PUBLIC sector management should brace itself to face a much stronger union if the merger plans by affiliates of the Congress of SA Trade Unions organising in this sector succeed. All Cosatu public service unions will meet in the middle of June to discuss forming a single public sector union. This development is in line with Cosatu's resolution, adopted by the federation's 1991 and 1997 congresses, which called for the establishment of super unions or cartels by way of mergers. Two other Cosatu affiliates, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (Nehawu) and the SA Municipal Workers' Union (Samwu), are already involved in a merger plan.
Human Resources
Fukuyama, Francis; IMF Institute International Monetary Fund - Working Paper WP/00/74, 2000
Social capital is important to the efficient functioning of modern economies and is the sine qua non of stable liberal democracy. It constitutes the cultural component of modern societies, which in other respects have been organized since the Enlightenment on the basis of formal institutions, the rule of law, and rationality. Building social capital has typically been seen as a task for "second generation" economic reform; but unlike economic policies or even economic institutions, social capital can not be so easily created or shaped by public policy. This paper define social capital, explore its economic and political functions, as well as its origins and make some suggestions for can it be cultivated.