COSATU Media Monitor, 9 March 2010
Mluleki Mntungwa
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Contents
2.3 Winnie Mandela accuses Nelson of letting down South Africa's blacks
2.4 ANC to question Winnie on Madiba slurs
2.5 South African Official's Luxe Lifestyle Raises Doubts
2.6 More tenders for Malema - company gets R3,2m from Polokwane
2.7 Opposition Demands Probe Into South African President's Failure To Declare Assets
2.8 ANC assets saga 'a special case'
2.10 Hands off retirement funds, union tells Patel
1. Workers
1.1 Sadtu under fire
Pretoria News, 9 March 2010
THE SA Democratic Teachers' Union (Sadtu) in KwaZulu-Natal has been criticised for holding teachers' workshops during school hours, leaving classes without teachers.
The Parents' Association and the DA say it was irresponsible of the union as workshops could be held on a Saturday. The workshops robbed children of classroom time in a year in which they were to have a long winter holiday because of the World Cup, the Parents' Association said.
Sadtu deputy secretary Siya Mdlet said the education MEC had been told about the workshops, intended to improve the standard of teaching. - Sapa
2. South Africa
2.1 ANC told to mind manners
Numsa wants end to mud-slinging
By DOMINIC MAHLANGU, TIMESLIVE, 9 March 2010
The National Union of Metalworkers has called for an urgent meeting of the ANC and its alliance partners to iron out their differences on a number of issues.
Numsa said it was disturbed by the "tone and thrust" of the ANC response to statements by the general secretary of trade union federation Cosatu, Zwelinzima Vavi.
"The conspiratorial questioning of Cosatu's intentions is completely unacceptable and unwarranted," Numsa spokesman Castro Ngobese said.
"The ANC's response undermines the long-held set of protocols in the alliance for purposes of engagement, including the fact of not questioning each others' bona fides and not grandstanding," he said.
Vavi has accused ANC members of corruption and of using the party to enrich themselves.
Cosatu says some ANC members are planning to oust President Jacob Zuma and his secretary-general, Gwede Mantashe, from their posts in the party.
The ANC has responded angrily to these claims and has accused its alliance partner, Cosatu, of "veering towards oppositional politics".
It has challenged Vavi to substantiate his allegations of corruption.
Numsa said yesterday it fully supported Vavi.
The Young Communist League called for a policy banning "anyone and at whatever level of the state" from being in business.
The league's deputy national secretary, Khaye Nkwanyana, said participation in a private-sector business should preclude anyone from continuing as a salaried employee of the government.
"Our support for the lifestyle audit will assist in that no one will accumulate wealth in a manner that is not procedurally normal," he said.
"Forces of darkness and the underworld tend to target policy makers and influential politicians by distributing wealth and patronage for their long-term sordid operations ... and policy-makers succumb at the expense of a nation's sovereignty, at times to the damage of national security," Nkwanyana said.
2.2 Union hits out at ANC
CITIZEN REPORTER, 9 March 2010
JOHANNESBURG - The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) has slammed the ANC’s “attack” on the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu).
Yesterday, Numsa said it was disturbed by the ANC’s tone in its reply to last week’s statement by Cosatu’s central executive committee.
Last week Cosatu secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi charged that there is a small group in the ANC driven by wealth accumulation.
This group, he said, caused alliance divisions and seeks to hijack the ANC for a capitalist agenda.
The ANC came out guns blazing, saying it was weary of media outbursts by Cosatu which it said seeks to rubbish the image of the party.
Numsa spokesman’s Castro Ngobese said: “The conspiratorial questioning of Cosatu’s intentions is completely unacceptable and unwarranted.
“We call on the ANC to uphold the protocols of engagement within our alliance as contained in the previous declaration summit held in April , 2002,” he said.
He added: “As Numsa we fully support the articulations given by our federation’s general secretary and all his public utterances, and call on the alliance secretariat to convene an urgent meeting to deal with the issues emanating from the Cosatu CEC.”
2.3 Winnie Mandela accuses Nelson of letting down South Africa's blacks
Telegraph, 9 March 2010
Winnie Mandela has accused her former husband of letting down black people living in South Africa.
In a strongly-worded attack she claimed that Nelson Mandela had failed to help the poor, instead becoming a "corporate foundation" who only ever appeared in public to raise money for the ANC political party.
Mrs Mandela, 73, also criticised his acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize with FW de Klerk, the former prime minister who had Mandela jailed, according to the Daily Mail. She said: "This name Mandela is an albatross around the necks of my family.
"You all must realise that Mandela was not the only man who suffered. There were many others, hundreds who languished in prison and died."
She said her former husband went into prison as a revolutionary, but had changed.
"Mandela let us down. He agreed to a bad deal for the blacks. Economically we are still on the outside. The economy is very much 'white'.
"I cannot forgive him for going to receive the Nobel with his jailer de Klerk. Hand in hand they went. Do you think de Klerk released him from the goodness of his heart?
"He had to. The times dictated it, the world had changed."
The Mandelas were married for 38 years. They divorced in 1996.
Mrs Mandela also hit out at the Truth and Reconciliation Committee - which she appeared before in 1997 and which implicated her in gross violations of human rights.
"Look at this Truth and Reconciliation charade. He should never have agreed to it," she said.
"What good does the truth do? How does it help anyone to know where and how their loved ones were killed or buried?"
2.4 ANC to question Winnie on Madiba slurs
· Mandela let us down, says Winnie
By Caiphus Kgosana, Cape Argus, 9 March 2010
The ANC is to ask National Executive Committee member Winnie
Madikizela-Mandela to explain the extraordinary attack on former President
Nelson Mandela, which appeared in major British newspapers on Monday and has
been attributed to her.
ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu said on Tuesday morning that they would ask
Madikizela-Mandela, when the NEC meets next week, whether she indeed said
Mandela had done nothing for the poor and had betrayed the black nation.
Mthembu said while he had not yet seen the articles in question, the party
would seek copies and once they have read it, will want to know from
Madikizela-Mandela whether the comments attributed to her are indeed correct.
"We have to be fair, so we would want to hear from her whether she has
been correctly quoted. It sounds very much out of character, but we will want
to know in what capacity she was speaking because this sounds like a very
drastic attack on the former president," he said.
The Daily Mail reported that Madikizela-Mandela had said that her former
husband had done nothing for the poor and should not have accepted the Nobel
Peace Prize with "the man who jailed him" (former state president) FW
De Klerk.
The paper said the comments had been made in an interview with Nadira Naipaul,
the wife of novelist V S Naipaul.
"This name Mandela is an albatross around the necks of my family,"
Madikizela-Mandela reportedly said in the interview.
"You all must realise that Mandela was not the only man who suffered.
There were many others, hundreds who languished in prison and died.
"Mandela did go to prison and he went in there as a young revolutionary
but look what came out.
"Mandela let us down. He agreed to a bad deal for the blacks. Economically
we are still on the outside. The economy is very much 'white'.
"I cannot forgive him for going to receive the Nobel with his jailer de
Klerk. Hand in hand they went. Do you think de Klerk released him from the
goodness of his heart?
"He had to. The times dictated it, the world had changed."
According to the paper, Madikizela was also reported as having described former
Truth and Reconciliation Commission chairman Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu
as a 'cretin'.
"What good does the truth do? How does it help to anyone to know where and
how their loved ones are killed or buried?
"That Bishop Tutu who turned it all into a religious circus came here. He
had a cheek to tell me to appear. I told him that he and his other like-minded
cretins were only sitting there because of our struggle and me.
She was also reported as having said that Mandela had become a "corporate
foundation" who was wheeled out only to raise money for the ANC .
"Look what they make him do. The great Mandela. He has no control or say
any more.
"They put that huge statue of him right in the middle of the most affluent
white area of Johannesburg. Not here (in Soweto) where we spilled our blood.
"Mandela is now like a corporate foundation. He is wheeled out globally to
collect the money."
Mthembu said the ANC would not tolerate any such attacks on the party or on its
iconic leader but would not point fingers at Madikizela-Mandela until they get
a full explanation about the comments.
Madikizela-Mandela, who recently boycotted celebrations of the 20th anniversary
of Mandela's release from prison claiming that the ANC had not invited her to
the retracing of Mandela's steps to freedom outside Victor Verster Prison,
could not be reached for comment.
An aide who answered her phone said she was not available to speak while a
spokesman for the Nelson Mandela Foundation had not returned calls.
2.5 South African Official's Luxe Lifestyle Raises Doubts
By Charlayne Hunter-Gault, npr, 9 March 2010
In South Africa, the lifestyles and business relationships of Cabinet ministers and prominent politicians of the ruling African National Congress Party are coming under intense scrutiny.
Calls are growing for "lifestyle audits" of public officials to assess their income and spending to help root out corruption.
At a recent, raucous news conference, ANC Youth League spokesman Floyd Shivambu sparred with journalists investigating the group's president, Julius Malema, on conflict of interest charges, conflicting statements about his business interests and his apparently luxuriant lifestyle.
The dozen or so journalists at the news conference have been working on stories about how Malema could afford what has been widely described as his "lavish lifestyle" on his ANC salary, reportedly some $2,500 a month.
Malema, 29, denies any wrongdoing.
Piet Rampedi, an investigative reporter with City Press, is one of the journalists digging into Malema's business ties.
He notes that Malema owns luxurious cars and two houses — one in an exclusive Johannesburg suburb — worth approximately $500,000 and $150,000.
"He has bought all these properties since 2007. And according to official records, those houses were not bonded; they were bought for cash. Common sense would tell you there is no way he would have earned enough to buy those houses," Rampedi says.
Rampedi has been pursuing the Malema story for months. He and other journalists have recently reported Malema's ongoing ties to several companies that benefited through government contracts in Limpopo province worth millions of dollars.
There was always this big question from almost everybody: Where does this guy get all the money to sustain his luxurious lifestyle?
- Investigative reporter Piet Rampedi, discussing the cars and real estate of Julius Malema, an ANC official
Malema says he told his attorneys to break these business ties once he became president of the ANC Youth League in 2008. But they are still listed in public documents the journalists obtained.
"There was always this big question from almost everybody: Where does this guy get all the money to sustain his luxurious lifestyle?" Rampedi says.
"He has always denied having business links, he has always denied having any business interests, and he has always denied having any interest in any company," he says.
The media, opposition parties and some civil society organizations believe Malema is among some ruling ANC party politicians who have used their political power to enrich themselves and their friends, and ensure that their political allies are rewarded with lucrative business contracts or tenders, while closing the door on others.
During a radio interview as combative as the news conference, host Redi Direko asked Malema about reports that he had used his influence to make money.
"These are all lies. These are just fabrications," Malema responded.
Although so far he has refused to do so, Malema said he could account for the sources of all his money.
"There's nothing I got from this government," he told Direko.
"I've got nothing to do with stealing from the poor. There's nothing wrong I've done," he continued, when Direko brought up the issue of government tenders.
While not naming Malema specifically, the African National Congress' alliance partner, the powerful Congress of South African Trade Unions, has been among the strongest voices calling for lifestyle audits.
Zwelinzima Vavi, secretary general of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, says the offenders are a small minority. Vavi refuses to identify those he suspects of being awarded lucrative contracts. Vavi calls them "tenderpreneurs."
"People are just sick and tired of the stories that have been written in the newspapers of the tenderpreneurs, of the back-stabbers and crass materialists who want to hijack the ANC and make it an instrument and a vehicle to take forward their narrow interest," Vavi says.
But South African President Jacob Zuma, who has faced corruption allegations, has come out against lifestyle audits. And during intense parliamentary debate on the issue, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe told parliament that there was no need to go beyond the selective lifestyle audits done by the South African Revenue Service.
But the debate is likely to intensify. A recent report said more than 2,000 government officials were benefiting from government tenders worth more than $26 million.
2.6 More tenders for Malema - company gets R3,2m from Polokwane |
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THE company that is co-owned by ANCYL president Julius Malema was recently awarded two tenders by the Polokwane municipality. Only last month SGL Engineering Projects, the company Malema co-owns with Lesiba Gwangwa, was awarded a tender for rural sanitation worth R2,2million. Polokwane municipality spokesperson Simon Mokwatedi confirmed yesterday that the company had already started to do work in Feke village in GaMaja. He said after that it would proceed to Makgeng and Mountain View villages in GaMamabolo. The contract for the rural sanitation project was awarded last month and is expected to be completed at the end of May. “The contract entails putting up ventilated improved toilets for the villagers,” Mokwatedi said. Asked if the company had produced a tax clearance certificate prior to its appointment, Mokwatedi explained that it was a standard procedure for any company wanting to get a tender to submit documents that were accompanied by tax clearance certificates. Another tender awarded to Malema’s company was that of a road in Bendor. It was awarded in January. Mokwatedi said the company was appointed for the road contract at a new residential area and the tender was worth R1million. Mokwatedi said that the construction of the roads had not started yet as they were still at a planning stage. |
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2.7 Opposition Demands Probe Into South African President's Failure To Declare Assets
RTT News, 9 March 2010 |
South Africa's
largest opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), Monday said it has
requested an investigation to determine whether President Jacob Zuma violated
the code of conduct by failing to declare his financial interests within two
months of taking office.
The Democratic Alliance claims that Zuma's failure to disclose his assets
within the stipulated time violates Section 5 of the Executive Ethics Code of
2000, which requires all senior government officials to declare their assets
and interests within 60 days of assuming office.
The DA announced Monday that it has requested the Public Protector, an
independent agency set up to investigate "alleged or suspected improper
conduct by organs of state," to investigate Zuma over his failure to
declare his assets and interests even after nine months since his inauguration.
"The presidency is going out of its way to find a reason for the president
not to declare his financial interests," DA leader Helen Zille said in a
statement. "This is the behavior of a man with something sinister to hide.
If he had nothing to hide, after all, he would simply declare his
interests."
Her remarks came after Zuma's spokesman Vincent Magwenya told local media
earlier that the South African President "is not hiding anything,"
and added that Zuma was waiting for clarification from his legal team whether
he is required to declare his interests or not.
"People
should also appreciate that while the president has been waiting for
clarification from the legal team, he has also instructed that a submission be
prepared for purposes of declaration in the event that it was found that he has
to declare," the official Sapa news agency quoted Magwenya as saying.
Meanwhile, Zuma's legal advisers said Monday that a statement would be issued on
behalf of the South African President on Wednesday. Zuma's attorney Michael
Hulley told reporters that Wednesday's statement would specify "exactly
what the position would be."
Jacob Zuma, who is the leader of African National Congress (ANC), was elected
as the country's president by the newly elected parliament in May 2009. His
election as President came after the ANC party emerged victorious in the
country's general elections for a fourth consecutive time. However, the ANC
fell short of the two-third majority required for it to pass constitutional
changes in the 400-member parliament.
The ANC secured 264 seats in the parliament, while main opposition, the
Democratic Alliance, won 67 seats. The Cope party, which broke away from the
ANC last year, came in third with 30 seats.
2.8 ANC assets saga 'a special case'
TIMESLIVE, 9 March 2010
The ANC regretted that their presidential choice Jacob Zuma missed the deadline to declare his assets to Parliament, but said the circumstances needed to be understood.
"We have a special case, in that we are dealing with a president who has a large family and therefore it is not easy," spokesman Brian Sokutu said on Tuesday following the revelation that Zuma had missed the 60 day deadline to declare his personal interests.
"We regret the fact that the deadline wasn't met, but as I said before it has to be understood," said Sokutu.
"What you have to understand is the fact that the president has more than one wife and therefore it is a different set of circumstances and we are asking people to really respect that. He hasn't said that he is not going to comply."
Zuma, who has three wives and reportedly 20 children, is being guided by lawyers on the matter, after it was initially reported that his office felt there was ambiguity in the law on the declaration of his assets.
Political analysts have insisted that the law -- the Executive Members' Ethics Act and the Executive Ethics Code -- is clear on the matter, and that he does have to declare. The Democratic Alliance has asked the Public Protector to investigate the matter.
The fact that Zuma put together a legal team on the matter proved that he did not consider himself above the law, said Sokutu.
"We are as the ANC satisfied and confident that this process will be put in place and sorted out. A team was announced by the presidential spokesman. therefore as the ANC we think that he has shown no disregard for the law."
The team includes attorney Michael Hulley who managed Zuma's rape and corruption defence.
"As the presidency has said, that one of the provisions of the law deals with his family and he has a big family and this is something that has to be taken into account."
"It's not something that the opposition parties want -- that you can just push and get it over as an overnight thing."
By attending court during his rape trial, where he was acquitted, and the run up to his corruption trial, Zuma had shown he was "committed to complying with the rule of law".
"What we are saying with regards to disclosure -- he doesn't have one spouse -- he's got many spouses -- and therefore it's a big family and he wants to be thorough."
Sokutu said the party would "certainly be worried if he was not doing anything about it".
An announcement on whether he will declare his assets is expected on Wednesday and the presidency referred queries on the matter to Hulley, who would not say more.
On Monday, presidential spokesman Vincent Magwenya said a list of Zuma's assets would be compiled anyway, in case it was found that he must declare them.
Sokutu said having a team in place on the matter indicated there was a move towards declaration.
The African Christian Democratic Party said his failure to declare his assets "sheds more light" on why he rejected the Congress of SA Trade Unions' call for lifestyle audits for Cabinet members and politicians.
"The accountability measures that the president said are in place are insufficient, as, they have failed to convince the president himself to declare his assets,” said ACDP leader Kenneth Meshoe in a statement.
"The ACDP is shocked that the president has failed once again to set a good example for the people he is leading."
"Concerns about his moral failure have hardly subsided, and we now hear that the president has failed to set a good example for public representatives by failing to declare his financial interests," said Meshoe.
2.9 ANC welcomes IMF report
TIMESLIVE, 9 March 2010
The ANC has welcomed the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) report that Africa will see a relatively quick recovery from the global economic crisis.
"The good news is that growth has returned to Africa - a confirmation of the recent message articulated by South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan in the Budget Speech," said ANC spokesman Brian Sokutu.
IMF managing director, Dominique Straus-Kahn, said improved policies in the face of the crisis helped the continent get through the storm better than expected.
"At the IMF we anticipate that Africa will see a relatively quick recovery, with average growth bouncing back to 4.5 percent this year and 5.5 percent in 2011," he said.
Straus-Kahn said the global recession struck Africa through several channels that led to exports collapsing, banks running into trouble as non-performing loans grew, and investments diminished.
"Average growth in sub-Saharan Africa fell to two percent in 2009 from 5.6 percent the previous year."
Straus-Kahn said African countries were able to take appropriate measures to mitigate the turbulence because policies before the crisis were good, allowing them to build reserves, cut debt and open up fiscal space to combat the recession.
Sokutu said the ANC realised that South Africa's growth would take a few years to reach the levels it had been at in 2007.
"Africa needs stronger growth to remove its vulnerabilities, should diversify its economies to minimise dependence on commodity exports alone and should broaden its markets with a new emphasis on regional economic development," said Sokutu.
"The proposal for a 'Green Fund' to raise billions of dollars to mitigate against the effects of climate change will go a long way in rallying the world to find ways of dealing with the impact of this phenomenon on the African economy."
Straus-Kahn said the economy in Africa had more challenges ahead.
"The region will remain highly vulnerable to commodity price shocks, natural disasters and, in some cases, political instability," he said.
2.10 Hands off retirement funds, union tells Patel |
Business Day, 9 March 2010
THE United Association of SA is opposed to Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel’s plans to invest retirement funds money in development projects.
“Patel and his fellow Cabinet ministers would do SA a huge favour by focusing their attention where it is needed the most: on service delivery, the country’s water and sewerage crisis, the repair of thousands of potholes in our roads, the electricity crisis, etc, before casting an eye on the savings of the country’s private citizens,” union spokesman André Venter said yesterday.
Patel planned to invest some of the R1,5-trillion of public and private retirement funds in such projects.
This included 5% of the money that private retirement funds invested, and part of the government pension fund’s R700bn assets.
“As it is, millions of rands of our hard-earned tax monies go to waste as a result of poor accounting, bad decisions, corruption and bad management … why on earth would we want to give them more?”
The trustees of these retirement funds were mandated to invest the money under their management wisely, to the advantage of the members of these funds.
“If the state were a business, we at Uasa certainly would not have invested our hard-earned retirement savings with them.”
Venter said Uasa had but one message for Patel: “Hands off!”
Last week Patel said he was exploring ways of investing private retirement funds in development projects by possibly issuing development bonds.
Economist Dawie Roodt thought the idea “terrible”, while fellow economist Mike Schussler did not think it was necessarily bad, but “you need to be careful that there is a positive return on the money”. Sapa