COSATU Today 2 November 2009

SAMWU members from the Musina Local Municipality in Limpopo province have discovered grave corruption and alpractice at the Musina Local Municipality. These findings have emerged in cheques, bank statements and financial reports of the Municipality. The situation in Musina is now tense and on the verge of a mass uprising.

Workers from the Musina Municipality say "We are sick and tired of the lack of service delivery; the roads in Musina are full of potholes and the Municipalities equipment, such as tractors and vehicles has to be pushed every morning in order to start them because there are no finances to repair them. The nicipalities account to buy safety equipment and clothing has been closed because of non payment."

In order to prevent an already very tense situation from spiralling into violence, SAMWU members in the region are requesting that the ANC Regional Executive Committee intervene immediately, in dealing with

the blatant corruption by the municipal managers that has plagued the Musina Local Municipality for far too long.

Issues that SAMWU will discuss with the ANC Regional Executive Committee include

Blatant Corruption.
Vacancies that have not yet been filled.
Tenders that are being awarded to friends before they can be advertised.
Companies that are operating in the Municipality without proper contracts of agreement.
Poor service delivery.
Mayors continuous intervention in administration.

SAMWU has vowed if these issues are not dealt with as a matter of urgency, Musina would find itself experiencing a situation similar to that of Diepsloot and Lekwa Municipalities.

Based on the compelling evidence SAMWU has, the corruption by the Municipal Manager and the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) has left the Musina Municipality in the red. The Municipality has incurred a deficit of R552,467.43 this year during an annual show hosted by the Municipality, which was also riddled with corruption.

SAMWU is outraged by the blatant corruption and shocked by the amount of evidence the members of SAMWU in Musina have accumulated against the Municipal manager and the CFO. SAMWU will do all it can to

root out corrupt practices in Municipalities. SAMWU has made it clear mention if it does not receive any cooperation from the Municipal Manager in question, it will not think twice to use all available means to expose and correct the situation.

1.2 NEHAWU NEC meeting

Sizwe Pamla, NEHAWU’s Media Liaison Officer, 31 October 2009

NEHAWU convened a National Executive Committee {NEC} meeting on the 30-31^st of October at the Parktonian Hotel where discussions were held to analyse and deliberate on the organizational and socio-economic situation in our organization and the country. It also included policy deliberations and discussions on challenges facing tertiary education, health care system and the developmental state.

What came out of the deliberations is that the union remains a radical and transformative union and a labour movement that remains committed to taking up the immediate concerns of the workers in their work-places. We also re-affirmed our commitment to dealing with broader social and political challenges in the context of fighting for socialism and we still remain a champion of the working class.

Following extensive deliberations the NEHAWU NEC has come to the following conclusions:

· We support the government’s endeavor to introduce the National Health Insurance {NHI} scheme and the overall transformation of healthcare system. NEHAWU calls on the Minister to expeditiously release the discussion document on the NHI for public engagement and for the establishment of processes leading up to the finalisation of the Draft NHI Plan and its implementation.

· NEHAWU also calls for the creation of a state owned pharmaceutical company and also for the commencement of discussions regarding the issue of nationalization in line with the Polokwane resolutions.

· We call on all our members and the public servants in general who are at the forefront of the delivery of services to the nation to adopt the spirit of service and serve the people with dignity, integrity and respect.

· We support the Cabinet’s decision to review all the lavish and unnecessary privileges enjoyed by public officials in the national, provincial and local government, as well as in public entities and state enterprises.

· We condemn the culture of crass materialism and obscene self enrichment that has been prevalent in both private and public institutions. The union therefore calls on all our leaders to take a lead in the campaign for the transformation of our value systems and moral regeneration process.

· We commit ourselves to work with government in fighting corruption and nepotism in the public service and also call on our members to refrain from engaging in any corrupt activities and also work hard to expose corruption where they witness it.

· We wish to make it clear that NEHAWU is totally opposed to corruption and call on the authorities to take decisive and appropriate disciplinary action against anyone even our members if they are found to be in violation of the law within the public service.

· We demand that a deadline be set for the review of the macro-economic policies and also call on the government to instantaneously implement the resolutions of the Alliance Summit held in May 2008 on the review of inflation targeting and exchange act controls.

· We condemn the unilateral decision by the Vice Chancellor Jansen to drop the university charges against the racist Reitz “4” despite strong objections from the university stakeholders. The union therefore calls for the reversal of the decision and the review of the Higher Education Act of 1997, especially regarding issues of institutional autonomy and academic freedom behind which the established vested interests are hiding in blocking thorough-going transformation.

· We also want to observe an immediate dialogue, engagement and implementation of recommendations arising from the Report on Transformation, Social Cohesion and the Elimination of Discrimination in the Higher Education Sector.

· The union has committed itself to strongly support the efforts to abolish labour brokers and we will mobilize to ensure that workers get decent work and their rights are respected and treated with dignity.

· We have noted the ongoing service delivery protests that have erupted all around the country and while we support the service delivery demands of our communities we condemn the lawlessness that have accompanied these protests.

1.3 Finalisation of matters linked to Occupational Specific Dispensation in Public Education

M Govender, General Secretary, ELRC, 29 October 2009

Parties to the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) identified an urgent need to conclude discussions and negotiations on matters identified as crucial for the development and provisioning of quality public education emanating from ELRC Collective Agreement No. 1 of 2008 - The Framework for OSD for Educators in Public Education.

To this extent Collective Agreement No. 4 of 2009 – Finalisation of matters linked to the Occupational Specific Dispensation in Public Education, was concluded in August 2009 where parties agreed that implementation would take effect retrospectively in accordance with the dates contained in the collective agreement.

Notwithstanding the above, parties also committed to processes relating to the review of the remuneration system for the entire public service as per PSCBC Resolution 2 of 2009 and are bound to PSCBC Resolution 5 of 2009 – Agreement on Improvement in Salaries for the Financial Year 2009/10.

The Department of Education is committed to ensure that all payments for the general salary increase are effected by the end of October 2009.

The OSD payments as agreed in the implementation of Collective Agreement No. 4 of 2009 will thus be effected, programmatically at a national level, after the completion of the general salary increase run.

We call on all educators to exercise restraint and patience as the matter is receiving the necessary attention it deserves.

2. South Africa

2.1 Corruption to plunge SA in jeopardy

Zwelinzima Vavi, COSATU General Secretary’s address to the Business Unity South Africa Anti-Corruption Business Forum, 30 October 2009

Thank you for inviting me to address this meeting on such a crucial topic – the struggle against corruption. It is such a serious problem that if we fail to resolve it, the future of our country will be in jeopardy.

COSATU has been raising its concerns for many years and will continue to do so until we can finally put an end to the cancer of corruption and the culture of crass materialism, which threaten the foundations of our democracy.

Three days ago, our new Finance Minister, in his Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement, expressed his concern at “the number of government tenders, in all three spheres of government that are tainted by corruption. Corrupt officials stand on one side, while on the other stand corrupt business people.”

He was echoing the remarks of the ANC Secretary-General, Gwede Mantashe, who recently wrote in ANC Today, “The biggest threat to our movement is the intersection between the business interests and holding of public office. It is frightening to observe the speed with which the election to a position is seen to be the creation of an opportunity for wealth accumulation.”

You will note that both the minister and Secretary-General emphasise that there are two sides to corruption. For every person who receives a bribe there is another who gives the bribe. For every corrupt councillor or public official there is a corrupt businessman or woman.

It would be a fatal mistake for the business community to see this as just a problem for the public sector. The private sector is deeply implicated as well, with millions of rands being lost in white-collar crime within businesses. Corruption is a massive problem that society as a whole has to unite to overcome.

The 1994 historic breakthrough has opened a completely new chapter for everyone. But as Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping said: “A country is just like a house, it has windows and gates. If you close the window, you get no fresh air, and also no flies. But if you open the window fresh air comes in and also some flies.”

This is exactly what is happening in our country. A disturbing culture has blown in through the window and taken root in our society and our movement, which threatens to erode the moral and ethics of our revolution and is silently threatening our national democratic movement.

It is a culture which - I have to be frank - has been imported into our movement from the business sector. While of course the majority of business men and women - and we can say the same about our political leadership - obey the law and do not get involved in corruption there is a capitalist culture which praises and rewards those who accumulate the most wealth and despises those who ‘fail’.

Business has always been run on the basis of the survival of the fittest, where the principle of ‘dog-eats-dog’, ‘me-first’ applies. Whilst workers universal slogan is “an injury to one is the injury to all” the capitalist mentality daily practises the opposite “an injury to one is an opportunity to the other”.

This culture has lead to the obscene levels of salaries, bonuses and perks for top executives, which has led to South Africa becoming the most unequal society on earth.

A 2007 survey showed that on average, South African managers were earning more than those in the UK, France, New Zealand and Canada. South Africa’s senior managers earned an average disposable income of R700, 000 a year, while Britain’s managers earned around R600, 000. If you take account of the lower cost of living in South Africa, the difference in real terms is even greater.

And they are just the average! In the last financial year Brett and Mark Levy, of Blue Label Telecoms, were South Africa’s top-earning executives, taking home R50.4 million and R49.5 million respectively.

In the financial sector, First Rand’s chief executive, Paul Harris, made R27.8-million, Sanlam chief executive Johan van Zyl R27.1-million, former Absa chief executive Steve Booysen R18.2-million and Standard Bank chief executive Jaco Maree R14.1-million.

Many will argue that these individuals deserve these obscene salaries and perks, which they earned through hard work, and that they create wealth for their shareholders who took a risk by investing their money.

As we know, however, in South Africa bonuses are paid to the upper echelons of management irrespective of the performance of the companies they are managing.

Workers on the other hand earn far less than workers in the UK, France, New Zealand and Canada. These same companies that pay out these first-world salaries to their CEOs expect their employees to accept third-world wages and lecture the trade unions about their excessive wage claims.

They casualise their workforces and use the services of labour brokers to dodge their moral and legal obligations to give their workers the benefits, job security and minimum wages they are entitled to and still complain about unions being an obstacle that stops them making even bigger profits.

It is as a direct result of this attitude to remuneration that wages have consistently declined as a proportion of GDP, from over 50% in 1998 to under 40% in 2005, while profits steadily rose in the same period.

Ladies and gentlemen

“Fighting corruption,” said the COSATU Congress report “is not only a moral imperative but a major issue of social justice in this country”.

As Gwede Mantashe said in his article, “If we do not deal decisively with this tendency the ANC will only move one way, that is, downward. Fighting corruption must be our preoccupation”.

He quite rightly links corruption to the wave of service delivery-related protests we have experienced recently. While many councillors and mayors continue to do wonderful work in support of the goals of revolution, often under difficult conditions, the recent community protests are stoked by legitimate grievances about the terrible levels of poverty and poor service in our poor communities.

But they are just as much a revolt against people they elected to serve them as councillors and mayors, who become corrupt, move out of the community, live a life of affluence at the people’s expense and do nothing to help those they have left behind.

Resources intended for the public good are being diverted to individuals’ pockets so that the poor are deprived of desperately much needed basic services. It is also theft of our taxes that we work so hard to pay in order to improve public services.

A particular problem is one we call ‘throwing the javelin’, where politicians, public servants and unionists feather their nests while still in public service, by creating future business opportunities.

They then leave the service to work in the same sector in a private company and profit from the opportunities they themselves had created as public servants. COSATU is demanding at the very least a five-year cooling off period after public servants leave public office before they can take any such position in the private sector.

We continue to insist that those who want to be public representatives must choose between being public representatives, who live within the salaries provided for these positions, or being businesspersons. No one should be allowed to choose both. Those who choose both must be asked to resign. Clearly a simple declaration of interest is not good enough.

Our country is in danger! As more and more join this race to self-enrichment, the more the needs of workers and the poor take a back seat. Individualism takes root. Soon we will be en-route to Zimbabwe and other failed revolutions elsewhere in the world.

This is not what OR Tambo sacrificed thirty years of his life in exile for. This is not what Nelson Mandela spent 27 years of his life in prison for. This is an insult to all of our heroes and heroines. We must stop this cancer before it is too late. We must raise our fingers now before we reach a time when no one will be able to raise a finger without it being chopped off.

2.2 Is the pay gap between executives and workers justifiable?

Patrick Craven, COSATU National Spokesperson’s, paper to the SARA Conference, 30 October 2009

Thank you for inviting me to talk on such an important topic. The short answer to your question - Is the pay gap between executives and workers justifiable? - as I am sure you are expecting me to say, is NO.

Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping once said: “A country is just like a house. If you close the window, you get no fresh air, and also no flies. But if you open the window fresh air comes in and also some flies.”

In both China and South Africa, we have seen a similar phenomenon. Two countries which went through a liberation struggle which opened the windows in 1949 and 1994 respectively, to allow in more democracy and equality, have both ended up with greater inequality than ever.

In both countries a disturbing materialist culture has blown in through the open windows, a culture imported from within the business sector, which unfortunately has also spread into our public service, which praises and rewards those who accumulate and display the most wealth and despises those who ‘fail’.

It is a philosophy of the survival of the fittest and weakest to the wall, where the principle of ‘dog-eats-dog’ and ‘me-first’ applies. Whilst workers’ universal slogan is “an injury to one is the injury to all” the capitalist slogan is the opposite - “an injury to one is an opportunity to the other”.

While of course the majority of business men and women - and same applies to our political leadership - obey the law and do not get involved in corruption, this culture has lead to the obscene levels of salaries, bonuses and perks for top executives, which has led to South Africa becoming the most unequal society on earth.

My opponents in this debate therefore need to justify why South Africa should have such unparalleled levels of inequality. They may argue that these individuals deserve these obscene salaries and perks, because they have earned them through hard work, which has created wealth for their shareholders who took a risk by investing their money.

But in South Africa these bonuses are paid to the top managers regardless of how hard they worked or the performance of the companies they are managing. The best example is Eskom, which has increased its CEO’s salary by 26.7% despite its manifest failure to deliver an efficient and affordable service.

Yet these same companies which pay out these first-world salaries to their CEOs expect their employees to accept third-world wages. Workers - and they are after all the people who actually create the companies’ wealth - earn way below workers in the UK, France, New Zealand and Canada.

More and more of these companies are casualising their workforces and using the services of labour brokers to dodge their moral and legal obligations to give their workers the benefits, job security and minimum wages they are entitled to, yet still complain about unions making ‘excessive’ wage claims and being an obstacle to them making even bigger profits.

I believe that this yawning gulf between the richest and poorest in our society is an untenable position which threatens to erode the moral and ethics of our national democratic revolution.

I am convinced that the wave of service delivery-related protests we have experienced recently are in part a response to the levels of inequality in our society.

Some of you may not see the link but how do we explain that elsewhere in Africa there is far greater poverty, yet we do not see the same amount of social unrest.

The reason I suspect is that poverty in these countries is more widespread and general. People in surrounding communities are seen to suffer from the same poverty and lack of service delivery and it is thus accepted reluctantly as a fact of life.

On the other had communities like Alexandra and Diepsloot, are next door to Sandton and Fourways, communities which live in a different world entirely. Arguments about of a lack of resources for service delivery carry no weight among people who are living in shacks, with no running water, electricity and sewerage, but see people with seemingly limitless resources living only a few kilometres away.

The situation is made even worse when their own local representatives move into the wealthy suburbs and adopt a capitalist lifestyle. While most councillors and mayors continue to do wonderful work in support of the goals of revolution, often under difficult conditions, the recent community protests are in part a revolt against people they elected to serve them as councillors and mayors, who become corrupt, move out of the community, live a life of affluence at the people’s expense and do nothing to help those they have left behind.

I end with a quotation from a speech made just this morning by our General Secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi, to the BUSA Anti-corruption Business Forum, which applies equally to the debate about inequality and the culture of self-enrichment.

“Our country is in danger! As more and more join this race to self-enrichment, the more the needs of workers and the poor take a back seat. Individualism takes root. Soon we will be en-route to Zimbabwe and other failed revolutions elsewhere in the world.

“This is not what OR Tambo sacrificed thirty years of his life in exile for. This is not what Nelson Mandela spent 27 years of his life in prison for. This is an insult to all of our heroes and heroines. We must stop this cancer before it is too late. We must raise our fingers now before we reach a time when no one will be able to raise a finger without it being chopped off.”

2.3 TAC lauds President Zuma’s speech

President Jacob Zuma has made one of the most important speeches in the history of AIDS in South Africa. In front of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), he unequivocally acknowledged the devastation of AIDS on our country. With this speech state-supported AIDS denialism has been banished. The Treatment Action Campaign welcomes the ushering in of this new era, almost exactly ten years since former President Mbeki made a speech that began the era of state-supported denial in front of the NCOP.

President Zuma acknowledged that government’s efforts so far have been insufficient to curb the devastation of the epidemic. The reality of this has been declining health outcomes and increasing mortality. We have a crippled health system and a ballooning epidemic from the years of AIDS denialism and inaction by former President Thabo Mbeki and former Health Minister Manto Tshablala-Msimang. However, today’s speech puts that behind us and provides hope that President Zuma will urgently tackle the epidemic with renewed commitment to meet the treatment and prevention targets of the HIV & AIDS and STIs National Strategic Plan 2007-2011 (NSP).

In his speech, President Zuma acknowledged that the fear and shame that have surrounded the epidemic must be overcome. The spread of the epidemic is intimately connected to government’s ability to safeguard our human rights. All South Africans must feel secure to know their status and access and adhere to treatment without fear of discrimination.

President Zuma emphasized the need for behaviour change to reduce new infections by 50% from 2007 to 2011, the NSP prevention target. Changing behaviour must be facilitated by increased access to prevention services and by reducing the vulnerabilities to HIV infection in our society. Converting knowledge to behaviour change will be directly linked to these interventions.

A theme of the speech was that to turn the tide of the epidemic political will is needed not only by government but also by the citizens of South Africa. TAC and other civil societies have developed an active cadre of HIV activists in South Africa but this commitment to tackling the epidemic needs to be adopted throughout our society. As South African citizens we must actively engage with our own health and the health of each other. As active citizens we can overcome the stigma and discrimination that have driven the epidemic.

Key challenges remain to meeting the ambitious targets of the National Strategic Plan (2007 - 2011) for the treatment and prevention of HIV. But with the renewed political demonstrated by President Zuma and the leadership of Minister of Health, Aaron Motsoaledi, we believe these targets are achievable.

2.4 TAC and AIDS Law Project on Minister Gordhan's budget

Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan has delivered the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) on 27 October. [1]

Despite the difficult economic conditions, Gordhan's budget commits to an increase in social welfare and education. We regard his commitments to health as significant, including:

· An additional R900 million will be given to the Department of Health to cover AIDS programmes for the remainder of the financial year. This is a much bigger adjustment to the health budget than the one provided in last year's MTBPS and much closer to what the Department of Health requested. The Department actually requested R1.2 billion, but a further R240m will be provided by the US President's Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), so the shortfall is relatively small.

· A further R213 million will be given to the Department of Health for this financial year to cover several goods and services including measles vaccinations and vaccines and antivirals for pandemic flu.

· The conditional AIDS grant, which includes the cost of antiretroviral medicines, condoms, diagnostics, monitoring and some salaries, will increase from R4.4b in 2009/10 to R7.3b in 20012/13, an increase of 19% on average per year.

Effective budgeting depends on greatly improved monitoring and evaluation of antiretroviral treatment and prevention programmes

The central question for the work of the TAC and ALP is whether enough money has been allocated to the AIDS programme to meet the National Strategic Plan (NSP) treatment and prevention targets. [2] The answer is unclear. There is not enough information available and given the plethora of problems we are encountering, we believe it is unlikely that there is enough money. But it is also clear that a lack of managerial capacity and competence in all the departments of health (national and provincial) is at least as big a problem as lack of money.

There are three state-run antiretroviral treatment and prevention programmes: (1) highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART) for people with HIV who have progressed to AIDS, (2) prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) and (3) post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for health workers and rape survivors. HAART is by far the largest expense of these and the cost of PEP is negligible.

The Department of Health does not have accurate data for the number of people on HAART. Figures are occasionally published, but for a variety of reasons they are unreliable. Data on the PMTCT programme is even worse and is barely ever published. The Department's Monitoring and Evaluation systems are not working. This is the fault of the former Director-General of Health, Thami Mseleku and former Minister Tshabalala-Msimang.

Recently, the newly formed Budget and Expenditure Monitoring Forum, which includes TAC and the ALP met with the Department of Health. The department emphasised that steps are being taken to rectify data collection on the HAART programme. We are encouraged by this. But until this happens we cannot know if there is enough money in the system to cater for the number of people currently on treatment, how much the shortfall is or how close we are to meeting the NSP targets.

The antiretroviral tender

The TAC and ALP have received, encountered or investigated numerous reports of problems with the HAART and PMTCT programmes. These have included the moratorium on initiating new patients on HAART in the Free State, as well as drug stock-outs and dozens of individual cases of people being denied access to treatment across the country. Studies in the Free State and Durban have found that the average waiting time to go onto treatment are four months and 3.5 months in these two areas respectively, with massive patient mortality occurring during these waiting periods (over a quarter of patients waiting for HAART in the Free State die without ever taking an ARV pill). [3,4] Furthermore, we have received reports of stock-outs of ARVs and erratic procurement.

It is unclear why this should be happening. The NSP provides for approximately 800,000 people on treatment in 2010. The current public sector antiretroviral tender (see Table 1) runs from June 2008 to May 2010 and it provides for enough ARVs to approximately meet this target. It also includes procurement of tenofovir and paediatric abacavir, two medicines which although not yet provided for in published Department of Health treatment guidelines are important drugs that will improve treatment outcomes. We welcome these aspects of the tender.

However, the volumes of drugs to be bought on tender are estimates, not what is actually being bought. We have tried unsuccessfully to obtain information on what volumes have actually been bought to date. It appears that National Treasury is the main obstacle to finding out this information. From our preliminary investigations though, it seems the predicted volumes are not being purchased.

Put simply, if the predicted tender volumes were purchased, it is unlikely we would be seeing such chronic shortages of ARVs and such long queues. The shortage of health workers is also likely a major cause of this problem.

Assuming our preliminary investigations are correct, why are the predicted volumes not being purchased? The cost of the tender is approximately R2.1 billion a year, or less than half what has been allocated to the conditional AIDS grant (see Table 2). So there really should be enough money earmarked to fill the predicted tender volumes. One possibility is that provincial governments are spending a disproportionately large part of the conditional grant on health worker salaries. Certainly some of the conditional AIDS grant money can be used to cover salaries, but the primary purpose of the grant is to ensure that the HAART, PMTCT and PEP programmes are implemented. This cannot be done without purchasing the drugs. If there is not currently enough money to pay salaries, the budget should be appropriately amended.

We note that the Minister said little about National Health Insurance (NHI). We await the green paper on NHI. The planning and implementation of NHI depends on improving the public health system including controlling and treating AIDS. In this respect we welcome the growing budgetary commitment to HIV.

Table 1: Summary of public sector ARV tender, June 2008 May 2010

Item	Dose	Company	Volume	Total Cost
ABC	240ml	GSK	1,747,000	234,849,210
ABC	300mgx60	GSK	43,000	13,765,590
DDI	25mgx60	Sonke	37,000	2,003,550
DDI	50mgx60	Sonke	26,000	1,464,580
DDI	100mgx60	Sonke	683,000	46,327,890
EFV	200mgx90	MSD	1,104,000	328,130,880
EFV	600mgx30	Adcock	7,000,000	756,210,000
EFV	600mgx30	Aspen	3,000,000	347,880,000
3TC	240ml	Aspen	3,138,000	67,184,580
3TC	150mgx60	Aspen	9,735,200	290,887,776
3TC	150mgx60	Sonke	2,433,800	72,794,958
PEP Starter	3TCx6,AZTx18	GSK	15,000	855,000
3TC/AZT	150mg+300mgx60	Aspen	20,000	1,835,800
3TC	300mgx30	Cipla	1,601,000	68,042,500
Lop/Rit	5x60ml bottle	Abbott	1,066,000	340,128,620
Lop/Rit	133.3mg&33.3mgx2x90	Abbott	256,000	81,681,920
Lop/Rit	200mg&50mgx120 HS	Abbott	617,000	196,823,000
NVP	20ml	Cipla	10,000	128,000
NVP	240ml	Aspen	45,000	1,633,500
NVP	200mgx60	Aspen	8,801,000	282,600,110
Ritonavir	90ml	Abbott	50,000	3,186,500
Ritonavir	100mgx84	Abbott	200,000	14,888,000
D4T	15mgx60	Aspen	489,000	8,288,550
D4T	20mgx60	Aspen	770,000	13,051,500
D4T	30mgx60	Aspen	8,728,000	147,939,600
D4T	30mgx60	Sonke	2,182,000	38,512,300
TDF	300mgx30	Aspen	3,687,000	588,039,630
AZT	20ml	Aspen	731,000	9,393,350
AZT	200ml	Aspen	200,000	4,530,000
AZT	100mgx100	Aspen	70,000	4,957,400
AZT	300mgx60	Aspen	4,000,000	284,360,000
Total				4,252,374,294

Table 2: Conditional AIDS grant by province (numbers are approximate, as these have been updated)

Province	2008/9	2009/10
Eastern Cape	441	480
Free State	207	275
Gauteng	803	933
Kwazulu-Natal	1,338	1,463
Limpopo	244	301
Mpumalanga	228	272
Northern Cape	352	375
North West	135	145
Western Cape	276	310
Total	4,023	4,554

2.5 ANC YL 65th Anniversary activities in Umtata a great success

Floyd Shivambu, ANC YL National Spokesperson 1 November 2009

The African National Congress Youth League 65^th Anniversary Rally held on the 31^st of October 2009. The Rally was addressed by ANC President Jacob Zuma and ANC YL President Julius Malema. The Rally was attended by more than 10 000 young people from various regions of the ANC YL in the Eastern Cape, Provincial and National Leadership of the ANC YL.

The Rally was preceded by a week long political education classes conducted by the ANC YL National Executive Committee in all ANC YL Regions of the Eastern Cape and mobilisations of the communities to attend the rally.

On Friday, the 30^th of October 2009, President Julius Malema visited Ikhwezi Lokusa Special School for young people with disabilities in Umtata. Concerned by the lack of basic necessities, such as wheelchairs for young disabled students, the President committed to contribute 50 wheelchairs to the special school before the end of the learning and teaching season this year. Further details concerning this important social responsibility will be communicated.

In his address to the Rally, the President of the ANC YL emphasised and focused on the following issues:

· Youth Development

President Julius Malema emphasised the vitality of the National Youth Development Agency intensifying youth development. He called for the speedy localisation of the NYDA so as to ensure that as many young people as possible have direct access to the services of the NYDA.

He raised concern over the fact that the readjustment budget presented by Finance Minister Pravin Gordham did not allocate anything to the NYDA, which in the Youth League’s view should be priority. He called on Minister Pravin Gordham to prioriotise youth development and understand that the NYDA is currently the primary channel to advocate for and mainstream youth development in all spheres of society. He specifically called of the Minister to allocate not less than R1 billion to the NYDA.

Fight against HIV/AIDS

The President welcomed and appreciated ANC President Jacob Zuma’s renewed commitment to the fight against HIV/AIDS. He re-affirmed the ANC YL’s campaign of One Boyfriend—One Girlfriend Campaign and that young people should understand that HIV exists and should use protection if they engage in sexual activities.

Service Delivery

The ANC YL President said that communities have a right to protest and that the Youth League will support all protests where demands are genuine and violence and destruction is used by protesters. He further said that criminals should not be allowed to hijack the genuine concerns of the people and use protests to destroy infrastructure and fight factional battles through protest.

Alcohol, Drugs and Substance Abuse

The President called for an absolute ban on all alcohol advertisement, emphasising the point that South Africa cannot continue to celebrate alcohol while it is responsible for many social ills, including rapid spread of HIV, crime and social decay. He called on the government to immediately review alcohol regulation laws to ensure that alcohol is not sold to people below the age of 21. He also called for the banning of smoking in public places such as hotels, restaurants, schools, etc.

Education Access

President Julius Malema expressed concern over the fact that the democratic government has not built even a single University since 1994. He then called on the government of the ANC, under President Jacob Zuma to build Universities in the Northern Cape and Mpumalanga and Northern Cape. He further made a call to Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande to come with a concrete programme on how Free Education for the poor should be introduced until undergraduate level.

Housing Access

The President made a call to government to establish a State Owned Housing Bank, which will specifically finance houses and property for middle income groups, who are not eligible for RDP Houses and still cannot qualify to get Housing Finance from Banks. He emphasised that this should looked at as a matter of priority.

Nationalisation of Mines

President Julius Malema re-affirmed the ANC YL’s call for the Nationalisation of Mines, emphasising that ANC leaders who are opposed to the Nationalisation of Mines are unlikely to lead the ANC from 2012 onwards, because the ANC YL will not support them.

African Leadership

President Julius Malema re-emphasised the ANC YL’s call that Africans should be represented in strategic and key sectors of the economy. He specifically called for the support of ESKOM Chief Executive Officer Jacob Maroga, who is being blamed for ESKOM problems despite the fact that the previous administration under President Thabo Mbeki accepted that ESKOM problems are a consequence of government’s inaction on the proposals made to expand the power generation capacity of ESKOM.

The President spoke about a variety of vital organisational, political and social responsibility programmes of the ANC YL, and emphasised the historical evolution of the ANC YL as a formidable, militant, relevant, fearless and radical youth organisation.

All the issues raised by the President in his 65^th Anniversary address will constitute concrete programmes of the ANC YOUTH LEAGUE with a decisive intention to make that they are actualised. All these commitments illustrate that the The ANC YL Lives! The ANC YL Leads!

2.6 Lawyers for Human Rights launches a court bid to protect homeless

Jason Brickhill, Legal Resources Centre , Jacob van Garderen Lawyers For Human Rights, Mark Heywood, Aids Law Project, 1 October 2009

In the late hours of 3 July 2009, some 350 destitute and homeless people were arrested for “loitering” in central Johannesburg.

As they had nowhere else to go, they had been sleeping in the vicinity of the Central Methodist Mission (“the Church”). As part of “Operation Chachamela”, which effectively targets the destitute and homeless in Johannesburg, hundreds of homeless persons — including disabled persons, women, children and many refugees and asylum-seekers — were unlawfully arrested and detained for the entire weekend.

Many of those arrested reported that they were also beaten, shocked by tazers and pepper-sprayed. Some say that they were further mistreated once they were taken to Johannesburg Central Police Station, only to be released several days later with no charges filed. Many of the belongings of those sleeping outside the Church – including their few items of clothing and blankets, identity documents, passports, work papers, and asylum-seeker permits – were destroyed during the raid and subsequent arrests.

On Friday, 30 October 2009, the Church, Lawyers for Human Rights and two of the “loiterers” issued an application in the South Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg seeking relief against the City of Johannesburg, the Chief of the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD), the Gauteng Provincial Commissioner of the South African Police Services (SAPS) and a number of Ministers. The applicants are represented by the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) with the assistance of the AIDS Law Project (ALP). The application papers will be served on the respondents at the beginning of this week.

The applicants have asked the High Court for an order that includes the following:

(1) Declaring that the raid on 3 July 2009 and subsequent arrests were conducted unlawfully;
(2) Prohibiting the SAPS and JMPD – jointly responsible for the unlawful arrests – from harassing those living in and around the Church and conducting further unlawful police operations at the Church;
(3) Declaring a City of Johannesburg by-law that criminalises “loitering” on public roads unconstitutional and invalid; and
(4) Compelling government to engage meaningfully with those seeking shelter at the Church and other key stakeholders in order to address the concerns of all.

The applicants are concerned that if no steps are taken to address the grievances suffered by those living in and around the Church, or to challenge the “loitering” by-law which is used to harass, detain and/or arrest them, the SAPS and JMPD will continue to implement “Operation Chachamela” (which means “walking on burning coals”) – the crackdown on the destitute and homeless – in a way that has a severe impact on the lives of many of Johannesburg’s poorest and most vulnerable residents.

Those living at and around the Church and other residents of central Johannesburg live in a constant state of anxiety and continue to be harassed by members of the SAPS and private security companies. Attempts to obtain undertakings from the SAPS and JMPD not to continue the harassment campaign have been unsuccessful.

In the result, the applicants have been left with no option but to approach the High Court for appropriate relief. It is their hope that this application will prompt the City of Johannesburg and others within government to develop more appropriate policies to deal with those living on the streets, especially as the 2010 Soccer World Cup approaches.

2.7 FAWU Disgusted Over Agri-BEE Land Bank Scandal

Vusumzi Landu , FAWU’s National Legal Co-ordinator, 01 October 2009

The Food and Allied Workers Union has expressed its dismay and disgust at the allegations of graft on AgriBee as reported in the Sunday newspapers of this past weekend. It is indeed with shock to note that monies meant to redress the evil of the past, have been misused to the benefits of individuals instead of the poor and the dispossessed people of this country.

We are appalled to note that allegations have been levelled against senior Land Bank officials like its former CEO, Mr Phil Mohlalela and former Gauteng housing boss Mr Dan Mofokeng to the effect that they might have used the funds to buy mansions and luxury cars.

To this end FAWU fully supports the call by finance Minister Gordhan that an urgent investigation is needed in this regard and that culprits found to be guilty of any wrongdoing, should be brought to book and be compelled to pay back those funds.

In this regard an asset forfeiture unit should swiftly act to confiscate all the assets of the individuals involved in this corruption scandal as we do not have any place in our society for such dishonesty.

3 International

3.1 Dr Aleida and Camilo Guevara complete visiting and speaking-tour to South Africa

Chris Matlhako - General-Secretary of FOCUS-SA, 31 October 2009

As the month of October came to its close, the Friends of Cuba Society (FOCUS-SA), also completed a successful speaking-tour and visit of the daughter and son of the revolutionary icon ‘Che’ Guevara to South Africa, Dr Aleida and Camilo Guevara March.

The visit and speaking-tour coincided with a few historic anniversaries, which raised the prestige of the visit and speaking-tour to our country as unprecedented an unique. During this month of October the international progressive world marked the 42^nd anniversary of the death of Ernesto Guevara de la Serna – popularly known as Che Guevara, at the hands of CIA in Bolivia, whereas this year also marks 50-years of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution and 15-years of fraternal bi-lateral relations between the democratic SA and Cuba.

Cuba has for many years since the triumph of the revolution in 1959 been an ally of the downtrodden and the marginalized peoples of the world despite its own marginal resource-base. And the ties between the South African progressive liberation movement (NLM), can be traced to the early 1960s, when immediately after the triumph of the Revolution, the ANC sent recently exiled SA students to go and study in Cuba. This solidified the fraternal relations between the peoples of these two countries, which today is marked by presence in both countries of each others nationals’.

That historic bond and ties have been carried into the new democratic SA, through the establishment of bilateral relations between the governments of Cuba and SA, thus regularizing these ties through the medical programmes and exchanges that have seen SA sending needing students to study medicines and Cuba sending various professionals to our shores to assist with beefing up the fledging health and other important sectors for purposes of achieving the goals of the reconstruction and development.

The visit and speaking-tour of Dr. Aleida and Camilo Guevara, which them criss-cross the country and visit six of the nine provinces, was intended to further entrench and cultivate the fraternal peoples’ relations between the peoples’ of Cuba and SA. As such her programme entailed speaking to university students and various audiences around three key topics – the success of the Cuban Revolution and the ideas, thoughts of Che Guevara, the importance of providing quality healthcare, education and dignity to the people as a basis for a sustained revolution and the campaign to release the Cuban compatriots jailed unfairly in USA.

No doubt the audiences, with which she and the delegation interacted, valued the exchanges and appreciated the effort undertaken to make such possible. For, the minister and deputy of health, premiers’ Mathale, Modiselle and Mkhize and their executive councils, – these engagements provided a unique basis upon which to further appreciate the basis of and for dialogue with alternative views and perspectives as an ongoing effort to address deficit of delivery, in particular in favour of the marginalized of society.

In the context of the 42^nd anniversary of the death of Che Guevara in Bolivia at the hands of CIA, and the thriving commercialization of the face of ‘Che’, FOCUS-SA, found the exchanges in particular with students and youth at universities and radio talk-shows very useful to elaborate and share, the not so widely known values and ideals of the late revolutionary leader and rebellion. Through his children (Aleida and Camilo), the genuine innate and oft’ not pronounced because of ideological slandering, the subtle and softer sides of a father, leader and revolutionary, who has touched many in the world, was exposed! Thus, if there was any value in the visit, it is the opportunity to exchanges to various levels of human-beings and share or identify with in a more profound manner the struggles of people.

What the visit and speaking-tour crystalized very clearly was the ever more important need for more such ordinary peoples’ exchanges to buttress the democratic and human rights values that underpin the democratic SA. Indeed, it is unthinkable that the youth ad others who yearn for icons and role-models much be constants fed the diet of banal Euro-centric and stale American cultures and values. More so, than ever before, we need to expose in true measure of our democratic and progressive basis, alternative and progressive perspectives of similar or close appreciation of societies which exhibit characteristics close to our won, so as to ensure a sustained effort to make a dent of the deficit of the poverty of ideas that seem to envelop much of the public discourse in favour of one line of the ‘market’ in almost every aspect of our lives.

4 Announcements

4.1 8 PhD Scholarships at International Center for Decent Work and Development

The newly founded International Centre for Development and Decent Work which was established in cooperation with the Global Labour University www.global-labour-univeristy.org and the ILO is offering 20 PhD Scholarship for students from developing and transition countries.

ICDD is an interdisciplinary and international scientific network of excellence with the head office located at the University of Kassel, Germany and partner universities in Latin America, Africa and Asia. The PhD school is organised around three research cluster
1. Sustainable Value Creation for Decent Work
2) Instruments for Promoting Decent Work
3) Strategies of Empowerment for Decent Work

Starting date March 1st, 2010
Deadline for applications: November 15th, 2009

For details and application form see
http://www.global-labour-university.org/fileadmin/download/ICDD_Graduate_School_Call_for_Applications.pdf

4.2 Chris Hani book launch

hani

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