out
The Guide reports that Mr. Victor Gbeho, the Foreign Minister, who has long been linked to the Anlo NDC parliamentary candidacy has now publicly declared his intention to snatch the party’s ticket from incumbent, Squadron Leader Clend W. Sowu, in the forthcoming general elections, after several months of speculation.
He maintained that apart from the popular request by chiefs and people to represent them, he was particularly moved to represent the Anlos in Parliament because the area has not seen much development under the leadership of the incumbent, the Guide said.
Quoting JOY FM, an Accra radio station, the paper says, Mr. Gbeho, in an interview with the station said he was forced to go public because Sowu, “had been jumping from one air wave to another to malign him, accusing him of using CIA tactics to wrench the ‘safe world bank’ seat for him.
He is reported as saying that as an Anlo son, he is very interested in the development of the area and has therefore taken the decision to contest the seat by popular request from the chiefs and people of the area.
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Jerry and co overturn taxi
The Crusading Guide, in a front-page coverage says Ghana’s President, Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings was at his “unconventional best” on Saturday when he ‘turned’ a traffic inspector and openly ordered his bodyguards to overturn a taxi whose driver had apparently indulged in some reckless driving.
The paper says acting on President Rawlings’ orders, the soldiers reportedly jumped out of their pajero vehicle, overturned and pushed the taxi several times until it landed ‘safely’ in a nearby bush.
The Crusading Guide says an eye witness to the incident told it that at about 7.00pm on Saturday, a Charmant Taxi cab, heading towards the Accra Stadium traffic lights at top speed suddenly stopped at the Osu Mobil Traffic Lights and the driver, on stopping, took to his heels.
President Rawlings and his men were later spotted alighting from their vehicle and he, after discovering that the driver had vamoosed, ordered the act.
The runaway driver is reported to have later re-emerged to
state that he unknowingly overtook the President’s vehicle earlier for which
reason he was chased.
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Asbestos is a killer
The Independent carries a lead story that cautions Ghanaians to beware of the hazardous impact of Asbestos on life with the expansion in the country’s real estate development.
The story has it that Asbestos, the main component of most of the non-metallic roofing sheets sold on the market, is again in the news as a silent killer whose uses are being questioned worldwide.
Independent reports that over three thousand former workers of a South African multinational company, British Cape, last week won the right to challenge the company in a British court over their rights to a compensation suit in Britain.
The story contains that most of the workers are now sufferers of asbetosis – an incurable lung disease caused by inhalation of asbestos and had been told to sue the company in South Africa where the factory operated.
“Some other workers have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, a kind of lung cancer that has been linked to asbestos.” The story further said.
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