Group launches fashion magazine

Johannesburg - African Fashion International (AFI) has launched a digital magazine.

The HON by AFI digital magazine will be released every quarter with each edition having a different theme.

The launch issue was released on the AFI website on 1 September, covered by four Banyana Banyana players styled in spring looks by African designers.

AFI founder and chairperson Dr Precious Moloi-Motsepe said: “We have spent 15 years building the one-stop lifestyle platform for consumers looking for unique African fashion and guiding sellers reach a global premium market. The latest introduction to the AFI brand is this digital publication, which aims to educate audiences, publicise talent, tell stories and share thought leadership, contributing to transforming the industry from Africa to the diaspora.”

After 15 years as a participant in the global fashion industry cham-

Employers urged to take action against workplace harassment

Johannesburg - The Department of Employment and Labour has called on employers to stem the tide of harassment in the workplace.

Employment and labour deputy director for Employment Equity (EE) Registry Lucia Rayner said harassment culprits must be held accountable and disciplined.

“Employers need to have a harassment policy in place to specify disciplinary sanctions proportionate to the seriousness of the harassment. Sanctions must include warnings to the perpetrator, dismissal, transfer and encouraging the complainant to lay criminal charges or institute civil proceedings against the perpetrator.” pioning African fashion, AFI believes it has become a purveyor of pan-African talents and creativity.

Rayner was speaking to dissect the Code of Good Practice on the Prevention and Elimination of Harassment in the Workplace published earlier this year. According to the code, the EE Act states that harassment of an employee is a form of unfair discrimination and is prohibited, or a combination of grounds of unfair discrimination listed in the legislation. It is intended to address prevention, elimination and management of all forms of harassment that pervade the workplace. The code defines harassment to include the use of physical force, threatened or actual, against another person or group or community, which either results in, or has a high likelihood of resulting in social injustice, economic harm, injury, death, physical and psychological harm and deprivation.

The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) has jurisdiction to conciliate all workplace-related harassment disputes.

CCMA senior regional commissioner Letsema Mokoena said during 2019/2020, the CCMA dealt with 1 834 disputes; in 2020/21 the cases dropped to 1 157; and during 2021/2022 there were 1 260 disputes.

“The dip in the number during 2020/21 may have resulted from the Covid-19 pandemic and the workfrom-home phenomenon. With people going back to workplaces the number of disputes is expected to rise,” Mokwena said.

Mokoena noted that there was a low number of sexual harassment referrals or unresolved workplace incidents or low level of sexual harassment in the workplace.

“Some people end up in psychiatric wards because they are afraid to report incidents. Some of the reasons that make complainants remain silent include fear to lose jobs, making the harasser angry, not being believed, being seen as trouble-makers, being blamed or accused of ‘asking for it’, and getting the harasser into trouble,” he said.

The department announced that the EE annual manual and online reporting season opened on 1 September. The reporting deadline is 1 October, while online reporting submission closing date is 15 January 2023. For more information visit www.labour.gov.za.

“It has done this by harnessing our continent’s creative capital; translating this into cultural, social, and economic success for our designers and artisans; and ensuring that consumers have access to this vast talent through AFI Fashion Weeks,” Moloi-Motsepe said.

In a statement AFI said it has learned that fashion thrives when people fall in love with it, and it is through the emotions fashion evokes, that the team believes will allow them to tell stories.

The magazine’s editor Buhle Mbonambi said: “When we started conceptualizing the magazine, the aim was telling stories of what designers and creatives in the African continent and the diaspora are doing. It is to show the world how brilliant and necessary the African creatives are in the global fashion industry and their contribution to the luxury fashion industry.”