Media Monitor 11 November 2009

The labour federation and its ally, the SACP, have organised a march to the Ganyesa magistrate’s court where a farmer accused of setting his dog on a domestic worker will appear.

Cosatu provincial secretary Solly Phetoe said yesterday that they had organised the march because they believed the court was dealing with the matter in a racist manner.

“The farmer was found guilty but sentencing has been postponed four times. Why? We think this is a way to let the farmer off the hook,” Phetoe said.

He said the march would also be a protest against a local hospital, in which twins died at birth after their mother was told to go home because of the hospital’s poor healthcare facility.

Phetoe said the march would follow yesterday’s rally at Rustenburg’s Impala shaft 8, in which Cosatu and SACP wrapped up their campaign in support for National Health Insurance (NHI). – Sowetan Reporter

1.2 Union unsuprised at DRD’s bid for judicial management order

By Asha Speckman, Business Report, 10 November 2009

The bid by DRD Gold to obtain a judicial management order from the High Court of South Africa to save its 74 percent-owned Blyvooruitzicht mine from liquidation has confirmed trade union Solidarity’s suspicion that the mine lacked competence to solve its problems.

This is according to Jaco Kleynhans, Solidarity’s spokesperson yesterday following the mine’s announcement.

Kleynhans said the union which represents 100 miners at the embattled Blyvooruitzicht was aware of the mine’s downhill decline since April.

Solidarity, one of the two unions active there had reached a settlement with the mine earlier negating the chance of industrial action by its members.Workers belonging to the National Union of Mineworkers continued fighting for a double-digit increase and downed tools for a month.

This is one of four reasons cited by the mine for its losses of R27 million a month since April. Rand price fluctuations, damage to higher-grade underground production areas at No 5 Shaft by seismic activity, Eskom’s higher winter tariffs compounded by a 32 percent electricity price hike in July were other reasons given.

DRD Gold CEO Niel Pretorius in a statement said they had committed R75 million over the past three months to saving Blyvoor. They would in addition provide the judicial manager with whatever assistance required to obtain ‘rescue finance’ from appropriate instituions, such as the Industrial Development Corporation.

Jucidial management should cease by March 2010 when access to the No 5 shaft is expected to be regained. “We do believe they didn’t manage their problems well enough,” said Kleynhans.

“What happened is bad but a lot of marginal mines are currently under pressure. We predict this trend will escalate in anticipation of electricity tariff hikes next year”. He said they were in discussion with the mine to protect the interests of its members.

James Duncan spokesperson for DRD Gold was not optimistic of a recoup in losses. “I don’t know if that can happen. There needs to be a line drawn.”

Commenting on the industrial action Duncan said the mine had consistently communicated its difficulties to both unions. The mine and NUM eventually settled at 8.5 percent - below the union’s expectation of a double-digit figure. He described the relationship as tense at the time.

“At the time all the difficulties were there for all to see. To put it simply the strike made a bad situation 20 times worse.” The strike resulted in a loss of 8 000 ounces of production worth R60 million. Repeated attempts to obtain comment from NUM were unsuccessful.

“We now need a rescue plan that holds real promise of saving Blyvoor from insolvency, “ Pretorius said.

2. South Africa

2.1 Godsell no racist – NUM

Namhla Tshisela and Lwazi Mhlongo, Sowetan, 11 November 2009

THE position of Eskom chief executive Jacob Maroga remained uncertain yesterday when he did not report for work as expected.

Eskom spokesperson Andrew Etzinger said it was not clear whether Maroga had resigned but he “was not at work today”.

It was reported on Monday that Maroga was back at work despite offering to resign as chief executive nearly two weeks ago.

Acting chairperson Mpho Makwana, who replaced Bobby Godsell following his resignation on Monday, is expected to make a statement on the status of the chief executive today.

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) yesterday called for a “speedy” end to the leadership squabble at the parastatal, saying it was detrimental to its running.

NUM general secretary Frans Baleni said he was disappointed by Godsell’s “premature” resignation and the government’s “clumsy” handling of leadership issues at the utility.

“Eskom should be allowed to be bigger than individuals and not be reduced to a Bobby Godsell-Jacob Maroga issue. If it means both should leave for it to run properly, then so be it,” Baleni said.

He dismissed claims of racism and lack of transformation within the board, saying the majority of its members were black. He said there was no evidence to suggest that Godsell was racist.

Cosatu said Godsell’s resignation was a “great loss to the utility, which desperately needs managers with skills and experience to rescue itself from its severe crisis”.

Meanwhile, members of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa and NUM at Eskom’s Megawatt Park in Johannesburg demonstrated against lack of transformation in senior management and specialist positions and demanded the scrapping of labour brokers.

2.2 ANALYSIS: NUM deals the Eskom race card a deathblow; prepares to pummel ANC Youth League

By Stephen Grootes (Grootes reports for Eyewitness News) 11 November 2009

You could plausibly claim that Bobby Godsell was a racist, right up till a black union came out with an unequivocal statement to the contrary.

Right, now that is settled (in the minds of everyone but the ANC Youth League and the BMF, anyway), back to the business at hand. And it seems Godsell wasn't all that isolated in his professional dislike of Jacob Maroga.

There's something slightly different about mineworkers. They're fitter, stronger, more hard working than the rest of us. They know the value of a hard day's work thanks to years of underground toil. And they're clearly pissed off that the Black Management Forum and Julius (Malema) have attacked what is damn close to a former comrade in arms.

Mineworkers know Bobby Godsell well. He was the guy who virtually lived with Cyril Ramaphosa during the 80s (before Ramaphosa transferred his affections to Roelf Meyer). Together they crafted how unions could operate at Anglo, and he helped to move things along when precious few mlungus would. So it's fitting that he's one of the first white people who, after being accused of racism, now has a black union in his corner.

The National Union of Mineworkers General Secretary Frans Baleni didn't tiptoe around the issue either. He didn't bother preparing a statement. He walked into a room filled with media in the (rather nice) NUM headquarters and launched into his concerns for what's happening at Eskom, then moved quickly to the Godsell issue. "We have worked with Godsell in the mining industry for many year, he did not apply for a post in Eskom, he was invited by the ANC government. If he was a racist... the ANC would have known, the fact he was appointed by the ANC shows he's not a racist."

"Indeed, it's a loss that he's resigned." That resonates almost exactly with what Cosatu had to say on the subject. Its general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi expressed virtually the same sentiments in his interview with the SABC on Monday night. But the real powerhouse was still to come, in the form, as always, of Gwede Mantashe, who agreed with both of the above when he spoke to SABC radio news on Tuesday morning. The common denominator here is the NUM: Mantashe cut his political teeth in that union and it makes up a big and important part of Cosatu. Godsell is now benefiting from having been simply decent to them all over the years.

Mantashe, the NUM and Cosatu are also singing from the same hymn sheet when it comes to the role of race in the Maroga saga. The Black Management Forum and the ANC Youth League have both claimed Godsell needed to quit because he was "anti-transformation". The BMF made up something about a "scorecard on which they measure racial behaviour". Now the other side is on the podium, and no matter how well connected the BMF may be, it is well outside its weight class in this company.

Not that either is backing down, it seems. The League says it "will stop at nothing in defending the principles of transformation in State Owned Enterprises and will never be deviated by Spokespeople of White monopoly capital in South Africa." Yes, that would be the NUM it is referring to.

By the way, when it comes to Maroga's position generally, the NUM says "if more people have to resign for the good of Eskom, then so be it." Nobody will go stronger than that, not on the record, but it's clear they want Maroga out. The NUM represents thousands of Eskom workers (it is an energy union as well nowadays) and knows that if Maroga survives this, it may have to negotiate directly with him, so it can't just call for his head. Yet they would prefer not to deal with him, we think – and not because of his race.

2.3 Will the lights go out on South Africa's World Cup?

By Daniel Howden, The Independent, 11 November 2009

An ugly race row has left South Africa's national power company leaderless and is threatening to turn the lights out in the country only nine months before it is due to host the World Cup.

Bobby Godsell, the chairman of Eskom, which generates 95 per cent of electricity in sub-Saharan Africa's biggest economy, resigned this week after being accused of trying to force out his black chief executive.

The power struggle comes as experts warn that South Africa faces another season of blackouts that have prompted national emergencies in the past two years. It also highlights the crisis of leadership in Jacob Zuma's new government, which is being accused of appeasing "racial populists" as it seeks to contain strongly divergent voices within the ruling ANC party.

The saga at Eskom began last week when the two rivals – Mr Godsell and the CEO Jacob Maroga – laid out competing visions for the troubled state-owned power generator. Analysts said the chairman's plan concentrated on a business-like agenda of opening new power stations and restoring industry confidence, while the chief executive's programme concentrated on re-engineering the ethnic balance of the company's workforce. The board is believed to have sided with Mr Godsell, prompting the resignation of the chief executive, announced late last week.

What had, up to that point, been a business story suddenly exploded into a race row as the outspoken ANC youth-wing leader Julius Malema accused Eskom of pushing out Mr Maroga because he was black. The Black Management Forum, a national lobbying group, then issued an incendiary statement saying state-owned corporations were becoming a "slaughterhouse" for black professionals.

After the race furore Mr Maroga quickly moved to rescind his resignation, and then, over the weekend, both men were reported to have met with President Zuma. On Monday, in a move that rocked markets, the respected Mr Godsell tendered his resignation, leaving Eskom without a chairman.

"This is a complete disaster," said Professor Adam Habib, a political commentator based at the University of Johannesburg. "We have a major leadership tussle in the middle of an energy crisis. It's really irresponsible."

That energy crisis has already prompted concern within world football's governing body, Fifa, which has demanded the provision of an army of back-up generators to avoid the possibility of the lights going off during its global showpiece tournament.

Organisers of the 2010 event faced another setback yesterday as an important transport project was delayed and is now not expected to be ready in time for the June kick-off. The ambitious "Gautrain project" – linking Johannesburg and its airport with the capital, Pretoria – will not be finished until halfway through the tournament after the government refused to bow to contractors' demands for an extra £107m to meet the deadline.

South Africa is already in talks with industry leaders over a "go-slow" during the World Cup in order to ensure that the power needs of the event can be met. Marc Goldstein, an analyst with research group Frost and Sullivan, said that investor confidence would be shaken by Mr Godsell's departure. "This is not a situation that anyone would have wanted," he said.

Yesterday, the ANC's secretary general Gwede Mantashe rubbished claims that Mr Godsell is a racist, describing him as popular within the unions and the ANC. "Everybody must be careful. If there's a crisis, they begin to be personal and go to the lowest level of irrationality," he said.

The race card has quickly led to another debate on South Africa's troubled Black Economic Empowerment initiative – conceived to address the wrongs of the apartheid era but accused of being a wellspring of cronyism. "Black economic empowerment is essential," said the former ANC MP Andrew Feinstein. " But the way it has been done is an unmitigated disaster."

In recent months the government has lurched from one crisis to another in its state-owned enterprises, or "parastatals", with rows over political interference and mismanagement in the transport giant Transnet and the South African Broadcasting Corporation.

"The parastatals' woe reflects the broader picture of what's happening in government," said Mr Feinstein. "Zuma's desire to keep everybody happy means he is not leading."

So far the government has refused to comment on its alleged role in the leadership battle at Eskom but, if the board did accept the CEO's resignation, then only high-level political intervention can have overturned that decision, Professor Habib explained. "For God's sake, how does one government have crises in three parastatals at the same time?"

2.4 ANC lays off top officials

Anna Majavu, Sowetan, 11 November 2009

THE political futures of former Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool and ANC MPL Max Ozinsky are hanging in the balance.

Both have been suspended by the ANC’s provincial leadership.

A source said Rasool and Ozinsky were told yesterday that they were being suspended under rule 25, which allows the provincial task team to suspend someone for one month as an ANC member.

Their suspension follows a claim by DA leader Hellen Zille that Ozinsky and former provincial ANC chairperson Mcebisi Skwatsha had leaked information to the DA in 2007.

The DA then used the information to attack projects started by Rasool, who was then premier.

2.5 ANC to probe Stellenbosch fraud claims

Giovanna Gerbi, Eye Witness News, 11 October 2009

The chief of the ANC’s Western Cape task team is adamant he will get to the bottom of fraud and corruption charges levelled against several Stellenbosch municipal officials.

The Boland town’s deputy mayor was recalled from his position earlier this week, while the mayor has been stripped of his official duties. Five other senior officials have reportedly resigned.

The developments come after a local businessman accused the officials of defrauding him of R75 000.

He also claimed he was told to pay R1-million rand to secure contracts worth R3m.

Provincial task team head and interim ANC Western Cape leader Membathisi Mdladlana said a thorough investigation was being conducted.

“We were really concerned about the areas of good governance in Stellenbosch when we received allegations against our comrades there; allegations that we thought need investigation. We thought the matter is serious," said Mdladlana.

2.6 Time for Zuma to tell South Africans where he stands
ALLISTER SPARKS, Business Day, 11 November 2009

OUR country badly needs clear leadership. The silence at the top while cacophony rages in the ranks below is causing confusion and uncertainty. There is a sense of drift in the air.

One can understand why President Jacob Zuma is so hesitant to spell out his own vision of the road ahead.

He is presiding over a fractious coalition that is at war with itself, and to choose any side too clearly in that power struggle is to risk alienating the other and suffering the fate of the departed Thabo Mbeki . So he prevaricates, hoping that by lending an attentive ear to everyone without explicitly siding with any he can keep all sufficiently unruffled to stay in the big alliance tent.

Thus has Mbeki become Banquo’s ghost, spooking Zuma into a state of inertia at a time when the country cries out for strong, decisive leadership to deal with a range of structural problems that threaten to stunt our future growth.

The problem has as much to do with the changed character of the African National Congress (ANC) as with Zuma’s political inhibitions. From its inception, the ANC has been a coalition drawn together from all sectors of the ideological spectrum for the common purpose of opposing first, the Land Act of 1913, then later to waging the broader liberation struggle against apartheid.

That common objective was the glue that bonded the different elements of the coalition together. But once that objective was achieved in 1994, the glue began to weaken.

The culture of the coalition also began to change. To join the ANC during the struggle years required great self-sacrifice. One ran the risk of being imprisoned, tortured, killed. Going into exile meant sacrificing career opportunities, severing family ties, leaving one’s home and friends and country. All for the cause of fighting for the liberation of one’s people. So the organisation became infused with a spirit of selfless idealism.

But no longer. Joining the ANC today involves no risk or self-sacrifice. Quite the opposite. It is the gateway to opportunity, to power, status and wealth. So the spirit of idealism has given way to a culture of personal ambition and avarice.

The nature of the ANC’s constituency has also changed. In the past all black people, whatever their station in life, shared the common condition of being oppressed. Rich or poor, educated or illiterate, all were in the same boat — disadvantaged.

But again, no longer. Our new democracy brought with it nine years of sustained economic growth, which, coupled with affirmative action and black economic empowerment, has seen the emergence of a burgeoning black middle class. There are now three distinct constituencies in the black population — a middle class, a blue-collar working class and a large underclass of the jobless and poor — each with different and often conflicting class interests. So the ANC coalition with its weakening glue and changed inner culture is now being pulled in different directions by these conflicting class interests.

Mbeki sought to deal with these mounting tensions by centralising power in the organisation. He took the view that the alliance partners, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Communist Party (SACP), could present their policy proposals rather in the manner of petitioners, but that the ANC as the elected government had to decide on the policy course to be followed and get on with the business of governing. It could not be micro- managed from the sidelines.

Cosatu and the SACP, as loyal and disciplined members of the alliance, could not be allowed to criticise the government in public. To borrow George Bush’s phrase, he, Mbeki, was “the decider”.

That was no way to hold such a broad coalition together. Cosatu and the SACP felt they were being treated with disdain, that their support was expected at election time but they were then excluded from the decision-making processes of the government between elections.

Resentment of Mbeki built up, and when Zuma was dismissed as deputy president following his implication in the Schabir Shaik judgment, the dissidents found a leading figure they could use to symbolise their sense of grievance. So the campaign for the Polokwane putsch got under way.

The bitterness of that campaign further weakened the bonds holding the coalition together, while the Congress of the People split did little to narrow the width of the coalition. It is still as broad a church as ever, stretching from Blade Nzimande on the left to Trevor Manuel on the right. So the power struggle continues. The only thing that has changed is the new president’s way of trying to handle it.

Zuma is not an ideologist, of either the left or the right. He is an African traditionalist. So in his eagerness to avoid Mbeki’s error he is not laying down a policy line for his government to follow.

He is trying to deal with his broad coalition in a traditional African way by allowing every faction in the coalition to have its say, while he listens to them all — presumably with a view to ultimately distilling from the whole kgotla or indaba what he deems to be a consensus way forward that will be acceptable to all and alienate none.

The problem is that such a process of government by consensus or constant compromise does not allow for strong, decisive leadership — and some of our serious structural problems, such as the large number of dysfunctional schools staffed by underqualified teachers, and the burgeoning number of young, unskilled people who can’t get “decent” first-time jobs, require just that.

Zuma must know that to deal with these critical problems he needs to face up to the protective unions to get rid of the ineffective teachers and make it easier for those young people to enter the job market, where they can acquire on-the-job skills.

But he shrinks from alienating the unions. Alliance unity comes before the national interest.

Confronted with this dilemma, Zuma is doing nothing. The traditional leader has heard all the arguments from all the factions, but we still await his announcement of the course to be followed. There is silence at the top. No leadership.

Meanwhile, the cacophony below is intensifying as each faction tries to step up the pressure on what it senses to be a weak leadership that can be moved in its favour.

So we have the outrageous Julius Malema and his youth league stepping into the leadership vacuum and taking it upon themselves to fire a town council, overrule the board of Eskom in deciding who should be the CEO of the country’s most important parastatal corporation, and declare that the mining industry must be nationalised.

And Zuma does nothing to discipline this young upstart. Instead he pats him on the head and anoints him as a future president. All to curry favour with him and his followers and keep them inside the coalition tent.

SA deserves better than this.

The great indaba has gone on long enough and it is time Zuma spoke up and told us clearly and decisively where he stands on all these disputed issues and what policy vision he has for the new decade we are about to enter. It is time for our elected leader to lead.

Sparks is a former editor of the Rand Daily Mail and a veteran political analyst. His fortnightly column appears regularly on Business Day’s website.

Mluleki Mntungwa (Communications Officer)

COSATU ICT Unit

1-5 Leyds Cnr Biccard Street

Braamfontein

2007

P.O.Box 1019

Johannesburg

2000

South Africa

Tel: +27 11 339-4911/24

Fax: +27 11 339-5080/6940

E-Mail: mlu...@cosatu.org.za

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