COSATU Media Monitor, 13 June 2013
Norman Mampane
COSATU Media Monitor
Thursday, 13 June 2013
COSATU E-toll Campaign goes ahead in 2013
COSATU National Collective Bargaining, Organizing and Campaigns Conference Special Declaration
http://www.cosatu.org.za/show.php?ID=7062
COSATU has served a Section77 Notice at Nedlac on the 11th December 2012
http://www.cosatu.org.za/show.php?ID=6785
COSATU E-toll Campaign goes ahead in 2013.
http://www.cosatu.org.za/show.php?ID=6793
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Contents
Workers’ Parliament
Ø Central bargaining in platinum sector collapses
Ø Employers against labour broker ban
Ø We will act to prevent strike - Lonmin
Ø MPs debate Labour Relations Bill
Ø Zuma urges peaceful, legal resolve of labour disputes
Ø Limpopo ANC berates Samwu for voicing ‘oppositionist’ view
Ø KZN health workers sacked
Ø Zuma talks tough on mining unrest
Ø Strike holds up SA diplomats
Ø Labour amendments could hurt - Sacci
Ø ANC proposes new labour broker move
Ø Eskom in labour pact at power stations
Ø Union ready to take police to court
Ø Wasp calls on Xstrata workers to unite
Ø ‘SA girls trapped in unpaid domestic work’
Ø Eskom’s new labour agreement at Kusile, Medupi set to ‘fuel productivity’
Ø Cruise liners SA staff drive nets 200
Ø Ten million children work as domestic servants: UN labour agency
Ø Solidarity questions SAA on white male exclusion from cadets
Ø AMCU to strike?
Ø Equality for temporary workers ‘fatal to job creation’
COSATU
Ø National plan falls foul of ANC’s partners
South Africa
Ø Tshwane street name battle continues
Ø Manufacturing confidence declines
Ø Zuma: Presidency to back economy
Ø Parliament sends youth agency packing
Ø Commission postpones decision on chicken tariffs
Ø Qunu: Mandela's pain is our pain
Ø AIDS drugs halve HIV risk for intravenous drug users in study
Ø FIVE MINUTES: South Africa
Alliance
Ø Lekganyane blasts 'infantile' Malema
Ø Julius Malema 2.0: On a mission to consult and fight for economic freedom
Ø Shivambo: Economic struggle distorted
Ø Western Cape ANCYL leaders to be announced
International
Ø Turkish Protesters Party In Square Despite Ruling Party Call
Ø UN congratulates 38 countries on meeting hunger eradication targets
Ø Greek jitters pressure eurostocks
Ø EU factory production rises in defiance of expectations
Ø COSATU E-toll Campaign goes ahead in 2013
Ø COSATU Section77 Notice served at Nedlac on the 11th December 2012
Ø South African rural healthcare still in grim state
Ø If labour broking goes, so do jobs
Ø National Development Plan is not finished yet
Ø Soweto uprising made the struggle unstoppable
Ø EDITORIAL: ANC is taking the easy way out
Ø The poor have been left out of the e-toll debate
Ø Zuma holds the ace to get Mugabe to play the game
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1. Workers’ Parliament
Central bargaining in platinum sector collapses
Natasha Marrian, Business Day, 13 June 2013
THE process to establish central bargaining in the platinum sector has collapsed, leaving unions negotiating with companies directly for wage increases, National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) general secretary Frans Baleni says.
Following the Marikana tragedy in North West last year, the state moved to form a centralised bargaining platform in the platinum sector in order to prevent further labour unrest in the industry.
But the biggest labour player in the sector, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), has bucked against the process, stalling the talks.
"We had a recent meeting where it was agreed that this thing must be suspended because there is no point now to attempt to do (it) with the other player not being party to it," Mr Baleni said in an interview with Business Day.
"It’s quite clear that it’s not going to be possible in this round of collective bargaining."
The NUM would formulate its demands for the platinum sector on a company by company basis. The union had delayed beginning that process as it had hoped that a centralised bargaining forum would be in place by then.
Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa has maintained his union’s position that it would prefer the "status quo", or bargaining on a company by company basis.
Amcu has replaced the NUM as the majority union at Impala Platinum, Lonmin and Anglo American Platinum.
Chamber of Mines senior executive for employment relations Elize Strydom on Wednesday confirmed that the process had effectively stalled.
In a meeting with facilitators last week, parties — the chamber and unions the NUM, Uasa and Solidarity — "collectively accepted" that centralised negotiations in the platinum sector would not be achieved this year, she said. "We all agreed that upon completion of this year’s wage negotiations we would put renewed energy into trying to seal the creation of a centralised bargaining in platinum."
Ms Strydom said centralised bargaining for platinum remained desirable as it would go a long way to create "greater cohesiveness" among platinum companies and also contribute to peace and stability in the sector.
Uasa’s divisional manager for mineral resources, Franz Stehring, said the union has bargained on a company by company basis for the past 15 years and had the capacity to do so again. While he did not necessarily agree with Amcu’s stance, he understood it.
"Amcu’s people fought a battle. If they at this point in time have to move into centralised bargaining, where their central soldiers would not feature, they could not celebrate that victory," he said.
On Wednesday, Lonmin and Amcu were in talks about concluding a recognition agreement. The failure to resolve the impasse could lead to further strikes at the company.
Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe is set to meet players in the mining sector tomorrow in a bid to resolve simmering tensions around its labour regime.
Mr Baleni said he hoped the intervention by Mr Motlanthe could ease tensions between parties, but expressed doubt that it would, given recent experiences.
The problems, particularly in the Rustenburg area, were vast and there were irritants that contributed to the intense union rivalry there such as corruption, the influence of service providers and high levels of unemployment, particularly among the youth in the Marikana area.
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Employers against labour broker ban
SAPA, Business Report, 12 June 2013
Johannesburg - The National Employers Association of SA (Neasa) on Wednesday added its voice to organisations opposing the total ban of labour brokers.
“Neasa views this move as detrimental to all of government's efforts to accelerate job creation and reduce unemployment,” said Neasa chief executive, Gerhard Papenfus.
Other organisations supporting Neasa were the Free Market Foundation and Business Unity SA.
Papenfus said recent surveys had shown that labour-broking was the fastest-growing sector of the South African labour market.
“Labour-brokers constitute a R44 billion industry, employing around 19,500 internal staff and just over one million agency workers or temps in the country,” he said.
“By banning this industry, the ANC-led government would in actual fact be backtracking on its goals of creating jobs and reducing unemployment.”
Papenfus said the answer was not in the banning of labour brokers but ensuring legislation was in place to prevent the exploitation of workers.
The parliamentary labour portfolio committee was meeting this week to continue deliberations on the Labour Relations Amendment Bill.
The African National Congress said the committee had voted in principle on Tuesday to restrict labour brokers' employment of workers to three months.
African National Congress MP and committee member Buti Manamela said the actual vote on the bill would take place next week.
If the three-month regulation was agreed to, Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant would specify to which industries it applied.
The SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci) said it was “disturbed by the tenor” of deliberations on the bill.
Proposed amendments were discussed in the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) and agreement was reached on a time-span for temporary employment of six months.
“While business commended government on agreeing that broking would not be banned, the reduction of the period from six to three months will have the unintended consequence of in effect doing so,” Sacci said in a statement.
This was because the probationary period for new employees was often three months or longer.
“Sacci is of the view that the result will be a loss of jobs rather than job creation, a situation which the country can ill afford.”
Sacci said it was concerned at the proposal making it unnecessary for unions to ballot members before embarking on a strike.
“This is testing the boundaries of legality and could result in more disruptive strike action than is currently being experienced,” it said.
“In the current climate the country needs as many safeguards as possible to ensure stability in labour relations. The holding (of) a strike ballot constitutes one such safeguard.” - Sapa
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We will act to prevent strike - Lonmin
Sapa, Fin24, 12 June 2013
Johannesburg - Platinum miner Lonmin [JSE:LON] has not been notified that members of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) intend to strike, a spokespeson said on Wednesday.
"Lonmin hasn't received the formal notice of strike. If they do that, the company will act to prevent the strike," Sue Vey said.
Confirmation of, or clarification on, an earlier SABC report that Amcu would serve notice of intention to strike over an organisational rights dispute between itself and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) was not immediately available from Amcu.
Uasa spokesperson Franz Stehring said he did not know about Amcu's reported intention. The last his union heard on the matter was that arbitration over the dispute was set for June 26.
"We have not been notified that the notification has been issued."
It was not possible to have a protected strike until the arbitration process related to a dispute had been completed.
Section 22 of the Labour Relations Act states that if a dispute is unresolved, the next step can be either arbitration or protest action.
"The specific document we have received from the mine and the [Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration] refers to arbitration," he said.
"If they give notice, it would be an illegal strike and would jeopardise the security of its members," he said.
NUM spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka said his union would not be informed of such a notice, but the last word it had was also to do with the arbitration. If there was a strike, it would be unprotected because of the arbitration date, he said.
The arbitration followed after Amcu attempted to extend its organisational rights to all Lonmin offices. It is also seeking the right to collectively bargain for employees in collective bargaining forum two where, according to the arbitration notice, it does not enjoy majority support.
Solidarity, the NUM, and Uasa represent workers in that forum.
It already has 70% representation in bargaining forum one, which includes rock-drill operators and miners.
Amcu also wants to bring forward the implementation date of the next round of wage agreements, from October 1 to July 1.
On May 14 and 15, Amcu members went on strike, reportedly because the NUM would not vacate a union office. The unprotected strike ended on May 15 after Lonmin obtained a court interdict.
Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe would meet parties in the mining sector, including unions and the Chamber of Mines, on Friday.
His spokesperson Thabo Masebe said that in the past two weeks Motlanthe, recently appointed to head a mining sector task team, had been meeting unions and the chamber.
At Friday's meeting they would commit themselves to conduct their affairs within the law and within the Labour Relations Act. They would discuss what steps needed to be taken to stabilise the mining sector.
Thirty-four people were shot dead in a clash with police during a strike at Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine on August 16.
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MPs debate Labour Relations Bill
Rahima Essop, EWN, 12 June 2013
CAPE TOWN - The ANC has come under fire over new amendments to the Labour Relations Bill.
ANC Members of Parliament (MPs) on Tuesday succeeded in removing a clause from the bill that would have required unions to conduct strike ballots.
The bill is currently before parliament's labour portfolio committee.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) slammed the ANC for not supporting the proposal for balloting to be reintroduced.
Balloting would allow for workers to vote on whether or not they want to go on strike instead of leaving the decision up to union bosses.
ANC MPs argued that ballots would undermine the constitutional right to work stoppages.
Meanwhile, labour experts have condemned amendments to the bill that would force employers to treat temporary fixed contracts of part-time workers on an equal basis after three months.
They are worried the amendments would be disastrous for job creation.
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Zuma urges peaceful, legal resolve of labour disputes
Wyndham Hartley, Business Day, 12 June 2013
PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma has urged the government’s social partners in business and the labour movement to resolve labour disputes peacefully and legally in the interests of South Africa as a whole.
Introducing the budget vote of the Presidency in the National Assembly on Wednesday, Mr Zuma spent much of his speech addressing issues relating to the economy, in particular the instability in the mining sector.
"What we require from social partners is the commitment to resolve labour disputes peacefully and within the framework of the law, and in the interests of workers, employers and the country as a whole," he said.
"I recently requested the deputy president (Kgalema Motlanthe) to lead a ministerial team to work with social partners to assist the mining sector to normalise the situation. Work is continuing in this regard and we remain optimistic that a solution will be found."
Mr Zuma also reassured the nation that the government did not take sides in battles between rival trade unions, saying only that the focus was on finding solutions.
"Now that we have entered the bargaining season in other sectors as well, we urge business and labour to ensure a speedier resolution of wage negotiations," he said.
"These must take place within the framework of the law and the constitution. The government cannot act outside the constitution and the law. Equally, business and the labour movements cannot act outside the law and the constitution as well."
Mr Zuma added: "We cannot introduce violence to labour relations and the killing of people. Most importantly, we must not move away from the collective bargaining system and the framework of labour relations that was introduced at the dawn of democracy."
The president said a failure to act within the constitution and the law gave the wrong impression of South Africa’s mining industry, which was a critical economic sector of South Africa.
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Limpopo ANC berates Samwu for voicing ‘oppositionist’ view
Setumo Stone And Rolivhuwa Ramaliba, Business Day, 12 June 2013
THE interim leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) in Limpopo on Wednesday castigated its alliance partners in the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) for taking an "oppositionist" view on the running of local government in the province.
Samwu — an affiliate of the ANC’s alliance partner the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) — embarrassed the ruling party last week when it issued a report detailing collapsing service delivery in Limpopo municipalities.
The public spat between the provincial task team and the alliance partners — who are expected to collaborate during next year’s national elections campaign — signals that relations may still be weak.
The task team was appointed in March this year after the ANC disbanded the provincial executive committee led by Premier Cassel Mathale on charges of "patronage, factionalism and parallel structures".
However, the municipal union said in a statement last week that municipalities in the province were a "circus". It accused the ANC task team of "turning a blind eye".
The task team said on Wednesday that problems between alliance partners should be dealt with "in a constructive and comradely manner".
"The declared intention by an affiliate of Cosatu to establish itself as an opposition to the ANC is a challenge to the alliance partnership," ANC Limpopo secretary Joy Matshoge said in a statement.
"We believe it was inappropriate for Samwu to respond in the manner it has responded, (and) that it should have arranged an urgent meeting with us to raise its displeasure."
Ms Matshoge said the task team had met political leaders in all spheres of government, including municipalities, to assess progress made in the implementation of ANC policies.
"We totally condemn any corrupt activities and elements within our municipalities, and as the ANC we are determined to root out corruption in all its making," she said. "We intend to provide effective leadership in the province and welcome any fight against corruption in municipalities and in government."
The ANC mandated the task team to rebuild the structures of the party; to take the organisation to a provincial elective conference by the end of this year; and to contest and win the 2014 national elections.
Samwu warned in last week’s statement that the general elections were approaching and that the ANC had to clean up local government to retain the confidence of ordinary people.
The union urged the task team to focus on delivering a provincial elective conference in December, as mandated.
"The working class must be ready to occupy leadership positions within the province," it said. "We believe we have capable leaders … who can contribute immensely in building the movement."
Opponents of the task team have previously accused it of meddling in government business and not focusing on its political mandate.
Ms Matshoge said on Wednesday that the ANC "will continue to work closely with and monitor the performance of its government and municipalities on the implementation of its policies".
She dismissed allegations of tension between the task team and Mr Mathale "and so-called micromanagement of the provincial government as baseless and false".
"We shall not apologise for monitoring and evaluating the performance of our cadres," said Ms Matshoge.
Responding to Samwu allegations that the recent disbandment of three regions in Limpopo had been selective, Ms Matshoge said it had been "guided by the need to maintain the character of the ANC as the people’s movement".
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KZN health workers sacked
Sapa, Citizen, 12 June 2013
A total of 77 employees in the KwaZulu-Natal health department have been fired for fraudulent or corrupt activities since 2009, the provincial legislature learned on Wednesday.
Of these, 34 were in managerial positions, according to the province's health budget, presented by MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo.
It showed that a further 42 people had been charged, but had resigned before they could be dismissed.
A further 89 health department staff had been charged and issued with a final warning.
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Zuma talks tough on mining unrest
Reuters, Fin24, 12 June 2013
Cape Town - President Jacob Zuma during the Presidency Budget Vote on Wednesday vowed to take a hard line against labour unrest in the mining sector, which has been rocked by 18 months of killings and wildcat strikes that have threatened to destabilise the economy.
"Our law enforcement agencies have been instructed not to tolerate those who commit crime in the name of labour relations. They will face the full might of the law," he told parliament.
He also said his government would remain impartial in a turf war between the upstart Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), a long-standing ally of the ruling ANC.
"Government does not take sides and does not favour any labour union over others in the mining industry. Our interest is in finding solutions," he said.
Zuma's deputy, Kgalema Motlanthe, a former Secretary General of NUM who has been nominated as the government's point man on the mining crisis, is due to meet unions, mining bosses and government departments on Friday to try and ease tensions.
The government was heavily criticised for its handling of last year's mining unrest in which more than 50 people died. The turbulence also cost billions of dollars in lost output and led to sovereign credit downgrades.
Platinum producer Lonmin [JSE:LON] was in last-ditch talks on Wednesday over a recognition agreement with Amcu to avert a strike at its mines, which are only found in South Africa.
In his speech, Zuma also reiterated the government's desire shake up "black economic empowerment", the affirmative action policies designed to redress the imbalances of decades of the apartheid rule.
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Strike holds up SA diplomats
Sapa, Fin24, 12 June 2013
Brussels - South African officials of the international relations department were unable to leave Belgium on Wednesday because a strike by air traffic controllers disrupted flights across Europe.
The South African diplomats are in Europe this week with Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Maite Nkoana-Mashabane for trade and political talks.
They were scheduled to leave Belgium’s capital, Brussels, at 11:00 on Wednesday and head to Helsinki, Finland.
Mashabane was due to participate in the 13th African and Nordic foreign ministers meeting in Finland on June 15 and 16.
The Irish Independent reported that flights were expected to be disrupted across Europe on Wednesday as air traffic controllers in 11 countries were striking against the European Union’s plans to centralise control of Europe’s air space.
The three-day strike began in France on Tuesday after the European Commission announced legislation to revive the Single European Sky (SES) project, first mooted more than a decade ago.
The publication reported that the proposed new legislation would give Brussels new powers to set standards for air traffic control bodies and penalise EU members for not moving swiftly enough to implement the SES.
Ryanair grounded 200 flights to and from France on Tuesday, while hundreds of other flights were delayed, it reported.
At least 244 flights were grounded around Europe on Wednesday.
The EU believed the single sky plan could triple its airspace capacity, improve safety ten-fold, reduce pollution by 10%, and cut air traffic management costs by 50%, another report said.
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Labour amendments could hurt - Sacci
Sapa, Fin24, 12 June 2013
Johannesburg - Aspects of the labour relations amendment bill could negatively impact on investment in South Africa if approved, the SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci) said on Wednesday.
"As currently being considered [it] has the potential to exacerbate the negative impression of South Africa as a desired investment destination and trading partner," Sacci said in a statement.
"This is particularly so at a time when the country is experiencing poor economic growth, a low level of business confidence... a volatile exchange rate, and overall deteriorating global perceptions of the country."
The parliamentary labour portfolio committee was meeting this week to continue deliberations on the bill.
The ANC said the committee had voted in principle on Tuesday to restrict employment of labour brokers by employees to three months.
African National Congress MP and committee member Buti Manamela said the actual vote on the bill would take place next week.
If the three-month regulation was agreed to, Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant would specify to which industries it applied.
Sacci said it was "disturbed by the tenor" of deliberations on the bill.
Proposed amendments were discussed in the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) and agreement was reached on a timespan for temporary employment of six months.
"While business commended government on agreeing that brokering would not be banned, the reduction of the period from six to three months will have the unintended consequence of in effect doing so."
This was because the probationary period for new employees was often three months or longer.
"Sacci is of the view that the result will be a loss of jobs rather than job creation, a situation which the country can ill afford."
Sacci said it was also concerned at the proposal making it unnecessary for unions to ballot members before embarking on a strike.
"This is testing the boundaries of legality and could result in more disruptive strike action than is currently being experienced," it said.
"In the current climate the country needs as many safeguards as possible to ensure stability in labour relations. The holding [of] a strike ballot constitutes one such safeguard."
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ANC proposes new labour broker move
Sapa, Fin24, 12 June 2013
Johannesburg - The parliamentary portfolio committee on labour voted in principle on Tuesday to restrict the employment of labour brokers by employees to three months, the ANC said.
"[After three months] they become full-time employees with equal pay and equal benefits," said ANC MP Buti Manamela, who is also the committee's whip.
"We think if someone is in temporary employment beyond three months it becomes clear that there is a need for that person on a full-time basis by the client."
Manamela said this would not preclude employers from entering into a fixed-term contract with workers.
He said the actual vote on the matter would take place next week. If the three-month regulation was agreed, Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant would specify to which industries it applied.
"We are targeting and protecting the most vulnerable of people... mainly farmworkers, mineworkers, and domestic workers. Those people are the people we are trying to protect, not just their jobs, but the quality of their jobs."
The Freedom Front Plus said the ANC's restriction on labour brokers was threatening job-creation in South Africa.
It could damage the flexibility of the labour market and keep people out of the workplace who would otherwise have had jobs, FFPlus parliamentary spokespersonAnton Alberts said in a statement.
"Employers will, therefore, rather not employ anybody than to allow temporary workers becoming permanent workers."
The FFPlus objected to the three-month period and recommended the retention of the six-month period, as had been proposed by the department of labour itself, he said.
Manamela said opposition parties had not presented proof that regulating labour brokers would result in job losses.
"We were under the impression that all political parties in parliament agree that there is [a] need to regulate the practice of labour brokers," he said.
"We can't have people being temporary employees for five years."
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Eskom in labour pact at power stations
Sapa, Fin24, 12 June 2013
Johannesburg - Eskom, contractors and trade unions have signed a pact to steady labour relations at two new power stations under construction, the parastatal said on Wednesday.
"The new partnership agreement will ultimately replace the old Project Labour Agreements [PLA] which governed the Medupi and Kusile sites, and has been signed by Eskom, the contractors who employ most of the labour, and organised labour at both sites," Eskom CEO Brian Dames said.
The agreement was aimed at ensuring "consistent and acceptable treatment" of workers at Kusile in Mpumalanga, and Medupi in Limpopo.
The agreement was concluded after talks in the past few weeks.
"This... commits all the partners... to work together to deliver Medupi and Kusile and provide the new capacity needed to support growth and development for South Africa," Dames said.
Earlier in the year, workers at Medupi brought construction to a halt for almost eight weeks by striking. The strike ended when the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) and contractors reached a resolution on the PLA.
Part of the agreement was that workers get a once-off payment of R2000, plus a month's salary. They would also get an interest-free loan to the value of 90 hours of work, which they could pay back over six months.
In March, Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba said the December 2013 deadline for Medupi to start delivering power would not be changed. He urged Eskom to do more to improve labour relations between unions and contractors.
Only contractors and labour were signatories to the previous agreements.
Dames said the new agreement would enable the finalisation of new site-specific agreements at Medupi and Kusile and would replace current policies and agreements.
However, the new agreement would not replace existing industry forums and bargaining structures.
All parties agreed to establish partnership forums within which any outstanding issues could be resolved.
The partnership agreement provides for:
· a minimum wage for all hourly paid contractor employees;
· standardised pay rates within each company, across companies and within the same industries. The contractors must ensure that pay scales are applied consistently;
· a new central wage bureau to aid standardisation and;
· parties to appoint a task team to address skills development and training needs for employees and employers.
· _______
Union ready to take police to court
Sapa, Citizen, 12 June 2013
The SA Policing Union (Sapu) will apply for a court order to stop the proposed transfer of 11 police officers, it said on Wednesday.
"We have so far instructed our legal team to prepare documents," Sapu general secretary Oscar Skommere said in a statement.
He urged the SA Police Service (SAPS) to reverse its decision to transfer the 11 lieutenant-colonels from OR Tambo International Airport to the provincial head office in Parktown, Johannesburg.
"It is not a coincidence that these officers, who are members of the protection security services, have been unilaterally transferred after registering a grievance against the SAPS in OR Tambo International," Skommere said.
He accused the police of violating transfer policy, and said it was victimising and silencing the officers into submission.
"We would like to send a stern warning to SAPS management that we cannot allow them to victimise members. We know the rules and regulations governing the transfer policy in the police."
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Wasp calls on Xstrata workers to unite
Sapa, Fin24, 12 June 2013
Johannesburg - The Workers and Socialist Party (Wasp) will meet striking workers at Xstrata's chrome mine in Steelport, Limpopo, it said on Wednesday.
A party delegation would meet the workers on Thursday morning.
"Wasp stands in solidarity with the Xstrata workers and will offer its support at the workers' mass meeting," it said in a statement.
"We call on workers to unite and co-ordinate the struggles, to mobilise poor working class communities and youth and fight for the nationalisation of the mines under democratic control by workers and communities."
Xstrata said last Monday it had fired 1000 workers for participating in wildcat strikes.
Workers downed tools in May, alleging that a shift supervisor assaulted a worker. The strike started at the Helena mine in Steelpoort on Tuesday, May 28, and spread to the Magareng and Thorncliffe operations.
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‘SA girls trapped in unpaid domestic work’
Mia Spies, EWN, 12 June 2013
CAPE TOWN – Many young girls are caught in the trap of providing unpaid domestic work for their own families, the Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa) said on Wednesday.
Today marked World Day Against Child Labour.
The 2013 theme was Child Labour in Domestic Work.
Fedusa said the theme was highly relevant to South Africa.
The union's Lauren Uppink said organisations and authorities need to step up.
“One of the biggest reasons child labour is such a problem is South Africa is that it’s often used in the informal sector and mostly in agriculture and domestic work. You often find children doing work that’s not paid [for].”
Uppink said child labour is preventing many children from going to school.
“They’re kicked out of school. Their development is hindered and they can’t go to university or into work. It perpetuates a cycle of young women being kept under the labour market and out of education.”
(Edited by Tamsin Wort)
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Eskom’s new labour agreement at Kusile, Medupi set to ‘fuel productivity’
Staff Writer, Business Day, 12 June 2013
NATIONAL power utility Eskom, employers and labour at the Medupi and Kusile coal-fired power station construction sites have reached an agreement to stabilise labour relations and speed up the delivery of the power stations.
Eskom is engaged in a race against time to bring Medupi online to relieve South Africa’s tight energy supply situation.
Any delay will fuel fears that South Africa could again be hit by load-shedding and blackouts and that economic growth, especially in the fragile mining sector, could be severely constrained.
The agreement, which will replace the former project labour agreements that governed the Medupi and Kusile sites, has been signed by Eskom, organised labour and the contractors who employ most of the labour.
"This is an innovative and far-reaching agreement that commits all the partners — Eskom, contractors and labour — to work together to deliver Medupi and Kusile and provide the new capacity needed to support growth and development for South Africa," said Eskom CEO Brian Dames.
The previous project labour agreements included as signatories only contractors and labour, but the new agreement includes Eskom as well.
"We are very encouraged to have concluded this milestone agreement," said Paul O’Flaherty, Eskom’s finance director and head of group capital.
"Eskom is taking a much more active role in the labour relations on the project sites, and we are working with employers and labour to ensure that workers are fairly treated and that we can improve productivity and focus on delivery." The partnership agreement will enable the finalisation of site-specific agreements at Medupi and Kusile to replace current policies and agreements. However, it does not replace existing industry forums and bargaining structures.
To implement the provisions of the agreement, partnership forums will be established to resolve any outstanding issues of substance.
Among the provisions are:
• a minimum wage for all hourly paid contractor employees;
• standardised pay rates within each company, across companies and within the same industries, and contractors must ensure that pay scales are applied consistently;
• a new central wage bureau to aid standardisation; and
• a task team to address skills development and training needs for employees and employers on site.
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Cruise liners SA staff drive nets 200
Suren Naidoo, Business Report, 12 June 2013
Just over 200 South Africans had secured jobs with MSC Cruises to work on its cruise liners in both local waters and worldwide after the company’s first concerted recruitment drive in the country.
Speaking in Durban last week, Neil Palomba, the global chief operations officer of the Italian-based cruise company, said it had received a great response, with more than 600 applications.
In March, the company announced the South African recruitment campaign, which Palomba said was part of MSC Cruises’ commitment to growing the maritime and cruise tourism industry in the country. The cruise line division forms part of maritime giant Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), which is reported to be the biggest user of South Africa’s ports.
“Our recruitment programme will continue, but we are happy with the response we’ve received following our announcement in March… This initiative is part of our efforts to play a more active role in job creation and skills development in the South African cruise sector through hiring local South Africans for both land-based and on-board positions.
“Positions on board include guest services, buffet attendants, room service attendants, waiters and waitresses, shore excursion hosts, shop assistants, casino dealers, as well as housekeeping staff… MSC Cruises have to date received over 600 applications, conducted around 300 interviews and have seen numerous of these applicants for a second-round skills tests.
“Interviews were conducted across Durban, Joburg and Cape Town. Skype interviews were also done with those in inaccessible areas or those who were not able to make the allocated dates. Interviews are ongoing,” Palomba added.
The company had originally said it would open up 80 to 100 positions for South Africans as part of the initial phase of the recruitment programme, but has increased them. Successful candidates were undergoing the relevant medical tests before starting their standards of training, certification and watchkeeping for seafarers training courses in Durban.
“This is not just a once-off plan… I came to Durban to meet some of the people selected to work on board our ships both in local and international waters. We were looking for candidates who had some sort of hospitality industry experience and those who were willing to be away from home for an extended period, working mostly at sea. We were impressed by the quality of many of the applicants,” Palomba added.
Zihle Mnyandu, a 23-year-old recruit from uMlazi, said she was excited to get the opportunity to work aboard MSC Cruises’ liners.
“I used to work as a ground staff assistant at the N-shed cruise terminal in Durban, but now I am getting the opportunity work on international cruises. It is going to be an amazing career opportunity. I can work and explore the world at the same time,” she said.
Palomba said MSC Cruises wanted to play a more significant role in development the industry, through not just skills development, but also Durban’s planned new cruise passenger terminal.
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Ten million children work as domestic servants: UN labour agency
Sapa-AFP , Times Live, 12 June 2013
As many as 10.5 million children worldwide work as domestic servants, in what can be hazardous and even slave-like conditions, the International Labour Organization said Wednesday.
The UN labour agency said almost three quarters of such youngsters are girls, and that 6.5 million child servants are between five and 14 years old.
The reality on the ground flies in the face of international efforts to halt such exploitation, said Constance Thomas, director of the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) global programme to eliminate child labour.
“The situation of many child domestic workers not only constitutes a serious violation of child rights, but remains an obstacle to the achievement of many national and international development objectives,” she said.
The problem is global though sub-Saharan Africa remains a leading concern, notably countries such as Burkina Faso, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Mali, according to the ILO.
In an 87-page report released to mark World Day Against Child Labour on June 12, it also underscored that rural families in Pakistan and Nepal are sometimes forced to send their children into domestic service in order to pay off their debts.
In Haiti, hundreds of thousands of children, including those who have escaped natural disasters, have ended up in domestic work little better than slavery.
And thousands of young girls from Ethiopia are every year sent to the Middle East to work as servants.
The ILO said such youngsters usually work in the homes of a third party or employer, carrying out tasks such as cleaning, ironing, cooking, gardening, collecting water, looking after other children and caring for the elderly.
Vulnerable to physical, psychological and sexual violence and abusive working conditions, they are often isolated from their families, hidden from the public eye, and become highly dependent on their employers.
They can also risk ending up being forced into prostitution, the ILO said.
“We need a robust legal framework to clearly identify, prevent and eliminate child labour in domestic work, and to provide decent working conditions to adolescents when they can legally work,” Thomas said.
Child domestic work is not recognised as a form of child labour in many countries because of the blurred relationship with the employing family, the report said.
Such children work but are not considered workers and, while they live in a family setting, are not treated as a family member, it said.
This “care vacuum” opens the way to exploitation, but such youngsters are difficult to protect because they can be hidden from the public eye.
Child domestic servants represent some 5% of all children under the age of 17 in employment around the world, according to ILO figures.
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Solidarity questions SAA on white male exclusion from cadets
Sapa, Times Live, 12 June 2013
Solidarity has written to South African Airways asking its reasons for excluding white men from the company's cadet pilot programme, the union said on Wednesday.
"The trade union requested the SAA to provide reasons why Daniël Hoffman, Dirk Kotze, and several other white male candidates' applications for inclusion in the cadet programme had been unsuccessful," deputy general secretary Dirk Hermann said.
Hermann said the union received several complaints from white men who had unsuccessfully applied to join the cadet programme.
"A number of these candidates were invited to undergo psychometric testing, but thereafter... were only informed earlier this month by e-mail that their applications had been unsuccessful. We are not aware of a single white male candidate who advanced to the next phase of the selection process."
On Monday, SAA announced it had completed the selection process of candidates for its cadet pilot programme. A total of 40 candidates qualified for the programme.
These included 10 black men, four black women, nine coloured men, one coloured woman, seven Indian men, and two Indian women.
Seven white women were accepted into programme.
Hermann said Hoffman, 22, who obtained an information technology degree in geographic information systems cum laude at the University of the Free State last year, was invited to undergo psychometric testing last year.
"However, he subsequently heard nothing about his application and was informed in response to his e-mail enquiries that no further information was available."
Hoffman was informed by e-mail that his application had been unsuccessful, he said.
Kotze, 21, who was studying towards a national diploma in civil engineering at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, was invited for the test and was unsuccessful.
Solidarity accused SAA of using the lifting of the ban on applications by white male candidates for the cadet programme as a smokescreen for continued racial discrimination.
The union said it asked for reasons for the exclusion of white men into the programme in terms of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act.
Solidarity would then ask for a judicial review of SAA's decision.
In a statement on Tuesday, SAA spokesman Tlali Tlali said: "It is important to ensure that there is transformation across all disciplines in the company. At the moment, SAA's flight-deck crew is not reflective of South Africa's race and gender demographics."
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AMCU to strike?
Luyolo Mkentane, The New Age, 12 June 2013
After two full-days of negotiations it remains unknown if Amcu would fulfil its threat to embark on “illegal strike” at Lonmin.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen because the meeting is still ongoing,” Lonmin’s Sue Vey said.
The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union Amcu), representing 70% of Lonmin’s mineworkers, wants the platinum giant to grant it the status of a majority union.
Amcu announced it would serve Lonmin with strike notice on today if an agreement hadn’t been reached by yesterday.
Lonmin has said it would view the strike as illegal.
Amcu national treasurer Jimmy Gama refused to comment on Tuesday saying the meeting was under way.
He was quoted in other media that the strike has already been decided and that the meeting was aimed at trying to avert it.
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Equality for temporary workers ‘fatal to job creation’
Linda Ensor, Business Day, 12 June 2013
LABOUR experts have slammed amendments to the Labour Relations Amendment Bill that will force employers to treat temporary, fixed-contract and part-time workers on an equal basis after three months, saying these would sound the death knell to South Africa’s job creation ambitions.
The amendments, introduced on Tuesday by a parliamentary committee, also created the risk that instead of workers’ wages and benefits rising as intended, they would decline, as employers lower the standard throughout the labour force.
Labour expert Andrew Levy, Adcorp CE Richard Pike and labour lawyer Johnny Goldberg agreed that the committee’s decisions were disastrous for job creation, and particularly ill-advised in South Africa’s perilous economic situation.
They predicted massive job losses as business outsourced, relocated, automated, mechanised and pruned workforces to avoid the additional costs.
"I think it is going to hurt employment on a mammoth scale," Mr Pike said. He cited the example of the retail industry where 40% of staff were contract workers because of the fluctuating nature of the business.
The three also decried the African National Congress (ANC) using its voting muscle to remove a clause that would have required trade unions to conduct strike ballots. The committee’s final vote — which the experts said would prompt the continuation of the violence and intimidation that have marred industrial relations for many years — represents a major victory for the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), which has lobbied hard against strike ballots.
Democratic Alliance labour spokesman Sej Motau said the move made a mockery of the entire legislative process over the past three years, including public consultations and discussions at the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac).
"This is the strongest indication yet that government is willing to do whatever it takes to warm its relationship with Cosatu ahead of next year’s election — even if it means effectively voting in favour of legislation that perpetuates violence, intimidation and nondemocratic values," Mr Motau said.
On obstacles being put up to combat labour broking, Mr Pike said that "on the basis purely of affordability, I think it creates a race to the bottom, not a race to the top, as is the intention".
Mr Levy noted that labour broking had introduced flexibility into the labour market, allowing employers to take on and release workers according to their requirements.
He predicted that with the implementation of the law, employers would immediately cut back on all labour sourced from labour brokers.
ANC members of the labour portfolio committee proposed a three-month period before the equality clause kicked in, instead of the "zero months" proposal of last week.
Mr Levy described it as a "messy compromise by a government which did not have the will to govern". Opposition parties were persuaded to accept it as the lesser of two evils.
Business had argued over labour broking for 24 months during negotiations in Nedlac.
The Department of Labour’s chief director, Thembinkosi Mkalipi, explained that the labour broker would be deemed to be the employer for the first three months of employment, but thereafter both the broker and the company would be deemed to be the employers, in the event of a dispute.
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2. COSATU
National plan falls foul of ANC’s partners
Natasha Marrian, Business Day, 12 June 2013
THE African National Congress (ANC)-led government faces the sternest challenge to the National Development Plan (NDP) from its allies.
The South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) have both criticised the plan.
The NDP was adopted by the party at its Mangaung conference in December. The plan has since been elevated to the centre piece of government policy making — it was endorsed by both the president and the finance minister in Parliament this year.
Leaders have, however, maintained that the plan is not set in stone, and was a "work in progress", an indication that it could change.
The ruling party’s idea is that the plan is an attempt to manage the country on the basis of a long-term plan, bringing stability and continuity irrespective of leadership changes in the ANC.
Analysts have welcomed the debate on the NDP, which is a broad vision to be refined into a concrete plan. But the NDP is failing to find favour in certain quarters. Cosatu’s second-largest affiliate, the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), emerged from a meeting of its top brass rejecting the plan outright, likening its contents to Democratic Alliance (DA) policies.
Cosatu soon released a draft document, scathing in its criticism of the plan. The SACP then followed, albeit with a less hysterical critique.
Cosatu’s political commission met last Thursday and resolved that the NDP failed to take forward a radical economic shift envisioned by the ANC and its allies at the party’s policy conference last year. It threatened to reverse "progressive advances" made by the ANC-led government over the past few years.
The commission met to formulate a federation-wide approach to the plan after Numsa’s blanket rejection of it, and after other Cosatu unions objected to certain proposals, particularly those on the labour market and on the economy. Cosatu says the NDP will fail to transform the structure of the economy fundamentally, will fail to take forward a new growth path to industrialise the economy, will not place the creation of decent work at the centre of economic policy and did not make redistribution and combating inequality and poverty pillars of economic development.
"In particular, its jobs plan is problematic and unsustainable, based on creating low-quality precarious jobs outside the core productive sectors of the economy." The discussions and resolutions of the Cosatu political commission would be further discussed at a meeting of the federation’s top brass next month. Cosatu would try to sway the ANC at an economic alliance summit, also next month. This does not mean that the plan is dead in the water — Cosatu’s approach was a "middle of the road" one.
While it noted significant problems in the NDP it also appreciated the need for long-term planning in South Africa.
The director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy, Steven Friedman, says the process would be about interrogation and negotiation. No interest group who read the NDP would either entirely accept or reject it. Cosatu steered clear of comparing the plan to DA policies, and neither accepted nor rejected it outright. The SACP took a similar approach.
A researcher at the Helen Suzman Foundation, Aubrey Matshiqi, says Cosatu’s position should be seen in context of its internal battles. There was a "stalemate" between the factions inside Cosatu, those that support its general secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi, and oppose the NDP, and those against him.
The SACP central committee says it supports the "general analysis and specific proposals" advanced by the NDP document, and warns against the plan becoming a political football, which could divide the alliance. The party describes the chapter on the economy and employment as "particularly weak". The chapter "correctly calls for upscaling of savings and investment" but failed to examine the post-1994 macroeconomic policies critically, it says.
"This failure to evaluate macroeconomic policies and the powerful (and unpatriotic) financial capital interests that underpin them represents a grave flaw within the heart of the plan," the SACP says. The party also stresses the need to "institutionalise" a state planning commission and perhaps keep the current national planning commission as an "advisory body".
An alliance summit where the NDP is to be discussed would be held from July 4 to 7.
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3. South Africa
Tshwane street name battle continues
The New Age, 12 June 2013
The Tshwane municipality will have to spend over R2.6 million to re-erect old street names, the High Court in Pretoria heard on Wednesday.
Terry Motau SC, for the municipality, also argued that there was no proof that anyone had been harmed by the name changes,
The municipality has applied for leave to appeal against an interim court order, granted in April, interdicting it from removing old street names and ordering it to re-install old signs which have already been removed.
The order was granted pending the final outcome of civil rights group AfriForum's application to set aside Tshwane's March 2012 resolution to change the "offensive" names of 25 streets.
AfriForum is involved in a protracted legal battle with the municipality about replacing the name Pretoria with that of Tshwane.
Some of the city's oldest street names disappeared overnight when Tshwane's undertaking not to remove the old street names lapsed in October.
The city argued that the application should not have been heard as an urgent matter because AfriForum waited five months after the six-month period lapsed to launch the application.
Motau argued that the interdict intruded into the exclusive terrain of the city.
"To restrain the city from implementing its resolution would be to intrude into its domain, the "heartland" of its functions," he said.
He argued that AfriForum had "alarmingly and glaringly" failed to prove that it would suffer any harm at all, let alone irreparable harm.
"It's a matter of national importance. It's not just a simple interdict that was granted.
"AfriForum relied on a cultural right and fair and just administrative action.
"The court erred in finding there's a right that's being infringed.
"The mere changing of a street name cannot breach a right to culture.
"You can't engage a right in the abstract. You have to show how the process infringes a right.
"What is cultural about changing a street name from Vermeulen to Madiba?" Motau said.
He argued that the court had erred in ordering that the street names already removed be reinstalled, especially in circumstances where there was evidence that the reinstallation would cost the city about R2.6m.
"The proverbial horse has already bolted. You can't unscramble the egg.
"An interdict is forward-looking. It is unsuitable to remedy a past, non-continuing harm," Motau argued.
MP van der Merwe, for AfriForum, said an interim interdict was not appealable.
"What can ever be harmful to restoring those well-known, respected names that had been there for decades? At least no one will be lost," he said.
Van der Merwe said the city had only itself to blame if it had to spend over R2m to put the names back.
The city had started taking the names down while a review was pending and did exactly what the interdict was trying to prevent two days before its undertaking lapsed.
"We're not dealing with the city council of Pofadder and there's no suggestion that the city cannot afford R2m, even if it is a huge amount," he said.
Judge Bill Prinsloo will give a ruling on the application on Thursday.
- Sapa
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Manufacturing confidence declines
Frank Nxumalo , SABC News, 12 June 2013
The manufacturing business confidence has fallen by eight index points to reach a level of 34 in the second quarter of this year, according to the latest Manufacturing Survey1 that has been published by the Bureau for Economic Research’s (BER) on Wednesday.
The Bureau says the decline has partially erased gains made in the previous two quarters, as the index now stands just above the third quarter of last which stood at 33.
“While manufacturers were expecting further gains during 2013Q2, both the indicators for export sales and order volumes fell into negative territory. Despite the weak exchange rate, that intuitively implies a boost in exports, manufacturers are also not optimistic about export performance in the next quarter”, says BER economist Lisette IJssel de Schepper.
“Continued economic weakness in the Eurozone dampens demand for our manufactured goods exports. It could also be argued that the recent exchange rate movements have been too sudden for manufacturers to fully benefit from the competitive edge.
Production volume growth slowed compared to the previous quarter
“Another development likely depressing sentiment was the indication that profitability came under pressure,” said IJssel de Schepper. The rate of increase in the average production costs remained unchanged at a fairly high level, but producers reported lower average selling price inflation for both domestic and export prices”.
She says production volume growth slowed compared to the previous quarter, but remained in positive territory and manufacturers consequently reported a decline in employment and average hours worked per factory worker.
"Furthermore, the percentage rating the present level of output below capacity rose significantly. Other indicators confirmed that there is a significant slack capacity in the industry,” she says.
“On a more positive note, manufacturers were optimistic about domestic demand conditions during the next quarter. Producers might be anticipating a demand shift towards import-replacing or locally produced products due to the weaker exchange rate making imported manufactured goods more expensive”.
However the Manufacturing Circle – an umbrella body for the country’s major manufacturers – says it still believes the sector will remain resilient in the foreseeable future even though sales and export performance remain subdued as a result of soft demand in established markets and weakening consumer demand domestically.
“This because in the low demand, high cost conditions that we currently experience, the weaker currency is playing a crucial role: to ameliorate margin squeeze, to help manufacturers who are under pressure live to employ another day. We believe that the BER is correct to attribute optimism in respect of domestic demand to local procurement initiatives, which are indeed gaining some traction,” says Manufacturing Circle Executive Director Coenraad Bezuidenhout
“Bar quarter-to-quarter fluctuations, the Manufacturing Circle does not at present anticipate employment to veer downwards in the medium term. The risk that this expectation may deteriorate is significant, especially should the costs of ongoing industrial peace and utility services continue to escalate, in which case the comparatively low cost of capital could increase the lure of mechanisation for some employers”.
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Zuma: Presidency to back economy
Sapa, Fin24, 12 June 2013
Cape Town - The presidency will take a "hands-on approach" to boost confidence in the economy, President Jacob Zuma told MPs on Wednesday.
Opening debate in the National Assembly on the presidency's 2013/14 budget, he warned about South Africa's tense labour relations situation.
"It is not in the interest of the country to have a tense labour relations environment, which is characterised by a weakening of collective bargaining mechanisms, illegal wildcat strikes, violent protests and loss of life."
Zuma said he was optimistic a solution would be found.
"The presidency will this year take a hands-on approach, working closely with relevant departments and social partners to boost confidence in the economy."
What was required was a "commitment to resolve labour disputes peacefully and within the framework of the law, and in the interests of workers, employers and the country as a whole".
The president said he had recently asked Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe to lead a ministerial team to help the mining sector normalise the situation.
"Work is continuing in this regard, and we remain optimistic that a solution will be found."
To loud applause, Zuma said the government "does not take sides and does not favour any labour union over others in the mining industry". Its interest was in finding solutions.
"Now that we have entered the bargaining season in other sectors as well, we urge business and labour to ensure a speedier resolution of wage negotiations."
These had to take place within the framework of the law.
"Failure to act within the Constitution and the law gives a wrong impression of such a critical economic sector in our country, mining."
He warned against "those who commit crime in the name of labour relations", and said law enforcement agencies had been instructed not to tolerate such behaviour.
"They will face the full might of the law," Zuma told the House.
"We cannot be the ones who undermine our own economy.... We can't call for economic growth and the creation of jobs, but undermine the conditions that... lead to economic growth and job creation."
Speaking later in the debate, Motlanthe said that in view of "worrisome" global and national economic conditions, it was important to promote socio-economic stability through consensus.
He had been tasked by Zuma to "engage with all stakeholders to heighten awareness about the volatile state of our economy in the light of the urgency of the issues emanating from the mining sector".
Meetings had been held in the past fortnight with trade unions, federations and the Chamber of Mines to discuss measures to stabilise the mining industry, and to forestall potential crises.
"Further, on Friday this week, we will be holding a meeting with all stakeholders to find a broad consensus to consolidate future co-operation and stability," Motlanthe said.
Zuma's remarks come a day after the JSE suffered its biggest one-day loss in 20 months. The rand hit a new low of R10.36/US$ on Tuesday, but recovered to R10.08 later in the day.
Data released last month showed that real GDP growth in South Africa slowed to 0.9% in the first quarter of this year.
The 2013/14 budget for the presidency totals almost R1.1bn. This figure includes the president's R2.8m salary, which - according to the Estimates of National Expenditure document tabled in February - is budgeted to rise to R3m in 2014/15, and R3.1m in 2015/16.
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Parliament sends youth agency packing
Sapa, Fin24, 12 June 2013
Cape Town - A National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) delegation was sent packing by a parliamentary committee on Wednesday because of the absence of its chairperson and CEO.
The NYDA was scheduled to brief the portfolio committee on appropriations on its fourth quarter expenditure report.
Chairperson Yershen Pillay, his deputy Itiseng Kenny Morolong, and CEO Steven Ngobeni failed to present themselves at the meeting.
Deputy Minister in the Presidency Obed Bapela did attend, informing the committee that Ngobeni was ill and unable to travel.
Ngobeni, however, failed to inform the committee in writing that he was ill and would not be able to travel to Cape Town for the meeting.
"We really welcome you wanting to come here," committee chairperson Mshiyeni Sogoni told Bapela.
"However, in terms of the PFMA [Public Finance Management Act], the CEO has a responsibility to come and present himself."
MPs from across the political spectrum agreed, saying the meeting should be adjourned until next Friday to give Ngobeni time to recover so he could account for the NYDA's financial position and performance.
The politicians said Ngobeni had been CEO for the past four years and should have had the decency to apologise to the committee.
It was the second time in two weeks that the appropriations committee had sent officials away.
The fractious relationship between Communications Minister Dina Pule and her director general Rosey Sekese led to a similar situation.
In that committee meeting, Sekese had sent a letter to MPs saying she was unable to attend because the minister had stripped her of her powers.
Pule denied this, saying the only power she had taken from Sekese was that of making decisions in the department's human resources division.
Sekese, who Pule was trying to remove from her position, should have attended as she was the department's accounting officer.
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Commission postpones decision on chicken tariffs
Thalia Holmes, M&G, 12 June 2013
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South Africa will need to wait another month before it knows whether tariffs on chicken imported to the country will increase by as much as 300%.
The International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (Itac) met on Tuesday to hear an application by the South African Poultry Association for stiff tariff increases to be imposed on all chickens being brought into the country for resale.
The poultry association is proposing that the current duty of 27% on whole birds be increased to a maximum of 82%, or R11.11 per kilogram. Duties on bone-in portions are proposed to increase from R2.20 per kilogram to R6.53 per kilogram, almost three times the existing amount.
The commission, which said it heard and considered both written and verbal submissions on Tuesday, determined that it needed more time before making a final decision. This has accordingly been postponed until the commission's next meeting on July 9.
The application has been vehemently opposed by the Association of Meat Importers and Exporters (AMIE), which says that the tariff increases will cause chicken prices to go up by between 30% and 50% at the tills.
"We are genuinely fearful that South African consumers are going to be facing heavy increases on the price of chicken," AMIE chief executive David Wolpert told the Mail & Guardian in an April interview on the subject.
Also opposing the poultry association's action are food distribution company Merlog foods and South African retailer Boxer.
Pressures for local farmers
But Kevin Lovell, the poultry association's chief executive, said that price hikes were needed for South Africa's chicken suppliers to survive in an environment where farmers are facing mounting costs and a rising number of cheap imports.
"Local producers are eating cash at present. They need to increase prices or close up shop," he said. Overseas suppliers were dumping dark meat products on the South African market while retaining the white meat for their own local markets, he said.
Rainbow Chicken, the country's largest chicken producer, said in its 2012 financials that there was a "glut" of chicken in the market. The oversupply meant that "the pricing of chicken in retail bears no reference to its cost of production", it said.
The most recent South African Revenue Service (Sars) statistics pitch chicken imports at about 20%, but AMIE argues that it is closer to 10% and that the chicken import market bears little threat to local producers.
AMIE has brought a separate court application against the commission in a bid to gain access to non-public information in its tariff investigation. The hearing will take place in the North Gauteng High Court on June 18.
"If we win the case next week, it will delay the whole recommendation process anyway," said Wolpert.
Anti-dumping
This is not the first battle in the chicken tariff war. A previous application was made to ITAC for anti-dumping duties to be imposed on imports from Brazil, which accounts for about 50% of the South Africa's chicken imports.
In December, the Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies decided against imposing duties on the country in isolation, and instead said there was scope to raise general tariffs for shipments, according to Business Day.
South Africa imposed additional anti-dumping duties of up to 63% between February and August last year on some chicken imports from its Latin American Brics partner. – Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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Qunu: Mandela's pain is our pain
Kwanele Sosibo, M&G, 12 June 2013
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· In Nelson Mandela's home town of Qunu, residents are hopeful Madiba will recover. In the meantime it is business as usual, writes Kwanele Sosibo.
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· A deceptive quiet prevails over the town of Qunu, near Mthatha in the Eastern Cape as Nelson Mandela's prolonged hospital stay stokes fears that he may not recover.
Mandela was admitted to hospital on Saturday to receive treatment for a recurring lung infection.
The only sign of unusual activity in the town where the retired former president was spending an increased amount of time is the swarm of journalists who have descended, interviewing obliging townsfolk about the town's most famous citizen.
Other than that, it is business as usual. The drilling from the construction work (on the N2 linking Mthatha to eDutywa) pierces the quiet winds sweeping the pastoral open plains.
But locals will be quick to warn about misreading the calm as a sing of aloofness or lack of compassion. "For me the sad thing is that journalists are expecting outward signs of worry, like the ones they are used to seeing in Johannesburg," said a local who would rather not be named. "Were this Houghton, you would be having bouquets of flowers and get well cards being delivered onto the streets outside his house.
That's not to say people here are not grieving or worried about his health.
It's just that here, it's not how we do things. We carry the hope of his recovery inside our hearts."
An employee working at Mandela's retirement home in Qunu said there was increased activity around the house so that should the extended family come, they would find the house in a suitably hospitable state. The man, who said he was a gardener, said Mandela had spent several months at the house of late but had left for Johannesburg late last year when he fell ill. He said he was worried what the state of Madiba's health would mean for him as an employee but he was hopeful that Madiba would live to see more days.
Besides the construction, there is a whiff that something is afoot, even in Qunu.
Locals said work was being done on a pair of Telkom masts close to the SABC satellite dish, which is located in the Nelson Mandela Museum in Qunu.
Dixon Mbamatye, a local resident in Qunu tried to keep his spirits up although he was visibly weighed down by the lack of positive news on Madiba's health. "His pain is our pain because we want him to live longer, in fact, we would like him to be literally born again, like in that conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus."
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AIDS drugs halve HIV risk for intravenous drug users in study
Reuters, Times Live, 12 June 2013
A daily dose of powerful anti-HIV medicine helped cut the risk of infection with the AIDS virus by 49 percent in intravenous drug users in a Bangkok study that showed for the first time such a preventive step can work in this high-risk population.
"This is a significant step forward for HIV prevention," said Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which helped conduct the clinical trial along with the Thailand Ministry of Health.
The study, published on Wednesday in the journal Lancet, looked at the treatment approach known as pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, in which HIV treatments are given to uninfected people who are at high-risk for HIV infection.
The drug used in the study was Gilead's older and relatively cheap generic HIV drug tenofovir. The study was launched in 2005.
Prior studies of this approach showed it cut infection rates by 44 percent in men who have sex with men, by 62 percent in heterosexual men and women and by 75 percent in couples in which one partner is infected with HIV and the other is not. The new results showed that it also protects intravenous drug users.
"We now know that PrEP can work for all populations at increased risk for HIV," Mermin said in a statement.
Based on the results, the CDC plans to recommend that U.S. doctors who wish to prescribe this treatment for their patients follow the same interim guidelines issued last year to prevent sexual transmission among other high-risk individuals.
Intravenous use of drugs like heroin accounts for about 8 percent of all new HIV infections in the United States and about 10 percent of new HIV infections worldwide. In some regions, such as Eastern Europe and Central Asia, injection drug abuse accounts for about 80 percent of all new infections.
The new findings involved more than 2,400 intravenous drug users in Bangkok who were not infected with the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS, and were being treated at the city's drug treatment clinics.
Half took tenofovir and half took a placebo. All participants were given HIV prevention counseling, risk-reduction strategies such as condoms and methadone treatment, and monthly HIV testing.
At the end of the study, there were 17 HIV infections among people taking the HIV medication, compared with 33 infections among those not taking the drugs, the researchers found.
The researchers also looked to see what factors influenced infection rates among those taking the HIV medication. They found that people who took their medication at least 71 percent of the time had a 74 percent lower risk of becoming infected with HIV.
Although it was not clear how the preventive drug treatment worked - by stopping infections caused by sharing dirty needles or by unprotected sex among drug users - the study produced a reduction in infection rates, said Dr. Salim Abdook Karim of the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa and of Columbia University in New York.
"The introduction of PrEP for HIV prevention in injecting drug users should be considered as an additional component to accompany other proven prevention strategies like needle exchange programs, methadone programs, promotion of safer sex and injecting practices, condoms, and HIV counseling and testing," Karim, who was not involved in the study, wrote in a commentary accompanying the study in the Lancet.
"PrEP as part of combination prevention in injecting drug users could make a useful contribution to the quest for an AIDS-free generation," Karim added.
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FIVE MINUTES: South Africa
Daily Maverick Staff Reporter, 13 Jun 2013
A round-up of the day’s news from South Africa.
MANDELA FAMILY ‘HEARTENED’ BY MESSAGES OF SUPPORT
The family of former President Nelson Mandela has spoken out about his health for the first time since he was rushed to hospital in the early hours of Saturday morning. In a statement issued by Zwelivelile [Mandla] Mandela, the family said they were heartened by the overwhelming messages of support from the public. “We are fully cognizant of the fact that millions of people in the country and around the world regard Madiba as their parent and therefore are as much concerned about his well-being as we are,” the family said. Earlier, President Jacob Zuma told Parliament he was “ happy to report that Madiba is responding better to treatment from this morning”. The elder statesman has spent a fifth day in hospital in Pretoria after being admitted in the early hours of Saturday morning.
SA SOLDIERS IN DRC FACE 93 CHARGES OF MISCONDUCT
A report to Parliament says 93 charges of misconduct have been levelled at members of the SANDF peacekeeping force currently serving in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The South African National Defence Force, in a statement, said defence minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has submitted a report detailing the nature of the offences. "To date, those whose cases have been finalised and a conviction secured in four incidences of sexual misconduct resulting in the dismissal of the perpetrators. The soldiers are part of the MONUSCO [United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo] mission in the eastern DRC. DA defence spokesman David Maynier said this behaviour was “completely unacceptable” and that “shockingly”, of the 93 cases “at least 23 involve rape, sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and assault of women”.
NYDA LEADERSHIP FAILS TO ARRIVE FOR PARLIAMENTARY MEETING
A delegation from the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), due to meet the portfolio committee of appropriations, was sent packing by Parliament after its leadership failed to arrive. Sapa reported that chairman Yershen Pillay, his deputy Itiseng Kenny Morolong, and CEO Steven Ngobeni – who told deputy minister in the presidency Obed Bapela he was ill – missed the meeting. Committee chairman Mshiyeni Sogoni said it was vital the CEO attend so as to account for organisation’s financial position and performance. MPS agreed but said as Ngobeni had been CEO for four years, he should have had the decency to apologise to the committee.
KZN HUMAN SETTLEMENTS RECOVERS MILLIONS FROM FRAUDSTERS
The KwaZulu-Natal human settlements department has recovered more than R10.6 million in subsidies after an investigation found government employees illegally occupying low cost houses. MEC Ravi Pillay told the provincial legislature that out of the R3.5 billion allocated to his department, R135.4 million was used for administration costs to fight fraud and corruption within the department. The Mercury reported that investigations had led to 566 criminal charges being laid and, of these, 449 convictions. Pillay said the internal investigation had uncovered more than 1 500 other fraudsters, not linked to the government, who had confessed to the illegal occupation of houses and volunteered to pay back about R18.2 million, because they were non-qualifying beneficiaries.
ZUMA TELLS SOCIAL PARTNERS TO RESOLVE LABOUR ISSUES PEACEFULLY
The Presidency says it will take “a hands-on approach” to help boost confidence in the economy. President Jacob Zuma, in his budget vote speech, said his department would work closely with “relevant departments and social partners” so as to “improve the resilience of our economy”. But he said the labour relations environment needed stability, particularly in the mining sector. “It is not in the interest of the country to have a tense labour relations environment which is characterised by a weakening of collective bargaining mechanisms, illegal wildcat strikes, violent protests and loss of life,” Zuma said. This needed a commitment from social partners to resolve labour disputes peacefully. Zuma said government didn’t take sides or “favour any labour union over others in the mining industry. Our interest is in finding solutions”.
‘RIVERS OF WASTE’ FLOW THROUGH MEADOWLANDS
Democratic Alliance spokesman Mmusi Maimane says he will report the “terrible sanitation issues” he found in Meadowlands, Soweto, to the Human Rights Commission. He said “free-flowing sewerage and other health hazards were clearly visible throughout the area” while children played outside and residents had to drive over “rivers of waste”. Maimane said he would ask for an “urgent investigation into these conditions”, and that the ANCYL should focus on the clear human rights violations present under the ANC-run province. Maimane said “these conditions are ignored by government while ANCYL members continue their vulgar protests in the Western Cape”.
CONCOURT REINSTATES NABOLISA’S ORIGINAL SENTENCE
The Nigerian drug dealer convicted of drug trafficking alongside security minister Siyabonga Cwele’s ex-wife Sheryl has had his appeal against an increase in his prison sentence upheld by the Constitutional Court. It said the sentence imposed on Frank Nabolisa by the Supreme Court of Appeal was set aside and that his high court sentence of 12-years imprisonment be reinstated. Nabolisa and Cwele received the same sentence in the Pietermaritzburg High Court in 2011. Issues under consideration included whether the SCA had the power to increase the sentence, and whether Nabolisa’s rights were infringed.
SANRAL DENIES E-TOLLING MONEY WILL GO OVERSEAS
The South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) says money collected from e-tolling will not go overseas. Spokesman Vusi Mona was responding to reports that Austrian company Kapsch TrafficCom said its “loss-making days” would end when e-tolling started. Mona said tolls collected by the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project go to Sanral and that dividends Sanral declared could only be paid to foreign companies after income tax was paid in South Africa. Kapsch TrafficCom said it would get an annual revenue boost of more than R669-million from e-tolling, including operational costs and selling the system hardware and software to Sanral. Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa) said this was money “being extracted directly from the pockets of hard-pressed citizens to improve the profits and wealth of overseas business”.
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4. Alliance
Lekganyane blasts 'infantile' Malema
Sapa, Times Live, 12 June 2013
Former ANC Limpopo secretary Soviet Lekganyane has dismissed claims by expelled ANCYL president Julius Malema that the branch criticised him to save itself.
"For him to hallucinate that we released a statement renouncing him in order to propitiate favours with the new leadership and stave off any possible dissolution of the PEC [provincial executive committee] is as infantile as it is parochial," he said on Wednesday.
In a statement, which he said was issued in his personal capacity, he continued: "It is a statement of a nostalgic hypocrite reminiscing of his halcyon days in the African National Congress."
It was reported on Tuesday that Malema was preparing to form a new political party.
He accused President Jacob Zuma of purging and destroying political opponents, including ANC Youth League leaders aligned with him, "because of pure political jealousy, paranoia and fear of the unknown".
Malema said the victims included the former Limpopo ANC provincial executive committee under premier Cassel Mathale and former North West ANC secretary Kabelo Mataboge, who was suspended from the ANC for three years last week.
"The Limpopo provincial executive committee under Soviet Lekganyane released a statement insulting me for political expediency -- that still did not spare them," Malema was quoted as saying in The Star.
In an interview with SAfm on Tuesday evening, he said: "Soviet Lekganyane released a statement in Limpopo insulting me. His head was chopped trying to impress President Zuma."
In March, the Limpopo PEC, chaired by Mathale, was dissolved after a decision made by the ANC's national executive committee.
Lekganyane said the PEC released a statement about Malema "as a matter of principle".
"We would not allow any person, especially from the province, to insult the... ANC leadership, the 53rd national conference and the collective wisdom of the delegates who gathered in Mangaung in such a historic occasion," he said.
He said it was important for Malema to "dissociate our names from his libertine initiatives."
"He cannot be qualified to speak about our names when he has not been in the ANC... [since his expulsion]," Lekganyane said.
"We are members of the ANC with an unblemished record of loyalty, obedience and subordination to the decisions of the majority."
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Julius Malema 2.0: On a mission to consult and fight for economic freedom
Ranjeni Munusamy, Daily Maverick, 12 Jun 2013
Nine months ago, former ANC Youth League president Julius Malema faded off the political radar, only sporadically appearing in the news during his court appearances and the auctioning of his properties to pay his debts. Now he has re-invented himself as a freedom fighter outside the ANC, and is embarking on the en vogue countrywide tour to “consult” supporters on the best way to achieve economic freedom. So Malema wants to form a political party, but wants to build popular support for it first. And while he is severely damaged by his corruption charges and in the political wilderness now, it is worth remembering that so was one Jacob Zuma a few years ago. By RANJENI MUNUSAMY.
Julius Malema became ANC Youth League (ANCYL) president in 2008 because he was the endorsed candidate of his predecessor Fikile Mbalula. During his presidency, Mbalula had built the League into a formidable organisation at the forefront of the campaign to defend Jacob Zuma during his trials and to carry him to the presidency of the ANC and the country. Malema, who was also endorsed for the position by the South African Communist Party (SACP), was selected to take over from Mbalula and continue the mission to dislodge former president Thabo Mbeki and those close to him from the ANC leadership and government.
Once this mission was complete, Malema’s focus changed. He saw the tremendous power he wielded as president of the ANC Youth League and saw this as a vehicle to build the League and his political empire in his own image. Proportional to his fallout with Zuma and the ANC leadership was the rise of his “economic freedom in our lifetime” campaign that gave Malema and his associates a radical platform on which to drive a crusade within the ANC. A key aspect of the economic freedom campaign was the nationalisation of mines which, through the sheer force used by Malema’s League, made it onto the agenda of the ANC’s policy discussions and warranted a special investigation into possible state intervention in the mineral sector.
However, as soon as Malema was expelled from the ruling party, the economic freedom campaign began to collapse. The acting leadership of the ANC Youth League was simply unable to sustain the momentum and radical action required to keep it alive. Since his expulsion, Malema was charged with corruption and money laundering, lost most of his assets and status symbols, and became isolated from his political and business network.
After the Marikana massacre last August, it appeared as though Malema had found a niche constituency among angry, frustrated mineworkers, but with his resources drained and a range of personal problems, he was unable to keep mobilising in the mining sector. He also briefly scared the government when he addressed disgruntled soldiers near a South Johannesburg military base, causing the Department of Defence to place all military bases around the country on high alert.
Malema also had currency in the British media during a visit to London during the Olympic Games, scoring high profile interviews and addressing public platforms on what he thought would be Zuma’s demise at the ANC’s Mangaung conference. He was in Mangaung during the ANC’s 53rd national conference but never showed up publicly once it became apparent that Zuma was on a wave to a second term.
And so South Africa’s most controversial and divisive political figure disappeared off the scene, with only his financial and legal troubles to fight for its place in the news.
But now Malema is back, ready to relaunch his campaign for economic freedom as a platform for a new political party. While he is still in deep trouble legally and financially, Malema’s timing to start a conversation around a new political movement is impeccable. On Monday, a national task team appointed to oversee the management of the ANC Youth Leagueannounced that it was disbanding four of the League’s provincial executive committees, bringing to seven the number of provinces dissolved.
The task team found “that the ANCYL is at its weakest state since its unbanning” and was a “shadow of its former self”. So the ANCYL is effectively lifeless and dysfunctional, requiring massive work to rebuild its structures. Malema took the opportunity of the task team’s admission of the League paralysis to mount his platform.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Malema announced that his group of “economic freedom fighters” would be holding “consultative forums” across the country to discuss “what is to be done” to further their economic freedom campaign. This is similar to what academic and businesswoman Mamphela Ramphele and her Agang movement is doing to drum up support ahead of the formation of her political party.
But Malema and Ramphele’s platforms are very different. While Agang is pitching itself as the “good, clean and fresh” party, Malema wants to get down and dirty with some of the very issues that set him on a collision cause with the ANC leadership. The “base principles” for Malema’s consultations are:
- Expropriation of South Africa's land without compensation for equal redistribution.
- Nationalisation of mines, banks, and other strategic sectors of the economy.
- Building state and government capacity, which will lead to abolishment of tenders (ironical as the alleged manipulation of tenders is the very source of his legal woes)
- Free quality education, healthcare, houses, and sanitation.
- Massive protected industrial development to create millions of sustainable jobs.
- Massive development of the African economy and advocating for a move from reconciliation to justice.
- Open, accountable government and society without fear of victimisation by state police.
Malema’s declarations about the ANC being in his blood and that he was prepared to take up arms and die for Zuma are now long forgotten. His future political platform will be in direct opposition to the ANC and he is already brutal about the ruling party’s leadership of the country.
Malema said the policy outcomes of the Mangaung national conference “demonstrated in the clearest terms that the ANC is committed to a right-wing, neo-liberal and capitalist agenda which has kept majority of our people on the margins of South Africa's economy”.
“The ANC will never be a sustainable solution to South African developmental problems in the foreseeable future, due to its ideological zigzags, and open dominance of neoliberal and right wing politics,” he said in the statement.
And for now it does not appear that Malema aims to cosy up to any of the opposition parties: “Opposition political parties to the ANC oppose it on superficial issues, because all the major political formations in Parliament carry the same neoliberal, capitalist and free-market programme as the ANC.”
Or in the alliance. He said the SACP had been swallowed into reform politics of patronage and would never regain integrity to pursue real working-class struggles. Those in Cosatu who push for a radical agenda (read Zwelinzima Vavi and those allied to him) “will be isolated, banished and portrayed as anti-ANC”.
Malema also had unflattering words about his former organisation. “The ANC Youth League has been turned into a lap dog and sent around to repeat what the ANC leadership says and puppet Youth League leaders rewarded with cabinet posts and other pecks [sic] to sustain their puppet status.”
Malema predicts that the majority of the people in the informal settlements, townships, villages and other poor communities “will disengage from mainstream politics and not vote in successive elections”. “Service delivery protests will intensify and workplace stoppages in the mines and farms will also continue in higher volumes than before, thus worsening the economic crisis South Africa is undergoing,” he said.
So in this milieu, what then does Malema see as his role? In an interview with SABC radio, Malema confirmed that he was heading towards the formation of a new political party. “We won’t shy away from any option that the people want. If people say the fight for economic freedom can still be fought outside of the ANC, then so be it. We are not scared – the struggle is not only conducted in the African National Congress.”
He is making his move at the right time because there is clearly a large group of sidelined ANC Youth League members disorientated by the paralysis in the organisation and susceptible to Malema’s influence again. There is also a lot of turbulence in the alliance, particularly around the clashes within Cosatu. Malema’s agenda is almost identical to the policy demands of metalworkers’ union Numsa, the union leading Zwelinzima Vavi’s defence in Cosatu. Should Vavi be booted out of his position by his detractors in the federation, Malema is presenting him and his supporters, such as Numsa, with an option outside the ANC. Vavi and company might be loath to consider it now, but if things go horribly wrong for them, they could be scouting for a new political home.
Malema is also banking on some level of support from the remnants of the Forces of Change camp, which suffered defeat at Mangaung. While some of these people have fallen in line with the new ANC leadership, many still remain angry, disgruntled and alienated. However, it will be a big step for them to venture away from the ANC and into Malema’s radical politics.
Malema’s biggest problem is his legal troubles, as he is not in the ideal position to lead a political party while he is facing a lengthy criminal trial and the prospect of jail time. However, as the newly elected president of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta has shown, if you are popular enough and press the right buttons in the election campaign, even being accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Court is not enough to deter voters. (Admittedly, the South African courts have a much greater hold on Malema The Candidate.)
Malema will no doubt also be fighting off detractors by reminding them that Zuma was heading the ANC ticket in the 2009 election campaign while still facing corruption charges. The case against him was scrapped just a few weeks before the election, by which time the ANC was well on its way to victory. Zuma had also climbed his way back to the ANC presidency after being fired as deputy state president and stepping back from his positions in the party when he was charged with rape.
But Malema is no Zuma or Kenyatta. He is not in line to be state president and he has a long way to go to get back to the wave of popularity he once rode. He also does not have powerful constituencies and people lobbying for him. Apart from a small coterie of loyalists, Malema no longer has a power-base or financiers.
What he is doing is putting himself back into play, hoping that there are sufficient disillusioned, restless and angry people out there to carry him back to active politics. Malema has nothing more to lose. And as he has proved before, Malema can be formidable and is no pushover. It will be fascinating to see how many people buy what he is selling.
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Shivambo: Economic struggle distorted
Sapa, Fin24, 12 June 2013
Johannesburg - The disbanding of ANCYL structures is distorting the struggle for economic freedom, former league spokesman Floyd Shivambu said on Wednesday.
"When dissolving more than 80% of ANC Youth League-elected structures... the National Task Team (NTT)... distorted the struggle for economic freedom," he said in a statement on behalf of the Economic Freedom Fighters. NTT co-ordinator Magasela Mzobe could not immediately be reached for comment.
The NTT announced on Monday it disbanded African National Congress Youth League structures in Limpopo, Free State, North West, and Northern Cape.
Shivambu said the NTT's calls for a new theory on economic freedom was "utter nonsense".
"These continued distortions of economic freedom in our lifetime further justify the need to discuss whether the ANC is a vehicle to carry forward the struggle for economic freedom in our lifetime," he said.
Shivambu said the "economic freedom fighters" movement had received "tremendous" support and input from different South Africans, and it would hold consultative forums.
He said the central question to be asked was whether the movement should remain in the ANC, advocating for radical change until the ANC accepted it. It would discuss whether it should be a independent movement, not aligned to any political party, or whether it should start a new party to contest the general elections.
It was reported on Tuesday that expelled ANCYL president Julius Malema was preparing to form a political venture, the Economic Freedom Fighters.
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Western Cape ANCYL leaders to be announced
Sapa, Times Live, 12 June 2013
The Western Cape ANC Youth League's leadership will be announced next week, the league's national task team (NTT) co-ordinator Magasela Mzobe said on Wednesday.
"We met with the Dullah Omar region today at 10am and disbanded them. We will constitute a team that will lead the province here," he said in Cape Town.
"We don't have a leadership structure of the youth league in the province, but soon we will announce names: by next week Friday."
The African National Congress disbanded the ANCYL's national leadership earlier this year.
On Monday, ANCYL national task team convenor Mzwandile Masina said it had disbanded the organisation in Limpopo, Free State, North West, and the Northern Cape.
Its KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, and Western Cape structures had been "reconstituted", he said.
The NTT had visited eight provinces to assess their structures. Its assessment of Gauteng was not yet complete. It would visit the Eastern Cape only in the next seven days.
"We have come to a conclusion that some drastic measures need to be taken," said Masina.
"We are more convinced that the ANCYL is in a weaker state since its disbanding [of its national executive committee]," he said.
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5. International
Turkish Protesters Party In Square Despite Ruling Party Call
Reuters , Daily Maverick, 13 Jun 2013
Hundreds of anti-government demonstrators chanted and sang in Istanbul's Taksim Square early on Thursday, defying an order to end almost two weeks of protests against Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. By Nick Tattersall and Jonathon Burch.
The deputy chairman of Erdogan's ruling AK Party, Huseyin Celik, said late on Wednesday that the protesters should withdraw from Gezi Park, a leafy corner of the square where they have set up a ramshackle settlement of tents.
At the same time, he made a concession by offering a referendum on the redevelopment plans that sparked the unrest.
A heavy-handed police crackdown on Gezi Park nearly two weeks ago triggered an unprecedented wave of protest against the perceived authoritarianism of Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted AK Party, drawing in a broad alliance of secularists, nationalists, professionals, unionists and students.
Riot police looked on from the fringes as crowds mingled late into the night, some protesters chanting and dancing, others applauding a concert pianist who took up residence with a grand piano in the middle of the square.
It was a surreal contrast to the scene 24 hours earlier, when tear gas sent thousands scurrying into side streets before authorities bulldozed barricades and reopened the square to traffic for the first time since the troubles began.
"The government can't accept these protests going on forever," Celik told a news conference in the capital Ankara following a meeting between Erdogan and a group of public figures linked to the Gezi protesters.
"Those with bad intentions or who seek to provoke and remain in the park will (now) be facing the police," he said.
Police fired tear gas and water cannon day after day in cities including Ankara last week. Three people, one a policeman, died and about 5,000 thousand people were injured, according to the Turkish Medical Association.
The offer to hold a referendum on the park redevelopment is one of the only concessions the authorities have publicly floated after days of firm rhetoric from Erdogan refusing to back down. Celik gave few details of how a referendum would be carried out, saying it could either be held across Istanbul, or just in the district near Taksim.
Protesters also want the government to punish those responsible for the violent police crackdown.
"We think it is indispensable that Gezi Park should remain as a park, violence should stop and those who responsible for violence should be investigated," said Ipek Akpinar, an architect who was among the delegation that met with Erdogan.
"FOREIGN FORCES" BLAMED
Erdogan has accused foreign forces, international media and market speculators of stoking conflict and trying to undermine the economy of the only largely Muslim NATO state.
Two foreign correspondents from the Canadian Broadcasting Corp (CBC) were detained by police on Wednesday and Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird said on his Twitter account that he had called the Turkish ambassador to voice concern. CBC quoted the Turkish ambassador to Canada as saying the journalists were expected to be released shortly.
Turkey's broadcasting authority said it was fining four television channels over their coverage of the protests on the grounds of inciting violence, media reports said.
President Abdullah Gul, who has struck a more conciliatory tone than Erdogan, said it was the duty of government to engage with critics, but also appeared to close ranks with the prime minister, saying violent protests were a different matter.
"If people have objections ... then to engage in a dialogue with these people, to hear out what they say, is no doubt our duty," Gul said. "Those who employ violence are something different and we have to distinguish them ... This would not be allowed in New York, this would not be allowed in Berlin."
Erdogan's tough talk has endeared him to voters for the past decade, but his opponents say it has now poured fuel on the flames. On Tuesday he said would not kneel before the protesters and that "this Tayyip Erdogan won't change".
The United States, which has held up Erdogan's Turkey in the past as an example of Muslim democracy that could benefit other countries in the Middle East, expressed concern about events and urged dialogue between government and protesters.
The European Union also raised concern about the police clearance of Taksim. Top EU officials have called on Erdogan's government to investigate cases of excessive force.
Erdogan argues that the broader mass of people have been manipulated by extremists and terrorists and says his political authority derives from his popular mandate in three successive election victories.
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UN congratulates 38 countries on meeting hunger eradication targets
SAPA-DPA, The New Age, 12 June 2013
Thirty-eight countries have complied ahead of time with hunger eradication targets set for 2015, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Wednesday.
Halving the percentage of the world's hungry from 1990 to 2015 was a key objective of the UN's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and 20 countries had achieved that by 2012, FAO said in a statement.
These were: Algeria; Angola; Bangladesh; Benin; Brazil; Cambodia; Cameroon; Chile; Dominican Republic; Fiji; Honduras; Indonesia; Jordan; Malawi; Maldives; Niger; Nigeria; Panama; Togo; Uruguay.
An additional 18 countries met the MDG as well as a more stringent target set by the 1996 World Food Summit to cut in half the absolute number of undernourished people between 1990-92 and 2010-12, the UN agency said.
It listed Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cuba, Djibouti, Georgia, Ghana, Guyana, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Nicaragua, Peru, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Thailand, Turkmenistan, Venezuela and Vietnam as having made the grade.
FAO said it would congratulate the countries at an official ceremony on Sunday at its Rome headquarters. The UN agency is holding a week-long conference - its highest governing body - during June 15-22.
-Sapa-dpa
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Greek jitters pressure eurostocks
Reuters, Fin24, 12 June 2013
London - European shares fell on Wednesday, pressured by autos and banks, as concerns over Greek politics pushed regional indexes nearer to key support levels which, if breached, could trigger further losses.
The FTSEurofirst 300 closed down 0.4% at 1 174.79 points, extending weakness from the previous session when concerns that global central banks were looking to scale back their stimulus knocked the index 1.2% to six-week lows.
Many investors were sticking to the sidelines, evidenced by light trade at 88% of the 90-day daily average, with the stimulus worries compounded by a revival of eurozone fears after the shutdown of the Greek state broadcaster caused tensions in the fragile three-party government.
CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said he would be wary of April's low of 6 214 on Britain's FTSE 100, and of the 8 100 points area on Germany's DAX, which are within sight of current levels.
"I would be cautiously long while above these levels - but the fact that there is this debate about the longevity of central bank stimulus means there is potential for a test of these supports," he said. "If they give way (we) could (see) more selling."
Cyclical auto stocks and banks were among the biggest laggards on Wednesday, nursing respective falls of 2% and 1.1%, while defensive areas such as healthcare and food & beverages bucked the weak trend.
"I think the risks are to the downside," said Pieter Fourie, head of global equities at Sanlam Private Investments (UK), who does not believe in buying European cyclical stocks, despite the fact some are looking cheap after recent underperformance.
Sanlam Private Investments has used the recent market weakness to buy into "high-quality" blue-chip names such as brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev, food group Nestle and luxury group LVMH.
The trio trade on respective 12-month forward price/earnings ratios of 19.33 times, 17.80 times, and 17.42 times, according to Thomson Reuters data, against the STOXX 600 on 12.1 times.
There were some bright spots on Wednesday. Clothing retailer Inditex rose 3.5% after it reassured over its margin guidance, while media group Kabel Deutschland soared 8.2% on the back of a preliminary bid approach from telecoms firm Vodafone.
Some investors were relatively sanguine on the prospects for equities, with the FTSEurofirst 300 only 6.5% shy of five-year highs hit towards the end of May, leaving it up 3.6% in 2013.
"What we hope is that equity markets, after suffering this bout of volatility, calm down and we can see more fundamental drivers around earnings, around sales, around margins, come through, and that will be reflected in equity prices," said Shaniel Ramjee, an investment manager at Baring Asset Management, which has £39.5bn ($62bn) of assets under management.
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EU factory production rises in defiance of expectations
Martin Santa,Business Day, 12 June 2013
INDUSTRIAL output from eurozone factories defied market expectations of a month-on-month decline and rose in April, data showed on Wednesday, but the pace of expansion was slowed by a drop in production of energy and durable consumer goods.
Industrial production in the 17 countries using the single currency rose by 0.4% on the month, after a nearly two-year high jump of 0.9% in March, the data from the European Union statistics agency Eurostat showed.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected a 0.2% fall.
The bloc’s economy remains crippled by the effect of the sovereign debt crisis as governments continue growth-slowing fiscal consolidation, millions of Europeans are out of jobs and small-and-medium-sized companies are struggling to get credit.
"While April industrial production data are relatively encouraging, the eurozone manufacturing sector is not yet out of the woods," IHS Global Insight chief European economist Howard Archer said.
"Indeed, conditions remain far from easy for eurozone manufacturers."
The pace of the bloc’s economic contraction slowed in the three months to March, compared with the previous quarter, but Europeans facing stressed labour markets remain reluctant to spend, preventing a more dynamic rebound.
The European Central Bank (ECB) still expects a gradual recovery later in the year, but sees downside risks.
The ECB left interest rates unchanged at record lows last Thursday and slightly lowered its economic outlook for the euro area in 2013, saying the economy would shrink 0.6% in 2013 but grow again by 1.1% in 2014.
Industrial production in April was influenced by a 1.5% drop in energy output month on month, the first decline in four months, and a 2.7% fall in the production of cars, electronics and other durable consumer goods.
Eurostat revised its industrial production figure for March downward, to show a rise of 0.9% from 1.0%.
Compared with April a year ago, industrial production fell 0.6% after a revised 1.4% fall in March, the data showed.
Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, reported a 1.2% monthly rise in April from the previous month, while second-placed France swung back to a rise, with 2.3% growth month on month.
Italy showed a third consecutive monthly decline, sliding 0.3%.
Manufacturing from Germany, France, and Italy accounts for two-thirds of the eurozone’s output.
Reuters
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6. Comment
COSATU E-toll Campaign goes ahead in 2013
For more information, contact COSATU Offices
Come one…..Come All!
Stop Commodification of public goods!
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COSATU Section77 Notice served at Nedlac on the 11th December 2012
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South African rural healthcare still in grim state
COMMENT: Zandile Myeza, SABC News, 12 June 2013
The National Health Insurance (NHI) has gotten off to a slow start in the Eastern Cape’s OR Tambo district; a generally rural area where public health remains a critical issue. The NHI aims to improve access to and quality of healthcare for the entire population of each of the 10 pilot districts selected by Health Minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi selected in April 2012. Although Dr Motsoaledi has cautioned that the NHI is a process which will develop over a 14-year period, many South African citizens who rely on public health are eager to experience material improvements this new development promises to bring to their lives.
It is highly unlikely that rural populations around South Africa and certainly the OR Tambo district have 14 years to wait. These rural and often remote areas face many challenges that are beyond the administrative responsibility of Health Ministry such as infrastructure, access to clean water and sanitation, electricity and education. All these factors have a direct impact on the delivery of quality healthcare services and resources and the Health Ministry cannot afford to ignore them if its ambitious NHI programme is to succeed. An area of particular interest in the OR Tambo district is the town of Mthatha in the Eastern Cape. Pot holes on the roads and electricity cuts are a pervasive feature in this part of the province and significantly disrupt many of the health facilities in the area namely, the Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital, surrounding District hospitals and clinics.
During a visit to the area, South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) News Research learnt of the difficulty emergency services encounter while trying to access villages because there are either simply no roads leading to villages or the roads are generally debilitated dirt roads. It is a common occurrence that by the time patients reach Mthatha’s Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital they have reached a critical stage or have met their fate, due to delayed access as a contributing factor.
This calls for rural development to be embedded as an urgent priority in the pursuit of the NHI’s objective of ubiquitous healthcare including to rural communities. The Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital is the sole glimmer of hope for most who live in the rural communities of the OR Tambo district. It lies in the heart of Mthatha; supposedly reliant on surrounding district hospitals meant to serve as intermediary points of call for health services, a level above clinics. The National Health Act No 61 of 2003 requires a district hospital to provide Obstetric care, paediatric services, trauma and emergency care. Judging by the overwhelming number of patients at the Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital queuing for the services mentioned above, it is clear that the development of district hospitals and clinics around Mthatha is critical and that Nelson Mandela Academic cannot cope with the burden it finds itself carrying. A 512-bed hospital carrying a load of beyond 900 beds is surely a siren call to the Health Minister to take direct charge of the support required by that hospital and the healthcare network surround it.
In South Africa an estimated 80% of the total population relies on healthcare services provided in public hospitals and the primary health services in clinics. In his 2013/14 budget, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhon allocated R133.6 billion (4.5%) of national budget to Health and of that, R 48.8 billion has been allocated to District health services. Hopefully, this indicates that reprieve for Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital is imminent because an improvement of District hospitals could be a live-saving development for the people of Mthatha and surrounds.
Global partnerships in health also play a significant role in providing universal access to health services
Infrastructure expansion is not the only intervention that the OR Tambo and Nelson Mandela Academic Hospitals require. Highly skilled health professionals are a rare sight in this part of the province. Even sufficiently skilled professionals such as General Practitioners (GP) are now becoming a critical shortage. Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital is a contrast of an impeccably clean tertiary institution that cost around R500 million to build/equip and near barren of surgeons, medical specialists, general practitioners, and other health workers. If not for the sweat and dedication of the staff who man it daily, it would befit the title of a “medical-white elephant”.
As a referral hospital, these problems should be furthest from the priorities of hospital management. Hospital CEO, Ms Nomalanga Makwedini highlights the difficulty of attracting and retaining medical professionals to generally rural areas.
“It is difficult to attract and bring in more doctors and specialists across the different fields to Mthatha, perhaps this is because doctors and specialists prefer not to work in a rural area. As a result they look for opportunities in the cities”; says Makwedini.
Not all hope is lost though as the Walter Sisulu University prides itself pioneering the redefinition of medical education to make it relevant to areas like the Eastern Cape. In a quest to become experts in rural health, this university introduced a curriculum for Clinical Associates; a new breed of health professionals said to be an innovative way to address the issue of doctor shortages in rural areas across the country. The Clinical Associate Programme which commenced in 2008 is offered in partnership with the national and provincial departments of Health as well as the South African Military Health Service (SAMHS). The fourth cohort of 32 students is set to graduate at the end of 2013. A Clinical Associate is similar to a Physician Assistant in the United States and other mid-level units in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. These professionals work primarily at district hospitals under the supervision of doctors, providing emergency care and managing chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and HIV/AIDS.
This programme has been adopted by the University of Witwatersrand. Global partnerships in health also play a significant role in providing universal access to health services with institutions such as the Emroy University in Atlanta and the University of Colorado also investing time in the development of the Clinical Associates curriculum and profession. This will perhaps bring more hope to the people who rely on Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital for their health care, yet another urgent priority Dr Motsoaledi should be allocating additional funding.
There is no doubt that the vision and policy for transforming the South African public health system has become far clearer over the years. The roll out of the NHI would simply means that South Africans can rely on an affordable and reliable public healthcare system. Without doubt, the NHI could be what South Africa needs, as Dr Motsoaledi always recalls noting countries such as China and Brazil that have made a success of similar public health structures. In principle, the NHI seems very promising but perhaps fourteen years is far too long for the pregnant patient in distress who has travelled 60km on a dirt road and waited 12 hours before receiving medical attention. In pursuit of the NHI, the Health Ministry may want to also focus on reduce the casualties along the way by paying urgent attention to the current structure of public health, particularly rural and remote areas that are easily neglected.
Zandile Myeza is the Health Researcher at SABC News Research and Policy Analysis. She writes after a research expedition at the Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital.
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If labour broking goes, so do jobs
David Gleason, Business Day, 12 June 2013
NO PROGRESS has been made in addressing South Africa’s unemployment problem. Recruitment group Adcorp says 13,000 jobs disappeared last month. Applying a conservative ratio of eight dependants for each job, that’s another 117,000 people wondering where their next meal is coming from.
This week Parliament is debating the controversial Labour Relations Amendment Bill, in which a kernel issue is the future of labour broking. This is a big industry with a turnover of about R44bn, employing about 20,000 and providing work, says Adcorp, to about 1-million "temps".
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has totally lost any perspective on labour broking. It considers the practice positively evil and, though it appeared at one stage that the heat had gone out of the issue, it is now clear the federation has nobbled many individual African National Congress (ANC) MPs who, it is said, have pressured party bosses.
What will happen if labour broking, the businesses that employ casuals or temps and place them with firms that need them, is banned? Cosatu thinks all the temps will then find permanent employment. Fat chance of that happening. The big issue is how many will then be permanently out of work?
Adcorp labour economist Loane Sharp thinks all temps will be jettisoned, which may be excessive. Assuming jobs held by half the total number of temps are terminated, this translates into 500,000 people turned out of any kind of gainful employment, and that assumes, in turn, about 4.5-million people cast onto the care of the state.
That means taxpayers must fund the socioeconomic fallout from the political conniving of an unrepresentative body of unelected (by voters) labour aristocrats.
When politicians talk about the state creating jobs it is time to get really worried. Government jobs are not economically productive. They are designed not to make money but to consume it. They are supposed to provide a service, though in many cases that is dubious. And these all too often uncivil servants combine across the state’s interference in everyday life at every level — national, provincial, local and institutional — 1.7-million of them in 2011. The cost of some of this multitude of hosts (national, provincial and social security) is set down in this year’s budget as R369bn.
Next year, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan thinks it will be R391bn and in 2015-16 R416bn.
More or less a third of the national annual budget, local government excepted, is devoted to meeting this bill.
Dawie Roodt of the Efficient Group, a listed financial services company, says public service remuneration is 30%-40% higher than that earned in comparable ranks in the private sector.
Given that the individual risk in the public service is so much lower than in the private sector, this startling asymmetry in earnings is inexplicable, save for two factors: public service unions often negotiate with themselves, in that senior public service officials belong to unions themselves, and the unions have learnt that many promotions and new job descriptions are the keys to ever-higher demands.
There is a striking contradiction here: on the one hand is a big, though diminishing, labour federation, part of an unworkable ruling alliance, which is undaunted by the prospect of up to 1-million South Africans losing their jobs; on the other is a government and Parliament anxious to appease the federation while also complaining about the general failure to create more jobs.
Another issue is the way in which a decision made in the National Economic Development and Labour Council was trashed by the ANC this week. It voted to remove a clause requiring trade unions to conduct strike ballots, evidence, if it was needed, of the party’s anxiety about retaining Cosatu’s support in next year’s election. So much for any commitment to democratic processes.
ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa wants us to stop whining and instead come up with solutions. A modest part of the solution to this conundrum is easy enough — stop the nonsense about labour broking and strike ballots and get on with making South Africa an attractive destination for business.
Cape Town’s sewage problem
SOUTH Africa’s first environmental law was Placaat 12 of 1655, commonly known as "Moenie in die water kak nie." If they knew this 358 years ago why, pray, "kak ons nog steeds in die water?"
Well, that’s what they do around Cape Town. A Reclaim Camissa blog claims the sanitation issues in townships surrounding the city have become "a very serious problem" (Camissa, the place of sweet waters, is the Khoi name for Cape Town, and the original river, long enclosed by the city, is being reclaimed).
The blog says sewage is having a disastrous effect on the environment and is "leaching into the Cape Flats Aquifer Unit and rivers due to spillage and toilets blowing over". It seems that portable toilets have been positioned along the banks of Cape Flats rivers.
The immediate cause for worry is the very real possibility that these loos could be the cause of increased incidences of diarrhoeal disease and, down the line, perhaps even cholera. Whoever was responsible should be retired. If the ruling Democratic Alliance doesn’t get hold of this it will "kak en betaal".
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I HAVE to hand it to the executives of the Financial Services Board (FSB) — they know how to play the system. Instead of explaining the FSB’s role in the Fidentia affair to Parliament’s finance committee this week, chairman Thaba Mufamadi (African National Congress) agreed to the FSB’s request for a delay until the legal appeals have been completed. That could take months, even years. Little wonder Tim Harris (Democratic Alliance), the shadow finance minister, has objected, although that has no chance of flying. FSB executive director Dube Tshidi clearly has friends in high places.
Perhaps the FSB thinks it can stonewall its way out of its many problems. But its executives should remember that victims of white collar crime complain bitterly and for years about institutions that fail to protect them.
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National Development Plan is not finished yet
Sipho Hlongwane, Business Day, 12 June 2013
A FEW weeks ago, I attended a national youth engagement meeting between the National Planning Commission (NPC) and representatives from several organisations, including Youth Lab, InkuluFreeHeid, the Black Management Forum, the National Union of Mineworkers and the Democratic Alliance Youth. The idea was to discuss, and form some kind of agreement, on the National Development Plan (NDP) and the National Economic Development and Labour Council’s Youth Employment Accord.
It was a fascinating view into the workings of the commission.
Youth Lab, in which I’m involved, is a think-tank interested in the views of young people and the solutions to their problems. Its research unit has collected data that inform the view that most young people do not understand the NDP at all. It has not been adequately explained in terms that they can understand. They don’t know how it will change their lives at all.
Based on feedback from the NPC meeting, I would not, in fact, be surprised to find that most South Africans are equally ambivalent on the NDP because it has not been communicated to them properly.
The reaction from NPC representatives at the meeting gave the impression that the NDP had been broken into silos. There was a development phase, when public input was harvested. This included the work done by a team of academics and experts with Planning Minister Trevor Manuel. Then came the marketing phase, which is continuing. This is where the government and the people are supposed to disseminate the document. The last phase (which began tentatively at the start of the year) is implementation.
The government seems to be struggling with phase two. The plan is not the widely accepted document that it purports to be. (It follows that a plan that is not understood is not accepted.) It appears the input-gathering process was not as broad and as deep as it needed to be.
The first sign of this was the lukewarm response that the plan got from the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu). As recently as last week, federation spokesman Patrick Craven slammed the NDP for failing to fundamentally transform the structure of the South African economy, promote a new growth path to industrialise the economy, place job creation at the centre of economic policy, and make redistribution and the combating of inequality and poverty a pillar of economic development.
The militant National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) also rejected the "right-wing" plan. The South African Communist Party (SACP) received it coldly too.
We have now learned that the entire foreign policy section of the document has been rewritten by the Cabinet.
"A source told Business Day on Monday that chapter seven of the NDP had already been redrafted. This was confirmed by Lindiwe Zulu, (President Jacob) Zuma’s adviser on international relations. The source said the reason for the chapter being rejected was that the first draft was written ‘by a consultant (who) knows nothing about South African foreign policy’. Further, the chapter had ignored ‘some of the positive strides that South Africa has taken in diplomacy’," Khulekani Magubane reported this week.
At fault is the NDP’s attempt to rein in diplomatic salaries and missions, and its recommendation to audit foreign representation. This unfortunately suggests that chapter seven (the foreign policy section) was written without the direct input of South Africa’s most senior diplomats.
But the only reason why the heavy battering the NDP has taken since its launch would be seen in a negative light is if we are to believe it is a perfect panacea for South Africa’s problems, and a rigid blueprint that has full public support. It isn’t, and it doesn’t. It is only a start.
Those attending the NPC meeting questioned why the commission seemed unwilling to brook criticism and was just interested in finding the plan’s ambassadors and cheerleaders. That turned out to be a misapprehension. The document should not be viewed as a "static plan", commissioner Mohammad Karaan said. It is still very much up for review.
That is what the Cabinet is doing. Unlike the constitution, the NDP is meant to receive continuous change.
The ideological question was also raised at the NPC meeting. Without an articulated ideology, it would be difficult to tell other people about the NDP, because its objectives would remain obscure. But it emerged that it is based on the work of Indian economist Amartya Sen. He is a proponent of the view that human development is ultimately about maximising personal freedom and providing a good life for all. He has famously — and convincingly — posited that famine is caused by people being blocked from accessing or growing food, rather than a shortage. In other words, famine is caused by politics, and not natural phenomena. In his 1999 book Development as Freedom, Sen argues that the expansion of freedom is central to development – "both as the primary end and as the principal means". (One wonders what Cosatu, Numsa and the SACP think of Sen.)
The NPC’s hesitancy to state the underlying philosophy of the NDP is a small worry. It understandably wants to avoid getting bogged down in pointless ideological debates, but that also means not having a strong debate about the strengths and weaknesses of Sen’s ideas as applied to South Africa.
I left that meeting convinced that young South Africans wanted political leadership and a plan. They know what is wrong with the country, and a plan that speaks to that will be as universally embraced as the constitution was in 1996. But it has to disseminated carefully, and it absolutely has to be open to criticism and change.
If the government presents the plan in that way to the public, most of the consternation about it will disappear.
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Soweto uprising made the struggle unstoppable
Z Pallo Jordan, Business Day, 13 June 2013
HAVING won the elections thanks to the weighting of the rural vote in June 1948, DF Malan’s government established the Commission on Native Education to investigate African education in January 1949. Werner Willi Max Eiselen, a dyed-in-the-wool apartheid ideologue who was appointed secretary (director-general today) for native affairs when the National Party assumed office, headed the commission.
Descended from German missionaries who had settled in the Transvaal, Eiselen trained as an anthropologist and linguist, earning his doctorate at Hamburg University during the early years of the Nazi regime. He saw the commission as the first step in an elaborate plan of social engineering, later dubbed "grand apartheid".
Eiselen and his political principals proceeded from the racist premise that human aptitudes, competencies and capacities are racially determined. In the submission it made to the commission, the Cape African Teachers Association rebuked it: "In any given state, the aims of education must be the same for all its citizens, since there cannot be two or more kinds of citizenship within a state. Any such term, therefore, as ‘native education’ is untenable, because it immediately violates the principles of education."
Eiselen tabled his report in 1951. He had ignored the views of these African educators; instead he provided the rationale for the Bantu Education Bill tabled by new native affairs minister HF Verwoerd. Verwoerd, like Eiselen, was a product of German academia during the 1930s. It was during that debate that Verwoerd brazenly proclaimed the regime’s objectives: "When I have control of native education, I will reform it so that natives will be taught from childhood to realise that equality with Europeans is not for them…. People who believe in equality are not desirable teachers for natives." In other words, "Bantu education" was designed to indoctrinate Africans into submission and thus was catapulted into the maelstrom of political struggle.
Before Bantu Education’s imposition in 1955, African education was funded by missionary churches, communities or friendly societies. The state agreed to pay African teachers’ salaries, but on a racially differentiated scale after 1930. Beyond that, communities, churches, friendly societies and parents bore the burden of constructing and maintaining the buildings and providing teaching materials and equipment. Consequently, African communities and liberals had long demanded that the government assume responsibility for the education of all and invest specifically in African education.
Eiselen presented his recommendations as a positive response to such demands. When the more conservative African teachers bought into Eiselen’s deception, the Transvaal African Teachers Association, led by Isaac Matlare, Es’kia Mphahlele and Zeph Mothopeng, split.
In the Cape, most African teachers rejected it but were unable to organise resistance beyond a boycott of the Bantu school boards established in terms of the act.
Like many other National Party strategies, Eiselen’s was full of empty promises. Instead of the state funding African education, Eiselen recommended that African parents pay for the education of their children and that they be offered the illusion of control through elected "Bantu" school boards.
All efforts to mobilise against Bantu education failed dismally until that challenge was taken up by African pupils themselves in 1976. At one or two Soweto schools, pupils began a class boycott in opposition to an arbitrary departmental ruling that a number of subjects would be taught in Afrikaans. Opposition snowballed during the first two quarters, erupting in a huge demonstration by pupils on June 16 1976. After June 16, the revolt spread, first to the East and West Rand, then like a veld fire at the beginning of the third school term, until it had engulfed the entire country. From the African schools, it spread to coloured schools.
Hindsight tells us the 1976 Soweto uprising was the watershed, when the strategic initiative passed from the apartheid regime to its opponents. Although still capable of brutal countermeasures, the apartheid regime was on the defensive.
The collapse of 400 years of Portuguese colonialism in southern Africa had stimulated rising expectations and suggested new possibilities. The setbacks the liberation movements suffered during the 1960s had resulted in almost a decade of apparent political tranquillity. Beneath that surface, however, the black universities, colleges and seminaries had become centres where liberatory ideas, strategies and theories from around the world were debated, dissected and explored. New generations of determined fighters to swell the ranks of all liberation formations emerged from 1976. It is a generation that produced a roll call of outstanding martyrs — some were sent to the gallows, some were murdered in police custody, some were the victims of assassins and hit squads and some fell on battlefields across our subcontinent.
The events of 1976 made the freedom struggle unstoppable. We dip our banners in homage to those who fell on June 16 and the subsequent years.
• Jordan is a former arts and culture minister.
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EDITORIAL: ANC is taking the easy way out
Business Day, 13 June 2013
THE biggest threat to our democracy is the fact that the ruling party is not afraid of the electorate. Almost 20 years after taking power, the African National Congress (ANC) remains confident it will be re-elected by a comfortable margin in next year’s election, despite being increasingly divided along factional lines, staggering from corruption scandal to governance crisis, and clashing in fundamental ways with its main electoral ally.
There are a number of reasons for this, both historical and structural, that have been expounded upon in this space many times in the past. The point is that the result of not being too concerned about the risk of losing power is a near complete lack of responsiveness to the needs of one of the electorate’s main constituencies — the poor — and a tendency to pander to special interest groups that have the ear of the leadership.
It is why, in extremely tough domestic economic conditions, with unemployment sky high and cost pressures on consumers increasing by the day, the party is prepared to ride roughshod over the extended consultation process that took place in the National Economic and Development and Labour Council over the Labour Relations Amendment Bill, and give in to the Congress of South African Trade Unions’ (Cosatu’s) demands that labour brokers be all but banned and a clause requiring strike ballots be scrapped. So what if that means thousands more jobs lost and a perpetuation of the violence and disruption that characterises strike action in South Africa? The unemployed will still vote for the ANC, apparently, whereas Cosatu’s members may not if they do not get their way.
It is also why the party as government is prepared even to contemplate radical, freedom-suppressive measures such as a total ban on alcohol advertising and reducing drivers’ maximum blood alcohol level to 0%. Consultancy Econometrix estimates that the advertising ban would cost the economy 12,000 jobs and cut R7,4bn from gross domestic product without any guarantee of reducing alcohol abuse, but even if those figures are exaggerated, it is astonishing that such draconian action is being bulldozed through with no inclination to justify it in anything other than the vaguest terms.
Marketing expert Jeremy Sampson hits the nail on the head when he points out that this is a classic case of the government taking what it believes is the easy option after failing to do the basics of governance properly. Alcohol abuse is certainly a major social issue in South Africa, but the way to deal with that is by enforcing existing laws that regulate the sale and consumption of alcohol and punishing antisocial behaviour such as driving while under the influence, not by criminalising the normal commercial activities of a legitimate and generally law-abiding industry.
Most people who buy and consume alcohol do so responsibly. It is ludicrous to pass blanket legislation banning commercial activity and restricting consumer choice when it is the behaviour of a minority that is being targeted.
This is not the same as the existing restrictions on smoking and the advertising of tobacco products. While this newspaper does not believe the advertising ban is the most effective approach because it has unintended consequences that can actually be worse than the status quo, people have a right to smoke if they so choose. But they do not have a right to inflict their smoke on others, and marketers’ right to sell tobacco is balanced by the proven harm and costs to society.
Tobacco products affect the health of everyone who consumes them, without exception, and nicotine is acknowledged to be one of the most addictive substances known to science. This is not true of alcohol for all but a minority. It is they who need help from the state and the disincentive to indulge in antisocial behaviour that comes with efficient law enforcement.
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The poor have been left out of the e-toll debate
Steven Friedman, Business Day, 12 June 2013
WHAT is not said on a policy issue can be more revealing than what is. The campaign against e-tolling is a remarkable example of how citizens can form alliances across barriers in support of a common cause.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the Democratic Alliance (DA), virtually at war over the youth wage subsidy, both campaign against the tolls. So do business interests and much of the media. Recently, the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference rejected e-tolling.
Opposition to tolls has become a badge of civic virtue. Those who reject them invoke democratic slogans and insist they are fighting an attempt by big government to stamp on the citizenry, rich and poor alike. Opposing the tolls is assumed to show that you are willing to take on the powerful in support of social justice and the poor. To support them is to invite being labelled a government lackey, a friend of tyranny or one who despises the poor. All of which is odd, as e-tolling is a standard exercise in progressive taxation, which is usually supported by those considering themselves friends of the poor.
That business and middle-class interests are campaigning against the tolls is not surprising — they would prefer to avoid paying an additional charge. This may be inconsistent, as the tolls apply the principle of user charges usually favoured by campaigners for freer markets: it is not clear why it is fair for roads in Gauteng to be paid for by fuel users or taxpayers in other provinces who never use them. But people are rarely consistent when their interests are affected, so we would expect owners of private cars and the DA, most of whose voters would be negatively affected by e-tolling, to oppose it.
What is odd is that they are joined by Cosatu, a major church and others who claim to speak for the poor.
If the tolls are introduced, buses and minibus taxis will be exempt. As these are the transport modes used by poor people, they are not affected and the toll will oblige owners of privately owned vehicles to pay for roads used by everyone. Why then do trade unions, churches and nongovernmental organisations who claim concern for the poor denounce e-tolling? Cosatu’s response is that, because businesses will have to pay the toll and this will increase their costs, it will raise the price of commodities for the poor. That is probably true. But if Cosatu is consistent, it would also then have to campaign against company tax, which is likely to have the same effect. Somehow this seems unlikely.
The answer is that the e-tolling campaign is important not as a show of citizen power but because it confirms yet again how the poor are excluded from the national debate. We would expect the better off to argue that they should not be further taxed. But we would also expect the voice of the poor to be heard so that the issue can be debated. It has been silenced — by those who claim to be champions of the poor. That Cosatu and other supposedly pro-poor interests have joined a middle-class alliance suggests that the exclusion of the poor from the debate runs far deeper than we might have imagined — that even those who claim to oppose poverty and inequality are middle class first and champions of the poor second.
In some societies, elected government might step into the breech to ensure that the voice of the poor is heard. Not here. At no stage during the e-tolling debate has the government tried to play its strongest card — convincing millions of poor citizens that the toll would benefit them. Throughout the e-tolling debate, it has presented a variety of reasons the tolls should be introduced and the argument that they would force the affluent to pay for a service enjoyed by the poor has not been among them.
It would be tempting to see this failure purely as a symptom of the government’s inability to handle the e-tolling issue strategically. It never seems to have seriously tried to win the middle class or business over to the tolls. Nor did it bother to outflank them by mobilising the poor in its support. But the problem runs deeper than ineptitude: a government in touch with the poor (who mostly vote for the governing party) would have known long ago that they were a potential source of support. The thought seems never to have occurred to it because, like the supposedly pro-poor organisations campaigning against the tolls, it is out of touch with poor people and their interests.
The campaign against e-tolls does say something important about our society.
It shows that a failure to give a voice to the poor is common to all our organised interests — that the voices of the poor are ignored by our entire spectrum, including the government, the trade unions and many social justice campaigners.
More than any other recent issue, the e-tolling campaigning shows who really speaks for poor South Africans: no one.
• Friedman is director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy.
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Zuma holds the ace to get Mugabe to play the game
The Times Editorial,13 June 2013
The Times Editorial: The Southern African Development Community will have another shot this weekend at trying to get Zimbabwe on the straight and narrow ahead of looming presidential and parliamentary elections.
The last-minute cancellation of last week's SADC meeting on the issue - because President Robert Mugabe was unavailable - raised quite a few eyebrows.
This was because the wily Mugabe, sensing an opportunity - in an improving economic climate - for a Zanu-PF victory against a divided, and seemingly unprepared, Movement for Democratic Change, has been pushing for an early election.
Mugabe was given a welcome fillip by a constitutional court ruling that elections must be held by July 31. The tenure of the current parliament ends on June 29, meaning Mugabe could rule by decree if an election were not held.
Yesterday, the SADC announced that it would meet on Saturday to address the thorny issue of the Zimbabwe election.
The MDC continues to insist that free and fair polls cannot take place until crucial reforms are carried out to ensure that the security forces - currently controlled by Zanu-PF - conduct themselves in a neutral manner, that opposition political parties are given access to the all-powerful state media and that the judiciary is free from political interference.
President Jacob Zuma, the SADC's pointman on Zimbabwe, needs to ensure that Mugabe and his securocrats play ball and level the political playing field so credible elections, monitored by sufficient independent observers, can take place.
Zuma, who has not endeared himself to Mugabe by insisting that Zanu-PF sticks to the country's power-sharing agreement, has an important weapon at his disposal. Zimbabwe needs more than R1-billion for the election and the SADC (read South Africa) will be footing the bill.
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Norman Mampane (Communications Officer)
Congress of South African Trade Unions
110 Jorissen Cnr Simmonds Street
Braamfontein
2017
P.O.Box 1019
Johannesburg
2000
South Africa
Tel: +27 11 339-4911 or Direct 010 219-1342
Mobile: +27 72 416 3790
E-Mail: mam...@cosatu.org.za