COSATU Media Monitor, 9 February 2012

The labour federation said his address should give clear indications of when his government will fulfil the promises of creating decent jobs, providing good education, health, rural development and the fight against crime and corruption.

Yesterday, Sowetan spoke to 10 unemployed citizens who also agreed with Cosatu that they needed jobs.

"All we want from President Jacob Zuma is jobs and nothing more," said Sam Salani, who joins a group of other unemployed men on the road- side and intersections hoping to find piece jobs every morning at 6.40am.

Salani, 59, of Florida, western Johannesburg, has not had a job since September last year.

Like any other day, he woke up yesterday and sat at the corner of Westlane and Hull streets in Florida hoping to find a piece job.

He carried a poster stating his skills: waterproofing, painting and tiling. Salani needs to work to feed two of his children, aged 17 and 20, who are still at school.

Less than a kilometre from Salani was Walter Mulaudzi, 37, of Braamfischer, Soweto.

Mulaudzi worked for the Makhado municipality in Limpopo for six years and later worked at a filling station in Northcliff. He was retrenched in 2008. Since then, Mulaudzi has lived on piece jobs.

Yesterday, he was standing at the corner of Kilburn and Paul Kruger roads in Florida.

"If he [Zuma] can have a plan to create jobs, I will be happy. That is all I want from him," Mulaudzi said.

"I walk from Braamfischer to this place without anything to eat. If I am lucky to get a job it can pay R120 or R100 a day."

1.2 Samwu backs Cosatu strike

IOL, 8 February 2012

The South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) says it is mobilising its members for a nationwide strike against the ban of labour brokers and the e-tolling system, as organised by Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu).

The strike is scheduled for March 7.

The Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project, the Wild Coast and the Cape Winelands Toll Highway Project were all done without proper consultation with stakeholders and the public, the union said in a statement.

“...workers deserve nothing less than an environment free of labour brokers, exorbitant charges in the form of e-tolls and a decent living wage,” said Samwu. - I-Net Bridge

1.3 Sadtu threatens strike over docked salaries

Laea Medley, Daily News, 8 February 2012

The SA Democratic Teachers’ Union in KwaZulu-Natal is planning to go on strike next month unless the Department of Education pays their members an estimated R300 million docked from their salaries during the 2010 strike.

This comes after a rival union, the National Teacher’s Union (Natu), won a court battle with the department over salary deductions during the strike. The union said on Tuesday that it was angered by the department allowing itself to be “defrauded” of more than R50m by Natu.

Sadtu participated in a public servants’ strike and has claimed that Natu also took part.

However, Natu holds firm that they did not take part in the strike.

They took the Department of Education to court in September last year over the deductions from the salaries of 27 000 teachers.

Last month the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled in favour of Natu, meaning the department will now have to pay at least R50m to the union’s members.

While teaching by Sadtu members will continue, the union said it would not participate in any of its regular meetings with the department until its demands are met. Union officials will, however, meet the department on Wednesday to discuss a solution to the disagreement.

“Natu did strike in August 2010, but it was an unprotected strike, as they did not inform the department beforehand,” said Sadtu provincial secretary Mbuyiseni Mathonsi. “Natu took the Department of Education to court and, because of the department’s weak legal section, they lost the case,” he said.

“The department was defrauded over R50m in that case.”

Natu deputy president Allen Thompson said: “We were never part of the 2010 strike, therefore, we did not give notice to the department about it.

“Our members were at school at that time and we submitted attendance registers to the court, and the court ruled in our favour. The only members who were not at work at that time were either on sick leave or maternity leave.”

KZN Education Department superintendent-general Nkosinathi Sishi said the department had not yet received any official notification from Sadtu about the planned mass action. “We will be meeting them this week and we are also meeting our legal advisors to try and find a way forward.

But this should not cause any teacher to feel that there is a problem,” he said.

Mathonsi said Sadtu was concerned about the inefficiency, ineffectiveness,and weakness of the department’s legal section.

“This is very costly not only to itself, but to our union,” he said.

Sadtu will meet KZN Education MEC Senzo Mchunu on Tuesday and will have its branch leadership meet all the department’s districts on Thursday.

On February 29, members of Sadtu plan to march to the department’s head office in Pietermaritzburg.

1.4 Temporary teachers are back - Vavi

Zine George, Sowetan, 9 February 2012

COSATU general-secretary Zwelinzima Vavi's intervention in the Eastern Cape schooling crises will see more than 4000 temporary teachers reinstated, while education head Modidima Mannya gets to keep his job - for now.

Teachers' union Sadtu also announced yesterday that it has indefinitely halted its go-slow protest, which has been running for the past four weeks.

Addressing the media yesterday, Vavi said the parties had agreed to reinstate teachers in terms of the judgments and orders handed down by Bhisho High Court judge Belinda Hartle in November 2011.

"Education MEC Mandla Makupula will release a circular by February 10, to effect re-instatement of all temporary teachers within 48 hours," said Vavi.

Mannya terminated all temporary teaching contracts last December, sighting a lack of funding. This was despite judge Hartle having ordered a month earlier that the department reinstate all the temporary teachers.

Asked where the funding would come from, Makupula said: "All I can say is that the cabinet, in particular the premier, will take care of the matter. Government is aware that there will be financial implications."

Vavi has spent the past two weeks travelling between Johannesburg and East London meeting health and education stakeholders after Cosatu-affiliated unions demanded that both Mannya and health department head, Siva Pillay, be fired.

Vavi then met with unions and a premier Noxolo Kiviet-led delegation, which culminated in Tuesday night's agreement.

Sadtu provincial secretary Mncekeleli Ndongeni said since the go-slow action was lifted, the provincial executive committee would meet shop stewards to communicate the decision and after that branch members would also be informed.

1.5 Eastern Cape teachers end go-slow

TimesLive, 8 February 2012

Teachers in the Eastern Cape ended a go-slow on Wednesday, the provincial education department said.

This came after the department and the teacher union Sadtu reached an agreement on the reinstatement of temporary teachers.

Eastern Cape premier Noxolo Kiviet, Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, provincial education MEC Mandla Makhupula and the Sadtu leadership worked into the night on Tuesday to find a solution to the stalemate that crippled education in the province.

The industrial action started when teachers returned to school at the start of the academic year to find their temporary colleagues had been moved to other schools or let go.

They protested the added work-load with a wildcat strike followed by a go-slow.

Provincial government spokesman Mahlubandile Qwase said a memorandum of agreement that would normalise teaching had been signed.

"Sadtu has agreed to end their go slow and pickets that they have embarked on in the past few weeks," he said.

Sadtu provincial secretary Mncekeleli Ndongeni said the union leaders would meet on Wednesday to convey the decision to branch secretaries.

The education MEC is to release a circular by February 10 reinstating temporary teachers.

The Democratic Alliance said the agreement was a victory for the union and a blow to education.

Edmund van Vuuren from the DA said more than 5500 posts that should have been filled through redeployment would stay vacant until a decision was taken by the relevant stakeholders in the bargaining chamber.

"This means that there will not be a teacher in each and every classroom in the Eastern Cape," he said.

1.6 Teachers want principal removed

Nontobeko Mtshali, Star, 9 February 2012

Teachers and pupils at Sandringham High School in Joburg are calling for the removal of the school principal, who they claim is running the school into the ground.

In correspondence between the teachers’ union, school governing body members and some pupils, staff raise their concerns over the way the school is being run, referring to the situation as “depressing”.

“Our school is in crisis. We need help urgently. Recently, 15 teachers resigned, some of whom have been teaching here for as long as 25 to 29 years.

“Experienced teachers are leaving the school in droves, most of them opting for a lower salary rather than stay here, and the few left have our CVs out to grab the first post that comes along,” reads an e-mail, dated January 24, sent by a teacher to the National Professional Teachers Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa).

Teachers said they’re not happy with the way the principal, Logan Naidoo, runs the school. Since his appointment as principal three years ago, more than 30 teachers have left the school.

Teachers accuse Naidoo of “unprofessional and ugly behaviour”, financial mismanagement and abruptly demoting staff, at times announcing these during meetings.

Teachers say they are scared of voicing their opinions or asking questions, even in staff meetings, because they fear being insulted and “shot down” by Naidoo.

“Mr Naidoo is forever talking about how we are a democracy and that he wants transparency and fairness in all we do. But the minute a member of this ‘democracy’ questions or, God forbid, challenges something, we are shot down, embarrassed and insulted.”

“I cannot continue to come to work and each day have to worry about being picked on or publicly embarrassed,” said one teacher.

The school’s Grade 12s have also raised their concerns over teacher vacancies that had not been filled when schools opened this year.

One pupil said they had considered moving to another school because they feared they might fail.

In an e-mail dated January 25, the pupil wrote: “We do not have an English educator, yet we are expected to perform… We have lost over 100 years of (teacher) experience in five months. Over 20 excellent educators have left in two years, why?”

According to Gauteng Department of Education spokesman Charles Phahlane, two (English and business studies) of three teacher vacancies were recently filled.

“The consumer studies teacher resigned on January 23 without proper notice. An educator who was supposed to replace her came to the school but she was not suitable. The school is currently finalising another replacement,” said Phahlane.

On the alleged financial mismanagement, some of the pupils’ registration forms, mostly dated to the early months of last year, have written notes of amounts, referred to as “donations,” ranging from R500 to R3 500, that are being requested from parents.

Staff alleged that pupils who had been initially rejected at the school but later paid the “donations” would be accepted. They said Naidoo would accept the cash payments himself, which is against policy, before passing on the money to the school’s bursar.

In June last year, a teacher, who had been at the school for less than a year, had problems recovering a R5 000 loan to Naidoo.

Phahlane said the department had appointed an independent forensic audit team to conduct an investigation into the school’s affairs and the allegations levelled against Naidoo. “In addition, we are also initiating a Whole School Evaluation exercise that will look into every aspect of the school.”

As a state teacher and principal, Naidoo is not allowed to speak to the media – with all queries being handled by the provincial department.

1.7 Striking teachers are “deplorable”

Leanne Jansen, Mercury, 8 February 2012

The Federation of Governing Bodies of SA Schools has lambasted the SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) in KZN for threatening a two-week go-slow, which would culminate in the “mother of all marches” at the end of the month.

Federation CEO Paul Colditz said that the intended mass action was “deplorable”, and that the children of the working class would be most affected.

Sadtu is demanding that the provincial Education Department sack 10 000 teachers affiliated to a rival union; that the department “dissolve” its legal unit; and that 60 000 Sadtu members be refunded money that was docked from their salaries for participating in a strike in 2010. However, education superintendent-general Nkosinathi Sishi said that he and MEC Senzo Mchunu were to meet Sadtu last night.

The 10 000 teachers who Sadtu want fired belong to the National Teachers Union (Natu). According to a Durban Labour Court decision upheld by the Supreme Court of Appeal, the department was ordered to reimburse thousands of Natu members who claimed not to have participated in the 2010 strike.

Sadtu, however, argues that the Natu teachers had an unprotected strike and should be fired.

Meanwhile, Cosatu confirmed on Wednesday that Sadtu would join its marches against labour broking and e-tolling in KZN on March 7.

1.8 NUM meets Implats over fired strikers

BusinessLive, 9 February 2012

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and Impala Platinum Holdings (Implats) will meet today to discuss the future of more than 17000 workers who were dismissed at the company's Rustenburg plant after an illegal strike.

NUM said yesterday it would meet Implats management to discus the rehiring of the mineworkers, who were fired after downing tools two weeks ago over the salary adjustment of rock blasters.

NUM spokesman Lesiba Seshoka could not confirm reports that the company had started rehiring fired workers.

"We are told that the company reinstated 4500 workers last week, 500 yesterday (Tuesday) and about 300 today (yesterday).

"We are meeting them tomorrow (today). We will also want to establish their re-employment conditions," Seshoka said.

Implats had said it would rehire the former employees on new employment contracts.

Implats spokesman Bob Gilmour said yesterday that the company had started reinstating workers but at a slow pace.

The strike started when about 5000 rock drill operators stopped working on learning their counterparts - blasters - had got an 18% salary increase while they had received nothing. The drillers then went on strike without the blessing of their union.

1.9 Concourt to decide on riot damage

IOL, 8 February 2012

Transport trade union Satawu will approach the Constitutional Court on Thursday over four words which make the organisers of public protests liable for damage caused.

The Cape High Court recently held the union liable for damage done during a march in Cape Town.

The SA Transport and Allied Worker's Union had contended that the words, “was not reasonably foreseeable” were unconstitutional.

The union argued that the words infringed the constitutional right to freedom of assembly and fair labour practice.

The eight respondents whose property was damaged in the Satawu march and the minister of safety and security, the ninth respondent, contended that the words were constitutional.

The high court agreed that the existing laws were consistent with the Constitution and this was upheld by the Supreme Court of Appeal.

Now, the Constitutional Court will look at the wording of the law around the freedom of assembly.

The union, which is being supported by the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu), feels the legislation imposes undue responsibility on the organisers of a gathering.

It holds that this is undemocratic in that it limits protest - which is often the only way people can make their voices heard.

It argues that organisers will be too afraid to organise a gathering for fear of consequences over which they have no control. Often social protest, by its nature, was fraught and explosive.

The Freedom of Expression Institute has been admitted as a friend of the Court.

It supports the union and maintains that, in addition to being an infringement of the right to freedom of assembly, the wording of the law violates the right to freedom of expression.

This was a violation of the principles of the rule of law and democracy.

The City of Cape Town has been joined as an intervening party. It supports the eight respondents, who include street vendors, shop owners and car owners.

As it exists the Regulation of Gatherings Act allows a claim against the organisers of a march for “riot damage”.

The only time an organisation would not be liable was if it proved that it did not commit or connive in the conduct causing the damage.

It would also not be liable if this conduct did not fall within the objectives of the gathering or “was not reasonably foreseeable”.

The law makes it clear that the organiser is not liable provided it (in this case the union) took all reasonable steps within its power to prevent the damage caused by its members. - Sapa

1.10 Mineworkers Provident Fund - Disharmony among trustees?

Charlotte Matthews, Financial Mail, 9 February 2012

SA Clothing & Textile Workers Union pension fund lawyers are pursuing about R93m in funds that went missing through unauthorised loans from the fund managers, Trilinear, to Canyon Springs.

The pursuit of lost funds from the SA Clothing & Textile Workers Union has led to worries about the oversight of some union pension funds.

Lawyers for the SA Clothing & Textile Workers Union (Sactwu) pension fund are pursuing about R93m in funds that went missing through unauthorised loans from the fund managers, Trilinear, to Canyon Springs, a company in which former deputy minister of economic development Enoch Godongwana and his wife were directors and major shareholders.

Another fund, the Mineworkers Provident Fund, which is now under self- administration , suffered losses through involvement in the Fidentia scandal in 2007 when then fund manager Fidentia went bankrupt. The Living Hands Umbrella Trust, associated with the MPF, had placed R1,4bn with Fidentia.

MPF principal officer Sipho Sidu says the extent of the loss suffered by the fund will be known only once the Fidentia curatorship is completed.

Sidu, who Chamber of Mines and National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) general secretary Frans Baleni agreed would speak on the fund’s behalf, refutes speculation of disharmony among those administering the fund.

Relations between the 19 employer and employee representatives on the board of trustees are good, he says. Trustees do not “wear the cap” of the constituencies that appointed them but act in the best interests of the members of the fund.

He says to suggest there has been any kind of stand-off or confrontation at board meetings is “unfounded, malicious and untrue”.

Asked what processes are in place to avoid something similar to the Canyon Springs debacle, Sidu says the fund has an investment policy and strategy in place to guide its decisions and there are rigorous selection processes for investment managers.

The MPF is advised by Selekane Asset Consultants, a black-owned company in which Old Mutual has a 25% stake.

Jurgen Boyd, deputy CEO of retirement funds at the Financial Services Board, says he has received no complaints about the fund or its investment strategy.

Etienne de Waal, CEO of Momentum Employee Benefits, says though the MPF’s decision to self-administer from January 1 last year was a loss to Momentum, the MPF remains an important investment and insurance client of the group. “To the best of our knowledge the administration capability of the MPF is fully functional, with a full complement of staff,” he says.

Sidu says one of the main reasons for the MPF taking the self-administration route was to improve service delivery.

The MPF has about 134000 members, mostly from the NUM.

The previous administrators were Lekana Employee Benefits, a division of MMI, which was formed last year from the merger of Momentum and Metropolitan.

The MPF took over a backlog of 7480 claims from the previous administrators and in eight months of self-administration has paid a total of 14000 claims, including the backlog, compared with 9201 paid in the same period the previous year, Sidu says.

“The board has just completed its claims strategy session held on January 26 and 27 and is confident that its interventions both at strategic level and operationally will contribute positively to the claims backlog reduction.”

Total fund assets of R19,5bn are 57,7% invested in market-related portfolios and 42,3% in a “core portfolio”. The biggest proportion of the funds is in the Old Mutual Stable Growth Fund, while large amounts are also with Coronation Fund Managers, the Community Growth Fund and RMB Asset Management.

The growth in the portfolio last year was 5% or R1,3bn, with an additional R307m inflow from member contributions.

2. ANC

2.1 Enoch Godongwana quits as MP: report

TimesLive, 9 February 2012

Former deputy economic development minister Enoch Gondongwana has stepped down as a Member of Parliament, according to a report on Thursday.

Gondongwana was facing a misconduct probe by the ethics committee for allegedly not properly declaring his business and financial interests.

The registrar of Parliament's joint ethics committee, Fazella Mahommed, told MPs on Wednesday that Gondongwana had informed the legislature of his decision to step down, reported the Sowetan newspaper.

"So that particular matter is now out of the hands of the committee," said Mahommed.

Gondongwana and his wife are embroiled in an inquiry into the disappearance of about R100 million of the SA Clothing and Textile Workers' Union's pension fund.

He resigned as deputy minister last month.

2.2 Cosatu leaders boo ANC's Lekganyane off podium

Russel Molefe, Sowetan, 9 February 2012

COSATU leaders in Limpopo booed and prevented ANC provincial secretary Soviet Lekganyane from addressing them yesterday.

More than 2000 labour federation leaders were attending a shop steward council meeting in Polokwane in preparation of their national strike against labour brokers.

Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini could not stop his members from booing.

Cosatu in Limpopo has marched twice to the provincial government offices, where Lekganyane served as local government MEC before being appointed to his current position in the ANC, complaining about corruption.

Premier Cassel Mathale, who has a close relationship with Lekganyane, has so far not responded to their concerns.

Lekganyane said the incident was an indication that the ANC needed to improve relations with its alliance partners.

Dlamini said Lekganyane's booing was a reflection of the anger of the people with the ANC leadership in the province which has gained an image as being corrupt.

2.3 Cosatu supports Limpopo take-over

IOL, 8 February 2012

Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini wants the Cabinet to consider placing the entire Limpopo government under administration, SABC news reported on Wednesday.

A request by Limpopo for a R1 billion loan to pay salaries prompted the placing of five of the province's departments under administration late last year.

“(Cosatu) supports the intervention by the National Treasury,” Dlamini said at the provincial shop steward council in Limpopo.

“We are even saying, if there is negative feedback from the province as we saw initially and if there is more (negative feedback)... Why not put the whole provincial government under administration?”

This was met with loud applause.

On Monday, provincial secretary Dan Sebabi said that if Limpopo premier Cassel Mathale was allowed to stay on, the ANC risked losing support in the 2014 local government election.

Sebabi said the government had exhausted its budget and failed to pay bonuses because it had focused on tender projects. – Sapa

2.4 Sasco livid with ministers

Ngwako Modjadji Citizen, 9 February 2012

The South African Students Congress (Sasco) launched a scathing attack on Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu and National Planning Minister Trevor Manuel yesterday over their recent remarks on the nationalisation of mines.

This comes after both Manuel and Shabangu reassured the captains of the mining industry that nationalisation of mines will not happen.

Sasco president Ngoako Selamolela said: “These ministers have consistently arrogated themselves as security guards at the gates of white monopoly capital and neo-liberalism”.

Selamolela said both ministers must be reminded once more that they are not the final arbiter on the discussion on nationalisation of the mines.

“In the Mining Indaba last year, Shabangu boldly declared that nationalisation would not happen in her life time.

We found it offensive that whereas ANC structures and mass democratic movement in general are yet to engage the ANC research report on nationalisation. Both Shabangu and Manuel have already jumped the gun to propagate for the so-called resource nationalism,” Selamolela said.

Selamolela said the ANC has not taken a decision on whether or not mines should be nationalised.

“It is therefore incorrect of Ministers Shabangu and Manuel to reassure capitalists that nationalisation is off the agenda whereas there is no decision on the matter.

“As Sasco, we will constructively engage the ANC report on nationalisation when released for discussion.

“We will continue to fearlessly advance our view that mines and other commanding heights of the economy must be nationalised as a step towards socialisation of means of production,” Selamolela said.

3. South Africa

3.1 Zuma’s nightmare

Chandré Prince, Times, 9 February 2012

President Jacob Zuma will face a titanic legal battle next week when he fights to keep secret the elusive spy tapes that got him off the hook on corruption charges - as well as potentially devastating financial records.

In a hearing that could determine Zuma's future as president, the Supreme Court of Appeal will have to decide whether the National Prosecuting Authority's 2009 decision to drop corruption charges was legally sound and not politically induced.

In what could turn out to be a landmark case, the DA has turned to the court, arguing that then acting national director of public prosecutions Mokotedi Mpshe's decision to drop the charges against Zuma was unconstitutional and invalid.

But, in his court papers, Zuma questions the DA's intentions and motives.

Zuma was let off the hook on corruption charges relating to alleged bribes he received after he made presentations to the National Prosecuting Authority, including the controversial spy tapes and other documents.

The court at this stage has to rule only on whether the DA has legal standing to bring the case to court and whether it should have access to the records.

However, vehemently arguing for the court to dismiss the matter when it comes before five judges next Wednesday, Zuma says the case is much bigger than just his personal financial affairs - it could be a national embarrassment.

Zuma says that, if the DA is successful in its application, sensitive and confidential information in the authority's records about other people and companies would also be exposed.

"[Zuma] has indicated why the DA's access to the records would gravely infringe and impinge on the privacy and dignity of a number of persons, including himself."

Zuma also argues that not only would his image be tarnished but so would that of South Africa and the prosecuting authority.

"What remains in the case, in the absence of a full record, is a costly and time-consuming exercise in futility save to tarnish the image of the country, the president and the National Prosecuting Authority," Zuma's responding papers read.

The prosecuting authority's decision not to prosecute Zuma paved the way for him to become the country's president in May 2009.

The DA has, over the years, argued that Zuma's prosecution would be in his own interests and would enable a court to rule whether he was guilty or innocent, or if the case should be withdrawn.

In his papers, Zuma, however, accuses the DA of being on a points-scoring exercise.

He says the public interest arguments the party advanced were weak and a smoke screen for the party to gain political favour.

"It is clear that the DA's interest is that a [successful] prosecution would remove Zuma as the president and score considerable political points in the process."

Zuma further contends that Mpshe used his discretion in terms of the prosecution policy and that he did not exceed his authority when taking the decision to withdraw the corruption charges.

In an impassioned plea, the president asks that the DA be denied access to the submissions he made to the authority, which led to the charges being dropped.

"These parts of the record cannot be disclosed for various reasons related to privilege, confidentiality, and the fact that these parts of the record contain private information obtained through coercive powers of the directorate."

Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj yesterday refused to comment, saying the matter was sub judice.

DA MP James Selfe said his party was "extremely confident" that the judges would consider the case on its merits and not on political grounds.

"Just on the principles of law, the case is clear-cut," said Selfe.

In its papers, the DA insists that Zuma and the national director of public prosecutions' arguments are "clearly an attempt to use legal loopholes to frustrate the review of a decision which was fundamentally flawed".

They argue that the charges involve "issues of governance at the highest level in a matter of overwhelming public interest".

"The potential for a loss of confidence in organs of state concerned with crime prevention and prosecution are manifest unless the legality of the decision is tested in open court."

Of grave concern to the DA, it says, is the fact that Zuma and the prosecuting authority believed that the authority could engage in off-the-record private dealings with accused persons leading to the discontinuation of a prosecution, and that no one could subsequently compel the authority to produce the record of those secret dealings.

In essence, the DA says, it could amount to a situation in which "an accused could bribe a prosecutor to drop charges but it would not be possible to establish this because the evidence of the secret deal is immune from judicial scrutiny".

3.2 Numsa makes renewable energy call

Ayanda Mdluli, Business Report, 8 February 2012

The National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (NUMSA) has called for a renewable energy sector that is socially owned, consisting of “different forms of collective ownership”, the organisation said at its five day renewable energy conference in Johannesburg yesterday.

Delegates and fellow unionists from countries such as Mexico, Venezuela, China and France gave presentations and examples on how renewable energy projects could be funded by public entities instead of private companies whose sole purpose is to make a profit from the green agenda.

The conference, which began on Saturday sought to establish a global blue print on how to achieve what they call a socially owned renewable energy sector.

In addition the conference hoped to develop a strong energy policy aimed at shaping the country’s industrial development in renewable energy.

The conference was also aimed at preventing the renewable energy sector from being dominated by a capitalist system, said the union.

Karl Cloete, the deputy general secretary of NUMSA, said in a discussion document that socially owned entities should be decentralised in terms of ownership and operation.

“They must relate to each other and be integrated in a way that builds a national sector as a coherent whole,” he said.

Also, socially owned renewable energy institutions should have prioritised access to the grid. In addition, the grid was the back bone of the renewable energy sector and needed to be publicly owned, he said.

In the opening address on Saturday, Cedric Gina, the president of Numsa said: “We are currently facing a situation in which the expansion of the renewable energy sector is rapidly developing along capitalist lines”.

He said workers and communities were at risk of being left behind and “being forced to pay the costs of the sector’s expansion”. Also, the building of the renewable energy sector raised questions about who would benefit from its emergence.

“Do communities stand to benefit or is this another capitalist grab to enrich a few? This is why we have chosen to host this conference about socially-owned renewable energy,” he said.

Sergio Oceransky Losana, the chief executive of the Yansa Group a New York based organisation that deals with transitions to renewable energy said there were frame works put in place in countries such as Mexico to assist various communities in adjusting to renewable energy projects. These would see some communities own these initiatives.

Losana explained that many communities remained marginalised from participation in the renewable energy sector which was still dominated by private companies. “We are here to explore how renewable energy can be socially owned and develop a business model to have wind farms owned by their respective communities,” he said. - with additional reporting by Sapa

3.3 Agri minister in hot water over nepotism allegation

Musa Mohamed, Citizen, 8 February 2012

Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson is again embroiled in controversy, following revelations that her sister holds a senior post in the department for which she is responsible.

It has emerged that the minister’s sister holds the post of acting director of development support in the department.

Joemat-Pettersson will now have to explain how her sister landed a post, in her department, which comes with an annual paycheck of over R700 000, the Democratic Alliance (DA) insisted yesterday.

It believes the posting smacked of “favouritism”.

DA shadow minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, Annette Steyn MP, said yesterday Joemat- Pettersson should explain the position. She wants answers on whether the post was openly advertised and whether proper procedures were followed to “ensure the best candidate for the job was appointed?”

“Also, whether the department was aware of the family connection to Minister Joemat-Pettersson when the appointment was made and, if so, why were no concerns raised?” Steyn asked.

She added that the director-general of the department, Langa Zita, was forced to admit to Parliament that the minister’s sister was employed as an acting director.

Joemat-Pettersson is being probed by the Public Protector, prompted by the DA, over a R1,6 million bill incurred on overseas flights and hotel stays at taxpayer expense.

3.4 Durban won't act against officials, for now

Canaan Mdletshe, Sowetan, 9 February 2012

Ten Durban councillors, several heads of department and municipal workers have been given a lifeline while the eThekwini council "goes through each and every item" in the Manase report, which found high levels of maladministration, fraud and corruption in the municipality.

Heads were expected to roll after MEC for cooperative governance Nomusa Dube released the report on Tuesday.

But the council yesterday said it would not suspend implicated employees or take disciplinary action, as recommended by the forensic auditors, until it was clear on the proper procedure.

"It is must be noted that the report has not found anyone guilty and it is therefore proper that different parties mentioned are given a chance to state their side of the story," city mayor James Nxumalo said.

"But we must reiterate that we will take disciplinary action against officials and councillors that have been implicated."

The council declined to mention names, so Nxumalo did not comment on the allegations levelled at former mayor Obed Mlaba and municipal manager Michael Sutcliffe.

The forensic investigation came after the auditor-general found that the city had irregularly spent R535-million and the Ngubane audit implicated Sutcliffe and three other officials in irregular housing contracts.

Mlaba was alleged to have had shares in a company that nearly landed a R3-billion tender to convert the city's waste to energy.

Dube said a company linked to Mlaba had allegedly expressed an interest in the tender and that was a breach of the municipal code of conduct.

The report claims that Sutcliffe, who controlled the city's R25.9-billion budget, contravened the Municipal Finance Management Act when he allegedly failed to promptly report irregular expenditure in dodgy housing contracts in writing to the mayor, the MEC and the auditor-general.

It also alleges that Sutcliffe contravened the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act by not reporting fraud and corruption in a housing tender to the police.

Sutcliffe, who is currently overseas, has not yet responded to the allegations.

However, it was reported that he had said the allegation that he did not report corruption was "absolute nonsense".

The media report also stated that Sutcliffe demanded to know why Dube's sister was not implicated when "she was conducting business with the metro where she was an employee".

Nxumalo said yesterday he was not aware of Dube's sister's business dealings with the municipality.

An ethics committee has been established to investigate allegations that 10 councillors had business contracts with the municipality.

Nxumalo said 30 employees who had businesses with the municipality had already been disciplined and that the 123 officials implicated in the report would be investigated.

"It must be understood that we are dealing with processes but those that are found guilty will face the full might of the law," he said.

Nxumalo said the report did not signal a crisis in the municipality.

"It is, however, a wake-up call for us to arrest toxic practices that seemed to characterise the behaviour of our officials and councillors, disregarding applicable supply chain management processes," he said.

"It is also revealing that if we address these loopholes within our systems of governance, the municipality could be on its way to achieving a clean audit before 2014.

"We are therefore determined to root out the scourge of maladministration that has been afflicting us in recent years."

DA caucus leader Tex Collins said his party was part of the council but would continue to play an oversight role as the opposition party.

"We will provide checks and balances as the opposition party. We have to hold the ruling party accountable and no one will stop us from doing that," he said.

3.5 Loud ‘wake-up call’ to arrest toxic practices

Edward West, Business Day, 9 February 2012

Allegations of corruption at eThekwini Municipality have been around for some time, but the extent of it exposed in forensic auditing firm Manase & Associates’ report was startling.

James Nxumalo, recently appointed mayor of SA’s second-biggest city, said yesterday the municipality intends to act on the many recommendations for disciplinary action and further investigation contained in the report.

Those councillors, officials and employees concerned will be given a chance to state their case on the findings, but it seems likely many will face disciplinary action.

The report recommends disciplinary action for many department heads and 10 city councillors. It found that 123 employees were doing business with the municipality, in addition to 38 staffers already identified in the auditor-general’s report for the 2009-10 year.

"This report does not signal a crisis. It is a wake-up call for us to arrest toxic practices," says Mr Nxumalo. The actual report has not yet been made public and the media have been provided only with a synopsis of it — ostensibly because the municipality needs to dissect the report further to address the problems identified.

The corruption casts a pall on eThekwini’s reputation as one of the better performing local governments in Africa, and a city that also has a robust financial structure compared with other municipalities in SA.

The city council intends to submit a plan to deal with the report to co-operative governance and traditional affairs MEC Nomusa Dube within 21 days, and implement the strategy over the following three months.

The Manase report was the outcome of an African National Congress (ANC) approach to the c o-o perative g overnance and t raditional a ffairs department to check the veracity of the corruption allegations contained in an earlier audit done by Ngubane & Company. This report had been initiated by former municipal manager Michael Sutcliffe, after the auditor-general had raised concerns about R532m of irregular expenditure in the 2009-10 financial year.

The auditor-general’s report for 2010-11 showed that irregular expenditure rose sharply to more than R1,3bn last year.

The first probe had exposed serious problems in some municipal departments, such as the metro police and housing.

Of R532m in irregular expenditure in the year to June 30 2010, R428m was related to the housing unit. However, there was no evidence that disciplinary action was taken relating to this expenditure, according to the synopsis drawn from the new report.

Many documents in the housing unit were "unsigned" or "undated". Other problems included differences in values; letters of appointment awarded to contractors prior to completion of the tender document; tender documents not being completed; and handwritten unsigned alterations to tenders.

"The investigating team has identified so many deficiencies in the documents provided by the b id a djudication c ommittee to render them useless and inadequate...."

An example of one problematical housing project was the Hammond’s Farm housing scheme in Verulam, where cost and time overruns pushed the capital cost to R351m from R68m. In other housing cases, the report showed poor feasibility studies. There were problems of faulty workmanship, attributed to weak controls by various stakeholders.

In some instances, variation orders were not tabled with the city council. The communities were not given reasonable notice or invited to submit representations. Also, a contractor was not registered with the right industry body and there was little supervision and management for quality control purposes.

On the metro police, the report identified problems that included overtime irregularities, trainee constables who had purchased their licences, senior officials with direct family links to other metro police employees, and staff operating other businesses such as taxis and in one instance, an abnormal loads business.

The ANC controls 51 of 61 municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal, many of which are in a parlous financial state and saddled with the kind of corrupt practices that have been exposed in eThekwini. The Inkatha Freedom Party’s eThekwini Metro d istrict chairwoman, Thokozile Gumede, called for the suspension of all those implicated by the Manase report.

"We view the findings of this report as an abuse of power and resources. It is a betrayal of the millions of voters who voted for good service delivery, not self-enrichment of councillors and officials," Ms Gumede says.

Congress of South African Trade Unions provincial secretary Zet Luzipo says of the report: "We note its findings with serious concerns on how rules were flouted due to greed. What this reveals is the extent of rot in our municipalities, but also the type of cadre we have when we do deployment."

Mr Luzipo says a review of tenders as a service delivery mechanism was required as tenders had become a "source of all evil".

Democratic Alliance (DA) chief whip Dean Macpherson says the report confirms the party’s long-held view that all is not well with the administration in the city. "That so many senior officials have been named as being potentially guilty of irregular activities is proof that for far too long Durban has been run by a coterie of seemingly corrupt individuals," he says.

The DA has called for those councillors named in the report to be suspended from all council activities, pending the outcome of disciplinary action or prosecution.

The Manase report may serve as an example to other municipalities that they too need to get their houses in order, just as eThekwini is being forced to.

3.6 Zuma unleashes SIU on fraud, corruption at Eskom

Faranaaz Parker, Mail & Guardian, 9 February 2012

Over the next three years, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) will investigate Eskom's operations for evidence of corruption, fraud or maladministration, by proclamation of the presidency.

Key areas of focus identified by the SIU's initial assessment are Eskom's coal procurement and transport services, as well as undisclosed interests held in companies doing business with the parastatal.

The intervention is being made at Eskom's request.

"Eskom came to us -- they took the initiative and requested the intervention," said SIU spokesperson Marika Muller. According to Muller, Eskom is the first state-owned enterprise to request such an intervention. While not unheard of -- government departments have in the past made similar requests -- the request is not common.

After making its initial assessment, and in line with the legislation that governs the way the SIU operates, the unit reported back to the justice ministry and president and recommended that the president authorise a proclamation that would allow it to proceed with a full investigation.

The proclamation was authorised on Tuesday. It empowers the SIU to use a range of special powers, including ordering people to cooperate with its investigations by producing specific evidence or appearing before the SIU to answer questions under oath.

A team of SIU investigators will work with Eskom's in-house forensic team to conduct a systematic check of all Eskom divisions. Any criminality uncovered will be referred to the National Prosecuting Authority and the South African Police Service.

Eskom announced its partnership with the SIU in March last year. At the time, Eskom's chief executive, Brian Dames, said: "We have made it a strategic imperative that Eskom must be a high-performance organisation. Our partnership with the SIU will help us to achieve that."

Dames said the move was part of a drive towards greater efficiency and transparency, and that the initiative was in line with Eskom's commitment to stamping out corruption and strengthening governance. He said appropriate action, including criminal prosecution, would be taken should corrupt activities be uncovered.

Chris Yelland, managing director of industry publications company EE Publishers, endorsed the move. "The bottom line is that Eskom can't lose by going into this," he said. "They're taking a proactive stance against corruption even if it is within their own ranks. If something suspicious is found, they'll deal with it which is exactly what the public wants to hear."

In recent years Eskom has suffered an onslaught of setbacks including

a power crisis and a series of rolling blackouts;
a breakdown in trust between its board, former chairperson Bobby Godsell and former CEO Jacob Maroga;
a poor relationship with the media and the public;
allegations that its coal procurement processes were in shambles and its coal division in a near state of collapse;
a conflict of interest in a multibillion-rand tender deal involving the ANC's investment arm Chancellor House;
a major accident at the Duvha power plant which threatened the power supply.

The parastatal has seen something of a turnaround since Dames took over as CEO in mid-2010 and although questions still remain about Eskom's ability to keep the lights burning, there has been during his tenure a greater emphasis on communicating regularly with the public.

3.7 Whistle-blowers point finger at more journalists

John Yeld, Cape Argus, 8 February 2012

Journalists who received “brown envelope” payments for writing politically biased stories are still working for Western Cape newspapers and the politicians who paid them still hold prominent positions, say the whistle-blowers who first reported the scandal in 2005.

On Tuesday Roger Friedman and Benny Gool, owners of public relations company Oryx Media, spoke publicly for the first time about the issue of payments to journalists by the Western Cape administration of Ebrahim Rasool, allegedly to support the “Rasool faction” of the regional ANC against that of political rival Mcebisi Skwatsha, who was ANC provincial secretary at the time.

Allegations about the payments are repeated in the Nel Report, which was commissioned by the ANC to investigate a number of issues in its Western Cape region, including the “brown envelope” matter.

A copy of the report was released this week under court order in terms of a Promotion of Access to Information Act brought by the Cape Argus.

Friedman and Gool are named as the principal witnesses in the report, which summarises their account of payments to the then political editor of the Cape Argus, Joe Aranes, and political writer Ashley Smith.

Aranes never admitted receiving payments and later resigned, while Smith resigned before an internal disciplinary hearing against him was completed.

Smith later made a confession in which he spelled out how he and Aranes had been paid, but in his affidavit, signed in June 2010, he said he did not know of any journalists, other than the two of them, who had been paid.

Friedman and Gool told the Cape Argus on Tuesday that they were certain that “a group” of journalists had been involved.

“At the time, it was almost like everyone knew about it within the circles we moved in,” said Gool.

“There would be the scene in the mall (at a coffee shop) every day, the group (of journalists) was sitting discussing it every day and you could see the people who were there, sitting in full view of everybody.”

Friedman said biased reporting had become obvious when they subsequently tracked stories that appeared in various publications, and that Aranes had confirmed to him that a number of journalists had been involved.

“At the outset Joe told me… and I said to Joe: ‘You’re bloody mad. First of all it’s illegal, but second it’s not sustainable, these politicians will use you and spit you out, you can’t do it.’

“And he said to me: ‘Don’t be an idiot, I’m not doing it, I’ve got people’ – (he said) people, plural, not (just) Ashley Smith.”

Friedman said they had testified to the Nel inquiry.

“We went in and did what we’re doing now; we agreed to speak on the record and to tell the truth.”

Friedman said he had not studied the 11-page interim report closely but he believed it reflected “fairly accurately” what they had told Nel.

Gool said they were both “surprised and concerned” by the report.

“My concern particularly is that there are still journalists who were involved… who are still in newspapers and I’m concerned that they are still operating with impunity.”

Friedman added: “In fact, there were people on both sides of the transaction who are still in the system, whether in journalism or in government.”

Asked why they would not name the other journalists involved, Friedman said they had always been “very cautious” about naming people.

But they were adamant that the evidence was available through a thorough analysis of reporting and column-writing.

Gool said that when they had raised the alarm initially, they had not been believed.

“We were concerned that at some point the Argus itself did not take this seriously – it’s been on the table for a very, very long time.

“And I think that as time went by, we were (proved) correct in this thing.

“I’m glad that the Argus has taken the stand to cleanse this process now. I’m happy that it’s gone to court.

“This is a serious issue

and the Argus does need to continue on this path and take this thing and investigate it and come up with the truth.”

Friedman said they’d initially believed that their warnings to people “at a very senior level in Independent Newspapers and the ANC” would have been enough to resolve the problem.

“In a sense we tried to blow the whistle on this thing. With hindsight, that was very naive, because it appears that neither (party) was particularly keen to clear it up.

“(But) both of us have a feeling that the present hierarchy at the Argus are serious and they can see the seriousness of this and do want to clean it up.”

4. Comment

4.1 Unions will test and rescue Zuma

Editorial, Business Day, 9 February 2012

It is a good thing that the annual state of the nation address is a largely symbolic event, much like the opening-of-Parliament ceremony itself. President Jacob Zuma is not really in a position to make any earth-shattering announcements this evening. With Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s annual budget speech a couple of weeks away and the ruling party’s five-yearly policy conference scheduled for July, it would be surprising indeed if Mr Zuma were to use the opportunity to reveal any substantive changes to government policy.

Nor should he, even if the circumstances were different. The state of the nation address is about the president’s vision for the country, not nitty-gritty issues of governance. It is Mr Zuma’s opportunity to explain in broad brush strokes where he sees SA going from here and what we should be doing to get there, to inspire us to all pull in the same direction, and to convince us that the considerable challenges we face can be overcome.

This is the one presidential speech of the year in which rhetoric can be forgiven in the interests of unity, nation-building, patriotism, pomp and ceremony. But that does not mean it has no value. The government is not short on policies — far from it — but there is a dire need for it all to be pulled together and given direction.

Another word for that is "leadership", and it’s something Mr Zuma has studiously avoided for much of his first term. But the past few weeks have revealed that — when it is in his interests politically or when pushed into a corner — Mr Zuma is quite capable of acting decisively. The disciplining of African National Congress (ANC) Youth League president Julius Malema and a draft policy paper rejecting nationalisation are cases in point.

The good news is that pressure is building on a number of fronts in SA, which suggests we will see Mr Zuma’s leadership abilities tested more often in the coming months. Or years, if he survives the party’s electoral conference at the end of the year. The bad news is that, in some crucial respects, his political survival demands that he avoid offending the left wing of the ANC, which may mean he will try to kick a few crucial policy cans down the road until after Mangaung.

With the ANC’s nationalist faction now firmly smacked down, Mr Zuma needs the support of the left if he is to serve a second term — and they know it.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is already flexing its muscles, threatening a national strike if its demand that labour brokers be banned is not met, warning of chaos if the tolling of Gauteng’s freeways proceeds, and digging in its heels to frustrate the Ministry of Basic Education’s efforts to get teachers to do their jobs.

The state’s job-creation programme will undoubtedly feature prominently in Mr Zuma’s address, as it should. But however much gloss is put on the situation, this will not change the fact that the government will not achieve its target of 5-million new jobs by 2020.

The slight fall in the unemployment rate in the final quarter of last year is certainly better than nothing, but it would be dishonest to sell this as a turning point. The quarter in question coincided with a period of rand weakness, which always stimulates manufacturers briefly, and a significant proportion of the new jobs were created in the public sector, which places a question mark over both their cost to the economy and their sustainability.

There is a limit to how much longer the state can continue transferring resources from the private sector in the form of taxes to create jobs of dubious productive value in the public sector. The state payroll is already bloated and the tax burden is becoming a drag on the private sector’s ability to grow and create sustainable employment.

In addition, as many as 25% of jobs created are facilitated by a labour broker. Mr Zuma is going to have to choose soon between Cosatu’s support and improving the state of the nation.

4.2 You get the government you deserve

Jabulani Sikhakhane, Star, 9 February 2012

Gwede Mantashe hit the nail on the head this week when he said that the education mess in the Eastern Cape would only be fixed when parents in that province woke up to the fact that the education of their kids was their responsibility.

The Eastern Cape Department of Education was taken over by the national Department of Basic Education last year in terms of section 100 (1) B of the constitution. The takeover came after the Eastern Cape had overspent its education budget for salaries, failed to provide textbooks and stationery, and suspended its transport programme for pupils.

The national government has since taken over Limpopo’s Education Department and four other departments in that province because of financial mismanagement.

The ANC secretary-general told a media briefing this week that the fixing of the province’s education “will take the people of the Eastern Cape appreciating that the education of their children is their responsibility”. Mantashe was briefing journalists at the weekend meeting of the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC).

He cited Tembisa, where parents took it upon themselves to sort out schools in the Ekurhuleni township, where teachers were arriving at 10am and leaving at 12pm.

“That community went there and beat them up and said: ‘If you don’t want to work, disappear.’ Since then Tembisa has actually become a serious point of teaching and learning,” Mantashe said.

“The matric results reflect that.

“In the Eastern Cape, parents cannot be passive and wait for a disaster to happen. They must wake up and ensure that their kids learn,” he added.

“That is how serious the situation is, but if parents don’t see themselves as having a responsibility for the learning and teaching of their own kids, there is a big problem.”

Perhaps the beating up part should be ignored, but Mantashe’s core message is spot on, not only about education but a whole range of public services.

Democracy is not only about putting one’s mark on the ballot box once every five years to elect national, provincial or local government, but it calls for the day-to-day active participation of the citizenry.

Francis Fukuyama makes the same point in State Building: Governance and World Order in the Twenty-First Century.

He defines state-building as the creation of new government institutions and the strengthening of existing ones.

The development or strengthening of institutions, Fukuyama says, cannot take place in the absence of the demand by domestic constituencies.

“The majority of cases of successful state-building and institutional reform have occurred when a society has generated strong domestic demand for institutions and then created them out of whole cloth, imported them from the outside, or adapted foreign models to local conditions.”

He concludes that insufficient domestic demand for institutions or institutional reform is the single most important obstacle to institutional development in poor countries.

“Such demand when it emerges is usually the product of crisis or extraordinary circumstances that create no more than a brief window for reform,” writes Fukuyama.

The National Planning Commission (NPC) echoes Fukuyama.

In the National Development Plan published in November last year, which has since been endorsed by the ANC’s NEC as the framework for national planning, the commission says the transformation of SA does not depend on highly technical processes, but rather on the participation of citizens.

Such participation, the NPC says, is provided for in legislation, especially in education (school governing bodies) and in local government.

Informal arrangements already exist in other areas, including community police forums and health committees.

The importance of school governing bodies (SGBs), for example, was underscored last month by Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga when she launched the SGB election season.

“Research has shown that learner achievement is dependent also on the level of support and active involvement of parents and members of the community,” Motshekga said.

“It is uncontested that SGBs play a crucial role in the success of schools. Schools with effective and efficient SGB members are most likely to secure greater success than those with limited parental and community involvement.”

The focus therefore by Cosatu shop stewards this week on SGB elections is an encouraging sign that trade unions are taking the education of their children as seriously as they do their working conditions.

The same seriousness of purpose needs to be extended to participation by citizens in the provision of a whole range of other public services, especially those that President Jacob Zuma’s administration chose in 2009 as priorities for its five-year term of office. These are education, healthcare, reduction of crime, rural development and agrarian reform, and the creation of decent jobs.

“Active citizenry requires showing inspirational leadership at all levels of society. Leadership here does not refer to one person, or even a tight collective of people,” the NPC said.

“Leadership should mobilise communities, or parts of communities, to take charge of their future, raise grievances and assume responsibility for outcomes.”

One certainly hopes that the governing party will do its bit by removing any obstacle, including itself, to citizens taking charge of their future.

4.3 Malema: the elephant in the room

Mathatha Tsedu, Star, 9 February 2012

‘Former ANC Youth League president Julius Malema”. That is going to take some getting used to. “Suspended ANCYL president” was a new one that we got used to in the past few months. It wasn’t too difficult, after all, suspended has an air of suspension in it. Like you are hanging there, not permanent, to pass soon.

But former is something else. It is a sign of a has-been, once was, but not anymore.

And for Juju boy, it means life on the outside. Outside of inside, where you once not only were, but held centre stage.

Outside can be a bad place to be, unless you were never in, in which case outside is not really outside. It is just not inside. Real outside when you were once inside can be extremely cold. You soon discover how fickle comradely solidarity is or can be.

The crowds of hangers-on start thinning, calls come in dribs and drabs, and when you leave a message to be called back, people suddenly take inordinately long, where once they would have returned your calls immediately. But even this stage is not the worst, for a new outsider.

The crunch comes when those who used to call you are no longer doing so, tell you they will call you back when you call, because they are on another line (with somebody more important than you). And then they never call back, until you do so yourself.

Real world is brutal, Juju may find out soon. He may well remember the words of supreme wisdom given to him by ANC deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe just over a year ago. Speaking to him in Sepedi, Motlanthe told him to watch his mouth and his actions.

“The ANC is a huge organisation and no matter how important you think you are or how people make you feel important, if you keep saying these things one day e tla go sotlha ya o lathlela kuwa kgole. (It will chew you and spit you far away)”.

What chairman of the appeals committee Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Saturday was a carefully crafted exercise of chewing and spitting. It was done with finesse: there are rules that we all bind ourselves to when we join the ANC, the rules enjoin us to behave at all times in a particular manner. Ramaphosa is good at these things: “We looked at all issues raised exhaustively,” he said.

And then the killer punch, the appeal cannot stand. But just like the Nazis who would punish their own who were found abusing people destined for the gas chamber, an air of fairness is important. Derek Hanekom, chairman of the ANC’s national disciplinary committee, was right to find you guilty but he should have heard your evidence in mitigation. So I am sending you back for that.

On the face of it, Hanekom is being rapped on the knuckles. It is called the face of a functioning and good-intentioned bureaucracy.

But at its core was the brutal decapitation of Juju. For Malema, the sentence was and is irrelevant. Once found guilty, he was gone, due to the earlier suspension. So as President Jacob Zuma would say, why beat a dead snake, five years was flogging the dead, guilty was enough.

And Ramaphosa and his committee were clear on this. The status quo needed Juju out and they have delivered the blow. And with it, the carrot of dividing the youth league leadership is dangled.

Take league secretary-general Sindiso Magaqa. What a choice he faces. Grovel to Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba publicly and thus desert Malema because if he does as demanded he can save his skin and position? Or stay with Malema in the wilderness by refusing to apologise, and then what?

Ramaphosa doesn’t make the choice for Magaqa, he wants him to make it himself. How more cruel can you get?

In the main, the case against the five was really against two of them. Juju and Floyd Shivambu. Shivambu is (was) the spokesman-cum-magazine publisher who cannot stand pesky journalists. Journalists are told, in the name of the ANC, to f-off or that they are white bitches.

In court for the same charge, Floyd can’t remember saying such things, or he possibly couldn’t have said them because they are not part of his everyday vocabulary.

A young man with a pretty good brain, it is lost in translation due to exaggerated self-importance, a sense of omnipotence, and a “can’t-touch-me” attitude. Together with Juju they saw themselves as the “It kids”. They could do and say as they wished. But as Motlanthe warned, that belief was premised on a fallacy.

What now? Who now? If I were Limpopo ANC chairman and premier, Cassel Mathale, I would be very worried and afraid. I would go back to all the nasties I have been mouthing and start the apologies now.

Beyond that I would mend my ways, if that is not too late already.

For Juju the verdict strips him of a membership he desperately needs to galvanise against Zuma. Not that it practically stops him, but he cannot do it in the name of the ANC. He has to go underground, and yet his value in pulling people is when he is above board.

Underground has dangers for those colluding with a persona non grata.

Added to this could be the other small triple issue of the Hawks, Public Protector Thuli Madonsela and the taxman.

All this as Zuma consolidates for Mangaung II in December. And Juju, once described by the same Zuma as worthy of inheriting the leadership of Langalibalele Dube’s movement, will wonder what and where he went wrong.

And then ultimately the elephant in the room. What exactly is the ANC leadership game plan in slapping Malema et al? Is it the start of a clean-up campaign against bad, corrupt and corruptive elements and influences in the organisation? Or is it just an exercise of authority against the obnoxious while leaving the merely bad in?

If the answer is the latter, then mission accomplished. But if it is the former, besides Juju and his Limpopo brigade, who else is bad, corrupt and needs weeding? Can all the people remaining in the ANC leadership explain their own lifestyles and financial situations?

To be direct, by way of example, if President Zuma was only a few years ago unable to pay school fees for his own children, how is he able today to legitimately add R40 million of “personal money” to a R65m revamp budget for his Nkandla compound? Or is this not a legitimate question to ask in the circumstances?

Don’t hold your breath for answers because embedded in that question would be a fate for virtually every one of the ANC leaders. And how many of them can risk asking that question without precipitating their own destiny with Juju’s fate?

4.4 Labour’s big strike twofer

Sipho Hlongwane, Daily Maverick, 8 February 2012

The government seems unwilling to budge on the e-tolling and labour broker issue. Cosatu has been raging against the two for a while now. They now seek to end the impasse by staging a huge strike on 7 March. And you’re invited along.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) really hates labour brokers. They’ve used every opportunity available to them to complain about brokers. They’ve called them all sorts of nasty things. And they’ve pushed really hard on that permanently open debating platform, Nedlac, to have them banned by the government for exploiting workers.

Speaking at a youth job summit last year, Cosatu president Sidumo Dlamini said, “Our most immediate target is to ensure that we develop labour legislation that can effectively ban labour brokers because we believe that labour brokers cannot coexist with the country's overarching objective to create decent jobs.”

So far, all they have received from the government is stony silence on the issue.

The other new pet peeve of Cosatu is the e-tolls that have been erected around Johannesburg. In both cases, the federation argues that money is being taken out of the pockets of workers. Trying to set up a negotiation forum with government on the new toll gates has been made particularly difficult by transport minister Sbu Ndebele’s constant flip-flopping on the issue.

Business Day reported that the minister now says the e-tolling system will definitely go ahead, but they were looking at a number of options to make the system “not so burdensome” on motorists.

In January, Cosatu called for a mass strike to happen on 7 March 2012. Every single Cosatu affiliate is being called to mobilise its members for the cause. The union reiterated the call on Tuesday.

“The government is telling us not to cut off dialogue, but we cannot move from our position. We do not want tolls,” Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said. “We want the right to use public roads without having to pay for it. What's next, will it be tolls for Cape Town and Durban? The government should be focusing on ensuring safe, affordable and reliable public transport, so that ordinary people can get home after work without being mugged and raped.”

In its statement on what it expected from the president’s State of the Union address, the federation said that it hoped that President Jacob Zuma would announce that brokers have been banned. “It would be great news if we were to hear the president announce that labour broking is to be banned!” the statement says.

The spokesman for the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) Tahir Sema confirmed the union was mobilising its members to join the strike action.

The DA shadow minister for transport Ian Ollis said their position on the issues was clear: the party agrees with Cosatu with regards to e-tolling, and are exploring legal action to stop the tolling of Gauteng highways. “With regards to labour broking we disagree with Cosatu as we believe that stiff regulation is a better option than a ban as it will save jobs rather than lose them,” he said.

Earlier reports have suggested that Cosatu wants to shut down schools and hospitals, but Cosatu spokesman Patrick Craven described this characterisation as journalistic mischief. “We are not targeting schools or hospitals with this strike,” he said. “We are appealing to anybody who wants to join us to do so. On the e-tolling issue we expect to receive support from outside of our membership.”

He described the negotiations between Cosatu and the government at Nedlac as being in a state of failure.

Cosatu currently faces a number of challenges. For a kick-off, things are not as hunky dory within the federation as they might have been in the past. Last year, the top leadership was struggling to keep all the various member organisations pointed in the right direction. The upper crust of Cosatu will have to smooth over those bumps before all the organisations pull together on this one.

New research also suggests that the nefarious nature of labour brokers may be greatly exaggerated by Cosatu.

“Research from the University of Cape Town's Development Policy Research Unit (DPRU), shows that of the 3.4-million jobs created since 1994, about 1.2-million jobs were created in the financial and business services category. Of these, in turn, 900 000 positions were filled through labour brokerages and security services,” the Mail & Guardian reported. That would be a whopping 75% of jobs in the financial and business services category being owed in some way to brokerage services.

However, Craven said that they have always argued that labour brokers do not create jobs, but simply provide to companies what they would have obtained of their own volition anyway. “Companies would have needed those workers anyway. It is totally misleading to suggest that they [labour brokers] create jobs,” he said.

4.5 Corruption Watch: David Lewis' Sisyphean task

Mandy de Waal, Daily maverick, 9 February 2012

It’s been two weeks since former Competition Tribunal chairman David Lewis put his shoulder to the boulder by becoming executive director of the Cosatu-inspired Corruption Watch. As part of an ongoing series on corruption, MANDY DE WAAL spoke to Lewis about the massive task of stemming SA’s graft tsunami.

When President Jacob Zuma celebrated the ANC’s centenary in Bloemfontein last month, his speech was pregnant with nostalgia about the ruling party’s liberation of the oppressed from the shackles of apartheid. Hopefully there’ll be no playing Call Back the Past when Zuma steps up to the podium for the State of the Nation address on Thursday night, only the blunt facts of success or failure.

Zuma goes to the podium with glaring misgivings when it comes to corruption. He has a couple of anti-corruption agencies without leadership and the Constitutional Court clock is ticking on the matter of the legitimacy of the Hawks. There’s the National Planning Commission view that corruption isn’t quite that pressing and can be handled by a multitude of agencies, while civil society is applying growing pressure for a single, independent agency to fight corruption.

Damningly there’s the perception that corruption-busting in Limpopo is all about putting Zuma’s enemies in place. And then there are the statistics. The latest South Africa Survey published by the SA Institute of Race Relations shows the control of corruption, a key area of democracy, is slipping. We’ve also slipped 10 places down Transparency International’s corruption index in the past year.

But corruption isn’t just eroding local confidence and public resources, it’s shattering global trust in government’s efficacy. The latest issue of The Economist reads: “For most South Africans, the stench of graft, patronage and greed surrounding the ruling party itself is now too strong. The romance, solidarity and heroism of the days of struggle have gone. In the popular mind, ANC people, from the president down, seem keener on power, status and ostentatious wealth than on improving the lot of the poor. Always a broad church, the ANC is riven with factionalism and in-fighting. Lip service is paid to the old ideals, but the party seems increasingly rudderless. It has lost its way." As we edge toward the 20th anniversary of this country’s democracy, the lustre of freedom is being replaced by the ruin of rot.

“If I was a political leader I would be concerned,” says David Lewis, the former trade unionist and Competition Tribunal chairman who is now Zwelinzima Vavi’s right-hand man at Corruption Watch.

“Factions in the ANC are coming to be organised around access to public resources and I am sure that is not what the ANC would like to think of itself as. It erodes confidence in all public institutions, in government, political parties and not in an insignificant extent, in business as well,” says Lewis, who adds, “Corruption generates a diminishing trust in government, so you reach a state where government makes reasonable proposals, but people suspect there is something else behind it. Then you’re headed for trouble.”

Set up by Cosatu with an annual budget of about R12-million and 19 staff, Corruption Watch has the right board – Vavi, Bobby Godsell, Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane, Kate O’Regan and Mary Metcalfe. Donors and supporters include the J&J Group Development Trust, the Open Society Foundation, SAB, the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust and the IDC among others. It has gravitas, good will and the right kind of people in place, but let’s not underestimate the task.

“People have woken up to how badly we are doing on this front, how far we are slipping back and what the implications are. There are implications for service delivery and many of the so-called service delivery protests are often the consequences of corruption. People in leadership are beginning to recognise that the electorate thinks it is not getting what it feels it should be getting and that corruption is standing in the way of getting it,” says Lewis, who believes there is a new and much broader sense of urgency at the highest levels of government when it comes to dealing with the overwhelming problem of graft.

“People do see corruption as a bit of a tsunami. I do as well,” he confesses. “You read all the good work done by all the newspapers – we have this really robust media – and the irony is that it breeds a sense of despair.” An important part of what Corruption Watch does is to re-engender the idea that people are not just passive victims, but can act to stem the depressing tide.

The scale of corruption in South Africa is massive, but difficult to quantify because there’s so much disparate research and no central database for tracking and reporting on incidents. A valuable contribution Corruption Watch will make is tracking, differentiating and aggregating the complaints it has now started receiving online and through the number 011 447 1472. When there’s enough data and the tools are ready, Corruption Watch will take an open approach to the information and will share aggregated information.

“Everything we do will be made public on our website, and we will try to present it in such a way that it appeals to both the Business Day and Daily Sun reader. We want to try to customise it for different audiences,” says Lewis. The idea is that ordinary people will be able to view and work with data so they can see which ward councillors are most implicated in graft, petition for better services or rally around real calls to action and specific municipal improvements instead of corruption being an abstract.

“By encouraging the flow of information, we hope to demonstrate that even though corruption may be rampant, the people who are corrupt and who are benefitting from corruption are much smaller in number than elements which are not corrupt. Eventually we want to start a process and conversation that isolates the corrupt and makes them the pariahs they should be,” says Lewis, who dreams of a future South Africa where societal “fault lines” will separate the moral from the corrupt.

Like a latter-day Hercules, Lewis has the most daunting of challenges, but he’s taking a carefully focussed approach to killing a many-headed hydra. Arming ordinary people with information could be a potent quiver in his arsenal, and the killer blow may well be making people accountable for their crimes. 'Naming and shaming' culprits on a central database, ensuring people don’t just get golden handshakes and wander off into the hinterland and, most importantly, guaranteeing that people pay back misappropriated funds or receive punitive measures would prove powerful deterrents to the virus that is corruption.

The real breakthrough could well be making people accountable and responsible for their actions. “We want to start thinking about civil litigation to sue people who have damaged communities or damaged the economic interests of others as a result of corrupt activities,” says Lewis. “People who allow corrupt tender decisions to be made should be held to account in the same way that boards of directors are meant to be held to account for their collective action. It is not easy to bring class actions in the South African legal system, but we will test that kind of thing.”

An open-source approach to corruption that is independent of government, litigates against the corrupt, fights for the underdog and holds those who exploit power to account. This sets Lewis up as some kind of 'caped crusader', but if ever we needed an anti-corruption hero it is now.

Patrick Craven (National Spokesperson)

Congress of South African Trade Unions

1-5 Leyds Cnr Biccard Streets

Braamfontein

2017

P.O.Box 1019

Johannesburg

South Africa

Tel: +27 11 339-4911/24

Fax: +27 11 339-5080 / 6940

Mobile: +27 82 821 7456

E-Mail: pat...@cosatu.org.za

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