Media Monitor 14 February 2008

Workers have again embarked on a strike at the Mbombela stadium in Nelspruit over pay, the National Union of Mineworkers said on Wednesday.

Said Num regional organiser George Ledwaba: "The main issue is the classification of the Mbombela stadium.

"Management is saying it falls under the building industry and therefore the wages are calculated in terms of the bargaining council [for that sector]."

He said all stadiums should fall under the civil engineering sector, so the rate of pay should be calculated according to that sectoral determination.

He said a meeting held between management and Num on Wednesday left the parties still in dispute.

Management was apparently going to seek a mandate from their principals.

The two parties would meet again on Thursday morning at 10am at the stadium site.

Ledwaba said about 450 workers had been on strike since Monday.

Num had also made a formal request to have the human resources manager at the project replaced after numerous complaints by the workers.

He is apparently considered to be "rude" and "negative" by the workers.

Last year Mbombela stadium was also the site of protest action.

Ledwaba said previous strike action had resulted in an agreement about bonuses "that we are satisfied with".

However, the current concern about the rate of pay was a continuation of an issue raised last year.

He said part of an agreement reached last year was that management would re-evaluate the rate of pay for skilled labour.

This process had not been done to Num's satisfaction, with 24 employees having thus far been re-evaluated.

Ledwaba said when it came to if the current dispute could be resolved, "the ball is in their [management's] court".

Ledwaba said the construction of the stadium was on track.

"If the strike is resolved before the end of the week I don't see any major disruptions."

Workers at Durban's Moses Mabhida stadium also downed tools last year over allowances and bonuses.

Cape Town's Greenpoint stadium workers also downed tools for more wages in 2007.

The strikes at both these stadiums were resolved. – Sapa

1.2 Mbombela 2010 stadium wage talks deadlocked

SABC, 14 February 2008

Negotiations between NUM and the company constructing the 2010 World Cup soccer venue in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga, Mbombela will continue this morning.

Negotiations deadlocked for the third time this week. NUM Regional Organizer, George Ledwaba, says another round of talks is necessary after they failed to reach an agreement during the past few days.

The negotiations are an attempt to resolve a wage dispute. Workers claim that the hourly rate they receive is lower than that of their counterparts at other 2010 World Cup construction sites.

2 Workers’ issues

2.1 Labour court bars mass hearing of metro cops

IOL, 13 February 2008

The labour court on Wednesday handed down a final order against a mass disciplinary hearing of 107 Cape Town Metro police members, the SA Municipal Workers Union said.

It said the city was also ordered to pay costs.

"The interdict permanently prevents the city from proceeding with their plan to discipline Metro police members en masse, without affording each the right to a fair hearing," it said.

Wednesday's order follows a temporary interdict granted to the union in November last year.

The disciplinary process was instituted after scores of Metro police protested in August over restructuring, holding a demonstration that caused massive traffic jams on the N2 leading into the city.

Samwu said the city administration had wasted a lot of public money on hiring hugely expensive lawyers to fight "this frivolous case, which it knew from the start it had no chance of winning".

"They have only done this to protect the ego of [mayor] Helen Zille, who was furious at being delayed in traffic during the peaceful Metro police protest," it said. – Sapa

2.2 Manganese poisoning: negotiations fail

Giordano Stolley and Miranda Andrew, SAPA, 13 February 2008

Attempts to reach an out of court settlement between a KwaZulu-Natal ferromanganese factory and its workers over compensation for manganese poisoning foundered on Wednesday.

The workers' trade union and attorney accused the company Assmang of negotiating in bad faith.

Richard Spoor, the attorney representing about 40 workers, said: "Negotiations have been suspended by the company. The company has been negotiating in bad faith. The are not taking responsibility."

Earlier on Wednesday, the National Union of Mineworkers of South Africa (Numsa) accused Assmang - a subsidiary of mining magnate Patrice Motsepe's African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) group -- of making "a major u-turn" by dismissing workers' claims that they were dying of manganism.

The Assmang factory is located midway between Pietermaritzburg and Durban near the small town of Cato Ridge.

Said Numsa national spokesperson Mziwakhe Hlangani: "After more than a year of bittersweet negotiations in respect of compensation settlements, the company management claimed that new medical evidence had emerged and abruptly suspended further negotiations on compensation settlements."

He added: "The profit-seeking multinational has completely turned its back on those workers who suffered debilitating conditions and incapacity after being exposed to high levels of manganese at its plant outside Pietermaritzburg.

"Manganism sufferers are now going through worse difficulties without medication after the company stopped payment of medical costs to doctors attending to those employees."

However, ARM chief executive Jan Steenkamp on Wednesday denied the union's claim that the company had stopped payments to the workers' doctors, describing them as "utter nonsense".

Hlangani also said that Assmang had demanded that "workers reported to be affected by manganism should be tested through its specialised screening processes because it (Assmang) learnt that the symptoms could be attributed to a number of possible diseases or conditions not necessarily only to manganism".

Responding to the union's allegation, Steenkamp said: "We have been engaging with specialist doctors at the University of Cape Town to determine and diagnose the symptoms properly. We don't want to have a case were people are diagnosed incorrectly.

"We have also been paying two of the individuals well above the income.

All of those who claim to be affected are getting their normal pay plus an allowance.

"We will keep on compensating all of them until we have identified exactly who has contracted manganese poisoning," he said.

Manganism is acquired by overexposure to airborne manganese and is a disease that affects the sufferer's central nervous system, leaving them with symptoms very similar to Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis (MS).

Its similarity to MS, Parkinson's and Lou Gehrig's disease make diagnosis difficult. The disease was first recognised among miners in Scotland back in 1835.

The department of labour launched a public inquiry after six cases of manganism were reported among the workers at the Cato Ridge smelter. More than 100 people attended the first sitting of the inquiry in April last year.

During that first session, Bryan Broekman, chief executive of Assmang Ltd, told the inquiry that the company, which had been processing manganese for 46 years, did not examine workers for manganese poisoning until a 2005 television documentary on the disease.

Spoor told the inquiry at the time that his clients had only become aware of the risk after watching an SABC Special Assignment broadcast in April 2005.

In July 2007 Business Report reported that the company had been warned by Harold Gayze of occupational hygienist Occutech that the dust levels in the factory were too high.

Subsequent sessions of the public inquiry in July, October and December were postponed at the request of all the parties to apparently negotiate better injury compensation payouts and safety measures.

The inquiry, under the chairmanship of Vuli Sibisi, is set to resume on February 25.

Spoor said that when the inquiry resumes on February 25 an "adversarial relationship" between the parties would exist.

"They are in denial mode. There is no trust and confidence between us," he said. - Sapa

2.3 Business leaders must catch up to HIV/Aids effects in workplace

Ian Sanne, Business Report, 14 February 2008

The challenge posed by HIV/Aids to business in South Africa demands that the nation's corporate leaders address the pandemic with far greater urgency than ever before.

Mid-year estimates for last year by Statistics SA reveal that 11 percent of the population - that is, 5.3 million people - are HIV positive.

Of those infected, 1.1 million people require anti-retroviral treatment but 300 000 are currently receiving it.

In 2005, the Actuarial Society of SA put the average workforce HIV infection rate at 18.8 percent - ranging from 10 percent to 59 percent in different industries - with the major cost to the economy resulting from workforce deaths, high absenteeism and higher production and health costs.

While the economic effect of HIV/Aids is uncertain, the International Monetary Fund estimates that its adverse effect on annual growth rates runs from 0.5 percentage point to 2.5 percentage points.

During the next six weeks, Business Report will tackle these issues and others by publishing a series of in-depth articles aimed at helping business executives - from macro to microenterprises - to gain a better understanding of a complicated and critical issue.

Five years ago, Business Report published several articles by myself and Chris Barker of FutureForesight.

In these articles the direct challenges to the business community were exposed, and solutions offered through treatment models designed by Right To Care (RTC), a non-profit section 21 company specialising in HIV disease management.

In a fast-changing landscape, the time has come to return to the subject in order to bring business leaders up to speed with the latest imperatives.

This series will demonstrate how executives can save lives and money by funding a comprehensive HIV programme in the workplace.

It is vitally important that the management of the pandemic be placed in the hands of financially astute business managers.

The economic argument for treatment is simple: sick employees cost the employer money; treatment costs less.

These articles will demonstrate the five key value drivers that ensure the economic viability of a workplace HIV management programme.

The series will be published in Business Report every Thursday for the next six weeks.

· Dr Ian Sanne is one of South Africa's foremost experts on HIV/Aids. Apart from lecturing at the University of the Witwatersrand, he heads the university's Clinical HIV Research Unit. He is also the founder and managing director of RTC

2.4 Don't close shop, union warns Afgri

Tiisetso Motsoeneng, Business Report, 14 February 2008

Solidarity has given agricultural group Afgri until next week to consult the union regarding the possible closure of 23 branches and retrenchment of 220 workers, it said.

Afgri was given until February 22 to consult the trade union, failing which Solidarity said it "will approach the Labour Court to declare the process null and void in terms of Section 189".

Afgri may shut down a number of its under-performing Producer Services branches in a move that places 220 jobs on the line, it confirmed.

In a letter addressed to Louis Smit, chief executive officer of Afgri Producer Services, the union said: "Should you neglect to involve Solidarity in the Section 189 process and fail to provide Solidarity with dates for such a process before close of business on Friday, February 22, 2008, Solidarity will have no option but to approach the Labour Court for a Section 189 (13) interdict against any such process."

Afgri Producer Services unit provides services that include maize storage, supply farming equipment and fertiliser to farmers.

"The possible closure of branches is a restructuring of the business to fit the changing agricultural environment," said Louis Smit, chief executive officer of Afgri Producer Services.

The restructuring will affect less than 6 percent of staff, with whom the company said it was currently in consultation.

"The 220 personnel who are being consulted will not necessarily be retrenched and many will be offered alternative positions in the company," said Smit.

The current trading environment in terms of maize prices is a mixed blessing for the company.

The current high maize prices encourage farmers to plant more, increasing demand for its Producer Services unit, and at the same time high maize prices put pressure on Afgri's broiler and animal feeds unit.

2.5 Irregular, unfair axings to be challenged

Moshoeshoe Monare, The Star, 14 February 2008

Any unfair dismissal or appointment by the new ANC government next year will be challenged in the public service. This was stressed by Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi yesterday.

She was responding to a question from the media about fears of instability when the new leadership, under party president Jacob Zuma, joins the government after the 2009 elections.

"We will not want to see instability and we hold the view that all representatives, whether political or administrative, should be secured in their positions. Where there have been irregularities, in terms of dismissals, these will be pursued," she told reporters.

She later clarified to Independent Newspapers that political positions, as opposed to administrative ones, were a prerogative of the incoming president.

However, she emphasised that civil servants should not be concerned about being unfairly fired by new political bosses.

This is despite fears, which were also raised at the Forum for SA Directors-General before the ANC conference, that senior civil servants' jobs were on the line, especially those whose contracts were tied to their political bosses' term of office.

"We won't have a situation where irregular dismissals or appointments are accepted. On the political side, it's a prerogative of the president who decides to hire or fire any minister …

On the administrative side, we would want to ensure there is administrative justice in terms of hiring and firing of people," Fraser-Moleketi said.

Former deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge was fired, partly due to a poor relationship with Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.

2.6 Government in dark on own vacancies

Karima Brown and Amy Musgrave, Business Day, 14 February 2008

THE government is still unable to tell accurately just how many vacancies there are in the public service despite a chronic shortage of skills.

Yesterday Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi said the state’s personnel and salary system (Persal) did not accurately reflect the actual vacancy rate across the government.

“There is a problem with the integrity of the data on Persal. In many instances vacancies may be captured on Persal that do not necessarily reflect the realities of the organograms of departments,” she said.

There is a huge difference between the data from Persal, which indicates that there are 337000 vacancies while human resources puts the figure at between 20000 and 25000.

The discrepancy suggests that the government has very little idea of the scale of its vacancy problem, and that any efforts to address this issue will not be based on sound figures.

Already skills shortages in municipalities during the current power outages underline the need for proper planning and systems if the delivery of basic services is to be effective.

However, progress has been slow given that during last year’s briefing Fraser-Moleketi said that vacancies were somewhere between 22% and 40% across government, and again blamed departments for not interacting with the Persal system.

The minister admitted yesterday that the vacancies in top management negatively affected the state’s ability to implement its mandate. She committed the government to regularise employment and performance agreements to ensure that all vacancies at the levels of director-general, deputy director-general, chief financial officer and municipal manager were filled within six months. The government was looking at several options to fill the posts, including recruiting foreigners overseas and taking people out of retirement.

Three national and one director-general posts are vacant, and 12 head of department posts also need to be filled. However, at local government the vacancy rate of municipal managers has decreased from 27% in February last year to 22% in December.

3 Price-fixing

3.1 Don't expect our sympathy – union

IOL, 13 February 2008

The latest price fixing scandals have compromised the job security of workers, trade union Ceppwawu (the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers' Union) said on Wednesday.

Deputy general secretary Keith Jacobs said price fixing allegations in the pharmaceutical sector may cause companies to lose government contracts which could then lead to them retrenching workers.

"The sad part is that the latest price fixing saga i.e bread and pharmaceutical products have a much more negative effect on the poor.

"Further, the actions of these business leaders compromise the job security of workers... as pharmaceutical companies will lose government contracts and will thus have to lay off workers," he said in a statement.

The union expressed its "utter disappointment" in South African business leaders.

"Pharmaceutical companies already make mega profits and certainly don't need to further exploit the poor through price fixing, as was uncovered by the Competition Commission."

The union was responding to the commission's announcement that it had referred three pharmaceutical companies to the Competition Tribunal for prosecution after they allegedly colluded during tender processes to avoid competition and manipulate prices.

The commission announced on Monday that it had been investigating Adcock Ingram Critical Care (Pty) Ltd, Dismed Criticare (Pty) Ltd (Dismed), Thusanong Health Care (Pty) Ltd (Thusanong) and Fresenius Kabi South Africa (Pty) Ltd (FKSA) - and had referred the first three companies for prosecution.

Jacobs said the union would resist attempts from the companies involved to retrench its members as a result of their involvement in price fixing. - Sapa

3.2 'We will take swift and strong action'

Cape Argus, 13 February 2008

Tiger Brands has launched its own "immediate and urgent" investigation into all of its businesses in the wake of recent revelations of collusion within the parent company.

Non-executive chairperson Lex van Wight said in a press release on Tuesday that the investigation would be lead by the firm Edward Nathan Schoenberg and it was expected to be completed within the next two weeks.

His comments were released following media reports that Adcock Ingram Critical Care Ltd was being probed by the Competition Commission for alleged price fixing with other pharmaceutical companies.

Tiger Brands is the parent company of Adcock Ingram.

All conclusive findings would be shared with the competition authorities, Van Wight said.

"We are deeply distressed that our proud Tiger Brands heritage and company name is associated with such allegations.

"We will take swift and strong action," said Van Wight.

Arthur Barnett, managing executive responsible for Adcock Ingram Critical Care Ltd, has already been suspended pending the conclusion of the company's independent investigation, according to the press release.

These accusations follow in the wake of Tiger Brands' own price-fixing allegations and the recent re-organisation of its executive team.

The company announced the appointment of a new CEO, Peter Mature, only on Tuesday.

"Tiger Brands has a proud history of support for South African consumers and we will not allow collusive practises to undermine that.

"We will act against perpetrators wherever they are in the organisation," Van Wight said.

4 Scorpions

4.1 Pikoli greets Scorpions news with caution

Wendy Jasson Da Costa and Boyd Webb, Cape Argus, 13 February 2008

Suspended NPA boss Vusi Pikoli says if a better crime-fighting machine is created with the amalgamation of the Scorpions and the police's Organised Crime Unit (OCU), then he would support the move.

"The country can't afford to be without a crime fighting unit like the Scorpions," said Pikoli.

This comes after Safety and Security minister Charles Nqakula on Tuesday announced that the "best" investigators from the two units would be put together as a "reconstructed organised crime fighting unit" under the leadership of the South African Police Service.

Nqakula said this meant that the Scorpions would be dissolved and the OCU phased out to form the new unit.

Pikoli on Tuesday said he was not "overly surprised" by the news considering the noises being made by the ANC, but maintained that there was "still no legal or constitutional reason to disband the unit".

Pikoli was suspended by President Thabo Mbeki following a breakdown in relations between himself and Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Brigitte Mabandla, to whom he was answerable.

Nqakula's announcement, made during the State of the Nation debate in the National Assembly, was met with shock in policing circles.

NPA spokesperson Tlali Tlali refused to comment on the matter and it is believed the body's acting national director advocate Mokotedi Mpshe has also been left out of the loop by Nqakula.

It's understood, however, that Mpshe, who is currently in Kimberly, will be contacting the minister very soon to find out what was going on.

The Public Servants Association yesterday said although it would not become involved in the political issues it was concerned about the implications for the more than 200 Scorpions and NPA members who belonged to the union.

Even the Police and Civil Rights Union (Popcru) was caught off-guard by the news.

"We can't comment until we know what is going on," spokesperson Abbey Witbooi said on Tuesday night.

Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder said Nqakula's announcement finally confirmed that ANC president Jacob Zuma and not Mbeki was in control of the party and government.

DA spokesperson on Safety and Security Dianne Kohler Barnard said: "The Minister of Safety and Security has utterly exceeded his mandate by announcing, that the Scorpions will be disbanded.

"This comes hard on the heels of the president's assurances that the discussions about the Scorpions would be 'informed by the recommendations of the Khampepe Judicial Commission' in his State of the Nation speech last Friday.

"It is now obvious that the president's words were nothing but an attempt to mislead both Parliament and the public."

4.2 How did Selebi get Scorpion's file?

The Star, 14 February 2008

Acting prosecuting head Mokotedi Mpshe has accused Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi of "unlawfully gaining access" to a top Scorpion's confidential human resources file.

And Mpshe has publicly challenged Selebi to explain his possession of a private document belonging to Andrew Leask, who led the Scorpions' corruption probe into the police boss.

Selebi last month included Gauteng Scorpions head Gerrie Nel's hand-written note - in which he supported Leask's application for a bonus - as part of his Pretoria high court bid to squash the corruption case against him.

Claiming that an unnamed police officer had received Nel's note from "an unknown source", Selebi argued that it showed how Leask had conducted a "smear campaign" against him in the media.

Nel lists Leask's achievements as including: "Solved the Kebble murder under tremendous pressure and clever cover-ups by the suspects. SAPS were not close and would never have solved the murder."

But it was Nel's statement that "Project BG (Bad Guys - the codename for the Selebi investigation) has been in the news for almost 12 months", that provoked Selebi's ire.

"It is of significance that he referred to the fact that he kept the case against me alive in the press for a continued period of more than a year as motivation for a bonus.

"I am convinced that Leask and/or some of his colleagues provided the media on a continued basis with false information against me in order to further their ulterior motives."

But Mpshe has dismissed Selebi's claims, arguing that the reference to the media coverage reflected the importance of Leask's work.

He said the original of Nel's note had been in "the confidential personnel file of Leask with the Directorate of Special Operations (Scorpions)" and no copies had been made.

"So the copy used by (Selebi) could only have been obtained by unlawfully gaining access to the confidential personnel file of Leask.

"(Selebi) contends that the document was provided to members of the SAPS by an unknown source... I invite Selebi to explain how he came to accurately describe the document as a motivation to Leask's superiors for a bonus when there is nothing in the document itself that suggests that is what it was."

Selebi's civil application is expected to be heard on April 10.

4.3 A disgrace

Editorial, Business Day, 14 February 2008

DISGRACE does not begin to describe the decision by the African National Congress (ANC) to disband the Scorpions. Without advancing a single coherent argument the ruling party not only decides to get rid of a vanguard force in the fight against organised crime and corruption, it announces it to the world as a fact, as though Parliament simply does not exist.

Is this the true heart of the ANC? Is this the essence of the movement we danced in the streets for in 1994?

It was not supposed to be like this. When the ANC came to power in 1994 it was to make this a better place, free from cruel and corrupt officialdom and free from organised crime, which used the so-called “legitimacy” of the apartheid state as a cover.

One of the key weapons in this effort was the decision, when creating the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), to attach to it a corps of investigators, which came to be called the Special Operations Directorate (DSO — the Scorpions). They have been a great success. Needlessly heavy-handed at times, to be sure, but effective nevertheless. The decision by the ANC at its recent Polokwane conference to merge this unit into the police is a direct result of that success.

First, they have put ANC president Jacob Zuma’s financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, in prison for fraud and they have helped the NPA compile a compelling fraud case against Zuma himself. That case is not the construct of a political opponent. You would only have to read the judgment in the Shaik trial to appreciate how compromised Zuma is. Little wonder he is said to be seeking a negotiated way out of prosecution.

In addition, the Scorpions have been central to the charges of defeating the ends of justice against National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi.

These two cases, and the fact that the unit has acted against other ANC figures, are the sole reason it is now to be killed off.

It is hard to imagine the damage this action will do to our reputation as a sensible country. For the ruling party, particularly one under new management, to take as its first action the destruction of an effective crime-busting force is so reckless and damaging we have to wonder at the state of mind of the people who are driving the process.

It is simply a lie to suggest, as Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula did in Parliament this week, that the Scorpions will be merged into a new unit in the South African Police Service in order to “change for the better” the fight against organised crime. That is a justification post facto.

The fact is that it has been the combination of prosecutor and investigator that has worked so well. And there are examples around the world to back that up.

Italy has been saved from the Mafia by magistrates armed with their own investigators. You need just one determined prosecutor with investigative powers to change the course of a country’s history.

In Spain, Baltasar Garzon, a young magistrate with the powers of investigation and arrest, has put ministers and senior officials behind bars for running a dirty war against Basque separatists, and even investigated and detained the former Chilean dictator, Gen Augusto Pinochet.

SA desperately needs this kind of force, or at the very least it needs prosecutors with investigative resources. Now that they already have them, why take them away?

The only answer must be to stop investigations into political figures. Certainly Mat hews Phosa, the most vocal of all the new ANC leadership on the destruction of the Scorpions, has also been the least coherent. Why now, Mr Phosa? How exactly does the country benefit?

Needless to say, the recent arraignment of Selebi would never have happened had the Scorpions been under his control. Yet it must be possible in a modern democracy to arrest even the chief of police. How would that happen now in SA, without the Scorpions to investigate for the NPA?

Can the ANC, or at least its elders and leaders, not see what a picture this paints of us? Do or say what you like, there is no softening the effect, no escaping the disgrace, no lightening the stain on our reputation.

You can, by the way, also measure the result. As the rand goes on the slide (despite how many interest rate increases now?), you can bet the Scorpion effect is prominent in there somewhere, alongside Eskom and the dollar. And the next time we borrow abroad, it’ll be there too, making our debt more expensive and making it more expensive to deliver services to the poor.

Does no one in the ruling party appreciate any of this? Why does no one in the ANC stand up? Where are the leaders with courage? Perhaps the message will be driven home better through the pocket.

The longer we portray ourselves as uninterested in combating corruption (and the Scorpions decision will do the trick for at least a decade), the harder it will be to inspire confidence in our economy; and the harder it is to do that, the longer it will take to bring interest rates down again and to start creating jobs again. It’s hard to credit that the unions are going along with this farce.

There’s only one person who can save SA from this shameful episode and that’s Jacob Zuma himself. Zuma has to be able to separate the legal action against him from his duties as a national leader. The rest of us may not, but he has to, however difficult it is.

Zuma has to instruct his supporters that he wants the unit that has helped formulate the charges against him to survive.

He has to tell them that he will fight his legal battle in the courts and take the final outcome, whatever it may be.

Zuma needs to remind us all that he is more than a politician. He has to remind us that he is a man.

5 South Africa

5.1 Motlanthe cabinet post puts handover in spotlight

Hajra Omarje, Political Correspondent, 14 February 2008

AFRICAN National Congress (ANC) deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe’s inclusion in President Thabo Mbeki’s cabinet remains mired in uncertainty.

This has also raised concern about whether a handover between the current and a new administration will take place before Mbeki’s term comes to an end next year.

While Mbeki said this week that Motlanthe’s possible deployment had not been raised with him, the ANC’s newly elected leadership has not shut the door on a possible cabinet reshuffle.

ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe says what is at issue is whether the party has “sufficient ways” to do “its business” in government.

Other sources reiterate that some ANC leaders feel strongly that Motlanthe should be “elevated” to an equivalent position in government.

“One of the first ANC national working committee discussions showed strong sentiment that comrade Kgalema Motlanthe be deployed to the executive,” says a senior party member.

With newly elected ANC president Jacob Zuma due to go on trial in August on charges of money laundering, racketeering, fraud and corruption , political analysts believe Motlanthe’s inclusion in the executive is essential for a smooth transition after the Mbeki administration.

Steven Friedman, senior researcher at policy think-tank Idasa, stopped short of saying, Mbeki was setting up the new administration to fail if he did not include them in his executive.

Noting that Motlanthe has never served as an MP, Friedman says it is up to Mbeki to lead by example. “We are indeed in unchart ed waters,” he says.

“Someone reminded me the other day that while (former president Nelson) Mandela was out doing reconciliatory stuff, Mbeki (who served as deputy president of the country at the time) was chairing cabinet meetings.

“Mbeki needs to regard the smooth transition as a priority so that the person who takes over does not spend the next year figuring out how things happen. It is Mbeki’s responsibility.”

Executive director at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation Fanie du Toit adds that “it would make an enormous amount of sense” to include Motlanthe in Mbeki’s cabinet.

“While it is understandable that Mbeki is backing his own people, he needs to show true leadership at this juncture. Motlanthe seems like an inclusive and consultative leader, he needs to be brought on board for the sake of governance,” Du Toit says.

But both the Presidency and the ANC played down the need for a handover. Mbeki’s spokesman, Mukoni Ratshitanga, says the issue of transition is a figment of the media’s imagination.

“We really have to respect the constitution in the country, nobody knows who is going to win the election next year.

“Whoever wins, government machinery is in place, the question of a handover has never been raised by any political party,” Ratshitanga says.

In an attempt to project an image of unity, Mantashe says all cabinet ministers are “deployed cadres” of the ANC.

Notably, 11 ministers are in the ANC’s newly constituted national executive committee, including the ministers of finance, education, transport and justice.

“More than half of the ministers who served under Mandela continued under Mbeki, and when Mbeki steps down his cabinet and the new cabinet will overlap,” Mantashe says.

“Also, Baleka Mbete is the national chair of the ANC and she is also the speaker of Parliament.

“Tokyo Sexwale is a former premier for example, there is a lot of experience to draw on.”

However, with none of the ANC’s top six senior leaders in Mbeki’s executive, a cabinet reshuffle could still be on the cards — assuming Mbeki is willing to accommodate the ANC’s new top brass.

While opposition parties have not supported calls for Motlanthe to be included in the cabinet, there have been calls for several ministers to be axed.

ANC leaders themselves are seemingly toying with the idea. Last month, Mantashe told the Sunday Times on the sidelines of the party’s Eastern Cape lekgotla that a cabinet reshuffle was not out of the question.

“We cannot claim there is a moratorium on cabinet reshuffles,” he said.

To stand for ANC deputy president, Motlanthe relinquished the paid post of secretary-general, and does not earn a salary in his new post.

5.2 Feisty author ruffles ANC loyalists’ feathers

Daily Dispatch, 14 February 2008

PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki and the ANC came under sharp scrutiny on Tuesday night during a talk by controversial author Xolela Mangcu.

Addressing an audience of about 350 people at the Guild Theatre, Mangcu caused a stir while reading from his book To the Brink: The State of Democracy in South Africa.

He was met with a volley of questions from party loyalists within the audience. Labelling Mbeki a denialist and calling the ANC an “albatross around the neck of democracy”, Mangcu said history was being violated on account of political power.

He said he was once “extremely proud” of Mbeki, and his initial writings had heaped praise on the president. “I was very proud of this African intellectual ... I wrote to praise him, but he soon began to speak and act in ways that are very troublesome,” he said.

Mangcu said he then questioned himself on whether he should continue with his political solidarity with the nationalist leader or if, as a writer, he should follow his own moral compass.

Arguing that he was not duty bound to write about Mbeki in a balanced way, Mangcu said: “There will be people who write good things about Mbeki. I won’t.”

In referring to the country’s electricity crisis, Mangcu said this was a typical example of Mbeki failing the people he served.

“It turns out that the very same people who run society were 10 years ago told about this electricity problem. Now 10 years later it has come out, and they still tell us that we must defend these people and shut up, even though it is we who suffer in that process. The problem with Thabo Mbeki is that he hopes problems will disappear.”

He said the ANC was doing very little, if anything, to nurture or cultivate “sociological imagination”.

“When people in the ANC feel the need to defend the party, what they are actually not aware of is that they are acting out a script that political parties have acted out for years,” he said, referring to regional ANC secretary Siphato Handi’s response to extracts from his book.

Touching on the ANC’s “private troubles”, including party president Jacob Zuma’s impending criminal trial, Mangcu said the country had come to a point where these troubles were now public issues.

He said the ANC was “in so much trouble” that it had to decide on whether it will go into the 2009 general elections with a candidate on trial.

5.3 Scopa agrees to revisit arms deal reports' resolutions

Deon de Lange, 14 February 2008

DA's call to reopen probe rejected

The door has been left slightly ajar for further investigations into the arms deal after parliament's standing committee on public accounts agreed to follow up on unfinished business contained in existing reports on the subject.

Scopa members yesterday rejected a resolution introduced by Democratic Alliance MP Eddie Trent - asking for new allegations of corruption in the multibillion-rand deal to be investigated - but allowed for existing "resolutions and recommendations" to be revisited.

Despite initial opposition from ANC members, committee chairperson Themba Godi, from the African People's Convention, agreed with the "content" of the resolution and is to have the reports dusted off for further scrutiny.

"I will be instructing our researchers today to go and pull out these resolutions and go through them. It shouldn't take them a week - the reports are here in parliament.

"We are going to have a look at them and then find out from the relevant parties how far they have gone with the matter(s)," he explained after the meeting.

The reports in question contain numerous resolutions and recommendations for action and further investigation of issues relating to the arms deal. Trent maintains that many of these were never fully implemented or acted on.

Significantly, the report of the Joint Investigating Team - a multi-agency team appointed by parliament to investigate the arms deal - recommended that steps be taken against government officials who may have benefited from arms deal subcontracts.

It also suggested further scrutiny of civil servants who may not have declared their business interests in the arms deal, while playing a part in the tender processes.

Former ANC MP Andrew Feinstein - who resigned from the party after his efforts to get to the bottom of the arms deal were apparently frustrated by his party bosses - recently accused the ANC of receiving money from arms deal bidders for its 1999 election campaign. This is contained in his tell-all book After The Party.

Since parliament effectively called a halt to its investigation, a number of countries - including Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Switzerland - have begun their own investigations to determine whether any of their nationals paid bribes to South African politicians and decision-makers.

5.4 Political strings unravel in BEE deal gone sour

Slindile Khanyile, Business Report, 14 February 2008

A black economic empowerment (BEE) deal done purely on the strength of the political connections of the empowerment consortium members has backfired on Imuniti Holdings, and now the pharmaceuticals and nutritional food company could soon be looking for a new empowerment partner.

Imuniti chief executive Paul Fouche stressed yesterday that the bad blood was only between the company's founding members - John Ellis and Jan Louw, who are major shareholders - and the BEE consortium. But he admitted that it was affecting the company.

Two months ago, Ellis and Louw gave notice indicating that they would take back the 255 million shares, equal to 34 percent of Imuniti, from the empowerment consortium because it had not delivered on the agreed targets.

The consortium is made up of Kopano Logistic Services, wholly owned by Kopano Ke Matla, an investment arm of Cosatu; Malibongwe Women's Development Trust, a non-profit organisation that is part of the ANC Women's League; Star Choice Trading, owned by Tembi Tambo, the daughter of Oliver and Adelaide Tambo; Tshehetsa Management Services; and Mudjadji Trading.

Fouche said the agreement was that the empowerment group would bring letters of support from the government and Cosatu endorsing Imuniti's wellness packs, its flagship product; and that it would sell 100 000 wellness packs a month in the first 12 months. But the consortium did neither.

Fouche said the two parties were now communicating only through lawyers.

"I want to stress that this is a matter between the founding members and the consortium and not the company. As a company, we have a good relationship with both parties," he said.

But Fouche said the feud was beginning to affect the firm's image because some customers were beginning to question if it was still BEE compliant. Imuniti's board discussed the issue at length last week.

The only consortium representatives now on the board are Colin Matjila of Kopano Ke Matla and Bertha Gxowa, the chairman of Malibongwe. Tambo resigned in December.

Gxowa said yesterday that she was not aware that Ellis and Louw had asked for the BEE shares to be returned.

"There was a board meeting last week but I could not attend it," she said. "I did not see the statement that was issued so it is difficult for me to comment."

Fouche admitted that the BEE partners had no healthcare background and were brought in for their political influence.

"Cosatu alone has 1 million plus members," he said. "If you were to … ask me to look at the very same people, though they have no experience in healthcare, I would choose them because they have the right political and business credentials."

Imuniti says on its website: "The group's BEE credentials will be of critical importance in the success of Imuniti packs."

BEE analyst Duma Gqubule said this was a fake empowerment transaction that would make people believe they had to be politicians if they wanted to be successful business people.

"These are the companies that do not want black people to be part of the day-to-day running of the company," Gqubule said. "There must be a relationship between your efforts and returns, otherwise this just sounds like a pyramid scheme."

Attempts to get comment from Matjila yesterday were unsuccessful.

5.5 Sanef condemns arrest of journalist in Durban

Mail & Guardian, 14 February 2008

The South African National Editors' Forum (Sanef) has condemned the conduct of the Durban metro police in arresting and detaining a Sowetan reporter, Mhlaba Memela, while covering an incident in Durban's central business district on Wednesday night.

Sanef said in a statement Memela came across an accident involving two vehicles in the city.

One of the cars had crashed into a shop, which passers-by were looting. Memela alerted the metro police and took photographs of the incident.

"When the police arrived they accused him of interfering in their investigations and of obstructing justice," Sanef said.

"They refused to release him despite an appeal to the Durban city manager Michael Sutcliffe by the Sowetan Durban bureau chief, Mary Pappaya."

Sanef has protested on several occasions recently about the police arresting reporters and photographers at crime scenes, pointing out that these appear to be attempts by the police to prevent journalists from reporting the incidents.

In all recent cases -- except one that is pending -- the cases have been thrown out of court by prosecutors as being baseless.

"Sanef regards such interference with journalists carrying out their duties as serious interference with the role of the media and demands that investigations be instituted and the guilty officers punished."

Memela was charged with inciting a riot, failing to comply with police instructions and resisting arrest. He was released from Durban Central police station several hours after being arrested and he is expected to appear in the Durban Magistrate's Court on Thursday.

eThekwini metro police spokesperson Superintendent John Tyala told said he could not comment on Memela's arrest until he had all the details.

No cordon had been placed around the accident scene at the time that Memela was thrown into the back of the police van. When reporters attempted to intervene and asked for the policeman's name, he declined to provide a name.

The uniformed policeman declined to show any badge of proof that the force number supplied was in fact his correct name.

The policeman was heard saying to a reporter leaving the scene: "We will see each other another time."

When asked if he could be quoted, he responded: "As friends. Make sure you get that down. I know reporters can't get down anything factual these days."

The Mercury reported that Pappaya denounced the events. "From the Sowetan's perspective, we find this totally unacceptable," she said.

"The law clearly states that journalists should be allowed to do their jobs.

"To our knowledge the scene was not cordoned off and in light of that journalists are entitled to operate freely."

"I think it's a very sad situation when a journalist is arrested for something like this, and it is definitely something to worry about. What it means is that police do not understand the role and rights of the media, and the rules of engagement between police and journalists at crime scenes.

"This is not an isolated incident; journalists and photographers around the country have been arrested and detained purely because police do not understand the law."

Sutcliffe ordered an inquiry into the matter, the Mercury reported.

"I'm certainly not happy as to how the events unfolded.

"I do want to listen to all sides and I have ordered a full report with sworn statements from the police, and we want to speak to members of the public and other journalists who witnessed the situation.

"Journalists have a special place in society and we as the municipality must allow them to do their work. It must be that if they interfere in any investigation, we have every right to step in.

"Journalists have every right to do their jobs and I am very concerned about the matter." -- Sapa

6 Comment

6.1 Let's take a leaf from Biko's book

The Star, 13 February 2008

Xolela Mangcu argues in his book To the Brink: The state of democracy in SA that early struggle leaders stood for something quite different from the defensive 'ANC or nothing' philosophy that's taken root in the past few years.

On June 14 2006 I visited the German embassy in Pretoria to apply for a visa so I could go to the soccer World Cup finals.

As I had expected, there was a long line of people waiting with the usual mix of anxiety and anticipation. I sat next to an Indian woman and seated next to her was her daughter.

The girl could not have been more than 5 or 6 years old. The security guard on duty told the woman that the chairs in the embassy were reserved for visa applicants. The child needed to give up her seat for one of the people standing in line.

It occurred to me that this was patently unfair and unnecessary. Surely the able-bodied men and women in the line could stand on their feet?

As is often the case in these matters, the security guard got his way.

Feeling a little guilty, he then put the girl on his lap. A white woman joined in my protestation. That is when all hell broke loose. A prominent African woman journalist told the white woman that it was "un-African" for a child to sit while adults stood.

"It is our culture," she insisted. She then turned to the security guard and instructed him in isiZulu to put the child down: "Beka phantsi leyonto wena" (Put down that "thing").

Surely it was not in African culture to treat children with such lack of feeling? Why then would a fairly prominent, middle class African woman, probably herself a parent, act with such callousness?

It seemed to me that her desire to make a political statement to a captive audience trumped any other moral consideration.

I would not quibble with the idea that identity is central to the black struggle for freedom. But it seemed like the famous liberation credo "culture is the weapon" was being subverted for political point-scoring.

Also interesting is that she chose to explain this aspect of African culture only after the white woman had interjected.

The message was unmistakable: white people have no right to speak about how Africans be they black or Indian treat their children.

And if you were black, the message was that you would cross this woman's line at your own risk. Could she be an official of state, ordering people around and striking fear in their hearts? I knew better. This was the nationalist grandstanding that had come to typify our political culture.

It was a classic example of the racial insider/outsider dynamic at the heart of Thabo Mbeki's strategy of rule. This cultural dynamic goes under the rise of racial nativism. This is the idea that the true custodians of African culture are the natives.

The natives are often defined as black Africans because they are indigenous to the country, and within that group the true natives are those who participated in the resistance struggle. And even among those who participated in the liberation, the truest natives are those who are on the side of the government.

By dint of their authenticity, these natives have the right to silence white interlopers or black sell-outs.

Racial nativism goes against the long traditions of racial syncretism that have always characterised South African political and intellectual history.

In this syncretic approach, natives are all the people born in the country, irrespective of their struggle history or where they stand in relation to government.

In a democratic society no group of people has greater authenticity or licence than another. Instead, the defining ethos of a syncretic approach to national belonging is captured by the Freedom Charter's opening line: "South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white."

Even the radical Pan Africanist and Black Consciousness movements upheld the ideal of a non-racial democratic society in which all citizens are regarded as equal and therefore entitled to express their views just like everyone else.

To reduce this theory to its most simple form, my argument is that the current, particularly political trend of condemning anyone who is not black and who is not on the side of the government (what can be called racial nativism) is a negative and destructive one that has developed in the past eight years.

This concept stands in stark contrast to the approach that allows all citizens' voices to be heard and welcomes vigorous and open debate on issues (the essence of the syncretic approach).

Oftentimes the nativists invoke Pan Africanist leader Robert Sobukwe or Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko to explain their political behaviour. But neither Sobukwe nor Biko was intolerant.

Even though these leaders advocated racial exclusivism as a political strategy to fight white supremacy, they were never racial essentialists. Unlike the woman in the embassy, they did not believe that there is a black essence beyond the access of everyone else.

This was clear both in their political writings and in their personal relationships. Sobukwe described his attitude to white South Africans thus: "I know I have been accused of being anti-white, not only by the government but also by others.

But there is not one who can quote any statement of mine that bears that out. When I say Africa for the Africans I mean those, of any colour, who accept Africa as their home. Colour does not mean anything to me."

Biko wrote that "being black is not a matter of pigmentation being black is a reflection of a mental attitude".

He repeatedly called for the creation of a non-racial, egalitarian society: "We see a completely non-racial society.

We don't believe, for instance, in the so-called guarantees for minority rights, because guaranteeing minority rights implies the recognition of portions of the community on a race basis. We believe that in our country there shall be no minority, there shall be no majority, just the people.

And those people will have the same status before the law and they will have the same political rights before the law. So in a sense it will be a completely non-racial egalitarian society."

Sobukwe's close relationship with Benjamin Pogrund, the journalist and later deputy editor of the Rand Daily Mail, and Biko's relationships with journalist Donald Woods, the academic Francis Wilson and his spiritual friendship with Aelred Stubbs, a monk of the Anglican Community of the Resurrection, are evidence of their non-essentialist, non-nativist approach to politics. Despite leading a breakaway from the multi-racial National Union of South African Students (Nusas), on account of its being a white-dominated organisation that purported to speak on behalf of black students, Biko continued to maintain close personal relationships with white student leaders such as Neville Curtis, Duncan Innes, Paul Pretorius, Paula Ensor, Geoff Budlender, Horst Kleinschmidt and many others. Without exception, all of these leaders attest to Biko's non-racial personality.

But if racial essentialism has no precedence in our history, how has it come to have such a hold on our political imagination in the Mbeki years?

The journalist Jonny Steinberg attributes this nativism to a sense of siege in the Mbeki government.

He argues that Mbeki's controversial response to HIV/Aids is an example of a leadership that feels its authority and sovereignty being usurped by foreign (my emphasis) forces in cahoots with local civil society organisations: "What Mbeki coaxed to the surface of South Africa's political culture was an anxious man's nationalism and a paranoid's nativism."

Steinberg argues that Mbeki "treated Aids as a pernicious attack on our sovereignty launched from abroad". This left us with a shrill and belligerent political culture: "In diffuse and unhappy ways he has triggered a flurry of trench digging across large strata of South Africa. It is a troubling legacy to leave behind."

The word "foreign" is not just a geographical reference but has come to be a reference to the foreigner within the racial outsider, as well as those black critics of government deemed to be in cahoots with those foreigners undermining the authentically "native" black government.

By its very nature, racial nativism is exclusionary and inevitably leads to political intolerance, which has manifested through the racial labelling of political critics as traitors on the side of the non-native population.

The most ironic deployment of this was when Mbeki accused the black Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), a member of the tripartite alliance that also includes the African National Congress and the Communist Party, of racism for criticising his economic policies.

Ultimately, the foreigners are those who exist outside the tradition of the ANC. Indeed, the fact that Mbeki has never met with the head of Cosatu shows the disdain with which he views the foreigners in the ANC.

It is the ANC and the ANC only that has the prerogative to guide society. This is not just because it has been returned to power with ever-increasing majorities but also because this is its historical mandate.

Ultimately, though, any attempt to stifle criticism leads to rebellion.

The most significant moments of such rebellion were the ANC's general council in 2005 and the national policy conference in July 2007. In both cases the ANC rank and file moved to signal its dissatisfaction with Mbeki's leadership and indicated it was time for Mbeki to give way.

Instead of trying to exert hegemonic influence over society, the ANC should learn more how to lead a complex, differentiated and pluralistic society with constantly shifting alliances, interests and identities.

The people the ANC elected at its December 2007 conference will be decisive in determining whether or not the organisation goes back on its promise of building a non-racial culture in which everyone has a sense of belonging or whether it descends further into the racial nativism of the Mbeki years.

The nativist siege mentality should give way to a new ethos of building bridges with all of the sectors of society.

· Dr Mangcu is executive chairman of the Platform for Public Deliberation and a visiting scholar at the University of the Witwatersrand. This is an edited extract from To the Brink: The state of democracy in SA, published by the University of KZN Press.

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Media Monitor 14 February 2008

Patrick Craven

Published by the

A digest of media reports - not the views of COSATU

Thursday 14 February 2008

CONTENTS

1.1 Another strike at World Cup stadium

IOL, 13 February 2008

SABC, 14 February 2008

IOL, 13 February 2008

Giordano Stolley and Miranda Andrew, SAPA, 13 February 2008

Ian Sanne, Business Report, 14 February 2008

Tiisetso Motsoeneng, Business Report, 14 February 2008

2.5 Irregular, unfair axings to be challenged

Moshoeshoe Monare, The Star, 14 February 2008

Karima Brown and Amy Musgrave, Business Day, 14 February 2008

IOL, 13 February 2008

Cape Argus, 13 February 2008

Wendy Jasson Da Costa and Boyd Webb, Cape Argus, 13 February 2008

The Star, 14 February 2008

Editorial, Business Day, 14 February 2008

Hajra Omarje, Political Correspondent, 14 February 2008

Daily Dispatch, 14 February 2008

5.3 Scopa agrees to revisit arms deal reports' resolutions

Deon de Lange, 14 February 2008

Slindile Khanyile, Business Report, 14 February 2008

Mail & Guardian, 14 February 2008

6 Comment

6.1 Let's take a leaf from Biko's book

The Star, 13 February 2008