COSATU Media Monitor, 16 March 2010
Mluleki Mntungwa
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Contents
1.3 Department yet to act on Greenpoint high school
2.1 Cosatu backs ANC stand on public spats
2.2 Cosatu wants to meet with ANC over Hitachi, power hikes
2.3 Cosatu, YCL back ANC decision
2.4 S.Africa's Zuma says he is open to for second term
2.5 ANC Youth Back S. Africa Plan to Own All Farmland
2.6 S. African Plan to Sell Sinosteel Venture Stake Angers Unions
2.7 Zuma seeks new blood to fix state enterprises
2.8 A year on, Zuma looks to kick-start state machinery
2.9 A peep into Zuma’s gifts, sponsorships
2.10 Sasco delighted by Malema conviction
2.11 Think before you applaud the Malema judgment
2.12 Pioneer Foods faces R1.6 billion wheat milling fine
1. Workers
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1.2 Power corrupts |
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Sowetan, 16 March
2010
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THE move by the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) to establish only one union in the education sector should send shivers down the spines of those committed to pluralism. The current situation, with various unions , is a reflection of South Africa’s commitment to democratic pluralism. Since Sadtu is an affiliate of Cosatu – which is politically aligned with the ANC – it is also a reflection of our multiparty democracy. So a single union goes against the country’s commitment to a democratic order. Pluralism is also an effective model of the distribution of power in societies. It is common knowledge that Sadtu is the most powerful union in the sector but it is also a union that has been caught using that power irresponsibly. Giving such a force such power can only be disastrous because power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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1.3 Department yet to act on Greenpoint high school |
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By MSINDISI FENGU, Daily Dispatch, 16 March 2010THE provincial Education Department has yet to serve suspension letters on two teachers at Greenpoint Senior Secondary School over the continuing rumpus over newly-appointed principal, Thando Jikwa. Deputy principal Garth Carelse and his second in charge, Roger Matroos were first set to receive their letters last Friday, but the process was delayed after the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) got involved. Yesterday, school governing body (SGB) chairperson Dan Bolman confirmed the department was to notify Carelse and Matroos of their suspensions after it had found that they were allegedly behind disruptions and protests at the school. Bolman could not be drawn into commenting further. “We discussed the suspension issue on Friday and the department was to serve the letters on Monday (yesterday). “As of now, I don’t know that this has been done,” he said. Bolman also confirmed that a pupil was being investigated for spilling water over Jikwa, which some have alleged was a deliberate and malicious act. “We have an independent investigator and we want to establish if this was done with malicious intent and then a hearing will be done and sanctions handed over if (the pupil is) found guilty by the SGB.” He said the situation at the school was a “mess” as some teachers were putting in minimal effort with their duties. “They want the community to see Jikwa failing, that’s their intention,” he said. Bolman said the suspension letters would be served on the two teachers today, if not yesterday. When contacted, Jikwa said learning was continuing at the school and referred the Dispatch to the department for comment. Both Carelse and Matroos said they had not received any correspondence relating to their suspension. Pastor Harold Prince, who has acted as spokesperson for a “concerned group” of parents, said he had also not heard of the department’s plans to suspend the two. Education spokesperson Malibongwe Mtima would only say that the Greenpoint matter was receiving attention from the department “to sort it once and for all”. Attempts were made to get comment from Sadtu provincial secretary Fezeka Loliwe but she could not be reached. Jikwa’s appointment has been marred by controversy and it has split the school and the Buffalo Flats community down the middle. Some of the parents have vented their frustration over his appointment, claiming that the interview process was flawed. They have demanded answers from the department and school governing body as to why Carelse, who was acting principal at the school for some time, was overlooked for the position. The disruptions have resulted in pupils losing weeks of learning this year and, in some cases, pitted school children against each other in factional squabbles. — |
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2. South Africa
2.1 Cosatu backs ANC stand on public spats |
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Daily Dispatch, 16 March 2010 |
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THE Congress of SA Trade Unions has welcomed the ANC’s “strong condemnation” over the weekend of personalised attacks and public spats amongst its leaders. Cosatu said in a statement yesterday that the ANC’s words echoed those of its central executive committee that had condemned “those who are trying hard to take us back to the politics of labelling, name-calling, back-stabbing, rumour and scandal mongering, marginalisation and closure of space for free and democratic debates”. Cosatu’s spokesperson, Patrick Craven, said the labour confederation has never allowed its political disagreements to slide into personal attacks. Craven welcomed the ruling party’s decision to take disciplinary steps against leaders within the ANC who ignored the national executive committee’s (NEC) directive and still engaged in name-calling and public spats. He said he hoped the NEC would implement its decision. “This is the second time such a pledge has been made, but last time no action was taken against those who defied it, for example the president of the ANC Youth League. We hope that the NEC will this time take action to implement this decision.” Craven said Cosatu would support the ANC’s attempts to talk to communities protesting against poor service delivery and would try to find lasting solutions to problems. Cosatu further pledged its support for the ANC’s campaign to strengthen the organisation both in government and at party level. The federation said it regretted the NEC’s rejection of its call for lifestyle audits of public representatives and vowed to continue campaigning for it. “The federation will continue to campaign for a much tougher fight against the cancer of corruption and in particular the abuse of public office for private enrichment.” Cosatu was, however, concerned over the ANC NEC’s “vague commitment” to act against abuse of the tender system. “There is no firm commitment to investigate the many specific allegations in the media ....” Cosatu said it would use the proposed bilateral meeting with the ANC to raise issues of common concern, such as the Eskom tariff hikes. — Sapa |
2.2 Cosatu wants to meet
with ANC over Hitachi, power hikes
By XOLANI MBANJWA, Business Report, 16 March 2010
Cosatu wants to discuss the ANC’s controversial stake in
Hitachi Power Africa and Eskom’s electricity tariff hikes when the allies
meet for bilateral talks.
The meeting follows talks between the ANC and its other ally, the SACP, last
week.
The labour federation yesterday said it welcomed the tough line taken by the
ANC’s national executive committee on the ugly public spats that have
frayed alliance relations in recent months.
The ANC NEC has warned that such public bickering won’t be tolerated, and
that anyone fuelling succession battles will be disciplined.
Cosatu spokesman Patrick Craven said it wanted to discuss with the ANC the
stake its investment arm, Chancellor House, has in Hitachi, which has a
multi-billion rand contract to build boilers for Eskom’s Medupi power
station.
Public Enterprise Minister Barbara Hogan and Energy Minister Dipuo Peters last
week said there was no “conflict of interest” in the contract.
Hogan said they were satisfied with the Public Protector’s investigation
which found no irregularities in the awarding of the contract.
ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe also defended the deal when he addressed
journalists in Jo’burg on Sunday and said “neither the ANC nor
Hitachi has invested in Eskom. Hitachi is a service provider and they bid to
supply boilers not investment”.
Cosatu is gearing for a massive nationwide strike in protest over the
electricity tariff increases.
Craven said yesterday: “If all else fails we will go on strike.”
The federation has applied for a Section 77 strike permit from
Nedlac and has not ruled out the possibility of the strike disrupting the World
Cup.
Mantashe said the ANC wanted to find out what Cosatu’s grievances were to
“understand what is it that makes them feel what warrants a general
strike and we will engage in the determination”.
The ANC would “never tell Cosatu never to go on strikes. That will not
help the ANC”, said Mantashe.
The ANC was “almost comfortable” with the tariff increase by Nersa
because the regulator had been persuaded to lower the increases from 45 percent
to an “average” of 25 percent, said Mantashe.
The National Union of Mineworkers is backing Cosatu’s strike.
Cosatu welcomed the NEC’s decision to discipline members who kept hurling
insults and verbal attacks against senior leaders.
This decision was also welcomed by the Young Communist League although it asked
whether the NEC “will live up to its decision and ensure that those that
choose to breach such a mandate will be bought to book”.
Cosatu expressed disappointment however at the NEC’s “lack of
commitment” in investigating reports of irregular tender processes.
A commitment by the ANC to investigate irregular tenders would instill public
confidence in tender processes, and remove the “perception that there is
favouritism or corruption”.
The ANC has postponed until June the alliance summit that was scheduled for
next month to iron out differences within the alliance.
2.3 Cosatu, YCL back ANC decision
News24, 15 March 2010
Cape Town - Despite the
fact that the ANC appears to be gunning for its argumentative allies in the
tri-partite alliance, both Cosatu and the Young Communist League have welcomed
what the national executive said at the weekend.
Cosatu "warmly welcomed" the strong condemnation of the new culture
of public spats, trading of insults and personalised attacks amongst its
leaders.
"The statement echoes the words of the Cosatu central executive committee
which condemned those
who are 'trying hard to take us back to the politics of labelling, name
calling, back-stabbing, rumour and scandal mongering, marginalisation and
closure of space for free and democratic debates.
"Cosatu has always rejected this style of politics and has never allowed
its political disagreements to slide into personal insults and questioning of
people's bona fides."
YCL backs action
The Young Communist League also welcomed the action taken by the ANC to act
harshly against members of the alliance who engage in 'public spattering' and
personal attacks.
"This much needed intervention will assist in curbing this foreign
behaviour that has recently shown its ugly head within the alliance," the
YCL spokesperson Gugu Ndima said.
"The YCLSA has been consistent in calling for the halt of such tendencies.
We appreciate the leadership that has been provided by the ANC with regards to
this problem."
However, Ndima made it clear that the young communists are not about to change
their attitude entirely.
"This should not in any way be seen as a way to mute or silence robust
engagement," she said.
"As President Jacob Zuma had stated in his address at the special
national congress of the SACP last year December, robust debate is a necessity
for the existence and strengthening of the alliance but in no way should this
be seen as tantamount to disrespect of other comrades.
NEC's 'half-heartedness'
Craven also said the organisation is concerned at the NEC's half-hearted and
vague commitment to be "decisive in acting against using the tender system
to give business to individuals in ways that create the
perception that there is favouritism or corruption in the process".
"There is no firm commitment to investigate the many specific allegations
in the media, such as Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane's decision to award a
R30m rand tender to 'beautify' the highway leading to OR Tambo Airport without
going through a proper tender process," he said.
"For the public to gain confidence in the tender processes, and to remove
the perception that there is favouritism or corruption, the NEC should fully
investigate this, and many other such allegations in the media."
Cosatu also said it fully backed the NEC's defence of Finance Minister Pravin
Gordhan.
"While we have some disagreements with the Finance Minister over monetary
policy and wage subsidies, we have expressed agreement with many other sections
of his budget speech, and we deplore the personalised attacks which have been
made on him by the ANC Youth League."
2.4 S.Africa's Zuma says he is open to for second term
Reuters, 16 March 2010
South Africa President Jacob Zuma has suggested he would not turn down a nomination to lead the ruling ANC for a second term.
Senior ANC officials as well as their allies in the COSATU labour federation and South African Communist Party have already started jostling for position before the next election for party leader in 2012. The ANC president is almost certain to become the country's president.
Zuma, who was sworn in as national president last May for a five-year term, told Business Day newspaper in an interview that he will adhere to the wishes of the African National Congress regarding his role.
"I have never defied the ANC. My next step has always been informed by the ANC," Zuma told Business Day.
His remarks suggested he would not turn down a nomination to again lead the party that liberated South African from white minority rule and that he wanted to discourage challengers.
Zuma, a polygamist with three wives, has come under fire for his controversial personal life, especially revelations last month that he fathered a child out of wedlock. Publically the ANC has called for the president's privacy to be respected but privately many are begining to see him as a liability.
The race to become ANC leader has plunged the ANC and its labour and communist allies into its biggest confrontation since Zuma took office.
ANC sources said Zwelinzima Vavi, the secretary general of the labour federation, and communist party leader Blade Nzimande, were eyeing the presidency.
2.5 ANC Youth Back S. Africa Plan to Own All Farmland
By Ana Monteiro, Bloomberg, 16 March 2010
March 16 () -- The African National Congress’s Youth League supports a plan by South Africa to nationalize all farmland, Business Report said, citing spokesman Floyd Shivambu.
Shivambu pledged to place the Department of Rural Development & Land Reform’s initiative on the ANC’s agenda, the Johannesburg-based newspaper reported. This follows a call by the league to nationalize the country’s mines.
Department Director-General Thozi Gwanya said in a strategy document that it wanted to facilitate a discussion by proposing all productive land becomes a national asset and that a land-tenure system with perpetual rights is envisaged, the newspaper reported.
2.6 S. African Plan to Sell Sinosteel Venture Stake Angers Unions
By Franz Wild, Bloomberg, 15 March 2010
South Africa’s Limpopo Province plans to sell most of its stake in a chrome producer owned by Sinosteel Corp., angering labor unions who want the government to pool its mining assets into one company.
“We may announce a winner very soon,” Leo Gama, a spokesman for the province, said today. Five bidders have been shortlisted, he said, declining to identify them.
The 30 percent stake in ASA Metals, the venture controlled by Sinosteel, is being vied for by a group including prominent businessmen connected to the ruling African National Congress.
The leader of its youth league, Julius Malema, is lobbying for them to be sold the stake, the Johannesburg-based Sunday Times reported yesterday. The ANC Youth League yesterday denied that Malema will benefit from the transaction. Limpopo is Malema’s home province.
The National Union of Mineworkers “is highly disturbed by the reports that these rights would benefit politically connected individuals,” South Africa’s largest labor union, said in an e-mailed statement. The NUM, which with other labor unions is allied to the ANC, said the party had agreed to place state mining assets in one company so that they could be developed to benefit the poor and boost employment.
Zwelinzima Vavi, secretary general of Congress of South African Trade Unions, was cited by Johannesburg’s Times newspaper as saying the transaction wouldn’t benefit the poor.
ASA last year said it was boosting ferrochrome production to about 360,000 metric tons a year. It also owns a chrome ore mine. Ferrochrome is an ingredient of stainless steel.
2.7 Zuma seeks new blood to fix state enterprises |
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KARIMA BROWN, Business Day, 16 March 2010 |
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PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma said yesterday a team drawn from outside the Cabinet would help to determine the future of SA’s state- owned enterprises.
In an interview with Business Day, he said he wanted a team from outside the government to provide an “objective” review, hinting at a lack of confidence in some of his ministers’ ability to resolve the future role and mandate of state entities.
The work of Zuma’s team will be in addition to an existing review by an interministerial task team and is an effort to prevent ministers’ vested interests from influencing the outcome.
His comments are likely to add to the uncertainty surrounding state entities, several of which are dealing with leadership and financial crises even as SA embarks on its largest state-sponsored infrastructure spending programme.
Zuma said he was keen for a nongovernment team “who must look at these things very objectively” to recommend what, if any, changes should be made.
State entities’ roles are a hot debate in the tripartite alliance and have been a source of tension between African National Congress (ANC) leaders.
The party’s leftist allies have been critical of the running of many of the entities, the composition of their boards, and their serving business interests instead of the state’s development needs. There are also concerns that state entities have served as vehicles for enrichment for party leaders through lucrative tenders.
The leadership crises at Transnet and power utility Eskom saw ANC leaders and Cabinet ministers pitted against one another.
Siphiwe Nyanda and Jeff Radebe trod on Public Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan ’s turf when they backed Siyabonga Gama for Transnet CEO after disciplinary action against him.
The ANC Youth League alleged racism while supporting former Eskom CEO Jacob Maroga when he disputed his resignation. Zuma had to intervene in the dispute and urge ministers to hold their fire in public.
Yesterday, Zuma said such behaviour — and the fact that some state-owned entities also overlapped ministries — was why an outside review was necessary.
“That’s precisely why we want other people to do the review and not people who have got interests. If, for example, they are done by the departments (which) have views, that will be subjective. That’s why we are looking at other people who must look at these things very objectively (and) not degenerate into that kind of a situation.”
Zuma said it was “incorrect” for ministers, where overlapping occurred, to fight it out in public. “They must meet and discuss issues to harmonise views. (It) is not correct, once we have views, to just shoot; you need to look at overlaps. If there are problems, there is the president, the deputy president. They can come and raise their issues. This business of going to the public is not right,” he said. He did not say when the outside review would start. There is no consensus in the ANC on whether state entities should remain within one ministry or be overhauled and returned to line function departments.
If the latter happens, the public enterprises ministry and department would fall away.
Zuma would not commit to any one view, saying that would be “pre-emptive”.
He would not speculate on what the outside review or the interministerial review would yield, or whether some or all of their recommendations would be adopted by the Cabinet.
But the work done by Hogan and the Treasury in the interministerial team would be “incorporated” into the outside team’s work.
“They (state entities) are very important and very huge. We must utilise them to benefit the country,” Zuma said.
“ I have said there is going to be a thoroughgoing review. A thorough review by people who are not necessarily working within it (departments) because we are not going to have a subjective view and therefore the process undertaken by the minister would be incorporated by this process.
“I think it should be done by people who are not necessarily part of government but who have knowledge and ideas and an understanding, with the capacity to do so,” Zuma said.
His decision was informed by a resolution of the ANC’s 2007 Polokwane conference, and those who would conduct the review would be drawn from within the country.
During a recent cluster briefing in Parliament, Hogan said the interministerial review was continuing.
ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa has called for an overhaul of state entities, saying they had served “apartheid” interests.
But Deputy Public Enterprises Minister Enoch Godongwana held a different view, saying their mandates were in line with the government’s transformation agenda, but governance and efficiency needed to be addressed.
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2.8 A year on, Zuma looks to kick-start state machinery |
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KARIMA BROWN, Business Day, 16 March 2010 |
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AFTER nearly a year in office, President Jacob Zuma says he now knows “what is working and what is not working” in government, signaling that change was afoot but stopping short of committing himself to reshuffling his Cabinet in May.
In an interview with Business Day yesterday, Zuma said any change to the executive would be based on a “proper” assessment of performance and was his prerogative to make. He is drawing up performance agreements with all Cabinet ministers based on set outcomes that he announced during his state of the nation address last month.
He also used this weekend’s national executive committee meeting of the ruling African National Congress to chastise ministers for not following up on his efforts in communities, as protests spread to more townships in the country.
“I am certain by now I should be knowing what is working and what is not working without necessarily reshuffling. It might be different remedies,” he said.
Zuma said the government needed to cut the bureaucracy that allowed state officials suspected of wrongdoing to hide behind the rules, often slowing service provision. “Corrective measures” would be taken instead of simply removing ministers. This could mean tweaking departmental functions after he has met the ministers, or it could entail moving skilled politicians at national level to other spheres of government, especially local government.
Zuma said while the ANC had yet to discuss the latter issue, ministers with skills at national level should be prepared to take on governance in troubled municipalities. “That’s where we need the experience and the skills. There can’t be this view that once you have served at national level you can’t go to local areas.”
The president also spoke out against the abuse of tender procedures in the state. Of particular concern was the quality and speed of services provided to communities across SA, he said. Tendering processes involving government contracts would from now on be scrutinised to ensure the government was receiving value for money.
“We need to monitor what happens when people are given tenders because there is almost a general point that is being made — that people are given money, they use the money … very little for what it’s meant for, and use the rest for their own (purposes).”
His support for tighter oversight over tender procedures comes in light of reports linking ANC Youth League president Julius Malema to a string of controversial contracts.
2.9 A peep into Zuma’s gifts, sponsorships |
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Sowetan, 16 March 2010 |
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PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma’s declaration of interests lists gifts and sponsorships ranging from a rose bowl from Absa boss Maria Ramos to free accommodation for one of his wives in Morningside. It states that Nompumelelo Ntuli-Zuma enjoyed the “use of property in Morningside, Durban, courtesy of Mr Malek at a value unknown”. It was reported last month that Zuma’s wife had been living in Abdul Rahim Malek’s eight-bedroom house in Morningside free of charge since 2005. The story made headlines after Malek gave Ntuli- Zuma notice to move but later relented, saying she could continue living there with her two children. The declaration reveals the names of companies and organisations to which Ntuli- Zuma, fellow first ladies Sizakele Zuma and Thobeka Madiba, as well as the president’s fiancée Bongekile Gloria Ngema are linked. But it is MaNtuli who holds the lion’s share of active company memberships, with nine, and serves as director of two non-profit companies – Heavenly Promise and the MaNtuli Foundation. Under sponsorships for his spouses, Zuma declared that Ntuli-Zuma and Sizakele Zuma were the guests of Yvonne Chaka Chaka at Sun City when she celebrated 25 years in the music industry. Ntuli- Zuma’s gifts include a tea set and a lamp shade from US first lady Michelle Obama, while Sizakele Zuma received a foot spa from former British first lady Cherie Blair. Diplomatic gifts bestowed on Zuma included pyjamas from Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who also gave Zuma two bathrobes, two sets of bed sheets, two jackets, two pairs of sunglasses, two leather bags and a tie in July last year when Italy hosted the G8 summit. Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak weighed in with a multi-coloured carpet. Zuma’s gifts include a party thrown by Khulabuse Zuma – the president’s nephew and a KwaZulu- Natal businessman . The cost of a Christmas party for orphans in Nkandla that was organised and funded by the JZ Education RDP Trust Fund is not known. – Sapa
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2.10 Sasco
delighted by Malema conviction
Business Report, 16 March 2010
The SA
Students Congress (Sasco) on Tuesday said it was "delighted" by the
conviction of African National Congress Youth League president Julius Malema
for hate speech.
"We are delighted and overjoyed by this court ruling. We regret that these
unsavoury comments by comrade Julius Malema were made in a Sasco election rally
last year," Sasco president Mbulelo Mandlana said in a statement.
Malema was convicted of hate speech and harassment by the Johannesburg Equality
Court on Monday for saying that President Jacob Zuma's rape accuser had a
"nice time".
Sasco said the ruling was a vindication of the struggle against
"patriarchal domination".
"Malema’s comments showed a disdain to women and their continued
oppression under a patriarchal capitalist system.
"It was unnecessarily triumphalist over the outcomes of the JZ rape case,
a tendency not even shown by comrade Jacob Zuma himself, who instead of basking
in triumphalism like Julius Malema decided to extend an olive branch to his
accuser."
Zuma was acquitted of the rape charge. - Sapa
2.11 Think before you applaud the Malema judgment |
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TIM COHEN, Business Day, 16 March 2010 |
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I HATE to say it, but I wonder whether the decision of the Johannesburg Equality Court in the Julius Malema case is correct. The finding, I suspect, will be celebrated secretly inside the African National Congress and not so secretly outside it because the antics of Malema and his merry band are becoming tedious and embarrassing.
The prospect of an archexponent of the art of shooting off your mouth being slapped with a substantial fine for doing just that is fabulous. Justice, you instinctively might think, has been done. The guy got what was coming to him.
With the greatest respect for the magistrate’s findings, you have to wonder if you look more closely at the case whether we live in a society with distinct Orwellian characteristics.
Malema’s comments were horrible, insulting to women and full of classic rape myths. They also happen to have been factually incorrect.
Yet the court seemed to attach little significance to the notion of freedom of speech, and elevated his comments to “hateful” even when Malema was transparently motivated not by hate but by disbelief — a disbelief actually endorsed by the court’s finding.
In a sense, this finding is in the same category as the charge against University of Cape Town student Chumani Maxwele, who “waved” at President Jacob Zuma ’s blaring cavalcade.
Police ministry spokesman Zweli Mnisi reportedly said that “no person is permitted to use foul language, swear at another individual, as such conduct may lead to promoting hate”.
Somewhere our constitutional right to freedom of expression is getting lost here.
This case is similar to one in the US in which a motorist, who had just been given a ticket, flipped the bird through his sunroof at the officer.
He claimed it was not an impulsive response to getting a ticket but a protest against police brutality: “There’s rage and then there’s outrage. There’s a difference,” he told the New York Times. The Times then approached a criminal law professor, Ira P Robbins, who tried to strike a balance between bad law and good taste. “The long arm of the law should not extend to the middle finger,” said Robbins, an authority on gesture prosecutions. “That’s not to say it’s smart to give the finger to a police officer.”
Consider the facts of the Malema case. What Malema said was this: “When a woman didn’t enjoy it, she leaves early in the morning. Those who had a nice time will wait until the sun comes out, request breakfast and taxi money. In the morning that lady requested breakfast and taxi money. You don’t ask for taxi money from somebody who raped you.”
Actually, she didn’t ask for taxi money; she was offered taxi money and refused.
Magistrate Colleen Collis said Malema’s revision of the facts was calculated to suggest that some sort of normal morning-after behaviour had taken place between the victim and the accused, which he suggests means that no rape could have taken place.
Collis apparently relied on evidence from Lisa Vetten, who argued that Malema’s comments illustrated rape myths: that women who did not enjoy sexual encounters leave soon thereafter and that rape victims do not ask for things from their attackers.
Yet the judgment seems to lose track of the fact that no rape did take place.
But this is not the real problem with the judgement. The problem is that Malema’s comments might have been distasteful and full of rape myths, but I just don’t see how you get from there to finding that they were explicitly intended to do something as dramatic as “incite harm” or “propagate hatred”.
They were certainly “hurtful”, but is that really sufficient to negate the right to freedom of expression? Think of it another way; had Zuma been in that motorcade and seen a person flipping him off, his feelings might have been hurt.
But can it possibly be that it’s illegal to flip someone off because it hurts their feelings; disgraceful, yes. disrespectful, yes. But illegal?
- In last week’s column, I wrote that the government owns half of the shares in the Reserve Bank. This was incorrect; the government owns none.
2.12 Pioneer Foods faces R1.6
billion wheat milling fine
* Fined for fixing wheat milling prices
Business Report, 16 March 2010
South
Africa's Pioneer Food Group faces a R1.6 billion fine for colluding with other
industry players to fix wheat milling prices, it said on Tuesday.
The company, which produces Sasko bread, Weetbix breakfast cereal and
Liquifruit juices, said South Africa's Competition Commission had recommended
that it be fined 10 percent of its 2009 turnover for its part in a wheat
milling cartel.
Following an investigation, the competition commission said Pioneer, along with
Tiger Brands and privately owned Premier Foods, Ruto Mills and Godrich Milling,
had contravened the Competition Act by fixing prices and allocating customers
to each other.
The companies, with the exception of Godrich Milling,
together control more than 90 percent of South Africa's wheat flour market.
Pioneer said its proposed fine could be lowered "depending on the outcome
of continuing negotiations with the Commission". – Reuters