The South African Prisoners' Rights Organisation wants to know what the correctional services department is doing to stop overcrowding at facilities. Prisoners across the country have threatened to go on hunger strikes in a bid to be released early. They say this will help them avoid contracting coronavirus in overcrowded jails. Courtesy #DStv403
Fwd: Hunger rebellions and political protests : Western Cape townships aflame; global report from nostalgic-liberal media (Compilation by Patrick Bond)
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Jai Sen
Apr 23, 2020, 10:37:43 AM4/23/20
to Post WSMDiscuss, Post Crisis of Civilisation and Alternative Paradigms, Post Social Movements Riseup, Post RED, JS, Patrick Bond
Thursday, April 23, 2020
Viruses in movement…, South Africa in movement…, Hunger in movement…, Dwellers in movement…, Resistance in movement…
[I’m not sure what is making it so – other than, as Patrick Bond and others have said many times, that South Africa was already the most unequal society on Planet Earth – but from his reports and others, it’s clear that open rebellion against the State’s handling of the corona virus epidemic has broken out in South Africa like perhaps nowhere else, in terms of both scale and intensity… A harbinger of things to come elsewhere ? :
Hunger rebellions and political protests : Western Cape townships aflame; global report from nostalgic-liberal media
Compilation by Patrick Bond
Thanks Patrick, and please feel free to also post this kind of report directly onto WSMDiscuss !
In solidarity,
JS
fwd
Begin forwarded message:From: Patrick Bond <pb...@mail.ngo.za>Subject: [Debate-List] (Fwd) Hunger rebellions and political protests: Western Cape townships aflame; global report from nostalgic-liberal mediaDate: April 23, 2020 at 10:18:57 AM EDTTo: DEBATE <debat...@fahamu.org>, "progeco...@googlegroups.com" <progeco...@googlegroups.com>
(In the zany U.S. the rightwing protesters - in several state capitals, gathering against lockdowns on deluded grounds of "liberty," not poverty - found their FaceBook accounts officially disabled. That could well happen here or anywhere, to progressives, too... is there a Plan B if all social media is retracted including FB's WhatsApp?)
Covid-19 lockdown: Police come under fire on Cape Flats
By ANA Reporter 
22h ago
Wayne Dyason, the spokesman for law enforcement services in Cape Town, said the crowd of protesters had forced a truck to come to a halt near Stock Road at the juncture between Mitchell's Plain and Philippi, presumably with the intention to loot it.
"They were stopped and then headed to the shopping mall across the road, but were stopped again," he said.
"They fired live rounds at the officers but luckily no one was injured."
The protesters then fled to nearby New Woodlands. Several sections of the R300 were closed for hours following the clashes.
Dyason said one person was arrested in connection with the shooting.
Officials privately said they believed an "armed, criminal element" was infiltrating protests against the extended national lockdown put in place by government to contain the spread of Covid-19.
The Cape Flats has seen looting and unrest for more than a week, with Tafelsig and Rocklands in Mitchell's Plain becoming flashpoints. On Friday, burning barricades were erected on the Stellenbosch arterial road and on Tuesday, trucks were stoned at Robert Sobukwe Rd near Nyanga.
Defence minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula on Wednesday confirmed that president Cyril Ramaphosa was deploying all members of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to support the police as they enforce the lockdown.
The SANDF is also meant to shore up public health efforts against the novel coronavirus.
African News Agency (ANA)
***
City vs shack dwellers: Occupations and demolitions escalate in Cape Town
Despite last week’s court order, new shacks are being erected next to Empolweni and the City is tearing them down.
Shacks were torn down by the City of Cape Town on Wednesday in a new land occupation next to the Empolweni informal settlement in Khayelitsha.
On 17 April the Cape High Court effectively ruled that the City may not tear down shacks erected after lockdown in Empolweni, at least not until a court hearing takes place after the Covid-19 lockdown. But the order was contingent on no more people moving to the site.
“These are new attempts at invading this piece of land. It is illegal to invade land and the court supports the City in its right to protect its land,” said Councillor Malusi Booi, Mayoral Committee Member for Human Settlements.
Throughout the new settlement, mattresses, chairs, stoves and other belongings could be seen strewn across the sparse field. Workers in green vests and masks tore down the shacks with crowbars. They were accompanied by City Law Enforcement and SAPS. The shack building materials were then thrown onto a truck and removed. This new settlement has yet to be given a name. Photo: Brenton Geach
Sisanda Nyanga stands around her belongings after her home was demolished and removed. A statement released on 20 April from the City said that their has been a rapid increase in “attempted illegal occupations” since the Covid-19 pandemic. “The land is earmarked for the expansion of basic services infrastructure. If it is lost, the City will not be able to cater to the increased basic services demand.” Photo: Brenton Geach
A resident shows his wound, possibly from a rubber bullet. Aphilile Mzayiya (not pictured) said that this was his second day living here. On Monday night he slept outside. “I’ve got two kids at home. But now I dont know. I wish President Ramaphosa can see how they treat us,” he said. Before moving here, Mzayiya was living in his mothers backyard, but it was crowded. Now 26, he felt that he was too old to be staying with his parents and moved out to start a life with his two children. He removed his shack from his mother’s backyard but all those materials were taken from him after his home was demolished. Mzayiya said he is unsure where he’ll spend the night, but if needs be he will make a fire and spend the evening on the open land. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks
Anton Du Plessis said that he moved to the site three days ago. Du Plessis said that Law Enforcement came on Tuesday and only demolished some of the shacks. On Wednesday they came to demolish the rest. He said that when the officers are gone, he will have to get new material and rebuild. Before moving here, Du Plessis was living in a backyard in Khayelitsha and paying rent, but was unable to pay it anymore. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks
The new settlement is located right next to Empolweni. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks
After the the shacks were removed, protesters lit fires, blocking two nearby streets. Rocks were thrown at officers from the cover of shacks in the nearby informal settlement. Officers fired rubber bullets sporadically and used teargas in an attempt to quell protests. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks
***
Civil unrest peaks in Western Cape amid looting and protest
Across the province, residents have been engaging in civil disobedience on Wednesday, with police having to quell the chaos.
by Dan Meyer
in News
It has been a day of major civil unrest in Cape Town, as frustrations on day 27 of the nationwide lockdown boil over in some of the province’s most desperately affected areas.
Clusters of rioting residents have kept law enforcement engaged all day, with looting rife in the Cape Flats areas.
The South African Police Service (SAPS), as well as various other law enforcement agencies, have engaged with isolated incidents in several areas.
Mitchells Plain chaos continues
In Mitchells Plain, a truck was pelted with stones and a group attempted to loot the vehicle on the R300. Police engaged with the group who threw stones at them, prompting police to return fire with rubber bullets.
Mayoral Committee Member for safety and security, Alderman JP Smith, said the stretch of road had become a crime hotspot.
“I’m afraid, this is a hotspot now,” he said. “We have a mechanism now where food transport vehicles are being tracked so we can dispatch escort services and keep these vehicles safe.”
Four people were arrested during the chaotic melee, and were charged with public violence.
“Police prevented a group from looting a delivery truck after barricades were place on the road this morning at about 10:30. Suspects were dispersed by police and they ran into near Heinz Park,” said police spokesperson Sergeant Noloyiso Rwexana.
“A move by the group to head towards the nearby Watergate Mall was also prevented. Public Order Police, Phillipi East, Samora Machel police and the City of Cape Town’s law enforcement officials responded to the incidents.”
Elsies River unrest
Other incidents took place in Elsies River, where stores were looted at a supermarket on Halt road by a group of approximately 15 people. Goods valued at R3 000 were taken, with two suspects aged 32 and 43 arrested and charged with theft.
“An attempt to break into a closed butchery in area was thwarted as police dispersed the crowd,” said Rwexana.
In Delft, a group of 50 people stormed a supermarket and looted it of items valued at around R4 000.
“Police dispersed a large crowd that had gathered nearby,” she said.
“Meanwhile tracing operations are still underway to track the perpetrators. Today’s incident in Delft was preceded by three other incidents yesterday in Keerboom Street and on Delft Main Road where shops were looted.”
Five suspects between the ages of 26 and 31 were arrested for theft.
Vredenburg residents try attack councillor’s home
Finally, a group of nearly 400 residents of the Witteklip township gathered in Vredenburg on the West Coast, with members of the crowd pelting officers with stones.
The group had earlier tried to storm a local spaza shop after they complained about not getting food parcels. They also attempted to storm the house of a local ward councillor.
Four suspects were arrested in that incident.
“Police are keeping an eye on the situation,” said Rwexana.
SAPS spokesperson Brigadier Novela Potelwa said that such incidents were absolutely unnacceptable.
“Western Cape police wish to warn communities to respect the rule of law and refrain from engaging in unlawful conduct. Failure to act within the parameters of the law with leave the police with no option but to act decisively.”
***
Man allegedly shot by police during protest in Cape Town
by wesley fester
SFilmed on Wednesday 22nd April 2020
Filmed in Daisy Crescent, Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
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Uploaded by
wesley fester
Uploading since Friday 17th May 2019
Description
A man was allegedly shot by Cape Town police after a group of protesters reportedly attacked a police vehicle who has responded to reports of looting in the area on April 22.
According to Gabriel Peters, on whose property the man died, it is unclear whether the man was part of the group of protesters or simply walking from the shop.
Shops have been looted across Cape Town as the economic effects of the coronavirus lockdown sets in.
Many trucks carrying food to retail stores have been stopped and looted by protesters.
***
Baden Powell Drive closed due to protests
Published by Aimee Pace on
Residents are being warned to avoid Baden Powell Drive as protest action had ensued in the area, forcing law enforcement to close the road.
Yesterday evening at roughly 9.47pm an ambulance travelling through the area was badly stoned. The team was unharmed but left in shock by the incident.
This morning those needing to travel along this specific road are being urged to make use of an alternative route.
Baden Powell Drive remains closed due to protest action earlier this morning. Debris is still in road from Monwabisi to N2.
“Baden Powell Drive from the Monwabisi beach resort to the N2 was a scene of protest action earlier this morning. Groups of people blocked the road and burning tires and dragged debris into the road. Law enforcement agencies responded and the protestors dispersed into the nearby informal settlements,” said the City’s Law Enforcement Spokesperson, Wayne Dyson.
***
Correctional services hits out over virus protest call
JOHANNESBURG - Correctional services fired a verbal broadside on Monday after a prisoners' rights group called for protests to demand the release of inmates to help curb coronavirus.
Golden Miles Bhudhu, who heads the South African Prisoners Organisation for Human Rights (SAPOHR), said his organisation had called on prisoners to skip some meals -- "a passive hunger strike" -- to demand that inmates be freed to minimise viral spread.
SAPOHR is calling for the release of low-risk prisoners such as those who are terminally ill, non-violent first-time offenders and prisoners aged over 60-years, among others.
"In crowded, unhygienic and filthy cells, the spread of this virus presents a very serious threat," the group said.
"Our prisons are not only overcrowded, they are chronically overcrowded and remain breeding grounds for the virus," it said.
The government, battling one of the highest crime rates in the world, hit back at the protest call.
In a texted response to AFP, the Department of Correctional Services accused Bhudu of "instigating inmates to revolt against the state".
"This is something totally irresponsible and reckless. And there is no need for such," the department's spokesman, Singabakho Nxumalo, said.
"The state will not simply open the gates for inmates to walk out. Such will be catastrophic for the country," said Nxumalo.
READ: SA lockdown: Correctional services refutes Popcru claims
"Offenders have been removed from society for a reason".
He said the government had a solid plan to prevent the outbreak of the coronavirus at prisons.
"Out of 243 centres, there is only one centre where inmates have contracted the virus," he said.
South Africa has around 160,000 inmates at 243 jails, according to official figures, although data on overcrowding is not available.
So far the country has detected 99 cases of coronavirus in its prison system.
These comprise 56 inmates at a jail in East London in the south of the country, while the remainder are prison employees, most of whom work at that facility, plus several others at three other sites.
The health authorities have recorded a total of 3,158 infections in South Africa, the highest in the continent, including 54 deaths.
***
Prisoners burn mattresses in protest of strict lockdown regulations
Setumo Stone 2020-04-23 12:37
Awaiting trial prisoners at the Worcester Male Correctional Services facility in the Western Cape burnt mattresses and clothes on Wednesday in front of their cell doors, in protest over the national lockdown strict regulations in prison
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Awaiting trial prisoners at the Worcester Male Correctional Services facility in the Western Cape burnt mattresses and clothes on Wednesday in front of their cell doors, in protest over the national lockdown strict regulations in prison.
The inmates complained about the restrictions on visits, food from home, money that they receive from relatives and tobacco, City Press has learnt.
According to insiders, the mattresses were burnt in front of the B section, which consists of seven cells as well as two cells in the A section and one in the F section at the Worcester prison.
Prison officials extinguished the fires and “no inmates were injured or died”, according to a source who asked not to be named.
In a statement on Wednesday, the department of correctional services confirmed the incident but said the suspension of visits during the lockdown had not only helped prevent transmission of the Covid-19 coronavirus in its 243 facilities but also averted contraband from being smuggled into prisons.
READ: Covid-19: Concerns mount over plans to protect prisoners
Singabakho Nxumalo, the department of correctional services spokesperson, said there had been incidents at the correctional centres in Krugersdorp, Worcester and Leeuwkop.
He said the department was also implementing security operations at the prisons aimed at removing contraband from all prison cells.
“Despite threats of violence by a few individuals purporting to be representing the interest of offenders, correctional services is more than determined to remove all forms of contraband in its centres,” Nxumalo said.
a push by offenders to undermine the state is something that can never be tolerated
He said the matter had been “a subtle bone of contention thus leading to the perpetuation of chaos in some of our centres”. Such chaos, he said, was then “disguised as a coronavirus scare and a protest over lack of preventative measures”.
“What remains fundamental is that a push by offenders to undermine the state is something that can never be tolerated. Hence an internal investigation is underway into the burning of few mattresses at Krugersdorp, Worcester and Leeuwkop correctional centres.”
Nxumalo said there would be consequences for the prisoners’ unruly behaviour. “Burning state property is a criminal offence and we will be making sure that all those involved in such acts of criminality are brought to book and the law takes its course.”
a clear act of hooliganism which shall never be tolerated by this department
He said this was in line with National Commissioner of Correctional Services Arthur Fraser’s statement that “no amount of irritation can propel someone to destroy state property worth thousands of rands funded by the taxpayer, and put the lives of other offenders and correctional officials at risk”.
Fraser described the incidents as “a clear act of hooliganism which shall never be tolerated by this department”.
Nxumalo said the possession and use of cellphones and other gadgets by offenders are of serious concern and such items would be confiscated.
“The limited movement has meant that security officials can conduct targeted searches. As a result, confiscated items have little room to find their way back into the cells,” he said.
We will not hesitate to take action against rogue elements
He said through these operations they had been able to identify areas where unscrupulous officials hand a hand in the smuggling of contraband and the net was closing in on them.
“We will not hesitate to take action against rogue elements in the department who collude with offenders to undermine security in our centres by enabling contraband to be smuggled. Several investigations are underway into officials who have been implicated in these rogue activities.
“The noble profession of corrections has no place for criminal behaviour,” he said, adding that the department had a duty to fight corruption.
“We are part of the state’s criminal justice’s machinery which uproots criminal behaviour in society. When that criminal behaviour finds expression among those who taint our reputation in society, we will ensure that they too are confined to an extensive rehabilitation regime,” Nxumalo said.
He said the incitement of offenders was “a reckless and very harmful exercise”.
“As a department, we are committed to transparency and accountability. With that said, there are processes and procedures in place for offenders to raise their concerns and these shall be followed at all times.”
The department was determined to clean up contraband from all prisons, he said.
He said Fraser had assured South Africans that the department remained committed on its mandate of ensuring the safe and secure custody for all offenders.
“Offenders who flout internal rules and regulations will face internal disciplinary processes in line with relevant sections of the Correctional Services Act,” said Fraser.
***
New York Times
‘This Government is Lucky’: Coronavirus Quiets Global Protest Movements
Millions of protesters have been forced or have chosen to stay at home, and organizers wonder when, if and how they will be able to resume.
By Vivian Wang, Maria Abi-Habib and Vivian Yee
- April 23, 2020
HONG KONG — Tear gas no longer chokes Hong Kong’s skyscrapers, while protesters’ tents in downtown Beirut have been dismantled. In Delhi, the odd plastic fork and tattered blanket are all that remain of the sit-in that once throttled one of the city’s busiest highways.
Around the globe, the coronavirus pandemic has stilled the anti-establishment protests that erupted last year, bringing months of marches, rallies and riots to a sudden halt. Now, like everything else in the world, the protests face the unanswerable question of what happens next.
How long the pandemic lasts, and how governments and activists respond, will dictate whether the interruption represents a fleeting pause, a moment of metamorphosis, or an unceremonious end for some of the most widespread mass mobilizations in recent history.
The challenges are apparent. Millions of protesters are hunkered down at home, hemmed in by sweeping quarantines and fears for their own health. The daily burden of acquiring face masks or food overshadows debates about corruption and abuse of power.
Almost every government has restricted mass gatherings, ostensibly protecting public health but potentially also constraining future mobilization. Some have used the outbreak to consolidate power or arrest opponents.
But the pandemic’s economic toll, as well as the crises of trust it has inspired in many governments, could fuel fresh outrage. Already, people from Washington State to Peru to Paris have defied lockdown measures they say threaten their jobs, housing and food supplies.
Protesters have also found new ways to express their discontent. Chilean activists have projected images of crowds onto empty streets. In Hong Kong, a union of medical workers, born out of the pro-democracy protests, went on strike to criticize the government’s outbreak response. Worldwide, people have organized online workshops, banged pots and pans and organized socially distanced rallies.
“It is a rest time, but it’s definitely not the end of the movement,” said Isaac Cheng, a student leader of Demosisto, a prominent Hong Kong pro-democracy group.
The Hong Kong protests were among the first to feel the chilling effects of the virus.
The protests began in June, to oppose a bill that would have allowed extraditions from Hong Kong to mainland China. They soon spiraled into some of the largest in Hong Kong’s history, with millions marching to denounce police brutality and Beijing’s growing influence over the city.
But in January, as news spread of a mysterious virus in China, many grew leery of crowds. The freeze became official in March, when officials banned public gatherings of more than four people. Since then, police have arrested attendees of sporadic protests.
“What can we do?” said Max Chung, an activist who was arrested last July after organizing a protest of hundreds of thousands of people. “When the time is right, of course I will organize another protest. But it is impossible right now.”
A combination of top-down mandates and grass-roots hesitation has paralyzed protests elsewhere.
In Algeria, twice-weekly street protests that roiled the country for more than a year dried up in March, as protesters agreed to focus on fighting the virus — a decision solidified by the country’s new ban on public demonstrations.
As awareness of the virus spread in Beirut, protesters at first donned masks to chant against corruption and religious sectarianism. But they dispersed in the face of a nationwide lockdown, and last month, security forces dismantled encampments where protesters had slept, held teach-ins and danced to revolutionary anthems.
Attempts to defy the restrictions have met backlash from not only the government but also allies. After opponents of an anti-Muslim law in India said they would continue protesting during lockdown, even supporters criticized them as recklesss
The restrictions on gatherings are not limited to countries that had been fending off mass movements, said Clément Voule, the United Nations special rapporteur on freedom of assembly and association.
“I haven’t heard of any countries currently where people are able to exercise fully these rights,” he said.
While caution is necessary, protesters’ natural fear of the virus could lead them to accept or even embrace restrictions with far-reaching consequences, he said.
As streets and public squares have emptied, governments have already begun reintroducing some of the very measures that set off previous protests.
Ecuador had burst into violence in October, when the president, Lenín Moreno, announced the elimination of a longstanding fuel subsidy. At least 10 people died, and Mr. Moreno backtracked. But on Monday, the country’s energy minister renewed a call to revoke it.
In Hong Kong, the police on Saturday abruptly arrested 15 prominent pro-democracy activists — the biggest roundup of opposition leaders in recent memory. The arrests followed several weeks of unusually aggressive rhetoric from the Chinese Communist Party asserting its control over Hong Kong, a semiautonomous territory with its own constitution.
Some Hong Kongers have been particularly concerned by renewed calls from Beijing for the city to enact antitreason and subversion laws. A previous push to do so in 2003 failed after mass protests.
____________________________
Jai Sen
Independent researcher, editor; Senior Fellow at the School of International Development and Globalisation Studies at the University of Ottawa
Now based in New Delhi, India (+91-98189 11325) and in Ottawa, Canada, on unceded and unsurrendered Anishinaabe territory (+1-613-282 2900)
CURRENT / RECENT publications :
Jai Sen, ed, 2018a – The Movements of Movements, Part 2 : Rethinking Our Dance. Ebook and hard copy available at PM Press
Jai Sen, ed, 2018b – The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us Move ? (Indian edition). New Delhi : AuthorsUpfront, in collaboration with OpenWord and PM Press. Hard copy available at MOM1AmazonIN, MOM1Flipkart, and MOM1AUpFront
Jai Sen, ed, 2017 – The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us Move ?. New Delhi : OpenWord and Oakland, CA : PM Press. Ebook and hard copy available at PM Press
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Patrick Bond
Apr 24, 2020, 1:30:28 AM4/24/20
to Jai Sen, Post WSMDiscuss, Post Crisis of Civilisation and Alternative Paradigms, Post Social Movements Riseup, Post RED
On 4/23/2020 4:37 PM, Jai Sen wrote:
... I’m not sure what is making it so – other than, as Patrick Bond and others have said many times, that South Africa was already the most unequal society on Planet Earth – but from his reports and others, it’s clear that open rebellion against the State’s handling of the corona virus epidemic has broken out in South Africa like perhaps nowhere else, in terms of both scale and intensity… A harbinger of things to come elsewhere ? :
From: Patrick Bond <pb...@mail.ngo.za>
Subject: [Debate-List] (Fwd) Hunger rebellions and political protests: Western Cape townships aflame; global report from nostalgic-liberal media
Date: April 23, 2020 at 10:18:57 AM EDT
To: DEBATE <debat...@fahamu.org>, "progeco...@googlegroups.com" <progeco...@googlegroups.com>(In the zany U.S. the rightwing protesters - in several state capitals, gathering against lockdowns on deluded grounds of "liberty," not poverty - found their FaceBook accounts officially disabled. That could well happen here or anywhere, to progressives, too... is there a Plan B if all social media is retracted including FB's WhatsApp?)
Jai, let me be auto-critical, after looking again at my artificial distinction just above - profoundly dualistic and mistaken, I'm sure Peter Waterman would have pinged back - between liberty and poverty as motivation for protest.
The U.S. rightwing rebellions against lockdowns - the "reopen rallies" - are very complicated, since as usual there are elements of 'populist' class politics. You can obviously find the hardcore protofascistic orientation at the usual-suspect websites - https://www.breitbart.com/tag/lockdown-protests/ or http://drudgereport.com/ - or https://www.infowars.com/ - or a new especially Sinophobic site spawned by Alex Jones: https://cantcloseamerica.com/
But there's no denying that economic suffering - not just hatred of perceived state authoritarian rule (even if it is deemed necessary for pandemic-control reasons) - is bringing people out on the streets in the U.S. and the Paris banluie and no doubt many other places, not just South African townships.
As for ideologies motivating the Western Cape protests documented by journos, it's really hard to say what's going on. I've taken a new job at the University of the Western Cape but as an armchair academic I don't have any clue about the ground-level buzz, sorry. I'm guessing my students know far more than me about this, as usual, but it's hard to stay in touch.
There are a few more powerful critiques of SA state management from reputable networks, organisations and trade unions, which I'll append below in case they're of interest.
Of critical importance is what happens to trade union consciousness, as there appears to be a distinct split - much more pronounced than ever - between class struggle and class snuggle strategies. The latter approach is at the very end, below, from the Congress of SA Trade Unions, reflecting the largest labour federation's proximity to power; the SA president and ruling party chairperson were both leaders of the National Union of Mineworkers which, until the Marikana Massacre of 2012 where that union was seen to be complicit with the power structure, was the centre of gravity in the SA organised proletariat, and Cosatu still has 1.3 million affiliated members. Meantime in 2013-14, the largest single union - the metalworkers - split off and the SA Federation of Trade Unions emerged to become, now after 3 years, the second largest federation with 800 000 preCovid-19 affiliated members. The main development in this split over the past few days was Cosatu's largest member union, representing nurses and teachers, voicing tough opposition in part because of their front-line danger status, in penultimate statement below.
Also, to remind of the mistrust of the SA security apparatus, the magazine Amandla offers this graphic reminder of Marikana in a poster issued when Ramaphosa increased the army deployment from fewer than 3000 to more than 70 000 a few days ago, too.
Perhaps this is the way things will go, when the neoliberal clampdown associated with relatively tokenistic welfare handouts - as confirmed this week - requires massive securitisation, to contain the food rebellions we've been seeing rise, so predictably, across the Western Cape, with potential to keep spreading...
***
Cry
of the
Xcluded Press Statement:
We refuse to celebrate our hardship and your relief
22 April, 2020
Nearly one month into South Africa’s lockdown, the vast majority in society faces tremendous suffering and hardship. We have no income, we are scrounging for food, we are harassed by the police and SANDF, we are subjected to violence in the home. And only now the government responds with a social and economic policy.
The opinion makers, mainstream media, comfortable academics, the NGO crowd and centrist trade unions all tell us we must welcome R350 – a loaf of bread a day. It is too little and too late. This R350 will not be able to buy food, electricity, toiletries and pay the expenses that we have as the unemployed.
By closing our schools while not putting in place an alternative to the school feeding scheme you made our children go hungry. You belatedly realise the suffering this has caused by now increasing the Child Support Grant by R466.66 on the average for 6 months. Must we thank you for recognising the flawed approach of the token food parcels you distributed, many of which were gobbled up by your comrade ward councillors and other officials?
Let’s be clear, there are over 700 informal settlements in Gauteng alone. 25 years of business as usual policies have led us to a point when the distribution of 250 000 food parcels within two weeks will be a far cry from what is needed, even if all of these food parcels reach a destitute family. What is needed now is a move towards true food sovereignty, to achieve this requires the radical redistribution of land from the few for the many. Agribusiness and major retailers are the biggest opponents of such a drive as it would cut right into their profits and ability to exploit workers and the land. But we must put people’s livelihoods over the profits of a minority.
The aged, who are physically cut off from the support of their children, who in turn are being retrenched in their droves and robbed of an income, must now make do with an additional R250!
These new R50 billion in grants represent just 10% of your “stimulus package” but we, the poor, the destitute, the unemployed constitute more than two thirds of the population.
2
And another R200 billion is a loan guarantee to SA’s big banks. This will not involve real government money, except when the banks cannot get back their money from the businesses they lend to. And no doubt, these loans will be profitable for the banks – through the magic of compound interest.
So in actual fact, in the face of 40 million people who are facing the fear of death, either from the pandemics of poverty or coronavirus, the government is providing a stimulus of between R170 and R200 billion. This represents just over 3% of the size of our economy – not 10%. This 3% fiscal stimulus still leaves South Africa at the low end of the world war against coronavirus – even though our frontlines are among the bloodiest given our world-leading inequality rate.
And
what of our
brothers and sisters with jobs, the ones now in the firing line
of businesses
which are abusing their power in this time of crisis? You have
promised them
R40 billion in wage support but you provide no details. Will
this be channelled
to the UIF? The UIF, which is currently so overwhelmed by the
hardship the
bosses have caused, that they cannot deliver timely relief? And
what about
women in the care economy, those that have and continue to keep
households
going: domestic workers, community health workers, the
informalised child
minders?
How will they prove loss in wages and be able to obtain your wage support? Why could you not do what other countries have done and guarantee the wages of workers, even at 80%, like the right-wing Tories in Britain?
So must we celebrate the boldness, decisiveness of this government? Has it done what has become a neoliberal cliché in time of great distress “never let a crisis go to waste”?
Ominously, what comes with this package is the promise of “structural reform” – homegrown of course, because the IMF, World Bank, the African Development Bank and the New Development Bank will supposedly not seek to impose their own versions of structural adjustment. We are told, “don’t be ideological – these loans will come with few strings attached.”
Let’s see if they are loans made in local currency to be repaid in local currency; let’s see the genuine interest rates; let’s see the conditions. Will it be like the World Bank’s massive Medupi loan, to overcome our electricity crisis? See where that has led us. A loan that is so odious the current President of the World Bank has himself labelled it corrupt! And if we now take World Bank funding, will this make it impossible for the government to repudiate this Odious Debt?
And as for the structural reforms President Ramaphosa and Finance Minister Mboweni are promising? Are they not what business has been calling for? Deeper wage reductions, already imposed this month when the government reneged on the current bargaining agreement with public sector workers (who now take an actual 4%+ wage cut, depending on the rate of inflation this year). The President and the Minister of Finance should be honest with the nation and tell us how many public sector workers must join the ranks of the unemployed in order to reduce the public sector wage bill by R161 billion over the next three years.
Does anyone imagine that the IMF, World Bank and credit rating agencies like Moody’s which downgraded the country in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, will not enforce these disastrous budget decisions of this government?
Perhaps the public sector workers numbering tens of thousands that will be retrenched this year to reduce government’s wage bill will have less to worry, now that they can get R350 relief as part of the unemployed. Oh, but that is just for the next six months! And then it is back to normal for the army of unemployed now in excess of 11 million: zero, nothing
3
And do these structural reforms not entail using the crisis of the SOEs to privatise them? SAA, for all intents and purposes is history. ESKOM will be unbundled and private corporations will be allowed to make profit in the electricity sector, speeding up ESKOM’s death spiral. And followed by more retrenchments.
While
the poor,
working class, and unemployed are presented as the main
beneficiaries of this
package, the big banks are well looked after through the R200
billion loan
guarantee. Absa, Nedbank and Standard Bank paid R17.4 billion to
the rich in
April in profits even though the Reserve Bank Governor asked
that they do not
do this and drain vital foreign currency reserves.
They did not care; clearly, the economic order of the rich must not be touched. Our government could do what Denmark and Poland have done by refusing to give any Coronavirus support to companies that put money in tax havens to avoid paying tax, but this is nothing for South Africa; the state refuses to disturb the economic order of big capital!
What Ramaphosa and Mboweni are doing is tossing out a few crumbs from manicured fingers, while taking back much more with a clenched fist, using a police and army already well practiced in the art of brutality. Those who celebrate this “historic”, “momentous” “unprecedented” package in the belief a new future awaits, should be a lot more cautious! The struggle continues but the momentum is not with the dispossessed and Xcluded!
Issued by the Cry of the Xcluded, including:
SAFTU, AMCU, Assembly of the Unemployed, Abahlali BaseMjondolo, Inyanda
https://thexcluded.org.za/about/
For more information or comment:
Zwelinzima Vavi (SAFTU)
Nonhle Mbuthuma (ACC)
Pinky Langa (SAGRC)
Joseph Mathunjwa (AMCU)
Khokhoma Motsi (BUM)
Ayanda Kota (UPM)
***
President Ramaphosa supplies mainly smoke and mirrors, while the society and economy starve
The SA Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) has consistently and repeatedly condemned a government ruling the world’s most unequal society, where more than 60% of our citizens barely survive below the simple measure of R50/per person/day poverty and where four out of every ten are unemployed.
In addition to this this existing state of extreme injustice, we have suffered more than two months of economic chaos and nearly a month of Covid-19 lockdown – with severe police repression and utter incompetence by a government incapable of supporting its poor and working people.
Yet President Cyril Ramaphosa well knows that these contradictions present a life-and-death situation. His April 21 speech is worth both praise where it is due, and condemnation for the illusory benefits promised, especially where these will be hijacked by the country’s corporate sharks and political elites.
This response is broken down into several sections, addressing the main concerns that SAFTU workers have with a state that has so often acted against their interests. We especially want to warn our members and society about two clear and present dangers:
· “A risk-adjusted approach to the return of economic activity, balancing the continued need to limit the spread of the coronavirus with the need to get people back to work” – which judging by the mining industry fiasco now underway, will benefit irresponsible capitalists at the cost of workers’ lives; and
· Commits to “speedy implementation of economic reform” and to “accelerate the structural reforms required to reduce the cost of doing business” – which is code wording for the neoliberal roll-back, attacks on workers, and higher cost-recovery regime for state and parastatal services.
1. New 3.33%/GDP fiscal commitment is too small and must be seen as only a start
We are pleased that, finally, President Ramaphosa is expanding the state’s extremely weak fiscal and financial commitment. As he pointed out, the R500 billion “social and economic support package” consisting of both new grants and loans is nearly 10% of the 2019 GDP currently at R5.1 trillion, which is itself a vast increase from prior commitments (estimated at less than 1% of GDP).
The R500 billion will take many by surprise, since the establishment strategy has been much stingier. For example, notwithstanding the obvious desperation and growing social unrest due to hunger, last week a major bank called for merely a R100 billion stimulus, while Moody’s was still demanding that Mboweni pursue such high budget cuts as to achieve a primary budget surplus! At first blush, Ramaphosa looks extremely generous, in comparison.
It was on February 14 that – replying to Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address – SAFTU called for a R500 billion fiscal stimulus, before we knew the extent of the economic crisis lying ahead. We suggested it be paid for by a wealth and solidarity tax, a halt to Illicit Financial Flows, higher corporate taxes and more progressive personal income tax. We called for a different monetary policy, genuine land reform, and robust industrial policy, as well as public works financing of infrastructure.
On March 15 we demanded urgent implementation of an inward-oriented re-industrialisation strategy – also to support the African continent by generating more locally-made basic-need commodities – in advance of the continental free trade deal. We called for many other healthcare and social policy reforms, financially supported by the “Quantitative Easing” central bank strategies used in many Northern economies. We insisted on tighter exchange controls, to protect the Rand from what was then beginning in earnest, a speculative run that dropped the currency from R14/$ on 1 January to the current R19/$. And on March 19, we called for a 5% cut in the main interest rate (to 1.25%), as a kind of CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) to get the economy out of the crisis, and especially to get relief to all our countries’ now-desperate borrowers.
Although most of our demands have not been heeded, Ramaphosa has at least offered some important state relief. But we must look more closely, because the shiny outside of this vehicle disguises serious problems under the hood. For example, a massive R200 billion (40%) of the support is not actually state-supplied grants in the form of a budget allocation, but instead, loan guarantees, so these do not properly qualify as a fiscal stimulus – and Treasury’s record of monitoring how more than R500 billion in guaranteed credits to parastatals is simply abysmal, no one would dispute.
Officials in Treasury had earlier said they would fund the budget increases entirely from reallocations, so Ramaphosa’s turn to a much bigger budget commitment is welcome, even if the question of financing the larger deficit is unsatisfactory, a point we return to.
However, Ramaphosa announced that R130 billion had already been committed within the existing R1.95 trillion budget announced on February 26. (That budget included a R160 billion reduction in civil service wages compared to what had been agreed in 2018) The total new fiscal stimulus of R170 billion is therefore just 3.33% of GDP. That is a vastly inadequate amount compared to what is at stake in terms of social and economic survival.
2. Who wins and losses from budget reallocations?
It’s not yet clear where the R130 billion fiscal reprioritisation will come from, because austerity will hit elsewhere in the budget, usually where our people are weakest in defending their allocations. We expect to learn more details on Thursday.
But there are many vulnerable parts of our budget, such as water and sanitation infrastructure which Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has already revealed to be so inadequate that 19 000 new emergency water tanks have had to be produced and distributed; although fewer than 8 000 have actually been installed so far. These tanks compel many residents in poor areas – especially women and girls – to collect water at central sites that create dangers of Covid-19 transmission.
Yet Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements held a virtual hearing this week where it was revealed that the vital public works component of water and sanitation – i.e., building new permanent infrastructure – will be hit with a massive R1.1 billion cuts. This is something Treasury has been planning even though Ramaphosa has just announced, “R20 billion will be made available to municipalities for the provision of emergency water supply, increased sanitisation of public transport and facilities, and providing food and shelter for the homeless.”
We will be watching for these sorts of utterly irrational, destructive budget cuts by Treasury, which for years has been chopping vulnerable parts of our budget: especially health, housing, municipal subsidies and social grants (which have fallen steadily in real terms since the 1990s, especially since poor people’s inflation rate is higher than the rest of the economy’s). For a dozen years, Treasury has been guaranteeing Eskom’s debt while the National Energy Regulator has allowed the utility to increase tariffs especially affecting poor and working people, by more than 300% above the inflation rate, resulting in more cut-offs and worse service.
So, our trust in Treasury is very low and we must all watch closely to ensure the water and sanitation permanent-infrastructure budget cuts are not carried out or repeated. There are many areas of infrastructure which benefit the rich and big business, and there are vast sums wasted on outsourcing of construction and other activities that could be done 35-40% less expensively if they were insourced.
There should be major budget reallocations, such as the tens of billions of rands of tax benefits going to private health insurance companies, thereby slowing the introduction of the National Health Insurance. But water and sanitation infrastructure should not be part of these.
3. Still-inadequate income grants and food support
A temporary R300 and later R500/month income boost (from June-October) will go to nearly 13 million Child Support Grant recipients who are very poor (with a single parent earning less than R4000). This will more than double their spending power for children (currently R445 per month), which is very welcome.
However, given that the Upper Bound Poverty Line is R1300 per month per person, the improved child grant leaves the recipients still 25% below the poverty line. There are also 3.7 million elderly people and others who have disabilities who receive a R1820/month grant that will temporarily rise just R250 – far too little.
Likewise, the R350 per month that will be on offer to the unemployed millions is truly just tokenistic, at just 62% of government’s own measure of the R561 per month food line, and 27% of the overall poverty line. There are all manner of complications in assessing who can qualify for this, as well. With only 2% of the Unemployment Insurance Fund reaching those who qualify after being laid off in recent weeks, our faith in the administrative capacity of this state is extremely low.
Far better would have been a generous Universal Basic Income Grant, which would eliminate the administrative costs and means-testing errors (and corruption), and which could be clawed back through the tax system with a more progressive structure, as well as through Reserve Bank financing support (as is increasingly common elsewhere, e.g. in Britain).
As for food support, the state cruelly forced poor people into the Covid-19 lockdown, within overcrowded ghettoes and barren rural areas, without a proper survival system. The water and sanitation shortages were one indication of state failure, but the food system is just as broken.
We are relieved that Ramaphosa has admitted many problems in the Department of Social Development’s implementation of food aid. Although 250 000 food parcels are going to be distributed over the next two weeks, he seems to recognise how inadequate this is, given the corruption in his own party – with shocking reports of political patronage in food distribution – and the state’s incompetence at serving poor people.
But the private sector is also flawed as a vehicle for food sales. Having heard that social grants will be increased, the monopoly food retailers could well increase their prices and pocket the grant increases, given how weak state oversight is now. A good government would take charge of the food supply chain and give equal allocation of food, fruit and vegetable rations to every citizen, and then issue food stamps which people use to access these essentials.
This will be an opportunity to engage genuine grassroots farmers and progressive allies – e.g. the C19 People’s Coalition – to identify how to restructure food and agriculture during this crisis, in a manner that builds appropriate state support and community producer capacity, and that replaces the junk and rotten food we get in working-class grocery ghettoes with good and affordable nutrition. The model for improving food allocation and ensuring a proper balanced diet is that of the Cuban and Venezuelan governments.
The one grant that Ramaphosa announced, that does appear to be sufficiently generous, is to the public health sector. Indeed, the unspecified R20 billion in new funding to healthcare will hopefully be used to restore the capacity after Treasury’s R3.9 billion cut in the February 2020 budget. However, be aware that the Department of Health issued a recent scenario in which, in spite of a potential 5.8 million South Africans testing positive for Covid-19 by September, the additional resource needs from May-September (five months) were only R5.5 billion.
SAFTU support the call made by the Young Nurses Indaba Trade Union (YNITU) that the frontliners be given a Covid – 19 danger allowance, income tax break and other benefits to motivate them to keep battling against the marauding coronavirus.
4. Bank bailouts costing R200 billion – will the loans and guarantees be wisely used?
Unfortunately, R200 billion of the amount announced by Ramaphosa will come through unspecified lending and loan guarantees, largely through the private sector. This component is definitely not to be added to the fiscal stimulus, though it could help save jobs if the interest rate is to be subsidized, since market rates are so expensive.
Currently, the South African prime rate of 7.75% is among the very highest interest rates within the world’s fifty leading economies (where SA ranks with Turkey, Pakistan and Venezuela as most expensive to borrow).
But when it comes to the state providing loan guarantees, our first concern here is that, like Eskom, SAA, Denel and other badly-run parastatal agencies which have benefited from the granting of R500 billion in loan guarantees, the Treasury was asleep as vast corruption crises emerged.
Will such corruption affect the new R200 billion in loan guarantees that taxpayers will be expected to pay for if the companies go bankrupt? Our faith in Treasury’s ability to monitor corruption is very low, as a result of its own procurement chief (Kenneth Brown) admitting in late 2016 that 35-40% of state payments made to outsourced activities (in turn about 40% of the budget) was overcharged due to corruption. But nothing has been done since that revelation.
Relatedly, our second concern is that South African companies will use their renewed access to credit, to continue their record of Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) and other corrupt activities. The IFFs from South Africa estimated by the Treasury’s Financial Intelligence Centre in October 2019 amount to between $10 billion and $25 billion annually (i.e., R190 to R475 billion). There appears to be no attempts by Treasury to halt this looting.
Indeed, PwC recorded the South African capitalist class as third most prone to such economic crime (behind only China and India) in its February 2020 poll.
If Ramaphosa was serious about identifying a patriotic bourgeoise deserving of these loan guarantees, he would follow other countries such as Denmark: no company registered in tax havens (as many in South Africa are, through Mauritius), or that pays out new subsidies and loans in the form of dividends or share buy-backs, will be considered eligible for state support.
On this point of bank bailouts, recall that we have been down this road before. The world financial crisis of 2008-09 could most immediately be traced to irresponsible banking in the U.S. But the Federal Reserve’s Quantitative Easing, low interest rates and explicit bailouts of banks, followed by similar measures in London, Brussels and Tokyo, did not solve capitalism’s underlying problems.
Instead, the pro-bank policies followed by central banks and treasuries from 2008-14 simply offloaded the financial market crisis into a series of fiscal crises. In the case of South Africa, this was one reason the vast public debt rose, as well as foreign debt (which soared from $60 billon in 2007 to $185 billion in late 2019).
Poor people across the world have been compelled to pay for this generosity through cuts in public spending, including non-payment of South Africa’s public servant wage increases and cuts in public health budget in 2020. These have left us more vulnerable to the virus than we would have been as a society, thus making a brutal lockdowns we are having inevitable. The additional R4.5 billion in funding that Ramaphosa promised to the security apparatus is, in this context, a profound tragedy of state priorities.
5. Corrupt financing sources must be avoided, so as to declare default against same lenders
It is truly shocking that the world’s most notorious bankers will be lending South Africa vast sums to cover the financing of the stimulus, instead of using the SA Reserve Bank which has both huge reserves and nearly unlimited capacity to print money for fiscal stimulus.
Should billions of dollars be borrowed from international financiers, when those same bankers owe South Africans for eroding our state, society and economy due to their funding of official racism prior to 1994 and of post-apartheid corruption? Ramaphosa mentions four: the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, the closely-related African Development Bank, and the supposedly different BRICS New Development Bank. Each should be charged with imposing Odious Debt on a society that had no say in past lending, for which billions of dollars are still due to be repaid – and instead should be audited and then declared as a lender liability.
· The IMF was a prolific apartheid lender just after system-delegitimising crises such as the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, the Soweto uprising in 1976 and the gold price crash in 1981. Its role was to prop up the apartheid regime financially, even though the UN had long declared Pretoria’s policies a “crime against humanity.” During the transition to democracy in late 1993, another IMF loan was responsible for that era’s extreme neoliberalism that made it impossible to default on apartheid’s odious debt and to implement the Reconstruction and Development Programme. Conditions on a $850 million loan included a variety of Washington Consensus policies that wrecked the new democracy’s chances to share our wealth. The IMF’s role in recent weeks in relation to Venezuela’s request for $5 billion in funding – which was refused on the orders of the Trump regime – and its continuing commitment to neoliberalism, mean it cannot be reformed, and should be avoided at all costs.
· The World Bank’s $3.75 billion loan to Eskom in 2010, to build the Medupi coal-fired power plant, was the Bank’s largest ever, but its then-president Robert Zoellick knew fully well that the boilers Hitachi was constructing followed directly from a bribe to the ruling party through its Chancellor House fundraising arm – for which Hitachi paid a $19 million fine (to the U.S. government in 2015) after Foreign Corrupt Practices Act prosecution. The Bank should not be rewarded for this corrupt and climate-catastrophic loan, and the debt should be declared Odious, for lender liability instead. Medupi was such a notoriously corrupt project, that when he was U.S. deputy finance minister in 2017, the current World Bank President (David Malpass) testified to the U.S. Congress that South Africa was his ideal case to show how the Bank itself was profoundly corrupt.
· The African Development Bank made similar loans to Eskom for Medupi and Kusile and should also face a creditor “haircut” (as should the China Development Bank and other bilateral and commercial lenders).
· The BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) followed in the same spirit, by offering Eskom CEO Brian Molefe and Transnet CEO Siyabonga Gama massive loans in 2016 (for transmission expansion) and 2018 (for Durban port expansion), respectively. Both had to be halted due to corruption, as even the NDB has admitted. Then in 2019 the NDB lent to Eskom for Medupi in spite of massive corruption that had subsequently been revealed to extend far beyond the initial Hitachi bribe, and to the Lesotho Highlands Water Project in spite of the persistent role of a key Lesotho official (Masuphe Sole) who had spent nine years in jail after being caught with Swiss bank accounts stuffed by the prior set of corrupt multinational corporations building earlier Lesotho dams.
The financing of not just the R170 billion in fiscal stimulus, but the use of tax breaks and payment relaxations as proposed, should be rethought. Worker pensions should definitely be used under certain conditions to avoid them being looted too, and paid a fair return (since the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and various other private sector investments have proven to be riddled with volatility and corruption). The companies that are benefiting from Ramaphosa’s largesse need social audits, because many have not only engaged in illicit and licit outflows of funds to overseas tax havens (especially London and Amsterdam). They have also contributed to the R1.5 trillion in idle corporate cash sloshing around, instead of reinvesting profits in plant, equipment and employees. Government has so far including through this package refused to tax this R1,5 trillion through the introduction of a solidarity and wealth tax.
There are plenty of sources of financing available, if exchange controls could be immediately tightened to prevent the offshoring of South African capital. The most important that Ramaphosa doesn’t mention, is the Reserve Bank itself, which can engage in monthly purchases of around R20 billion per month according to former Treasury official Andrew Donaldson. Indeed, there are vast sums that the Reserve Bank can create, to pump funds into every South African households, according to the tenets of Modern Monetary Theory which many governments are now using during this emergency. John Maynard Keynes himself had suggested massive state ‘pump-priming’ to get economies going in times of economic depression.
The sorry state of the economic policy debate in South Africa today is reflected in the fact that Ramaphosa dares not mention these Reserve Bank interventions, much less the long-overdue taxation increases on the rich and corporations (which in 1995 paid a 55.5% tax rate, compared to 28% today – even prior to loopholes).
6. The social tensions will continue rising: a socialist programme is more necessary than ever
South African society is in pain, with many of our most desperate members of the precariat and proletariat moving from despair to revolt.
In this context of unprecedented suffering, the 3.33% fiscal commitment is a great improvement over the 0.1% that Treasury initially offered. Nevertheless, according to the Overseas Development Institute, this is less than a quarter of the fiscal commitment made by a conservative government in Britain with social deprivation problems that are a tiny fraction of South Africa’s.
We still call for at least the level that the Boris Johnson regime has offered the UK, namely 16.3% of GDP as a fiscal stimulus (new commitments) to rebuild our economy and society: at least R830 billion.
And we still call for a much deeper cut in the interest rate, which at 5.25% (the Reserve Bank repurchase rate) needs to be cut by our original request of 5% - i.e., another 4% - to make a dent in the enormous interest burden that the society, state and business cover. President Ramaphosa’s claim that the 2% interest rate cut will boost the economy by R80 billion appears far too generous, given the collapsed state of so many firms which can’t repay lenders already. Edcon, the Land Bank and SAA are just the latest to default, plunging tens of thousands of workers into what may be long-term unemployment, and many more firms and parastatals will follow, with a cascade of bankruptcies likely to threaten our banking system.
But we also know from the Rand’s crash, especially after the slight SARB loosening, that our unpatriotic bourgeoisie now needs very tight exchange controls to reign in their Illicit Financial Flows – as well as the Licit Financial Flows going to multinational corporations and banks which need to be paid in local not increasingly scarce foreign currency. Above all, we need to avoid being put even further into global financial circuits, which squeeze us and eventually impose the kinds of neoliberal constraints for which the credit rating agencies are notorious.
These are the big-picture problems with the Ramaphosa government’s handling of Covid-19’s socio-economic catastrophe. The micro-scale problems are worthy of much more discussion, especially with committed social activists.
That’s why we must, in conclusion, strongly condemn this statement by President Ramaphosa: “Our economic strategy going forward will require a new social compact among all role players – business, labour, community and government – to restructure the economy and achieve inclusive growth.”
Ramaphosa makes this promise: “We will forge a compact for radical economic transformation that ensures that advances the economic position of women, youth and persons with disabilities, and that makes our cities, towns, villages and rural areas vibrant centres of economic activity. Our new economy must be founded on fairness, empowerment, justice and equality.”
We condemn this not because it is undesirable or impossible, but because we know from bitter experience that the ANC government is not serious about consulting much less compacting with progressives in civil society. The government is only consulting the yes Sir of society.
Both SAFTU and critical social movements have been shut out of consultations on the major state policies since the time of the Growth, Employment and Redistribution strategy in 1996, when a neoliberal programme was simply imposed from above. Even today, the National Economic Development and Labour Council continues to exclude South Africa’s second largest union federation – SAFTU – including the country’s largest union (the metalworkers, NUMSA), as well as critical forces within civil society. The voices of poor communities who are representing our most desperate citizens continue to be suppressed.
In contrast, the ongoing neoliberal agenda – the “structural reform” that the state has long established working closely with big business, especially white-owned companies which long ago relocated their head offices and financial functions to London – is completely contrary to the interests of the masses. The lack of consultation with most progressives and the failure of any social contract since the mid-1990s to include core labour and social movement constituents, will be a guarantee of this strategy’s failure in the days, weeks and months to come.
In short, the most important question society must consider, now and at all times, is who benefits from these measures? And who pays?
SAFTU demands:
• Allow all who can to work from home, with special leave without loss of pay for others, except workers providing health services, food and other necessities, who must have safe working conditions, protective gear, anti-transmission training and regular testing.
• Build a single, public national health care service for all.
• Mass employment and training of health assistants and community healthcare workers to contain the spread and ensure treatment and services at point of need.
• Support the immediate shutting down of schools, pre-schools, universities and colleges to limit the spread; provide special childcare for essential services workers.
• Roll out free testing at temporary stations in all communities; quality medical services and medication for all.
• Free soap, water and sanitisers in every public space, workplace and poor community.
• Stop and reverse all water and electricity cut-offs and supply water to all households.
• Basic income grant and free basic food supplies for precarious workers, the unemployed and others forced to stay home and in need.
• Stop all retrenchments.
• Nationalise all private health-care sectors and pharmaceutical companies
• No profiteering from the pandemic
• Suspend payments of rent, rates, water and electricity tariffs.
• Emergency loans to small businesses in need.
• No evictions.
• Set up import-substituting industries to ensure continuous supply of all essential needs for which the country currently depends on imports.
• Permanent, secure and decent-paying jobs and training for all workers including those in community health care, home-based care, food production, distribution and retail.
• Massive public works programme to overcome backlogs in housing, schooling infrastructure, hospitals and clinics, piped water supply and safe public transport.
• Reorganise the economy on the basis of public ownership of all key resources (banks, mines, big businesses) and a democratic plan to prioritise health, education, housing, work, water, sustainable food and energy production.
• No restrictions on workers’ democratic rights to strike and organise.
• Fight racism, tribal division and narrow nationalist chauvinism.
• Fight against gender based violence and protect our children
• A more human approach by the SAPS and the SANDF as it enforce the lockdown regulations
The statement issued by South African Federation of Trade Unions
SAFTU General Secretary | Zwelinzima Vavi
Contact details 079-182-4170
***
President completely disregarded nurses in his announcement of the relief support packages for COVID-19
Sibongiseni Delihlazo, DENOSA Communication Manager, Wednesday, 22 April 2020
The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) is saddened to note that the President, in his announcement of relief packages, completely forgot about nurses who are on the ground and in the coal-face of the COVID-19, which has left a bitter taste as many of them fight this war bare hands.
The announcement has cemented nurses' long-held view that they are not appreciated despite their great contribution, most of which has seen many patients recovering from COVID-19.
The announcement has left nurses with the message that says they are on their own, because they are enduring the following hardships as a result of COVID-19:
a) Nurses' salaries have not been adjusted as of 1 April as per the collective agreement, and DENOSA and other unions had to declare a dispute at PSCBC (which has been set for 28 to 30 April) against government not honouring the agreement;
b) Transport expenditure has doubled for them because they often have to take longer and connecting routes to their places of work with no support with transportation from the Department of Health;
c) Nurses have to endure a decreased disposable income now as a result of the lockdown at the time when their salaries have not been adjusted, when countries like Ghana have given tax breaks for four months to assist health workers as a gesture of appreciation for their work of selflessness during this period;
d) Many nurses still work without Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in facilities and are exposed to the danger of contracting the virus - and many others already have - and their calls for payment of Risk Allowance for COVID-19, like other essential workers are getting, has fallen on deaf ears so far.
e) Nurses' Uniform Allowance, which should have been paid to them for this financial year (which began in April), has not been paid to them when other essential service workers are getting multiple pairs of full uniform. And it normally takes up to July and boycott of wearing uniform before they are paid this Allowance;
f) Still there is no counseling support for them at this time of need in facilities as more COVID-19 patients are admitted and no additional staff is hired.
Therefore, DENOSA would like to highlight that nurses are extremely disappointed that not a single one of the above challenges has been acknowledged and addressed by Cabinet. This has deflated their morale to extreme low, and it is not unreasonable to feel the way they do.
DENOSA's message to President and Minister of Health is that it is still not too late to address this oversight. As a matter of urgency, DENOSA national leaders are currently seeking an audience with both the Minister of Health and President over these urgent matters.
Overall, DENOSA welcomes the various relief packages that the President announced because poverty as a result of the lockdown was threatening to create a new health crisis for many patients who are on chronic medication and would not be able to take their medication on empty stomachs.
We welcome the setting aside of funds to address staffing, because the reality is that South Africa has far too few health workers to handle COVID-19 if it were to rise to catastrophic levels. We will continue to make noise in this area, because it is in the best interest of communities to have enough health workers.
We acknowledge the commitment to procure PPEs, but we will not dwell much on this because these should have been provided long time ago as it is expected of every caring employer.
End
Issued by the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA)
***
(This is Cosatu's biggest union if I'm not mistaken, with 235 000 members: even larger than the mineworkers. It's the largest public sector union:
"We are disappointed and underwhelmed by the timid stimulation package announced by the President which falls short relative to the necessary amount required for employment-creating and robust positive GDP growth rate. This is on top of the government’s failure to reverse its decision to disrespect and renege on the 2018 public service wage agreement, which is a frontal attack on the hard won gains of workers, particularly those who continue to make sacrifices providing front-line services to our people in saving lives, delivering essential services and enforcing law and order... It is strange that amidst massive capital outflows out of emerging economies and South Africa in particular, government and the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) fails to impose capital controls to stem the unfolding devaluation of the domestic assets. We note the increases in the public health expenditure, but unfortunately this is still inadequate given the persisting disparities in terms of the clinical personnel, beds, medical devises and other infrastructure compared to the private health sector. The South African public health system has been neglected for many decades, such that massive resources are still needed if we are to accelerate the implementation of the National Health Insurance (NHI)."
Below, find last night's Cosatu statement. Eish.)
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NEHAWU
National Education Health & Allied Workers Union
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARIAT
E-Mail: Secret...@nehawu.org.za |
NEHAWU House
33 Hoofd Street
3rd Floor, Forum iv
Braampark
P.O. Box 10812
Johannesburg, 2000
Tel: (011) 833-2902
Fax:(011) 833-0757
Website: www.nehawu.org.za
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MEDIA STATEMENT - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEHAWU RESPONSE TO THE STATEMENT BY PRESIDENT CYRIL RAMAPHOSA ON FURTHER ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL MEASURES IN RESPONSE THE COVID-19 EPIDEMIC
Wednesday April 22, 2020
The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (NEHAWU) notes the economic and social measures announced by President Ramaphosa to the nation last night.
The impact of the combined global capitalist crisis and COVID-19 pandemic is likely to plunge all regions, including Africa, into recession as forecast by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In the last few months since the outbreak of COVID-19 the developing economies, including South Africa, have witnessed massive capital outflows.
In South Africa, we are in a worse predicament as our economy was already pushed into a technical recession when the Coronavirus outbreak was announced. This is the third technical recession since the start of the implementation of the misguided austerity programme in 2015 - that has failed to achieve its targets in terms of reducing the budget-deficit and public-debt. The Treasury’s current Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) announced during the Budget Speech by Tito Mboweni disgracefully departed from the macroeconomic framework outlined in the 2019 ANC election manifesto.
With deep fiscal cuts particularly singling-out the public service workers under the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) and other social cuts such as in public railway transport, Mboweni MTEF was destined to plunge the economy to even deeper depths of recession – and thus creating yet another round of a vicious cycle of economic contraction, followed by revenue shortfalls and then more borrowing at rising premium. In the event, the price of this austerity programme was the junk-status downgrade of the country’s sovereign rating by Moody’s, which effectively put paid to the Treasury’s MTEF.
We are disappointed and underwhelmed by the timid stimulation package announced by the President which falls short relative to the necessary amount required for employment-creating and robust positive GDP growth rate. This is on top of the government’s failure to reverse its decision to disrespect and renege on the 2018 public service wage agreement, which is a frontal attack on the hard won gains of workers, particularly those who continue to make sacrifices providing front-line services to our people in saving lives, delivering essential services and enforcing law and order... It is rather bizarre to seek to stimulate the economic growth through borrowing from the (IMF) and some budget reallocations on the one hand, whilst continuing to do the opposite in cutting the public sector wage bill. This can only serve to depress the township and rural economies as many public servants rent accommodation in townships due to their exclusion from housing mortgage lending by the banks. In this regard, we call on the Minister of Finance to prioritise the issue of the payment of salary increases for frontline workers who are busy fight the pandemic when he revises the budget and he must reverse the decision to cut the public service wage bill with immediate effect.
The immediately implementation of the pension-backed Government Employee Housing Scheme would create more than half million new home owners without any additional borrowing by government and a concrete catalyst for the revival of the labour-intensive construction sector. Simultaneously this would have induced other multiplier-effects or spin-offs in the interconnected sectors.
It is strange that amidst massive capital outflows out of emerging economies and South Africa in particular, government and the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) fails to impose capital controls to stem the unfolding devaluation of the domestic assets. We note the increases in the public health expenditure, but unfortunately this is still inadequate given the persisting disparities in terms of the clinical personnel, beds, medical devises and other infrastructure compared to the private health sector. The South African public health system has been neglected for many decades, such that massive resources are still needed if we are to accelerate the implementation of the National Health Insurance (NHI).
The multiple crises we face as a country require innovative, bold, decisive and courageous stance on the part of our government. Unfortunately, the persistent religious adherence to neoliberal orthodoxy, even in the face of such an unprecedented scale of socioeconomic catastrophe, represents a missed opportunity in spiking up the economic growth curve whilst driving the flattening the Coronavirus curve.
Issued by NEHAWU Secretariat
Zola Saphetha (General Secretary) at 082 558 5968; December Mavuso (Deputy General Secretary) at 082 558 5969; Khaya Xaba (NEHAWU National Spokesperson) at 082 455 2500 or email: kh...@nehawu.org.za Visit NEHAWU website: www.nehawu.org.za
***
From: Sizwe Pamla <sizwe....@gmail.com>
Subject: COSATU welcomes the announced R500 billion incentive and relief package to stabilize the economy and give relief to the poor
Date: 21 April 2020 at 10:28:52 PM SAST
To: COSATU Press Group <cosatu-pr...@googlegroups.com>
COSATU welcomes the announced R500 billion incentive and relief package to stabilize the economy and give relief to the poor
21 April 2020
COSATU welcomes the President’s announcement of a R500 billion incentive and relief package to stabilize the economy and save jobs during this lockdown and as part of fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. At a time, where we are struggling because of shrinking resources, this drastic effort by the government is welcomed and laudable.
Unemployment Insurance Fund: The R40 billion that has been put aside to assist workers who have been retrenched or put on unpaid leave is a commendable intervention, but it is unacceptable that less than 2% of these funds have reached workers. We need more decisive action to ensure that the UIF systems work and deliver on time.
The government must equally use the full force of the Disaster Management Regulations to ensure that employers apply for the UIF relief funds on behalf of workers. We also welcome the R100 billion amount allocated to save jobs. Further announcements to increase income guarantee to informal workers are welcomes and must be used as an instrument to formalize the informal economy.
COSATU hopes that the issue of nonpayment of salary increases for public servants will be resolved at the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC). These workers deserve better, especially now that they are carrying the nation on their backs. We also would like to see government working with the GEPF to mobilise some of the worker's retirement savings to fund the Government Employees Housing Scheme (GEHS). This will go a long way to helping the hundreds of thousands of workers with no access to housing.
Social Grants: The decision of social grants adjustments is welcomed because social grants are currently the only income stream to millions of families now. The topping up of social grants provides the fastest poverty relief measure for over 18 million recipients.
A R350 income grant for the unemployed will go a long way in saving the unemployed from unnecessary hardships. This is in line with COSATU’s long standing call to increase the social security net to unemployed individuals between the ages 18-59 through the Basic Income Grant (BIG).
Health: We are happy with the allocation of R20 billion to the fight against Covid-19. The allocation must be used to enhance health systems and facilities as the building blocks towards the implementation of the National Health Insurance. To date approximately 120 000 persons have been tested. This is woefully inadequate. The government must ensure that over the next two weeks measures are put into place to test all workers at the places of work starting with workers currently on duty.
Measures need to be put in place to ensure all transport, workplaces and educational institutions are sanitized and kept safe for workers and learners now and post-shutdown. This includes the urgent provision of PPEs for essential workers.
Economic Measures:
We welcome the commitment to infrastructure spending going forward.
We agree and support the principle of the gradual reopening of the economy, as long as proper protocols are developed to keep the workers safe from the virus. Workers and employers must begin a process of consultation in the bargaining councils to conduct risk assessments in the sector and adapt workplaces.
Big corporations need to free their own resources and come to the party. Big Business needs to match the amount that the government has placed on the table. The banks need to do more than what they have done so far. Nothing less than a R1 trillion stimulus plan will be sufficient to turn our already bleeding economy around and save workers from the pain of skyrocketing unemployment levels.
What we also want to see, going forward, is that every cent goes to serving its intended purpose. Therefore, corruption of any kind must not be tolerated. The ANC led government must lead decisively to root out all forms of corruption that might rear its ugly head as we endeavor to raise funds to fight the spread of the dreaded Covid-19 virus.
Issued by COSATU
Sizwe Pamla (Cosatu National Spokesperson)
Tel: 011 339 4911
Fax: 011 339 5080
Cell: 060 975 6794
--
Jai Sen
Apr 24, 2020, 12:47:28 PM4/24/20
to Patrick Bond, JS, Post WSMDiscuss, Post Crisis of Civilisation and Alternative Paradigms, Post Social Movements Riseup, Post RED
Friday, April 24, 2020
Thanks for responding in some detail, Patrick (and for engaging in some auto-criticism… and for remembering Peter in relation to this...). And for appending some pieces that illustrate what you say, and for explaining all this. From my side anyway, I deeply appreciate all this (and your taking the time and trouble to do all this); it’s otherwise very difficult to understand the finer grain of what’s happening, and possibly emerging…
You close by saying “Perhaps this is the way things will go”. What are you signalling by saying this ? The widening of open rebellion – accompanied by more and more massive ‘securitisation’ (aka militarisation) by the state ? And then ?
But also – and perhaps you also mean this, because of the instances you give – ever-increasing splintering of organised forces ? But then what ?
You may say you’re an armchair academic, but there are few who have sharper minds than you do, or who trawl as widely as you do. So please, yes, discuss this with your students, as you suggest, and then say a bit more…
Just one more thing : While yes, South Africa, the US, and the Paris banlieue are increasingly burning, it’s as yet the case that remarkably – and as far as I know – that has not yet started happening in India, despite how desperate the situation is there, or Brazil (or Turkey, or Indonesia, or Egypt, or…)… (Does anyone have information on what’s happening – in these terms – in these places ?) What do you think is contributing to this ?
And just to be clear, I’m asking all this not only of Patrick; what do others on this list think, too ? Because we’re living through history in the making here… big history.
Jai
On Apr 24, 2020, at 1:29 AM, Patrick Bond <pb...@mail.ngo.za> wrote:
On 4/23/2020 4:37 PM, Jai Sen wrote:
... I’m not sure what is making it so – other than, as Patrick Bond and others have said many times, that South Africa was already the most unequal society on Planet Earth – but from his reports and others, it’s clear that open rebellion against the State’s handling of the corona virus epidemic has broken out in South Africa like perhaps nowhere else, in terms of both scale and intensity… A harbinger of things to come elsewhere ? :
From: Patrick Bond <pb...@mail.ngo.za>
Subject: [Debate-List] (Fwd) Hunger rebellions and political protests: Western Cape townships aflame; global report from nostalgic-liberal media
Date: April 23, 2020 at 10:18:57 AM EDT
To: DEBATE <debat...@fahamu.org>, "progeco...@googlegroups.com" <progeco...@googlegroups.com>(In the zany U.S. the rightwing protesters - in several state capitals, gathering against lockdowns on deluded grounds of "liberty," not poverty - found their FaceBook accounts officially disabled. That could well happen here or anywhere, to progressives, too... is there a Plan B if all social media is retracted including FB's WhatsApp?)
Jai, let me be auto-critical, after looking again at my artificial distinction just above - profoundly dualistic and mistaken, I'm sure Peter Waterman would have pinged back - between liberty and poverty as motivation for protest.
The U.S. rightwing rebellions against lockdowns - the "reopen rallies" - are very complicated, since as usual there are elements of 'populist' class politics. You can obviously find the hardcore protofascistic orientation at the usual-suspect websites - https://www.breitbart.com/tag/lockdown-protests/ or http://drudgereport.com/ - or https://www.infowars.com/ - or a new especially Sinophobic site spawned by Alex Jones: https://cantcloseamerica.com/
But there's no denying that economic suffering - not just hatred of perceived state authoritarian rule (even if it is deemed necessary for pandemic-control reasons) - is bringing people out on the streets in the U.S. and the Paris banluie and no doubt many other places, not just South African townships.
As for ideologies motivating the Western Cape protests documented by journos, it's really hard to say what's going on. I've taken a new job at the University of the Western Cape but as an armchair academic I don't have any clue about the ground-level buzz, sorry. I'm guessing my students know far more than me about this, as usual, but it's hard to stay in touch.
There are a few more powerful critiques of SA state management from reputable networks, organisations and trade unions, which I'll append below in case they're of interest.
Of critical importance is what happens to trade union consciousness, as there appears to be a distinct split - much more pronounced than ever - between class struggle and class snuggle strategies. The latter approach is at the very end, below, from the Congress of SA Trade Unions, reflecting the largest labour federation's proximity to power; the SA president and ruling party chairperson were both leaders of the National Union of Mineworkers which, until the Marikana Massacre of 2012 where that union was seen to be complicit with the power structure, was the centre of gravity in the SA organised proletariat, and Cosatu still has 1.3 million affiliated members. Meantime in 2013-14, the largest single union - the metalworkers - split off and the SA Federation of Trade Unions emerged to become, now after 3 years, the second largest federation with 800 000 preCovid-19 affiliated members. The main development in this split over the past few days was Cosatu's largest member union, representing nurses and teachers, voicing tough opposition in part because of their front-line danger status, in penultimate statement below.
Also, to remind of the mistrust of the SA security apparatus, the magazine Amandla offers this graphic reminder of Marikana in a poster issued when Ramaphosa increased the army deployment from fewer than 3000 to more than 70 000 a few days ago, too.
Perhaps this is the way things will go, when the neoliberal clampdown associated with relatively tokenistic welfare handouts - as confirmed this week - requires massive securitisation, to contain the food rebellions we've been seeing rise, so predictably, across the Western Cape, with potential to keep spreading...
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COSATU welcomes the announced R500 billion incentive and relief package to stabilize the economy and give relief to the poor
21 April 2020
COSATU welcomes the President’s announcement of a R500 billion incentive and relief package to stabilize the economy and save jobs during this lockdown and as part of fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. At a time, where we are struggling because of shrinking resources, this drastic effort by the government is welcomed and laudable.
Unemployment Insurance Fund: The R40 billion that has been put aside to assist workers who have been retrenched or put on unpaid leave is a commendable intervention, but it is unacceptable that less than 2% of these funds have reached workers. We need more decisive action to ensure that the UIF systems work and deliver on time.
The government must equally use the full force of the Disaster Management Regulations to ensure that employers apply for the UIF relief funds on behalf of workers. We also welcome the R100 billion amount allocated to save jobs. Further announcements to increase income guarantee to informal workers are welcomes and must be used as an instrument to formalize the informal economy.
COSATU hopes that the issue of nonpayment of salary increases for public servants will be resolved at the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC). These workers deserve better, especially now that they are carrying the nation on their backs. We also would like to see government working with the GEPF to mobilise some of the worker's retirement savings to fund the Government Employees Housing Scheme (GEHS). This will go a long way to helping the hundreds of thousands of workers with no access to housing.
Social Grants: The decision of social grants adjustments is welcomed because social grants are currently the only income stream to millions of families now. The topping up of social grants provides the fastest poverty relief measure for over 18 million recipients.
A R350 income grant for the unemployed will go a long way in saving the unemployed from unnecessary hardships. This is in line with COSATU’s long standing call to increase the social security net to unemployed individuals between the ages 18-59 through the Basic Income Grant (BIG).
Health: We are happy with the allocation of R20 billion to the fight against Covid-19. The allocation must be used to enhance health systems and facilities as the building blocks towards the implementation of the National Health Insurance. To date approximately 120 000 persons have been tested. This is woefully inadequate. The government must ensure that over the next two weeks measures are put into place to test all workers at the places of work starting with workers currently on duty.
Measures need to be put in place to ensure all transport, workplaces and educational institutions are sanitized and kept safe for workers and learners now and post-shutdown. This includes the urgent provision of PPEs for essential workers.
Economic Measures:
We welcome the commitment to infrastructure spending going forward.
We agree and support the principle of the gradual reopening of the economy, as long as proper protocols are developed to keep the workers safe from the virus. Workers and employers must begin a process of consultation in the bargaining councils to conduct risk assessments in the sector and adapt workplaces.
Big corporations need to free their own resources and come to the party. Big Business needs to match the amount that the government has placed on the table. The banks need to do more than what they have done so far. Nothing less than a R1 trillion stimulus plan will be sufficient to turn our already bleeding economy around and save workers from the pain of skyrocketing unemployment levels.
What we also want to see, going forward, is that every cent goes to serving its intended purpose. Therefore, corruption of any kind must not be tolerated. The ANC led government must lead decisively to root out all forms of corruption that might rear its ugly head as we endeavor to raise funds to fight the spread of the dreaded Covid-19 virus.
Issued by COSATU
Sizwe Pamla (Cosatu National Spokesperson)
Tel: 011 339 4911
Fax: 011 339 5080
Cell: 060 975 6794
--
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