COSATU MEDIA MONITOR [1] Monday 27 August 2007

We do our best to provide the movement’s statements direct to all structures and members as quickly as possible through the daily sister publication to this one, called “COSATU Today”. It is compiled from the broad movement’s press releases. We do this partly so that subscribers are forewarned of matters that are going to appear in the bourgeois media.

Yet there are still occasions when these media are ahead of us and are reporting “about us, without us”. We may hear of decisions, apparently taken in our ranks, through the bourgeois media. Such reports may be useful but can also be incomplete and unclear from our point of view, or merely sensational.

For example, Willie Madisha has told Karima Brown of The Weekender that he will quit as President of COSATU “next year”, which is long before the next COSATU Congress scheduled to take place around September 2009. Or perhaps it means he will serve out his term? It is not clear. (See 5.1)

“COSATU Media Monitor” has little capacity for interrogating the sources of stories, even when the person concerned chooses to personally summon a press conference for that purpose, as Cde Madisha did last Wednesday. He still refused to answer questions about the alleged R500,000, allegedly once placed in the boot of his car by the Charles Modise, and he said nothing about quitting.

Madisha’s press conference was held in SADTU’s boardroom, without consulting SADTU colleagues, and Madisha further obliged COSATU staff to distribute his personal statement for him, even though COSATU had already decided that the matter should be dealt with by the SACP, and not by COSATU.

Therefore Madisha’s statement of 22 August 2007 had no standing in COSATU and is not a COSATU document, even if it did go out through COSATU distribution lists, including this one. This was in fact the only channel that published it in full. We are anxious to ensure that SADTU, a COSATU affiliate, and COSATU itself, should not appear to be embroiled in Willie Madisha’s disputes with the SACP.

COSATU has said that the matter of Modise’s alleged R500K-in-a-black-plastic-bag is an SACP affair, and Willie Madisha has understood and acknowledged this. The question of resignation from COSATU, or SADTU, or from the chairmanship of the Labour Job Creation Trust, should not therefore arise. The way the matter is put in The Weekender, it appears as a false alarm, or as a decoy. It has no substance.

(Concerning trusts, see the very important report at 1.1 below.)

Similarly, we are also not aware of the precise nature of the fund mentioned as being raised in support of Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, reported in the Saturday Star (See 3.1). We do not know if this fund has the approval of Comrade Madlala-Routledge, or not. Nor do we know what would be the precise purpose of such a fund. Is it to pay lawyers’ fees, or is it to compensate Madlala-Routledge for the brutal impost of R455,000 that she is being pursued for by vindictive former government colleagues? We await further and better particulars in this regard.

The above problems illustrate some of the difficulties that face the person who must select material from thousands of possible articles, and limit the selection as close as possible to a reasonable number of stories, which we believe is closer to fifteen than twenty, in each issue.

Another difficulty is illustrated by the appearance of prominent articles in the Saturday Star based on interviews with the despicable Adriaan Vlok and the monstrous Johann van der Merwe. These two criminals are busy trying to raise their public profiles and we do not wish to assist them, so their articles are left out.

Yet Vlok’s and van der Merwe’s efforts are evidence of a blatant threat to the liberation of 1990/1994. Their mockery of a recent “plea-bargained” “trial” has set them free again to take up their anti-communist crusade in the media and on public platforms, and to gloss over their vile and murderous past with weasel words and disguised lies.

Meanwhile, on the back of this disgusting “Vlokery”, revolutionaries who liberated the country are now being investigated and threatened. See 4.1 and 4.2.

Workplace

1.1 Court rules trustees must decide fund matters

Bruce Cameron, Personal Finance, 25 August 2007

One of the problems with the Fidentia scam and the way J Arthur W Brown set about snatching the R1.2 billion in assets belonging to widows and orphans in the Living Hands Umbrella Trust, was the lack of intervention by the retirement fund trustees, in particular the trustees of trade union funds.

The main victims of Fidentia's rape of the Living Hands Umbrella Trust were 46 000 widows and orphans - the dependants of deceased members of the Mineworkers Provident Fund (MPF).

The MPF falls under the control of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the mining industry employers, with both nominating trustees. The trustees in turn, among their other duties, appoint service providers.

One of the MPF's service providers is a retirement fund administration company called Lekana, which is 70 percent owned by financial services company Momentum and 30 percent by the Mineworkers Investment Corporation (MIC), which is controlled by the NUM.

Lekana, in turn, had a secret agreement with the Living Hands Administration Company (which administered the umbrella trust) and with its predecessor, Mantadia Administration Company (which was bought by Fidentia), in terms of which Lekana received payments (that were not declared to the fund trustees) to steer business to the umbrella funds. In other words, Lekana and, ultimately, the MIC were making secret profits.

When one of the MPF trustees, Collyn Manzana, objected last year to what was happening at Living Hands, NUM promptly removed her as a trustee.

Frans Mahlangu, the fund's principal officer, backed Manzana and also expressed his concern about what was going on at Living Hands. He was suspended by the MPF trustees and his disciplinary hearing has been dragging on for almost a year on what seem to be very flimsy charges.

Non-interference
Quite simply, no one should interfere with retirement fund business or give instructions to trustees. This principle should apply to unions, employer-sponsored retirement funds and retirement funds (retirement annuity, umbrella and preservation funds) that are sponsored by financial services companies.

This principle of non-interference was upheld by the Witwatersrand division of the High Court last week when Acting Judge Alec Freund handed down a judgment in favour of the trustees of PPWAWU National Provident Fund against the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers Union (Ceppwawu).

Behind the judgment lies a Ceppwawu resolution adopted at its congress in August 2002 which imposed obligations on (fund) trustees elected or appointed by the union or its members.

The resolution sets numerous conditions on the trustees, including instructions that:

· "… the worker trustees are accountable to the union and the members of the funds who elect them"; and

· "… the trustees are obliged to implement decisions of the union's national executive committee".

And if trustees do not behave as required in terms of the resolution, they "must be disciplined in terms of the union's constitution and its policies".

The PPWAWU National Provident Fund successfully asked the court to declare:

· The resolution on the accountability of fund trustees "contrary to law and unenforcable"; and

· That any disciplinary action taken against the fund's members trustees, which is wholly or partially based on the resolution, is unlawful.

Costs were awarded against the union.

The issue that gave rise to the resolution was a decision by the trustees in March 2002 to fire the then fund administrator, NBC, and to appoint Lekana in its place. The union was opposed to the decision.

Then, in 2006, the trustees decided unanimously to change the rules of the fund to dilute the control that the union had over the appointment of the fund trustees, bringing the fund into line with changes to the Pension Funds Act, which requires that 50 percent of a board of trustees be elected by fund members.

The union objected and issued disciplinary notices to five trustees, including the chairman of the fund, Michael Khoza; the principal officer; as well as the Ceppwawu general secretary, Phineas Masombuka, who supported the trustees.

The result was that the trustees and the principal officer were expelled as members of the union and Masombuka was fired from his union job. Khoza was also retrenched by pulp and paper company Mondi, as he was employed as one of the union's shop floor stewards. As a result of the action, he was no longer a member of the union.

Craig Watt-Pringle SC, who appeared on behalf of the fund, argued in the court hearing that each trustee owes a fiduciary duty to the fund and that the resolution sought to interfere with the proper exercise of their fiduciary duties in an unlawful manner.

Judge's views
Judge Freund agrees, saying it "is clear that all the fund's trustees owe a fiduciary duty to the fund and to its members and other beneficiaries".

"Each of the fund's trustees is required to exercise an independent judgment as to what constitutes the best interests of the fund."

The Judge also says: "The trustee's obligation to exercise an independent judgment, regardless of the views of the trade union (or employer) which appointed him is analogous to the director's (of a company) obligation to exercise an independent judgment, regardless of the views of any party which may have procured his or her appointment as a director.

"In my view, the trustees cannot lawfully acquiesce in an attempt by a trade union or any other party to fetter their discretion by the imposition of a 'mandate'."

The judge says that while there is nothing unlawful or improper in a union expressing its views on issues to be decided by a fund's trustees "it is, in my view, unlawful for the union to seek to compel member trustees to 'take mandates' which they are required to implement, failing which they risk disciplinary steps".

Rosemary Hunter, the instructing attorney, says the judgment sets out clearly the duty of trustees and that they have a duty to their funds alone. I agree. All retirement fund trustees and anyone seeking to influence trustees must read this judgment.

1.2 City plans for strike action by SAMWU

Celeste Ganga, Bush Radio, 25 August 2007

The South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) will be embarking on a strike on Tuesday, 28 August 2007.

“They have received permission to hold a march that will run from 12hoo to 14h30, through the Central Business District, “ says the City’s Director of Communications, Pieter Cronje.

The City advises people to use alternative routes, and to plan accordingly.

“At the same time we would like to say that we respect SAMWU’s right to strike, but our first duty is service delivery to the residents," says Cronje.

The City has taken every measure to ensure that service delivery will continue.

“We ask people to put out their refuse bins on the same collection days and if it’s not collected on that day, to put it out on the next day, “ says Cronje.

Workers in the Central Services such as Health, Water, Electricity, Sanitation and Emergency Services are not allowed to strike.

1.3 RBCT inks three-year wage deal with workers

Matthew Hill, Mining Weekly, 24 August 2007

The world’s biggest single coal export terminal, Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT), has struck a three-year wage deal with its workers’ unions to increase their wages by 8% this year, and consumer inflation plus 1% for two years thereafter, it said on Friday.

The agreement also included a range of benefits and career development issues aimed at improving employees’ conditions of employment and service, RBCT said in an emailed statement.

The unions involded in the negotiations were Solidarity and the South African Trade and Allied Workers Union (Satawu).

“This agreement is good for RBCT, the coal industry, and South Africa at large”, commented the terminal’s chairperson Kuseni Dlamini.

“Despite our disagreements, we were finally able to reach an agreement which we see as a significant achievement for our members,” SATAWU representative Guqani Mhlongo said in the statement.

RBCT is owned by coal majors including AngloCoal, Exxaro, BHP Billiton Energy Coal South Africa and Xstrata.

1.4 SAMA says medical records must stay confidential

SABC, 24 August 2007

The South African Medical Association (Sama) says a patient's medical information must remain confidential. Sama's specialist private practice committee chairperson, Eugene Allers, says they are concerned over rules allowing medical aid schemes access to such information.

Doctors are compelled by the Council for Medical Schemes to provide a patient's diagnosis in the form of an ICD-10 code on all medical accounts, referral letters and prescriptions. However, Allers says the system is not secure.

Recommendations from a task team to secure the system have not been implemented. They include the setting up of a secure national database providing government and the industry access to valuable health information and statistics.

Court proceedings under way
Meanwhile, arguments in the matter between health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and the Sunday Times are continuing in the Johannesburg High Court.

The health minister is suing the newspaper in an attempt to retrieve her medical records and to silence it from further commenting about them. The minister's legal team has asked the court not to rule on the allegations against her but limit its judgment to the newspaper's breach of doctor-patient privilege.

The furore over the minister's medical records arose after the newspaper published stories, alleging that Tshabalala-Msimang had, amongst others, jumped the queue for a liver transplant.

South Africa

2.1 Mbeki seems headed for a lonely retirement

Jacob Dlamini, The Weekender, 25 August 2007

I do not know how fluent President Thabo Mbeki is in Zulu , but he would do well to learn one of that language’s most pithy sayings: Okungapheli kuyahlola! Everything is destined to end.

Mbeki’s reign, like that of Nelson Mandela’s before him, will soon end. Ditto his term as president of the African National Congress (ANC). He will soon be known as a former this and that, a chief in name only. Okungapheli kuyahlola!

Who, then, will miss the fellow when he is gone? Will it be the ANC, which has arguably seen more division and internal strife under Mbeki’s tenure as party president than under any other president in its 95-year history?

This is an organisation that has had pretty much everything thrown at it, from tribalists, misogynists and murderous spies to corrupt leaders. Will this same organisation miss Mbeki? Somehow, I doubt it.

Will it be the black elite that has grown exponentially during his two terms and whose cause he has championed for the past 13 years?

Probably not. These are, after all, the same people from whose ranks come those who wanted more — not less — apartheid back in the olden days.

To be fair to them, they wanted a stricter enforcement of apartheid because in operating in only one direction (allowing white business to open up in townships, for example, while denying black business the opportunity to serve white areas), the apartheid state made the playing field more uneven for black business.

The folks who make up the black elite do not owe their existence solely to the ANC in general and Mbeki in particular and, what’s more, they know it.

Look at the many breaks, starting in the ’70s , that the apartheid state gave the tiny black elite in order to enlarge the black middle class. This was in a desperate bid to create a buffer between the state and the great unwashed.

You only have to read the latest work by Nicoli Nattrass and Jeremy Seekings on inequality in post-apartheid SA to realise that far from being the champion of black business, the ANC government has merely continued with policies first tried by the apartheid state. The context is different, as is the rhetoric, but the effects are the same: a growing gap between the black poor and the black rich. The black elite know this and are going to dump the “chief” as soon as he reaches his expiry date.

Will it be the “native” pundits — virtually none of whom come from the ANC’s tradition — who seem to have made it their mission to massage the man’s ego at every turn? However, do not feel sorry for Christine Qunta et al. The new era has been good for (their) business and will continue to be so even after the Mbeki era is over.

Will these people miss the man when he is gone? I think not.

Will it be the white businessmen (and they are mostly men) who continue to mouth platitudes about Mbeki’s stewardship of the economy and soundness of fundamentals even as the majority of South Africans grow poorer?

Operating mostly in what we might call Rhodesia-mode (whereby you disengage from politics so that the natives can muck it up while you mint it), these folks aren’t likely to miss Mbeki.

After all, some of us look alike and it does not really matter whether we are named Thabo or Thuso as long as we don’t mess with the fundamentals. That is why we do not care what Jacob Zuma does for gender relations in this country. We only need to know what his “economic policy” is. Do you think they will miss Mbeki when he is history? Hell no!

Will it be that amorphous category called “our people” of which Mbeki so often speaks? Will it be the “people” with whom he thought he could communicate directly — via his online newsletter in a country where the internet is something that exists over there somewhere — even as his government continues to deprive the average South African of affordable telecommunications? Do you think they will miss him? Khutsong might be a good place to start asking that question.

Will it be the women at Frere Hospital who have been effectively told to stop moping about losing their babies because, statistically, they are no worse off than the average? Will these women miss our president? I wouldn’t bet on it.

Like I said, I do not know how firm Mbeki’s grip on Zulu is and so will not count on his knowledge of okungapheli kuyahlola . But there is something he might remember from his days as a committed Marxist and that is the only thing that does not change in this world is change itself.

Okungapheli kuyahlola.

But who will miss Mbeki when he is, as he must be, gone?

2.2 R 500 m tender scandal

Makhudu Sefara, Dumisane Lubisi and Jackie Mapiloko, City Press, 26 August 2007

An investigation by City Press has uncovered questionable transactions involving more than R500 million of government tenders in Limpopo.

City Press has established that those involved in the transactions include several senior politicians and top government officials who colluded in the allocation of tenders to their associates.

The phenomenon is known locally as a "Zulu Fee" - a bribe invariably set at R500 000 in cash. The City Press findings will be released in a two-part series starting this week. They include:

· Health MEC Charles Sekoati is a shareholder of a company, Alpha-Veta Entertainment Enterprise, that is erecting an office block for the provincial government

· He is also a director of another company, Leopont 121 Properties, that sold an office block for R36 million to the health department. He joined the company in 1999.

· Of the five office blocks under construction, controversial ANC benefactor Demetrios "Jimmy" Kourtoumbellides is involved in three. The fourth involves his codirectors in another company. Kourtoumbellides, a co-shareholder with Sekoati in Alpha-Veta, has repeatedly been accused of selling a number of properties to government at inflated prices.

· A businessman, Kingsley Duba, was allocated a R323 million tender to build an office block for a department headed by Sam Rampedi who is his former co-director in another company.

· Duba shares a directorship with Rampedi's wife, Nnaniki Magdalene Rosinah Rampedi.

Sekoati, a powerful ANC leader in the province, has sold his building on Hans van Rensburg Street for a staggering R36 million, according to documents in the possession of City Press. The building used to be the provincial health headquarters for his department.

The department previously paid rent to his company but City Press could not establish for how long this had been. Alpha-Veta is constructing an office block for the provincial sports, arts and culture department.

A public works department document in City Press's possession shows that Kourtoumbellides is involved in four of the five office blocks being built in Polokwane. He has partnered with Johannes "Jannie" Moolman to build offices for the department in a company called Night Fire Investment 8. Moolman, with Owen Phasha and Bonale Aaron Riba, extended the premier's office for R119 million.

A lease agreement in our possession shows the office was extended to 6 905m² and the lease will run until 2013. Government will only then decide whether to buy the property or continue paying rent.

Kourtoumbellides is also a director in Phamog Folang Joint Venture with LR Phathela, LM Mogudi and others. The company is constructing another office block for the roads and transport department. Phathela and Mogudi are contracted to build offices for the agriculture department.

Another document shows that Sekoati's Leopont Properties sold an office block to the local government department for R34 million.

When contacted about Sekoati's business empire, his spokesperson Phuti Seloba said: "The MEC says when the building on Hans van Rensburg was sold, he was not even a member of the legislature. As for the (new) sports, arts and culture building, he has declared his interests in the member's register at the premier's office, which is available for public scrutiny."

However, ethics committee chairperson, Saad Cachalia, who is also MEC for finance, last week refused City Press access to the member's register. He said it could only be viewed at particular periods in the year but did not say when next it would be available for viewing.

Businessman Kingsley Duba was allocated a R323 million tender to build offices for the local government and housing department.

Duba and Rampedi admitted to "sharing drinks from time to time" but denied ever being friends.

Duba's company, Hendisa Investments, was the only one that responded to the advertisement to build the office block.

Documents in City Press's possession show that Rampedi's department will pay Duba's company R1.7 million a month, with costs escalating at 9% a year. The lease will run for 10 years.

Rampedi confirmed on Friday that he occasionally went "drinking" with Duba but said this did not mean Duba was his drinking buddy.

He said Duba was not his friend and he was not involved in allocating the tender to him.

"As head of department, I would have been briefed. We told public works what (office specifications) we need. It's not possible I could have influenced the awarding," he said.

Asked if he did not see anything wrong with having his drinking partner build an office block for his department, Rampedi said "no". A director's search by City Press shows that Duba is also a director in a company with Rampedi's wife - something Rampedi said he was not bothered about.

Duba said he did not see anything wrong in building an office block for a department led by his former business partner. "If I was in the same company with Sam some time ago, I now can't continue with my property business because of a career move he made? If people said government procurement procedures were breached, I would be worried. Sam did not do me a favour," he said.

Observers this week said Limpopo tenders had become a "special type of mogodisano (stokvel)" where politicians and senior civil servants openly passed one another jobs.

United Independent Forum leader Ike Kekana said corruption in the province had become an art. "The level of corruption in this province is so high and the players have perfected the art. It's palpable," he said.

2.3 Housing plan goes ahead at grave site

Dan Dhlamini, City Press, 26 August 2007

The Rustenburg City Council will proceed with a R280 million housing project in an area believed to have unmarked graves linked to missing political activists.

The move was confirmed by city council spokesperson Buttler Matlapeng.

He said research commissioned by his council and various stakeholders found that the soil in the area where the houses will be built had not been disturbed as a result of the alleged grave site.

Matlapeng said the council had fenced off the portion where the graves are and might declare it a heritage site, but it would continue with the building of houses in the area.

Some of the more than 80 secret graves on a prime site near the foot of a hill may be the final resting place of many activists who disappeared in the 1980s.

Police chaplain Reverend Bana Setshedi said when he was asked by Phokeng police in 2000 to conduct paupers’ burials for about 39 unidentified bodies where the secret graves are, he realised it was not a demarcated cemetery although there were many other graves there.

The families of MK couriers Nokuthula Simelane, Stanza Bopape and Boiki Tlhapi, to mention a few, still do not know the whereabouts of their loved ones.

The trio and many others disappeared in the turbulent days of the apartheid era.

Although the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said it was unaware of the secret graves in Rustenburg, it confirmed it was working with a list from the Truth and reconciliation Comnmission (TRC) of about 500 missing people.

Rustenburg Mayor Matthews Wolmarans said he could not rule out the possibility that the area where the graves are could have been the secret burial site for activists killed in the 1980s.

In 1993, Potchefstroom policeman Johnny Mokaleng claimed that he knew where Bopape and others were buried in Rustenburg, North West.

Police turned the place upside down but their search yielded nothing and Mokaleng was charged with perjury and defeating the ends of justice. Mokaleng said then that he had missed the spot.

Mokaleng, who was fired from the police force, was represented by advocate George Bizos. All charges against him were withdrawn in 1995.

In 1996, he handed an affidavit to the TRC describing how activists were taken by apartheid police from various townships and driven to Rustenburg, where they were forced to dig holes, tortured, killed and dumped in the shallow graves.

Mokaleng was readmitted to the police service in 2001 and is stationed in nearby Klerksdorp.

2.4 Ideas live forever: In Memory of Ruth First

Buti Manamela, YCL National Secretary, The Bottomline, 23 August 2007

Who was Ruth First?

Ruth First was the National Secretary of the Young Communist League in the 1940's. Together with Joe Slovo, Esther Barsel, Ahmed Kathrada and many more resuscitated the YCL. The activities they were involved in included ensuring that there is access to skills development, equal access to education and the sale of Umsebenzi.

She was born in Johannesburg on the 4th of May 1925 into a communist family. Both her parents were founder members of the Communist Party of South Africa. She was an active journalist, writer and activist. Amongst the people she studied with included Nelson Mandela.

During the era of Ruth First in the YCL, one of the critical debates that were undertaken at the time included that of the relationship between the YCL and the SACP. First and the YCL cadres insisted on an autonomous youth formation with an independent voice and programme which will introduce the youth of the country to the strategic vision of socialism and the ideas of the SACP.

First was killed in 1982, 17 August as a result of a letter bomb that was sent by the Apartheid regime. The person responsible for her assassination was Craig Williamson, former Apartheid operative. The fact that First was one of the targeted leaders of the revolutionary movement shows the extent which she was a threat to the regime.

First was a leading cadre of the YCL and SACP at the time of the passing of the Suppression of Communism Act, a law that made it illegal for anyone to be part and parcel of the activities of the Communist Party of South Africa.

Why should we commemorate Ruth First?

Firstly, as a leader of the YCL and an icon for the struggle of the liberation of blacks in general and African people in particular. Secondly, any revolution that forgets its leaders and heroines is doomed to failure as it will easily forget the struggle which they pursued. The most important element of commemorating our fallen heroes is not to merely sing praises about them, but also to understand the context within which they lived and their world outlook at the time.

The life of Ruth First should also be celebrated as a woman who, in the midst of male domination and patriarchal preoccupation, she claimed her space and contributed towards the liberation of our people.

The ideas of Ruth First, as Thomas Sankara proclaimed, should never die. Although the apartheid regime thought that by killing her they are killing the ideas she stood for, we should ensure that we keep them alive and hand them over from one generation to another generation.

What struggle did Ruth First pursue?

Ruth First was in the first instance dedicated to the overthrow of the Apartheid regime. She was committed to the pursuance of the National Democratic Revolution, whose main goal was the liberation of Africans in particular and blacks in general from national, gender and class oppression. In the ultimate, First believed that the NDR is the shortest route towards socialism. She at all times articulated the revolutionary link between the national, the gender and the class struggle.

As a member of the SACP, First also believed in the ideals of socialism. She believed and struggled for an end of exploitation of one person by another. She struggled for the creation of a society where from equal work there shall be an equal stake for all.

In that context, for us socialism should be about land redistribution. Without land, there is no food as we cannot plant. Without land there is no spring water. There is no meat and other meat products as we cannot have kraals. Therefore, the struggle for the common ownership of land by all, held in trust by the state, should be our primary struggle.

Taking Forward the Memory of Ruth First on Education

The kind of education that we receive already determines the kind of society that we seek to build. All education systems are an embryo for the defense of and taking forward a form of social and productive relations. Under Apartheid, it was Bantu education whose main object was to inculcate the idea that Apartheid was best under the circumstances. Today, the learning environment entrenches fear of authority and suppresses critical knowledge and learning. Learners are taught to accept what the teacher teaches. The classroom is regarded as the only place for learning, thus, everything else outside the classroom is sometimes regarded not as education. If a teacher says 1+1=3, then so be it. Free education for the YCL is also about the freeness of the ideas expressed and the critical nature that it should unearth amongst students.

Taking Forward the Memory of Ruth First on Housing

The housing question is a pressure question. Prices of houses are determined by the market. The state has no say in how much a house of such and such a number of rooms, in such and such a place will cost. There are millions in our country who have no houses, not because there are no houses, but because they cannot afford them. Many houses in the suburbs are left unoccupied with a board written FOR SALE. Mansions costing millions. The poor should resolve the housing problem through mass struggles by actually moving into these houses.

How should we take forward the Memory of Ruth First?

In taking forward the memory of Ruth First, we have the challenge of ensuring that we make the post-Apartheid state workable. This democracy that we have is as a result of the effort of cadres such as Ruth First who believed in the will of the people. She dedicated and gave her life for 1994 to happen. She ensured that it becomes a reality for all of us.

Also critical in remembering First is to ensure that we go all out to the youth and the working class and explain what the programme of the SACP is. It should not be about complex concepts and long quotations from Marx and Lenin. It should be about exposing the inequities in our society. It is about exposing the fact that we are living in a world where some people die because they have malnutrition, whilst others die because they are obesity. We need to go out there and say that a better and just world is possible. We need to send a message that we have enough resources to feed every one and that it can only be through struggle that we can evenly distribute these resources.

We must ask critical questions. We should demand to know why there are schools for the rich and why there are schools for the poor. Why are those who relax in their offices are the ones who earn more, whilst the actual work is done by those who sweat? Why is it that it is the workers who build the cars, who mine the gold, who build the mansions and yet it is they who cannot afford even the cheapest of cars, the lowest of carats and smallest of houses? We need to ask these questions as an entry for our political education. We then need to say what should be done, together with the working class and the youth. This is how we should take forward the memory of Ms Ruth First. That's the Bottomline, cos the YCL said so!

2.5 SABC bemoans loss of PSL radio rights

Thom McLachlan, The Weekender, 25 August 2007

The SABC received another nasty shock this week when the Premier Soccer League (PSL) pulled the plug on the SABC’s temporary radio broadcasting rights on soccer matches.

This comes weeks after the SABC lost out to SuperSport in a bruising fight over the television rights of local PSL games. SuperSport secured the rights in a R1,6bn deal .

The SABC said on Friday that it was overcome with “sadness and shock” at the PSL’s decision to cancel a temporary agreement over the radio broadcasting rights of soccer matches.

According to the SABC, the PSL told it on Tuesday that it would not extend the temporary contract held by the public broadcaster, which gave it full control over the broadcasting of PSL matches.

The SABC said PSL acting CEO Ronnie Schloss had told SABC CEO Dali Mpofu of the soccer body’s intent “without any explanation other than the fact that the temporary period (given to SABC on the 10th of this month) had lapsed”.

“Initially, the PSL had indicated that radio rights would be handled by individual clubs.

“Subsequent to that, the PSL instructed that all radio rights would be handled by the league and collectively,” the broadcaster said.

“Further to this … the SABC learned that the radio rights had reverted back to individual clubs, at which point the SABC had not been afforded the opportunity to engage the clubs.”

This means that individual clubs will be allowed to award rights to whomever they desire, including community radio stations.

The SABC said “the radio medium is the most powerful communication tool in the country and such d raconian treatment of millions of South Africans is regrettable”.

However, the PSL has previously said rewarding the rights to individual clubs would be beneficial to the rights of community radio stations as it took the control out of the SABC’s hands.

Health Care

3.1 Cash rolls in for axed deputy

Sibusiso Ngalwa, Saturday Star, 25 August 2007

Friends and supporters of the sacked former deputy health minister have started a fund to help the embattled politician.

Only a few days after being set up, the Defend Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge Fund has already seen money begin rolling in with cash donations from politicians, doctors, scientists and NGOs.

Madlala-Routledge is said to owe the government as much as R500 000 - for her allegedly unauthorised trip to Spain as well as money the Department of Defence says she owes them - and her salary for August was docked by the Health Department.

The fund, an initiative led by the Aids Law Project (ALP) and the Treatment Action Campaign, had about R30 000 so far in the kitty, said Adila Hassim, acting director of the ALP.

Hassim said the fund would be used to assist Madlala-Routledge to mount a legal defence against the "campaign to ridicule her".

This week the Health Department confirmed that it had asked Madlala-Routledge to repay R312 000 for her Madrid trip in June which she undertook without President Thabo Mbeki's blessing.

On Thursday, the Department of Defence confirmed she owed them R116 357 for "foreign subsistence and travel" dating back to her time as deputy defence minister.

Health director-general Thami Mseleku wrote to the former deputy informing her that she would not receive her part-salary of R8 400 for August 1-9 (the day she was sacked) as she still owed an R8 100 subsistence advance she had received ahead of the ill-fated Spanish trip.

"The idea was to support her (Madlala-Routledge) given the vindictive way which the Department of Health has gone about treating her.

"It's one thing to dismiss her, but it's inappropriate of the department to withhold money due to her," she said.

The response to the fund had been positive, said Hassim.

"The people we contacted responded immediately. I can't disclose their names right now but they are well-known," she said.

Lawyers acting for the former deputy health minister have asked the Department of Health to furnish them with invoices and proof of the R312 000 they claim is owed.

Madlala-Routledge's spokesperson, Sukthi Naidoo said they were still awaiting a response from the Health Department regarding their request.

"We have asked for copies of the invoices from the travel agents to verify the amounts," she said.

Naidoo also acknowledged that Madlala-Routledge had received "documents" from the Department of Defence regarding money the department says is owed to them.

Madlala-Routledge was sacked by Mbeki for making an unauthorised trip to Spain and failing to work as part of the "collective".

Madlala-Routledge was already in Spain when she learned the trip had not been approved by Mbeki. She then took the first available plane home.

Her boss, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang is also under attack. In an open letter to Mbeki, Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille yesterday repeated the DA's call for Mbeki to fire the health minister, who has refused to resign saying she had not "abdicated" her duties.

Mbeki has asked for evidence proving any wrongdoing by the health inister.

This follows a series of damning articles in the Sunday Times portraying Tshabalala-Msimang as a heavy drinker and a thief.

Zille said Tshabalala-Msimang's department had suffered "chronic" mismanagement under her leadership.

"It was only when she (Madlala-Routledge) was able to assert a measure of control - during the minister's six-month sick leave - that a measure of sanity prevailed.

"An updated ARV roll-out took off, and a renewed sense of unity between government and civil society was restored," wrote Zille.

3.2 Gloves come off in Manto battle

Julian Rademeyer, Sunday Times, 26 August 2007

It was the week that the gloves came off in the battle between Mantombazana Edmie Tshabalala-Msimang and the Sunday Times. At stake was the public’s right to know versus the health minister’s right to privacy.

But in the screeds of copy, howls of outrage from spin doctors and reams of court papers filed in the wake of the paper’s exposé of the minister as a “drunk and a thief”, it was what was left unsaid that spoke volumes.

Not once, despite her department’s contention that the revelations were “false, speculative and bizarre,” did Tshabalala- Msimang refute the specific allegations in the news reports.

Instead, the minister and her staff sidestepped every opportunity to do so.

Publicly, the words “wine” and “alcohol” never escaped her lips.

When the minister finally addressed reporters, in East London on Thursday, she ignored the allegations, choosing instead to focus on calls for her resignation.

“I am not stepping down because I don’t understand why I should step down, unless — as the President has said — you give him reasons why,” she said.

“What is it that I have done? Relegated my duties assigned to me? Have I? If you can say so, please give us that information, as the President has said. ”

Nor did she deny that she had been convicted of theft in Botswana in the 1970s, saying only that it was a “long story”.

Even President Thabo Mbeki — who has defended the minister and attacked the Sunday Times in two “Letters from the President” this month — was silent on the matter in his missive published on the ANC’s website on Friday.

In the battle of the blogs it was left to IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi in his weekly newsletter to defend Tshabalala-Msimang’s honour with a comparison between the Sunday Times’s revelations and the 1692 Salem witch-hunt.

And, bizarrely, a group claiming to be a branch of the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) called for the state to investigate Sunday Times editor Mondli Makhanya’s role as a member of an ANC self-defence unit in KwaZulu-Natal in the late 1980s and early ’90s.

On Friday, lawyers for the minster and the Sunday Times crossed swords over her medical records in the Johannesburg High Court.

Despite the fact that Tshabalala-Msimang’s counsel, Marumo Moerane, said the application was brought in her personal capacity, the Health Department’s spokesman, Sibani Mngadi, attended and occasionally dished out quotes to reporters.

Asked why he was there in his official capacity if Tshabalala- Msimang’s application was a private matter , he said: “I’ll probably be called before Parliament to explain.”

John Campbell, for the Sunday Times, argued that a “classic justification for the invasion of privacy is to expose hypocrisy and inconsistency”.

“In order for the Department of Health’s message regarding alcohol abuse to resonate ... she should live her life consistently with the message, and be seen to do so.”

Campbell said revelations of the minister’s drinking habits during a 2005 hospital stay “indicate a level of indiscipline that is not appropriate” and that the Constitution prohibited any Cabinet minister from acting in a manner contradictory to the office they held.

“Whether or not the court grants her the relief she wants ... the debate will continue,” he said.

Campbell denied that the Sunday Times had any part in disappearance of her medical records.

Tshabalala-Msimang is seeking an order forcing the Sunday Times to hand over all copies of her medical records and destroy any remaining references to her records in journalists’ notebooks and on their computers.

She also wants the paper interdicted from commenting or reporting on the records. At present a temporary interdict is in force preventing the paper from copying, reproducing or disseminating the medical records.

A copy of Tshabalala-Msimang’s records is currently held in a Standard Bank vault and can only be accessed if lawyers from both sides are present.

Moerane lashed out at the paper, saying that the National Health Act was “unambiguous” in its protection of patients and that “all information” concerning a patient and their stay in hospital was confidential.

“Kings and beggars are all afforded the same protection,” he said.

He said the minister’s drinking habits were “irrelevant” to the application, which focused on the Act’s protection of the confidentiality of information about a patient.

“It appears the [Sunday Times] is not really interested in the rule of law ... They want rule of the press ... [They] are overstepping in every direction the obvious bounds of propriety and decency.”

The minister was joined in the application by Medi-Clinic, which has reported her records stolen. Moerane accused the Sunday Times of “peddling stolen information” and “holding themselves as being above the law”.

He also attacked the Sunday Times’s contention that the minister and her role in South Africa was a matter of national debate as “irrelevant, scandalous and vexatious”.

“Whether she is a fit person or not a fit person [to be Health minister] is irrelevant to the protection of her rights and the sanctity of her documents.”

A ruling is expected within a week.

3.3 'Silence and fear the real enemies of democracy'

Christelle Terreblanche, Sunday Independent, 26 August 2007

The single biggest threat to South Africa's democracy is "silence and fear". So says the woman who broke the silence on several of the country's health taboos and was then sacked from her job as deputy health minister two weeks ago.

"I really think that [it is] silence. Silence and fear. When we see that this is wrong and we keep quiet out of fear, self-interest…" says No-zizwe Madlala-Routledge.

She spoke out about the stress of working under Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, the health minister - something so grinding that she puts it on a par with the trauma she experienced in the 1980s during a year of solitary confinement.

"I actually felt abused in that situation," she remarked of her former boss. "And what made it worse was that I was working with a woman and I expected solidarity.

"And I don't say I am an angel, but when I made mistakes I expected guidance from her and also from my other colleagues in the executive. A lot of the time I felt I did what I could, but that I couldn't count on my comrades to assist."

She said that, although she passionately wanted to carry on with urgent health work, she felt "relieved" after being fired.

Faced with a "discussion" with Kgalema Motlanthe, the ANC secretary-general, and a possible disciplinary hearing - probably for discrediting her former boss - she was at pains to express her loyalty to the party.

But she said that, if the ANC, of which she has been a member for 30 years, wanted a disciplinary hearing, she would ask that it be public.

On the government's silence about the health crisis, which she identified, she said: "I always emphasised the importance of getting out of your comfort zone, out of the ivory tower and going there, where the people have to live their lives.

"And this is what has always guided me in relation to health. The fact that I walk away … and that person still has to face their illness on a daily basis.

"The thing is also to remember that this person can actually walk away if I am able to help … and this is about implementing the good policies we have."

Madlala-Routledge has been embraced by civil society but shunned by many of her close colleagues. Yet she does not feel betrayed and seems to have no regrets.

Now one former executive colleague has spoken out in her defence. Cheryl Gillwald, a former deputy correctional services minister, said that, "unlike the experience of the president, I have always considered her a team player".

"She networks; she has a strong sense of process. She would always make sure that everybody was on board," said Gillwald, who resigned early last year for family reasons. "People [cabinet colleagues] have pulled away from her and it is not fair."

Madlala-Routledge said she could not recognise herself in the "characterisation" of being a "lone ranger", as the president called her in a gloves-off attack last week.

She again spoke of her pain at realising that no-one was responding to her SOSs as her troubles with Tshabalala-Msimang deepened.

This week, a close friend revealed that Madlala-Routledge has been battling breast cancer, diagnosed about five years ago.

"We are very worried about her health… She's is still dealing with her cancer," said Nise Melange, the head of Durban's Bartel Arts Centre. "I would still like to see what it is she has done, because we have seen horrible things happen in this country … as a member of the ANC myself, [I believe] she does not deserve this."

Aids activists have also come to Madlala-Routledge's aid this week by starting a Defend Nozizwe fund to help her pay back government demands for nearly R500 000 made this week, including a bill of R312 000 for a contentious trip to Spain.

3.4 ANC blames ‘enemies’ in Manto saga

S’Thembiso Msomi, City Press, 26 August 2007

In a confidential internal memo compiled by senior party leaders at Luthuli House this week, the ANC says it “is important” for South Africans to “extend a hand of support to the health minister during this difficult time”.

Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has dominated the news over the last two weeks following various media allegations relating to alcohol abuse, theft when she was in exile in Botswana and general abuse of power during her stay in a Cape Town hospital.

“None of the claims, allegations and personal attacks against the minister constitute evidence of a dereliction of duty.

“The promotion of effective, credible and accountable governance requires that decisions are taken on the basis of an individual’s actual contribution to the development and implementation of policy – not allegations about their private lives,” the ANC says in the memo.

It adds: “No matter how strongly certain people may feel about the competency or otherwise of the minister, this should not be an excuse for ‘dirty tricks’ campaigns aimed at public humiliation.”

Last Monday, the ANC’s national working committee (NWC) issued a statement condemning the publishing of the allegations. Two days later a further meeting was held at Luthuli House where the confidential document – which is aimed at guiding the party’s approach to the crisis – was formulated.

The meeting was attended by senior party leaders, including ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe and party chief spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama.

On Friday, the party went on a public relations offensive, releasing an article on its website that accuses sections of the country’s media of colluding with “the opponents of the national democratic revolution”.

Titled A Fundamental Revolutionary Lesson: The Enemy Manouvres But It Remains The Enemy, the document paints a picture of a party and a state that are under siege from both local and foreign “enemies”.

“In this regard, the opponents of our democratic revolution, who lack a significant political base among the masses of our people, have sought to use the domestic and international media as one of their principal offensive instruments, to turn it into an organised formation opposed to the national democratic revolution and its vanguard movement,” the document reads.

It goes on to claim that the party has “experienced an intense and sustained” contest to define its tasks since it took over power in 1994. This contest, it says, has taken place both within and outside the country.

“With regard to the latter, we would like to recall the bold statement made by a member of the US Administration, many years ago, that South Africa is too important to be left to South Africans!

“Taking into account what has been happening during the years of our democracy, and the antecedent period, it is clear that this view is shared by both leftist and rightist forces within the global community,” the ANC article reads.

The ANC said allegations against Tshabalala-Msimang were part of a concerted campaign to destabilise the party and state.

Vlokery/Chicanery

4.1 Conflicting messages on editor probe

Sapa, IOL, 24 August 2007

The Gauteng branch of the SA National Civic Organisation's (Sanco) request for an investigation into the Sunday Times editor was "legitimate", the national leadership said on Friday.

This conflicted with an earlier statement by a Sanco national executive committee (NEC) member who rejected the provincial body's call for a probe.

A later statement emailed on Friday from the Sanco national office said the Gauteng branch had the "right to request" that editor Mondli Makhanya be investigated by the National Prosecuting Authority.

"Therefore we cannot as Sanco national reject their request."

However, earlier in the day, NEC member Dumisani Mthalane rejected this call, saying the request had never been discussed.

"The general secretary doesn't know anything about it," he told Sapa.

Mthalane said the call had come from a group that existed parallel to the official provincial Sanco structure in Gauteng.

But the later statement said a letter received by Sanco president Mlungisi Hlongwane from Sanco Gauteng was "legitimate" and "supported by Sanco national leadership".

Mthalane was not the Sanco national spokesperson and it was unfortunate that he had alleged "political conspiracies", the statement said.

According to the Sanco website, the names of the Gauteng chairman and secretary were different to those on a statement sent on Thursday that called for the probe.

Sanco NEC member Donovan Williams said this was because new leadership had been elected for the province but had not been amended on the website.

"Any individual in the country can initiate actions with any authority of the state with the view to promote the provisions of the law and any other legal process to protect the rights of citizens," the later statement said.

In the initial statement, Sanco Gauteng said it had formally requested that Makhanya be investigated by the National Prosecuting Authority for not applying for amnesty from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

This stemmed from Makhanya's alleged time as a member of a self-defence unit in KwaZulu-Natal in the late 1980s to early 1990s, they said.

The Sunday Times Staff Association declared "unanimous support" for Makhanya and called the request a "cynical and transparent smear being levelled against him by opponents of the newspaper".

"The association regards it as sinister that the old and well-known story about Makhanya's youthful activities in an ANC self-defence unit should now be trotted out in lame and blatant retaliation for the newspaper's revelations about Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang," the association said.

The newspaper recently reported that Tshabalala-Msimang was an alcoholic and convicted thief, leading to widespread media coverage and debate.

The African National Congress-led government and President Thabo Mbeki have stood behind Tshabalala-Msimang.

The NPA confirmed receiving the faxed request on Friday, the SABC reported. - Sapa

4.2 Allies fear Zuma might be charged for struggle

Jeremy Gordin and Patrick Laurence, Sunday Independent, 26 August 2007

Some leaders and other senior members of the ANC-led tripartite alliance fear that prosecutions for apartheid-era crimes could be used to hobble those not in President Thabo Mbeki's camp - and that Jacob Zuma in particular might be one of those targeted.

Their concerns flow from the recent prosecutions of Adriaan Vlok, a former minister of law and order, and four former policemen, for attempting to murder Frank Chikane, now the director-general of the presidency, in 1989. Vlok and the others received suspended sentences in exchange for pleading guilty.

Zuma, the current deputy president of the ANC, is working hard to get himself nominated as president of the ANC at the party's national conference in December and, consequently, as the next president of the country.

But if Zuma were to be found guilty of a crime for which the sentence would be more than minor, he would not be able to hold public office.

The anxiety of the tripartite leaders has surfaced in the wake of an ANC national executive committee meeting on July 27 and 28. Insiders claim that, towards the end of the two-day meeting, Mbeki spoke passionately of the need for there to be a quid pro quo on the part of ANC members in response to the Vlok prosecution.

Mbeki is believed to have pointed out that the ANC had not chosen "group indemnity" at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and that it was therefore possible that some members of the party could be charged by the National Prosecuting Authority, which now has the power to charge and to arrange plea bargains for politically related offences committed before May 11 1994.

The president reportedly said that the ANC had lawyers standing by and that, if any members of the party were charged by the NPA for "apartheid-era atrocities", they needed to give serious consideration to choosing the option of a plea bargain.

Zuma, who attended the NEC meeting but had to leave early for KwaZulu-Natal before Mbeki "took control of the discussion", is understood to have argued that he would never plead guilty to any action he had taken as part of the struggle.

Zuma adherents say that the incident being talked about "in ANC circles" as one for which Zuma could be prosecuted relates to the death in November 1989 of Thami Zulu within a week of his release from detention by ANC security officials.

Thami Zulu was the nom de guerre of Mzwakhe Ngwenya, a Soweto-born man who was the commander of the ANC guerrilla campaign in Natal in the 1980s. TZ, as he was known, was detained as a suspected South African government spy in June 1988 and held in solitary confinement in Lusaka for 17 months.

The suspicions of the ANC security department that the "Natal main machinery" - as the forces under TZ were referred to - had been infiltrated by an enemy agent were aroused after ANC combatants suffered a series of calamitous defeats at the hands of government security forces.

As the ANC's commission of inquiry - on which ANC stalwart Albie Sachs, now a constitutional court judge, served - noted, TZ was a robust young man when he was detained but emerged skeletally thin and seriously ill. Post-mortem tests showed traces of diazinon and beer in his stomach - diazinon being a highly poisonous substance soluble in beer.

The discovery led to suspicions that TZ had been poisoned, particularly as he was fearful during the last few days of his life that there was a conspiracy to "finish him off".

The commanders of Umkhonto we Sizwe were highly critical of the security department's decision to detain him, as well as its cruel treatment of him.

If his co-guerrilla commanders are excluded from the list of people who might have poisoned TZ, the list of those who had the opportunity to do so is narrowed to high-ranking members of the security department. Zuma was the ANC's chief of intelligence and responsible for counter-intelligence operations to detect infiltrated enemy agents.

Although the ANC commission of inquiry did not point fingers at anyone or even a category of people, it did think it probable that TZ was poisoned by a government agent.

It has been pointed out that TZ died in Zambia and that it is not clear whether the NPA could prosecute for a "crime" committed in a foreign country.

"This is not rocket science," said a lawyer familiar with the Zuma camp. "The corruption case against Zuma has snagged for the moment. There are even noises emanating from the NPA that they might not charge Zuma, if at all, until next year. So what happens? The hoax e-mail saga comes up, then the Browse Mole report. Those might all be rubbish - and yet Zuma is still connected with them in one way or another and that has an effect on people's minds.

"And then look at the speed with which the Vlok plea bargain was arranged. Incredibly fast for that kind of matter. And then imagine if Zuma were charged in October with murder or being an accessory to murder while he was head of ANC counter-intelligence in Zambia? It would be the end of him."

A former senior member of the ANC and struggle hero said he disagreed strongly with this view: "Although it sounds like the quintessential Mbeki plot, it would be sheer madness for anyone to charge Zuma with a struggle crime. He would become a national hero immediately and would sweep the country before him. He would not split the party - he would take it," he said.

Another senior member of the alliance said he believed a list existed of ANC members who could be charged by the NPA and that Zuma's named was on it.

But a highly placed source at the NPA said this week that, as far as the list and charging Zuma were concerned, he had "never heard such bullshit in [his] life".

Panyaza Lesufi, the NPA spokesman, said he had not heard of any decision to charge Zuma for matters related to the struggle.

Madisha

5.1 Beleaguered Madisha to quit before he is pushed

Karima Brown, The Weekender, 25 August 2007

The beleaguered Cosatu president is leaving politics before his opponents get the chance to oust him.

Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) president Willie Madisha is quitting politics. Madisha told The Weekender that he will not be seeking re-election as Cosatu president when his term comes to an end next year. Nor will he contest the presidency of teachers’ union, Sadtu in 2010.

“I am not going back as the leader of Cosatu or Sadtu, other people must come in. I am not Mugabe or Mobutu, and I am not bitter,” Madisha said in response to questions about whether he will survive the political storm that has engulfed him.

Madisha’s decision to step down from active politics comes amid growing speculation that his political career will soon come to an abrupt end, following a bitter fallout with his comrades in the labour movement and the South African Communist Party (SACP).

Madisha has emerged as the common denominator in the internal wrangling that has wracked both Cosatu and the SACP in the run-up to both organisations’ elective congresses. Both congresses were marred by allegations of irregularities involving Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi and his counterpart in the SACP Blade Nzimande.

It is understood that the Young Communist League (YCL), which lobbied against him at the party’s recent national congress, is considering a motion to have Madisha expelled from the SACP.

Until recently, Madisha served on the SACP central committee and the party’s politburo but he did not seek re-election at the SACP’S elective conference last month.

A meeting of the league’s top brass convenes this weekend, and Madisha’s fate is expected to be tabled for discussion. There is also increasing talk of Cosatu affiliates discussing Madisha’s continued leadership of the federation.

“The tide is turning against Madisha. Even those who backed him at the Cosatu conference are now asking questions about what his exact role is within Cosatu and the party,” a senior leader said.

While it is unclear whether Madisha will be unseated in Cosatu just yet, his political future hangs by a thread as he appears isolated. Madisha’s political headaches are expected to come up for discussion at Cosatu’s central committee meeting next month when the labour federation meets to deliberate on the African National Congress’ (ANC) presidential succession race, and which candidates it will back for president of the party.

This week a beleaguered Madisha said he has been “sacrificed to the media” by the SACP following reports alleging a R500000 cash donation to the party from controversial businessman Charles Modise, which Madisha says he personally handed over to Nzimande.

Madisha, however refused to provide proof to journalists, citing the sub judice rule, although the matter is not yet before a judge.

Madisha is no stranger to controversy, and this is not the first time he finds himself at odds with his erstwhile comrades, who now accuse him of “betraying” them to their political opponents in the ongoing fight for control in the ruling tripartite alliance.

Last year in the run-up to Cosatu’s elective congress, Madisha was also embroiled in a public clash with Vavi who had to fend off attacks on his credibility after media leaks about his private life and alleged abuse of a Cosatu credit card.

At the time Vavi accused Madisha of leaking information to the media because the two had fallen out over who to back in the ANC presidential succession race. However, Madisha denies any wrongdoing.

“I still want to know where the stories came from, because it affected the organisation very negatively,” Madisha said.

An explosive report in the possession of The Weekender, compiled by a high-level commission set up by Cosatu, fingers Madisha as the source of media leaks involving Vavi’s personal life, and allegations that Cosatu’s national office bearers had instituted an investigation into Vavi’s abuse of the credit card.

The report, which was completed last September but suppressed by the federation’s leadership for fear that it would further widen divisions at the conference, is damning of Madisha’s role in the breakdown of trust between the Cosatu national office bearers. The report also talks of how Madisha told his colleagues “o jele mothaka o” — loosely translated to mean that Jacob Zuma was “guilty” — when the ANC deputy president was on trial for rape and corruption.

In the findings and recommendations section of the report, it is stated: “It has been submitted by all the office bearers, and the president himself, that the president is responsible for the leak in the media.”

The report also finds that Madisha had suggested that security around Vavi be stepped up after a meeting between Madisha and Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula and Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils. In Vavi’s submission to the commission he testified that Madisha had warned him in a meeting of the office bearers that his “life was in danger”.

“Without revealing details, the president of Cosatu argued in the CEC (central executive committee) for security to be stepped up. The office bearers expressed concern that to date no details were ever disclosed in relation to the safety or otherwise of the general secretary,” the report states.

In his submission to the commission, Madisha admitted that he asked for Vavi’s security to be increased. Madisha told the commission he went to meet Nqakula and Kasrils to “discuss the security risks” faced by Vavi.

On media leaks, Madisha admitted that he “discussed details” of Cosatu matters with his “drinking buddies” and that they could have been “responsible” for handing information to the media.

This week Madisha insisted that his latest troubles in the SACP had nothing to do with the ANC’s ugly presidential succession race or his fallout with Vavi last year.

He also denied that he was an Mbeki man, saying he did not support either Mbeki or Zuma, but the ANC. But detractors say his support base is dwindling fast in both the SACP and Cosatu.

“He survived a narrow victory at the Cosatu congress. Willie has been in the SACP long enough to know that if he looses support in the SACP he is ‘gone’ in Cosatu,” a source said.

“The tide is turning against Madisha. Even those who backed him at the Cosatu conference question what his exact role is within Cosatu and the party”

International

6.1 Tanzania to host ceremony for SA freedom fighters

Timothy Kitundu, City Press, 26 August 2007

South Africans are to hold a cleansing ceremony in the Morogoro region next month in honour of the scores of freedom fighters from this country who died while in exile in Tanzania during the struggle against apartheid.

A statement issued by South Africa’s Freedom Park Trust organisation, which is organising the event, said the event would be held in Morogoro, some 200km west of the capital, Dar es Salaam, from September 21 to 23 this year.

According to the statement, in preparation for the event, the organisers held a workshop over the weekend in Pretoria for families whose loved ones died in Tanzania during the struggle for South Africa’s freedom and liberation.

Freedom Park Trust chief executive officer Wally Serote was quoted by a Tanzanian English daily as urging relatives of the deceased to attend the workshop at the Burgerspark Hotel in Pretoria, adding that South Africa has been born from a highly traumatised past. The Freedom Park Trust oversees the Freedom Park in Pretoria.

Serote said that since its inception, the trust had initiated a number of cleansing and healing ceremonies at national level as well as in Botswana, Swaziland, the US, and Namibia, to assist the South African nation in the process of forgiveness, closure and finding its way forward.

“The nature of our struggle was such that it influenced several other countries on the African continent to some degree. Various countries, of which Tanzania is one, offered a haven to fugitives from the apartheid government,” said Serote.

According to Serote, it is, however, a tragic reality that many of their comrades died while in exile and will thus never return home. “For this reason the Freedom Park Trust initiated the cleansing and healing ceremonies, as well as the return of the spirits in various African countries,” he added.

The planned Morogoro event, he said, was aimed at thanking Tanzanians for being “a surrogate” to South African fugitives during the apartheid days and releasing the spirits of those who died in exile to return home, which would bring proper closure to the bereaved ones.

“Our focus in these ceremonies has an overwhelming human element. Many South African citizens are still mourning the loss of loved ones who died outside the country’s borders,” he added.

When contacted for comment on Friday, an official at the South African High Commission in Dar es Salaam who would not give us her name, said that all was going well in regard to the preparations of the cleansing and healing ceremony.

“As soon as we are ready to hold a press meeting we will inform you and more information will be subsequently availed to you,” she said.

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