COSATU Media Monitor 19 March 2010

EDUCATION advisers have declared war on the provincial Department of Education following an unopposed and permanent Bhisho High Court order preventing them from coming within 50 meters of their boss without prior, written approval if they embark on strike action.

Provincial Department of Education’s counsel, advocate Mandlenkosi Jozana said the application for a permanent interdict had gone unopposed.

This bizarre spat has paralysed the office of the director of Further Education and Training (FET) Curriculum, Nolundi Siwisa, stemming from claims that Siwisa prevented them from visiting examination centres in all 23 provincial education districts as matric final exams were in progress.

Officials then held a sit-in at Siwisa’s office but to no avail. This was followed by Sadtu’s intervention but that too failed.

The department then took the matter to court with acting Superintendent-General professor Harry Nengwekhulu submitting an affidavit in February supporting the interdict against Sadtu and the 14 advisers.

In the affidavit Nengwekhulu said his office had convened meetings with subject planners but with no success.

Education spokesperson Malibongwe Mtima said the department would now be protected from the officials and the order would remain.

“The order will not affect their jobs unless they repeat what they did before,” Mtima said.

The interdict now permanently prohibits, interdicts and restrains respondents in any way, from threatening, intimidating, interfering with or preventing Siwisa from performing her duties.

On February 26, the 14 respondents and Sadtu were asked that, by March 18, they should show reasons why a final order should not be granted interdicting them from approaching Siwisa without prior written approval.

But a Sadtu member at the Education Department head offices in Zwelitsha said that at a meeting with Sadtu earlier this week, a “stance” had been taken that the order should not be opposed.

“The strategy we adopted is not to challenge them because we want to see how far they will go. We now know that they have declared war on Sadtu.”

In their defence, subject advisers said Sadtu had wanted Siwisa to vacate her office and claimed she had been preventing them from doing their jobs.

“We want to do our jobs but we can’t. This all started because we wanted to carry out our duties. Children are failing all around us.…What are we supposed to do?” he said.

Sadtu’s provincial secretary Fezeka Loliwe said yesterday that as far as she knew, the interdict was meant to be withdrawn.

“I had a meeting with the SG (Nengwekhulu) on Tuesday and that was agreed on,” she said.

Nengwekhulu could not be reached for comment.

http://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=388605

1.2 SAMA raises the alarm over drop in medical graduates

Chanel September, Eyewitness News, 19 March 2010

The South African Medical Association said on Thursday, the drop in the number of doctors graduating was a serious problem which required attention.

It admits it was gravely concerned by its output capacity of under- and post graduate students.

In the last three years the number of students leaving universities declined by 17 percent.

The association said a lack of government funding to medical schools was worsening the situation.

SAMA’s vice president Dr Mark Sonderup said the situation was the result of gradual erosion.

“If you systematically devalue and poorly resource your training institutions over many years, it really is going to equal one thing and that is your ability to produce graduates," said Sonder

http://www.eyewitnessnews.co.za/articleprog.aspx?id=35122

1.3 All leaders must think before they speak

Terry Bell, Business Report, 19 March 2010

There is a simple rule about making public statements, and it applies particularly to politicians: first put your brain into gear before opening your mouth. Putting the brain into gear implies not voicing an opinion about a subject until and unless all the available facts about it are known.

And where the facts are known, stick to them and do not fall prey to the temptation to play to the gallery by substituting populist rhetoric for considered analysis.

A classic example over recent months has been the furore about labour brokers. Cosatu demanded that labour brokers be banned, a resolution carried at the last Cosatu congress.

It was a topic that called for reasoned debate; instead, most of the discussion was peppered with emotive language. The demand for a blanket ban was also supported by Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana and portfolio committee on labour chairwoman Lumka Yengeni.

Yengeni went so far as to refer to the providers of temporary employment services - the term used in the Labour Relations Act (LRA) - as "evil". In the face of suggestions that existing regulations be enforced, she supported banning the "modern-day slave traders".

Then, earlier this month, at a portfolio committee hearing, Yengeni apparently changed her mind. She said that she did not wish to use terms such as "banning" or "regulating". In her opinion, however, section 198 of the LRA may be repealed.

But this is the very section that defines the legal responsibilities of labour brokers. Do away with it and the door is opened to the very situation of anarchy and lawlessness that Cosatu and Yengeni were complaining about. This is because section 198 of the LRA is the law that governs the business of any "temporary employment service" or labour broker.

As this column pointed out in October: "In law, the end employer who hires a broker to supply labour, hires the employees of the broker. The broker is, therefore, responsible, under the labour laws, for the pay and conditions of the workers outsourced to other companies." As such, any broker who does not provide all the usual rights and benefits to workers is breaking the law.

That this law is broken regularly and with impunity is not the fault of the law; it is because the laws are not enforced. The responsibility for this rests primarily with the Department of Labour and the buck stops with the minister.

This is not to say that the laws as they stand do not need improvement. They may do; they may not. And, with regard to section 198 of the LRA, there is one area that may require clarification: the definition of an independent contractor.

Unscrupulous labour brokers often maintain that they are mere agents for such contractors; that every individual seeking temporary employment qualifies as an independent contractor. This is clearly nonsense; it is the argument of the free market fringe who decry all regulation.

Calls for no regulation are only one step away from those for self-regulation. But a large section of the labour movement, headed by the Federation of Unions of SA, has continued to call for the enforcement of existing legislation and for the temporary labour industry to be "strictly regulated by the social partners, by government, business and organised labour".

As one cynic noted: "At least they looked at the LRA before speaking out." But amid the welter of claims of gross abuse, many of them undoubtedly valid, and repeated calls for an outright ban, the existence of unenforced laws tended to be ignored. The Labour Department slipped off the hook where, in fact, it belonged.

However, the department is now "looking into" the whole question of temporary employment services and those sections of the LRA that govern them. And despite Yengeni's claim, repeal, it seems, is not on the cards.

What is on the cards is not known and the delay in making an announcement about what Parliament plans to do is causing tension. The Cosatu-affiliated Communication Workers' Union (CWU) now fears that the intention is "to make cosmetic proposals for the amendment of certain labour laws to regulate labour brokers, as opposed to outright banning".

CWU spokesman Matankana Mothapo says the union is "not blind to the fact" that some ANC leaders are involved in labour broking and that it would not be in their interests to ban the business.

The CWU is especially concerned because the Post Office has admitted to employing labour brokers to provide 8 600 casual workers at an annual cost of some R350 million. According to the union, the hourly rate paid to the brokers is more than double the pay received by the workers.

It is this use by government institutions of temporary workers employed through brokers that is a prime target of Cosatu's generalised call for a ban. Today, Cosatu unions in Mafikeng will march on the provincial government offices to demand that all government work be carried out by permanent employees.

But when it comes to the call for a general ban, the federation is now keeping tight lipped; there is also clear evidence that brains are being engaged before any words are uttered.

Cosatu spokesman Patrick Craven says: "As always, the devil will be in the detail and we have not yet heard what Parliament intends. When we do hear, we will consider what is proposed and comment."

Until then, Cosatu will continue campaigns for decent, full-time work, while calling for more and better-trained labour inspectors to enforce the existing laws.

http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=553&fArticleId=5396457

2 South Africa

2.1 Editors and Cosatu take on youth league over ‘intimidation’

Chantelle Benjamin, Business Day, 19 March 2010

BATTLE lines were drawn yesterday after the South African National Editors Forum called for President Jacob Zuma to “rein in the ANCYL” as Cosatu warned against personal attacks on media workers.

Sanef endorsed the complaint by a group of political journalists to the African National Congress and the ANC Youth League against the conduct of the league and its spokesman, Floyd Shivambu. It said Shivambu had tried to intimidate journalists and to draw them into a campaign against other journalists who were “thorns in the side” of the league.

Sanef said it was concerned “that the ANC has yet to respond to the letter from the political journalists, which alerts it to one of the most brazen attacks on press freedom in the new SA”.

“We join the journalists in calling on President Zuma, as head of the ANC and of government, to rein in the ANCYL and take steps to establish whether state resources are not being used to gather information on journalists,” it said.

Cosatu said while it defended the right to criticise the media , it respected press freedom and rejected personal attacks on individual media workers. It called for a probe , particularly to establish if state structures were used to obtain information on individuals with the aim to intimidat e the media. “It appears this might have happened and we will be very happy for an investigation to establish the truth of this.”

The ANCYL on Wednesday called the journalists a “mob” and defended its right to free speech.

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=104155

2.2 ANC criticises SANEF for supporting journos' complaint

TimesLive, 18 March 2010

The ANC on Thursday criticised the SA National Editors Forum (Sanef) for voicing its support for a complaint launched with the party about its youth league by political journalists earlier this week.

In a statement issued by party spokesman, Jackson Mthembu, the ANC said it was perturbed that whilst the complaint was receiving its attention, a statement was issued by Sanef, which apparently diverted the organisation from addressing it.

The party also publicly acknowledged that it had received the journalists' complaint letter addressed to the organisation through its secretary-general, Gwede Mantashe, for the first time since it was sent to it on Monday.

Mthembu said the letter of complaint had already been acknowledged by Mantashe's office to one of the complainants.

He was responding to concerns expressed by Sanef in a statement issued earlier on Thursday that the ANC was yet to respond to the letter from the journalists, which alerted it to one of the most brazen attacks on press freedom in the new South Africa.

"We join the journalists in calling on President Jacob Zuma, as head of the ANC and of government, to rein in the ANC Youth League and take steps to establish whether state resources are not being used to gather information on journalists," Sanef said.

Sanef's statement also followed the ANCYL and its spokesman, Floyd Shivambu's attempts to intimidate and blackmail the media by digging into the private affairs of some journalists.

"At the receipt of the complaint by the journalists, the ANC was of the opinion that the complaint letter was as a result of genuine and legitimate concerns by the journalists, " Mthembu said.

"It is in this spirit that the ANC through its office of the secretary general went to investigate the content thereof, including starting verification of the said allegations," he said.

Mthembu said the inclusion of Sanef and a statement issued by the body on the matter without allowing the ANC to finalise its already started approach on the complaint by the journalists has brought serious confusion and doubts within the ranks and leadership of the party.

"On the surface, it would look like there is ganging up of the broader journalistic fraternity against the ANC. This would in fact be construed to be true when looked from a perspective where attacks against the ANC and its leadership have become the order of the day," he said.

"Our view is that the ANC should have been given an opportunity to deal with the complaint before it. The mere fact that the organisation was not given an opportunity to do so might be understood that the entire approach by the media, inclusive of the complaint, was meant to put the ANC in bad light from the onset."

"It would be very regrettable when our own organised editors' forum is understood to be jumping into the bandwagon of attacking the ANC and deliberately damaging its image and standing within the South African society," Mthembu said.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article363283.ece

2.3 Political blackmail: Personal attacks will not silence the media

Editorial, Business Day, 19 March 2010

ONE of the cornerstones of any healthy democracy is a press that is free, robust and independent. This does not only mean rights to media freedom should be legally codified. It also means we must develop and nurture a public space that is conducive to a flourishing and free press.

It is therefore important to be vigilant about threats to a free media. This is why we condemn in the strongest possible terms the blatant attempts by some within the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) to close the space within which the media can breathe and flourish.

Worse, in fact, is the use of intimidation and fear tactics, such as threats to divulge deeply personal facts about particular journalists, all of which is clearly designed to kill politically sensitive stories that might be damaging to the ANCYL leadership’s bling brand.

We laud the quality of investigative and political journalism among our colleagues that have spawned this unethical response from the young politicians. We must not be driven to self-censorship. Clearly these young lions hope that journalists will now think twice about their story selection. We should not.

However, what is particularly disturbing about the league’s tactics is that the aggressive tone they are employing, coupled with mysterious access to data that should not be available to them, smacks of a possible return to Mbeki-era use of state machinery to silence opponents — but this time extending the unethical game to the media. This betrays an arrogant sense of political invincibility that is bolstered by the silence of political elders within the ANC. The president should show leadership and condemn the youngsters.

This is not to suggest that all journalism is free of ideological agendas or even unethical behaviour. Bad apples exist in all professions. Economic journalism, and not just political journalism, sometimes suffers from ethical lapses. We would welcome the exposure of any illegal activity that a journalist engages in. Such information, if it exists, should be handed over to the police rather than used for pernicious political ends.

Further , we would urge aggrieved politicians to first make use of mechanisms such as the Press Ombudsman rather than using slander, innuendo and threats as a first line of defence when feeling aggrieved.

Conversely, journalists will best guard their media freedoms by speaking with one industry voice through leadership structures such as the South African National Editors Forum (Sanef). To this end, Sanef’s expressed view that the media be allowed to play its role as “the constitutionally protected watchdog for the public” is welcomed.

Ultimately, the best response to these thuggish threats is to simply continue unabated in producing journalistic works of excellence. We will continue to do so fearlessly.

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=104191

2.4 Shock over woman in men's jail

News24, 18 March 2010

Cosatu in KwaZulu-Natal has expressed shock at reports that a Durban woman has been locked up in the male section of Westville Prison for six months.

"This is despicable to say the least and has totally destroyed her confidence. The act of the department of correctional services officers as alleged cannot be condoned," said Congress of SA Trade Unions provincial secretary Zet Luzipho on Thursday.

The Sowetan reported that Amaravathee Wilson, 36, alleged she was raped, sodomised and assaulted almost every day by the male prisoners.

She had been arrested for armed robbery, attempted murder and hijacking in 2003.

The paper quoted Wilson's lawyer, Shireen Soobrathi as saying that she was seeking justice for her client who was acquitted on her charges.

Soobrathi reportedly said her client was suing the minister of correctional services and that the matter would be heard at a magistrate's court because she was claiming R100 000.

Case struck off roll

But the department of correctional services said the matter was struck off the roll in September last year. Spokesperson Sonwabo Mbananga said there was no case pending against the department lodged by Wilson.

"The case was struck off the roll and there have been no new papers that have been served on us," he said.

According to the report, Wilson was known as Denise and the prison officials had recorded her name as Denis. Her requests to be removed from the male cells had been ignored, it was reported.

Luzipho said Wilson was put in the cell so that she could endure the pain of daily sexual abuse by male inmates.

"What type of heartless people can do such a thing and continue to serve our criminal system? We just hope this is just a nightmare in a dream," he said.

Wilson and Soobrathi were not immediately available to comment on the department's claim that the matter was struck off the roll. – SAPA

http://www.news24.com/Content/SouthAfrica/News/1059/7101fd3918b948349ca59715131ff74a/18-03-2010-10-43/Shock_over_woman_in_mens_jail

2.5 Inside Parliament: Cronin's voice rings out loud and clear

Donwald Pressly, Business Report, 19 March 2010

Jeremy Cronin is a thoughtful communist. He doesn't give glib replies to questions, but when asked whether he didn't want to walk out of government after feeling overwhelmed by the recent negative press about factionalism and corruption in the ruling ANC alliance, he replies with an emphatic: "No."

He has a wealth of experience in transport matters. He chaired the portfolio committee on transport for 10 years before being elevated to deputy minister. One suspects that his dogged loyalty to the SACP, of which he is the deputy general secretary, prevented him from becoming a full minister.

There is no doubt that he deserves the post, not only because his understanding outstrips that of his boss, but he is not afraid to wade in to difficult areas, such as the spiralling cost of the Gautrain or to tell off "warlord" interests in the minibus taxi industry.

Politics, however, is a strange monster. The skilful people deserving jobs don't always get them. It is unlike climbing the corporate or social ladder; those who stand out in politics often have to play second fiddle. That is what Cronin does with aplomb.

Cronin spoke to the Cape Town Press Club this week as stories abounded about alleged corruption in ANC ranks.

Huge question marks hang over ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema and Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda, who was involved with a private security company for much of the time that he was head of the defence force. The company received state contracts, notably with Transnet Freight Rail.

Then we have Chancellor House, the ANC's investment arm, which has interests indirectly in the build programme at Eskom. This is apart from the conspicuous consumption - a nice Marxist expression - of ministers staying at luxury hotels for months on end, buying fancy cars and living off the fat of the land.

Cronin was careful with his words, not naming Malema or Nyanda directly at any point although he did express concern about contracts not being carried out and what he called "rent seeking" from the state. However, he warned that the honeymoon for the ANC government was over.

He even compared it to the Zimbabwean Zanu-PF which had initially won elections with an overwhelming slice of the vote.

"Later on (in Zimbabwe) it got less straightforward," he said, adding that factionalism was a way "to create smoke and dust" to hide corruption and the abuse of power.

However, there had been "a strong message from the president" at the weekend's national executive committee meeting cracking down on wrongdoing.

Ironically this was just before the flurry of stories about the expanding cost of the president's three wives broke. This may be "legitimate" spending, but nevertheless conspicuous.

Cronin also rightly attacked the private sector - notably Sasol and other oil companies - for their involvement in bitumen price fixing. One hopes that Cronin isn't a lone voice in the executive.

http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=561&fArticleId=5396456

2.6 ‘Sex addict’ Zuma gets full backing from ANC

DispatchOnline, 19 March 2010

UNSURPRISINGLY, President Jacob Zuma comfortably survived a motion of no confidence yesterday when an amendment motion proposing full confidence was adopted in the National Assembly instead.

Congress of the People parliamentary leader Mvume Dandala, who proposed the no confidence motion, said Zuma “has let us down. He has let Africa and the world down”. He cited Zuma’s “ repeated risky sexual behaviour”, failure to act against “approximately 2 000 civil servants who are alleged to have stolen more than R650 million from the public purse” and the appointment of “a man of dubious record and poor capability as the national director of public prosecutions”.

The DA, ID and ACDP supported Cope’s motion with ACDP leader Kenneth Meshoe saying Zuma had made the nation “the laughing stock of the world”.

He had advised Zuma to “seek counselling and sex addiction therapy as was recommended to (golfer) Tiger Woods, who also had a similar problem of sleeping around”.

“As the President rejected our advice, we have decided to support this motion of no confidence in him,” Meshoe said.

Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille also supported the motion and said the public would no longer be misled by Zuma’s “smile and fake apologies”.

Zuma was not elected to do whatever he wanted with impunity and to bring the country into disrepute.

“The public have been extremely patient, but they are tired of hearing your regular apologies.

“We will no longer be misled by your smile and your fake apologies,” she said.

The ANC, however, said it was a “ frivolous motion” and an “outright waste of time” as the ANC held 65.9 percent of seats in the Assembly. An ANC spokesperson added Zuma was not beyond criticism, but said the ANC had forgiven him for his mistakes.

“Where he failed us, he is the first to acknowledge and apologise and we have forgiven him.” — Sapa

http://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=388614

2.7 ANC linked company drawn into mining fallout

Eyewitness News, 19 March 2010

It has emerged a company with strong links to the African National Congress is at the heart of the fallout between steel giant Arcelor Mittal and Kumba Iron Ore.

Two weeks ago Kumba cancelled its long-standing agreement with Arcelor Mittal to supply it with high-grade iron ore at cost plus three percent, which is dramatically below the market-related price.

It is understood Arcelor Mittal had allowed its rights on the Sishen Iron Mine to lapse, allowing Kumba to apply for them.

However, the Mineral Resources Department has awarded the rights to a shelf company that has ANC Treasurer General Matthews Phosa’s former personal assistant, Prudence Mtshali, as a director.

These rights form the core of the dispute between Kumba and Arcelor Mittal, and according to Mail & Guardian editor, Nic Dawes, could have far-reaching impacts on the steel price and economy.

“More broadly I think people will be concerned at what this says about the independence and integrity of the Department of Mining which is really a key player in the regulation of a very important part of South Africa’s economy,” said Dawes.

http://www.eyewitnessnews.co.za/articleprog.aspx?id=35119

2.8 ANC axes KZN mayor, top officials

TimesLive, 18 March 2010

The ANC has axed the mayor of Pietermaritzburg's Msunduzi municipality, Zanele Hlatshwayo, her deputy, the council's speaker and its executive committee - all of them accused of helping the municipality slide into near-bankruptcy.

ANC provincial secretary Sihle Zikalala yesterday said divisions among ANC councillors led to a situation that the party could no longer tolerate.

"Accordingly, we have resolved that all ANC members who serve in the executive committee should resign."

The eight axed politicians will be replaced by the end of the month.

Hlatshwayo is the granddaughter of the late Nobel Prize winner and ANC president Albert Luthuli.

Zikalala said only ward councillors would be allowed to remain on the council. This will obviate the need for a by-election.

"From the three leadership positions, only the speaker is a ward councillor, so he can stay in the council," he said.

KwaZulu-Natal co-operative governance and traditional affairs MEC Nomusa Dube last week stripped the municipality's executive committee of its powers after she discovered that the cash-strapped provincial capital had only enough funds for a week.

Johann Mettler, an executive director of the SA Local Government Association, was asked to save the municipality. He is working on a six-month plan, but says it might take longer.

Pietermaritzburg's municipal manager, Rob Haswell, is on sick leave.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article363380.ece

2.9 The Untouchables - the ANC remake

Tim Cohen, Daily Maverick, 19 March 2010

In the US, The Untouchables was the moniker given to the special Federal investigation unit chasing really bad guys such as Al Capone. In SA, the untouchables are the ANC’s inner core. Those outside of the core, however, are expendable.

On Wednesday, Transnet announced that two, still unnamed, senior security managers who had been linked to the irregular awarding of a contract worth R55 million to a company associated with communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda had been dismissed.

The following day the same company, GNS Risk Advisory Services, was accused by the Democratic Alliance of being unlawfully awarded a R67.8 million tender by the Gauteng roads and transport department. DA corruption spokesperson in Gauteng Jack Bloom said it was “outrageous” that Nyanda had benefited from a tender that was not publicly advertised, apparently contrary to Treasury Regulation 16A6.4. The Mail and Guardian has already speculated about four other contracts awarded to GNS.

So obviously now, Nyanda stands down immediately because we officially have a scandal and very serious allegations? Surely. In any democratic country in the world, that is the norm.

No, wait. Actually, he doesn’t. Nyanda just goes on regardless.

And if that reminds you of something: Shabir Shaik is convicted of fraud and goes to jail. The person on whose behalf he was committing the fraud, resigns in the wake of the scandal.

No wait. Actually, he doesn’t. Zuma just goes on regardless, and becomes president no less.

The consequences of corruption charges are, it seems, for lesser people.

Exactly what happened in the Transnet case is known only in broad terms. What the company has announced is that two employees were initially suspended and then subsequently charged with misconduct in connection to their role in manipulating a tender process. This led to the awarding of a tender for security services at Transnet Freight Rail to Nyanda's company.

The tender was awarded in December 2007 to GNS for the securing cables and containers against theft. It was initially valued at R18.9 million, public enterprises minister Barbara Hogan told Parliament. But somehow the payments increased to R55 million as the company continued rendering services after the initial contract period.

The result of this is that the two unnamed employees were summarily dismissed in line with the recommendation of an independent and external chairman of the disciplinary hearing.

Nyanda reportedly has a 50% stake in GNS, but claims he has declared his interest in GNS to Parliament and "has not been active in the affairs of the entity".

Strange word that - inactive. So, when he also came out in support of TFR chief executive Siyabonga Gama, who was suspended last September in relation to this very contract, as well as a much larger one involving the purchase of 50 locomotives valued at R900 million, Nyanda was doing so in a very inactive, dispassionate and inert way. (Gama is contesting his suspension in court.)

But wait, Nyanda compared Gama’s case to that the aborted corruption charges against President Jacob Zuma saying that “some people out there are really bent on ensuring that he (Gama) is destroyed. What happened to JZ is happening in this case. People vilify and cast aspersions on you," he told Business Times last September. Funny how active inactivity can be.

To the uninitiated, it may look very much as if Nyanda was trying to provide support for the person who was involved in granting his company a contract which it now appears involved misconduct. But you, dear reader, will know that exactly the opposite is true: Nyanda was simply seeking to find truth and pointing out that the poor ANC-deployed cadres are human too, and their feelings get hurt by the pesky press.

It may be that the former head of the entire SA defence force was not aware of the misconduct, or that the misconduct amounted to nothing more than a breach of Transnet’s rules rather than outright criminal manipulation. But for the head of the disciplinary hearing to recommend summary dismissal does not bode well either for Gama or for Nyanda.

We asked Transnet if the file on the two fired former employees had been handed over to the police, and spokesman John Dludlu said: “Unfortunately, all the issues you’ve raised are part of ongoing investigations and several internal disciplinary processes which are currently under way and, therefore, to comment further would be prejudicial to the integrity of these processes”.

Cryptic, but it’s clear that this is not a case of filling out the wrong form. Yet, if history is anything to go by, while Gama may be in trouble (sorry mate, you're not in the inner circle), Nyanda can rest easy; he may have to do some squirming, but he is part of the charmed inner circle that no one dares investigate – let alone prosecute. They are The Untouchables.

http://www.thedailymaverick.co.za/article/2010-03-19-analysis-the-untouchables-the-anc-way