Media Monitor 12 November 2009

The trade union said it has taken a certificate of non-resolution at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), which would culminate in over 45,000 workers across Gold Fields operations going on strike.

It said the dispute was over a recruitment assessment method called Functional Work Capacity, which the trade union says has proved to be a barrier to employment for new recruits and employees coming back from annual and maternity leave.

"The method has been implemented unilaterally and it has seen many people falling to get employment or re-appointed at Gold Fields," said Keneth Bhuda, NUM Mining House coordinator.

The NUM is demanding that the system be scrapped and that the old physical testing and acclimatisation method be reinstated.

1.2 PE really is friendly city

Herald, 2009/11/12

ON Monday evening, September 28, a bus carrying pupils and teachers of Mdibaniso Senior Secondary School, Middledrift crashed and fell on its side at the off-ramp at Ferguson and Grahamstown roads (“School cuts tour short, denies driver was drunk”, The Herald, September 30). That was shocking, frustrating and confusing as many were injured.

We were really pained and horrified. Many people of Port Elizabeth quickly came to our rescue.

They included people we do not know who were passersby, EMRS, SAPS, traffic police, Livingstone and Provincial hospitals’ staff, Zwide clinic staff, relatives of teachers and pupils, clergy, etc.

We felt really cared for and that was reason for us to be strong. We thank you!

The local secretary of Cosatu appeared at the right time. The Western regional secretary of Sadtu, SC Zamisa, is really a marvel who sacrificed her well deserved night’s sleep and rest to be with us in the hospitals.

The district director of education in Port Elizabeth, Dr Ntsiko, played a fatherly role to us, giving all the support we needed. Well done!

To Zwide clinic staff, especially Sister Qhina, we noted your being stars for your caring, considerate and compassionate attitude.

To us, as tourists, you demonstrated that Port Elizabeth is really a friendly city.

We feel indebted to you, we shall always hold you in high esteem and will remember this gesture of ubuntu in many years to come with warmth and admiration. Thank you all!

2. South Africa

2.1 ‘Jittery’ Hogan must fix Eskom mess — Cosatu
KARIMA BROWN, Business Day, 12 November 2009

CONGRESS of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) president Sdumo Dlamini yesterday called on Public Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan to “crack the whip” to restore confidence at Eskom

“The minister is jittery. She cannot act as if she doesn’t have the power. She has to go to Eskom and speak to everyone involved and tell the nation what the problems are. She needs to crack the whip for sanity to prevail,” he said.

Yesterday, Dlamini also took issue with the African National Congress (ANC) Youth League after it released a statement lambasting the powerful National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) for coming to the defence of Bobby Godsell, who resigned as chairman of the Eskom board in the wake of a leadership tussle involving embattled CEO Jacob Maroga.

The league questioned the motives of the NUM, which defended Godsell against accusations of racism.

“The ANC Youth League completely disagrees with the approach of the NUM on the Eskom situation. The statements of the general secretary of the NUM are completely different from what workers in Eskom are saying.

“Workers in Eskom have constantly raised concern over the victimisation of Jacob Maroga, and even had a protest march against Eskom board’s victimisation of Jacob Maroga. Recurrently, workers have spoken in support of the transformation agenda in Eskom,” the league said.

Different members of the ANC- Cosatu-South African Communist Party alliance have lined up behind Godsell and Maroga. Dlamini said the league’s argument that the NUM had sided with “white capital” in the Eskom debacle was without merit.

“The youth league is out of order. Eskom is going through huge difficulties and labelling each other is not going to solve the bigger energy crisis SA faces,” Dlamini said. He was calling “everyone to order ” and to shift their focus to finding solutions.

He said Cosatu would engage its own affiliates, including the National Union of Metalworkers of SA and the NUM as both unions were active at Eskom. “I have spoken to the general secretaries of both unions and we will look at the issues raised in the memorandum. There are issues of transformation and equity that need to be addressed,” Dlamini said.

The broader challenges in energy electricity pricing structures for the future were the key matters that needed attention, Dlamini said.

Trade union Solidarity also expressed concern about Eskom.

“ (Staff) don’t know where the company is going, they don’t know who the head of the company is,” said Solidarity spokesman Jaco Kleynhans of the nearly 8000 members working at Eskom. “We have more than 100 shop stewards there and it is almost impossible to find out what’s going on … we are extremely worried about it.”

Staff morale was already low after the recent pay talks and a notice that bonuses may be terminated. “They need to build a relationship of trust again between workers and management. With Sapa

2.2 ANC and left allies take stock

Karima Browm, Business Day, 12 November 2009

WHEN the African National Congress (ANC) and its leftist allies gather tomorrow for three days of talks on how to deliver on jobs, education, health, crime and rural development, the answers they craft will have to go beyond ideology.

The summit comes amid a war of words between the ANC, the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) about the National Planning Commission, the role of state-owned entities in the economy, the debate on nationalisation, national health insurance, intra-alliance battles and their effect on governance especially in municipalities, job losses, corruption in the government, and who in the Cabinet decides economic policy.

If alliance leaders accept the judgment of British historian Eric Hobsbawm — that 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, market fundamentalism has crashed as spectacularly as Soviet-style command economies — they will have to convince their constituencies to put the national interest ahead of sectional interests if the government of President Jacob Zuma is to deliver on its election promises.

Already trade unions have taken flak from ANC figures who put part of the blame for tardy service delivery at the door of complacent public service unions.

On Tuesday, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said teachers’ performance had to be assessed, which teacher unions oppose. At a recent meeting with principals, Zuma asked why teaching time in the average township school was still significantly less than schools in formerly white areas.

Cosatu will have to refashion the way teacher unions negotiate with a developmental state if quality education is to become a reality. This “paradigm shift” is likely to be extracted as a key concession .

But it i s not only Cosatu that will have to make concessions. The job- loss bloodbath and the slow response in implementing the f ramework a greement between the government, business and labour guiding SA’s response to the global meltdown is likely to see Cosatu berating the government and business.

An alliance insider says the ANC will have to “really assess” the global meltdown and ask tough questions about the chosen macroeconomic growth path. “We need a shared understanding of what has gone wrong in the economy. Ours cannot be an ad hoc take. It’s not just about the greed of the black middle class and the need to regulate. We are going to push for an alternative set of policy choices,” the insider says.

This push for a departure from the old ways has resulted in a turf war over who makes economic policy and where in the Cabinet control resides on this matter.

Hence the public spats over the design and powers of the National Planning Commission. While the ANC national executive committee has said it will back Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel to chair the commission, which it wants to consist of experts, alliance leaders are likely to argue for a role for the economic cluster ministries, of which Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel is part.

Alliance insiders say the summit must also ramp up efforts around sectors shedding jobs. To date, the Industrial Development Corporation has made R6bn available to companies to stave off further job losses. Union leaders say the efforts remain patchy in the face of more than 1-million job losses this year.

Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini has said they will ask Zuma to “lash” ministers who are not using the expanded public works programme to create jobs. Unless jobs are protected and the tide of unemployment stemmed, no amount of growth will reduce structural inequalities.

In an article titled So What Is the Key Political Question of the 21st Century? Hobsbawm put it thus: “The purpose of an economy is not profit but the wellbeing of all people, just as the legitimation of the state is its people not its power.

“Economic growth is not an end but a means to good, human and just societies. It does not matter what we call regimes that pursue this aim. It does matter how, and with what priorities, we combine the public and private elements in our mixed economies. That is the key political question of the 21st century.”

The alliance leaders face stark choices. They must develop a social compact on jobs, and ensure the state succeeds in education, health, local government and rooting out crime and corruption. Zuma’s task is to go beyond merely balancing these interests. His job is to carry the political costs of the trade-offs each of the allies will have to make to put the national interest first.

2.3 Still in the dark about Eskom, but rumours rage

Peter DeIonno, Ingi Salgado, Samantha Enslin-Payne and Slindile Khanyile, Business Report, November 12, 2009

In the absence of word from Eskom, rumours circulating about the shenanigans along the mahogany row of the state-owned enterprise had by yesterday reached near-epic proportions.

A search on Google News for "Eskom" and "Jacob Maroga" yielded more than 400 reports, some of them speculative, others making valiant attempts to make sense of the saga, and yet others offering the insights of organisations one might think had the barest of connections to the power utility, such as the ANC Youth League.

By far the most interesting allegations to emerge yesterday were outlined in a letter dated Monday, and delivered to the Mail & Guardian's (M&G's) offices, purportedly an updated version of an anonymous letter sent two months ago to Public Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan.

M&G Online provided a link to the letter, unsigned but attributed to "Eskom senior management" who accused chief executive Maroga of creating "total paralysis" of Eskom due to "gross incompetence" and trying to prove he was better than his predecessors.

In an apparently pre-emptive attempt to steer clear of being labelled racists, they praised former chief executive Thulani Gcabashe and called for another black chief executive to take Maroga's place.

Among the long list of incompetence blamed on Maroga was that he left items on the executive agenda undecided as he could not make the "simplest of decisions".

They further alleged he held matters in abeyance indefinitely as he consulted "with his American advisers, who are kept on retention for over millions per annum, and who are privy to all sensitive and confidential information, without having to declare their interests". This is presumably a reference to Telein Group, the organisational change specialists that Maroga defended hiring in a strategy document submitted to the board last month (the same document in which he criticised over-reliance on outside experts).

They went on to issue the somewhat cryptic statement: "We call upon Mr Maroga not to blackmail this country, by citing his act of delaying the price application to after the elections, as a favour owed to him."

Assuming this is true, what will the ANC Youth League and Black Management Forum come up with to defend their man now?

Manufacturing depression

There is good news and there is bad news. The bad news is that the manufacturing sector is still deeply depressed. The good news is that this sector, which shed 194 000 jobs in the year to September, is showing signs of a slow recovery.

According to data released by Statistics SA this week, manufacturing production contracted 11.4 percent year on year in September, although a steep decline this was an improvement on the 15 percent decline in the year to August. On a quarterly basis, seasonally adjusted manufacturing production for the third quarter increased by 2.6 percent compared with the second quarter with higher production reported by six out of 10 manufacturing divisions.

These included the motor vehicles, parts and accessories divisions, which recorded a sharp recovery of 8.9 percent in the third quarter compared with the second quarter. Other sectors that are doing better are basic iron and steel products, basic chemicals and plastic products.

Johan Rossouw, an economist at Vunani Securities, said the recovery in the motor industry could be pinned on improved exports as European car scrapping incentives created a surge in demand for vehicles.

Even with these glimmers of hope, high unemployment, with almost 1 million jobs lost, is not going to be eradicated any time soon, and high debt means that local demand is expected to remain weak.

Interest rates are unlikely to fall further and when rates do move (possibly by the end of next year) it will be up again. So for those servicing debt it would be wise over the next 12 months to clear as much of it as possible.

Pride and parastatals

When President Jacob Zuma announced that Barbara Hogan would be moved from the health portfolio to public enterprises, there were a lot of people in the health fraternity who were disappointed.

This had a lot to do with the "positive and refreshing attitude" that those in the private health care sector felt she had brought to the portfolio, which saw relations between the industry and the government improve for the first time in ages.

Hogan was praised for swiftly changing the way the government had handled its response to the HIV/Aids epidemic. She averted court action by pharmacist and general practitioners over dispensing fees.

However, the authoritative leadership she displayed at health is somewhat absent at public enterprises. The Eskom leadership confusion over the past two weeks has shown just how not in control Hogan is. Her department could not clarify if chief executive Jacob Maroga had resigned or not and clearly she did not know what the Eskom board was doing.

A day after she defended Maroga in Parliament, the board announced that the chief executive had resigned and it was the ANC Youth League that informed the country that Maroga was in fact still in charge at Megawatt Park.

Even now, it is still not clear if Maroga has resigned or not. In his resignation letter, Bobby Godsell, the former board chairperson at Eskom, complained about lack of support from the shareholder, which is the government that Hogan represents.

The Eskom drama joins the succession battle at Transnet which has turned nasty with Siyabonga Gama suspended. And Armscor. At the beginning of her tenure, Hogan tried to show that she wanted the best out of the parastatals when she said perhaps underperforming state-owned enterprises should be privatised. The problem with that statement was that she made it barely a month into the job, did not consult anyone and has been criticised for it.

Who knows, maybe that is why she is now reluctant to assert her authority.

2.4 What is 'left' about 'the left' in South Africa?

By Dale T. McKinley, International Journal of Socialists 12 November 2009

November 5, 2009 -- For several years now, but particularly since the ascendancy of Jacob Zuma and his South African Communist Party (SACP) and Congress of South African Trade Union (COSATU) allies within both the African National Congress (ANC) and the state, ``the left'' in South Africa has come to be almost completely associated with (and presented as) the SACP, COSATU and, to a lesser extent, the ANC itself.

Even though this state of affairs ignores a wide range of organisations and people that can stake a serious claim to being part of ``the left'', the fact is that contemporary politics in South Africa are dominated, in one way or another, by these three alliance partners. As such, it is a good time to pose a critically important question: What is ``left'' about ``the left'' in South Africa?

Dictionary definitions of ``left'' such as "politically radical", "liberal" or "communist" do not help us much because they do not provide any kind of underlying, common attribution. This is why people and organisations which are light years apart on both the ideological and practical policy/struggle front can all be called ``left'', ranging from President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party in the USA to Kim-Jong Il and the Workers Party of Korea, and in South Africa, from the ANC to the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front.

The result is that the term ``left'' has, over time, lost most of its real ideological and practical meaning. The term itself only came to have any substantive meaning and location in the historical context of the various oppositional struggles borne out of, and parallel to, the rise and development of the capitalist system and its accompanying ideology.

As such, at its basic definitional minimum, the ``left'' must refer to any social/political force or individual that professes adherence to an anti-capitalist ideology and practically struggles against the capitalist system and for a non-capitalist alternative. Beyond this, it is axiomatic that there are an array of tactical, organisational and more specifically defined intra-ideological differences amongst ``the left'', whether in South Africa or anywhere else across the globe.

Stripped of this basic anti-capitalist contextual and practical foundation, the term ``left'' has mostly become a crudely convenient and vacuous political label or self-anointed attribute that obscures any critical understanding and analysis of the character and content of what is ``left''. Nowhere is this more apparent that in relation to an ANC that is so clearly not anti-capitalist.

It is why Jacob Zuma, in his response just last week to charges that the SACP and COSATU were ``taking over'' the ANC, can state without any fear of contradiction or embarrassment that, "the point that many people fail to grasp is that the ANC, by its own definition and by any objective standard, is in fact an organisation of the left. It is a multi-class national liberation movement with a bias towards the working class and poor."

If something is repeated often enough and without any critical response/appraisal, it usually becomes accepted ``truth'' and/or reality. In this way can a whole range of (weak) social-democratic political parties wholly committed to upholding the capitalist system, amongst them the ANC and the British Labour Party, come together in the ``Socialist International'' to loudly and proudly proclaim their ``left'' credentials. Seldom has there been a more oxymoronic gathering.

Combined with Zuma's personal ideological schizophrenia, a ``condition'' which allows him to simultaneously be the (perceived) champion of the working class and the political guarantor of capitalist stability and accumulation, it is no wonder there is such ideological confusion and corresponding factional conflict within the ANC.

SACP and COSATU

Things are a bit trickier though when it comes to the SACP and COSATU. While their constitutions, key programmatic documents and public statements are clearly infused with an anti-capitalist ideology, it is in the realm of their practical politics and related strategic orientation where serious questions have to be asked.

If we accept that a ``left'' organisation means being anti-capitalist in both form and content, then it must, by default, have a dominant, practical organisational strategy that is embedded within the lives and struggles of those who are not, in productive, material, ideological and social terms, capitalist. This is clearly not the case with the SACP (and to a lesser extent, COSATU), whose main strategic orientation for many years now has been to embed itself within a battle for power, access and influence amongst an elite ANC cadre and within an ANC that has no interest in getting rid of the capitalist system.

Of course the SACP argues, as it has done in a strategy document recently released by its central committee, that the ``left'' within the Alliance (read: the SACP and COSATU) has been largely responsible for "the political and organisational defeat of the leading cadre behind the '1996 class project'" (read: the capitalists). Evidently, this is supposed to prove (especially if repeated ad nauseum) both the anti-capitalist credentials and organisational strategy of the SACP and COSATU.

The immediate question that arises though is, what was/is Zuma and many of the key SACP members and leaders within the ANC and state if not a ``leading cadre'' of that same ``class project'' over the last decade or so? Further, what about the SACP and COSATU’s own active involvement in and cooperation with these declared class enemies and their selective silences when it comes to the practical policy consequences of the ``1996 class project'', on the organised working class and majority poor?

Capitalist government

Ironically, it is Zuma who has provided, indirectly, the most recent and telling confirmation of the ideological and thus organisational hypocrisy of the SACP and COSATU leaderships in their holier than thou ``left'' crusade. Rejecting the SACP and COSATU's claims that Planning Minister Trevor Manuel is personally responsible for the ANC and state's (capitalist) economic policy, Zuma stated: "As soon as we start associating government policy with one individual, we risk forgetting that these policies are developed collectively and reflect an organisational position."

What this so unmistakably exposes is that the Alliance ``left'' has, for far too long, had it both ways. On the one hand, constantly shouting about a lack of consultation and publicly rejecting the state's capitalist-friendly policies. On the other hand, a convenient silence about the fact that their own leaders have always been a part of the leadership within the ANC and the state and thus the collective debates and decision-making processes. In real, objective terms (and by their own proud ideological and programmatic admission), the SACP and COSATU are part and parcel of an ANC which makes and implements the capitalist policies that they then turn around and attack and disown.

Given this kind of chameleon politics it is not surprising that ``the left'' alliance twins have never been very keen on defining what ``left'' means. This is mainly because any change, however slight, in the institutional character and policy content of the ANC and/or state's capitalism which could provide some additional succour to the poor/working class is interpreted and presented as a victory for ``the left''. To do otherwise would be to undermine the larger programmatic position that it is imperative for the SACP and COSATU to remain in alliance with the ANC as well as the entire theoretical construct of the ``national democratic revolution'' upon which the alliance rests.

Perhaps though, it is the nexus between the personal and the political that presents the most uncomfortable conundrum for this ``left''. Historically, those identified with ``the left'' have been expected to hold both their personal and political lives to a higher ethical standard. Given ``the left's'' professed adherence to an anti-capitalism that is supposed to be intrinsically non-accumulative as well as embracing of socioeconomic and human equality/justice, it is an entirely legitimate expectation. Yet, when the workers and poor, most of whom are simply struggling to survive, witness the ANC ``left'' in cat fights over who gets the biggest share of public monies, see South Africa’s top ``communist'' leader vigorously defending his lavish lifestyle choices and hear the top unionist rationalising his 100% salary increase while his subordinates get 15%, it is not hard to understand why there is such widespread scepticism about ``the left'', its leadership and its politics among the very people whom that ``left'' claims to represent.

The ``left'' likes to talk about revolution. While both South Africa and the world at large could do with a social and political revolution, it is ``the left'' itself that is in dire need of its own revolution. Otherwise, there might not be much left of ``the left''.

[Dale McKinley is an independent writer, researcher, lecturer and political activist based in Johannesburg. This article first appeared at the South African Civil Society Information Service website. It is posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with the author's permission.]

2.5 ANC, partners to hold meeting

News24, November 2009

Johannesburg - The ANC and its alliance partners will hold a summit at the weekend, the alliance said on Wednesday.

The summit, to be attended by the ANC, Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu), SA Communist Party (SACP) and SA National Civic Association (Sanco), would discuss amongst other issues, the National Planning Commission and the country's response to the global economic crisis.

In a joint statement, the alliance partners said comprehensive rural development, education, health, energy and the fight against crime and corruption would also take centre stage.

Led by President Jacob Zuma, SACP general-secretary Blade Nzimande, Cosatu's Zwelinzima Vavi and Sanco's president Ruth Bengu, the summit will start on Friday and end on Sunday at Ekurhuleni's Esselen Park.

Local govt on discussion list

"The summit will deal with the challenges confronting local government and discuss practical means to strengthen this sphere of government.

"Furthermore, it will review work that has been done by the various components of the alliance in implementing its programme of action since the elections of 2009, particularly the five priority areas that are at the epicentre of the alliance programme of action," it said.

The historic and strategic nature of the existence of the alliance and how current conditions further demanded strength and unity of the alliance partnership would also be deliberated on.

"All alliance partners view the unity of the alliance to be paramount and sacrosanct.

"It is the responsibility of the ANC as the leader of the alliance to ensure that it remains united, but equally, it is also the responsibility of the leaders of the other alliance components to keep the ANC strong to positively contribute to a better country," the alliance said.

2.6 Does Zuma hear the clock ticking?

Patrick Laurence, PoliticsWeb, 11 November 2009

JOHANNESBURG - A warning uttered recently by Zwelinzima Vavi, the general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, should ring alarm bells for President Jacob Zuma, even though Vavi, an ideologue par excellence, might have been motivated by more than comradely concern for Zuma and his relatively new administration.

In his address to the South African Municipal Workers Union, Vavi warned that the credibility of the Zuma administration with the poorer sectors of the black community is in danger of evaporating and, concomitantly, that the patience of the residents in woefully or badly served townships is approaching breaking point.

The warning was meant to nudge Zuma to the left, politically speaking, and to serve as a reminder to him that deferred promises often lead to disillusionment, anger and alienation, while, of course, increasing the vulnerability of the poor to the demagogues who seem to abound in the townships in times of recession and hardship.

Judging by the string of delivery protests that erupted within weeks of Zuma's inauguration, particularly in Mpumalanga, black people in a string of neglected or relatively neglected townships and informal settlements are not prepared to wait patiently for the Zuma administration to fulfil its election manifesto pledges.

Action, including the seizure of putatively corrupt local councillors as hostages and the burning of their offices, seems to have become a predictable township response in South Africa today, as it was during the last years of white rule.

To quote a resident of Sakile, a township near Standerton in Mpumalanga that attracted national and even international attention during its protest against poor living conditions and the alleged venality of local officials. "We don't see any changes. We thought Zuma could do better. So now we have to step up protests, thinking of the future of our children."

The task facing Zuma is not made easier by the profligacy of his administration, as manifest by the size of his cabinet (there are 34 ministers and roughly the same number of deputy ministers) and their willingness (with one or two honourable exceptions) to spend every last cent of the public money available to them on the purchase of expensive vehicles. While Zuma is inclined to speak about the need for frugality in the present difficult financial climate, his ministers are wont to spend taxpayers' money as if there were no tomorrow.

They are as greedy, if not more greedy, than the men and women who served in Mbeki's cabinet. The materialism that Mbeki rallied against seems as prevalent under Zuma as it was under Mbeki. Like France's Bourbon kings, the ANC's leader seem to have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing. It is worth noting en passant that Zuma has warned his comrades that greed could destroy the ANC if not checked. His words, like those of Mbeki before him, seem to have fallen on the proverbial deaf ears.

Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe has accused the media of making an unjustified fuss about the use of public money to purchase limousines worth up to or even more than R1million for the ministers. His argument, judging by his comments on television, is that even if the amount of money available was limited to R200 000, it would still be seen as an incredibly large amount to the poorer citizens and, his argument implies, might for that reason be as offensive to the poor as R1 million or more.

Motlanthe, however, seems to underestimate the intelligence of the poor. They are quite capable of appreciating the difference between a R200 000 vehicle and one that is five times as expensive. It is lordly arrogance to assume that they cannot differentiate between the relatively modest vehicle chosen by Pravin Gordhan and the expensive million-plus luxury cars favoured by Trevor Manuel and Blade Nzimande.

An addendum is in order. Manuel, as a respected former finance minister, should have showed the way by choosing a less expensive car. So, too, should Nzimande to establish his bona fides as a communist committed to the notion of equality.

The "fat cats" in the ANC who have forsaken their commitment to uplifting the poor in reality while paying lip service to it, should take note of the call by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) for the "nationalisation" of the wealth of those whom its general secretary, Castro Ngobese, labels "obscenely" rich South Africans.

Ngobese identifies Patrice Motsepe, the brother-in-law of Cyril Ramaphosa, a former ANC secretary-general, as well as of Jeff Radebe, Zuma's minister of justice, as one of the disgustingly rich men whose wealth should be seized in the name of the people. Ngobese reckons Tokyo Sexwale, the billionaire minister of human settlement, is another. Motsepe's fortune is estimated to be worth R14.2-billion according to the publication Who owns Whom.

Numsa's call to dispossess the obscenely rich of what it regards as their ill-gotten gains is a reminder of Cosatu's slogan of the 1980s: Apartheid and capitalism - two sides of the same bloody coin." Unless the ANC recovers its idealism, the slogan may be adapted to read: "ANC and capitalism - two sides of the same bloody coin." The initials ANC, however, will stand for Africa's nationalist capitalists.

There is a conundrum to consider about Zuma before signing off: it is to ponder what prompted Zuma to describe, Julius Malema, the AN/C Youth League as a potential president, bearing in mind that Malema is pressing for the nationalisation of the mines while Zuma has sung soothing lullabies to capitalists and investors at home and abroad.

One explanation may be that Zuma is trying to tame Malema, to co-opt him and use his talents for rabble rousing to strengthen the ANC and even to sell a more conciliatory line, as Malema did when he visited the University of Free State rector Jonathan Jansen and described him as "one of use" while local ANC Youth League members were calling for Jansen's head.

Another more disturbing possibility is that Zuma is simply seeking to appease Malema, who, for all his radical oratory, obviously considers himself worthy of special treatment, including the right to speed on the roads if he so wishes and to be protected by flashing blue lights whether driving on highways or byways.

Whatever Zuma's motives, he would do well to remember the warning to use a long spoon when supping with the devil.

2.7 DA: SA drops on world indices

News24, 11 November 2009

Cape Town - The ANC government chooses to ignore the picture painted by international indices as it believes it is the only party capable of telling the truth, the Democratic Alliance said on Wednesday.

"It therefore releases its own set of indicators on an annual basis, namely the Presidency's Development Indicators Mid-term Review report," DA parliamentary leader Athol Trollip and spokesperson Lindiwe Mazibuko said in a joint statement.

In response to the report, the DA released a comparative analysis of South Africa's performance on 20 key international indices since 1994 at a media briefing at Parliament.

"The DA has compiled an overview of all 20 indices, and they stand in stark contrast to the Presidency's development indicators," Trollip and Mazibubo said.

The 20 indices ranked countries in six key areas namely governance, economic development, poverty and inequality, education, information technology and global interconnectedness, and lastly, the environment.

Key findings included South Africa had slipped down the rankings of 16 of the 20 indices.

Drops on peace, science indexes

The most dramatic falls were trends in the Timms international mathematics and science study (down 25 places), global peace index (down 24), failed states index (19), and the network readiness index (down 18 places).

South Africa stayed in the same position (number 45) on one of the indices, namely the global competitiveness index between 2005/06 and 2009/10, but closer analysis revealed it moved up nine places on the 2006/07 index only to slip back to 45 by 2009/10.

South Africa moved up three of the 20 indices. All three of these indices measured poverty and inequality namely, global hunger index (moved up 16 places), global gender gap index (up 12), and mothers' index ( up six places).

'Govt in denial'

"Instead of the ANC government acknowledging South Africa's dismal performance on these indices and recognising that it alludes to a far bigger and highly concerning picture - that it is failing in a number of key areas - it instead chooses a path of denial, obfuscation and even denunciation in some instances."

The main reason for this was the ANC government had a long history of believing its political programme was the only legitimate course around which South Africa's future could be shaped.

An analysis of that political programme, however, revealed a series of decisions that compromised the collective potential as a country, clearly demonstrated by the dismal performance on these international indices.

Most of the Presidency's development indicators report usually ignored these international indicators and instead used "manipulated data and cherry-picked information to paint a glowing picture of its own performance and South Africa's economic, political and social development," the DA said.- SAPA

2.8 ANC guilty of double standards - analyst

Giovanna Gerbi , Eye Witness News, 12 November 2009

A Constitutional law expert on Wednesday said he suspected the ANC’s Western Cape leadership was guilty of double standards in relation to to disciplining its members.

Earlier this week, the party said it would take action against former Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool and provincial chief whip Max Ozinsky over comments they made against each other in public.

Rasool criticised Ozinsky for allegedly leaking documents to the Democratic Alliance while Rasool was premier.

UCT academic Pierre De Vos said other unruly ANC members have not received the same treatment.

“Well there clearly is a double standard at play, because when Mister Julius Malema makes statements that are very disrespectful of his fellow members in the party, he’s not reprimanded in the same way.”

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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