COSATU Media Monitor 27 May 2011 Part 2
Patrick Craven
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Contents
1.1 Striking meter readers claim racism
1.2 Meter marshalls get pathetic pay
1.3 Govt stance on cop killings welcomed
1.4 Anti-rape cops bust... on rape charge
1.5 Aurora cancels Pamodzi meeting
1.6 Lonmin to miss annual platinum target
1.7 Disadvantaged girls go to work
2.1 ‘End xenophobia’ is message of Africa Day
2.2 Zuma Jnr could lose out big time
2.3 Manuel gets backing from DA for IMF job
2.4 Manyi clashes with parliamentary reporters
2.7 Skimming off the fat: How to rip off the govt
3.1 Geriatric ANC fails to get its message across
1 Workers
1.1 Striking meter readers claim racism
Itumeleng Mafisa, The New Age, 27 May 2011
Employees of JMS Meter Readers, the company that reads municipal meters for Eskom and Johannesburg Water, on Thursday went on strike amid allegations of unfair salary distribution and racist treatment.
“There are toilets for white people and toilets for black people. Whites do not use the same canteen as us, Whites do not sit in that canteen I have been working here for more than 10 years now but I am earning R5000. A white person just came and started the same job as me last year and he is earning more than me,” said Kholekile Buthelezi, 32, an employee.
Another protester said black people in the company were never promoted, and all he wanted was a better salary so he would be able to send his children to university.
“I wake up every morning to go to work but I cannot even buy myself a house or take my children to school. Meanwhile, someone who just started the same job can get more than what I earn and buy a car,” said Siphiwe Madontsela, 42.
“People are not paid according to how they work but their skin colour. The strike started today and will go on until they give in to our demands. Workers are not respected and are taken for granted.
“We gave them a notice and they told the workers they will get their pay on May 31,” said South African Municipal Workers Union spokesperson Vicky Masina.
The spokesperson for JMS Meter Readers, Michael Wright, said yesterday that there was no crisis and he expected workers to be at work as soon as the negotiations were over.
“We get on very well with unions, the staff is happy and we had very successful negotiations. There is no racism.
What they are saying is they want more money, and we are gaining progress with the unions,” said Wright.
http://www.thenewage.co.za/19003-1009-53-Striking_meter_readers_claim_racism
1.2 Meter marshalls get pathetic pay
Mfundekelwa Mkhulisi, Sowetan, 27 May 2011
WHILE the Johannesburg city council is expected to rake in millions of rand from kerb-side parking payments, the marshals who will be manning the streets complain about exploitation.
This week the Johannesburg Metro Police Department announced the roll-out of the new meter system to "increase parking space availability", which starts on Tuesday.
The marshals, who spoke to Sowetan on condition of anonymity, said they did not have a fixed salary.
"We are paid on a commission basis. The more money you make, the better your commission," one marshal said.
Director of licensing Gerrie Gerneke said the city accumulates R7000 a day in Braamfontein alone (where the system was first introduced last year) but "it doesn't cover costs for uniforms, software, salaries and so on".
A marshall said they were expected to make R100 a day.
"From that R100 we get R15. But the problem is that most of the time we don't make that much.
"Sometimes you make as little as R40," she said.
Gerneke said pole meters were cancelled because they were vandalised.
He said the trained marshals would be posted on Jeppe, Von Weillegh, Anderson, Rissik, Harrisson and Fox streets and would carry a portable meter and a printer to print tickets.
For 30 minutes a motorist will pay R3,50. For 60 minutes it will cost R7,50 and R15,00 for two hours.
http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2011/05/27/meter-marshalls-get-pathetic-pay
1.3 Govt stance on cop killings welcomed
News24, 27 May 2011
Popcru on Friday welcomed the hardline stance taken by the Cabinet on the killing of police officers.
"The killings have continued to rob the citizens of human capital... with a Constitutional responsibility to make the citizens safe and secure," Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) general secretary Nkosinathi Theledi said.
"Popcru reiterates its call for all citizens to view policing as a societal responsibility which all must participate in."
The Cabinet expressed its alarm on Thursday at a steady rise in the number of police officers killed by criminals.
It warned that any person found guilty would face the full might of the law.
32 officers slain this year
Earlier this week, the SA Human Rights Commission condemned the killing of police officers in the line of duty, saying it undermined the proper functioning of the criminal justice system.
This year alone, reports indicate an increase in the number of slain officers, with the number standing at 32 dead since January.
Other statistics show that about 109 police officers were killed between 2008 and 2009 while 110 were killed between 2009 and 2010.
On Sunday, two police officers, Warrant Officer Gurswin Matthee and Constable Cannon Cloete, were killed while attending to a crime call in Kraaifontein in the Western Cape.
Three days earlier, Captain Sydney Bongani Hlengwa and Constable Zamikhaya Patrick Hlangulela from Creighton in Durban were killed during a raid. - SAPA
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Govt-stance-on-cop-killings-welcomed-20110527
1.4 Anti-rape cops bust... on rape charge
Sibongile Mashaba, Sowetan, 27 May 2011
Two policemen held for attack on girl (16) hours after campaigning against sex abuse at her school.
TWO policemen who gave a lecture on child abuse at a school in Free State have been arrested for allegedly raping a 16-year-old pupil from that school.
"The pupil did not resist a lift from the policemen as she recognised them from the presentation they had given the children at her school before," said Independent Complaints Directorate spokesperson Moses Dlamini.
The alleged rape last Sunday has shocked advocacy groups, who have called on the justice system to deal harshly with the policemen.
Dlamini said the girl was walking home from a friend's house when a vehicle stopped next to her and the occupants asked her to get in.
"The suspects then drove to a nearby veld where they allegedly took turns to rape the victim inside the car. After her ordeal, the victim was thrown out of the car and left in the veld."
The girl was helped by a motorist who took her home. She reported the matter the next morning but one of the officers threatened her with a gun that day.
The number of rapes by police is increasing at an alarming rate.
Deputy Minister of Police Maggie Sotyu said this week that "since 2009 up to now, 47 police officers were investigated for rape".
She said in the 2009-2010 financial year, 12 officers were charged with rape. The number tripled in the 2010-2011 financial year, when 35 officers were charged.
But Lisa Vetten of Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy said these numbers could be high as "many cases go unreported".
Out of 47, 18 officers were found guilty, six not guilty, 12 cases were withdrawn and 11 are pending.
"Rape is a lifetime trauma and it must be condemned and (the perpetrator) severely punished," Sotyu said.
Vetten said: "The statistics do not reflect the reality of what is happening. Many women fear further victimisation because the perpetrators are police.
"Women should be encouraged to report these cases or police will get away with crime and the problem will continue."
Rape Crisis Cape Town Trust director Kathleen Dey echoed Vetten's sentiments.
"There is a growing trend of women being abused by police. It's shocking because their perpetrators are people who find themselves in positions of trust," Dey said.
The IFP and police unions also reacted with shock at the statistics.
IFP spokesperson on police Velaphi Ndlovu said: "It's shocking to see that there are police officers who are found guilty of rape when they are the ones who should be protecting communities.
"Now, we see police being murdered. One wonders if they are being murdered by criminals or their partners (in crime)."
The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union and the South African Police Union said they would not support any member who was found guilty of unethical conduct.
Popcru spokesperson Norman Mampane said any officer found guilty must be jailed, while Sapu general-secretary Oscar Skommere said rape could not be justified.
The two policemen will appear in court today.
http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2011/05/27/anti-rape-cops-bust...-on-rape-charge
1.5 Aurora cancels Pamodzi meeting
Business Report, 27 May 2011
Both Aurora Empowerment Systems and its potential Chinese investor, Shandong Gold, cancelled a meeting scheduled with Pamodzi Gold unions and liquidators, an official said Friday.
“Shandong cancelled because Aurora cancelled,” said Solidarity deputy general secretary Gideon du Plessis. The meeting was to have been on Thursday.
Shandong arrived in South Africa this week to assess Pamodzi's Grootvlei and Orkney operations and decide whether it would fund the politically-connected Aurora's bid to buy the mines.
Du Plessis said it was not clear if the Chinese state-owned gold mining company was still interested in the deal.
The four remaining liquidators on the case - their two colleagues were fired earlier this week - held a meeting with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and Solidarity on Thursday.
“This was mainly to start repairing the liquidators' relationship with the unions,” said Du Plessis.
The two unions have complained that they had to rely on the media for updates on the liquidation process, which has seen miners left unpaid for more than a year.
Du Plessis said that during the meeting, the unions asked the liquidators whether a JSE-listed company had expressed interest in the mines, because this had been mentioned in the past by Enver Motala, who was dismissed alongside Gavin Gainsford on Tuesday.
He said the liquidators told the unions they could not give out information on this.
“However, they (the liquidators) did say that the process would be gaining momentum next week when we can expect some kind of development.”
Motala and Gainsford were part of a group of six liquidators jointly appointed to manage the assets of Pamodzi Gold mines in Springs, on the East Rand, and Orkney in North West.
The liquidators let Aurora Empowerment Systems - which is headed by former president Nelson Mandela's grandson Zondwa, and President Jacob Zuma's nephew, Khulubuse - make a bid for the mine, but Aurora failed to pay miners and reports emerged of the mine's assets being stripped.
The saga has dragged on since Pamodzi went into liquidation in 2009, with the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) openly criticising the two directors, one of whom donated election money to the African National Congress while Aurora workers were living in abject poverty.
In April, Motala said Aurora had been warned to produce proof of irreversible financial commitment by the Chinese investor or face the cancellation of its bid for Pamodzi by the end of May.
A high court gave Aurora until August 16 to produce funding guarantees.
The main creditors in the case are the Industrial Development Corporation and the Unicredit bank from Munich in Germany.
In a separate case, Solidarity served a liquidation application amounting to R3.1 million on Aurora last Friday to force the mining company to pay outstanding salaries or close its doors.
Aurora has until May 31 to oppose that application and if the company does not oppose the action, the matter will be heard in the High Court in Pretoria on June 7.
Another South African-Chinese company, Virgile Asia Mining, owned by Hettie Fourie, has throughout the process been interested in buying the Orkney operations, but liquidators are yet to accept her offer, which was made at the same time as that of Aurora.
The justice department on Tuesday said Motala and Gainsford were removed as liquidators to “safeguard the integrity of the liquidation process”. - Sapa
http://www.iol.co.za/business/companies/aurora-cancels-pamodzi-meeting-1.1074775
1.6 Lonmin to miss annual platinum target
Platinum Today, 26 May 2011
Platinum miner Lonmin could miss its annual production target by two per cent as a result of unprotected industrial action at its Karee operations.
RBC Capital Markets analyst Leon Esterhuizen believes it is almost certain that the company, the world's third largest platinum producer, will not produce its annual goal of 750,000 oz to the end of September this year. Speaking to Bloomberg, he said the target is likely to be cut to around 730,000 oz for the year.
He explained that the Karee mine, which is part of Lonmin's Marikana operation, produces around 1,500 oz of platinum a day. So far, it is estimated that ore mined by the company at Karee has fallen by 17,000 t/d since the strikes began on May 17th.
"The whole industry needs to worry," Mr Esterhuizen added. "There's a growing sense of militancy and aggressiveness in the labour unions."
Lonmin has now dismissed all 9,000 workers involved in the action, which was caused by an internal dispute among members of the local branch of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).
The company has said it will re-hire some of the workers, though it unclear how many and no guarantees have been given. Lonmin has begun the reselection process, with sacked workers now able to reapply, investor relations head Tanya Chicanza told online news service IOL.
Lesiba Seshoka, NUM national spokesman, explained to the news provider: "It can't be right to have Lonmin retrench workers when the country is faced with the mammoth task of job creation."
1.7 Disadvantaged girls go to work
Ina Skosana, The New Age, 26 May 2011
A dozen girls from rural schools in North West, Limpopo, Free State and the Eastern Cape landed in Gauteng on Wednesday to take part in this year’s Bring a Girl Child to Work day.
“There is a great need in South Africa for women in leadership positions,” said Emmanuel Mohlamme, spokesperson for the National Empowerment Fund (NEF).
This campaign aimed to bridge the gap by finding girls from disadvantaged backgrounds and exposing them to possible career choices.
Cellular network company Cell C initiated the programme eight years ago and encouraged private and public sector companies to take part.
This is the second consecutive year that the NEF has hosted a group of young girls for the Girl Child campaign.
“We extended an open invitation to schools in different provinces and the schools that responded with an interest to be a part of the initiative were Nkhobiso High School in Mangaung (Free State), Mmakaunyana High School (North West Province), Tlokweng High School (Eastern Cape) and Mankhole High School (Limpopo),” said Mohlamme.
The schoolgirls flew to Johannesburg and are staying at a local hotel. They have been assigned matrons who will take care of them during their stay. The girls are in Grades 10, 11 and 12.
“This year, given the need to attract future leaders and women with specialist financial skills into South Africa’s financial sector and considering the benefits of international business skills given our economy’s increasing involvement in the global market space, Standard Chartered Bank was identified by NEF as an ideal partner, being a prominent and leading international bank in South Africa and Africa as a whole,” said Mohlamme.
In a joint initiative with the bank, the girls had the opportunity to visit the offices of Standard Chartered where they were shown the ins and outs of international trade.
“Today was an inspirational experience on two fronts, on the part of the young students and from the perspective of our bank staff,” said Lauren Callie, head of corporate affairs at Standard Chartered.
“We know these young women will return to their communities with greater ambition for their personal development potential, as well as inspiring others to achieve their potential so they, too, can be leaders in whatever sector or avenue they may wish to make a difference.”
The pupils were very happy with the opportunity and some even have made up their minds about which careers they wished to pursue.
“This was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I have a better idea of where I want to be in future,” said Nelisiwe Dibakwane, a Grade 12 pupil from Mmakauntana High School.
“It was a great experience and I’m thankful to everybody who made it possible,” said Ntihiseng Nawu, a Grade 10 pupil from Tlokweng High School. “It was my first time flying and I enjoyed it.”
http://www.thenewage.co.za/19028-1007-53-Disadvantaged_girls_go_to_work
2 South Africa
2.1 ‘End xenophobia’ is message of Africa Day
Sithandiwe Velaphi and Zisanda Nkonkobe, The New Age, 26 May 2011
The arts and culture department in the province kickstarted Africa Day on Wednesday with celebrations that included a wide range of sport activities in Sterkspruit while also adding to the festivities with their mini events.
The theme for this year’s celebrations in the province is “African heritage as a vehicle for growth and sustainable development”.
The sporting activities included soccer, netball, rugby and volleyball.
Not to be left out, teachers, pupils and parents at Sinikiwe High School at NU 7, Mdantsane outside East London also celebrated Africa Day in style. The school took the opportunity to teach the children what Africa Day stood for and why it was being celebrated.
The event was marked by traditional dances, cultural activities, poetry and people wearing traditional regalia. The lunch was Xhosa food cooked in local traditional style.
A prominent speaker, Thabang Maseko, said that xenophobia was a scourge that should come to an end. “On this day we need to commemorate and celebrate Africa’s heroes and heroines who helped to free Africa from colonisation,” said Maseko.
At Sterkspruit, sport, recreation, arts and culture MEC Xoliswa Tom said Africa Day marked the resilience, triumph, grace, environmental richness, beauty and greatness of Africa.
Tom said: “The celebrations touch upon, and emphasise on the fundamental principles, which are for the achievement of the legitimate democracy desired by all Africans. These principles include freedom, equality, justice and democracy.”
Tom reminded the scores of people at Patrick Shibane Sports Ground in Sterkspruit that Africa Day celebrations served as a reminder of the gathering of heads of state 48 years ago in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
“This was when the Organisation of African Unity was launched.
“This historic event brought a legacy of a coordinated African struggle in pursuit of freedom, which is enjoyed by the whole continent and by all South Africans,” said Tom.
Late on Wednesday the department hosted a memorial lecture about Africa Day at Bensonville College in Sterkspruit, where Tom reminded the public about eight Eastern Cape provincial strategic priorities as well as its growth and development plan that she said “are both microcosms of Africa’s desire for reconstruction and development”. The main event for Africa Day will be held today at the Patrick Shibane Sports Ground in Sterkspruit.
http://www.thenewage.co.za/18984-1016-53-‘End_xenophobia’_is_message_of_Africa_Day
2.2 Zuma Jnr could lose out big time
Stephaans Brummer, Mail & Guardian, 27 May 2011
Duduzane Zuma's first billion may be slipping from his grasp as steelmaker ArcelorMittal, whom he partners in a controversial BEE deal, and Imperial Crown Trading 289 (ICT), their key partner in the deal, square up for legal battle.
ICT is the politically connected company that controversially won rights to 21.4% of the Sishen iron ore deposits in 2009, pipping ArcelorMittal, which originally had the rights, and miner Kumba Resources.
ArcelorMittal announced a two-part deal last August to try to reclaim the 21.4%. It involved buying out ICT, with its mineral rights, and in a nominally separate transaction taking on the Ayigobi Consortium as BEE partners.
Ayigobi includes an investment vehicle led by Duduzane Zuma, President Jacob Zuma's son. Also part of Ayigobi are the president's cronies, the Guptas, and ICT's owners, who include Gupta manager Jagdish Parekh and Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe's romantic partner, Gugu Mtshali.
The face value of the BEE deal exceeded R9-billion with a stake approaching R1-billion allocated to the young Zuma's company.
Now those riches are under threat as the cold churn of justice exposes cynical corporate calculation and rifts between ArcelorMittal and its new-found partners.
This week in court
On Thursday, ICT was in the North Gauteng High Court to oppose ArcelorMittal's attempt to have itself joined as co-applicant with Kumba subsidiary, the Sishen Iron Ore Company (SIOC), in the latter's legal battle to overturn the department of mineral resources' award of the 21.4% rights to ICT.
ArcelorMittal's joinder application, as it is called, is to allow it to argue for relief different to that sought by the original applicant, Kumba.
More surprising than the bare fact that ArcelorMittal and ICT, supposed partners for the past 10 months, were now facing each other across the courtroom, is what emerges from ArcelorMittal's legal argument.
In a nutshell, ArcelorMittal claims that ICT cannot possibly own the 21.4%, as Kumba’s SIOC has owned 100% since 2008.
In an exercise of high cynicism -- "or riding two horses" as a lawyer involved in the proceedings put it this week — ArcelorMittal's lawyers finalised this argument as the ink was drying on ArcelorMittal's deals with ICT and Ayigobi on August 10 last year.
Just 10 days later, on August 20, ArcelorMittal served papers containing this argument on the SIOC in a related arbitration matter. The papers were attached to ArcelorMittal's joinder application this week, making them public for the first time.
Two ICT insiders, asking not to be named, confirmed this week that relations might be strained. One said that ICT "may well feel betrayed … this does strike at the heart of the acquisition [of ICT] agreement".
ArcelorMittal spokesperson Themba Hlengani denied that any surprises had been sprung on ICT: "The position we adopted in the [joinder] application was disclosed to ICT long before the court application was filed. We cannot comment any further on the case as it is now before the court."
A ten-year history
The underlying issue to the joinder application, as well as the arbitration between the SIOC and ArcelorMittal, goes back to 2001 when the state broke up parastatal Iscor into what became steelmaker ArcelorMittal and Kumba, the SIOC’s parent company.
As part of the separation, the SIOC got the bulk of the mining rights at Sishen -- 78.6% -- while ArcelorMittal hung on to the minority 21.4% to underpin a life-of-mine agreement under which the SIOC would supply it with ore at cost plus 3%.
When the new Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act came into force in 2004, all existing mineral rights had to be converted to "new order rights".
The SIOC converted in 2008 but by the deadline of April 30 2009 ArcelorMittal had not done so -- which in the eyes of the SIOC and the department of mineral resources meant that the 21.4% was up for grabs. Both the SIOC and ICT applied for the stake and the department controversially awarded it to ICT.
Adding insult to injury, the SIOC then cancelled the cost-plus-3% deal -- worth billions to ArcelorMittal over the lifetime of the mine -- arguing that the cheap supply had been premised solely on the steelmaker’s ownership of the 21.4% share.
This gave rise to the arbitration between these two former partners, which is to be adjudicated next year only.
The story spun by ArcelorMittal to date was that the latter had relied on the SIOC to convert its 21.4% to new order rights and that it was a breach of faith for the SIOC not to have done so.
But ArcelorMittal argued differently in the arbitration and the joinder papers: The new Act, it said, did not allow for rights to be co-owned in "undivided shares", the technical term for the old arrangement.
When the SIOC converted its 78.6%, it in fact converted 100%. As evidence, it cited the wording of the new order right the department awarded to the SIOC -- 100%.
This moved ArcelorMittal to argue that the SIOC had converted the right for both their benefits.
Though the SIOC was now the 100% owner, it was not relieved of the duty to give effect to their 2001 agreement, which guaranteed ArcelorMittal the cost-plus-3% supply.
Implications
The joinder application was postponed to next Thursday to give ICT and the mineral resources department more time to respond. But if ArcelorMittal is successful there, it will be free to try to pull the rug from under the entire tug-of-war between the SIOC on the one hand and the department and ICT on the other.
If the court accepts that neither the SIOC nor ICT own the 21.4% but that the SIOC owns 100%, the SIOC may have to accept that it has to restart the cheap supply to ArcelorMittal.
For ICT, the implications may be more dire: ArcelorMittal will not complete its R800-million purchase of ICT, an insider at the steelmaker confirmed.
Also if ICT failed to hang on to the 21.4%, the nominally separate Ayigobi consortium might have to be “reconstituted” too to excise ICT's owners.
From there, it is a short step to the collapse of the entire deal, or at least the removal of the Guptas and the young Zuma, both of whom entered the deal hitched to ICT.
http://mg.co.za/article/2011-05-27-zuma-jr-could-lose-out-big-time/
2.3 Manuel gets backing from DA for IMF job
TimesLive, 26 May 2011
The Democratic Alliance has come out in support of former finance minister Trevor Manuel, should he decide to stand for the top job at the International Monetary Fund.
In a statement issued yesterday, DA shadow finance minister Dion George said that, as the IMF chief, Manuel would be well suited to be at the forefront of a changing global economic dynamic, ensuring that the needs of the developing world were at the top of the agenda.
Earlier yesterday, a statement was issued calling for the next IMF chief to come from a developing country, rather than a European nation, as has been the tradition for 60 years.
However, the statement said that the cabinet did not discuss any particular names, and made no mention of Manuel.
Manuel himself has dismissed reports of his name being put forward as "speculation".
Manuel is currently the Minister in the Presidency for National Planning. He was finance minster from 1995 to 2009.
The DA's George said: "Manuel has served SA in numerous capacities with distinction, most notably as the minister of finance and [now] the minister with responsibility for the national planning commission in the presidency."
George said that, as finance minister, Manuel oversaw the expansion of the economy and became a trusted figure in financial circles, both domestically and internationally.
"As the minister overseeing national planning, he has been responsible for overseeing our economic strategy for the coming decades, and has ensured that all stakeholders have been included in crafting a vision for an expanding economy," George said.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/Politics/article1088084.ece/Manuel-gets-backing-from-DA-for-IMF-job
2.4 Manyi clashes with parliamentary reporters
Thabo Mokone, TimesLive, 26 May 2011
Controversial cabinet spokesman Jimmy Manyi clashed with reporters yesterday when he refused to take questions about the government's stance on the managing directorship of the International Monetary Fund.
At issue were two lines Manyi read out from a cabinet statement, saying merely that the "cabinet endorsed the view that the next leadership of the IMF should come from the emerging countries. Cabinet did not discuss any names of the potential candidates."
When journalists asked Manyi to provide more details on the issue, which is making headlines in the local and international media, he flatly refused and chose to repeat the two lines in the statement.
"That is the position of cabinet. Anything I say beyond that, I'll be putting words in cabinet's mouth, so to speak, so that is the final position of cabinet, so there's nothing to say beyond [that]," he said.
Manyi's response provoked more questions of clarity from frustrated journalists who, among other things, wanted to know:
- Whether the government stood behind the National Planning Minister Trevor Manuel as an IMF MD candidate;
- If the cabinet thought French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde was a good candidate; and
- Whether the cabinet was lobbying trade blocs such as Brazil, Russia, India and China to support Manuel.
Manyi refused to elaborate on any of these issues, telling journalists his job was to communicate cabinet decisions, not its deliberations.
In response, a frustrated journalist said to Manyi: "The point is that we come here and we expect to get more than a two-line sentence from you. But surely you are privy to information, you are here as the spokesperson to actually extrapolate a little bit? To come here and literally be told 'no I can't answer, I can't answer' is certainly not helping any body."
An irritated Manyi immediately hit back with a terse response, saying: "If you ask a question when you actually have an answer maybe you should not ask the question. If you ask a question then the obligation to answer is mine, and how I answer is how I answer."
Three reporters then walked out of the briefing.
When he was asked why reporters should waste time when all he seemed willing to do was to read a prepared statement, he said it was because there were deaf and blind people who also needed to get the cabinet's views.
When a reporter suggested he read the statement to the SABC television camera, he charged that the reporter was "insensitive" and did not acknowledge that there were poor people in the country.
It was only towards the end of the 33-minute-long heated exchange, that Manyi gave some answers to questions on the IMF issue.
He eventually confirmed that government was lobbying its trading partners in the emerging world to rally around a single candidate for the IMF vacant MD position.
"There's a lot of discussions which countries need to do, a lot of consultations that must happen with the various partners that South Africa is dealing with, so those consultations are happening.
"So up until there is clarity on which way those consultations go, we can't say anything much more than that."
Relations between Manyi and the media have been frosty since he was appointed cabinet spokesman this February. He soon dominated headlines when it emerged that he had said that there was an over-concentration of coloured people in the Western Cape, leading to a public row with Manuel, who called him a racist in the mould of apartheid architect Hendrik Verwoerd.
Donwald Pressly, chairman of the Parliamentary Press Gallery Association, said there was a growing government tendency to black out information on issues of national interest.
"The [association] has noted with great concern cabinet's apparent lack of transparency on the issue of the future leadership of the IMF.
"This is a crucial issue in light of the shifting balance of power in global financial politics.
"The [association] notes with unease the growing tendency towards a blackout of information on topics in the national interest.
"It is unclear whether this is per instruction from cabinet or whether Mr Manyi's gate-keeping and style of management is to blame," said Pressly.
Raymond Louw, deputy chairman for the media freedom committee of the SA National Editors' Forum, said Manyi's role amounted to censorship.
"It's unwarranted censorship of important information .... There may have been, of course, in the cabinet discussion some possible candidate not being a suitable person, that doesn't mean we've got to discuss that aspect.
"The views that were mentioned at the cabinet meeting on an important issue like this should be conveyed to the public.
"We've always felt that his appointment was unfortunate because of his background of abrasiveness towards the media, hostility towards the media and his accusation against the media - that it censored information that he produced at those [press] conferences was totally uncalled for, totally out of court and totally wrong. And that illustrates that he is unsuited for the job of communicating with the press," said Louw.
The presidency last night said it would not respond to questions because there had been no official complaint against Manyi.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/Politics/article1088075.ece/Manyi-clashes-with-parliamentary-reporters
2.5 Manyi could face boycott
Andiswe Makinana, IOL, 27 May 2011
Members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery Association are considering staying away from future post-cabinet briefings following a row with government spokesman Jimmy Manyi on Thursday.
“This would be a radical step of course,” said gallery chairman Donwald Pressly.
After consultation on Thursday, the majority had suggested that the gallery lay a complaint with Manyi’s line-function minister, Collins Chabane, the Minister in the Presidency for Performance Monitoring and Evaluation.
Manyi got into a row with journalists in Parliament on Thursday when he refused to elaborate on a cabinet statement on the leadership of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is without a chief in the wake of Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s resignation.
The statement read: “The cabinet endorsed the view that the next leadership of the IMF should come from the emerging countries. The cabinet did not discuss any names of potential candidates.”
But journalists wanted to know what the cabinet’s stand was on suggestions that Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel take over the position; whether the country was lobbying to ensure that a candidate from the developing countries took over and its view on the bid by the French to get their finance minister, Christine Lagarde, to take the helm.
Manyi refused to answer any of the questions around the IMF.
http://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/manyi-could-face-boycott-1.1074735
2.6 Sadly, race still mattersRapule Tabane, Mail & Guardian, 27 May 2011The ANC has sarcastically pointed out that only in South Africa can a party that wins 62% of the vote be deemed to have lost an election or be in a worse position than its opponents.
I wrote a few weeks back that the party had hoped to reach double-digit figures in terms of black support. It had also hoped for big gains in Mpumalanga and Limpopo, where Zille invested significant time and energy. Which brings me back to my conviction that the real story of the elections continues to be about race, however unpalatable that may be. Black South Africans continue largely to support the ANC and, when they don't, they prefer to stay home.
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2.7 Skimming off the fat: How to rip off the govt
Craig McCune, Mail & Guardian, 27 May 2011
When Nelson Mandela Bay ANC chairperson Nceba Faku reportedly told his supporters last week to burn down the offices of the Herald newspaper, he clumsily turned a spotlight on the latest craze sweeping tenderpreneurial circles -- how to relieve taxpayers of their hard-earned cash by winning government leases.
All the tender fiend needs is a building, BEE credentials, a friend who can help secure a fat state lease and a greedy bank ready to support the scam with an overblown bond, secure in the knowledge that it will be repaid with public money.
The lease is fattened according to what the tenderpreneur wants, not what the state needs. In turn, the bond is sized according to the lease and not what the building costs, allowing the tenderpreneur to gorge himself on instant cash and, if necessary, share the fat with the friend who helped secure the lease.
It could be argued that President Jacob Zuma's alleged buddy, Roux Shabangu, perfected this formula, but the influential Moseneke family spelled out elements of it in a brazen 2008 document obtained by the Mail & Guardian.
As for former Port Elizabeth mayor Faku, he has been accused in a number of exposés by the Herald and noseweek (see "Answers not arson" below).
Big bonds
According to the press reports, Faku was close to Port Elizabeth businessman Yossuf Jeeva. Until 2004, the year after Faku became mayor, they were business partners.
Apparently Jeeva bought the eight-storey Kwantu Towers in the CBD from Investec for R2.5-million in 2003, the same year Faku became mayor.
Clearly the building was worth almost nothing in Investec's hands, but something about Jeeva unlocked new value -- to the extent that the bank was willing to put up nearly three times what he had spent on the CBD buildings.
What was Jeeva's magic touch? Could it be that, through Faku, he was able to secure inflated state leases and on that basis could secure huge bonds, guaranteed to be serviced by the state?
The beauty of big bonds, of course, is that instant cash can be drawn by the tenderpreneur instead of having to drip-feed on monthly rental profits.
Neither the Herald nor noseweek proved Faku's culpability, but a provincial government-commissioned forensic investigation of several municipal deals under Faku ordered the municipality to explain these leases and recommended that the ANC bigwig be criminally charged.
Big friends
Another politically connected property family has provided a more candid road map to such riches. Encha Properties is controlled by the Moseneke family, with the largest stakes accruing to connected businessman Tiego Moseneke and a family trust controlled by his brother, Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke. It is run by his son, Sedise.
In 2008 Encha outlined a disarmingly lucid plan -- aimed at potential investors -- to use political and government links to get rich through state leases.
Encha planned to use its BEE status to make good money. But the proposition strayed into the political terrain when its authors wrote that there was a need "to take advantage of opportunities created by political uncertainty with the change in ANC leadership".
Encha aimed to invest in "state-tenanted commercial property only" and on several occasions emphasised that this was lucrative because of the company's links to the government.
Encha assured potential fellow investors that it had "access to decision-makers in government" and that the company "may have sight of transactions that may not be open to others … The fund would only invest in properties in which [Encha], through its relationships, has established a long-term desire from both the department of public works and the client state entity to remain in [the] property."
Encha also made the banks’ complicity clear when it boasted that Investec had financed its properties in Pretoria "subject to the company being able to obtain long leases. Encha delivered the long leases."
To summarise Encha’s pitch:
- It was hooked up with the right people in government.
- These friends would give Encha a heads-up when the public works department was interested in a long-term lease for a state entity.
- Banks would happily hand over juicy bonds -- based on the size of these probably inflated leases -- which would then be serviced with state money.
- Encha would make money fast or, as it put it, "realise a short-term capital gain".
As it happens, Encha owns Wachthuis, the Pretoria building leased by the public works department as the police's headquarters.
Its lease was renewed for another 10 years at the end of 2009, raising the question of whether the police will be saddled with two headquarters now that the department has also confirmed the lease -- for the same purpose -- of property mogul Roux Shabangu's nearby Sanlam Middestad building.
Big profits
Shabangu appears to have read the Encha document very carefully.
The M&G revealed in March that, on the strength of the apparently manipulated SAPS lease, he was able to land himself a R100-million bonus from Nedbank while taxpayers effectively bought him a Pretoria building that the police could have bought or built themselves for less.
- At the top of the food chain was the bank, which put up R320-million when Shabangu bought the building for R220-million in January.
- But first Shabangu had to secure a R600-million lease from the public works department, which he did -- and the bank was clearly pleased.
- Even before Shabangu could secure the lease, officials at the SAPS and the department sent the standard procurement process through the blender, apparently to suit Shabangu.
- And before that? We don’t know. Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, who investigated the lease agreement, has made it clear that the R600-million question is how Shabangu came to have access to senior police officials when his negotiations began.
Top cover
It is hard to escape the conclusion that Shabangu is being courted by some big names in South Africa. His lease agreements in Pretoria and Durban were pushed through by Public Works Minister Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde, despite two legal opinions suggesting they were invalid.
Madonsela's report suggested that both police national commissioner Bheki Cele and the minister's hands could be dirty.
Those on the public works team who put a halt to the lease so that it could be investigated -- former minister Geoff Doidge and director general Siviwe Dongwana, for example -- were either sacked or suspended.
In Port Elizabeth the Herald reported that Faku's regional ANC office left a smoking gun also suggesting political interference: a letter to the municipality.
"In the letter the party informs ANC chief whip Chippa Ngcolomba and then-mayor Nondumiso Maphazi that a decision had been taken that all vacant management-level posts 'must not be filled until further advised by the [regional executive committee]' … Major projects advertised and still to be advertised must be submitted to [the ANC's] Standard House, after which a meeting will be arranged with the mayoral caucus to deal with them."
The letter does not spell out that Faku was hooking good leases for Jeeva, but it does illuminate an environment in which senior politicians meddle in state affairs.
The kind of illogical conclusion such deals lead to is that in Pretoria the SAPS is now paying for two expensive leases on adjacent city blocks.
Alternatively, as the M&G showed in March, if the police had bought or built their own building, the bond repayments would have cost less than the lease signed with Shabangu.
In the case of Jeeva's building in Port Elizabeth, noseweek claimed last year that two of the five floors leased by the municipality were not even occupied.
Puzzlingly, the lease for these two floors was renewed mere weeks after the article. Jeeva did not respond to the Herald's request for comment and Faku threatened to sue the paper for defamation.
Sedise Moseneke was adamant that his company’s purchase of Wachthuis was above board: "At no point is the landlord in a position to negotiate and conclude lease terms with the client department. The department of public works signs leases with the landlord after a very thorough and elaborate process, which complies fully with the PFMA [Public Finance Management Act]."
Shabangu has consistently denied exploiting his political connections to secure state leases.
Answers, not arson
Standing outside the Port Elizabeth City Hall last Friday after a nail-biting local government election in which the ANC nearly lost power, the party’s regional chairperson, Nceba Faku, faced his supporters.
"The primary battle of the ANC has been with the media, especially the Herald, in this region," he reportedly said. "Down with the Herald, down, down. Burn the Herald. Fire to the Herald … Go and burn the Herald. We will face a bullet with a bullet."
Indeed, both the Herald and noseweek magazine had dealt heavy blows to his and the regional ANC's credibility, raising questions that demand answers, not arson.
Most recently the Herald reported on a summary of the damning Kabuso forensic report commissioned by the provincial government to examine various municipal projects between 2003 and 2009.
The paper had gone to court in a fight for the full investigation to be released.
The Kabuso report recommended that Faku be criminally charged for his role in various deals while mayor.
The investigation also fingered a pungent leasing arrangement that contained just the right ingredients to cook up a tasty state-tenant stew. It included a building, a politically connected BEE businessman, state leases and an overblown bond from a bank.
The businessman in this case was Yossuf Jeeva, who noseweek reported last July is both Faku's friend and former business partner.
Jeeva had bought the eight-storey Kwantu Towers from Investec for R2.5-million. At about the same time the property investor bought two more buildings in the same area of Port Elizabeth for R15-million and R1.14-million from Sanlam and Old Mutual.
"Almost immediately after the deal was done, Investec granted Jeeva bonds over the three 'hopeless' CBD properties for a total of R49.4-million -- more than three times what he had paid for them," noseweek reported.
Investec would not say why it sold the building for so little before granting Jeeva a massive bond. The bank said only: "It was part of a larger transaction."
So noseweek speculated: "Whatever the transaction, Investec was clearly of the view that Jeeva's prospects in Port Elizabeth’s CBD were way better than those of Sanlam, Old Mutual or Investec itself."
However, no evidence has been presented to show a clandestine leasing arrangement between Jeeva and Faku, who was mayor at the time, or other officials.
But, as it happens, the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality came to lease five floors of Kwantu Towers, noseweek reported. Just weeks later the Herald reported that the municipality had retrospectively renewed a lease for its communications department to occupy two floors of Kwantu Towers.
It wrote: "Estate agents have revealed that if the communications department just looked out its windows, it would find similar space for up to half the R82/m2 monthly rate Jeeva is charging."
Kabuso investigators have told the municipality to explain this lease.
http://mg.co.za/article/2011-05-27-skimming-off-the-fat/
3 Comment:
3.1 Geriatric ANC fails to get its message across
Sam Mkokeli, Business Day, 27 May 2011
THERE are some things the African National Congress (ANC) is good at. Communication is not one of them.
Last week’s local government election results have left the party in a spin, and in the process its deep-rooted anger at the media has emerged again. It has been shouting that the ANC did not "lose" the elections. What this shows is the ANC is still operating as it did in the old days — as a party of freedom fighters. It has not embraced modern communications.
What upsets ANC leaders is what they call the "exaggeration" of the Democratic Alliance’s (DA’s) growth. They see coverage of the DA’s performance as an emphatic declaration by the media that the DA was the " winner" .
This boggles the mind. It seems the ANC expected the media to report that the ANC had won the elections, but ignore the gains in voter support that the DA had achieved. Moreover, the ANC’s version of the news should have happened automatically — without the ANC lifting a finger, or "spinning" its version of the facts to media outlets.
In the ANC’s world, facts speak for themselves. However, it becomes problematic when the facts don’t speak favourably for the party, as is the case with the local government election results. While the ANC retained its majority, it is a party in decline — as evidenced by the loss of voter support in these elections and in the 2009 general elections.
The worst thing any political party can do is to allow unfavourable figures to be interpreted without trying to influence the story or put its side of it across.
But this is exactly what happened. As the results were displayed on the giant screen at the Independent Electoral Commission’s results centre in Pretoria, ANC officials were as curious as the media to see them. But the DA’s number crunchers were already analysing and broadcasting the party’s own results — well ahead of the commission’s release of results from those areas. The ANC needed its media and communications team to be ready to explain its version of things by the minute, so that its side of the story was heard — and heard immediately.
Now, a week after the release of the results, the ANC is seething. Its reaction should not come as a surprise, though — as the dominant party it wants to have a hand in every part of society. This is a ruling party that expects to be feared by a media it increasingly tries to bully.
What the latest elections have demonstrated is that the ANC is trapped in the old days — as shown by its race rhetoric and its misunderstanding of voters from minority groups. At a strategic level, the ANC was outsmarted by the DA. From the beginning of the campaign, the DA sought to show up the ANC’s racist tendencies. Many ANC leaders were trapped in racist spats and the DA’s strategists basked in the political fallout .
There should be a lesson in all this. The ANC needs strategists. It is run by near- retirement age professional politicians, who are good at party politics. Take Gwede Mantashe, ANC secretary-general. He is a no-holds-barred communicator whose strict manner and by-the-line approach works for the ANC’s internal politics. But his logic and order of doing things are easily lost in his hard-line approach to communication with the public and media.
His language may be understood by many in the ANC, but his anger often gets in the way of his message. And he is not the savviest politician when it comes to media relations. For example, he held a breakfast with senior journalists two days before the elections. That’s way too late in a campaign — the editorials, analyses and headlines in the run-up to the elections had already been published.
The ANC may need to beef up its operations, from communications to research. That the party was dumped by many voters from minority groups should not have been a surprise had the party’s research and strategic operations centres been up to scratch.
Mantashe told the ANC’s national general council last September that the DA was growing and small opposition parties were in decline. So why was the ANC surprised by the May 18 results?
The ANC will suffer more losses if it goes into its next election with the battle- worn comrades in its middle management. A 21st-century election campaign is not guerrilla warfare. It needs savvy strategists.
Sadly, the ANC is competing with its government for skills from the same cadre deployment pool that has failed so many levels of government already.
• Mkokeli is political editor.
http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=144048
3.2 Ruling party poll success is a national resource
Anthony Butler, Business Day, 27 May 2011
WHEN it comes to municipal elections in newish democracies, boring is best. By this criterion, last week’s local elections were most satisfactory.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) won handsomely in Cape Town, where it has demonstrated a capacity for effective government. It failed in cities such as Johannesburg, where it lacks the human and political resources to govern.
The African National Congress (ANC) retained the support of electors across the country because of the houses, water and electricity systems it has created, and the genuine sympathy for the poor that its leaders continue to exude.
The end of any dominant party’s dominance is, ultimately, inevitable. The goal of democrats should be to ensure that eroding democratic dominance results in a democratic multiparty system and not an authoritarian one-party state.
It is childish for opposition activists to view ANC electoral power in purely negative terms. Democracy is not simply about an opposition’s ability to replace the ruling party. The ANC has not simply been abusing its incumbency powers, blurring state-party boundaries, and pursuing the careerist fruits of office.
ANC electoral success has been a national resource. It has allowed its leadership to entrench constitutional government, to defuse racial and ethnic conflict, and to contain potentially antidemocratic elements within the embrace of party politics. ANC electoral strength has also allowed its leaders to adopt prudent economic strategies in the face of impoverished and sometimes angry citizens.
Too rapid an erosion of ANC control would be hazardous. The country’s leadership would lose its capacity to advance unpopular but necessary policy proposals. Consumption would be privileged over investment. Adversarial opposition could be translated into racial or ethnic mobilisation. And too fluid a party system could bring co-operative governance to a standstill.
For those who fear rapid change and the instability it might bring, President Jacob Zuma ’s suicidal campaign style last month was a cause for concern. He retained government miscommunications director Jimmy "too many coloureds" Manyi on the grounds that only a fool would fire someone they had only just appointed. Zuma then hammered nails into the ANC’s Cape Town electoral coffin by trying to foist self-styled "mayor for the poor" Tony Ehrenreich onto the city’s beleaguered citizens.
Zuma’s real interest seemed to be in KwaZulu- Natal , the province that above all others will determine his personal political future. Although the ANC secured an overall majority of the popular vote in the province, the real election-day surprise was the National Freedom Party’s surge of support.
The ANC also courted electoral disaster by encouraging local communities to choose their own candidates. Unfortunately some communities chose the wrong individuals, obliging regional ANC barons to impose politically correct replacements upon them. In his own incomparable way Zuma managed to backtrack on this backtrack.
Fortunately, there was no likelihood of a destabilising ANC rout by the opposition. While the DA made a great pretence of trying to attract the "African vote", party strategists must have known there was no prospect of a breakthrough. The DA’s "open opportunity society", after all, is easily decipherable code for the retention and cross-generational transfer of privilege by the historically advantaged .
Ostensible DA appeals to African citizens served a quite different purpose, bringing coloured and Indian voters flooding into a purportedly nonracial and so now legitimate party. Smug DA activists will henceforth use these election results to deride Africans for "bringing poverty upon themselves".
The relatively slow pace of electoral change is probably desirable. The ANC still has great political resources to contribute to a complex and divided society. Nonelectoral mechanisms of accountability will hopefully continue to hold its excesses in check. Meanwhile, the DA has only just departed on a long and uncertain journey towards nonracialism.
• Butler teaches politics at Wits University.
http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=144054
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