Media Monitor 29 June Monday

Doctors have indicated that if government failed to meet their demand of a 50 percent salary increase across the board tomorrow, state hospitals would be left without medics this week.

They said yesterday that they were going ahead with the strike despite court interdicts issued against them and warnings from the Health Professions Council of SA.

Yesterday meetings were held in various provinces to discuss the way forward.

“We have not set a specific date for mass action but there are provinces that will shut down today and others will provide minimum services.

“Mpumalanga and KZN have said no doctors would be working tomorrow.

“Eastern Cape, Gauteng and Limpopo were expected to make a decision later today ,” said Lebogang Phahladira, president of South African Registrars’ Association.

Doctors have been staging sporadic strikes since April.

Anna Majavu reports that Cosatu in Western Cape has thrown its weight behind the doctors’ strike which began at Cape Town’s Groote Schuur hospital on Friday .

This happens in the wake of a Cosatu statement released in KZN at the weekend calling on doctors to return to work.

According to the United Doctor’s Forum the Groote Schuur doctors are to continue the strike today.

Dr Lydia Cairncross, a Groote Schuur surgeon, said all the city’s day hospitals are on strike and Tygerberg Hospital would start striking tomorrow.

http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1025458

1.2 Plan to save Frame plant to be unveiled this week

By Florence de Vries - June 29, 2009

All indications are that Seardel's frazzled Frame Vertical Pipeline will be rescued. The team working on a strategy is due to announce its plan tomorrow or Wednesday.

Andre Kriel, the deputy general secretary of the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers Union (Sactwu), said on Friday that the Department of Trade and Industry, the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), the National Empowerment Fund, Sactwu and Seardel executives were meeting at the weekend to put final touches to plan.

Closing the spinning, weaving, finishing and denim departments of Frame had been dismissed as an option, he said.

"The facility will continue to operate after tomorrow, when it will be revealed how we intend to go about it."

More than 1 400 jobs will be lost if no solution is found. Analysts said that the multiplier effect would mean more than 7 000 people would be affected if the facility closed.

Kriel said Sactwu made no secret of its interventions in Seardel, in which it is a shareholder with Grawood, A Searll Descendants and Hosken Consolidated Investments.

"Since Seardel advised us of its problems in mid-2008, we helped mobilise R250 million in fresh shareholder funds into the company to ensure the credit lines were open," Kriel said.

Several meetings have been held this month to discuss ways of saving the industrial capacity and jobs at Frame.

IDC chief executive Geoffrey Qhena said recently that one option would be to establish an entity that would house all of Frame's assets.

He said that the task team had been working hard at finding a solution and that "all the hours spent on meetings about Frame was worth the amount of jobs that would be saved".

Stuart Gottschalk, the deputy chairman of Clotex in the Western Cape, said myriad clothing and textile companies with proven profitability deserved as much aid as Frame.

Kriel said the IDC had aided more than 50 clothing and textile firms in the past two years.

Brian Brink, the head of the Textile Federation, said he agreed with the bailout of a company as long as it did not impede other companies that continued to be profitable.

http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=563&fArticleId=5057491

1.3 South Africa: ANC Accuses Strikers of Killing Patients

26 June 2009

The African National Congress and Cosatu in KwaZulu-Natal have released a press release condemning doctors for their "unprofessional" strike action in the province.

In a strongly worded statement, the alliance partners suggested doctors were being unreasonable and had thwarted attempts by National Minister of Health Dr Aaron Motsoaledi and the provincial MEC, Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo, to reach an agreement.

They accused doctors of refusing to stick with the process and channels available to them.

The statement goes on to blames the callous strike action for the deaths of patients and to welcome threats of dismissal against striking doctors.

Here is the full text of the press release:

"The Alliance in KwaZulu-Natal appeals to the striking doctors to put the lives of patients first and to return to work with immediate effect. As the Alliance we condemn the unprofessional manner in which certain individuals want this matter to be addressed.

"While we understand and sympathies with the working conditions and salary complaints of the doctors, we cannot condone this continued illegal strike which has become somewhat of a wild cat strike.

"As the Alliance we believe that the government has done its best and shown its commitment improving the working conditions and salary complaints of doctors.

"The National Minister of Health Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has even gone to the extent of making the government's offer public before even tabling it at the Bargaining Council which was an unprecedented move.

"The MEC in KwaZulu-Natal Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo has also engaged with the doctors directly and even presented them a proposed offer in an attempt to resolve the matter at hand.

"It has however become apparent that doctors in KwaZulu-Natal do not want to use the proper channels and platforms to resolve their challenges and are prolonging this illegal strike unnecessarily.

"Their callous actions have led to the deaths of patients with many other patients in critical condition not being attended to. This goes against the principles of the Hippocratic Oath that these doctors pledged when choosing this selfless career.

"As the Alliance we therefore support the Department of Health's decision to take decisive action against those doctors who refuse to return to work. We urge these doctors to put the interest of the people at heart and to further consider the implications of this unprotected strike and return to work with immediate effect.

"We also urge all members of the ANC, Cosatu, the South African Communist Party and SANCO who are part of this strike to pull out and return to work with immediate effect.

Furthermore we call on all retired doctors and medical professionals to help by offering their services in hospital where there is a shortage of doctors."

http://allafrica.com/stories/200906270013.html

1.4 Row over medical-aid plan

Kgomotso Mokoena Published:Jun 28, 2009

Most of the PSL’s players do not have cover

The Premier Soccer League (PSL) is forging ahead with their plan to have all the players in the league fully covered by medical aid.

The league have put out a tender on all their insurance risks, including public liability and players’ cover. Insiders say Discovery Health and Resolution Health are frontrunners.

Only a handful of the 32 teams in the PSL and the first division have full medical-aid cover for players.

Players who can afford to do so have their own medical aid with various companies.

But a majority of the players, especially in the first division, still do not have proper cover.

The South African Football Players’ Union (Safpu) are up in arms over the PSL tendering process because they claim that the league did not involve them.

PSL chief operating officer Ronnie Schloss said that all players in the league have medical insurance and not medical aid.

“The proposal is to look at medical-aid cover to complement their current insurance.

“We are also looking at a provident fund for the players,” Schloss said.

But Safpu says that the league should have consulted with them first before tendering.

“We protect the players’ rights and we must know what is it exactly that’s been tendered for. Things like benefits and payment plans, for example.

“We must have input and we are not happy with the strategy that the league has applied.

“We have written a letter to the league and lodged a complaint with the bargaining chamber to voice our disapproval,” said Safpu president Cappy Matutoane.

Schloss said that he was not aware of any unhappiness or complaints from the union.

“We did not get any correspondence from Safpu and the tender has been advertised.”

He said that the insurance the players have currently does not cover things like common colds, or taking their children to a doctor or even visits to the dentist.

“The insurance covers broken legs, accidents, disability, cancer, heart attacks and other serious stuff. The cover is around R250000. This insurance has been around for the past eight to 10 years and that is why we are going out to test the market,” said Schloss.

By contrast Matutoane was grumpy about the entire process. “We wanted the tender to be stopped. Our view is that there were no proper discussion and we were not given time to make our input. This cannot go on until there is consensus between the parties. The union wants the provident funds, a proper medical aid and insurance that will cover the player when they no longer play the game,” he said.

Schloss added, however, that the PSL’s idea was for a top up. “You must remember that players are employees of the individual clubs and we are only looking to complement what they have. We are consulting how much it would cost if we took the route of taking over their entire medical-aid cover. Ours is a top- up cover. We have appointed consultants and experts to act on our behalf.”

http://www.thetimes.co.za/Sport/Article.aspx?id=1024754

1.5 Teachers demand more pay

2009-06-28 08:15

Johannesburg - The South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) national executive committee (NEC) has announced that it wants a 15% salary hike.

The announcement was made at the conclusion of a two-day meeting in Johannesburg on Saturday.

The union is also demanding teacher development, the reopening of teacher colleges and an agreement on the occupational specific dispensation (OSD).

“The collective agreement between teacher unions and the department of education has ended. The demand for 15% for 2009 is part of a new salary cycle which takes into account inflation and if agreed upon will be backdated to April 1,” said Mugwana Maluleke, the union’s acting general secretary.

Education summit

He said that unions were yet to engage with the department on the salary increase, but were hoping to do so immediately after the conclusion of the OSD agreement at the end of this month as expected.

Asked whether learners should expect teachers to embark on industrial action soon after schools reopen next month, Maluleke said that was highly unlikely.

Sadtu president Thobile Ntola said the union expected the forthcoming education summit with the department to conclude an agreement on the reopening of colleges of education to produce more teachers.

“In line with the African National Congress, we want at least one (college) in each province by 2010,” he said.

Meanwhile, the National Education Health and Allied Workers, the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union and the Department of Correctional Services on Thursday announced that an agreement on OSD for correctional officials was reached.

Frikkie De Bruin, the general secretary of the general public service sector bargaining council, said the agreement would be phased in from July 1.

- City Press

http://www.news24.com/Content/SouthAfrica/News/1059/ce4b8eee8e6e4005a79ef69c55d51d90/28-06-2009%2008-06/Teachers_demand_more_pay

1.6 Doctors’ salary dispute drags on

Sapa - Jun 29, 2009

Talks on a salary dispute between the government and medical workers are set to continue today.

Doctors offered increases up to 53%

Doctors’ strike spreads

Discussions at the Public Service Bargaining Council between the health department and the organisations representing doctors and other medical workers were adjourned on Friday until today.

"We still have differences on certain issues. There are issues that are being ironed out," SA Medical Association chairman Norman Mabasa.

Health spokesman Fidel Hadebe said the adjournment would give all parties the opportunity to report back to their constituencies.

"The discussions are continuing," said Hadebe.

Doctors at several hospitals countrywide embarked on an illegal strike earlier this month to protest against the so-called Occupational Specific Dispensation, which is an adjustment of salary grades for public servants.

Several hospitals have warned that doctors would be dismissed if they continued staying away from work.

On Friday, both parties were still at loggerheads regarding the salary increment issue.

This was despite an announcement by Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi that some of the country’s lowest paid doctors had been offered a 53 percent pay increase.

http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1025692

1.7 Instigators’ of doctors’ strike identified

Sapa - Jun 29, 2009

The Eastern Cape health department says it has written warning letters to two doctors it has identified as "instigators" of the doctors’ strike in the province.

Doctors’ salary dispute drags on

This follows an ultimatum to doctors to return to work by 8am on Monday.

Department spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said the department had identified the two doctors, one in Mthatha and one in Port Elizabeth.

"We have written to the two instigators of the strike advising them that what they are doing is gross misconduct, and calling on them to refrain from that," he said.

He said if doctors had not returned by 8am, the department would take legal action which could include seeking an interdict or even dismissal.

http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1025735

1.8 Woman dies amid doctors’ strike

Staff reporter- Jun 29, 2009

A woman who was turned away from two Gauteng state hospitals after being hit by a car has died, according to a radio news report.

Talk Radio 702 reports that Mavis Ncube died at the Morningside Clinic after earlier being turned away from the Charlotte Maxeke hospital and the Helen Joseph hospital.

ER24 spokesman Werner Vermaak said its paramedics responded to an accident involving a pedestrian on the corner of Grayston and Katherine drives in Sandown at around 6.30am today.

"When paramedics arrived on the scene they found a female patient that was in a critical and unstable condition. The patient sustained multiple injuries to her head as well as her pelvis and lower limbs," said Vermaak.

He said the paramedics tried to stabilise her and then contacted the closest hospital to confirm it could accept the patient.

"Charlotte Maxeke hospital was the closest appropriate provincial hospital at the time and thus was contacted.

"Unfortunately the hospital’s emergency ward was already full with critical patients and therefore other provincial hospitals in the area were contacted, but none could accept the patient," said Vermaak.

"ER24 contacted the metro control to confirm which hospitals are open and available for critical patients. With this information, numerous hospitals were contacted and no hospital in the area could accept the patient."

The paramedics then arranged for the patient to be stabilised at Morningside MediClinic, which is a private hospital.

http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1025772

2 South Africa

1 COSATU; 2 COSATU; 3 ANC; 4 ANCYL; 5 ANCYL; 6 ANC-SACP-COSATU; 7 BAFANA – BAFANA; 8 COSATU; 9 Mbeki

2.1 An unwelcome distraction

RICHARD CALLAND: CONTRETEMPS - Jun 29 2009 06:00

The phoney war is over. The opening, last week, of the nominations process for the four upcoming vacancies at the Constitutional Court was a welcome relief.

It came much later in the year than originally expected. The delay has not been constructively used.

There were rumours that the law was to be changed to permit the four judges whose terms come to an end in the spring -- Chief Justice Pius Langa and justices Yvonne Mokgoro, Kate O'Regan and Albie Sachs -- to extend their tenures and opportunists have taken the gap to cause mischief of a different kind.

Whatever one's affection for the judges concerned, changing the law to accommodate an extension was an inherently poor idea. Institutional change should rarely, if ever, be launched to preserve an individual office-bearer.

Instead, attention should switch to how best to stagger the terms of the judges of the country's highest court: it is far from ideal to have such a large turnover in one year. If one adds Justice Tholie Madala, who retired late last year, it amounts to five out of the 11 judges in less than one calendar year.

This is potentially destabilising. Courts, like any institution, need a level of continuity if they are to be consistent in their performance and sufficiently resilient to withstand the inevitable political pressures that operate in a robustly functioning democracy.

And, during the hiatus pending the opening of nominations, the tension has mounted as the space that should have been occupied by a healthy public discourse on the attributes that should be found in the four new Constitutional Court judges has been dominated largely by a certain judge president from the Cape.

For reasons that I understand -- the obstinate conservatism and persistent racism of substantial parts of the judiciary in South Africa -- but which otherwise fill me with despair, the furore concerning Justice John Hlophe has moved with extraordinary rapidity from being a debate about his judgment and ethics to being a campaign by a group of acolytes for him to become the next chief justice.

This is an unwelcome distraction. Of course, there needs to be a public debate about the transformation of the judiciary, just as there needs to be far greater diversity on the Bench. But this discourse runs the risk of eclipsing the more significant constitutional imperative, which is transformation of society as a whole.

The problem is this: focusing solely on the transformation of the Bench sidelines the question of how best to change South Africa from being a place where the majority have to live in conditions of chronic poverty to one of security and dignity.

Advancing the social diversity of the Bench is likely to be a helpful and vital step in ensuring that the judiciary honours the socioeconomic transformatory instincts and values of the country's founding document. But this should not be translated into believing that the appointment process should be dominated by one question -- does this candidate add to the racial diversity of the Bench? -- to the exclusion of another, more important one: will this candidate contribute powerfully to the radical socioeconomic transformation of this society?

The latter question is more ornate, more nuanced and far more complex. It requires a careful examination of the individual's track record in terms of his or her judicial rulings and judgments.

Equally important questions concern energy and work ethic (such as how often they write the leading judgment), as well as imagination and creativity (for example, how often they write judgments that advance constitutional jurisprudence in bold ways).

We need to examine how assertive they are in imposing the values of the Constitution on the executive arm of government and how astute are they in balancing an appropriate level of deference to a democratically elected legislature with the need to be selectively and strategically activist in interpreting the scope of rights, especially in the realm of socioeconomic rights such as access to water or adequate housing.

For decades the progressive left has, internationally, suffered a troubled and at best ambivalent attitude to the idea of a Bill of Rights. But this has slowly changed. In more places, and with greater conviction, progressive politicians and organisations have come to recognise that a rights-based framework of governance can help not only to prompt but also to sustain a transformatory project in government.

Nowadays you hear senior members of the SACP and Cosatu acknowledging the important judgments that the Constitutional Court has handed down in a range of matters relating to substantive equality, gender equity, human dignity and service delivery. They have been compelled to accept that these judgments have made powerful contributions to the material living conditions of the poor.

They will also know that Langa, Mokgoro, O'Regan and Sachs have invariably been either the leading voices in this jurisprudence or on the progressive end of any argument or division in the court.

Comfortingly, the SACP and Cosatu are part of the new governing "coalition". I have little doubt that their voice will be heard on the Constitutional Court appointments as much as it will be on industrial policy.

The political economy of the judiciary -- and thus its alignment with progressive politics - is what is at stake here and I am confident that they know this to be the case.

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-06-29-an-unwelcome-distraction

2.2 Patel a trump card in Cosatu’s bid for power

Zukile Majova - Maj...@sowetan.co.za - 29 June 2009

ECONOMIC Development Minister Ebrahim Patel is the ultimate trump card in Cosatu’s bid to influence and even direct government policy in President Jacob Zuma administration.

Some political observers go to the extent of saying the battle as to whether Cosatu becomes the tail that wags the dog will be won or lost in Patel’s office.

His role, according to government head of policy Joel Netshitenzhe, is to “synergise macroeconomic and microeconomic policy”.

“There has been a concern about poor articulation between macro- and microeconomic policy. Treasury will work in relation to actual budgeting. What falls out of the normal budgeting process will lie with the new department,” Netshitenzhe explains.

But Patel’s former colleagues at Cosatu make no bones about what they expect from the former secretary of the SA Clothing and Textile Workers Union.

Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi is adamant that Patel’s ministry should be charged with coordinating macro- and micro-economic policy.

“This means removing the responsibility of coordinating the country’s macro-economic strategy from Treasury and also moving the responsibility of coordinating micro-economic policy strategies from the Department of Trade and Industry.

“We know that conflictual statements have been made even by the ministers about their role and that of the economic development minister.

“We have had discussions with the president and he made it clear that the economic development minister is the one who is going to be coordinating economic policy,” Vavi says.

He says as far as Cosatu is concerned economic policy includes industrial strategy.

At present the Treasury drives implementation of the macro-economic policy, while Trade and Industry is charged with driving the micro- economic strategy.

Patel says one of his key tasks is to make sure that the promise made by President Jacob Zuma – of creating 500000 job opportunities by Christmas – does not become pie in the sky.

Patel recently told SAfm that despite the effects of a deepening economic recession this is no “mission improbable” – adding that the Zuma government did not “thumb suck” these figures.

“These numbers have been generated by a major review of the past couple of months of the expanded public works programmes.

“In February this year we entered into an agreement between business, labour and government that sought to answer how South Africa should respond to the global financial crisis,” Patel said.

He also believes that extending the government’s public works programme will go a long way to help achieve the target.

“The jobs created under these programmes are not the same as permanent manufacturing jobs but, very importantly, provide opportunities for young people and the disabled who have been outside the economy to come into paid employment,” Patel says.

He also says a lot of research had gone into the figure of 500000 jobs, which translates to 2380 jobs a day.

“It’s the beginning of absorbing our people into jobs,” he says.

“We’ve been working for the past couple of months on putting the infrastructure in place to realise the 500000 job opportunities.”

He believes that as the country forges ahead with its R787billion infrastructure programme, new capital investment projects should use less machines and more labour.

“The big question is – how do we increase the employment income of that R787billion?”

The Department of Economic Development is also tasked with finding solutions to Zuma’s assertion that “workers who would ordinarily be facing retrenchment owing to economic difficulty will be kept in employment for a period of time and reskilled”.

The government wants to encourage companies and labour to consider lay-off periods during which workers will be reskilled, says Patel.

“The question is, how do we finance this?” Patel asks

“The U IF (Unemplyment Insurance Fund) only pays out when someone becomes unemployed but we want to turn it into some form of active labour market instrument to help avoid retrenchments .”

Patel sounds optimistic but the target set by Zuma is a tall order in an economy that has shrunk by 6,4percent in the first quarter, shed 208000 jobs and is expected to shed a further 750000 by December.

http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1025285

2.3 INSIGHT: ANC can drop alliance partner

2009/06/29

Dispatch Online - IN THE early 2000s a number of analysts predicted a split in the ANC/SACP/Cosatu alliance. This scenario was along the lines that Cosatu and/or the SACP would split to form a new political movement.

At Polokwane in December 2007, something very different happened – instead of splitting from the alliance, the ANC’s partners appeared to capture it. But events since the April 2009 suggest that theirs was a Pyrrhic victory and the split may yet happen.

The reason is that the ‘leftists’ never really captured the ANC. What actually took place at Polokwane was a palace coup by the ANC against their leader. The reasons revolved mainly around leadership succession. Many in the ANC realised that Thabo Mbeki’s authority was directly tied to his control of patronage in the party. Unseating him, despite his widespread unpopularity, would be difficult considering the vested and financial interests linked to his retaining leadership of the ANC.

Those seeking to dethrone him therefore arrived at the strategy to create a fictional leftist-centrist ideological split in the ANC itself. The alliance’s leftist partners, long starved of serious recognition in the alliance, needed no prompting to play their appointed roles. The ANC Youth League, equally maligned under Mbeki, proved just as eager. The Mbeki-ites in the ANC were no match for their rabble rousing. Once the first few Mbeki supporters had crossed to the Zuma camp the dam broke and Zuma was elected ANC president by a majority of six to four.

The rest should have been history, had the leftist alliance partners stuck to the script. Post-Polokwane, and led by Zwelinzima Vavi, they continued to shout the odds in the same style that had characterised their earlier statements. With still more than a year to go before the 2009 election the newly appointed Zuma-led ANC hierarchy tolerated this. But the cracks in the façade were already visible. A Fast Facts report published by the South African Institute of Race Relations found no identifiable leftist sympathies in the policy positions of most of ANC senior leaders.

The institute predicted that macro- economic policy would not change under a supposed future leftist Zuma administration. It also forecast a post- electoral fallout within the alliance.

For the majority of South Africa’s press and its analysts the story of a left- wing coup in the alliance was recycled verbatim until it was universally believed. For the coup leaders in the ANC this proved a welcome cover for the events set to play out after April 2009.

Some of the more tuned-in SACP and Cosatu leaders appeared at times to wonder whether all was in fact as it appeared. It is possible that leaders such Vavi were increasingly aware that they were again being played by the ANC.

Hence their loud reminders to all who would listen that it was ‘the left’ that had recalled Mbeki and ‘the left’ that would lead future leadership decisions.

Even when it became inevitable that Zuma would assume the presidency some alliance partners were still going to great lengths to emphasise that they had set the terms and conditions upon which Zuma would lead South Africa.

On assuming power, Zuma knew one of his first priorities had to be the weakening of the same ‘leftist’ power base that had carried him to victory in Polokwane. Being a considerably more adept strategist than Mbeki ever was, he set about appointing his Cabinet. It was almost twice as large as necessary. Businessmen and many analysts tried to find polite explanations why government had chosen such a cumbersome structure, but the truth was obvious. Zuma had, in addition to the ‘first Cabinet’ tasked with running South Africa appointed a ‘second Cabinet’ of leftists and trade union leaders. These were given duties and responsibilities that amounted to a selection of open ended planning portfolios or as it were, poisoned chalices.

The result was to significantly weaken the alliance partners as these, now jointly with the government, would carry responsibility for the consequences of the policy they made. The results have been predictable and perhaps even more impressive than the ANC could ever have supposed. Take an example from last week of the Minister of Economic Development, Ebrahim Patel, who prior to joining government was perhaps the country’s most effective trade union leader. It was left to him to break the news that despite the many election promises of “decent work for all” the ANC would for now focus on short-term, poorly- paid, “work opportunities”.

Or consider the sight sure to play out in January 2010 when Blade Nzimande, now Minister of Higher Education, and also an SACP head, must explain to protesting poor black students why university fees have been increased.

Even if the alliance partners had not realised it earlier, it is now becoming increasingly clear that they have been conned by the ANC.

Hence the wide extent and reach of desperate labour and strike action by Cosatu-aligned unions. Such action is the last asset in ‘the leftist’ arsenal. But it is not nearly as formidable a weapon as it once was, and the alliance partners know it. Trade union membership today reaches only 3.5 million employees. This makes for only 40 percent of formal workers and an even smaller proportion of the ANC voter base of 12million people. Arguing for increases at almost twice the rate of inflation in many sectors is a very short term strategy for unions in a country facing continued shrinking of GDP growth.

This is also a strategy that has come to embarrass Zuma and his new government. The alliance has become an obstacle standing in the way of the ANC delivering on its election promises. As a result the ANC’s patience is waning – (note) the growing number of recent angry exchanges between ANC and SACP/Cosatu leaders.

Tensions are also growing within the SACP and Cosatu. Some leaders and members are now at each other’s throats over their roles in the Zuma government. There was the wonderful exchange last week with some “leftists” calling critics within their movements ‘ultra-leftists’ and arguing for their suspension. What will be left of the left when the ultra-leftists have sought greener pastures is a question that must be on the minds of many in the ANC’s alliance partners.

On the minds of the ANC must be the question of what Cosatu and the SACP could possibly do if the ANC shows them the door. Strike? They have already overplayed that card. Mass action? It is unlikely that standing on their own feet Cosatu and the SACP could get such a campaign together without resorting to violence and intimidation. That is the only concern the ANC need have in deciding the fate of its relatives in these two movements. Standing in an election on their own, Cosatu and the SACP would find it tough to beat Helen Zille’s DA and would probably follow the example, most recently of the Congress of the People – the fate so far of all movements that have ever stood up against the ANC.

It may be wise for the ANC to delay any decision until after the 2010 World Cup to mitigate the risks that Cosatu and the SACP may disrupt preparations for this event. Thereafter the reasons for dumping Cosatu and the SACP will begin to outweigh the reasons for retaining them in the alliance. - By Frans Cronjé

Frans Cronjé is deputy CEO of the SA Institute of Race Relations. This article first appeared in SAIRR Today, the institute’s weekly online newsletter

http://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=326304

2.4 Youth League has many virgins - Malema

June 28 2009 at 06:30AM - Sibusiso Ngalwa

Julius Malema has called on Cabinet ministers to take public HIV tests as part of the African National Congress Youth League's "one boyfriend, one girlfriend" campaign.

In an interview with Independent Newspapers, Malema claimed that Youth League leaders were exemplary role models who only had a single partner and he personally was not attached to anyone.

There were many virgins in his own organisation, Malema claimed.

He said he intended encouraging his fellow youth league leaders to test for HIV.

"It is very important that we lead by example and when that time comes we will announce (it). I think that is what we need to encourage leadership to undergo a public HIV test.

"The president of the ANC (Zuma) has done that in the recent past. We don't see why some of us, as leaders, can't engage in that exercise. It all depends on your mood and readiness. It would be very inspiring and courageous, it should be encouraged among leadership, especially in government and all organisations that have a huge following and a serious influence in South Africa... They must lead by example," said Malema.

"One boyfriend, one girlfriend is part of government strategy to fight Aids. Many people think having many girlfriends and sleeping around is an in-thing, it makes you a cool guy. On the other side there are girls who believe having many boys means that you are in demand and every hunk is looking for you. That perpetuates the spread of HIV," he said.

Malema said there was no contradiction between the one-partner campaign and the polygamous lifestyle of his hero, President Jacob Zuma.

"The issues of the elders don't need the young ones to speak about. That is the affairs of our father, we will be undermining him, but fair enough to say we don't see anything wrong. Questioning that will be questioning our culture and those are not (Zuma's) girlfriends, they are his wives. I was talking about boyfriends and girlfriends... Our president doesn't feature," Malema said.

Ironically, Malema now says he has a lot of respect for former president Thabo Mbeki, the man he helped topple.

"I don't hate Thabo Mbeki, I have lots of respect for him. It was not about me, everything that I said about him was not my perspective but I was communicating the position of the Youth League," he said.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=6&art_id=vn20090628054622257C477804

2.5 Culture a lame excuse for outdated initiation methods that kill our youth

Mondli Makhanya Published:Jun 28, 2009

For this annual march of death to stop, this matter has to be elevated to the national agenda

The definition of murder is to intentionally cause the death of another person. Culpable homicide, on the other hand, is to cause the death of another person through negligence or neglect.

Those are the definitions that our learned friends use to describe these heinous things we humans do to each other.

Whether it is murder or culpable homicide, killing happens. And when people get killed like this there are supposed to be consequences. The person or people responsible for the deaths of others should be charged with murder or culpable homicide and be punished accordingly.

Well, that is how it is supposed to happen. Especially when, on the face of it, the case is open and shut.

Not so when it comes to the lives of poor peasants in the Eastern Cape, Limpopo and other parts of the country. Their lives, if the events of past years are anything to go by, are worth very little. The cheapness of their lives was very evident this week when it was revealed that the death toll for this winter’s circumcision season in the Eastern Cape had risen to 11.

That means 11 young lives were cruelly cut short in the name of culture and tradition. These 11 young men were killed during what is essentially the very backward practice of slicing off the foreskins of young men in an unhygienic manner and making them live in conditions that make them susceptible to life-threatening infections. When these conditions and the cruel procedures result in death, or when initiates have to amputate their infected sexual organs, the defenders of these practices feign surprise.

Before I get lynched by cultural fundamentalists, let me clarify that it is not the practice of initiation that is backward.

Our constitution protects the cultures of our land and our common sensibilities dictate that we should promote this diversity. The rituals that accompany the transition to adulthood form an essential part of all cultures and should be celebrated.

However, it is the insistence that this transition be accomplished using methods from two centuries ago and that initiates be put through cruel drills that riles one. This cruelty, which is supposed to make men out of boys, has been blamed for many of the initiation-related deaths.

To its credit, the Eastern Cape government has been waging a tireless battle to modernise the practice but has had little more than cursory support from other institutions.

The government of that province, where most of these deaths occur, has passed a law regulating the practice, established a certification system for circumcision schools, set up task teams to police them, raided the premises and arrested those who run non-accredited schools.

They have encountered the resistance of feudal lords who run the Eastern Cape, the indifference of the national authorities and the lethargy of a police force that couldn’t care less.

Many izingcibi, the traditional doctors who run these schools, simply refuse to be certified — arguing culture and tradition cannot be regulated by secular laws. They have stated that the conditions and the cruelty meted out to the boys are necessary for their growth as men.

For this annual march of death to stop, this matter has to be elevated to the national agenda. We all have to ask ourselves how we would react were these middle-class suburban kids who went to the school around the corner and shared the hobbies and habits of our own children.

We have to see them as more than inanimate rural beings.

Organisations such as the ANC Youth League and the youth formations of other political parties have to join the fight against this practice. In taking up young people’s issues, they have to prioritise putting an end to this killing of young boys under the guise of culture.

The Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa, which carries a lot of clout in rural communities, must do more than issue mealy-mouthed statements condemning law-breaking izingcibi as they normally do following initiation-related deaths. They have to realise that more than anyone else, they have the ability to influence communities to police illegal initiation practices. But for some reason they are coy about being at the forefront of this battle and some of their members are very resistant to government intervention.

Another person who has her work cut out is Noluthando Mayende-Sibiya, the newly appointed minister of women, youth, children and the disabled. She has a responsibility towards the young people who are and who will be affected by this practice.

But the most important weapon in this battle has to be the law. Endangering the lives of people is a crime which must be prosecuted. There have to be high-profile prosecutions that will send a message to other potential murderers that in this republic the law is supreme and supersedes culture, religion and ideology.

The last word on the matter must go to Eastern Cape health department official Sizwe Kupelo, who told the South African Press Association this week: “It’s high time that everybody stands up to put a stop to this. If communities did speak out against the barbaric individuals who are killing these boys, this would stop

http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1024581

2.6 South Africa: Balance shifts left, anger grows

Patrick Bond, Durban - 28 June 2009

With high-volume class strife heard in the rumbling of wage demands and the friction of township “service delivery protests”, rhetorical and real conflicts are bursting open in every nook and cranny of South Africa.

The big splits in society are clearer now. The 2005-09 dispute within the ruling African National Congress (ANC) between camps allied to former president Thabo Mbeki and President Jacob Zuma has resolved itself largely in Zuma’s favour.

Economic crisis

The bigger story now is the deep-rooted economic crisis. Government fiddling at the margins with Keynesian policies is not having any discernable impact — not nearly enough tinkering to stave off a serious depression.

Since the early 1990s, neoliberal policies have made South Africa economically more vulnerable than at any time since 1929. If five major currency crashes since 1996 were not evidence enough, the 6.4% quarterly GDP decline for early 2009 was the worst since 1984.

By late 2008, it was apparent that there would be vast job losses. The South African economy is likely to shed a half-million jobs in 2009, especially in manufacturing and mining.

In January, there was a 36% crash in new car sales and a 50% production cut, the worst ever recorded, the National Association of Auto Manufacturers said. The anticipated rise in port activity has also reversed, with a 29% annualised fall in early 2009.

Repossessed houses have increased by 52% from a year earlier. House prices are down 11% with much greater falls ahead. Most minerals are 70% off their peak of a year ago.

The stock market lost nearly 50% last year.

Worse is to come, because thanks to the liberalisation of trade and finance, South Africa now has among the world’s highest current account deficits and is the most risky emerging market, The Economist magazine said recently.

The reason: vast sums of money flood out of South Africa to the new London financial headquarters of South African corporations.

Anger

In the first two weeks of June, protests across South Africa showed how angry communities are: there were protests by thousands of Durban vegetable market traders threatened with eviction due to the 2010 soccer World Cup; 5000 protested in the small town of Mashisheng against corruption and non-delivery of services (with one shot dead by police); furious activists demanded houses and services in many places; and public sector workers went on strike over poor pay.

Class struggle has been building with such ferocity that Zuma’s impressive presidential victory in April earned the ANC only a day or so of honeymoon.

After propelling Zuma to power with 65% of the vote, workers gained a few favourable cabinet appointments.

South African Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande and the party’s leading economist, Rob Davies, are now ministers of higher education and industry respectively.

Other SACP notables are new deputy ministers, although Zuma dropped from his cabinet the two Mbeki-era left-leaning ministers in communications and social welfare.

But without a deeper left-shift in the cabinet, it is likely that continuity, not change, will characterise macroeconomic policy.

Overall economic “planning” — a new ministerial position within the presidency — is headed by the neoliberal Trevor Manuel.

Economic development strategy will be championed by a new minister, Ebrahim Patel. He was the Congress of South African Trade Union’s (COSATU) main advocate of “corporatism” (big government, big capital and labour working together) when he led the textile workers’ union.

New struggles

The new health minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, defended the Canadian-style single-payer plan in a June 5 speech to parliament: “The Constitution, under the Bill of Rights Section 27, asserts that health is a right of every citizen and the NHI is going to be implemented to make sure that everybody exercises that right.”

Motsoaledi said that, thanks to privatised health insurance, “7 million people enjoy 5% of the GDP to take care of their health and a whopping 42 million will have to do with the remaining 3.5% of the GDP. If it is ideological to resolve this state of affairs, then I fully subscribe to such an ideology, for it cannot be that humanity is allowed to go on like this.”

With other flashpoints of conflict exploding across the horizon — dramatic job losses, state failure to keep wage promises, public transport restructuring and huge electricity price increases — the rising class struggle could even shift economic policy.

On June 1, 2000 metalworkers protested at the SA Reserve Bank for a large cut in interest rates (they got 1%). Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni arrogantly refused to accept the metalworkers’ memo of grievances. National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) president Irvin Jim said: “Anyone who rejects peaceful demonstrations and refuses to accept petitions from the South African working class, who are experiencing extreme economic and social difficulties not of their own making, is inviting big trouble.

“You are warned.”

Mboweni’s long-time ally Manuel told the World Economic Forum’s Cape Town session on June 11 that capitalists should now stand up and fight the class war: “When anybody in the trade unions opens their mouth, they run like hell. There’s no counterweight in society, and if there’s no counterweight, you can’t have outcomes that actually advance and progress.

“If we’re going to have cowards in business, we're not going to get very far.”

NUMSA spokesperson Alex Mashilo responded. “If Mr Manuel’s utterances reflect the view and role of the national democratic state in relation to class struggle between labour and capital then the future of the working class and the poor is doomed.”

NUMSA had been run by a faction favourable to Mbeki until a few months ago, but has now turned sharply left.

A NUMSA congress resolution from May said: “NUMSA and the federation must push and drive the perspective that another world is possible and that therefore the slogan Socialism is the Future — Build it Now must be concretised in concrete programs in the current period.”

Some such programs include: “Companies threatened with closure and still viable should be taken over by government or be assisted to form cooperatives.

“Key sectors producing strategic raw materials e.g. steel, oil, should be considered for nationalisation. NUMSA must lead in the creation of ‘green jobs’ and campaign for funding for cleaner vehicles.”

The congress concluded: “Neoliberalism has collapsed. NUMSA resolved to engage in all international platforms to win the fight against tendencies that continue to defend the Washington Consensus from being consigned to the dustbin of history ...

“We will also be talking to the left to hold an international Conference of the Left to develop alternatives to neoliberal policies.”

Will this spirit heal historic splits that kept independent leftists outside the ANC-SACP-COSATU alliance from participating in such conferences?

One indication of residual tensions was the justifiable anger that South African trade unionists expressed toward the World Social Forum for holding its most recent international meeting in Morocco, which continues to occupy the Western Sahara.

There was a minor backlash against NUMSA’s Reserve Bank protest from ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe, who said the protest was “unhelpful” because “the door is open”.

Young Communist League president David Masondo replied: “Yes, the door is open but the opening is very small for the working class to make an impact.”

Mantashe should know. In 2004, he led a delegation of several thousand mineworkers to the Reserve Bank to unsuccessfully demand rate cuts.

Protests

So the left continues banging on the door to open it wider. The police reported more than 30,000 “gatherings” (15 or more people in some form of protest) from 2004-08. Of these, 10% generated “unrest”.

These figures will only rise while the crisis deepens.

Beyond the half-dozen leftist governments in Latin America, the world seems ripe for socialist renewal from below, forged from labour-community unity.

http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/800/41214

2.7 Bravo! Well played, Bafana and SA!

Staff Reporter - Jun 29, 2009

Confederations Cup a successful rehearsal for Fifa 2010, say experts

BAFANA might not have made it to last night’s final of the Confederations Cup, but they ended the tournament on a high note yesterday. The hosts scored two goals against the world’s No1 side, Spain, before succumbing 3-2 to an extra-time goal.

Following their late 1-0 defeat last week in the semifinal against Brazil, Bafana delivered another brave performance before an almost full house at Rustenburg’s Royal Bafokeng stadium for the third-place play-off.

It was a fitting finale for a team that had been virtually written off as no-hopers before the tournament started. And the curtain came down late last night with the international football community unanimous that South Africa is ready to stage the real thing next year. From Fifa boss Sepp Blatter to World Cup legend Franz Beckenbauer and Afric- an superstar Didier Drogba — and the fans from abroad — the two- week Confederations Cup was judged to be reasonably well run.

The four stadiums used were safe and secure, and construction on other stadiums should be finished in six months. The fans were celebrative and supportive. The weather was mostly spectacular. And the soccer was often riveting.

However, few international visitors attended. The park-and- ride system to ferry fans to stadiums was not efficient. And 15000 more hotel rooms are still needed for 2010.

Several highly publicised incidents, including the theft of money from the hotel rooms of Egyptian and Brazilian players, and the mugging of a few British rugby fans, also left organisers scrambling to assure the world that the World Cup will be played in a safe environment.

Still, despite some inevitable glitches, “the world has seen South Africa is able to host a tournament”, said Jerome Valcke, the general secretary of Fifa, last week.

“On a scale of one to 10, you are more than a five, and closer to eight,” added Valcke.

The organisers of the Confederations Cup said they were largely happy with how things had gone but would wait until after last night’s final before making their report.

“We must not celebrate too long,” warned Danny Jordaan, chief executive officer of the Fifa World Cup Organising Committee South Africa. “We must knuckle down and deliver the conditions for the World Cup, which is a huge competition.”

Jordaan promised that the standard of the facilities would be better next year. The Confederations Cup featured only four venues, all of them shared with rugby.

“Our best stadiums are still to come,” said Jordaan.

Beckenbauer, who played in three World Cups and led West Germany to victory in his last appearance at home in 1974, said Bafana’s form at the Confederations Cup suggested that the team could reach the second round next year.

According to a recent study, the World Cup will contribute R55.7-billion to the South African economy, generate almost 500000 jobs and contribute R19.3-billion in tax income.

Gillian Saunders of research company Grant Thornton, who compiled the figures and forecast last November, said: “Even with the recessionary conditions in the world, we believe it is a conservative estimate.” — Reuters, Sapa and © (2009) The New York Times News Service

Confederations Cup 2009

http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1025405

2.8 It's payback time, Cosatu tells its ministers

Caiphus Kgosana - June 29 2009

Ministers who got their positions on the Cosatu ticket are expected to push the trade union federation's agenda in the government.

Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini said the trade union federation would set up its own monitoring structure to keep tabs on ministers who came from Cosatu's ranks to ensure that they kept Cosatu's interests at heart.

The SA Communist Party has its own deployment and accountability structure, but will work within alliance forums to change policies with which it disagrees in order to make them easier for government employees to implement.

Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel and the Minister of Women, Youth, Children and People with Disabilities, Noluthando Mayende-Sibiya, held senior positions in Cosatu-affiliated unions before their appointments.

Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande is general secretary of the SACP while Deputy Transport Minister Jeremy Cronin is Nzimande's deputy in the party.

Cosatu's deployment and accountability structure is expected to feature strongly in discussions at the union federation's congress in September,

Dlamini said the structure would work alongside existing ANC and government accountability structures such as the Monitoring, Performance and Evaluation Unit headed by Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane.

Relations between the ANC and its alliance partners have been at an all-time high since the ANC conference in Polokwane, where both the SACP and Cosatu played a pivotal role in Jacob Zuma's ascension to power.

The alliance partners complained of being marginalised under former president Thabo Mbeki, saying they were not consulted on the direction of critical economic policies, such as the implementation of the government's macroeconomic strategy, Gear.

Cosatu and the SACP have also been critical of inflation targeting in the current monetary policy.

Dlamini said that while all MPs belonged to the ANC and were accountable to the ruling party, it was expected of those who had risen within Cosatu to account to the federation for their performance in the government.

"It is going to be based on Cosatu's policy to check with our people on how they are faring in their attempt to follow Cosatu policies in government," he said.

He said that while the Polokwane conference had signalled an important shift in relations between the ANC and its alliance partners, there was still a need to keep tabs on those who were deployed to ensure they articulated Cosatu policies.

Dlamini admitted, however, that Cosatu would have minimal recourse if any of them deviated from their mandate.

"Cosatu does not have a direct right to recall that person; we will have to be in talks within the alliance on our assessment of the performance of that comrade, (but) the comrade is first and foremost accountable to the ANC," he said.

SACP spokesperson Malesela Maleka said party members in the cabinet were accountable to the party's deployment and accountability structure.

However, the SACP preferred to influence policy within alliance structures.

"When comrades are in the government, the mandating process lies with the ANC.

"Our role is to convince the ANC on the correctness of our policies, and where there are differences, we have to sort those out in the alliance. We have to convince each other internally," he said.

2.9 This Mbeki has other ideas ...

Jun 28, 2009

Little brother pulls no punches about BEE’s failures, writes Chris Barron.

Moeletsi Mbeki dismisses as a “fallacy” and a “myth” the line that the government’s black economic empowerment policy was necessary to give blacks a stake in the mainstream economy of the country.

They already had a very sizeable stake in the economy through their pension funds, said the free-thinking political analyst and brother of the former president in an interview with Business Times after the release of his book, Architects of Poverty.

And the initiative for the policy which saw the transfer of equity to and overnight enrichment beyond their wildest dreams of a few politically well-connected blacks came not from the ANC but from big business itself to stave off nationalisation.

“There was a strategy by big business to co-opt the likes of Cyril Ramaphosa who were the political leaders of the black people, and to devise ways of co-opting them,” he said. “And this was initiated by big business.”

The idea was to get the political leaders onside, to make them allies of big business.

What about the political imperative of giving blacks a stake in white-owned companies?

“It is a fallacy to think that blacks don’t own the big corporations in this country,” said Mbeki. “They do, via their pension funds.”

It’s a popular mistake to believe that BEE is redistributing the wealth only of whites.

“The reality of BEE is that it is also distributing the assets of the black workers to the black politicians. When a listed company whose shareholders include the black workers’ pension funds gives 10% of its shares to the black politicians it is redistributing the wealth of the black worker as well to the politicians.”

Why has Cosatu gone along with that?

“Because Cosatu don’t understand the political economy of SA, they think they are not the owners of these companies. The reality is that they are. But because they don’t understand the political economy of SA they are going along with something that is dispossessing them.

“They think they can ingratiate themselves with the politicians of the ANC, so in the past four years they have been crawling to Jacob Zuma, thinking that they will use him. But Zuma has ignored them once he got into power. He ignored them and privatised Vodacom.”

Who will win the current battle for control of the government, does he think?

“Zuma already has.”

What about ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe? Isn’t he calling the shots from Luthuli House?

Mbeki gives a knowing chuckle.

“No. Gwede doesn’t call any shots. He’s a big mouth, but don’t mistake a big mouth with calling the shots.”

When Moeletsi Mbeki, 63, went into exile in 1964 he decided that, unlike his brother, he wasn’t going to be beholden to any particular political party or group. He was going to be his own man.

In the words of Mark Gevisser in his biography of Thabo Mbeki, Moeletsi “developed a work identity independent of the liberation movement”.

When he left SA he began studying physics, chemistry and maths at the University of Lesotho. But his political activism caused complications and after a year he left for Britain where he threw himself into the rebellious student movement of the 1960s with a joyous abandon that his older brother found both distasteful and irresponsible.

He studied engineering and sociology and worked as an engineer and journalist in Britain, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, where he lived for 10 years.

After returning to SA he could, as Thabo’s brother, have sunk his snout into the trough big time and made billions. Instead, he became a successful entrepreneur and an astute political analyst who was never afraid of stepping on any toes.

He was openly critical of the government’s gently-gently policy on Zimbabwe. The way to get rid of Mugabe, he said, was to pull the plug on Zimbabwe’s electricity supply from SA.

So instead of embracing BEE, what should the new ANC government have done?

“Acknowledge poverty and unemployment, the consequence of the National Party’s economic model, as the biggest challenge. They should have changed that economic model to build an inclusive economic system whereby entrepreneurship is open to everybody, black or white, and supported entrepreneurs to create jobs and exports for the country.”

The trouble with BEE is that “the guys who were given shares are not creating jobs, they’re not creating new products, they’re not creating anything that will increase our exports.”

What about government efforts to create a broad-based BEE?

“They’re a smokescreen to cover up for the fact that BEE is a politician’s Ponzi scheme,” he snorted.

Affirmative procurement, for example, simply makes things more expensive for blacks because it forces them to buy from a black middleman.

“Affirmative procurement enriches the middleman who is not producing anything himself. Black people, mostly the poor and working class, are being ripped off to enrich these guys.”

Why can’t they see it?

“They have no leadership. Cosatu lost their leaders in 1994. The unions are left with leaders who have no education, no knowledge, no expertise. That’s why the poor are being ripped off.”

Mbeki also comes out strongly, as he has for years, against affirmative action.

Would “white” companies have employed black people in sufficient numbers if the government hadn’t held a gun to their heads?

“Absolutely. The reality of SA is that there are half-a-million professional vacancies in the country. We don’t have enough qualified professionals. If you have a qualified doctor or engineer or architect, whatever his colour he will be employed in SA. You don’t need government legislation. Anyone with skills will get a job.”

Hasn’t affirmative action been instrumental in expanding the black middle class?

“The sad thing about the black middle class in this country is that most of them are service administrators — they’re not entrepreneurs.

“The middle class we really need to create in this country are entrepreneurs. We need people with technical skills to build the companies and create the jobs.”

Affirmative action has been a major disincentive combined with an education system that does not produce people with the requisite technical skills.

Talking about affirmative action: is there anything in the rumour that he offered Thabo a job in his TV production company?

Absolutely not, he said.

“I guess we could put him in the Big Brother house,” he chuckles, “but I don’t know if he has that sense of humour.”

Certainly not — if he reads little boet’s book first.

In brief

Marital status: Not married, one child

Defining moment: The arrest of my father in 1963

Personal philosophy: Hard work always wins

Current reading: China’s African Challenge by Sarah Raine

http://www.thetimes.co.za/Business/BusinessTimes/Article1.aspx?id=1024540

3 International

1 Zuma

3.1 Zuma leaves for AU summit

Staff Reporter - Jun 29, 2009

PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma left for Libya yesterday ahead of a three-day summit of African heads of state.

Zuma expresses concern over SABC

Zuma defends ANC’s influence

This will be the first African Union summit attended by Zuma in his capacity as president.

According to international relations department spokeswoman Nomfanelo Kota, Zuma is expected to brief the summit about political developments in southern Africa.

Zuma is chairman of the Southern African Development Community, which recently held an extraordinary meeting to discuss the political situation in Madagascar.

The SADC has appointed former Mozambican president Joachim Chisano to lead peace talks between ousted Madagascan leader Marc Ravolomanana and Andry Rajoelina who now runs the island.

Kota said the main focus of the summit, however, would be encouraging increased investment in agriculture and assessing progress on the implementation of the African Peer Review mechanism by member states.