COSATU Media Monitor, 10 March 2010
Mluleki Mntungwa
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Contents
1.1 Labour brokers won’t be banned
1.2 Department changes its tune on broking
1.3 Cosatu ‘disgusted’ at workers’ deaths
1.5 Mayor of Oukasi feels the heat
1.6 Interdict hobbles teaching
2.1 Patel's ideas 'refreshing'
2.2 Sack president’s staff, says Cosatu
2.3 ANC, SACP in new bid to ease tensions
2.4 Malema in full cry on campus
2.5 Malema pours scorn on Vavi’s ANC ambitions, tilts at Mantashe
2.6 Malema supports Zuma second term
2.7 Malema Says Top Official in South Africa’s ANC to Go
2.8 ANC top brass and the stubborn legacy of greed
2.9 Chinese factory halts World Cup toy production
2.10 Are these really your comments, Winnie? - ANC wants answers
1. Workers
1.1 Labour brokers won’t be banned |
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Anna Majavu Sowetan, 10 March 2010 |
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LABOUR brokers will not be banned – and both Cosatu and the DA are celebrating. A deal was struck yesterday during a labour portfolio committee meeting in Parliament to change labour laws – instead of banning labour brokers. Cosatu, SACP and Young Communist League have been running a campaign to ban labour brokers, accusing them of perpetuating “modern-day” slavery. The labour committee now wants to amend the law to ban certain abusive practices by labour brokers. The Department of Labour will also be asked to come up with a new legislation to define “employers” and “workplaces”. Labour committee chairperson Lumka Yengeni told Sowetan yesterday she did not want to use the language of “banning” or “regulating”. She said Parliament was likely to repeal section 198 of the Labour Relations Act. Section 198 says that if a labour broker provides its own workers to a client, those workers are considered employees of the labour broker – not the client. This will be amended so that whoever hires the labour broker then becomes the legal employer of the workforce. Labour law attorneys said they would not be able to say if the move would benefit workers until they saw the new draft legislation. |
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1.3 Cosatu ‘disgusted’ at workers’ deaths |
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Canaan Mdletshe,
Sowetan, 10 March 2010
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COSATU in KwaZulu-Natal has expressed “disgust and shock” at construction workers being forced to continue working after a colleague was run over by a truck on the N3 highway in Pietermaritzburg on Monday. Shortly after the accident two other road side construction workers were killed when two other trucks ploughed into them. Several workers were injured. Cosatu provincial secretary Zet Luzipho said the workers should have been told to stop working immediately after the first incident. “The second accident could have been avoided,” Luzipho said. “How can you force people to continue working immediately after a colleague had been killed right in front of them? “They were still traumatised. Again, we battle to understand why people are forced to work at night. “We call on the department of transport and the department of labour to investigate this, otherwise we will have many incidents of this nature.” Netcare 911 spokesperson Jeff Wicks said a truck carrying plastic piping went out of control near Town Hill and ran over a worker, killing him instantly. “This happened at midnight and one lane had to be closed,” Wicks said. “A short while later two other trucks – one carrying fish and another transporting steel – ploughed into the rest of the workers in the closed lane. “One truck veered off the road and struck the other, which ploughed into the plastic piping truck, which was still on the road.” The bodies of two workers were found on the side of the road near the embankment. |
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1.4 Samwu wants action
Pretoria News, 10 March 2010
Madibeng municipal workers had vowed to intensify protests if their demands were not met, Samwu in North West said yesterday.
"Politicians will promise this and that... we will give them the benefit of the doubt, but then we will intensify our protest action should our issues not be addressed," said SA Municipal Workers Union provincial secretary Jacob Lekoba.
"We will only rest when the municipal mayor and her council are fired and until (sic) residents receive better services." - Sapa
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1.5 Mayor of Oukasi feels the heat |
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Sowetan, 10 March 2010 |
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MADIBENG municipal workers in the North West have vowed to intensify protests if their demands are not met. SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) provincial secretary Jacob Lekoba said yesterday: “Politicians will promise this and that ... we will give them the benefit of (the) doubt but then we will intensify our protest action should our issues not be addressed. “We will only rest when the municipal mayor and her council are fired and residents get better services.” Earlier, Oukasi residents , accompanied by Samwu and Cosatu members , marched to the municipality to hand over a memorandum of their demands amidst a heavy police presence. The memorandum was received by North West finance MEC Louisa Mabe who, on behalf of the premier, promised to respond within 14 days. Police Superintendent Lesego Metsi said the crowd dispersed about midday and there were no disruptions during the march. – Sapa |
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1.6 Interdict hobbles teaching |
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By BONGANI FUZILE, Daily Dispatch, 10 March 2010AN EDUCATION boss has banned more than a dozen of her special advisers from coming within 50 metres of her in a bizarre spat that has paralysed her office. The department claimed that the advisers had attempted to intimidate and harass the senior manager in a way that amounted to “thuggery and hooliganism”. The court application made by the department on behalf of the Director of Further Education and Training (FET) Curriculum, Nolundi Siwisa, has revealed a deep rift within the provincial department and offered the first real proof of conflict between the government and South Africa Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu). In the meantime pupils in 23 districts in the province are suffering from the fallout because the 14 subject specialists claim they cannot do their work and visit schools to assist teachers. Siwisa approached the court to interdict the advisers from getting closer than 50m to her office. The application, in which Sadtu is cited as a respondent, asked the court to “prohibit, interdict and restrain respondents in any way, threatening, intimidating, interfering or preventing” Siwisa from performing her duties. According to a provisional order by Judge Mandela Makaula on February 26, the 14 respondents and Sadtu must show reasons by March 18 why a final order should not be granted interdicting them from approaching Siwisa without prior written approval. The subject advisers and Sadtu want Siwisa to vacate her office and claim she has been preventing them from doing their jobs. “We are just sitting here doing nothing because of this interdict. These people are killing this department; they must just remove Siwisa so that everything can come back to normal. “This section is the most important in this department. If it stalls, pupils suffer,” said a disgruntled official who was among those served with the interdict. The officials claim their troubles started in October last year when they wanted to visit provincial matric examination centres, as they normally did every year. Each week, they had to submit their weekly diaries to Siwisa to check their plans. They claim that Siwisa prevented them from visiting examination centres in all 23 provincial education districts as matric final exams were in progress , citing as her reason that another department was busy with the same plans. The officials then decided to hold a sit-in in Siwisa’s office. “Nothing came out of that, instead we were told that we were scaring her,” said one official. Sadtu then intervened to try and solve the dispute but that did not work either. The department took the matter to court with Acting Superintendent- General Harry Nengwekhulu submitting an affidavit in February supporting the interdict against Sadtu and the 14 advisers. In the affidavit Nengwekhulu said his office had convened meetings with subject planners/advisers to find solutions to their problems but to no avail. “Further meetings were held but the mistrust between Siwisa and subject planners deepened and the planners then involved their trade union, Sadtu,” said Nengwekhulu. He said they had demanded that Siwisa be removed from the office with immediate effect and that her office be locked. “We decided not to agree to them; there is no reason that Siwisa should be hounded out of her office and re- deployed. “The sit-in that they held there … severely hobbled service delivery and this has amounted to intimidation, harassment, interference that prevented her (performing) her duties. “This is thuggery and hooliganism.” read the affidavit. Nengwekhulu said Siwisa’s life could be in danger as she had been traumatised by what had happened. Yesterday Sadtu’s provincial secretary Fezeka Loliwe said they were attending to the problem . Education spokesperson Loyiso Pulumani said the planner’s case was being looked at by the officials. “What they did was immoral. But the pupils won’t suffer as a master plan is already at district levels for teachers to continue with the work .” — |
2. South Africa
2.1 Patel's ideas 'refreshing'
iafrica.com, 10 March 2010
The Minister of Economic Development Ebrahim Patel's ideas of funding his macro-economic strategic plan through accessing wealth in retirement funds were "refreshing," the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) said on Tuesday.
The minister's comments had come "from the high echelons of power in the midst of massive challenges of unemployment, service delivery backlogs, underdevelopment and poverty that are engulfing the vast majority of the workers and the poor", Numsa said in a statement.
The union's comments followed the announcement by Patel last week that he was exploring ways of investing some of the R1.5-trillion of public and private retirement funds in development projects, including the possibility of issuing a development bond.
The union said it looked forward to talks that would include its colleagues from UASA and other trade unions, "in the light of billions of workers' monies that were lost in the recent global financial crisis".
Numsa called on Patel to initiate a structured public engagement with all relevant parties, particularly trade union-appointed and employer-appointed trustees, for consensus and implementation.
"As Numsa we are interested in such a discussion informed by the ANC's election manifesto, numerous alliance summit discussions as well as long-standing Numsa and Cosatu (Congress of SA Trade Unions) resolutions."
The union said it believed retirement funds could play a key role in "reversing the colonial character of our economy".
THE Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) central committee has said the “centre” in the Presidency is not holding and blamed this on the inept coterie of people appointed to manage President Jacob Zuma at the Union Buildings. The inefficiency of his office has led Zuma into a number of public relations nightmares, including lately his failure to declare his financial interests. Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini said in an interview on Monday that Zuma should “fire” his political advisers for being a “disaster” and axe his communications team for failing to guide him through a series of PR nightmares that have plunged his Presidency into crisis a mere 10 months since taking office. The Presidency has been in the spotlight following a series of damaging and politically explosive events, including news of Zuma’s love child, his failure to timeously declare his assets, and why his state of the nation address failed to live up to expectations . Cosatu and the African National Congress (ANC) are due at a bilateral meeting to thrash out differences over policy and issues relating to governance that have spilled into the public as tripartite alliance leaders trade insults with each other. “It is clear from how they have handled a series of recent events, including the drafting of the state of the nation address, that the people in there simply do not gel,” Dlamini said. “Lately, they have been a disaster. How do they pick on the wrong answers for most things? In fact the communications people give the impression they have something to hide.” It was clear from Zuma’s recent difficulties that his advisers were “not serving his interests” and that “people close to him” could be behind damaging information that was leaked about his private life. Cosatu will also give more details on the “plot” to remove Zuma from office, which it says emanates from within the ANC. Dlamini said it would “engage” the ANC leadership on the “ details” of the allegation. “The president relies on these people (advisers) to manage his affairs and his office. From where we are sitting, it’s clear they are not doing so. If I were the president I would fire all my advisers, my communications people and my speech writers. It’s clear that there is a massive problem.” The “wrong combination” of people had been appointed and Zuma was paying the price, Dlamini said. Former safety and security minister Charles Nqakula and former trade and industry minister Mandisi Mpahlwa , who served under Thabo Mbeki ’s presidency, are Zuma’s political advisers. Vusi Mavimbela resigned from Mvelaphanda Holdings and serves as Zuma’s director-general. Collins Chabane, the minister in the Presidency responsible for monitoring and evaluation, is responsible for the overall administration. Zuma also has a bevy of communications staff, among them Vusi Mona, Vincent Magwenya and Steyn Speed. The Presidency was recently rocked by reports that chief operating officer Jessie Duarte had written to ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe complaining bitterly about the way the Presidency was run. 2.3 ANC, SACP in new bid to ease tensions |
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KARIMA BROWN, Business Day, 10 March 2010 |
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THE African National Congress (ANC) and its left ally the South African Communist Party (SACP) will tomorrow hold a top-level bilateral meeting in Cape Town to discuss growing tensions in the tripartite alliance.
The meeting also comes ahead of the ANC’s national executive committee meeting at the weekend and plans for an all-important alliance summit scheduled for next month or May.
While the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) blasted the government on key issues including the budget speech by F inance M inister Pravin Gordhan, especially his failure to signal change on monetary policy, the SACP has taken a more nuanced approach. It argues that the allies need to engage on “substantive issues” and provide alternatives, especially on interest rate bands, long a bugbear for Cosatu, instead of howling from the sidelines .
Yesterday, SACP spokesman Malesela Maleka said the meeting would have a “proper well-focused debate” on issues that were expected to include the progress of the alliance task team on broadening the mandate of the Reserve Bank.
It is understood that the ANC’s economic transformation committee has received a “progress report” on work done by the task team.
Among the issues on the agenda is also the ANC’s “assessment” of the SACP’s Polokwane special conference last year at which ANC Youth League president Julius Malema was booed by some of the delegates.
The bilateral meeting is expected to deliberate on proper “rules of engagement” to assist the allies to deal with differences without resorting to mudslinging.
2.4 Malema in full cry on campus
Youth league leader challenges Vavi on lifestyle audits, Gordhan on tax and De Lille on love
By NKOSANA LEKOTJOLO, TIMESLIVE, 10 March 2010
ANC Youth League President Julius Malema added fuel to his party's fiery succession debate when he announced that President Jacob Zuma was the only member of the party leadership guaranteed a second term.
Speaking to at least 300 University of Johannesburg students on the Doornfontein campus, Malema launched an attack on Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi to cheers by the crowd.
In fine form, Malema accused DA leader Helen Zille of being a "Satanist" and a "monster" for allegedly ordering the demolition of churches built on municipal land in Western Cape.
Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille was not spared either.
"Patricia de Lille doesn't look like a married woman. There is no man who can marry her. If there is a man, he must divorce her and marry a beautiful woman in the ANC," he said.
Vavi, however, was his main victim. Malema poured cold water on Vavi's ambitions of being a member of the ANC's powerful national executive committee at the party's leadership conference in 2012.
"There is one man who has sidelined himself from the ANC, who wants the ANC to become Cosatu and the SACP. If Vavi wants to put up a fight, we are ready for him. We will never be intimidated by Vavi," he said.
"He said he is going to the NEC, that's uncultured. He doesn't understand the ANC. He must go and start from the branches."
Malema slammed Vavi's call for lifestyle audits of politicians.
"I will never be ambushed by anybody. Why should we be subjected to the lifestyle audits which seek to destroy us?" Malema asked.
Malema has recently come under fire for his extravagant lifestyle. He has also been accused of not submitting tax returns since becoming youth league president in 2008.
In a surprise move, Malema said the league agrees that ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe must serve out his term, much to the surprise of the crowd.
"If we wanted to remove him, we would have said so because we are not afraid to say anything. He is going to finish his term in 2012 like Zuma," he said.
Malema said those talking about the removal of Mantashe and Zuma were "people governed by fear".
"It's the people who are scared that we won't vote for in 2012," he said.
He dared Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan to come and "arrest" him if he had broken tax laws.
Malema told the students to protest and demand free education from Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande because he is a communist.
2.5 Malema pours scorn on Vavi’s ANC ambitions, tilts at Mantashe |
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SUE BLAINE and KARIMA BROWN, Business Day, 10 March 2010 |
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AFRICAN National Congress (ANC) Youth League president Julius Malema said yesterday Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi would not have an easy ride into the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC).
Malema is the first ANC leader to comment on Vavi’s willingness to serve on the NEC. Vavi has previously declined nomination to the NEC and the South African Communist Party’s central executive committee, saying that serving on the allies’ structures would make him unable to serve the union federation independently.
Last year, Vavi told Cosatu delegates he would accept nomination in the future and not decline the opportunity to serve in the ANC as he had in the past.
But Vavi will step down as Cosatu general secretary in 2012, hence his decision to make himself available to serve on the NEC.
Malema said Vavi had shown he did not “properly understand” how the ANC worked because he had said he was available for an NEC position when he did not hold a leadership position at branch level. Branches vote leaders into the NEC.
“I am saying (Vavi) must go to a branch (first),” Malema said.
Succession in the ANC has seen several senior party and alliance leaders pitted against each other. Cosatu has complained about the youth league’s campaign to remove secretary-general Gwede Mantashe and replace him with Deputy Police Minister Fikile Mbalula.
Even after President Jacob Zuma tried to gag discussion on the issue, several ANC leaders have continued their public campaigns. Yesterday, Malema also repeated the denial by the ANC that there were plans in the party to oust its leaders at September’s National General Council, a claim he made last week.
“No one will remove Zuma. If you want to survive in the ANC you must support Zuma, and, by the way, he’s the only one (of the ANC’s ‘top six’ leaders) who’s certain for 2012 ... Of the top six there is one who will not come back after 2012. The ANC is not a party that will be ruled by communism,” Malema said.
This was a reference to Mantashe, although Malema also said there was no effort to remove Mantashe from his position.
Malema again denied he was guilty of tax evasion and said those of his companies for which no tax clearance certificates had been submitted were “dormant”. “Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has a right to take everything in my (bank) account and give it to the poor ... if I do not pay taxes, I am asking to get arrested.”
2.6 Malema supports Zuma second term
TIMESLIVE, 10 March 2010
ANC Youth League president Julius Malema expressed support for President Jacob Zuma leading the ruling party for a second term.
"There is nobody who will remove Zuma. If you want to survive in the ANC, support Zuma and by the way, that is the only man who is guaranteed for second term in 2012," Malema told some 300 students at the University of Johannesburg.
This comes after affiliates of the ANC's alliance partner, the Congress of SA Trade Unions, cautioned that a faction in the party would push for a motion of no confidence in Zuma later this year.
Malema, however, added that not all in the ANC's top six leadership would receive the same courtesy. "We will say the name just after the NGC, after assessing internally. There is one man who has isolated himself from the ANC. And this man has behaved like the ANC must be like the Communist Party and Cosatu, it's not. "
The league wants to see Mantashe replaced by Deputy Police Minister Fikile Mbalula -- and Malema was adamant that the young lions would get their way come 2012.
"What we have pronounced as the youth league will be the outcome of 2012. These people who are attacking us, they are scared that we are not going to support them. They are trying to put us in a corner, we will never retreat."
He said the ANCYL would also never be threatened by Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi.
Vavi last week came under fire from the ANC, when he cautioned that a small group of ANC leaders, seeking to enrich themselves, were planning to oust senior party officials at the ruling party's upcoming National General Council.
Malema said people who were "governed by fear" claimed a group of "elite corrupt" wants to see the back of Mantashe.
"We are told that we want to remove Comrade Mantashe as secretary-general. We have never said that. If we wanted to remove him, we were going to say that because we are not afraid to say things. The SG of the ANC will conclude his term in 2012."
Malema cautioned that if Vavi wanted to "put up a fight", the youth league was ready.
Malema chided Vavi for assuming that once he stood down as Cosatu's general secretary - announced at a Cosatu conference last year - he would automatically find a political home among the ANC's top brass. "... he must go to the branch. You must first have a branch. He thought he is going to the National Executive Committee of the ANC, that is an uncultured way of addressing issues in the ANC."
"You don't say you are going to the NEC you must say you are going to the branch, but because he doesn't understand the ANC very well he starts from the top."
Vavi last week warned against "tenderpreneurs" who sought to hijack the ANC for their own corrupt ends. He said recent revelations indicated that there may be a need to extend restrictions placed on public servants regarding business interests, to politicians as well - in a veiled reference to Malema.
Malema recently come under fire for allegedly financing his lavish lifestyle through lucrative government tenders.
Malema hit back, saying the league was not afraid of a fight. "We are not scared of anything, lifestyle audits, corruption, illegal activities, you can accuse us of those, we will never run away.
2.7 Malema Says Top Official in South Africa’s ANC to Go
By Franz Wild, Bloomberg, 9 March 2010
March 9 () -- Julius Malema, who heads the youth league of South Africa’s ruling party, said one of the party’s top officials will not keep his post beyond 2012 because he is pushing the agenda of the unions and the communist party.
“In the top six there is one man who will not come back,” Malema told hundreds of students and supporters at the University of Johannesburg. “This man has behaved like the ANC must be like the Communist Party and Cosatu,” the country’s largest labor union confederation.
The Congress of Trade Unions of South Africa said on March 4 that a small group in the African National Congress is targeting ANC Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe, who is also the communist party chairman and a former head of the National Union of Mineworkers. The ANC criticized the comments a day later, saying they were “divisive.”
The youth wing rallied behind President Jacob Zuma to help him succeed Thabo Mbeki at the helm of the party in 2007 and then the country last May. The ANC took 65.9 percent of the vote in the election, winning its fourth consecutive term.
“We are inspired by President Zuma,” Malema said. “That is the only man who’s guaranteed for a second term in 2012,” when the mandates for ANC leaders end.
Mantashe said he hadn’t attended the rally and couldn’t comment, when reached on his mobile phone today.
South African Communist Party spokesman Malesela Maleka defended his party’s stake in the ANC. “The ANC is our organization,” he said in a phone interview. “We have invested financial and human resources to build this party. Why should we not be in our own organization.”
The ANC, SACP and Cosatu have ruled as an alliance since the end of white minority rule in 1994.
2.8 ANC top brass and the stubborn legacy of greed |
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STEVEN FRIEDMAN, Business Day, 10 March 2010 |
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DESPITE attempts to paper over the cracks, the African National Congress (ANC) is in crisis — and the crisis is primarily moral.
Those who deny that the ANC’s public divisions signal a crisis point out that vigorous difference is a sign of health. But the crisis stems not from the fact that people differ or compete, but that their motives and methods prompt fear among many ANC voters and activists that it has lost its moral moorings.
Commentators may try to convince us that the ANC’s divisions are earnest clashes over economic policy or that the feigned outrage over the president’s private life is real. But at the grassroots of the society and the ANC, many suspect, with justification, that much of this is really a scrabble for position and the goodies it brings.
The problem is not that people compete for positions — it is that they do so in a way which corrodes politics: media smears are common currency, opponents are vilified or expelled, election results are disputed. And behind all this, many in the ANC fear, is the spectre of money which is allegedly used to win battles and is also the expected reward for victory.
The ANC knows it has a problem — and that it is essentially moral. This is why its National General Council in 2000 bemoaned “careerism, corruption and opportunism”. And why it is discussing new rules of political conduct: current thinking is reflected in an article in the ANC journal Umrabulo, which frankly dissects its current failings and suggests remedies. The article contains several ideas for renewing the ANC and for ensuring that people campaign within agreed rules. But it too recognises the moral nature of the crisis: its first proposal is that the organisation must “draw clear lines between right and wrong”.
Before the “we are going to the dogs” brigade get excited, the ANC has no monopoly on moral crisis. On the contrary, those within it who see politics as the route to enrichment are merely mimicking what came before 1994 and has persisted after it in a flashy consumption fetish which continues in the face of mass poverty. It was not the ANC that created the reigning culture, which daily tells poor people that human worth is judged by the size of our houses and cars and the cost of our wardrobes.
It is this that convinces some young people in the townships that they will never enjoy respect unless they are rich — and that, since they cannot gain wealth legally, they had better do so illegally. And it is this legacy of minority privilege which persuades some politicians that full equality means accumulating wealth, not contributing to society.
This is why astute business leaders such as Bobby Godsell have realised that the fight for public sector morality will be futile unless there is a similar battle for private sector morality — and that the lifestyles of the private but prominent must be a concern too.
But the reality that the ANC is perpetuating a problem rather than creating it does not exempt it from the obligation to fix it. Some black leadership figures are indeed now only doing what white leaders did before them, b ut that is not an excuse — it is an indictment. The democracy for which the ANC and others fought was meant to end the vices of apartheid, not mimic them.
Can the ANC regain its moral compass?
Many within the movement want it to do that. This is why resolutions are passed condemning the moral malaise, why the exercise which prompted the Umrabulo article was undertaken, why the Congress of South African Trade Unions wants lifestyle audits of public figures, and why the left of the alliance is tapping into a groundswell of public disgust at greed in high places.
The bad news is that the ANC’s leadership does not seem to recognise that it has a problem. Rules, such as those suggested in Umrabulo, will be worth nothing unless the ANC leadership sets a clear example — as Indian leaders did after their country’s independence. But the current leadership seems bent on the opposite course.
Instead of embracing lifestyle audits, signalling to voters and ANC activists that they care about public morality, the president and deputy president dismissed the proposal. Their reasons were deeply unconvincing. Yes, ministers already have to declare assets but who knows if they declare them all? Yes, the South African Revenue Service audits lifestyles, but only if it thinks people are not paying their taxes. More importantly, their response signals to voters that the ANC leadership does not care and to the greedy that no one will come after them.
To compound the problem, the president is using legal semantics to defend not declaring his own assets. Even if the law is technically on his side, the message that his finances are none of our business will fuel public cynicism.
Leadership alone will not get the ANC and the country out of its moral mess. But unless leaders are prepared to set an example by supporting tougher action on corruption and agreeing to submit themselves to the relevant tests, we will not begin to overturn our legacy of greed.
- Friedman is director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy, an initiative of Rhodes University and the University of Johannesburg.
2.9 Chinese factory halts World Cup toy production
AFP, 10 March 2010
CAPE TOWN — A Chinese factory has halted production of World Cup 2010 mascot toys after an investigation into alleged sweatshop conditions, the merchandise company for world football body FIFA said Tuesday.
Global Brands Group, master licensee for all FIFA World Cup 2010 merchandise, withdrew manufacturing approval after an audit of the factory showed standards had been flouted.
"The audit identified a number of non-conformances against Global Brands CSR (corporate social responsibility) policy," the company said in a statement.
"In the interim, the approval for this factory to manufacture these figurines has been temporarily suspended, affording them the opportunity to put in place corrective actions and measures."
The group launched the probe after reports that the factory, which produced figures of the event's dreadlocked leopard mascot Zakumi, employed teenage workers, ran 13-hour shifts and paid just three dollars (2.2 euros) a day.
The reports outraged South Africa's largest labour federation Cosatu, which on Tuesday argued that 2010 merchandise should be sourced locally for Africa's first World Cup tournament.
The factory, Shanghai Fashion Plastic Products, was contracted by a South African licensee which is owned by a member of parliament from the ruling African National Congress (ANC).
"It is outrageous that a public representative of the ANC, which is committed to policies to create decent work, can take such a callous decision which has deprived South African workers of employment," Cosatu said.
"Cosatu is adamant that the work should never have been outsourced to China in the first place," it added.
Conditions at the Chinese factory will be re-assessed after the suspension, with the South African licensee working to ensure compliance with ethical standards, the Global Brands Group said.
"A corrective action plan has been put together with the manufacturer to close the gaps and make the necessary improvements," it said.
2.10 Are these really your comments, Winnie? - ANC wants answers |
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Sowetan, 10 March 2010 |
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THE ANC says its is trying to contact MP Winnie Madikizela- Mandela to find out if she really said Nelson Mandela had let down black people. “She is in the US now and we are in the process of trying to locate her,” ANC spokesperson Ishmael Mnisi said. “We want to ask her if these comments were made by her; if this is exactly what she said.” Mnisi denied a report that Madikizela-Mandela would be called to explain herself at the next national executive committee meeting next week. “That is not correct,” he said. “What we said is that we would wait for her to verify if thee reports are truly attributed to her.” The struggle stalwart lashed out at Mandela , who is also her ex-husband, in an interview published in the London Evening Standard this week. She said Mandela had become a “corporate foundation” who was being “wheeled out to collect the money”. Madikizela-Mandela also called Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu a “cretin”, in the interview with Nadira Naipaul, who visited her with her husband, the writer VS Naipaul, in Soweto. “Mandela let us down . He agreed to a bad deal for the blacks. Economically, we are still on the outside. “The economy is very much white. It has a few token blacks, but so many who gave their life in the struggle have died unrewarded,” said Madikizela-Mandela, in the interview published on www.standard.co.uk. She said Mandela had no control over the ANC anymore and was just being used by the Nelson Mandela Foundation to get funds. – Sapa |
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2.11 Winnie's two faces
Shock, surprise and anger as vicious attack on ex-husband Nelson Mandela exposes
By DOMINIC MAHLANGU and SALLY EVANS, 10 March 2010
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela attended the opening of parliament with her former husband last month and held hands with his wife. But behind the scenes, she calls former President Nelson Mandela a "sell-out" and says "the name Mandela is an albatross around the necks of my family".
In an interview at her home in Orlando, Soweto, with Nadira Naipaul, wife of Nobel literature prize-winner VS Naipaul, Madikizela-Mandela blasted Mandela for agreeing "to a bad deal for blacks" in the negotiated transition to power.
In the interview, conducted last August but published on Monday in the London Evening Standard, Madikizela-Mandela also said: "I cannot forgive him for going to receive the Nobel (peace prize) with his jailer, De Klerk. Hand in hand they went. Do you think De Klerk released him from the goodness of his heart? He had to. The times dictated it, the world had changed, and our struggle was not a flash in the pan, it was bloody to say the least, and we had given rivers of blood. I had kept it alive with every means at my disposal."
She also told Naipaul that Mandela was a shadow of the revolutionary figure he was when he went to jail.
"There were many others, hundreds who languished in prison and died. Many unsung and unknown heroes of the struggle, and there were others in the leadership too, like poor Steve Biko who died of the beatings, horribly, all alone. Mandela did go to prison and he went in there as a burning young revolutionary. But look what came out."
The Times understands that there are now questions about whether Madikizela-Mandela intended her views to be made public, whether the interview was conducted on the record and if Naipaul took notes.
In the article, Madikizela-Mandela also charged that he was "no longer accessible" to his daughters.
"They have to get through much red tape just to speak to their father," Naipaul wrote.
Madikizela-Mandela's comments stand in stark contrast to those she made last month in a lecture at Wits University to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Mandela's release from jail, when she said "he was a family man".
"As a person, he was loving, fond of children, a people's person and a very hard worker. His fearlessness, his unassailable morality, his unwavering commitment to the struggle for total freedom, and his insistence on marching to his own beat were the hallmarks of his character," she said.
In the interview with Naipaul, Madikizela-Mandela said that the ANC had "sidelined" its former hero who it now keeps "as a figurehead for the sake of appearance".
"Look what they make him do. The great Mandela. He has no control or say any more. They put that huge statue of him right in the middle of the most affluent white area of Johannesburg. Not here where we spilled our blood and where it all started," she said.
In a swipe at the Nelson Mandela Foundation, Madikizela-Mandela said: "Mandela is now a corporate foundation. He is wheeled out globally to collect the money and he is content doing that."
However, in her speech at Wits, she showered the foundation with praise, saying her former husband and his institutions have focused on addressing many of the country's shortcomings in a way that only someone of his immense stature could.
"Much of what they do, however, cannot be done by any government alone. Madiba has mastered the best local and global resources to assist in this effort. This is a lasting tribute to his legacy," she said last month.
To Naipaul, however, she said: "Mandela let us down. He agreed to a bad deal for blacks. Economically, we are still on the outside. The economy here is very much white. It has a few token blacks, but so many who gave their life in the struggle have died unrewarded."
In the interview, Madikizela-Mandela called Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu a "cretin".
"Look at the Truth and Reconciliation charade. He should never have agreed to it . That Bishop Tutu who turned it all into a religious circus came here," she said, gesturing towards a chair in her garden. "He had the cheek to tell me to appear. I told him a few home truths. I told him that he and his other like-minded cretins were only sitting here because of our struggle, and me."
The Times tried unsuccessfully to contact Naipaul for comment.
Madikizela-Mandela was unavailable for comment as she was travelling in the US.
Tutu, who is on a trip to New York, was informed of the article and its contents. His spokeswoman, Tamu Matose, said he would respond "soon".
ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu said yesterday: "We are shocked by the content of the article, but we cannot say much up until we have spoken to Mama," he said.
"We don't want to cast aspersions on what is written about her. It's out of character. It does not add up to what she said a few weeks ago at Wits about Mandela and her family."