COSATU Mrdia Monitor, 8 February 2010
Mluleki Mntungwa
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Contents
1.1 ABI strikers may give up demands for job security
1.2 A disgrace: New figures show how teachers failed
1.3 CCMA feels the heat of increasing dispute cases
2.1 Crucial appointment flies under Cosatu’s radar
2.2 ANC meets to boost chances in W Cape
2.3 What may hide in ANC ‘factionalism’ crackdown
2.4 Shivambu off the hook for Cronin comment
2.5 'We are not at war with Youth League'
2.6 'Enough, you two!' scolds Mantashe
2.7 Nationalisation will boost working class
2.8 Debate on Nationalising the Mines in South Africa
2.9 Zuma second-term campaign on ropes
2.10 Premier 'turning Mpumalanga into a banana province'
2.11 Probe ANC hit list claims - DA
1. Workers
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ALISTAIR ANDERSON, Business Day, 8 February 2010STRIKERS at SA’s biggest cold drink bottler, Amalgamated Becverage Industries (ABI) say they are prepared to give up on their demands for higher wages provided their jobs are safe. The Food and Allied Workers Union (Fawu) said on Friday that guaranteed job security was its biggest concern. Fawu general secretary Katishi Masemola said on Friday: “I, and our lawyers, are working on a legally sound agreement, particularly on job security (guaranteed return to work, especially of permanent casuals) and nonvictimisation of all on the strike.” He said that if this was agreed to by ABI, the union “will … report back to our members again and encourage them to accept a settlement, despite the lack of improvement on the wage increment. We hope ABI agrees to this.” Fawu has been seeking an across-the- board wage increase of 9,5% for workers at ABI , a subsidiary of beer maker SAB. The company, however, has remained steadfast in its final offer of 7,8%, and 8,3% across the board when benefits such as Christmas bonuses are taken into account. Masemola said Fawu felt that ABI had managed to postpone discussions on the wage increment to later this year at October’s collective bargaining round. ABI spokeswoman Robyn Chalmers denied this, saying that ABI had made a final wage and benefits offer that was part of the current negotiation process. The Congress of South African Trade Union s call to ban labour brokers in SA remains on Fawu’s agenda.
1.2 A disgrace: New figures show how teachers failed By Lucky Biyase, Business Report, 8 February 2010
The matric pass rate
last year declined from 62.6 percent in 2008 to 60.6 percent.
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2.1 Crucial appointment flies under Cosatu’s radar |
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Jabulani Sikhakhane, Business Day, 8 February 2010
THE Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) appears to have missed a much more fundamental shift within the Reserve Bank and has focused instead on an outcome that is, at most, symbolic.
The trade union federation has reacted with characteristic exuberance to the announcement last week by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan that he would announce the outcome of the Treasury’s discussions with stakeholders, outside and inside government, on the inflation-targeting policy. Gordhan’s comments have created an expectation that he will broaden the mandate of the Reserve Bank, enjoining it to also consider employment levels when setting interest rates.
But Cosatu and the critics of inflation targeting missed the significance of another announcement — this one made in November by Bank governor Gill Marcus, in which she appointed Monde Mnyande as head of stakeholder relations.
Marcus’s announcement is likely to address the much more fundamental problem with the workings, and therefore the decisions, of the Bank on monetary policy.
The implementation of a dual mandate by a central bank is fraught with difficulties. Frederic Mishkin, the former governor of the US Federal Reserve, highlighted these in a speech in 2007. “The first challenge is determining how to interpret the dual mandate. Of course, the Federal Reserve doesn’t take a literal approach to the goal of maximum employment. In that case, our policies would need to be directed at getting everyone to work at least 100 hours a week, and we would have to discourage senior citizens from retiring and young people from attending college instead of entering the labour force.”
He said that the Federal Reserve could determine and achieve the long-run average rate of inflation in keeping with its mandate of price stability, but maximum employment was much more difficult as “no central bank can control the level of real economic activity or employment over the longer run”.
Mishkin said the level of maximum sustainable employment was primarily driven by the fundamental structure of the economy, including factors such as demographics, people’s preferences, the efficiency of labour markets, and the characteristics of the tax code. All of these factors are outside the control of a central bank.
As US economist James Galbraith has also pointed out, the Federal Reserve has over the years been very good at sidestepping the employment aspect of its mandate. So, the Reserve Bank technocrats can easily do so, hiding behind the fact that it’s not one but a basket of factors that they must weigh up to decide on interest rates.
Against that background, the much more fundamental issue that Cosatu should be concerned about is the Bank’s decision- making processes and how these are influenced by the nature of the beast that the bank is. The Bank’s job makes it highly attuned to the financial markets. The National Treasury is the same to some extent, but the Bank is much more so because it interacts with financial markets — the currency and the bond markets — daily.
In addition to watching these markets closely, the bank is also a major player in the currency markets, buying and selling rands to adjust its foreign exchange reserves.
Financial markets, including equities, are the most immediate signalling instruments that investors can use to indicate their reaction to a decision by the Bank or the government. The risk, therefore, is that the bank’s proximity to financial markets makes it highly sensitive to bond and currency markets to the extent that these block out other stakeholders.
Also, the nature of the Reserve Bank’s work is such that its decisions on monetary policy are informed by economic models. The monetary policy committee must look up to 18 months ahead and the only way it can do so is through the modelling of the various factors and scenarios. But as Nobel laureate Paul Krugman pointed out : “A successful model enhances our vision, but it also creates blind spots.”
It is these blind spots, I suspect, that Marcus is trying to address by putting Mnyande, the bank’s head of research and chief economist, in charge of the outreach programme to interact with stakeholders across the broad spectrum of South African society. She’s also developing an additional antenna to ensure that, in addition to the financial markets, the Bank is attuned to broader society as well.
So, it’s this door that Mnyande’s appointment opens, rather than Gordhan’s expected announcement, that is likely to help the Bank develop a more balanced world view of the economy. But how successful Marcus’s strategy is depends a lot on whether broader society takes up the challenge.
Marching up and down the street and shouting slogans may be a necessary ploy for Cosatu secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi to placate his constituency that the federation hasn’t lost its revolutionary zeal, but it is unlikely to achieve much, except perhaps add to global warming.
If it’s real and fundamental change that Cosatu wants, the federation must walk through the door and engage Mnyande.
2.2 ANC meets to boost chances in W Cape
By CATHY DIPPNALL, Daily Dispatch, 8 February 2010
AN ANC national working committee meeting, headed by national chairperson Baleka Mbete, Eastern Cape chairman Makhenkesi Stofile and Youth League chairman Julius Malema, was held in Lawaaikamp in George yesterday.
The meeting was apparently aimed at rebuilding party structures and boosting membership, especially among the youth, in the Western Cape after last April’s provincial election defeat to the DA.
The media was invited to attend a press conference with the ANC leaders at 1pm by Southern Cape and Karoo regional secretary Putco Mapitiza, but were told on arrival that the meeting was closed and journalists were ordered off the premises.
The SABC was apparently tipped off to be at the venue an hour early for an exclusive interview with Mbete.
The meeting appeared to have been arranged for a select group, with a number of Correctional Services officials and people wearing camouflage uniforms in attendance. -
2.3 What may hide in ANC ‘factionalism’ crackdown |
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ANTHONY BUTLER, Business Day, 8 February 2010 |
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AFRICAN National Congress (ANC) secretary-general Gwede Mantashe has recently fulminated against growing “factionalism” in the movement, and announced its political education subcommittee will soon propose new guidelines to limit factional competition for office.
Factions make an easy target because the term has overwhelmingly negative connotations. A faction is a group within a party that is organised in pursuit of specific political objectives. By its nature, it does not announce its existence or institute formal rules of membership. A faction is fluid and elusive and it is easy to believe that it is acting secretively to further its members’ own interests.
The ANC has absorbed anti factionalist ideas across its history. Colonial divide-and-rule strategies set one purported “tribe” against another. Post-colonial ruling parties reacted by co-opting opposition groups and building one-party regimes in pursuit of national “oneness”. Influential western doctrines were also antifactional. Ancient Athenians famously tolerated temporary cliques and class groupings but viewed prolonged division as antithetical to the public interest. Later western thinkers claimed a harmonious “body politic” would be debilitated by factional conflict.
Soviet Marxism, another influence, premised the scientific knowledge of society on the party’s unitary character. Leninist doctrines and the exigencies of exile further predisposed the ANC to ban factionalism. The modern ANC’s foundation myth of armed struggle and its presumed divine right to rule have reinforced its unity ideologies. Even the movement’s liberal intellectuals have supposed that factionalism would encourage ethnic division, racial antagonism and political violence. Who in such circumstances would not prefer unity to factional division?
Thabo Mbeki ’s machinations, however, have exposed these doctrines to critical scrutiny. First, it is now recognised that factional politics can never be eliminated. Authoritarian governments force factional battles underground because the co-option and intimidation of opposing factions cannot erase differences of interest and value.
Second, many ANC activists today recognise that alleged controls on factionalism in fact result from one faction’s attempt to achieve ascendency over others. Mbeki’s incumbent faction claimed to speak on behalf of the whole ANC, while dissenting voices were silenced as factionalist.
Third, it took a faction to stop Mbeki’s sinister designs. As political theorist Edmund Burke observed more than two centuries ago, factions can “speedily communicate the alarm of any evil design … fathom it with common counsel, and oppose it with united strength”: they can do good.
Fourth, in the interregnum between Mbeki and Jacob Zuma , activists discovered that contending factions can create space for political freedom.
Finally, the banning of factionalism is historically related to the prohibition of opposition parties. The emergence of party competition, and so representative democracy, in modern Europe required a prior realisation that factional division can be benign.
In the 1740s, philosopher David Hume began to differentiate between more or less appealing types of faction or party. Factions based on interests were inevitable, whereas “factions of affection”, organised around prominent individuals or families, were dangerous. Hume also heralded “factions from principle” in which parties supported themselves with a “philosophical or speculative system of principles”.
Mantashe shares Hume’s view that factions based on divergent interests, such as the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party, are inevitable in class societies, and do not require special regulation. Factions from affection, by contrast, are malevolent and must be curtailed. A faction gathered around a prominent businessman, for example, might use his money and power to destabilise office-holders and to push for control over state resources.
New ANC guidelines on factional competition may be based on reason. They may also, of course, serve the interests of Mantashe’s own faction.
2.4 Shivambu off the hook for Cronin comment |
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WILSON JOHWA, Business Day, 8 February 2010
AFRICAN National Congress (ANC) Youth League spokesman Floyd Shivambu has escaped censure by the Young Communist League (YCL) for allegedly calling Deputy Transport Minister Jeremy Cronin a racist.
The YCL ended its lekgotla in Pietermaritzburg yesterday without taking a position against Shivambu, also a YCL committee member, who reportedly made the comment during a debate at the conference.
Cronin, who is the deputy general secretary of the South African Communist Party (SACP), was not at the conference.
YCL national secretary Buti Manamela said no action was taken against Shivambu because his views were those of the ANC Youth League, for which he speaks. “Whether he agrees with it or not he communicates the position of the youth league,” said Manamela.
The YCL’s decision not to discipline Shivambu suggests the league did not wish to escalate its very public dispute with the ANC Youth League any further. Tensions between the YCL and the ANC Youth League escalated after the booing of youth league president Julius Malema at the SACP special congress in December. The ANC Youth League subsequently threatened to fight any attempts by “greedy. yellow communists” to control the ANC.
Last year Malema described Cronin as a “white messiah” after the latter criticised the youth league’s proposal to nationalise mines.
Manamela said “McCarthyism” within the ruling alliance would be resisted. “Leadership should be on the basis of who is best placed to take forward the plight of our people.”
The ANC Youth League appears to be backing Deputy Police Minister Fikile Mbalula against SACP national chairman Gwede Mantashe for the post of ANC secretary-general at the party’s elective conference in 2012.
A t the weekend lekgotla, the YCL said it supported the ANC Youth League’s nationalisation proposal but it wanted the debate to be more tolerant of divergent views. “It’s more about the tactic of engagement than anything else,” said Manamela.
The YCL will convene a jobs summit to look at ways of reducing unemployment among young people.
2.5 'We are not at war with Youth League'
By NIVASHNI NAIR, TIMESLIVE, 8 February 2010
ANC Youth League president Julius Malema has publicly called for the ousting of one the SA Communist party's top leaders, Gwede Mantashe, and has insulted its deputy general secretary, Jeremy Cronin.
But the Young Communist League downplayed the tension between the two youth leagues.
"There is no war. We need to appreciate that we have differences of opinion but that should not be regarded as war within the alliance.
"Whoever is looking at it as war is at war with themselves," Young Communist League secretary Buti Manamela yesterday said.
The recent public spat between the two leagues comes after SACP leaders booed Malema at an SACP conference in December.
Malema labelled Cronin a "white political Messiah" when he took a different position on the nationalisation of mines, and Malema announced that he would campaign for Mantashe to be ousted as ANC secretary-general in 2012. It was a hot topic at the YCL's national lekgotla which ended yesterday in Pietermaritzburg.
Manamela said that he
was not calling for Malema to "tone down" but could not disguise his
opinion of the ANC Youth League president's habit of insulting those who
disagree with him.
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2.6 'Enough, you two!' scolds Mantashe
By CARIEN DU PLESSIS and CAIPHUS KGOSANA, IOL, 7
February 2010
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2.7 Nationalisation will boost working class |
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THE call by the ANC Youth League last year for the nationalisation of the mines presents a golden opportunity for a wider debate on the immediate task of democratically reconstructing South Africa’s economy towards meeting the needs of the masses. This debate needs to be rescued from subjectivism and its degeneration into personal attacks and counter-attacks among comrades. Working class organisations and activists should robustly, but soberly, engage in this debate and support the call to nationalise the mines. Hopefully, the SACP will soon adopt such a sober attitude towards the debate and provide political and ideological leadership on this question facing the working class. The debate on nationalising the mines is an appropriate intervention from the point of view of the Freedom Charter, attempts to reinstall lost left traditions onto the ANC and, above all, the need for social and economic transformation towards tackling the plight of the masses. As such, the ANCYL should be engaged appropriately so as to enrich the debate. The SACP should defend and deepen the call for nationalising the mines under the guardianship of a democratic, developmental state. Since, according to the tripartite alliance and the entire mass democratic movement, the immediate task of the “national democratic” revolution is the implementation of the Freedom Charter, nationalising the commanding heights of the economy, starting with the mines, should be carried out urgently. This would give concrete meaning to the socio-economic clauses of the Freedom Charter. Admittedly, nationalisation is not alien to capitalism. Certainly, its implementation a la ANCYL or the Freedom Charter would not make South Africa socialist. SACP deputy general secretary Jeremy Cronin is quite correct that various capitalist regimes, including apartheid South Africa, did utilise nationalisation in order to industrialise especially after World War 2 . Interestingly, many post-colonial societies also industrialised through nationalisation, among others, and thereby addressed many challenges of social deprivation and under- development. While most remained capitalist, they still enhanced their industrial and human development capacities as compared to the colonial era. Moreover, the ANC’s 52nd national conference called for a developmental state as a key player in South Africa’s developmental trajectory. This is progressive compared to the Growth, Employment and Redistribution policy . Even the RDP recognised the centrality of the state in socio-economic transformation. Currently, nationalisation is part of the reawakening of democratic and socialist ideology and practice in Latin America. Therefore, the SACP’s disapproval of the call to nationalise the mines, citing some reactionary capitalist economic experiments without due regard to left traditions in this country and other positive international experiences, is politically wrong and ideologically treacherous. Nationalisation is the transfer of strategic sectors of the economy onto the state. Socialisation is a deeper process whereby the exploited classes, themselves, control and own the means of production. Clarifying the (capitalist) essence of the socio-economic clauses of the Freedom Charter, comrade Nelson Mandela, in the 1950s, explained this fundamental difference between nationalisation and socialisation very well. Responding to the ANCYL, the SACP falsely and opportunistically counter-poses nationalisation to socialisation. Actually, nationalisation of the means of production can be a stepping stone towards their socialisation on condition that it is either executed by a working class state or (if pursued by a capitalist state) is preceded or followed by workers’ control. Therefore, in pursuing socialisation the SACP should support, and provide the necessary ideological leadership, on the call by the ANCYL for the nationalisation of the mines precisely because this could be a route towards their socialisation. Critical though, is the need to agitate and mobilise for workers’ control of the mining industry and, ultimately, all the key sectors of the economy. Needless to say pursuing this economic goal would necessitate a political struggle for a working class state. The 1999 strategy conference of the SACP adopted a resolution on the socialisation of the economy as part of the objectives of the SACP. Furthermore, the 11th national congress of the party adopted a programme that accommodated both nationalisation and socialisation of the economy. Moreover, the 12th national congress adopted a resolution calling for the nationalisation of Sasol and Mittal Steel as a prelude to the nationalisation and socialisation of the commanding heights of the economy. Why is the SACP now betraying its own positions? Even where nationalisation was pursued towards saving or promoting (crisis-ridden) black mining capital, as Cronin alleges, that would still be a progressive economic step. This would still be part of democratising and transforming the economy. The working class should definitely lend active support to the struggle for the nationalisation of the mines even if it remains within a capitalist national-democratic framework for that would still represent a radical departure from racist monopoly ownership.
2.8 Debate on Nationalising the Mines in South Africa
Written by David van Wyk, In Defence of Maxism, 06 February 2010
A storm erupted in policy circles in South Africa after Julius Malema the leader of the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) boldly proclaimed the need for the mining industry in South Africa to be nationalized. The demand was predicated on fulfilling the vision of the Freedom Charter, which was adopted at Kliptown in 1955 as the ‘manifesto’ of the liberation struggle. According to the Charter “The wealth of the country shall be shared among all who live in it!” (Note: the full ANC YL document on nationalisation of the mines can be read here in a PDF version) Not surprisingly Malema has faced a barrage of criticism from free marketers and other apologists of capitalism. What was surprising, however, were the attacks he had to face from Ben Turok and Jeremy Cronin, leading figures of the Communist Party. Both Turok and Cronin quickly claimed that the notorious Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act [28 of 2002] (MPRDA) brought mineral rights under state control, therefore it is not necessary to nationalize mines, as this piece of legislation means that all South Africans through state ownership of the mineral rights already share in the wealth of the mining industry.
The attack on Malema from the leading SACP cadres was so vicious and unexpected that Malema responded by promising that he will defend the ANC against communist takeover with his life, reflecting his and the ANCYLs ideological confusion. However, it is important to note that Malema felt it necessary to pose such a radical demand as mine nationalization, possibly due to pressure from the ANCYL ranks. This also shows that the YCL, basing itself on radical socialist demands, can gain a wide layer of support amongst youth in the alliance organisations. Malema has taken it a step further by demanding the progressive nationalisation of the entire commanding heights of the economy, starting with mining and then moving on to banking. Malema reiterated his demands on the eve of the Mining Indaba in Cape Town. This is an annual event for mining capitalists planning their scramble for African minerals. Susan Shabangu the Minister of Mineral Resources publicly backtracked on Polokwane Resolutions by stating that nationalisation is not ANC policy, and that the nationalisation “will not happen in her lifetime!” Not surprisingly the Chairperson of De Beers, Nicky Oppenheimer jumped to the defence of Susan Shabangu. Julius Malema’s response to the head of the capitalist family which has dominated the mining industry for close to a hundred years, manipulated colonial, apartheid and post apartheid governments in the interest of private profit, shows a high level of class consciousness permeating the ANCYL and its leadership. Malema is reported to have said, “Who is Nicky Oppenheimer? We don’t respect him. He has never been a leader of our people. Ours is to take from his family what belongs to the people of this country.” The leader of the Youth League demonstrated that his level of revolutionary consciousnesss is light years ahead of that of the leadership of the SACP through comments directed at Susan Shabangu. “Her pronouncements show that she has committed her own life to capital; capital continues to take care of her. What she is saying is that in her lifetime our economy will never be decolonised. She leads the most untransformed sector in our economy and should know better.” He accused the mining minister of “sucking up to monopoly capital” (Mail and Guardian, Feb 5-11, 2010.p.10). The ANC Youth league and its young supporters are running miles ahead of the leadership of the South African Communist Party, and even COSATU. The SACP slogan of “build socialism now”, is meaningless without a detailed programme and strategy for doing exactly that. Malema and the ANCYL are putting forward the content of what the building of socialism actually requires, and it certainly does not require a deepening of capitalism. Especially now that global capitalism stands exposed and naked in its bankruptcy. Jeremy Cronin’s defence of the MPRDA ignores the fact that the minerals mined are privately owned and disposed off by multinational mining companies, and that the value of the minerals are realized in London, New York, Tokyo, and Toronto where these companies are listed or based. While South Africa sits with the enormous costs of mining, the profits of mining is realized in the First World. The costs include costs to communities surrounding mines, including being pushed off their land; of the destruction of their traditional economies and culture, the destruction of their natural environment, the consumption and pollution of their water sources and the destruction of their health. The parliamentary offices of Turok and Cronin are situated in the fairest Cape a thousand miles south of the misery and destruction wrought by the mining industry on the land of rural peasants, well removed from the scourge of HIV/Aids associated with mining. HIV/Aids infection levels in mining towns are double the national rates. Mine workers reside in “informal settlements” or squatter camps similar to the one depicted in the Sci-Fi movie District Nine. The tragedy is that the real life aliens are migrant workers from Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Swaziland and the Eastern Cape. The Mining Industry in Southern Africa Surface workers on South African mines earn roughly R1 500 (US$200) per month, while underground workers earn R3 000 (US$400) per month, figures which have not changed much since 2005 (Hlekiso & Mahlo, 2006). In 2005 the average wage of a Canadian mine worker was US$ 2607 per month (Worldsalaries.org). Canadian mine workers therefore earned 6.5 times more in 2005 than South African mine workers in 2009. Gold is currently trading at around US$ 1200 (SAR 9 000) an ounce, which translates into US$ 38,400,000 per ton, while platinum is trading at US$ 1450 (SAR10 875) an ounce, which translates into US$ 46,400,000 per ton for platinum. South Africa, like most of the other countries in the SADC region is highly dependent on minerals. Since the late 19th century, South Africa's economy has been based on the production and export of minerals, which, in turn, have contributed significantly to the country's skewed industrial development. Most industries that developed are interlinked with the supply side of the mining industry, with little diversification away from mining. In 1952 the Trade Union organiser and champion of the working class Solly Sachs noted that, “It is abundantly clear to anyone who has the welfare of South Africa at heart that the future of the people and the whole country depends on extensive and intensive industrial development, and that the mining of precious minerals can serve the interests of the country only as a stimulus for the development of other branches of the national economy.“ Yet he concludes that “It has always been the policy of the Chamber of Mines to subordinate the entire economic life of the country to the selfish interests of the mine owners” (Sachs, 1952, pp. 102-103). In 2000, mineral commodities accounted for 47% of the $30.8 billion in total exports. Gold, diamonds, platinum, and other metals and minerals were the top export commodities in 2002. The total value of sales of primary minerals was $14.2 billion in 2000 ($12.3 billion in 1999); $11 billion worth was exported ($9.5 billion in 1999). Processed mineral materials added another $2.98 billion to sales in 1999 and $2.43 billion to exports. The leading export earners in 2000 were PGMs [platinum group metals] ($3.9 billion), gold ($3.4 billion), coal, ferroalloys, aluminum, iron ore, vanadium, and copper. The year 2000 was the first in which the value of PGM exports exceeded that of gold. The recent sharp increase in PGMs has helped compensate for the declining role of gold (Encyclopedia of the Nations). Given these staggering export figures one is left with the uncomfortable question as to why in such a wealthy country have the issues of unemployment, poverty, disease, homelessness and crime assumed such equally staggering proportions? A number of myths have emerged about the South African economy, much of these stem from the ideological desire by the ruling class, particularly during the Mbeki terms in the presidency, to perpetuate neo-liberalism, to reverse the gains by the working class and to commodify even the most basic services such as health, education, electricity supply, water, transport and housing. Thus Wikipedia repeats some of these myths “South Africa has a two tiered economy; one rivalling other developed countries and the other with only the most basic infrastructure. It is therefore a productive and industrialised economy that exhibits many characteristics associated with developing countries, including a division of labour between formal and informal sectors and an uneven distribution of wealth and income. The primary sector, based on manufacturing, services, mining, and agriculture, is well developed” (Wikipedia, -) A well developed primary sector is surely indicative of an extractive economy which is typically Third World, Extractive economies depend on abundant supplies of cheap labour, hence the country has a large pool of unemployed lumpen proletarians, who are absorbed into the informal sector, which sector acts as a safety valve against revolution. The two Southern African countries, lauded for being democratic, capital friendly and responsible, South Africa and Botswana are also two of the most extractive industry dependent countries in the world, with the between them the worst gaps between the rich and poor world in the world, the worst HIV infection levels in the world and both suffering massive unemployment levels. There is no second tier in the South African economy. Those classified to be in the “second tier” are the working class, the poor, the unemployed, the excluded, the majority black African part of the population i.e. they are a product of the form that capitalist development has taken in South Africa since the discovery of minerals in the late 19th century. In 2000, Anglo Platinum spent $193 million on expansions and two new mines, and $450 million was spent in 2001 (Encyclopedia of the Nations). If we consider than one ton of platinum currently sells at US$ 46,400,000 and multiply this with Anglo Platinum’s proven reserves of 145.56 million tons the astronomical income of this multinational corporation from South Africa’s platinum reserves is realised once more begging the question – why are the majority of South Africans faced with poverty, unemployment, ill health, poor education, homelessness and crime? Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. (Implats), South Africa's second-largest producer, operated 13 shafts within the Merensky and UG2 Reefs, and planned on investing $486 million by 2004 to maintain its capacity at 31,110 kg per year until 2030—from 112 million tons of ore reserves. Lonmin PLC, the third-largest PGM producer in the world, divested its nonmining interests in 2000, restructured itself as a focused PGM producer, and announced plans to increase production by 43% within a 7-year period, to 27,060 kg per year of platinum, at a cost of $550 million. The country's total reserve base of PGMs (metal content) was 62.8 million tons (Encyclopedia of the Nations). Freedom Park is situated in the shadow of Implat’s Rustenburg operations. It is a sprawling informal settlement and a festering sore of HIV/Aids, STIs, sex work, alcohol and substance abuse and crime – it is also where Implat’s workforce resides. Primary gold output in 2000 was 430,778 kg, down from 491,680 in 1997 and the 1970 peak of 989 tons. Anglogold Ltd. (the gold division of Anglo American) accounted for 37% of output; Gold Fields Ltd., 25.7%; and Harmony Gold Mining Co., 15.3%—the three companies had capacities of 161 tons per year, 125 tons per year, and 87.1 tons per year, respectively. Gold, discovered in 1886, occurred along a 430-km arc that stretched across Gauteng, the North-West, Mpumalanga, and the Free State. Production of gold rose steadily through the 1960s and 1970s, as newer mines opened to keep pace with burgeoning world-market demands. Gold production declined in the 1990s, because of reduced ore grades, increased mining costs and industry restructuring. In 1996, production reached its lowest level (496,846 kg) since 1956, although South Africa was still the world's largest producer. The world's deepest mine (3,777 m) was the Western Deep Levels gold mine, at Carletonville (Gauteng). Natural gem diamond output in 2000 was 4.75 million carats; and natural industrial diamond, 6.06 million carats. De Beers mines produced 10.29 million carats, from 23.3 million tons of material treated. Alluvial diamonds were discovered along the Orange River in 1867, and surface diamonds, at Kimberley, in 1870; both types were later discovered in other parts of South Africa. The Big Hole Mine, at Kimberley, was the world's largest hand-dug mine; by the time it ceased production, in 1914, 14.5 million carats of diamond had been extracted from 22.6 million tons of earth (Encyclopedia of the Nations). Diamonds from Southern Africa made Great Britain the biggest exporter of rough diamonds for more than a century. Southern Africa diamonds give employment to 2 million cutters and polishers in India, whereas in South Africa there are roughly 2000 cutters and polishers, 50% of whom are unemployed because they cannot access rough diamonds. Southern African diamonds make a significant contribution to the GDP of both Belgium and Israel. Southern African diamonds partly fund the oppression of Palestinians. Southern African diamonds contribute to non-unionized child labour in India. The wealth derived from the sale of diamonds provided the initial capital for the development of the Witwatersrand gold mines. The market created by the gold mines, in turn, provided the impetus for coal mining, and, later, for the development of the iron and steel industry, which, in its turn, required the development of other minerals. Taxation of mining enterprises has supported South African agriculture, and financed many of the country's administrative and social needs. The South African minerals industry operates on a free-enterprise, market-driven basis. Government involvement was primarily confined to ownership of the national electric power supply and the national oil and gas exploration company; under the MPRDA, mineral rights reverted to the state. The bulk of mineral land holdings and production has historically been controlled by five mining investment houses. Since 1994, the industry has undergone a major corporate restructuring, or "unbundling," aimed at simplifying a complex system of interlocking ownership, at establishing separate core-commodity-focused profit centers, and at creating an entry point for the aspirant comprador bourgeoisie, that native bourgeoisie which is dependent on and serving in the interest of imperialism, into the mining industry. The move from Johannesburg to London of two major corporate financial headquarters, Anglo American PLC and Billiton PLC, caused concern over "capital flight," and the government in 2000 blocked the $3 billion merger of Gold Fields Ltd. and Franco-Nevada Mining Corp., of Canada; in 2001, though, the government approved a $19 billion takeover of De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd. by Anglo American. The leadership of the SACP should be careful that is is not found defending the interests of a comprador bourgeoisie instead of advancing the class interests of the working class. It should also be careful that the lack of substance of its strategies and tactics do not cause it to be marginalised by the much more dynamic and forceful shift to the left in the ANCYL. For the nationalization of mining under the control of the working class The MPRDA was designed to release the monopoly stranglehold of five mining investment houses and allow entry by the aspirant black middle class, mainly ANC leadership figures, into the mining industry. Thus instead of benefitting the population as a whole this limited ‘nationalization’ has benefitted only a small comprador elite. This elite has entered mining in alliance with financial and mining interests from the USA, Canada, Australia, Russia and China. This elite faction of the capitalist ruling class sees Malema’s call for a more comprehensive nationalization as a threat to their attempts to accumulate capital. Malema will face significant opposition from the bourgeois elements within the ANC. The SACP needs to stand only for the interests of the working class, both the miners and masses of South Africa as a whole. It must not feel pressured by the mining companies and the class interests of the bourgeoisie. Instead it should enter a constructive debate with the ANCYL on the important issue of nationalization. Malema’s call for nationalization represents a step forward. However, in the face of massive bourgeois opposition the ANCYL has retreated, claiming that South Africa should emulate the Botswana model. The Botswana model is not really the answer to the key questions that arise from the need to build a socialist economy and society in South Africa. However, Malema is a step ahead of Cronin and Turok in this regard. The events of the last week, particularly the remarks by Shabangu at the mining indaba and Oppenheimer’s defence of her is pushing the Youth League into an increasingly more radical position. It also shows that Oppenheimer is not even prepared for the limited nationalisation represented by the Botswana model, thus contradicting his oft quoted lofty praise for the relationship between De Beers and the government of that country. The SACP leadership needs to back Malema’s call, but also point out the limitations of mine nationalization in isolation. It is important therefore to note the positive development in the thinking of the ANCYL in its realisation that nationalizing the mining sector would be an important gain for the working class, but should be accompanied with nationalizing banking and major industry in the interests of the masses. This would be the only way to realise the Freedom Charter’s demand that “The mineral wealth beneath the soil, the Banks and monopoly industry shall be transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole.” Botswana is a poor example, and it is important that we reiterate this. The fact that the Botswana government has a 50% share along with DeBeers in Debswana does not mean that the people of Botswana are benefitting from the fabulous wealth produced in that country’s diamond mines. Botswana has an unemployment level ranging between 25% and 30%, it has the highest poverty gap in the world, it has after South Africa and Swaziland the highest HIV/Aids infection rate, almost half of households in Botswana live below the official poverty datum line, and most households do not have water borne sewage. At the same time it has had one of the highest economic growth rates in Africa over the past two decades. Given that it is a capitalist country the economic wealth generated in the country is usurped by a comprador bourgeoisie and international capital. The state’s role in the economy is to police the Botswana public in general and the working class in particular – “creating favourable conditions for investment”. State ownership is not the answer if the state is an instrument of the capitalist ruling class. Only when the state becomes the instrument of the working class intent on abolishing class exploitation and oppression, and redirecting the income generated by the economy in general and mining in particular to address the challenges of poverty, unemployment, disease, illiteracy, environmental destruction will the socialization of the mining industry be useful. If we are going to demand socialization then we need to fill this vague term out with concrete demands. Mining in South Africa will only benefit the majority of South Africans if it is placed under the control of the working class, along with banking and the commanding heights of the economy, as nationalized concerns planned in the interest of the masses. In the final analysis the bourgeois state is unable to do this. By putting itself at the head of the working class with a bold socialist programme the SACP can struggle to bring about a real transformation of society. Instead of condemning the ANCYL for its progressive vision, the SACP should take up the challenge and provide revolutionary leadership to the working class. Smashing the bourgeois state machinery and replacing it with a socialist planned economy is the only genuine road to socialism in South Africa.
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2.9 Zuma second-term campaign on ropes
But ANC says succession to be settled in 2012
By DOMINIC MAHLANGU, NKULULEKO NCANA, NKOSANA LEKOTJOLO and LAUREN COHEN, TIMESLIVE, 8 February 2010
President Jacob Zuma is facing mounting dissent within the ANC with growing numbers of members now calling for him to serve only one term in office as head of state.
Despite Zuma's belated apology to the ANC and the nation on Saturday for fathering another child out of wedlock, a debate is raging - at all levels of the ANC - about his suitability for a second term.
Senior ANC members in Gauteng, North West, Mpumalanga and Eastern Cape who spoke to The Times yesterday said while they accepted Zuma's apology, there was a growing call within party structures for him to step down as president of the party when his term ends in 2012.
"Look, what assurances do we have that we are not going to be hit by another scandal involving our president?" asked a senior ANC official in Gauteng.
An Eastern Cape-based official said: "The discussions that he should serve one term are not without merit under these circumstances. He will do the ANC and the country a big favour if he were to step down in 2012."
This position - confirmed by several other ANC members who spoke to The Times yesterday - is in sharp contrast to the situation after Zuma was elected president last April.
Shortly after his inauguration, ANC national executive committee member Tokyo Sexwale called on Zuma to serve two terms - a position supported by the Congress of South African Trade Unions, and some members of the ANC Youth League.
But yesterday the revelation of Zuma's affair and four-month-old love child with Sonono Khoza, daughter of soccer boss Irvin Khoza, appeared to have severely damaged the second-term campaign within the ANC.
ANC members across the country who spoke to The Times said Zuma, who has three wives and a fiancée, "must face the music", while others said it was too early to talk of removing him from office, saying he must be supported.
Zuma, who last week tried to play down the scandal, caved in on Saturday, saying "I deeply regret the pain that I have caused to my family, the ANC, the alliance and South Africans in general".
The Sunday Times, which broke the story of Zuma's extramarital affair and love child, reported yesterday that he made his apology after senior ANC leaders threatened to publicly criticise his behaviour if he did not.
The newspaper said there were fears within the ANC that "unless something was done" to defuse the scandal, Zuma's actions could cost the ANC in the next election.
In his first public appearance since the scandal erupted, Zuma yesterday visited ANC structures in Paarl in the Western Cape. He appeared jubilant on stage, cheering and dancing after telling ANC members that they needed to work hard to win back the province from the DA.
But some party members at the gathering said they were still not convinced - despite his apology. Nomhle Titana said she was "very embarrassed".
"At his age, I didn't know you could make a child," said Sara Block.
Mzimkulu Khohlakala of the Witzenberg branch said he had not received the apology from Zuma that he was waiting for: "It's a problem for the nation, the president needs to lead by example and condomise."
ANC spokesman Brian Sokutu told The Times that any decision about Zuma serving only one term would be settled at the party's national conference in 2012. He said any ANC member had every right to speak out and have opinions about leadership, but that protocol would have to be followed.
"The ANC will never stifle debate, in fact we encourage our members to debate any matter on the table. Their views about the state of the organisation and its leadership will be settled in 2012 when we hold our national conference," Sokutu said.
ANC Youth League spokesman Floyd Shivambu said the scandal should not be turned into a crisis: "Zuma remains our president. We cannot elevate this into a succession battle. He has apologised and we must move on."
Cosatu, which played a critical role in Zuma's ascendency to the presidency, yesterday said it still supported him.
Its national spokesman, Patrick Craven, said Cosatu's position on Zuma serving two terms has not changed.
SA Communist Party spokesman Malesela Maleka said the party would not justify "non-existent" positions in the alliance.
He said the SACP would not fall into the "trap" of responding to individuals' peddling of and testing the "popularity" of their ideas.
Other ANC leaders said it was too soon for the ruling party to be talking about leadership changes. "We came from a painful past that led to [Thabo] Mbeki being recalled. We cannot always be removing people from positions every time there are mistakes. This [Zuma's latest scandal] will pass."
A member of the ANC's Free State provincial executive committee told The Times that the ANC and its alliance partners in the province still supported Zuma for second term: "His issue is not a constitutional issue but a personal one."
Zuma will today address the ANC's national working committee meeting in the Western Cape.
2.10 Premier 'turning Mpumalanga into a banana province'
By Sunday Times, 8 February 2010
The ANC is under mounting pressure to recall Mpumalanga Premier David Mabuza.
Critics within the ruling party blame Mabuza for deepening factionalism and accuse him of nepotism and patronage, but few are willing to confront him in public.
Mabuza, known locally as "The Hurricane", is also under fire for his silence on the killing of senior politicians in the province, where spending on preparations for the 2010 Soccer World Cup has fuelled political rivalry.
In September last year, a group of ANC members organised a press conference to discuss Mabuza's removal as party chairman. But it was called off after they received threats.
They then wrote an anonymous letter to President Jacob Zuma, asking him to "help before we become a banana province".
"Mr President may you please relieve our premier of his duties if you want to see progress in the province," the letter reads.
"He is busy destroying the legacy left by former Premier (Thabang) Makwetla. He does not have management skills to run the province. We are asking ourselves that with the irregularities that he has committed while MEC for roads and transport how was he chosen (as) premier of the province.
"... there are more than 10 forensic reports from the integrity management units implicating officials in the (roads and transport) department" yet no action has been taken."
Besides roads and transport, the letter also accuses Mabuza of a litany of irregularities while he was MEC for education and agriculture.
He is further accused of buying cars for journalists to write positive stories about him.
ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu confirmed that the letter and additional reports and documents had been received at Luthuli House.
"We are investigating all these reports and documents and we are currently verifying their authenticity before acting on the matters raised," said Mthembu.
Mabuza's spokesman, Mabutho Sithole, said it was unfair to criticise Mabuza's silence on the killings. "Our position is that any killing of an individual is wrong and very painful to the families of the deceased.
"However, we believe the law enforcement agencies must take the lead in the matter, investigate and apprehend the people behind these senseless killings," he said.
A source close to Mabuza accused those opposed to Mabuza of funding service delivery protests. "We will defend him from people like (Mbombela Municipality mayor Lassy) Chiwayo and former premier Matthews Phosa, who are behind the plot to oust him," he said.
Phosa is a former premier of Mpumalanga.
A source told the Sunday Times that the ANC NEC wants the provincial executive of the party disbanded immediately.
A source close to Mabuza said the premier was aware of a plot to oust him including those behind it and named Chiwayo as being involved.
Mabuza beat Chiwayo to the post of ANC chairman of Mpumalanga with 388 votes to 305 votes in 2008.
At the centre of the problems in Mpumalanga is a fierce fight for multibillion-rand contracts and tenders related to the Fifa World Cup, and other projects such as roads and construction contracts circulating among a few individuals.
Mthembu said the ruling party in the province was in "a state of paralysis".
"There are serious difficulties in ANC structures such as factionalism, but we have appointed a task team to investigate all the problems affecting service delivery in Mpumalanga."
The ruling party has deployed NEC members to deal with the problems in the province in the next few weeks. They will report back before the end of March.
The task team's convener is deputy home affairs minister Malusi Gigaba, ANC deputy secretary-general Thandi Modise, minister of justice minister Jeff Radebe, deputy minister of police Fikile Mbalula and ANC Women's League president Angie Motshekga.
2.11 Probe ANC hit list claims - DA
NEWS24, 8 February 2010
Johannesburg - The senior ANC figure implicated in a string of murders linked to Fifa World Cup tender disputes in Mpumalanga must be forced to stand down by his party's leadership, the DA said on Sunday.
Mpumalanga's DA spokesperson Anthony Benadie said the identity of the ANC figure was known in the political circles even though an article in the Sunday Times on the matter did not reveal it.
Benadie's statement follows the publication of a feature on the Mpumalanga murders on Sunday in which a number of officials were allegedly on a hit list and have either been threatened with death, went missing or were killed in recent years allegedly over the province's tenders.
Those killed included, among others, former Nelspruit council speaker, Jimmy Mohlala, Mpumalanga's arts, culture and sport communications director Sammy Mpatlanyane, and regional secretary Themba Monareng.
The newspaper also wrote about the DA's criticism of Mpumalanga premier, David Mabuza's alleged silence on the murders.
But his spokesperson, Mabutho Sithole, responded that it was unfair to criticise Mabuza's silence on the killings.
"Our position is that any killing of an individual is wrong and very painful to the families of the deceased.
Law must take lead
"However, we believe the law enforcement agencies must take the lead in the matter, investigate and apprehend the people behind these senseless killings," Sithole was quoted saying.
Benadie said the unidentified senior ANC figure linked to the killings' failure to step aside, or his party's failure to force him to stand down until his name has been cleared, would be untenable.
Three alleged surviving victims of the unidentified senior ANC official also included a former ANC regional leader Alfred Monareng, Nelspruit mayor Lassy Chiwayo and deputy mayor Nackie Ndlovu.
The Sunday Times quoted ANC national spokesperson Jackson Mthembu saying that the ruling party was aware of the alleged hit list and allegations against the politicians allegedly involved.
Mthembu was quoted saying the party has sent a task team to investigate those responsible for the killings in Mpumalanga, but also that the ANC could not do anything until police cracked the murder cases.