Media Monitor 10 November

The Young Communist League has called on President Jacob Zuma to intervene to end the turf wars involving Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa, his deputy Fikile Mbalula and National Police Commissioner Bheki Cele.

The SACP youth wing said Zuma had to improve relations between ministers and their deputies.

“We cannot afford this kind of situation and call on President Zuma to move with speed in ensuring that ministers and deputy ministers know and understand their roles in line with government priorities,” the YCL said in a statement.

The Sunday Times reported that the trio were outdoing each other over who gets more media coverage .

With Cele, politically more senior in the ANC but more junior than Mbalula and Mthethwa in government, the turf wars are about who is boss in crime-fighting efforts.

The matter is complicated by the fact that Mbalula, as former president of the ANCYL, was once Mthethwa’s senior.

“Government priorities cannot be compromised by turf wars or competition for publicity,” the statement said.

“The YCLSA noted the commitment by President Zuma that he would ensure there were clear guidelines to govern the relationship between ministers and deputies.

“We believe this should be done so that roles are clearly determined.”

YCL spokesperson Gugu Ndima said similar divisions dogged former president Thabo Mbeki’s cabinet, citing tensions between then minister of health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and her deputy Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge.

2.2 See-saw swings mayor’s way again

By Babalo Ndenze, Daily Dispatch, Council Reporter, 10 November 2009

THE ANC’s provincial leadership has instructed its Amathole region to withdraw all disciplinary proceedings against Buffalo City Municipality executive mayor Zukisa Faku, a decision one member said could lead to “anarchy”.

The Amathole region and the party’s provincial leadership are headed for a collision course after the region was instructed to halt all disciplinary proceedings against Faku and six other Buffalo City councillors.

Former Chief Whip Sonny du Plessis has also been instructed to stop his legal bid to have the appointment of Mandla Sithole as Buffalo City’s new municipal manager set aside.

The decisions were taken at a provincial working committee (PWC) meeting yesterday.

Following the meeting, ANC provincial spokesperson Mlibo Qoboshiyane said the decisions would be communicated to the Amathole regional executive council (REC) at a meeting tomorrow.

Faku was expelled from the ANC by the Amathole region last week for bringing the image and reputation of the ruling party into disrepute.

She faced 12 charges, including her alleged misuse of council credit cards. Qoboshiyane said the PWC met to discuss issues regarding BCM. “A decision was taken that we will meet with the REC of Amathole on Wednesday,” said Qoboshiyane.

He said the meeting was to ensure that there was “stability” in BCM.

“The first issue is that the current employment of the mayor is reaffirmed. The second issue is to ensure the administrative stability of the municipality. We advised that the litigation launched by Sonny is not endorsed by the ANC. We advise that he must retract that litigation,” said Qoboshiyane.

Du Plessis, who was stripped of his Chief Whip position last month, claims in court papers that the decision by the BCM council confirming Sithole’s appointment as municipal manager was “significantly procedurally flawed”.

Qoboshiyane said the PWC “firmly believes” that all disciplinary hearings should be halted.

“The ANC at the level of the province is to engage the REC. We’ve taken note of what has been happening in Buffalo City,” he said. He could not say what actions might be taken against the region or Du Plessis before tomorrow’s meeting.

But Amathole regional secretary Mziwamadoda Sotshana said the PWC’s interference could lead to “anarchy” in the party.

“We run the organisation in terms of the constitution. They could lead the organisation into serious anarchy if they intervene in the disciplinary process,” said Sotshana.

He said the decision to expel Faku was already with the national disciplinary committee for appeal.

Yesterday, Faku declined to comment, saying she was unaware of the PWC’s decision.

Du Plessis said he would make a decision only after meeting with his lawyers. “I will only comment after consultation with my legal team. It is a matter that’s in court,” he said. -

2.3 Marcus takes helm at the Reserve Bank

Pretoria News, November 10, 2009 Edition 1

South Africa's first woman central bank governor, Gill Marcus, began work yesterday.

Marcus, 60, is a former deputy governor of the Reserve Bank and former deputy finance minister as well as former chairwoman of Absa, South Africa's biggest retail bank.

She replaces Tito Mboweni, the country's first black Reserve Bank governor, whose prudent monetary policies over the past decade are credited with having helped stabilise the economy and attract and retain foreign investment during the first years of democracy.

An activist with the ANC in exile during apartheid, Marcus was a popular choice for the job.

Marcus is expected to come under pressure from leftists in the ANC and its SACP and trade union allies to take a more flexible approach to inflation. – Sapa

2.4 Manuel to keep his commission

By Nkululeko Ncana, Times Live, 10 November 2009

The ANC's top leadership has stomped on demands by its leftist allies for the powers of National Planning Minister Trevor Manuel to be reduced.

At its meeting at the weekend, the ANC's powerful national executive committee decided that Manuel would head the yet-to-be-established National Planning Commission, whose job will be to set the country's public-spending priorities.

The decision came only days before the ruling party holds a crucial summit with its alliance partners, trade union federation Cosatu and the SA Communist Party.

In recent months, Cosatu has led a spirited campaign to have either President Jacob Zuma or his deputy, Kgalema Motlanthe, head the commission in a bid to curtail Manuel's powers.

But ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said yesterday that party leaders had "agreed" that a commission would be established in terms of the agreements reached with Cosatu and the SACP at the last alliance summit, held last year.

"Everything that emerges now that is falling outside of what we agreed on [in] those important meetings of the alliance and the ANC are irrelevant.

"There will be a planning commission chaired by the minister in the presidency [and] it will be constituted by external experts. That is the model that we will have of the National Planning Commission.

"It is not new, it is what we had agreed, and we are not going to shift from that and do other things," Mantashe said.

The decision to keep Manuel in the driving seat of the commission is likely to dominate the alliance summit, which runs from Friday to Sunday, with Cosatu and the SACP trying to overturn it.

Though Cosatu and the SACP at first agreed with the composition of the commission, they began opposing it when they realised that the minister in charge would be Manuel - their ideological foe, whom they blame for the government's "conservative" economic policies.

The ANC's alliance partners were also unhappy about the appointment of external experts to play a role in the commission - a move, they said, that amounted to outsourcing policy development.

Cosatu and the SACP want cabinet ministers to be directly involved in the commission.

But Mantashe said that the NEC felt that having ministers involved in the planning commission would create "turf wars".

He said ministers had their hands full and having them directly involved in the commission would "derail" their focus.

He said the NEC's decision should come as no surprise because it was one of the options agreed to by the party's economic transformation committee - which includes Cosatu and SACP representatives.

Mantashe said the NEC' s reasoning in taking its decision would be explained to the alliance partners at their forthcoming summit.

2.5 ANC played race card to defend Maroga: Zille

Busuness Report, November 9, 2009

The ANC played the race card to defend Eskom chief executive Jacob Maroga, Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said on Monday.

"Bobby Godsell was given a mandate to turn Eskom around."

"When he tried to address one of the biggest stumbling blocks to delivery -- poor management of the utility -- the ANC played the race card to defend their cadre," she said in a statement reacting to the resignation of Godsell, the Eskom board chairman.

"Not once did the government consider the facts, weigh the evidence, or judge on the merits of the case," she said.

Zille said the power parastatal was failing to deliver on its mandate, subjecting citizens to large power price increases as a result of this failure.

This required the government to act decisively, but "instead it chose to fuel a tirade of racial rhetoric which resulted in the resignation of Bobby Godsell".

"... This had nothing to do with the ANC at all. It should have been a decision of Eskom's board."

"The fact that politicians overrode the board shows that the ANC is totally ignoring the boundaries between party and state," Zille said.

The "real story" behind Godsell's resignation would reveal "the full extent of the ANC's abuse of power", she said.

The Freedom Front Plus said Godsell's departure would cost South Africa dearly.

The party said the former Anglo American boss had the skills to turn around Eskom, whereas Maroga's "hopeless management" had cost the country R50 billion because he failed to heed warnings about the coal crisis.

"The resignation of Mr Bobby Godsell... is a wrong decision which is to the detriment of Eskom and the South African electricity consumers," the party said.

Godsell's decision to step down would hurt investor confidence and lead to job losses, the party said.

If reports that Godsell met with President Jacob Zuma on Sunday were true, "the conclusion can be drawn that there was political pressure on Mr. Godsell to resign", it added.

Zuma would have shown a lack of confidence in Public Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan's ability to handle Eskom's management crisis, and that he had bowed to pressure from the ANC Youth League, the Black Management Forum and the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa, who all defended Maroga. - Sapa

2.6 Tributes paid to Eleanor Kasrils

By Staff Writer, Cape Times, 9 November 2009

Eleanor Kasrils will be "remembered as one of the heroines of our struggle, who spurned the opportunity for a privileged lifestyle, so that she could devote her life to the service of the people", said Cosatu.

Politicians, political parties and alliance partners have come out in tribute of the struggle stalwart who died suddenly on Sunday after suffering a stroke. She was 73.

Former president Thabo Mbeki offered his sympathies: "It is a tragedy for all of us who fought for freedom side by side with her. Sadly, yet another combatant in the noble army of freedom fighters has fallen."

Cosatu spokesman Patrick Craven said Kasrils would be remembered for her devotion in the struggle to end apartheid and for a "non-racial, non sexist and democratic South Africa".

2.7 '500 000 new jobs not enough'

By Caiphus Kgosana and Carien Du Plessis, Independent Newspapers Political Bureau, 10 November 2009

While Public Works Minister Geoff Doidge is confident that his department is on track to create the promised half a million jobs by next month, ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe says this would not match the number of jobs already lost in the recession.

Doidge told journalists at Parliament yesterday that 223 000 work opportunities had been created by the second phase of the Expanded Public Works Programme between April and August this year.

This was a vast improvement on the 81 000 work opportunities created between January and April 2009, and put his department in a good position to reach the 500 000 mark by December, Doidge said.

But Mantashe, briefing journalists yesterday on the outcomes of the ANC's national executive committee meeting held in Joburg at the weekend, said the impact of the global financial crisis was beginning to tell.

"The global economic crisis has created serious instability in the labour market and the ANC is concerned that, in the immediate future, job opportunities created cannot match the number of jobs lost," he said.

Figures released by Stats SA this month indicated that more than a million people were not economically active, and that more than half of them were so discouraged, they no longer sought work.

While Mantashe warned that the government might be losing its battle to create 500 000 short-term jobs by December, Doidge was confident the target would be met.

Mantashe said the global economic crisis was hitting sectors like mining, manufacturing and construction very hard, although the larger construction companies seemed to be weathering the storm a bit better. He said the party was not so much worried about reaching the job creation target as it was about "what we can do to come out of this recession".

"But the commitment (to creating) 500 000 jobs is still there," he said, adding that the private sector and departments other than Public Works should help to create jobs."If government creates 500 000 jobs but other sectors lose 1 million jobs, you can't say you have filled 500 000 jobs. It is not just the responsibility of government," he said.

Mantashe said the most important thing at present was to mitigate the impact of the global economic crisis. Doidge, meanwhile, said his department was seeking R235-million from the National Treasury to create an additional 10 000 jobs for home-based carers and early childhood development workers.

About 42 000 carers who are on the department's database receive stipends of up to R1 000 a month working in community-based childcare centres and home-based care operations.

Meanwhile, the Department of Social Development has indicated that 23 000 distressed households have been assisted with temporary food parcels, grants and other services such as school transport help.

2.8 ANC shuns Cosatu, SACP

Carien Du Plessis, Independent Newspapers Political Bureau, 10 November 2009

The ANC has held firm, backing Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel to chair the National Planning Commission after calls by Cosatu and the SACP that he be sidelined.

The party's national executive committee (NEC) had agreed at its meeting at the weekend that the commission would be chaired by Manuel and comprise "experts" from outside the government, as envisaged in Manuel's green paper, ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said yesterday.

Mantashe said all proposals made by the planning commission would be presented to the cabinet for "interaction and endorsement".

The ANC's decision would be tabled during the alliance summit scheduled for this weekend.

Mantashe said it would not come as a surprise to the ANC's alliance partners as they had been party to discussions by the party's economic transformation subcommittee.

"I don't think we will not have an agreement (on this) in the summit. This is an implementation of decisions taken already," Mantashe said.

He emphasised that Manuel's green paper on strategic planning, released in September, reflected the policy position of the ANC and its allies, as it was decided at the party's 2007 national conference and an alliance summit a few months later.

The ANC, Cosatu and the SACP met yesterday to iron out what Mantashe called "irritants".

Mantashe declined to identify the "irritants", but Cosatu and the SACP have been vociferously opposed to what they say is a risk of Manuel's accruing too much power as the head of the planning commission, and want his wings clipped.

A Cosatu proposal was that President Jacob Zuma or Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe chair the commission.

Mantashe said the NEC had discussed the options of including cabinet ministers in the commission, a mixture of ministers and experts, or experts alone.

The last option was chosen to avert "turf wars" among ministers.

Experts would be more "neutral and objective".

Just who was to serve on the commission had not been decided as a "model" for its operation had yet to be determined, Mantashe said.

He could also not say from which fields the experts would be drawn.

Concerns about attacks on individuals were raised at the meeting. Mantashe said these would also be discussed at the summit, as they had an impact on the unity of the alliance.

ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa has also been under fire. He was castigated by the Young Communist League for telling business groups in London recently that nationalisation was not ANC policy.

"It is easy for us to be at each other's throats publicly, but that has a negative impact on the unity and the cohesion of the alliance," Mantashe said.

"So we are saying let's do what is best for us without limiting the rights of people to express views. We are saying: talk to policies, talk to issues." Mantashe also announced yesterday that the ANC planned to hold its January 8 birthday celebrations in the Northern Cape.

Its national general council meeting would be held in KwaZulu-Natal in September.