COSATU Media Monitor, 12 March 2010

They downed tools at the assembly plant on Thursday, March 4, but a meeting led by general secretary Irvin Jim and president Cedric Gina with management resolved the issues on Thursday.

"As Numsa we call on all our members at Ford Motor Company in Silverton to resume duty as follows: The first set of the workforce, the [Customer Service Operation], will resume duty on Friday, 12 March 2010 in accordance with their respective shift operations."

"The rest of the workforce (assembly operations and supporting areas) will resume duty on Monday, 15 March 2010."

Bargaining head Alex Mashilo said the work stoppage was related to the reduced hours of work as the automotive industry reels from the global economic crisis.

The company had reduced working hours in terms of an agreement in the automotive sector national bargaining forum, which was struck before the crisis set in.

This meant that in the week of February 22 to 27, they did not receive any pay.

The unions are also trying to revisit the terms of that agreement, as well as get workers into the government's training lay-off scheme, which reskills workers instead of retrenching them when there is not enough work.

1.2 Dispute with landlord affects Education staff

By MSINDISI FENGU, Daily Dispatch, 12 March 2010

MORE than 100 Eastern Cape Education Department subject advisers sought refuge in a government building in Bhisho after being evicted from their King William’s Town offices last week.

The provincial Education Department had allegedly failed to pay rent for a leased building in Schornville , which was used as offices for district subject advisers.

The advisers assist schools in King William’s Town, Stutterheim, Cathcart, Peddie and Keiskammahoek.

Yesterday, a subject adviser who did not want to be named, said the landlord had refused to renew a lease with the department due to unpaid rent .

“The department wanted to renew the contract for a year, but the landlord was not interested because the department was behind with payments.”

He said the department then relocated the staff to Bhisho offices.

“This has affected us immensely in our jobs. We do go out to schools, but teachers who come to us needing some work documents and learning materials cannot access them because they are on our computers.”

“We’ve been kept here doing nothing … our computers are not connected … boxes are lying around and people go in and out without being checked.

“The department didn’t even prepare this place. They didn’t plan this, they were rushing against time. We are in a mess and it is really strenuous because we are unable to plan our work in advance. We are also unsure if we are going to be moved again,” he said.

When the Daily Dispatch team visited the Global Life Office in Bhisho, where the officials are currently operating, boxes were lying around in an open space.

Education officials were also roaming around chatting.

Tables were vacant with no computers connected. Stationery and other learning materials were packed in boxes lining the wall.

Several offices in the building were occupied by other government departments and security was not controlling who was getting in and out of the premises.

Provincial Education Department spokesperson Malibongwe Mtima confirmed that the department had a dispute with their landlord over the building in Schornville.

He would not comment on the reasons for the dispute, but said said the relocation was a “temporary measure” until the dispute had been resolved.

“We are still sorting-out the contract with the landlord. This is just a special arrangement and within no time they will be back in their offices.

“We are trying to ensure that services are not disrupted by redirecting some services to district offices.”

South African Democratic Teacher’s Union (Sadtu) provincial secretary Fezeka Loliwe said their branch in King had met the department on the matter, in which it appeared that the department’s contract with the landlord had ended in December and the department had intended moving out of the building.

Loliwe said the department, however, found that the building it was about to move into was not ready.

She said the department wanted to extend its contract for a year, but the landlord refused. “The landlord wanted two years, with an alternative of doubling the amount to lease it for a year.

“The landlord then locked advisers out. They are now displaced and disorganised … this is not helping our Master Plan to improve struggling schools. Advisers can’t go to schools without preparation .”

1.3 Ceppwawu backs Mboweni for Nampak

Citizen, 12 March 2010

JOHANNESBURG - Former SA Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni will play a significant role in driving Nampak’s new strategic plan, the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers’ Union (Ceppwawu) said on Thursday.

The plan would create new jobs and save old ones, the Ceppwawu secretariat said in a statement.

Ceppwawu voiced its support for Mboweni’s appointment as chairman of Nampak from June 1, and said it looked forward to working with him.

It nonetheless emphasised that it would continue to defend workers’ rights and would not hesitate to take to the streets against him “if we feel that the interests of the workers are being undermined”.

Mboweni replaces Nampak non-executive chairman Trevor Evans.

The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) also welcomed Mboweni’s appointment, shortly after the decision was made last month.

It hoped he would see reflected in the Nampak workforce the “brutality” of the conservative and neo-liberal policies he advanced at the SA Reserve Bank (SARB).

His appointment should be about “cleansing himself by transformation and better conditions of employment for workers at Nampak”.

Observing that the company’s executive was dominated by whites, Numsa said the status and admiration Mboweni earned as labour minister should guide him in pushing for transformation as opposed to being a “political hock for white capital to accumulate and expand their profits interests”.

Mboweni served as South Africa’s labour minister from 1994 to 1998 before heading SARB.

Since the end of his term, he has also been appointed as the chairman of AngloGold Ashanti, succeeding Russell Edey. This appointment also takes effect on June 1.

The ANC Youth League has slammed the move as a reward for Mboweni’s protection of the interests of “male white capital”.

2. South Africa

2.1 Vavi: We'll leave the muck to Julius

By Carien du Plessis, IOL, 12 March 2010

Cosatu General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said he would rather "remain sane" than "stoop down" to Julius Malema's level, adding that the ANC Youth League president has no dignity to lose.

Cosatu in the Northern Cape advised Vavi not to be distracted "by barking dogs on the roadside".

Malema told a small crowd of students in Johannesburg on Tuesday that "Vavi doesn't hold permits for revolutionaries in South Africa", after Cosatu's call for lifestyle audits on all politicians.

Malema also said Vavi, who indicated last year that he was interested in standing for an ANC leadership position in 2012 after stepping down from Cosatu, should start at the bottom. "He said he is going to the national executive committee of the ANC. That is uncultured. But because he doesn't understand the ANC very well, he wants to start from the top. We say to him, go to your branch."

"The problem of responding to Julius Malema is that he has nothing to lose whilst we are jealously guarding our dignity. We will lose lots of points if we enter into a mud-slinging match, for our country look to us to lead them out of this dark hour," Vavi said.

Cosatu's Northern Cape provincial secretary Anele Gxoyiya advised Malema that "there is a vast difference between militancy and rudeness".

2.2 SACP 'sorry' for booing Malema

By Carien du Plessis, IOL, 12 March 2010

A high-level bilateral meeting about the booing of senior ANC leaders - including Julius Malema - ended amicably with an apology from the communists and President Jacob Zuma admitting to "mistakes" on both sides.

This followed a report submitted to the ANC's national working committee after Malema and Billy Masetlha were booed by delegates at the SA Communist Party conference last year.

The national working committee met the SACP in Cape Town yesterday to discuss tensions between members of the two parties, as well as their "common programme".

According to a joint statement on Thursday, Zuma "indicated that mistakes have been made on both sides"."The SACP, in the context of the discussions, reaffirmed its regret at the booing" at its special congress in December last year.

"Both parties agreed that there would be no further personalised public attacks on each other," the statement said.

The booing was discussed by the national working committee two weeks ago, after an initial report was drafted by Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale, but was not accepted by the ANC's national executive committee.

After it was referred back to the working committee, a row erupted between Sexwale, on one hand, and ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe and Justice Minister Jeff Radebe, on the other, about the status of the report.

A new report was drafted and submitted to the national working committee.

While the SACP and the ANC made their peace, Cosatu in Gauteng on Thursday said the ruling party should have publicly condemned Malema for his attack on Zwelinzima Vavi on Tuesday.

Cosatu Gauteng secretary Dumisani Dakile described Malema as a "lunatic", "grandstanding crazy individual" and "problem child".

2.3 Clash looms over Eskom's secret deals

By Terry Bell, Business Report, 12 March 2010

Stakes in the looming clash between Eskom and the government on one hand and the combined labour movement and community groups on the other were raised this week with the confirmation of secret cut-price power deals for high-level industrial consumers.

Last week the parliamentary portfolio committee on public enterprises heard from Eskom that it had confidential "special price agreements" with 138 companies.

On Tuesday it became obvious at an energy portfolio committee hearing, that this situation had been accepted by the government; that it was considered a "contractual arrangement between Eskom and the companies involved".

Above all, the financial consequences of these deals were not taken into account when the National Energy Regulatory of SA (Nersa) granted a three-year consumer tariff hike to Eskom.

Hearing this news, Cosatu expressed "shock and disgust". The federation promptly announced that it was "more determined than ever to mobilise its members and the broader civil society on to the streets in protest".

This, in fact, is now the view of the labour movement as a whole. Even before the news of the special deals became public, the three federations represented at the Nedlac negotiating forum had agreed to give notice of general strike action in protest at Nersa's near 25 percent electricity tariff increase for this year.

The federations still plan to table a notice of action under section 77 of the Labour Relations Act. This permits unions to serve notice of intended "protest action to promote or defend socioeconomic interests of workers".

Once the arguments have been put at Nedlac and if no agreement can be reached, the unions may give 14 days' notice of protest action.

Before the latest revelations, several union leaders expressed a hope that the government would "see sense". The diplomatic response from these leaders was that the government and Eskom would back down rather than face what even then seemed likely to be very large-scale popular protest.

This attitude was summed up by Federation of Unions of SA general secretary Dennis George. He noted: "We have to work together. In the talks after we table our section 77 notice, we would hope to reach a reasonable agreement."

That hope was all but completely dashed this week. "It all seems to have the makings of the poll tax revolt," a former UK unionist noted, referring to the broad-based mass demonstrations that brought an end to a punitive housing tax in the UK in 1989.

There is considerable justification for this assessment because both the government and Eskom will find it almost impossible to increase to any great degree - if at all - the cut-price tariffs charged to the major power users. For example, the reason that the three regional aluminium smelters, Hillside and Bayside in KwaZulu-Natal and Mozal in southern Mozambique, were established there was because of guaranteed cheap electricity from Eskom.

All three smelters have contracts that would be extremely costly to break. But such contractual niceties are unlikely to quiet the anger and determination of communities and unions, especially since these three entities use more electricity than is generated by an average power station; Hillside at Richards Bay and Mozal, south of Maputo, alone, consume 2 150 megawatts between them.

The fact that the three smelters are owned by BHP Billiton has also opened a number of old wounds. In its modern form, the world's largest minerals company had its origins in what has been dubbed AEE (Afrikaner economic empowerment), an enrichment policy that long preceded its post-1994 black economic empowerment counterpart.

It has long been a sore point among sections of the labour movement that the AEE mining vehicle, Gencor "took the gap" at the time of transition in 1994 and bought the UK-based Billiton, into which Gencor's main assets were subsequently reversed before Gencor finally disappeared.

At the time of the Billiton purchase from Royal Dutch Shell, a former Gencor executive chairman, Derek Keys, was finance minister in the new government. He had served in the same role in the previous, apartheid, government from 1992, stepping from Gencor into cabinet.

As a local magazine noted of the Gencor directors after the transfer of assets was completed in 1997: "They've installed a miracle machine: you put rand assets in the South African end and take tax-free pounds and dollars out offshore!"

The fact that Keys resigned as finance minister in 1995 and then reportedly headed for the tax haven island of Jersey as a Billiton director still rankles in many quarters. Fingers continue to be pointed at Keys and at then Reserve Bank governor Chris Stals.

But the energy deals struck with the Billiton smelters, and apparently with the power-guzzling steel mills now owned by ArcelorMittal, are not of the apartheid era. Or, even if deals, perhaps with the steel industry or Sasol, were struck during that era, the takeover ownership changes should have resulted in renegotiations of any existing energy agreements.

According to Eskom, 10 of the 138 beneficiaries of discounted power have energy contracts dating from before 1994. Most of the deals must, therefore, have been agreed by the post-1994 government, many of whose senior members continue to serve in the present regime.

This, coupled with President Jacob Zuma's pro-business pronouncements during his recent UK state visit, should ensure that the cabinet will resist demands that details of the deals be made public. Yet, as the clamour for transparency grows, so will tensions both within and outside the governing alliance.

However, mere disclosure will not suffice. The demand is also for the removal of the tariff increases and Cosatu's call to "tax the rich" for additional funding for Eskom is already gaining greater currency.

Myrtle Witbooi, the general secretary of the SA Domestic Service and Allied Workers' Union, sums the mood: "The poor have paid enough. This is the last straw and we must take action."

2.4 ANC chief's fat-cat deals

By Wendy Jasson da Costa, IOL, 12 March 2010

The chairperson of the ANC's biggest and most influential region in KwaZulu-Natal, John Mchunu, has been awarded tenders worth at least R40-million by the eThekwini municipality.

Mchunu recently made headlines for allegedly vetoing the completion of a R1.5m elephant sculpture project for the new Warwick Avenue interchange, apparently because it was the symbol of the IFP.

Now, The Mercury has learnt that Mchunu benefited financially from tenders awarded to two of his companies, Inyameko Trading 148 cc and Zakhele and Mondli Trading Enterprise cc.

Although he is legally entitled to tender for work in the municipality, opposition parties have slammed it as "highly unethical" since eThekwini is governed by the ANC, and have claimed nothing in the municipality happens without Mchunu's approval. The revelation comes while the issue of lifestyle audits and "tenderpreneurship" tears the ANC and its alliance partners apart.

Mchunu yesterday acknowledged involvement in construction work and that he was a tender beneficiary, but said there was no conflict of interest and that he had declared his business affairs in the legislature's register of members' interests.

Inyameko Trading 148 cc received work totalling R37.3m from the municipality between 2005 and February, 2010.

The municipality's website lists the firm as a sub-contractor in the pipeline replacement project.

Inyameko Trading is also a Masakhe company, which is an emerging contractor development programme of the Public Works Department.

Zakhele and Mondli Trading Enterprise, which has pocketed R4.4m to date, received a municipal tender in 2008 to "rehabilitate units that are structurally unsafe homes".

Municipal manager Michael Sutcliffe said: "I have no idea what business he is part of or what his role may be. If he is involved in business, I would hope he has declared that interest as it would be illegal for an MPL to not declare his interests."

Both Sutcliffe and Mchunu denied that the ANC exercised influence over the tender awarding process in the municipality.

However, Cosatu spokesperson Zet Luzipho said: "People have gone into tenders to enhance wealth, not service delivery," and said that while he would not talk about individuals, he strongly believed that the government would solve many problems by eliminating tenders.

Other MPLs were outraged on learning that Mchunu had benefited from municipal contracts.

The ACDP's Joanne Downs said called the revelations "absolutely shocking".

"He has a huge influence and you can't tell me his position does not affect the outcome of tenders."

She said there was a problem with the way in which the ANC awarded tenders, because it consolidated its power, but not by rightful means.

2.5 Scandal surrounds top ANC man's arrest

Pieter du Toit, NEWS24, 12 March 2010

Cape Town - A confrontation is looming between authorities in Cape Town because Saps officials didn't want to arrest Jackson Mthembu for drunk driving "because he's high up in the ANC" after metro police apprehended him.

The Cape Town metro council has asked Western Cape MEC for safety and security, Lennit Max, to investigate the fact that police initially refused to arrest Mthembu.

Allegedly case numbers were also tampered with, and metro police officials were threatened with arrest by the Saps.

The police did not want to comment and merely confirmed the arrest of Mthembu, chief spokesperson for the ANC and member of the national executive committee.

Turbulent week

The arrest took place in a turbulent week for the ANC, during which Winnie Madikizela-Mandela lashed out at the party and former president Nelson Mandela, ANC youth league leader Julius Malema sang a controversial song, and Brian Sokutu, a spokesperson, was suspended.

Gwede Mantashe, secretary-general of the ANC, who also had to lead a crisis meeting between the ANC and the SACP on Thursday, said they will not be taking steps against Mthembu at this stage.

"Let's first hear his side of the story. Crucifying him now won't do anybody any good."

According to J P Smith, mayoral committee member for safety and security, Mthembu was pulled off the N2 inbound to Cape Town at 07:50 on Thursday.

Metro police officials became suspicious when they smelt his breath. He was taken to the city's new Safely Home Anti Drunk Driving Operations War Room (Shadow) in Athlone, where his blood alcohol level was tested.

His blood alcohol level was 0.87mg per 100 millilitre - almost four times the legal limit of 0.24mg per millilitre.

Test recorded

The Shadow centre is technologically highly advanced and the entire process was recorded, should any accusations concerning the procedures arise later, said Smith.

Mthembu was taken from the centre to the Mowbray police station.

The trouble started when the Saps threatened to arrest the metro police officials who wanted to have Mthembu arrested.

Metro police management eventually asked the Saps station commander to make sure a docket is opened for Mthembu.

According to Smith, however, the Saps case numbers were tampered with and the metro police had to correct them.

"It is extremely worrying because it appears the police didn't want to arrest Mthembu simply because he's a high-level ANC official. It was only once the station commander's co-operation was requested that the process could be completed," said Smith.

Mthembu was released on R500 bail and will appear in the Wynberg Magistrate's Court on March 24 on a charge of drunk driving.

2.6 Policy debate to hot up in next few years

By: Aubrey Matshiqi, Creamer Media, 12 March 2010

In whose lifetime will the nationalisation of mines happen? The fact that you are an avid reader of this column suggests that Father Time will harvest you long before the African national Congress (ANC) Youth League turns its threats of nationalisation into government policy. If you are a reader of this august publication and are as young as the young lions of the ANC, do not make the mistake of thinking you will reap some policy advantage from your age.

Unlike the markets, I am not easily intimidated. I have no doubt that one has to be reincarnated an infinite number of times before one can taste the fruit of nationalisation. If I am correct, why are we even having this debate?

The answer lies in the fact that the next three years will deliver three significant policy milestones.
In September this year, the ANC is holding its national general council (NGC). The NGC is a midterm conference of the ruling party, the task of which is to review policy and the performance of government since the last election. In case you have forgotten, the last NGC was held in June 2005, and key policy proposals were rejected as part of a broader rebellion against Thabo Mbeki, given the fact that he had axed Jacob Zuma as Deputy President of the country a few days earlier. This year’s NGC is important because it will signal possible policy changes. Further, it is an opportunity for those who seek to shift policy away from the centre to win the policy battles they lost in the past. The NGC will also give us an idea of the extent to which Zuma is still in control of the ruling party. Also, we will be able to assess whether he has enough support to remain a frontrunner in the 2012 battle for the presidency of the ANC.

The second milestone is the 2011 national policy conference of the ANC, where the policy framework for the period 2014 to 2019 will be crafted. This policy framework will be endorsed at the national conference of the ruling party in December 2012, and this constitutes the third milestone in the policy agenda. This third policy milestone is of special significance because the ANC celebrates 100 years of its existence in 2012 and the country will, in 2014, celebrate 20 years of democracy.

Current debates about the nationalisation of mines and the South African Reserve Bank must be understood in terms of these three milestones.

However, these milestones are not only of significance in policy terms since they are also about the consolidation of the political gains that were made in Polokwane. They will, therefore, give us indications of how the balance of power and support may be reconfigured in the months leading up to the 2012 conference of the ANC. As matters stand at the moment, Zuma’s position is not as secure as it was a year ago. Policy contradictions between his administration and his left-wing allies in the tripartite alliance are beginning to sharpen. The content of both the State of the Nation address and the Budget speech showed very clearly that it would take a huge effort on the part of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unuions (Cosatu) to move ANC policy left of centre.

The left-wing rhetoric of these speeches was not matched in any way by what Cosatu and the SACP regard as left-wing policy measures. In fact, the Budget speech succeeded in promising a new way of doing things in the post- recession economic and political setting by maintaining old and trusted policy remedies.

It would be remiss of me not to state that the Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan, in response to arguments about the deficit between rhetoric and actual policy, indicated that the Budget was propoor to the extent that the spending momentum on items such as education and health was being maintained.

But, if these allocations are indicators of propoorness, then propoor Budgets have been with us since 1994. In fact, the content of our Budgets has, since the advent of democracy, been pro-poor but the outcomes have been preponderantly antipoor. So the President must focus on both outcomes and Budget allocations if he is serious about an ‘outcomes-based’ approach to governance.

In other words, the ANC government must work towards a proper alignment between Budget allocations and outcomes. This is what the policy debate should be about over the next three years. And it should be about the nature of the constraints that will be imposed on the State by the fact that the new instruments that Zuma has created will, for some time, be unable to deliver optimally since they will be creating internal capacity for themselves.

2.7 ANC YL Refuses to Accept Farm Attack Memo

Business Day, 12 March 2010

Johannesburg — The ANC youth league has refused to accept a list detailing 1600 farm murders from a delegation representing Afriforum on Thursday afternoon.

Afriforum youth leader Ernst Roets and several other members of the organisation wanted to deliver the list as a response to ANCYL president Julius Malema's alleged singing "Kill the Farmers! They are rapists!" in Zulu at the University of Johannesburg earlier this week.

Roets and his colleagues were asked by ANC officials to leave Luthuli House after the delegation began to address the media once the Youth League refused to accept the memo.

Speaking to Business Day from the equality court where he was filing a complaint against Malema, Roets called for the banning of the song.

"This song incites the killing of white people and as such we are wanting to see it be classified as hate speech. Julius Malema must apologise," Roets said.

Shivambu says the league has no problem with discussing issues of human rights with Afriforum but questioned their legitimacy in doing so.

In media reports, the ANCYL has called for the song to be seen as a political tune that doesn't incite violence.

In 2006 the SA Human Rights Commission declared the song sung by late ANC Youth Leage leader Peter Mokaba "Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer" hate speech which is banned by the Constitution and is a crime.

And League spokesperson ANCYL spokesperson Floyd Shivambu in an interview with Business Day denied refusing to accept the list.

He says the delegates didn't have an appointment.

"Don't say you want to talk about human rights and you are only here to protect white farmer's rights. It's their grandfather's that killed thousands of our people"

2.8 ANC is using Malema to divert attention

By Ainsley Daniels, 11 March 2010

Since stepping into the limelight, ANCYL president Julius Malema has never been far from controversy. Be it his attacks on opposition party members, his refusal to hold back when addressing crowds or his personal life.

In his latest tirade, he sang the controversial song 'kill the farmer, kill the boer" while addressing university students

IOL asked its readers: "Is the ANC using Julius Malema as a distraction from the real issues?"

Of the 905 people who participated in the poll; 90 percent (814) said "Yes" and 10 percent (91) said "No".

Here are some of the comments:

Duncan
I think it's true to a degree. But I also think there are two other much more troubling issues. First, the ANC upper ranks today are all like Malema - populist, functionally illiterate, crass and kleptocratic. The second point is related: nobody has the guts to silence his racist, illiterate blathering because the good people in the ANC - and there are good people - have been sidelined and silenced. rusty
of course this is the tactic of the vuma zuma govnt to try deflect attention from that "vile bafoon" of president we have.. sadly even the rantings of juj-ju is not working that well its just making the fire bigger... we are not stupid people...

Deema
As usual, he diverting the attention from the ANC being under scrutiny, we are now getting used to his tactics, ANC if they do not open their eyes they will not make it in 2014 elections, we really are loosing hope as it looks like they are running a circus.

Bigfoot
Malema is digging his own grave with his hateful rhetoric and is adding to the resentment against his own party. Any reasonable person will distance themselves from a political organisation that incites hatred amongst fellow citizens, irrespective of their race, creed or religion

AM
Of course yes and the little man is now using the same tactic (singing the racist song) to draw attention away from his tender dealings. I am now sorry for voting in the referendum that led to the unbanning of the ANC and a democratic SA. I now think a civil war would have been better, at least then the hatred shown towards white SA citizens would be honest and out in the open and not hidden in innocent, pretty sounding terms like BEE, affirmative action etc.

Craig
It is a rather clever ploy, keep post turtle blathering on about killing whites and stealing mines and we'll forget that both are really happening, farm murders and the Mandela/Zuma fiasco at Grootvlei mine, by much more prominent members of the ANC. There is one good thing about post turtle becoming president, by the time he does Mugabe will be dead and we could all immigrate to Zim

phred
So what are we going to do about this ANC mess? Are we going to sit back and make laugh about them, or are we going to clean things up? Look at them - Malema, the Shaik mafia, Zuma, various drunkards, corruption everywhere you look.... South Africa is in deep trouble if we continue to condone this lot.