COSATU Media Monitor, 17 July 2012

[Patrick Craven]

COSATU Media Monitor

Tuesday 17 July 2012

 

COSATU is now on Twitter! Go to cosatu2015 or cosatutoday

 

Contents

 

Workers

Ø  Unions call for pay talks before budget process

Ø Hyundai Motor union plans new strike      

Ø  Do not blame us for SA’s poor education, says Sadtu

South Africa

Ø  How to stop the rot

Ø  Recalled HIV test kits disrupt Aids war

Ø  Anglo ordered to disclose documents

Ø  Sisulu to approach cabinet on evaluation: report

Ø  Do as Tata Madiba did, says Tutu

Ø  Plan to end incentives in medicine sales

Ø  Motsoaledi reassures public on withdrawn HIV tests

Ø  State shuns money from abroad for Telkom

Ø  Carolina back in court to get state water

ANC

Ø  ANC 'vandalising' Afrikaans: IFP

Ø  Arms deal: Manuel loses cool

Ø  Youth lose confidence in Zuma

Ø  Home affairs exit stirs reshuffle talk

International

Ø  Nkosazana, servant of continent, will build bridges

Ø  Analysts welcome AU’s new chairperson

Ø  IMF sees euro crisis dragging down global growth rates

Comments

Ø  Not surprising Angie too busy to receive damning report

Ø  SA chicken farmers are being roasted

Ø  Prescribed assets hark to apartheid, says expert 

Ø  Beware of a tender war

Ø  A new opportunity beckons for Africa

Ø  Declining mining industry to embark on self-examination

Ø  The Thick End of the Wedge — The Editor’s Notebook

Ø  Time for Communist Party to make a contribution

Ø  Unworkable red tape

Ø  Nedlac on a path of reinvigoration

 

1.  Workers

­Unions call for pay talks before budget process

Natasha Marrian, Business Live, 13 July 2012

Public service trade unions want to hold pay talks ahead of the government’s budgeting process in order to prevent the protracted yearly battle between the government and labour in the sector.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions’ (Cosatu’s) affiliates expressed anger and frustration over an apparent climb-down by the state on a 6,9% wage increase and declared a dispute on Wednesday, bringing them a step closer to issuing a strike notice.

Public Service and Administration Minister Lindiwe Sisulu met unions yesterday to discuss the impasse. This year’s budget for public sector wage increases was 5%, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said in his February budget. The offer by the state was not at the sole discretion of the Department of Public Service and Administration but had to be made in consultation with the Treasury.

Cosatu affiliates’ chief negotiator Mugwena Maluleke described the regime for public sector wage negotiations as "very difficult" as the bar was set way before negotiations could commence. "We want change, negotiations have to happen before the passing of the budget,"

He said negotiations were tough as they were pitted against Treasury’s preset amount.

Independent Labour Caucus chairman and negotiator Chris Klopper yesterday concurred with Mr Mugwena. "We repeatedly have to start negotiating against Parliament. It makes good faith bargaining impossible."

The public service sector has the largest bargaining forum in SA. The combined trade unions negotiate for about 1,3- million workers.

Mr Klopper said the finance minister "threw down the gauntlet" with his budgeted 5%. There was also very little opportunity for unions to have any say in the budget as it was a parliamentary process and they were not represented there.

Public service and administration department spokesman Ndivhuwo Mabaya said budgeting ahead of negotiations not only constrained his department but the Treasury as well — the last offer of 6,7% exceeded the budget by some R8bn.

This was the motivation behind the state’s insistence on a multiyear agreement in the negotiations. But the unions initially opposed this, demanding a single-term agreement. Labour analyst Tony Healy said public sector bargaining was not "especially difficult or uniquely prone" to negotiating after budgets were spelled out.

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Hyundai Motor union plans new strike     

Reuters, Sowetan Live, 16 July 2012

Union plans talks on Wednesday, partial strike on Friday

SEOUL — The main union at South Korea’s Hyundai Motor said it will resume wage talks with management mid-week and stage another partial strike on Friday, signalling protracted labour tension at the world’s fifth-biggest carmaker and affiliate Kia Motors.

“The chance is slim for us to seal a wage deal before the summer vacation which is from July 28 to August 5,” said union spokesman Kwon Oh-il on Monday, adding the union will hold talks on Wednesday, but refuse overtime work on July 26 and July 27.

Workers at the top automaker in South Korea staged their first strike in four years on July 13 after negotiations collapsed amid disagreements over working conditions.

The country’s once-powerful trade unions, largely silenced by conservative President Lee Myung-bak’s tough anti-labour stance since he came to power in 2008, are demanding better working conditions as this year’s presidential elections approach and Lee’s mandatory single term draws to an end.

As well, more than 70000 financial sector workers in South Korea voted on Friday to stage their first industry-wide strike in 12 years later this month.

The moves came as Asia’s fourth-biggest economy cut its economic growth outlook as Europe’s debt crisis deepened, and many South Korean households struggle to pay off heavy debts.

Hyundai Motor workers will join the umbrella Metal Workers Union in another round of the partial walkout on Friday along with unions at affiliate Kia Motors and General Motors’ Korean unit.

Kwon said the union plans to engage in two more rounds of talks next week.

Shares in Hyundai Motor ended up 1,11% in the wider market that rose 0,27% on Monday, although they lost 15% of their value since May on euro zone jitters and labour tensions.

The eight-hour stoppage on Friday cost Hyundai an estimated 4300 vehicles in lost production worth or 88 billion Korean won ($76,50 million), according to a company spokesman.

Carmakers usually make up production loss with extra work, but a prolonged strike could impact sales of the world’s fifth-biggest automaker along with Kia at a time when its inventory is low, analysts say.

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Do not blame us for SA’s poor education, says Sadtu

Natasha Marrian, Business Day, 17 July 2012

The South African Democratic Teachers Union has absolved itself of responsibility for the dismal state of South Africa’s education system, saying its only duty is to represent its members.

THE South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) has absolved itself of responsibility for the dismal state of SA’s education system, saying its only duty is to represent its members.

Criticism of the education system is often directed at Sadtu, a Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) affiliate with about 250000 members.

A report released yesterday said the Department of Basic Education had failed to comply with a court order to deliver textbooks to Limpopo schools — only 15% were delivered by the June deadline imposed by a court.

Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said recently the federation had to account for its silence as Limpopo pupils suffered for months without textbooks. But Sadtu vehemently disagreed.

Its general secretary Mugwena Maluleke described Mr Vavi’s comments as "unfortunate" in an interview yesterday. He said Sadtu had been "on the front lines", trying to resolve the issue, but was told schools merely needed a "top-up" of textbooks. The union supported the probe into the nondelivery of textbooks and held the ministry and Department of Basic Education responsible. He said the two probes into the problem would reveal whether "politics was at play".

The Limpopo education department was one of five provincial departments to be placed under the control of the national government in December last year.

Limpopo Premier Cassel Mathale is an ally of expelled African National Congress (ANC) Youth League leader Julius Malema, who was spearheading a campaign for the removal of President Jacob Zuma as ANC president.

Mr Maluleke would not be drawn on whether Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga should resign, saying the probes would uncover who should take the fall.

Sadtu and the national government were also at loggerheads in the Eastern Cape over several issues, such as financial mismanagement.

"It’s a concern for our organisation. There are no consequences for corruption, there are no consequences for inefficiency, there are no consequences for negligence by some of the departments, in particular the bureaucracy ," he said.

Mr Maluleke said it was not within Sadtu’s mandate to discipline its members — that was the duty of the employer. "Our responsibility is to represent teachers. Representation is not defending a conduct, but it’s meant to ensure that the procedures give them a fair hearing," he said.

"Why is the department of education not exercising a right which is there? We must hold the department accountable for the behaviour and the conduct that we see in our schools."

Last year, scores of Sadtu members abandoned their teaching posts to support two members, including a regional office bearer, who appeared in court for assaulting a 17-year-old pupil.

Department of Basic Education spokesman Panyaza Lesufi said it was up to provincial departments to discipline their employees. Provincial MECs could also not be fired by the national department as they reported to their premiers and not the minister.

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2.  South Africa

How to stop the rot

Sipho Masombuka,Times Live,17 July, 2012

An investigation into the failure of the Limpopo department of education to deliver textbooks to millions of pupils has come up with bold ways of dealing with the crisis.

In addition to making several recommendations to the Department of Basic Education, former Higher Education director-general Mary Metcalfe yesterday advised on how to save the province's education system from another textbook fiasco - if not complete collapse - next year.

Months after the plight of Limpopo pupils was exposed, Metcalfe announced a basket of reforms the province needs to implement urgently, including intensifying monitoring by the national Department of Education.

In her report "Verification of textbook deliveries in Limpopo", Metcalfe proposes radical intervention in the province's growing education crisis.

The Limpopo education department was one of five provincial departments placed under national administration in December.

Central to several of Metcalfe's recommendations is that the department be subjected to further micro-management and that all current textbook distribution contracts be reviewed and amended to "avoid [a repetition of] this situation".

"It is urgent that rapid and efficient mechanisms be put in place ... to facilitate the recovery and delivery of books ..."

The report, released jointly in Johannesburg yesterday by the Department of Basic Education and human rights interest group Section 27, found that:

"Reckless" overspending by the Limpopo department of education led to failure to order textbooks - the education budget for 2011-2012 had been exhausted by the end of last year;

Limpopo schools have the poorest communications infrastructure in the country;

Warehouses belonging to the department had thousands of textbooks in storage from previous years that had not been delivered - an investigation into this has been ordered; and

At least 33000 schools in five districts in Limpopo had not received Grade 10 or Grade 11 textbooks as of Wednesday.

Metcalfe was unable to make an accurate assessment of how many books had reached schools, but said it was a "concern".

Metcalfe's report, the recommendations of which are to be implemented by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga, identifies a number of shortcomings in textbook procurement and a breakdown in the system due to the "non-availability of school personnel".

Metcalfe stays clear of apportioning blame but she calls for the textbook delivery SMS line to be taken over by the national Department of Education and that SMSs and the responses to them be reviewed weekly until all queries have been resolved.

Metcalfe recommends "immediate intervention to improve connectivity to schools".

But even though Metcalfe gives practical advice on how to deal with the textbooks fiasco, her report might not be able to prevent a recurrence of the crisis because the department has already tapped into next year's budget to purchase books for this year.

Section 27, which took the department to court to force it to deliver textbooks, has warned that the Limpopo textbooks crisis is likely to recur next year.

Executive director of Section 27 Mark Heywood has asked where the money will come from that will be needed to deal with the ripple effect on textbook acquisitions.

"It is clear from this and other reports that the Limpopo education department is rotten, riven with corruption and incapable of meeting its constitutional obligation to learners," said Heywood.

Section 27 wants the department to be "cleaned out" and called for education MEC Dickson Masemola to be fired.

The Department of Basic Education reported on June 28 that 98% of textbooks had been delivered - this was disputed by Section 27.

The report shows that, in fact, only 15% of the textbooks had been delivered on June 27 and, by Wednesday, 22% of schools were still waiting for their textbooks.

As of Wednesday, Metcalfe's verification team had found no proof of delivery of textbooks for Grades 10 and 11 to over 33000 schools in five districts (Capricorn, Greater Sekhukhune, Mopani, Vhembe and Waterberg).

The team found stacks of unopened boxes of undelivered textbooks issued in recent years. It said these books should be put to good use in schools, "especially in the light of the poor availability of textbooks".

Late last month, hundreds of books were found dumped in the province. Other books were found dumped in a river early this month.

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Recalled HIV test kits disrupt Aids war

Katharine Child, Times Live, 17 July, 2012

Doctors and activists have called on South Africans to "continue voluntary testing and counselling for HIV" in the face of a recall of half a million HIV testing kits.

They were speaking at a press conference in Johannesburg yesterday where Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi assured South Africans that the recalled SD Bioline kits had not caused any false positive or negative HIV results.

Motsoaledi recalled the kits "to err on the side of caution". He assured the public it was safe to test for HIV.

The saga started after the Health Department and the Treasury ordered 4.5million SD Bioline kits in March in a R22.5-million tender. This was after the World Health Organisation "delisted the company from its approved list" in November.

The organisation's Dr Kees de Joncheere said its testing found batches of the kits used in Kenya produced invalid results in which "no test result could be read".

Motsoaledi said he had not been aware the kits had been ordered and blamed junior officials for the blunder.

He refused to respond to questions about whether money spent on the testing kits would be reclaimed, saying an investigation was taking place into why the tender was awarded.

Deputy chairman of the South African National Aids Council Mark Heywood was concerned that confusion over testing kits would be used as an excuse for people to avoid testing for HIV.

"An HIV test is difficult to do at all times for people, so we don't want questions over the efficacy of the HIV tests to stop people from testing."

The HIV Clinicians' Society's Professor Francois Venter said: "For the first time in 20 years, South Africa's life expectancy has risen and it is a direct result of the antiretroviral treatment programme, the largest in the world.

"People need to be tested and get on treatment if they need it," said Venter.

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Anglo ordered to disclose documents

Sapa, Times Live,16 July, 2012

Mining company Anglo American SA (AASA) has been ordered by a High Court in the United Kingdom to release documents to South African gold miners suing the company, the miners' lawyers said on Monday.

"At hearings in May and June, the claimants sought disclosure of documents that would shed light on where key decisions regarding AASA's business were in fact taken," Richard Meeran, of Leigh Day & Co, said in a statement.

AASA had argued the company was centrally administered in Johannesburg and not in London, which made the miners' claim unarguable.

Under European law, English courts have jurisdiction over a company that has its central administration in England.

The miners claim that exposure to silica dust caused them to contract the lung diseases silicosis and silico-tuberculosis.

The judge concluded there were a number of factors which led to the miners having an arguable case that AASA was centrally administered in London.

"The judge referred to the roles of Godfrey Gomwe [AASA CEO] and his close working links with Anglo American plc and of the London-based Anglo Group management and executive committees," said Meeran.

Without the document disclosure, there was a large risk that the miners were contesting jurisdiction at an unfair disadvantage, the judge said.

Meeran said bringing the case in the UK was in the miners' interests, since English courts had well-developed case management procedures for handling mass legal actions.

The miners would be entitled to damages at UK levels, he said.

The UK litigation involves a mass tort action, in which Leigh Day & Co represents over 1500 South African former-miners, and began in September.

The High Court in Johannesburg has been involved in the litigation of 18 individual claims by ex-miners from Anglo's President Steyn Mine in the Free State since 2004.

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Sisulu to approach cabinet on evaluation: report

Sapa, Business Live,17 July 2012

Public Service Minister Lindiwe Sisulu plans to approach Cabinet over the low compliance rate for performance evaluations of the heads of national and provincial departments.

"I will be approaching Cabinet with a plan to ensure that all qualifying directors-general and heads of department are evaluated," she said on Monday in response to questions by the Democratic Alliance.

"We are acutely aware of the low levels of compliance with regard to the evaluation..."

Evaluations for the 2011/2012 year was still in progress and were due to be concluded by July 31. She said one national director-general and 11 provincial heads of departments had been evaluated. This represented three percent of the 31 national directors-general who qualified for evaluation, and 16 percent of the 49 heads of departments.

The Public Service performance management policy provides for a five point rating scale when conducting performance evaluations for senior managers, directors-general and heads of department.

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Do as Tata Madiba did, says Tutu

Sapa, Sowetan, 17 July 2012

THE best gift to give former president Nelson Mandela on his 94th birthday would be to act like him, archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu said.

The greatest gift our nation could possibly give uTata Nelson Mandela for his 94th birthday this week would be to emulate his magnanimity and grace

"The greatest gift our nation could possibly give uTata Nelson Mandela for his 94th birthday this week would be to emulate his magnanimity and grace," Tutu said.

"Mr Mandela taught us to love ourselves, to love one another and to love our country. He laid the table so that all South Africans could eat."

Tutu said citizens should spend a few quiet moments tomorrow thinking about Mandela's gift to the nation.

His gift had been to place reconciliation and national unity at the top of the agenda.

Tutu said the revered leader had also been willing to listen to others, to solicit and acknowledge all points of view, to set an example of forgiveness and tolerance, and to inspire hope and pride in others.

Tomorrow, also known as Mandela Day, many people intend dedicating 67 minutes to a worthy cause, in honour of Mandela fighting for social justice for 67 years.

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Plan to end incentives in medicine sales

Tamar Kahn, Business Day,17 July 2012

The Department of Health is planning to close loopholes in the laws governing the sale of medicines it says have enabled pharmaceutical companies to inappropriately influence which medicines are prescribed to patients.

The Department of Health is planning to close loopholes in the laws governing the sale of medicines it says have enabled pharmaceutical companies to inappropriately influence which medicines are prescribed to patients.

If accepted in their current form, the proposed regulations to section 22a of the Medicines and Related Substances Act will put an end to a host of underhand tactics employed by pharmaceutical companies to ensure their products get sold to patients, according to the department’s deputy director-general for health regulation and compliance, Anban Pillay.

"It’s quite clear that manufacturers are paying out amounts to … wholesalers and pharmacies to preferentially procure their products," he said, alleging players in the generic industry were the biggest culprits, but declining to name them.

Stocking a limited range of products effectively forced consumers to buy these goods, he said, as few patients would travel to several pharmacies in search of their prescribed medicine if an alternative were available at their first port of call.

Pharmacists are required by law to offer patients a generic medicine if one exists, but consumers are often unaware that there may be several generics to choose from and that the one offered by their pharmacist might not be the cheapest.

Pharmacies received money from drug manufacturers through a variety of schemes, said Dr Pillay.

"The most famous is the data fee: the (sales) data that is stored in a pharmacy computer is purchased by a third party, which is actually a front for the manufacturer," he said.

"There are other examples, for instance where a sales representative buys back stock from a pharmacy at a price higher than the single exit price (SEP)," he said.

Pharmaceutical companies are supposed to sell their medicines in the private sector at a uniform price, called the SEP, to all purchasers, regardless of volume.

The draft regulations, published in the Government Gazette on July 6, propose changes to the definition of illegal bonus, rebate or incentive schemes, detailed in the laws currently in place.

The draft regulations seek to ban any payments that are made to influence the sale of a particular medicine, including prizes, shelf space fees, discounts, and fake payments to healthcare professionals (who can influence medicine choice) who have not done any work.

Paul Anley, CEO of generic medicines manufacturer Pharma Dynamics, said the draft regulations sought to tighten up incentives provided to pharmacists that were "standard policies used around the world to drive the use of cheaper (generic) medicines".

"The law says pharmacists must advise patients of a generic alternative (where one exists), but everyone knows they can get around it, because patients ask for their (opinion)," he said.

The law encouraged pharmacists to sell more expensive medicines, because the dispensing fees that they were allowed to charge were calculated based on a percentage of the cost of the drug.

"We need incentives for retail pharmacists to get higher dispensing fees for generic medicines than innovator medicines," he said.

Val Beaumont, CEO of Innovative Medicines SA (Imsa), said the organisation welcomed the government’s proposed moves to stamp out perverse incentives.

Imsa is a trade association for innovator companies, which hold the patents on new medicines.

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Motsoaledi reassures public on withdrawn HIV tests

Khulekani Magubane &Tamar Kahn, Business Day, 17 July 2012

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has sought to limit the damage caused by the withdrawal last week of the SD-Bioline HIV test kits.

HEALTH Minister Aaron Motsoaledi yesterday sought to limit the damage caused by the withdrawal last week of the SD-Bioline HIV test kits, assuring the public that no one using the devices would have received an incorrect result.

Briefing reporters in Johannesburg, he blamed the tender process run by junior officials from his department and the Treasury for the purchase of test kits considered substandard by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The way tenders are managed has long been a sore point for the Department of Health, which has complained that Treasury officials do not understand the nuances of health product pricing and regulation. Although a committee that evaluates tenders for medical devices includes health officials, they are not part of the adjudication committee which makes the awards.

The WHO issued a notice in November saying it was removing the SD Bioline HIV test kit from its list of approved products as it had found "an unacceptably high rate of invalid test results" with devices from some batches. The results could not be read clearly on the kits, making the tests inconclusive.

"An unfortunate and unacceptable event took place whereby officials from the Treasury and the Department of Health who sat to consider the tender, issued it despite (a) communiqué from the WHO. They issued it on the strength of the test done by the NICD (National Institute of Communicable Diseases)," Dr Motsoaledi said, referring to the fact that samples from a batch of SD-Bioline kits had been passed by the NICD.

"I believe these junior officials should have elevated the matter to the level of the minister or the director-general. We are the only ones who should have taken the decision on what to do with the discrepancy between the NICD and the WHO, not these officials."

Had he been involved, the Korean-based company would not have been awarded the R22,5m tender, Dr Motsoaledi said.

"I would have erred on the side of caution by deciding not to award the tender to this company. Since this was not done, immediately on hearing of this happening, I still decided to err on the side of caution and took a decision to withdraw the kits."

On the department’s orders, 500000 test kits were withdrawn from KwaZulu-Natal, the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Northern Cape last week.

Dr Motsoaledi said the Treasury and Department of Health directors-general had put together a team to investigate the tender process, with results expected in four weeks.

WHO essential medicines and health products director Kees de Joncheere said the kits had been suspended from the WHO’s lists of approved products until irregularities were resolved, but not banned.

 

 

State shuns money from abroad for Telkom

Paul Vecchiatto, Business Day, 17 July 2012

Communications Minister Dina Pule says Telkom does not need foreign direct investment to achieve its turnaround strategy — all it requires are skills and competency.

The Cabinet in May rejected a R2,68bn deal proposed by South Korea’s KT Corporation to buy a 20% stake in SA’s largest fixed-line telecommunications operator and gave Ms Pule three months to come up with an alternative strategy for Telkom.

Replying to parliamentary questions from opposition MPs yesterday on why the deal was scuppered, Ms Pule said Telkom was a key component in the government’s efforts to improve skills and ensure its target of 100% access to broadband coverage was achieved by 2020.

The government owns 38,9% of Telkom — 51% if the Public Investment Corporation’s stake is included.

Ms Pule said the Department of Communications was driving the government’s policy to roll out broadband. The implication was that Telkom’s turnaround strategy would be closely linked to the broadband plan.

Last week, the Treasury issued invitations to international and domestic banks and to the telecoms sector to take part in a "market sounding" on July 25-27 on achieving 100% coverage.

The departments of communications and public enterprises and the telecoms regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, would attend.

The Presidential Infrastructure Co-ordination Commission, chaired by President Jacob Zuma , had identified broadband as one of 17 strategic infrastructure projects, the invitation said.

Only about 2% of South Africa’s 50-million people have access to fixed-line broadband, 4% to mobile personal computer broadband, and 17% have access through their cellphones.

The Treasury did not respond to questions about its market sounding yesterday. Analysts said the private sector remained confused over which government department was driving the broadband strategy.

"National Treasury seems to be stepping in and doing what the Department of Communications says it is doing," Dominic Cull, a telecommunications regulatory lawyer, said yesterday.

He said that the "vague reasons" given for scrapping the KT deal did not satisfy the telecoms sector’s need for clarity on what the government intended to do to extend fixed-line services in South Africa, or whether that would happen through Telkom.

Avoir Research telecommunications analyst David Lerche said the key to the KT deal was "the smart people from Korea who would help Telkom. KT did amazing things in rolling out broadband in Korea."

He said the rationale behind the argument that Telkom did not need additional capital was sound. Telkom’s recent decision not to pay dividends for the next three years meant its cash resources would be more readily available.

"If that could be extended to four years, it would bring Telkom close to what the KT deal would have brought in anyway," Mr Lerche said.

Congress of the People MP Juli Kilian said she was concerned that Ms Pule had said in her reply that Telkom did not need foreign investment. "This could be nationalisation by stealth," she said.

Democratic Alliance MP Marian Shinn described the Treasury’s invitation as "rushed", with companies being given only two weeks to respond.

"It seems unrealistic to expect considered responses from the industry in such a short time," Ms Shinn said.

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Carolina back in court to get state water

Sue Blaine, Business Day, 17 July 2012

The town will now ask the North Gauteng High Court to order that the situation is so urgent that the government needs to provide it with water.

RESIDENTS of Carolina, Mpumalanga, are preparing to go to court for the second time in less than a month in a bid to compel the government to provide them with their constitutionally guaranteed water supply.

The town has been without a steady supply of drinkable water since mid-January, when acid mine water polluted its chief water supply, the Boesmanspruit dam.

Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa said last week the water was fit to drink, but the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) and Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) dispute this.

This time the town will ask the North Gauteng High Court to order that the situation is so urgent that the government needs to provide it with water.

A previous court order was held in abeyance by the Gert Sibande district municipality’s application for leave to appeal, LRC lawyer Naseema Fakir said.

However, there is legal room for this to be argued against, and the LRC and LHR are hoping to do so before a judge on Wednesday.

"We have said it is urgent enough for them to have to continue ensuring a water supply," Ms Fakir said.

The Gert Sibande municipality was appealing on the basis that Judge Moses Mavundla was wrong to rule the matter was urgent, and also to order it to provide water.

The order should have been made against the Chief Albert Luthuli (Carolina) local municipality, one of seven local municipalities under Gert Sibande’s jurisdiction, municipal manager Vusi Ngcobo said.

Federation for a Sustainable Environment director Koos Pretorius, who farms in the area, said tests he had taken yesterday showed the water was still acidic.

Mr Ngcobo said Gert Sibande did not have the infrastructure, such as billing facilities.

Democratic Alliance deputy water and environmental affairs spokeswoman Marti Wenger said where a local municipality was struggling, the district municipality had to step up to the plate.

Mr Ngcobo said his municipality was helping Chief Albert Luthuli, but was constrained by infrastructure and the law, which precluded it from delivering water to Carolina’s taps.

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3.  ANC

ANC 'vandalising' Afrikaans: IFP

Sapa,Times Live, 16 July, 2012

Inkatha Freedom Party chief whip Koos van der Merwe has accused the ANC government of vandalising Afrikaans.

"The ANC is continuing its cultural vandalism of Afrikaans," he said in a statement on Monday.

"The latest blatant example is government placing six full pages of advertising for vacant positions in Rapport [newspaper] of Sunday 15 July 2012 -- all only in English."

Van der Merwe said he had urgently placed questions on Parliament's order paper asking why English had been used in an Afrikaans newspaper.

The questions were put to the ministers of local government, arts and culture, social development, transport, tourism, and public enterprises.

He wanted to know, among other things, whether the adverts in only English "are aimed at eliminating prospective Afrikaans applicants".

"It is becoming clearer by the day that the ANC is vandalising Afrikaans and Afrikaner culture," Van der Merwe said.

"It is not only happening to our language, but also to Afrikaans schools, [which are] being turned into English schools."

Correspondence by state departments was being conducted almost exclusively in English.

Hardly one percent of court reports were now in Afrikaans, while this used to be almost 50 percent, he said.

The ANC was not immediately available for comment

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Arms deal: Manuel loses cool

Philani Nombembe, Times Live, 17 July, 2012

Trevor Manuel, the Minister in the Presidency responsible for the National Planning Commission, has slammed Terry Crawford-Browne's suggestion that he should be investigated for perjury and money-laundering in connection with the arms deal.

The activist revealed yesterday that in his submission to a judicial commission of inquiry into the arms deal last month, he requested that Manuel, who was finance minister at the time, be investigated.

President Jacob Zuma appointed the Seriti Commission last year after Crawford-Browne took the government to the Constitutional Court over the matter.

"My submission to the Seriti Commission has requested investigation of charges against ... the minister ... of perjury in connection with the arms deal, and of money-laundering against him," he said.

Manuel yesterday blasted Crawford-Browne, saying his claims were "hollow" and without "moorings in facts or reality.

"It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Crawford-Browne is chasing demons, or that he lives in a parallel universe into which he wants to suck others," Manuel said.

The two have had a long-running battle in and out of court over the arms deal.

"Crawford-Browne has better things to do than indulge the obsessions of his imaginary friends. Nothing good can come from this," Manuel said.

Crawford-Browne also called on Zuma to appoint a commission of inquiry into Barclays Bank's acquisition of Absa in 2005 in the wake of the London Interbank Offered Rate scandal.

He also linked Barclays to the arms deal.

Manuel's wife, Maria Ramos, heads Absa, which is owned by Barclays.

"This is pertinent given the enthusiastic approval by the minister in 2005 when Barclays Bank took over Absa with a 55.5% shareholding. What threats did Barclays Bank make, given those 'representation, covenant and default' clauses? The takeover was trumpeted as a massive vote of confidence in South Africa."

Ramos was quoted in the Sunday Times saying she was not concerned that Absa's image would be contaminated by its association with embattled Barclays. She told the paper the Absa brand was very strong in South Africa.

Crawford-Browne's claims against Manuel mean the public spats are far from over.

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Youth lose confidence in Zuma

Sapa, Times Live, 16 July, 2012

South Africa's youth has largely lost faith in President Jacob Zuma's ability to govern the country, a survey has found.

Forty percent of the 12,791 people polled approved of Zuma's performance, but 51 percent said he was not a capable president. The rest were unsure how to rate him.

The survey also found that there were strong racial differences in opinion, with black respondents being most positive.

The respondents were from across the country and were all aged 18 to 34. The survey was conducted by Pondering Panda.

Most coloured, white and Indian youth did not approve of Zuma, the survey found.

However, in KwaZulu-Natal, 54 percent of respondents felt Zuma was a suitable leader.

In a separate survey, 60 percent of the youth said they would definitely vote in the country's general elections in 2014. Twenty-eight percent said they "wouldn't bother".

Pondering Panda spokesman Butch Rice said the results of the two surveys were alarming.

"Previous surveys have shown that Zuma has lost credibility with the youth when it comes to delivering on promises of jobs and education. We now see that they also feel he is generally incompetent," he said in a statement on Monday.

"If he remains the ANC's presidential candidate for the next election, it could cost them dearly. The results of these surveys show that voter turnout will be key to political party success in 2014."

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Home affairs exit stirs reshuffle talk

Sam Mkokeli, Business Day, 17 July 2012

The new vacancy in the Department of Home Affairs gives President Jacob Zuma another opportunity to assess his Cabinet.

HOME Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma ’s election as head of the African Union (AU) has ignited speculation about a Cabinet reshuffle.

Dr Dlamini-Zuma’s departure from the Cabinet has been a long time coming as the government has been campaigning for her since last year. She has also served in the Cabinet as health and foreign affairs minister.

The new vacancy gives President Jacob Zuma another opportunity to assess his Cabinet. He has had three reshuffles in as many years, the last one last month. Their frequency may discourage him from making changes that are too sweeping.

Political analyst Ralph Mathekga said yesterday Mr Zuma should guard against more big changes. "If I were the president, I would go for a straight replacement (for Dr Dlamini-Zuma).

"There have been so many of reshuffles under Mr Zuma. He needs to be more circumspect and not touch too many portfolios, because that may create a sense of instability."

It was unclear yesterday when Mr Zuma would replace his home affairs minister. However, he appeared keen to have her sworn into her new role immediately.

The president said in a statement yesterday arrangements would swiftly be made by SA. " We will make the necessary adjustment to enable Dr Dlamini-Zuma to commence her new duties as soon as possible," Mr Zuma said.

Dr Dlamini-Zuma has been credited for her contribution to home affairs’ turnaround. Her successor will inherit an efficient administration, which received a clean audit last year.

Deputy Home Affairs Minister Fatima Chohan may be consider ed for promotion. The fact that she is not a political heavyweight may make her a safe choice, as Mr Zuma would not be seen to be pandering to any interest in the tripartite alliance.

With Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga battling fierce criticism over the Limpopo textbook crisis, this may offer Mr Zuma an opportunity to appoint somebody new to her portfolio.

But this is a more sensitive situation, as opposition parties have already called for Ms Motshekga’s head and Mr Zuma will have to manage the effect on the African National Congress’s (ANC’s) succession politics as well if he were to remove her.

Ms Motshekga is president of the ANC Women’s League, which will be vital to Mr Zuma’s support in the build-up to the party’s elective conference in December.

Once again, eyes will be on National Planning Minister Trevor Manuel . There has been speculation that he is considering resignation. He is instrumental in Mr Zuma’s efforts to co-ordinate infrastructure development on the continent, but this is a role he plays while heading the planning portfolio in SA.

Some in the ANC in North West are trying to remove Premier Thandi Modise. There has been speculation that she is a candidate for the home affairs post.

Mr Zuma said he was humbled by Dr Dlamini-Zuma’s election.

"Our people should take pride that the heads of state and government of the AU have elected Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to the position of the AU Commission chairperson," he said.

She received 37 of the 51 votes on Sunday evening, in the fourth round of voting.

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4.  International

Nkosazana, servant of continent, will build bridges

Caiphus Kgosana, Times Live,17 July, 2012

Incoming African Union Commission chairman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has promised to serve the entire continent and not just the region that nominated her.

"I am loyal to the AU. I am here to serve. and will work collectively with every member state," she said yesterday at an impromptu media conference arranged just before her swearing-in ceremony.

Dlamini-Zuma said she was aware that the election process - which included a stalemate in January and four rounds of voting on Sunday - had been a long one, but said it was important that consensus had finally been reached.

Her first call of duty, she said, would be to paper over any cracks that might have appeared.

"We have to work together with every single member state and all of the people of the continent for the benefit of the continent. We are here to unite around the programmes [of the AU] and see how we can implement them together.

"My election should not be seen as a personal victory. It is a victory for the African continent and for women in particular," she said.

She also thanked outgoing chairman Jean Ping for the work he had done during his four years at the helm and said the handing-over period would probably take between two and three months.

Dlamini-Zuma also defended the continental body from accusations that it was slow in tackling conflicts and other crises on the continent.

She pointed out that the AU had in fact set up its own peace and security council because it was unhappy with the "elephant pace" with which the United Nations Security Council was responding to security threats on the continent.

But she acknowledged that the world body was the ultimate custodian of world peace. She said the AU - which celebrates 50 years next year - had to begin turning into reality the dreams of its founder members.

"Our founders had a vision of a united, economically and politically emancipated continent at peace with itself and the world. The challenge that faces us is how do you translate that into reality?"

Kenyan Erastus Mwencha was re-elected deputy chairman. New commissioners were also elected to assist Dlamini-Zuma and Mwencha in running the commission.

The AU summit ended yesterday.

Ping earlier congratulated Dlamini-Zuma for beating him to the top continental post and pledged his support, presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said yesterday.

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Analysts welcome AU’s new chairperson

Siyabonga Mkhwanazi & AFP, The New Age, 17 July 2012

The election of Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma into the powerful position in the Africa Union (AU) would bring stability to the continent.

Analysts said yesterday Dlamini Zuma’s elevation to the position of chairperson of the AU Commission would lead to more unity among the divided regional blocks on the continent.

Executive Director of the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (Accord) Vasu Gounden said the election of Dlamini Zuma would come in handy as she was well-versed in continental issues as she was Foreign Affairs Minister for 10 years.

He said the decade the home affairs minister spent in the foreign ministry laid a good foundation for her to take over the influential position in the AU.

She is the first woman to occupy such a highly influential position and her election was unprecedented in the history of the AU and its forerunner, the Organisation of African Unity, said Gounden.

“There is no doubt she is one of the most effective ministers. She has a good track record. Africa can only benefit from such a candidate who will bring discipline,” said Gounden.

He praised Dlamini Zuma for her deep understanding of the African continent and the world.

Gounden said Dlamini Zuma had distinguished herself as a peace broker on the continent while she was at the helm of foreign affairs.

The South African Institute for International Affairs said her election into the AU opened a new chapter for an organisation always controlled by men.

The institute’s researcher Kathryn Sturman said as the first female leader of the continental body, she had a lot on her plate.

Sturman said Dlamini Zuma would bring in a breath of fresh air.

She said she would be a conduit between Pretoria and Addis Ababa, the AU’s headquarters, on how to manage issues affecting the continent.

“What we need to do now is to mend relations with those countries who did not support her candidacy. The first thing she has to do is to consolidate her support and build unity,” said Sturman.

The continent was faced with many challenges with many conflicts, including in the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Somalia.

She said Dlamini Zuma would have to focus on democracy and governance issues while at the same time looking at issues of economic development.

What was most important was she would have to ensure that there was regional integration.

Research manager at the South African Institute of Race Relations Lucy Holborn, said the election of Dlamini Zuma has proved South Africa was an important role player on the continent.

Holborn said the position that Dlamini Zuma occupies carries a lot of political clout which would put South Africa in a good position to shape the political direction of the AU.

Idasa said Dlamini Zuma’s assumption of the position at the AU commission had demonstrated the country was a serious player on the continent.

Executive director at Idasa Paul Graham, said the country had been able to demonstrate it is an influential player in the body politic of the AU.

He said the fact that Dlamini Zuma pulled off the support that propelled her to the commission chair showed most of the countries had listened to the case presented by South Africa.

The US said it welcomed the election of Dlamini Zuma and was looking forward to working with her as chairperson of the AU commission.

Alex Vines of the British think-tank Chatham House saw the election of the seasoned diplomat as “highly significant”.

“It strengthens South Africa’s continental efforts to position itself as a leader in Africa,” said Vines.

But her election “sets a precedent now for big African states to compete in the future for this position – such as Egypt and Nigeria,” Vines said.

Vines said: “Dlamini Zuma will have to focus on rebuilding relationships, especially with a number of Francophone African states.”
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IMF sees euro crisis dragging down global growth rates

Mariam Isa, Business Day, 17 July 2012

Washington-based lender’s World Economic Outlook says global growth will slow to 3,5% this year from 3,9% last year, with SA’s growth slowing to 2,6%

THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) has cut its forecasts for global economic growth — including for South Africa — saying financial stress in the eurozone has "ratcheted up".

While this posed the main threat to global growth, the IMF also saw risks stemming from a slowdown in emerging markets and the possibility that US fiscal policy could tighten sharply next year.

The Washington-based lender’s World Economic Outlook, released yesterday, said global growth would slow to 3,5% this year from 3,9% last year, before quickening to 3,9% in 2013.

"An already sluggish global recovery shows signs of further weakness, mainly because of continuing financial problems in Europe and slower than expected growth in emerging economies," the IMF said.

Growth in South Africa’s economy was set to slow to 2,6% this year from 3,1% last year, before accelerating to 3,3% next year, the IMF said. The forecasts are 0,1 percentage points lower than the estimates in its April outlook and are broadly in line with consensus.

"Things don’t look that much different than they were before, but there is an unusually large degree of uncertainty, and a significant number of things could go wrong," Absa Capital economist Jeff Gable said yesterday. South Africa would be affected by the global slowdown in three ways — weaker European demand for its exports, lower commodity prices, and waning business confidence.

The IMF saw scope for further interest rate cuts in the eurozone and in many emerging-market countries, where inflation was generally within target ranges.

"Many emerging-market countries still have room for monetary easing to respond to large adverse domestic or external shocks, while fiscal stimulus remains a second line of defence," it said. There have been rate cuts recently in Brazil, China and South Korea.

There is talk the Reserve Bank may trim interest rates later this year, but it is expected to keep its key repo rate on hold at 5,5% at the end of a monetary policy meeting this week. The Bank’s decision will be announced on Thursday.

The IMF was upbeat on prospects for South Africa’s budget deficit, noting that improving revenue and a gradual withdrawal of spending stimulus would allow the shortfall to shrink by 0,9% of gross domestic product (GDP) over each of the next two years. That would produce a deficit of 4,4% of GDP this year and 3,8% next, it said. Both forecasts are a little below the latest Treasury estimates.

The IMF said its global growth forecasts hinged on the assumption of enough policy action for financial conditions in the eurozone periphery to gradually improve, and that steps by major emerging markets to stimulate growth would "gain traction".

Also assumed was that US fiscal policy would not tighten sharply next year due to political gridlock around the expiry of temporary tax cuts and deep, automatic spending cuts. This could lead to a sharp decline in the fiscal deficit, triggering a severe fall in US growth and "significant spillovers to the rest of the world", the IMF warned.

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5.   Comment

Not surprising Angie too busy to receive damning report

The Times Editorial, Times Live, 17 July, 2012

The Times Editorial: Education Minister Angie Motshekga did not turn up yesterday for the results of professor Mary Metcalfe's investigation into the Limpopo textbook scandal.

Instead, she sent her spokesman, while she launched a school project to celebrate former president Nelson Mandela's birthday.

Perhaps it is not surprising that Motshekga chose not to receive Metcalfe's report, which is a scathing indictment of the Limpopo education department and its lack of delivery to pupils in the province.

That the minister thinks she is above such trivial issues is clear, particularly in light of her remarks last week that she cannot be expected to know what happens at schools; she is merely responsible for policy.

Moreover, it would have been too much for Motshekga to accept personal responsibility for her department's disregard in delivering to children what the constitution demands: access to basic education.

Failing to take responsibility for failure to deliver is, unfortunately, something that far too many government officials are guilty of.

Why, then, should we expect Motshekga to behave any differently from her colleagues and admit that education officials have miserably failed the children of Limpopo?

Metcalfe's report offers dismaying insights into the problems in the province and they go far beyond the delivery of textbooks.

Her diagnosis speaks of a severe lack of capacity to deliver services, from connecting schools through land lines and fax communication to ensuring that district offices function properly.

In spite of what Motshekga believes, ensuring that education in Limpopo runs smoothly is most certainly her job.

Washing her hands of her responsibility to the nation's children is nothing but a shabby excuse that no minister should be allowed to hide behind.

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SA chicken farmers are being roasted

Kevin Lovell, Business Live, 14 July 2012

Country faces loss of jobs and food security if government does not lend a hand, writes Kevin Lovell

Nobel Prize-winning economist and philosopher Amartya Sen once observed that "there is no such thing as an apolitical food problem".

This view particularly applies to South Africa right now, where we face a very real threat to our country's food security due to unsustainable pressure on the poultry industry, the largest component of the agriculture sector.

Chicken, the cheapest form of meat on the market, accounts for about half of the country's protein needs.

The poultry industry supports and provides employment from grain production to poultry production, processing, distribution and retailing. This entails more than 100000 direct and indirect employees, with many more dependants. There are also those people who supply goods and services to our industry. Well over half a million people need our industry for their personal and business survival.

At this juncture, the only way to stave off the impending crisis is through concerted government intervention: we urgently need a political solution. The South African poultry industry is looking to government to take steps to protect it from the flood of cheap chicken imports - an almost 40% increase in 2011 and all indicators point to at least the same rate for 2012.

We need government support against the "dumping" of cheap imports on the local market while producers - particularly emerging farmers - need support through instruments such as subsidies. Trade policy should be reviewed to stimulate local production and the development of the rural economy.

The new, smaller producers who are the driving force of our transformation as an industry will lose first, and will lose most.

Having witnessed a devastating famine in his native Bengal as a child, Sen's work was strongly influenced by his experience. He came to the conclusion that famine occurs not only because of a shortage of food, but also because of other factors such as rising prices, hoarding, war or price gouging. Hunger can be used as a political weapon to subjugate people.

So, people will go hungry even when there is enough food, but they cannot afford it. Or when the food supply is disrupted by conflict or drawn away from markets to feed armies.

In South Africa, the threat facing our poultry industry, and thus our food security, can be managed through concerted and direct state action. For example, the government can limit cheap imports by making use of the existing mechanism to increase tariffs from the current 27% to the permitted 82%; by continuing to monitor and regulate the dumping of chicken onto the local market, and by implementing subsidies to support the local industry, especially the smaller producers and new entrants to the market.

Food security also constitutes an important element of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). In fact, the first of the eight MDGs is to "eradicate extreme poverty and hunger", with its sub-target to halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger by 2015.

Food security has three principal facets: food availability (enough food consistently), food access (having the resources to obtain food) and food use (the appropriate use of food for basic nutrition and care).

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, which concerns itself with global food security, lists a fourth: the stability of the first three over time. Most countries see food security as an important measure of the nation's psychological wellbeing.

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon told a food security conference in Rome in 2009 that six million children die annually of hunger - a staggering figure of 17000 every day.

But hunger has other effects too, which can take generations to conquer: stunted growth, greater infant and child mortality, cognitive development problems, more disease and lower life expectancy.

By contrast, adequate nutrition offers people, children in particular, the kind of life everyone deserves. Protein is essential to IQ, muscle development and even leadership development.

Surely, with a country such as ours that has the ability to meet its own food needs, hunger and malnutrition should be unthinkable - yet we are on the brink of exactly that.

The South African poultry industry is doing everything it can to stay afloat, but its viability is being eroded by the day. The time is not far off when we will see producers shutting down - first the smaller, more vulnerable producers, and then the larger ones.

The latter are certainly not immune to this situation. Margins are so tight that a 5% return on investment is seen as quite good.

Should our industry collapse, hunger in our country will increase and not lessen, as the importers would have us believe.

We have long lamented the loss of homegrown industries such as shoes and textiles, which did not enjoy government support and were all but obliterated by cheaper foreign imports. These are lessons that we seem not to want to learn.

But we have also a positiveexample: government's motor industry development programme (MIDP). Since 1995, the MIDP has stimulated the local automotive manufacturing industry. The scheme includes initiatives that allow manufacturers to include total export values as part of their local content; it also permits them to import goods, duty-free, to the same value. It is because of the MIDP that we still have an automotive industry - so why dither about another industry that is undoubtedly more critical to our nation's welfare?

Astonishingly, the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has explained its indifference to meeting the poultry industry by asserting that the minister, Tina Joemat-Pettersson, is too busy to meet all sectors in the agriculture industry individually, but would rather make use of the quarterly forum to do so collectively.

Considering that poultry is agriculture's biggest sector, and that so many people's welfare depends on it, this is unacceptable.

The department must be available to meet and consult with the main stakeholders as the need arises.

In the case of the local poultry industry, the time is now.

·         Lovell is the CEO of the South African Poultry Association

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Prescribed assets hark to apartheid, says expert 

Evan Pickworth, Business Live, 16 July 2012

Prescribing which assets pension funds invest in would be a move in the wrong direction and bring back memories of apartheid, says leading consultancy.

No Caption

Prescribing which assets pension funds invest in would be a move in the wrong direction and bring back memories of apartheid, when political officials decided how South Africans should invest their savings, a leading Johannesburg consultancy says.

One of the many unanswered questions after the June ANC policy conference was the planned use of pension money for government development projects.

Two documents retain clear references to it and it remains a key pillar in Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel’s New Growth Path, meaning a move in this direction could still be ratified at the December elective conference.

To make it work, the government may have to convince working-class savers and pensioners they should accept poor returns on retirement investments, which could prove to be a hard sell politically.

While pension funds could do more to support national developmental goals, the general view among analysts is that they should not be forced to accept lower returns in doing so.

Ryan Short, a partner at Genesis Analytics, says prescription is unnecessary.

“It takes us back to an authoritarian time when political officials decided how South Africans should invest their savings,” says Mr Short.

“The apartheid government used this extensively, but it led to poor returns and many pensioners went through tough times as a result. It damaged the savings culture in South Africa,” he says.

Genesis Analytics wrote the key report for the government for submission to competition authorities over the substantive impact on domestic manufacturing arising from Walmart’s entry into the country.

It formed part of the three-person expert panel appointed to conduct the supply chain study. In his New Growth Path, Mr Patel included “allocative capital” as a key pillar.

The New Growth Path, released in December 2010, aims to create five million jobs in 10 years.

Mr Patel says the government recognises that retirement funds are the savings of real people who need secure returns and putting them to “more productive use” will take this into account.

Mr Short, however, says pension funds are already the largest holders of government bonds, and invest heavily in debt issued by parastatals and development finance institutions, as well as in private socially responsible investment instruments.

“My view is that they will invest further voluntarily if good developmental investments are brought to market.

“For instance, pension funds like to invest in long-term infrastructure projects — if opportunities in infrastructure are made available by the government, with good returns and liquidity, funds will invest without the need for compulsion,” he says.

It would help, however, if the government could clarify the definition of developmental investment.

“The approach should be to encourage funds to make sound investments in the wide range of developmental assets already out there – public and private – not force them into politically selected investments offering poor returns,” says Mr Short.

The Association for Savings and Investment SA (Asisa) also notes there is already a high proportion of private investment in government assets, especially government bonds and bonds raised by state-owned enterprises.

Asisa proposed at a recent conference that a new model — being experimented with in Europe — should be considered. This would allow for a mixture of debt and equity in infrastructure investments.

Mr Short says pension funds are not idle pools of capital – they are precious savings for old age.

“Our problem is that we don’t save enough for retirement. We should be doing more to encourage saving -this is in fact a stated government priority.

“Forcing investment in below-standard assets would scare savers away, and would be contradictory to that goal,” he asserts.

The general view among asset managers and regulatory experts is that pension fund trustees cannot be expected to take poor returns for their members.

They have a fiduciary duty to look after the members’ interests.

While the idea of a national development bond has been floated, it is unclear how this would be different from any other government bond, except perhaps that the returns would be softer.

Mr Short makes the point that the savings industry will not want a repeat of when the apartheid government borrowed from pension funds, resulting in worse than market rates and “plenty of unhappiness”.

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Beware of a tender war

Editorial, Sowetan, 16 July 2012

Something drastic needs to be done to avert a tender war from flaring out of control.

Opportunistic and incompetent businesspeople have found easy ways to grease the palms of tender adjudicators

The government's procurement system is under attack from all angles.

Government officials who sit on tender committees have found loopholes to corrupt it. They break procurement rules and regulations whenever they want to boost their pockets.

Politicians will use every opportunity to influence tender adjudication outcomes.

Opportunistic and incompetent businesspeople have found easy ways to grease the palms of adjudicators.

The impact of all this is that billions of rands in taxpayers' money is going to waste on a daily basis, all under the false pretext that it's meant to buy much-needed goods and services such as medical supplies and textbooks.

Public Protector Thuli Madonsela is running out of cash and capacity to investigate some of the tender irregularities reported to her.

The auditor-general's audit reports on the government's supply chain read almost the same every year. You could even bet the A-G merely changes the date on the cover of each report.

As if this is not enough, Sowetan has uncovered a new tender scam. Fraudsters - probably in collusion with government officials - are now pouncing on unsuspecting businesspeople whose companies are registered on the supplier database of government departments.

The fraudsters would claim to be a officials from a particular department. They would fake a tender worth a certain amounts before luring an unsuspecting person to the deal. The businessperson would be told to purchase whatever the fraudsters believe at the time would make them richer. But the point of delivery of the goods would not be a government department.

The businessperson would, in the end, be hijacked and robbed of his goods.

That's what happened to Nceba Luzipho. a Gauteng businessman who was made to believe that he had won a tender to supply R400,000 worth of iPads and iPhones - only to be hijacked later when he went to deliver the goods, supposedly to the Department of Water Affairs.

Fortunately for Lusipho he escaped after realising he had received the wrong tender phone call.

Tenders are also associated with political killings. ANC comrades are increasingly at each others' throats over who gets what lucrative tenders.

If the situation is allowed to continue, the whole state will be a site for tender war.

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A new opportunity beckons for Africa

Business Day Editorial, 17 July 2012

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma brings much-needed skill as an administrator to the AU’s top job — and if she makes the role more political than it has been, that may not be a bad thing either.

It is with relief and expectation that we greet the fact Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has finally made it over the hurdle of internal strife to take on the highest office in the African Union (AU). She won through a tough campaign based on persistence, principle and rigour, which are all excellent tools. By making sure that the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) was behind her, the campaign degraded claims that this was a South African push for power.

By emphasising that the southern region has not had a representative at the head of the organisation for decades, the campaign was able to argue from the standpoint of fairness. By not backing down and forcing the issue, the campaign forced the other side to blink first. It is all extremely satisfying, especially (let’s say it) for South Africa. Well done, Ma’am.

Yet there is too much urgent business at hand to dwell on why Dr Dlamini-Zuma won, except for one thing. The fractious nature of the campaign has served to highlight some major regional divides, and those she will need to repair as quickly as possible. Oddly, the battle was labelled an Anglophone-Francophone split, despite the fact that three major non-Francophone countries, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Kenya, did not, at first, support her. Regional divides are quickly replacing historic affiliations, and it is noteworthy that just as Sadc voted as a bloc generally, so did the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas).

These divides are helping to consolidate and strengthen the continent, but they also create new diplomatic and economic issues. Still, clearly they are not yet strong enough, and the continuing curse of Africa, the failed state syndrome, has placed some critical issues high on the AU’s agenda, and consequently on Dr Dlamini-Zuma’s too.

They include three regional conflicts, in the Great Lakes region, Mali and Somalia. Each of these has its own, complicated regional history. There is also a range of issues in North Africa, still in the process of consolidation after the "Arab Spring" uprisings.

Those uprisings were confined to North Africa, but they may signal the mood of the times for the continent as a whole. Really fundamental changes are taking place in much of Africa, and a new generation of Africans is beginning to shape the political contours of African states. To be sure, many phony democracies are still with us. Many among them are failed democracies, too.

Yet, if ever there was a time for the AU to spread its wings, it is now. Economic growth rates are soaring on high commodity prices; social changes are gaining traction, and education and health are improving in leaps and bounds. Dr Dlamini-Zuma takes office with some of this wind at her back.

Can she use it? By the low standards of the organisation and its predecessor, it should not be difficult to improve. She certainly has the qualifications, having handled three big portfolios to which she was appointed by four presidents, including that of foreign minister.

But there are niggling concerns. During her tenure as foreign minister, she showed herself on occasion to be less than diplomatic, and sometimes rather harsh and cold. (Although, since her job will include whipping an ineffectual commission into shape, that may be no bad thing.) At health, she got entangled in the Virodene vaccine saga, a poor reflection on her judgment. Likewise the Sarafina theatre saga.

Yet, on balance, she has been a better administrator than most, and an improving one, as her latest job in home affairs attests.

This is critical, since her job at the AU is principally administrative. The post is not really intended to be a political one. Yet it is possible that she might make it more political than it has been, and that might not be totally unwelcome. The continent does deserve and does need a voice, even if it is softly spoken. If Dr Dlamini-Zuma can provide that, it will be a major step forward.

 

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Declining mining industry to embark on self-examination

David Gleason, Business Day, 17 July 2012

Mining Dialogues 360° could provide a permanent platform to discuss industry’s challenges as it seeks to address the deterioration in its role in the economy.

THE commodity super-cycle has clearly ended. Its like may never be repeated, and the tragedy for South Africa is that this was a bull cycle which it missed quite spectacularly. This was not entirely unexpected.

Ever since the advent of the new political dispensation, the African National Congress (ANC) has made plain its natural aversion to an industry it considers was built solely on the backs of black labour. The huge numbers of deaths in the gold sector alone attest to the extraordinary dangers inherent in an industry that seeks its fortune in deep, dark and dangerous places.

Government action and, in many cases, inaction, has contributed significantly to the steady but marked deterioration in the industry’s role in the economy. The Mineral and Petroleum Resources Act, which was introduced in 2002 and was heralded at the time as the key to the reinvigoration of South Africa’s mining sector, has been anything but.

Faced with indisputable evidence about the decline of what should be the country’s major industry, and following tart discussion and observation that was brought to a head at the annual Mining Indaba in Cape Town this year, the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy decided to embark on an examination that would be as introspective as it would look at external factors.

What was important was to make this as individualistic as possible. South Africa is over-conferenced and over-examined as it is; hence the need to produce a collective of solutions that shows all perspectives have been looked at and fine-tuned.

In essence, this was the genesis of Mining Dialogues 360° and the title underscores the determined attempt to canvass as many viewpoints and perspectives as possible.

Resource nationalism has been around for many generations.

Do the natural mineral resources of a country belong to the country as a whole, or do they belong — as was the case in South Africa — to owners of the land in which those resources occur? South Africa’s answer was unequivocal. It stood, with a handful of exceptions, the previous status quo on its head.

In effect, it "nationalised" the country’s mineral resources and in that process it dispossessed owners without reference to compensation for their losses.

And resource nationalism remains a major rankling in the eyes of international investors, as governments everywhere seek to seize ever-greater value from the mining and metals sector. What this makes plain is that nationalisation can take many forms and is not necessarily circumscribed by the solitary concept of ownership.

The issue has achieved an exceptional imperative in this country because it has become so overtly politicised. The contest between the leaders of the ANC and its turbulent youth league in the year in which the party submits to internal general elections has provided the platform, placing heavy reliance on a young constituency, which constitutes a significant portion of the country’s army of unemployed, while the youth league’s own document shows uncertainty about the direction to follow. But this "small war" has had its effect overseas: the downgrade by rating agency Moody’s tells us that "investors are taking note of the (youth league) as a ‘disruptive technology’".

In fact, the Mining Dialogues 360° debate was unusually broad; as it should have done — and as so many of these fail to do — it did not confine itself to mining. The future role of a "green economy" was debated with some of those sufficiently passionate about it to aver that, while its short-term costs might appear excessive, nevertheless, its long-term gains would be both extraordinary and immense.

Closer to home, the need for detailed dialogue between mining companies wanting to extract a mineral resource, the community or communities affected, and various government agencies was a matter that prompted detailed discussion.

Great emphasis was placed on community involvement and it was clear that this was considered more important than relations with the government.

This is not as simple as it sounds. In some cases, many for all I know, it became apparent that communities are by no means of a single mind as to their role and, more importantly, what they can expect to get from a mine. Which elements will get what portions quickly takes on passionate political dimensions. There was criticism of the lack of involvement of communities in mine planning but there was no swift response when the pertinent question was asked: who speaks for the communities?

The overall debate is little different from some of the discussions that took place in and before 1994. A high level of distrust continues to exist, some of this between companies and the government, much of it between companies and the trade union movement. The multi-stakeholder dialogue continues to fracture at too many points, and perceptions of inequitable benefits bedevil the fractures that can be seen all too clearly.

The companies, the communities, the government and the trade unions all have different ideological backgrounds, and disbelief ranks high among them.

Each constituency seems unwilling to take action first for fear this will demonstrate weakness on its part.

Corruption was cited as another area of major concern and the fact that some mining companies had waited two years for a prospecting licence, knowing they were first in the queue, only to find it given to another company, had led to the wholesale departure of many mining juniors to countries in East and West Africa.

There is a general agreement that South Africa continues to contain considerable quantities of gold but that much of this is at depths unmineable at present. It is certainly not beyond the wit of man to conceive methods of extracting this resource, but this will require unusually high levels of mechanisation and very low levels of human involvement. The dilemma is easily apparent: profits and wealth on one side; continued unemployment on the other (unless other forms of work can be found and individuals reskilled).

This led to another discussion that took place outside the formal meeting room, and even though Chatham House rules prevailed throughout, it was obvious these issues were not those anyone wanted to voice publicly. The concern is that the current government lacks leadership, that it is clumsy and divided, that its commitment to a national democratic revolution may produce a continuation of the all-too-obvious failure in education into which huge resources have been poured with grossly inadequate returns.

The next steps for the Institute of Mining and Metallurgy are to produce working drafts of the dialogues’ outcomes, to thrash these out in later sessions — some, I understand, with senior government representatives — and a full deliberation with the Bafokeng, who have supported the dialogues and are committed to a successful outcome.

The finished product will go to the government ahead of the ANC’s deliberations at Mangaung at the end of this year, though I doubt this will be the last we will hear of this — there is certainly cause to think the dialogues may provide a permanent platform through which to examine all the industry’s problems (and successes).

• Gleason writes the Torque Column for Business Day.

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The Thick End of the Wedge — The Editor’s Notebook

Peter Bruce, Business Day, 17 July 2012

With the sale of Independent Newspapers now is the time for Blade Nzimande, Jimmy Manyi and all the other bigmouths who go on about media diversity to put some money where their mouths are.

News that the Independent Newspapers titles in SA are for sale is the best thing that’s happened to my industry in decades. Newspapers may have been written off in some circles but, I guarantee you, the sale of The Star, The Cape Times, The Argus, The Sunday Tribune, The Sunday Independent, The Saturday Star, The Mercury, The Daily News and a string of others will occasion the biggest political bunfight this country will see in many a year.

On one thing almost everyone is united — even Blade Nzimande agrees with our editorial of a few weeks ago — and that is that the group must be broken up and its titles sold off individually or, at least, in smaller groups.

Expect to see big names such as Ramaphosa, Mbeki (Moeletsi), Gupta and Survé in there, but every man and his dog is going to have a go. Who were those guys again who tried to buy Avusa (Sunday Times) a few years ago?

At least the prospect of a banquet over Independent might deflect opposition to what people are rather stupidly calling Tokyo Sexwale’s bid for control of Avusa. It is, in fact, exactly the opposite. Sexwale’s holding in the current deal will be diluted, not expanded.

But now is the time for Blade, Jimmy and all the other bigmouths who go on about media diversity to put some money where their mouths are. Here are almost a dozen big, established newspapers for sale. Go buy them, suckers!

What the would-be moguls will find, sadly, is a bit of a mess. Like many newspaper groups, Independent has been hollowed out in the chase for cost savings and "synergies". One editorial team does politics for the group. Another does sport; another, Africa. All its business news is contained in one supplement. The sale price is being estimated at about R1,5bn, which might sound like small potatoes until you look closer.

In its current state could, say, The Cape Times, dripping as it does with tradition and prestige, be carved out and sold off to an individual buyer? No, is the short (and incomplete) answer. It could, but the owner has to be a newspaper junkie willing to get out and hire journalists to cover business, politics, sport and society anew. In other words, start pouring money down that hole you started digging when you first picked up the phone to call the Irish owners.

What has been done to the old Argus group over the years is a damned shame and, hopefully, it will soon be over. But, hell, the money required to turn one, let alone all, the titles into stand-alone businesses is going to be truly daunting. The government will have to get involved to ensure another dominant group isn’t formed but will, in the process of showing even the slightest interest in the outcome, inevitably be accused of trying to influence it.

The interesting thing about buying newspapers, especially now, is that only with great good fortune are you able to change them and mould them into what you might think you’re spending your money to do. They are prisoners of their markets and you change them at your peril. It is a lot easier to lose old readers than win new ones. And technology is not on your side.

But, still, the papers must survive. They all serve a grand, democratic purpose and let’s all hope there’s enough money in the country to give them all a home.

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Time for Communist Party to make a contribution

Tim Cohen, Business Day, 16 July 2012

What is the nature and content of the influence that the South African Communist Party has on the African National Congress?

An open letter to

Cde Blade Nzimande

General Secretary

South African Communist Party

Cosatu House

110 Jorissen Street

Braamfontein

2017

Dear Dr Nzimande

I know you are a busy man, but I would like to issue you with an invitation on the occasion of your 13th national congress this weekend, and in exchange, I would love you to explain something to me.

What I want to know is this: what is the nature and content of the influence that the South African Communist Party (SACP) has on the African National Congress (ANC) — if anything, and does this influence help or hinder the organisation in becoming the modern, integrated, effective political party it could, and should, become?

But allow me to begin with my own confession. When I was at university in the 1980s, at the University of Natal, nothing interested me more than Marxism.

My sociology lecturers were Marxist … obviously. My African politics lecturers were Marxist … naturally. Many of my law lecturers were Marxist. What is slightly surprising, is that most of my English lecturers were Marxist, and my wife still jokes that I cannot understand Jane Austen except as a faintly subversive, but ultimately reformist force in the broader class struggle between emerging capital, the working class and the landed gentry of late 18th century Britain.

If that weren’t enough, what may be very surprising is that my music professor was a Marxist: Mozart was a reflection of the declining aristocracy and rising popular culture, hence the austere, regal formalism of his early work and the pantomime-like frivolity of his late operas.

Beethoven was the bombastic representative of new bourgeois confidence, etc, etc.

There were several aspects of Marxism I found attractive: its ability to present a holistic and complete explanation not only for society as it exists, but also the way it unfolds. In that turbulent era, when apartheid was in its death throes — with states of emergency, detentions without trial, state clampdowns and endless protests — this holistic and complete explanation was like manna from heaven. I loved the way Marxism drove deep into the economic heart of the machine in fabulously intricate search for a science of society.

More immediately, Marxism was the door through which we as privileged students could enter the heady politics of the day, finding a common cause with black students in an era where the pull of Black Consciousness was declining and the push of Congress politics was coming to the fore. It was a time of horror and loss, but it was also vital and exciting. It was fabulous to feel part of a grand force for social change. I graduated with what was called a Bachelor of Arts, but actually what I got was a Bachelor of Marxism.

Over the years, I gradually lost my faith. It wasn’t just the failure of the Soviet system, although that was obviously part of it. It wasn’t just that communist governments were almost indistinguishable from suppressive autocracies.

It was something much more devastating: observable facts turned out more and more at odds with the grand theory. The more you knew about the theory, the more obvious the distinction between fact and theory became. Marxist theory, it turns out, is not only wrong but diametrically wrong. It’s not only not true; it’s the precise opposite of truth.

Take, for example, the tendency for the rate of profit to fall, the big contradiction that supposedly lies at the heart of capitalism which is absolutely sure to tear it apart. Turns out, globally speaking, rates of profit have been generally increasing ever since Marx predicted they would start to fall. Capitalism began producing wealth at a rate faster than any social system previously known. Likewise, the labour-theory of value was pretty useless. It was a useless notion when Adam Smith invented it, and even more so when Marx took it up. Far from being critical, it meant nothing at all in a world focused on exchange value.

If that’s too esoteric, what about class struggle? All history, as we know, consists of class struggle. Turns out that far from pressing the working class into poverty, capitalism has achieved the opposite, lifting billions of people out of squalor. Many remained poor, but the middle class exploded and even workers began to own TV sets, cars, washing machines and homes. It turned out — though none of my Marxist lecturers noticed at the time — that the average earnings of the bottom decile of Americans was close to the top decile of Chinese, Russians, Vietnamese or any of the other countries that chose the communist route.

Oddly, the countries more desirous of social peace, and were, therefore, averse to "class struggle" in the post-war era (West Germany and Japan) did best. "Class struggle" wasn’t inevitable, it was just destructive, and countries that indulged in it, like Britain, paid the price.

Dialectical materialism? Fit Islamic or Christian fundamentalism into that if you please.

What about economic determinism? All that "base and superstructure" stuff? Bunkum. When working-class Britons voted for Margaret Thatcher, it became clear there is no inevitable connection between your "class position" and your politics, never mind your ethics or your taste in esoterica and art.

The world even contrived, as Niall Ferguson has noted, two controlled experiments: one divided east and west (Germany), and one divided north and south (Korea).

East Germany produced the Trabant, a slow, dangerous, exhaust-spewing rattle-trap.

At the same time, West Germany produced, well, everything, including the Mercedes-Benz SLK.

South Korean cellphones are used by millions around the world. North Korean rockets can hardly reach the shore before exploding.

The depressing thing is that while we were footling around in this absorbing blind alley, we were missing out on fine-tuning the somewhat rusted and overused engine we had. Financial literacy, entrepreneurism, capital efficiency, work-processes, brand building, inventory management, all got lost while we indulged in revolutionary fantasies. We were, in a sense, making things worse by not only studying the wrong thing, but not studying the right thing. We were revolutionary, except in our own thinking. In that respect, we were absolutely rigid.

So here is my invitation: please join us in the world. The real world. The world in which people live, and not some twisted fantasy world of a German romantic who lived a century and a half ago.

It’s a fabulous, inventive, creative, rich, fun place. It has all the freedom your party promises but never delivers. By all means, bring your sense of social righteousness and the commitment to build a better world. But please, stop pretending you have an "intellectual" contribution to make to the ANC.

Social structures are not the mechanical box you claim they are. They are much more complicated and diverse than the strictures determined by your failed theories.

You are, literally, history.

I have no evidence to prove this, but I’m willing to bet one of the ways the SACP has affected government policy has been tipping the scales against corporate internationalism. We the public, and we the shareholders of Telkom , have not been graced with an explanation, but what we know is that the proposed deal to sell a minority shareholding in Telkom to South Korea’s KT Corp is now definitively off.

Scrapping the talks was the result of a Cabinet decision.

As no real explanation has been provided, it’s impossible to know whether the sale was cancelled because the purchase price KT offered was too low, or because of some ideological issue.

My guess is the latter, mainly based on a guess at what arguments took place. The nationalists in the Cabinet would have argued that selling a 20% stake would reduce the government’s combined voting power to less than 50%. The communists would claim that Telkom is a "vital national resource" and that Korea’s investment offer was an example of exploitative, rapacious, imperialist, international capital.

The result is a national telephone company, in a desperate struggle to maintain its earnings against tough competition from hugely profitable cellphone companies, being denied the kind of strategic help that could have evened up the odds a bit.

The market recognised this: Telkom’s stock price was over R36 a year ago; now it’s a little over half that. The company itself recognised this. Even the Department of Communications recognised this. Those with ideological blinkers didn’t.

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THE European crisis remains the biggest global uncertainty at the moment, and most of Europe is now pushing for a more stimulus-orientated approach to solving the endemic problem of high levels of debt.

There are good arguments against making a fetish of austerity, one of which is demonstrated by French borrowing rates. When Francois Hollande was elected president, there was a worry that rolling back his predecessor’s pro-austerity position would harm French borrowing rates.

In fact, French borrowing rates have just collapsed. When Hollande took office on May 15, France was borrowing for two years at over 0,7%. This is now down to 0,109%, Business Insider reports.

Hollande has managed to convince the market that France is a "core" rather than a "periphery" country, and money is rushing in.

But there is a flip side. What if European countries opt for a fiscal stimulus and it doesn’t work?

There is recent evidence for this too, on the other side of the Atlantic. US President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009.

The projection was that the act would reduce unemployment in 2012 to about 5%. The cost of the stimulus package was estimated to be $787bn at the time of passage, later revised to $831bn — about 10 times SA’s gross domestic product.

The year 2012 has now arrived and unemployment in the US is nowhere near the targeted level; it’s currently about 8,2%. In fact, it’s higher than the level at which it was when the package was introduced.

Clearly, deciding to stimulate and actually stimulating are two quite different things.

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Unworkable red tape

Dr Anthea Jeffery, Business Day,1 7 July 2012

You report that the new Employment Equity Amendment Bill of 2012 makes earlier fears about national demographics trumping regional ones to the detriment of coloured people in the Western Cape and Indians in KwaZulu-Natal "a storm in a teacup" (Race statistics fears in equity bill unfounded, July 16).

You report that the new Employment Equity Amendment Bill of 2012 makes earlier fears about national demographics trumping regional ones to the detriment of coloured people in the Western Cape and Indians in KwaZulu-Natal "a storm in a teacup" (Race statistics fears in equity bill unfounded, July 16).

Since the bill has not been published, it is difficult to know if this is really so. At least four warning flags remain visible, however. First, confining the use of national demographics to national employers by means of ministerial regulation (as the bill apparently now does) will still do much harm in the Western Cape, for instance.

Here, the Department of Correctional Services is already pegging coloured representation at 11% (the national number) rather than 55% (the regional demographic), to the detriment of the local coloured population. The regulatory change will give the department — national departments, along with banks, retail chains, and other organisations — a legal obligation to refuse employment to coloured people in the Western Cape once their 11% "coloured" quota has been met.

Second, giving the power to the labour minister to change the rules by regulation means that the regulations adopted over time could quietly put still more emphasis on national demographics in wider-ranging circumstances. This will, of course, be possible to achieve without the minister having to bother about parliamentary scrutiny and objection.

Third, persistent skills shortages make it extremely difficult for employers to meet the ambitious racial quotas set down in the Employment Equity Act of 1998 and further reinforced via the bill. In these circumstances, taking employers battling to fill racial quotas straight to the Labour Court to punish them for their transgressions will add significantly to the already heavy burden of doing business in SA.

Fourth, fines for noncompliance are still to be based on a percentage of turnover. Such fines could well be high enough — as the government’s own regulatory impact analysis has warned — to close down many firms and cause the loss of thousands more jobs.

What SA needs are proper schools, vastly increased investment and effective incentives to business to expand the jobs they offer. Instead, however, the ruling party is once again seeking to truss the private sector up in yet more reams of unworkable red tape.

Dr Anthea Jeffery

Head of Special Research South African Institute of Race Relations

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Nedlac on a path of reinvigoration

Alistair Smith, Business Day, 17July 2012

Your esteemed publication carried a column by Mzukisi Qobo under the heading, "Time for undemocratic Nedlac to shut up shop" (July 13).

When the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) first opened its doors, the need for such an institution was clear. The government sought to introduce policies to achieve its democratic, non racial and developmental vision in an environment where labour and capital were deeply divided. Institutionalis ed social dialogue had a critical role to play.

In its first five years, Nedlac constituencies successfully negotiated the labour laws, the Mine Health and Safety Act and the National Small Business Act, among many other pieces of legislation and policy. Seventeen years later, the context for social dialogue has changed. So, too, have perceptions about its role and relevance.

Critics point to issues that have dragged on in negotiations at Nedlac as a sign that it fails to deliver consensus. Nedlac has been dismissed as a "lost cause" by some; others call for it to be closed.

True, Nedlac faces a series of challenges. Dialogue on economic issues can often be adversarial. Add to this robust party politics, which shape relationships outside of the government, and the need for strengthened policy co-ordination and prioritisation within the state. The social partners face challenges in their capacity to engage, their commitment to dialogue and their trust in one another.

Dialogue today takes place against a backdrop of global economic uncertainty with severe consequences for employment and growth domestically. Nedlac also confronts several organisational considerations, inclu-ding the proliferation and increasing complexity of issues and slow progress in deliberations.

We are at a juncture. One path will indeed render Nedlac a "lost cause". We go down this path if we fail to understand why some believe the institution has lost its relevance.

The other fork offers a journey of reinvigoration and organisational strengthening. This road requires us to take stock of where the institution is today, identify opportunities for meaningful engagement and work towards them. We have decided to embark upon this path. This trajectory builds on the positive engagement that takes place at Nedlac on a range of issues. The highly publicised areas of seemingly stalled engagement are a sliver of the day-to-day work that Nedlac constituencies do, often out of the public eye.

Nedlac, as the country’s central institution for social dialogue, still has a critical role to play.

Alistair Smith

Nedlac executive director

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Ntai Norman Mampane (Communications Officer)

Congress of South African Trade Unions

110 Jorissen Cnr Simmonds Street

Braamfontein

2017

 

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South Africa

 

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