Media Monitor, Monday 23 November 2009

"Employers must absorb these workers into other projects that are available, rather than just dumping them into poverty," Baleni said after a meeting of the union's national executive committee this week.

NUM estimates that at least 30000 workers will be without jobs by April next year, when construction projects for the 2010 World Cup come to an end.

But Schalk Ackerman, spokesman for the South African Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors - whose members include the biggest construction companies in the country said they were "not doing anything" about absorbing workers into full-time employment as a federation, but confirmed that their members were.

"Most of our members are currently tendering for other projects, but the market has become tighter due to the economic recession."

He said the trade union should acknowledge that it was almost impossible to create permanent jobs in the construction industry.

"Our industry is characterised by short-term projects, and when clients move from one project to the other they are often compelled to employ people from the local communities where they operate."

Baleni said there should be a balance, as some of the construction workers had worked overtime to deliver projects ahead of schedule, which resulted in company owners getting bonuses, but workers technically putting themselves out of work sooner.

"We acknowledge the issue of employing locals but still this doesn't mean that others can't be absorbed, at least as support staff," Baleni said.

The union also criticised the plans of Harmony Gold's Evander mine and DRDGold to retrench 2097 and 1300 workers, respectively.

Trade union Solidarity this week lodged an urgent application for an interdict against DRDGold at the Labour Court to ensure that the Section 189 process dealing with retrenchment, which has been finalised by two other trade unions at the company, be nullified.

2. South Africa

2.1 ANC to deal with Malema-Cronin spat ’internally’

JP du Plessis , Eye Witness News, 23 November 2009

The African National Congress on Monday said it would deal with the ongoing spat between ANC Youth League President Julius Malema and Deputy Transport Minister Jeremy Cronin internally.

The two have locked horns over Malema’s calls to nationalise mines.

Cronin published an article criticising the youth league president’s call for the country’s mines to be nationalised. Malema then reacted by calling the deputy minister a "white messiah".

The ANC has decided not to comment on the public spat, saying the party feels it would be inappropriate to speak on the matter in public before it has dealt with the matter internally.

In his article Cronin stated Malema’s stance on the nationalisation of mines was ironic because the ANC Youth League had not put any concrete proposals on paper.

Malema retorted by referring to Cronin as a "white messiah", drawing fire from the Young Communist League and the South African Communist Party.

The two communist organisations have called for a public apology.

2.2 ANC steps in to help Lagunya Finishing School

Malungelo Booi, Eye Witness News, 23 November 2009

The ANC in the Western Cape has stepped in to help stop the pending closure of Lagunya Finishing School in Langa.

The party has established a task team headed by former Western Cape Education MEC Cameron Dugmore.

The Congress of South African Students and some Lagunya Finishing School learners met last week with the ANC’s provincial task team to discuss the matter.

The students had earlier embarked on a campaign to disrupt matric exams at other schools over the pending closure of their institution.

The task team,w hich includes the South African Democratic Teachers Union, will explore ways to help the school.

SADTU’s provincial secretary Jonavon Rustin said the participation of all those involved were vital to finding a solution.

Rustin added the learners needed to be accommodated as they were still using the old curriculum, and therefore would have problems if they were integrated into mainstream school without any preparation.

2.3 When leaders ‘seize’ language to their own ends

Jabulani Sikhakhane, Business Day, 23 November 2009

LIKE all organisations gripped by bureaucratic malaise, the African National Congress (ANC) is resorting to language that obfuscates, rather than elucidates.

Take the recent statement by the ruling party and its alliance partners on the mandate of the Reserve Bank: “The summit agreed that the alliance task team on macroeconomic policy must remain seized with reviewing and broadening the mandate of the Reserve Bank.”

“Must remain seized with” is a rather awkward phrase. It’s suggestive of action. After all, we speak of “seizing the moment”. To “seize”, according to the Collins English dictionary, means to take hold of quickly, to grab; to take possession of rapidly and forcibly; and to take by force or capture. It also means to grasp mentally, as in: “She immediately seized the idea.”

But its history in the corridors of the United Nations (UN), where the phrase is rooted, shows that it is often used by the multilateral body to camouflage its prevarication.

The phrase is used at the end of all resolutions by UN bodies. When used by the Security Council, for example, it is understood as a coded message to the General Assembly not to discuss an issue because the council is looking into it.

The source of this code is Article 12 of the UN charter which says that the assembly “shall not make any recommendations on any matter being considered by the council, except if asked by the council to do so.” The expression is sometimes modified to include the adverb “actively”, when a member of the Security Council wants to signal its keen interest in a particular issue.

The phrase has been around for more than 500 years, according to a 2002 article by US columnist William Safire. Safire, who died in September, wrote: “Seized of, similar to seized with, takes us into legalism dating to feudal times. In 1477, William Caxton wrote of the hero Jason that his reward would be to ‘be seased (seized) with the noble fliese (fleece) of gold’. The meaning was ‘to be in possession of ’. Four centuries later, in a Louisiana civil case, a judge had the same possessive meaning in mind when he found that ‘the ordinary jurisdiction being seized of the matter, could not be ousted ’. Among lawyers, ‘seized of’ and ‘seized with’ mean the same thing: ‘in control of ’.

“At the UN’s outset, diplomats eager to assert its global authority glommed on to the phrase. (‘Glom on to’ is from the Scottish glaum, ‘to snatch at’, and in America means ‘to seize, or manoeuvre to obtain’.) Quo Tai- chi, China’s representative in the Security Council in 1946, when the anti- Communists held that seat, told his fellow members, in English, ‘The council, in accordance with the draft resolution before us, remains seized of the matter.’

“That same year, Edward Stettinius, representing the US, sought to clarify the arcane usage. ‘I think our legal authorities fully understand the meaning of the word “seized”, but to avoid any possible misunderstanding in translation,’ he read his interpretation of the word: ‘matters which have been on the agenda of previous meetings and have not been finally disposed of by the Security Council ’.”

Over the years, the phrase has been used as cover for the UN to avoid making a decision, or a firm commitment to a particular course of action.

To illustrate the point, consider this proposed amendment by Malaysia’s UN delegation of a 2005 General Assembly resolution on Antarctica. “On operative paragraph 5, my delegation is proposing that the phrase ‘include in the provisional agenda of its sixty-third session the item entitled Question of Antarctica be replaced with the phrase ‘remain seized of the matter’.”

From the UN corridors, the phrase has found its way into the vocabulary of other multilateral institutions around the world. The ANC has been using it, too, beginning in the mid-1970s.

To remain “seized with the matter” is definitely “stilted English”, to borrow Slate’s phrase. It means what each member of the alliance wants it to mean. To the ANC, it might be a coded message to its alliance partners to shut up until the task team reports back to the alliance. Meanwhile, the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions can use the phrase to pacify their constituencies. I can imagine Blade Nzimande, the secretary- general of the SACP, reporting back to his constituency: “Comrades! We have scored a major victory. The alliance remains seized with reviewing and broadening the mandate of the Reserve Bank!”

You can’t possibly argue with that.

2.4 Pikoli’s R7,5m payout clears way for Zuma

KARIMA BROWN and LINDA ENSOR, Business Day, 23 November 2009

CAPE TOWN — A meeting between President Jacob Zuma and top African National Congress (ANC) officials is understood to be on the cards today to discuss the appointment of a new national director of public prosecutions now that the government’s dispute with suspended chief Vusi Pikoli has been resolved.

Pikoli reached a R7,5m out of court settlement with the state regarding his court bid to be reinstated to the position.

The agreement was reached at the weekend and opens the way for Zuma to make a permanent appointment.

Zuma is understood to want to appoint someone fresh from outside the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) who has not been embroiled in the prolonged attempt to prosecute him on charges of fraud and corruption. This would make a clean break with the past and establish the organisation on a new footing.

Such an approach could exclude current Special Investigating Unit head Willie Hofmeyr and acting director Mokotedi Mpshe.

There has been speculation that Muzi Mkhize, a member of the legal team that represented Zuma in his corruption trial, is a favourite for the position.

Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille has opposed Mkhize’s candidacy, saying his integrity had been put to the test once before, and was found wanting.

Another potential candidate is rumoured to be ANC NEC member Ngoako Ramatlhodi — also chairman of Parliament’s justice and constitutional affairs committee , a member of the Judicial Service Commission and former Limpopo premier.

A statement by the P residency at the weekend said the out-of-court settlement with Pikoli was the outcome of mediation.

In terms of the agreement, Pikoli withdrew his application before the North Gauteng High Court for reinstatement and was paid R7,5m “in full and final settlement”.

Pikoli was due to appear in court this morning to challenge the decision to remove him from office, and the government’s refusal to reinstate him after he was cleared of any wrongdoing by the commission of inquiry led by former speaker in the national assembly, Frene Ginwala, who despite some security concerns found that he was fit and proper to hold the office.

Pikoli was first suspended in September 2007 by former president Thabo Mbeki because of an irretrievable breakdown in his relationship with his boss, former justice minister Brigitte Mabandla over the NPA’s plans to arrest former national police commissioner Jackie Selebi. Pikoli was then fired in December by former president Kgalema Motlanthe .

The deal was struck yesterday at a meeting Pikoli held with Justice Minister Jeff Radebe , Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, Public Service Administration Minister Richard Baloyi and legal counsel for both Pikoli and the government.

2.5 Communist youth look beyond the wall

Business Day, 23 November 2009

AFTER five days, four thick texts and a crash course in Marx, t he Young Communist League (YCL) concluded its latest “political school” on Friday, unmoved by this month’s 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The 45000-strong YCL is looking to groom new leaders to take the struggle forward. It is also preparing for next month’s special congress of the South African Communist Party (SACP), expected to make key policy pronouncements, such as whether it should contest elections under its own colours.

Many in SA see the party more as a pressure group for the poor than a pure socialist movement. However, it has not jettisoned the original idea of a class revolution, even though since the Berlin Wall’s demise, socialism is no longer fashionable.

Moreover, the lived realities for the majority in SA, which include growing inequality, joblessness and a failed health and education system, make the promise of a more equal society alluring, even if it is discredited in most of the developed world. “My view has always been that as a result of the Berlin Wall’s collapse it was not necessarily communism that failed; it is greed that compromised the revolution,” says YCL Free State secretary Life Mokone.

After the April election, 14% of the African National Congress’ elected representatives, whether MPs or local councillors, were members of the SACP, the party said.

They include Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande, Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies , Deputy Transport Minister Jeremy Cronin and Yunus Carrim, his counterpart in the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs.

Davies addressed a plenary meeting of the political school on the global financial crisis and its implications for SA.

“The greatest danger that we are faced with as the current youth leadership is to make a distinction between what is a slogan and what is a policy matter,” says YCL N ational S ecretary Buti Manamela.

Marx — voted the ninth most popular influential thinker by a recent British survey — finds appeal here. “For us communism is in the future, capitalism is in the past,” says SACP central committee member George Mashamba.

The four readings used at the school are packed with selected writings from Marx’s well-known works, and include recent leftist perspectives on climate change.

“All this time I used to think that climate change was a natural cause, only to find out that it is caused by the capitalist system,” says 23-year-old Mpumelelo Mokoena, one among the mix of mainly under 30s.

Most are already in leadership posts at provincial or national level. “Before, I used to think that communism was a place where we shared everything, until I was conscientised about it,” says Portion Muhlolai, 23. “I realised that most of these comrades from the YCL had a lot of content, and that there was much that I didn’t know,” she says.

Cuba’s social progress is a particular source of admiration. “We’re much richer than Cuba yet people are dying without medicine in SA,” says Mashamba. Muhlolai blames the US embargo on Cuba for halting progress, while Mokone says China “remains a beacon of hope for a working class struggle”.

Nzimande, also national secretary of the SACP, provides an overview of the communist movement in SA, saying due to racial divisions uniting workers across racial lines in SA has never been achieved. But he is not pessimistic. “Communists never give up because we have the theory and revolutionary practice,” Nzimande says.

Manamela says the failure of socialism in the Soviet Union “was a failure of democracy and not socialism”. He says even right-wing parties, especially in Europe, are now adopting the rhetoric of the l eft.

The global financial crisis may be pointing to the fact that “we may see socialism in our lifetime”, Manamela says. Even service protests in SA are an indictment of capitalism. “For us it’s a revolt against an economic system that is not delivering,” he says.

Even the close economic ties between the US and China are significant. Nzimande says the present economic crisis could be laying the foundation for the decline of the US as an economic power. “The US has never been dependent on another country like today ,” he said.

Unpacking youth as a social force in SA reveals interesting patters. This group forms the majority of voters, they are the main perpetrators of crime as well as its biggest victims. It remains a potent force for change, hence the YCL’s determination to provide an alternative platform. Socialism and left ideas may have gone down like a lead balloon elsewhere, but here it continues to resonate.

2.6 We will not fail you, new mayor tells women and youth

Patrick Cull POLITICAL EDITOR, Weekend Post, 22 November 2009

NEW Nelson Mandela Bay Mayor Zanoxolo Wayile says he is “humbled” by his selection and appreciates “the huge challenges, especially with regard to women and the youth”.

“We commit ourselves to not failing them,” he declared.

The regional secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa) said he would “maintain the unity and cohesion of the (ANC) movement”.

Ousted mayor Nondumiso Maphazi, who was “redeployed” by the ANC’s provincial executive on Friday, says she will abide by the decision and remains a loyal and dedicated ANC member.

Maphazi was refuting reports that she might challenge the party’s decision.

ANC provincial secretary Oscar Mabuyane announced the decision on Friday. Wayile is a member of the city council.

Public health portfolio councillor Nancy Sihlwayi replaces Bicks Ndoni as deputy mayor, with safety and security committee chairman Helen Sauls-August becoming speaker in place of Charmaine Williams.

Mabuyane said an announcement on mayoral committee members would be made “after proper consultation with the new mayor”, but it is believed only Sihlwayi and Sauls-August will survive the purge.

DA caucus leader Leon de Villiers said his party was “shocked but not surprised”.

“This arrogant decision was taken with no consultation of any opposition party and does absolutely nothing to instill any renewed confidence in the current crumbling administration that appears hell-bent on destroying what little remains of effective service delivery and good governance in our city.”

The move ends months of friction between City Hall and the ANC’s regional executive led by former mayor Nceba Faku.

Mabuyane said the sacking of Maphazi “is not to be celebrated as it is not a victory against the enemy but rather a closed internal matter of the ANC”.

The decision had been taken “to close a chapter of painful tension, confusion and collapse of the expected relationship between its deployees and the organisation”.

“We do not believe in two centres of power,” he added.

He did not cite specific allegations against Maphazi, saying only that the provincial executive appreciated her contribution for ensuring “that service delivery is on track”.

Numsa had been consulted on Wayile’s appointment and was “willing to release him”.

Mabuyane said he wished to “caution anyone who is intent on abusing the ANC, its constitution, power and influence to marginalise members”.

He did not expect “any upheavals” as the ANC had handled the matter “in the most responsible way and expected Maphazi to thank it “for the opportunity she has been given”.

De Villiers said “the continued failure of the current government to establish sound, stable and accountable governing structures can be directly attributed to the dogged refusal of the ANC in dispensing with the failed policy of cadre deployment and the ongoing bitter factionalism emanating from Polokwane” in late 2007.

2.7 SACP slams Malema for "white messiah" remark

Imraan Karolia Eye Witness News, 22 November 2009

The Young Communist League has expressed its disappointment in ANC Youth League Leader Julius Malema for his alleged insult against Deputy Transport Minister Jeremy Cronin.

It said Malema referred to Cronin, who is also the SACP’s General Secretary, as a white messiah.

The Youth League President allegedly made the remark after Cronin published an article criticizing Malema’s call to nationalize mines.

On Sunday the Young Communist League’s Gugu Ndima called for a meeting with Malema.

“We are not going to turn this into a public spattering, we just feel we needed to raise our concerns about the way in which Malema engaged Jeremy Cronin,” she said.

“We feel that was he has said was uncalled for and we will definitely meet with the ANC Youth League in person.”

2.8 Is the tide turning against Julius Malema?

Times Live, 22 November 2009

THE ANC Youth League’s Julius Malema has suffered a series of defeats over the last week which suggest his influence is waning within the ANC. And he has opened a fresh front against the ANC’s left allies, a move which might cost him if only because he is fuelling tensions in the allinance at a time when the ANC leadership is trying to build unity.
Malema’s two major failings were his effort to keep Eskom’s Jacob Maroga in office and his defence of Athletics South Africa’s Leonard Chuene. Both positions never gained traction within the ANC and the government and both Maroga and Chuene found out that support from Malema didn’t count for much when the big players stepped into the ring.
In Maroga’s case it is now abundantly clear that government and the ANC wanted him gone and – in a further blow to Malema – they wanted Bobby Godsell back as chairman.
In Chuene’s case, Malema and the Youth Leauge had to do some hasty backpeddling as the ANC cut him lose and publcily criticised him.
Malema’s proposal that the mines be nationalised has failed to achieve traction in the ANC. The response appears to have been some patronising winking and chuckling which Malema has mistaken for agreement with his agenda. Perhaps to his surprise, the SACP has dismissed the proposal.
Bemused, confused and … can’t think of anything that rhymes so … stung, Malema has decided to chew on the ankles of Jeremy Cronin, a formidable influence in the ANC’s left who will not be intimidated.

2.9 Malema's comments 'racist' - YCLSA

IOL, 22 November 2009

The Young Communist League of South Africa (YCLSA) wants to talk to the ANC Youth League about its president Julius Malema's insults against South African Communist Party general secretary Jeremy Cronin.

It was "disgusted" at the insults against Cronin, who is also the Deputy Minister of Transport, YCLSA spokeswoman Gugu Ndima said in a statement.

In his attack on Cronin, Malema said the ANCYL did not "need the permission of white political messiahs to think".

This, after Cronin published an article criticising Malema's call to nationalise mines.

Ndima said: "The YCLSA believes that Malema has sunk to the lowest ebb of being racist and hurling insults, instead of engaging with profound debates that Cronin was raising."
"We view the labelling of Cronin as a 'white messiah' not only as racist, but as an insult to the principle and ideology of the national liberation movement, that of non-racism."

"We are confident that the majority of members of the ANC Youth League do not share these racist and insulting labels," she said.

Ndima said the YCLSA also noted that Malema substituted a sensible debate for insults and racist labels, and bravery for disrespect.

"But we believe that we can disagree on any issue and still maintain respect as comrades.

"What is worse is that Malema invokes the names of respectable leaders of the ANC, including Nelson Mandela, to justify this nonsensical insults and racist remarks."

Ndima said the YCLSA was also disappointed that a call by President Jacob Zuma and the alliance ceasefire in the trading of insults was being undermined by Malema.

The YCLSA wanted to meet with the ANCYL leadership before the end of the week, she said.

The SACP has already defended Cronin and condemned Malema's insults.

Malema described the Cronin piece on mine nationalisation as "openly reactionary".

Cronin provided an analysis of the issues surrounding the nationalisation of the mines.

In it, he criticised Malema and the league's calling for nationalisation, saying: "Comrade Malema hasn't always helped his case with off-the-wall sound-bytes. The impression of a policy being made on the hoof, individualistically, is reinforced by the fact that we are yet to see any serious attempt at a collective policy document on this matter from the ANCYL."

"I suspect that comrade Malema and others are missing this bigger systemic picture because when they speak of mineral beneficiation they are thinking of bling ... sorry, jewellery," he said.

In his response, Malema described the article as reactionary, "clothed in quasi-Marxist rhetoric, with potential to make a sorry and sad reflection of the true character of the SACP's ideological steadfastness."

He said he did "not need the permission of white political messiahs to think".

Malema described it as "sad" that Cronin "decided to isolate me" from a league resolution in which it outlines its stance on nationalisation.

"... The state should be custodian of the people in its ownership, extraction, production and trade of mineral wealth beneath the soil, monopoly industries and banks".

On mineral beneficiation Malema said Cronin reduced the league's call for this to an "obsession with bling".

"It is sad that previously, those who look like us were considered intellectually inferior by the white supremacists, and today Comrade Jeremy reflects the same sentiment, even before he interacts with the views of the ANC YL," Malema said.

The SACP called on Malema to discuss the issue in a "principled and comradely manner without resorting to the Mbeki era type of insults against the leaders of our party". It said it had invited the league to take part in its political school last month, where it discussed nationalisation, but the league did not attend. - Sapa

2.10 ANC lose poll after fielding 'a drunkard'

Sibusiso Ngalwa, IOL, 22 November 2009

The ANC deserved to lose a recent by-election after fielding "a drunkard", according to Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe.

And ruling party secretary-general Gwede Mantashe has accused alliance partners of becoming a source of irritation worse than the opposition.

In an interview with The Sunday Independent on Friday, Motlanthe, who is also the ANC's deputy president, warned against mismanaged deployment, saying the ruling party could ill afford to field candidates who were not wanted by the people. He cited the ANC's loss of a ward in Tembisa as a wake-up call for the ruling party.

"The ANC lost a by-election to COPE because the... candidate of the ANC was known to the community as a drunkard," he said.
"The ANC got the message loud and clear - this is what the community told them, and they disregarded it and the community then did not vote... they simply stayed at home and the ANC lost. If people in leadership of the branch manipulate processes, the community must be able to punish them, that's how they will correct it."

Motlanthe's frank criticism of his own party comes in the wake of a series of violent protests against poor service delivery.

The ANC is anxious about its performance in the 2011 local polls given the poor state of most of its municipalities, some dysfunctional provinces, tender corruption and tensions in the tripartite alliance over policy and the battle for the control of the organisation.

The ANC is in the grip of another succession battle: Deputy Police Minister Fikile Mbalula is expected to challenge Mantashe for the position of secretary-general at the party's 2012 elective conference.

Motlanthe's position is also not overly secure, with some saying ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa could make a bid for the ANC deputy presidency.

And many of those who supported President Jacob Zuma's ascent to the Union Buildings are starting to question loyalties and suitabilities for certain positions.

In the provinces, some supporters of Zuma have already been involved in power contests, the most recent being Mcebisi Jonas's loss to SACP-backed Phumulo Masualle for the ANC chairmanship of the Eastern Cape.

National executive committee (NEC) member Billy Masetlha recently also voiced concerns at a perceived leftist takeover of the ANC, suggesting that factional fighting for power had not stopped with the victory against Thabo Mbeki in Polokwane in 2007.

At the alliance summit last week, Cosatu general-secretary Zwelinzima Vavi presented a document that characterised new tensions threatening the post-Polokwane honeymoon.

"An organisational programme is also important to address key problematic tendencies that have erupted since Polokwane, including the nasty contestations in ANC provinces and regions," Vavi said.

Vavi also provoked ANC hardliners such as Youth League leader Julius Malema, who are hostile to the left, when he promoted the notion of "a functioning alliance that determines strategy and deployment jointly".

At the summit, in a paper that prompted Malema to raise a point of order, Mantashe also spoke about the tense relations in the alliance.

"The question we must confront as the alliance is why we easily forget and begin to snipe at each other at the slightest provocation," he said.

"The public posture taken by leaders of the components of the alliance is sometimes worse than positions taken by the opposition parties.

"Some of the comrades tend to deal with discussion documents of the partners in ways that look like interrogation.

"All this becomes a strong source of irritation that destroys objectivity in dealing with real issues."

The ANC "has been irritated... because of alliance partners making their ANC leadership preferences public when going for elective conferences," he said.

"There are instances where members of the ANC are identified as either communists or Cosatu for purposes of lobbying.

"It is almost a norm to read of statements made by many of us wherein leaders of our alliance partners are brutally attacked, thus causing confusion in society."

Zuma, in his political report to the alliance summit, also told delegates that the alliance could "not afford to be engulfed in squabbles".

There has been a low-intensity war between a faction in the ANC and leaders of the SACP, who are accused of trying to turn the ruling party into a socialist outfit.

This has prompted some in the ANC to question the motives of their communist partners.

Cosatu, which publicly released a list of its ANC candidates in 2007, causing a storm in the ruling party, announced at its congress in September that it would not keep quiet if the ruling party were to be captured by business elite.

Mantashe appealed to "comrades not to be personal in their public engagements".

But, he added, "we are equally clear that we must not be absent from public discourse".

His appeal seemed to have been ignored, as Malema accused communist leader Jeremy Cronin last week of reflecting sentiments expressed by "white supremacists".

That came after Cronin, a veteran NEC member and the deputy minister of transport, criticised Malema's call to nationalise mines.

In his paper, Mantashe reaffirmed the legitimacy of dual membership, saying that had "always been a source of strength and not a source of weakness".

Mantashe is also the SACP chairman.

Dual membership had always threatened enemies of the movement, not allies.

2.11 Nzimande slams banks which are 'making a killing' off SA's poor

Business Report, 22 November 2009

South African commercial banks are benefitting from monetary policy and high interest rates are "throttling" the poor, the SACP secretary- general Blade Nzimande has said.

The ANC is under increasing pressure from its allies in the SACP and Cosatu to introduce economic policies that help the poor.

"The major beneficiaries of the monetary policy in the past have been the banks. They have been making a killing. Yet the very same banks are not investing back," said Nzimande.

The Reserve Bank has cut its repo rate - at which private sector banks borrow rands from the central bank - by 5 percentage points to 7 percent between December last year and August to stimulate an economy that is in its first recession since 1992.

But despite the rate cuts, consumer spending is depressed and credit growth weak as households and company balance sheets remain under stress. Banks have also been criticised for high banking fees.

Nzimande, the Higher Education Minister, said the SACP was concerned the Reserve Bank was perceived to be a private bank with no representation from outside the bank on its interest-rate-setting monetary policy committee.

"You get all those private people who are sitting in that monetary policy committee with no input from anywhere else other than from among themselves - that's what we have a problem with".

The ANC, SACP and Cosatu agreed at a summit last weekend to look at broadening the mandate of the Reserve Bank beyond only controlling inflation.

"We have also allowed a policy where monetary policy has determined our economic priorities and it should have been the other way around," Nzimande said.

The communists and labour are demanding that inflation targeting be scrapped and the Reserve Bank focus on job creation after a million jobs have been lost so far this year.

With South Africa in the midst of its first recession in over a decade, Nzimande called for the government's institutions and policies to reflect a "growth and development" agenda. – Reuters

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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