Media Monitor 11 March 2008

The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) said negotiators reached a deadlock in pay talks in January. The company stuck to a 5% increase in response to the union’s demand of a 15% raise.

The fact that members would not be processing medical claims during the strike would impact on all users of the schemes, the union said.

“We apologise for this but we can no longer allow companies to make super profits and not pay living wages.”

Nehawu said other medical aids administered by Medscheme were BMW, Extrata, Fedhealth and Liberty.

According to the Cape Town phone directory, Medscheme also administers AECI, Barlow, Anglo American, the SABC, Independent Newspapers, Group 5, Siemens and the University of the Witwatersrand.

Nehawu Western Cape provincial secretary Suraya Jawoodien told Sapa the focus of the action was Medscheme’s Pinelands site in Cape Town, where claims were processed.

“That has been halted,” she said. “We’ve got an almost 100 percent turnout of strikers.”

The national total of union members who downed tools came to about 1,000.

Jawoodien said Nehawu’s national leadership entered into new talks with Medscheme in Johannesburg this morning, at Medscheme’s request. - Sapa

1.2 Building‘s closure leaves Bay residents out in cold

Hendrick Mphande, The Herald, 11 march 2008

RESIDENTS of Nelson Mandela Bay are feeling the impact of the strike by members of the South African Municipal Workers‘ Union (Samwu) following the closure of the Eric Tindale municipal building.

Since last week, residents visiting the building in Govan Mbeki Avenue to pay their municipal rates and bills have been turned away because the doors have been locked.

In a full-page newspaper advertisement, Mayor Nondumiso Maphazi apologised for any inconvenience suffered as a result of the strike.

DA councillor Elizabeth Trent believes the strike has a serious implication for service delivery. “The DA has requested an urgent council meeting over the issue but we are disappointed no one has come back to us,” she said.

The union is calling for the reinstatement of Samwu provincial chairman David Toyise, the withdrawal of the recruitment policy by the employer and an immediate end to all privatisation and outsourcing.

Provincial Samwu legal officer Mnikelo Camagu said the union was considering legal action against the municipality and police management following the police‘s use on Thursday of stun grenades, rubber bullets and pepper spray to disperse the crowd in Govan Mbeki Avenue. Scores of Samwu members were also arrested after they invaded Port Elizabeth‘s 2010 stadium, disrupting work.

Samwu provincial secretary Siphiwo Nduyana said the mayoral committee had had a fruitful meeting with the union on Sunday and hoped the strike would be resolved soon. Municipal spokesman Lourens Schoeman could not confirm or deny such a meeting had taken place.

However, he said the Eric Tindale and Brister House buildings had had to be closed because union members had poured out poisonous substances in the offices.

2 Workers’ issues

2.1 Two men in court after farm worker dragged next to bakkie

Janine Oelofse Garden Route Bureau Chief, The Herald, 10 March 2008

TWO men have appeared in the George magistrate‘s court on charges of attempted murder for dragging a farm worker‘s relative by his hair alongside a bakkie.

The men, brothers Jakobus and Gert Oosthuizen, were granted R2000 bail each on Friday and will appear again on April 22.

According to Southern Cape police spokesman Captain Malcolm Pojie, one of the brothers grabbed Willem Paulse by the hair and dragged him beside the bakkie for 50m.

During this time the bakkie drove over Paulse‘s leg but the brothers drove off, and did not help him. Paulse managed to get to hospital on his own.

Apparently he had been visiting his relatives at Apple Grove farm outside Blanco near George. The relative works on the farm.

According to reports, both brothers have previous convictions for assault and theft.

Jakobus Oosthuizen works for a tyre company and his brother, Gert, is a foreman at the farm.

The provincial organiser of the Food and Allied Workers‘ Union, Abubakah Fredericks, attended the court proceedings on Friday and strongly condemned the attack.

He said racism could have played a role and added that Fawu would not allow farm workers to be intimidated or treated as less than human.

2.2 Man dies in mining accident

IOL, 0 March 2008

A man was killed at the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine near Klerksdorp on Sunday, gold company Simmer and Jack said on Monday.

The man died in a locomotive accident in the mine's number two shaft, said the company's spokeswoman, Gail Strauss.

"All tramming has been stopped pending an investigation into the accident," said Strauss.

Gordon Miller, chief executive of Simmers, said: "We extend our sincere condolences to the family of the deceased and wish to assure them of the company's support in this difficult time." – Sapa

2.3 Health worker shortage hampers service delivery

SABC, 10 March 2008

The Gauteng Health Department says a desperate shortage of skills is seriously hampering the operations of health facilities in the province. It has acknowledged that the country is not producing enough students with science subjects, maths and biology.

Gauteng Health MEC Brian Hlongwa says various factors have led to the shortage of health personnel. He says part of the problem is working conditions and remuneration.

The South African Nursing Council says they have more than 35 000 registered nurses in South Africa. However, many of them are working in non nursing professions. Remuneration has been highlighted as the biggest challenge facing the health sector.

"We need to do more to promote this profession to young people," says Hlongwa. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) there should be 200 doctors per 100 000 people however in Gauteng there are only 29 doctors per 100 000 people.

The Health Department is convening a three-day summit of stakeholders in Johannesburg starting tomorrow. The summit is aimed at developing a human resources planning framework.

Mpumalanga doctor resigns

Meanwhile, the controversial head of Mpumalanga's Health Department, Dr Confidence Moloko, has resigned. Moloko was appointed in April 2006 and during his time, scores of health care workers, including doctors, resigned accusing him of bad management.

Moloko was accused of failing to fill vacancies in hospitals, failing to consult others before taking decisions on behalf of hospitals and clinics and failing to pay staff for overtime.

The National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (Nehawu) has long been calling for the dismissal of Moloko. The union has blamed the doctor for the shortage of doctors in the province.

2.4 NEHAWU demands suspension

Tshwarelo eseng Mogakane, News24, 10 March 2008

The National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) is demanding the immediate suspension of Mpumalanga's sports and culture head Sindisiwe Mjwara after tabling a "dossier" allegedly proving massive tender irregularities, nepotism, tribalism, and mismanagement.

Nehawu claims that Mjwara awarded a R26m contract to supply sporting equipment to a company with which she is linked.

Nehawu also claims that Mjwara has systematically employed people from her home province, KwaZulu Natal (KZN), ahead of better qualified locals - allegedly as part of a tribal nepotistic network to create a local powerbase for her supporters.

The dossier, which includes source documents allegedly proving the irregularities, has been filed with premier Thabang Makwetla, as well as culture, sport and recreation MEC Jabu Mahlangu, finance MEC Mathulare Coleman, the South African Revenue Services (SARS), and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

A copy of the dossier has been leaked to African Eye News Service.

Mjwara refused to comment on Friday, referring all questions her spokesperson, Sammy Mpatlanyane.

Mpatlanyane declined to comment saying it was against departmental protocol. He referred questions to provincial government spokesperson Lebona Mosia who said he could not comment as he had not been properly briefed on the matter.

'False claims'

Nehawu's cover letter on the dossier demands that Mjwara be suspended pending a full forensic investigation into the claims.

The union, which is one of the largest in the Congress of South African Trade Unions, claims that Mjwara awarded a R26m contract to KZN-based Smartly Fabulous Trading & Investments to supply sports equipment for rural outreach programmes.

The contract was irregular, Nehawu claims, because the company allegedly falsely claimed to have already had a three year contract with KZN's Agriculture and Environmental Affairs Department - which is headed by Mjwara's husband, Jabulani Mjwara.

Nehawu further claims that the company was registered in November 2006, and not in 2003 as claimed in tender documents, and questions its tax status.

"Tender documents also show that the (company) tendered on the basis of privileged/insider information, and that it pre-processed the tender specification documentation," Nehawu contends.

"We therefore believe that there is conflict of interest between Mjwara as an accounting officer and her (links) to the close corporation."

But that's not all. Nehawu also accuses Mjwara of irregularly appointing Gauteng-based entertainment company, T-Musicman, on a three-year R9m contract to manage Mpumalanga's contentious MacFest International arts festival.

The provincial executive committee cancelled the contract along with MacFest last year after ruling that proper procedures had not been followed.

'Incompetent, immature, inexperienced'

Amongst the litany of nepotism and cronyism charges are claims that Mjwara appointed a close friend from KZN as her personal assistant, despite the woman scoring much lower points than other applicants during interviews.

The same PA, according to Nehawu, singed as the only witness to the R26m contract, which should have been signed by the chief financial officer (CFO), legal adviser or manager in the HOD's office.

"Mjwara is incompetent, dishonest, ill disciplined, immature, inexperienced, visionless and totally unfit to be an accounting officer because of her relationships with people of dubious moral standards," Nehawu insists in its bluntly-worded dossier.

Nehawu's Mpumalanga secretary, December Manana, said the dossier was compiled by branch structures within Mjwara's department, and was still being studied by provincial structures.

2.5 PetroSA covered up dodgy hirings, says union

Ingi Salgado, Business Report, 10 March 2008

The secret findings of a commission set up to investigate allegations of irregular recruitment procedures at PetroSA have led to friction between the state oil and gas producer and its largest union, a Cosatu affiliate.

The Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers' Union (Ceppwawu) blew the whistle on 24 alleged irregular appointments last year, 10 of which centred on Tiny Maisela, PetroSA's vice-president of human capital.

The parastatal's board established an independent commission led by attorney Thabo Kwinana, a non-executive director of Matodzi Resources, to probe the allegations. But the board has refused to release Kwinana's report.

"PetroSA is of the view that the report is the property of the company," said Ceppwawu president Pasco Dyani. "But I imagine we are stakeholders … The matter must be handled responsibly, not swept under the carpet."

After Dyani held discussions with some board members last week, PetroSA chief executive Sipho Mkhize issued a communiqué to staff on Wednesday.

"The commission revealed that some allegations had substance and others not," Mkhize wrote. He did not identify which allegations had substance, but pointed out that they had not been tested through cross-examination.

PetroSA and Maisela were discussing ways of addressing what Mkhize described as "a high possibility of a breakdown in relations", which included the possibility of an "amicable separation".

But Kholly Zono, Ceppwawu's PetroSA chairman, said organised labour believed that a disciplinary hearing involving Maisela should have been set up since the commission found some allegations had substance. "We believe the board chose that route in order to give her a golden handshake. It creates a precedent for other executives."

Zono, aggrieved that Mkhize said the union had agreed to waive cross-examination of evidence, wrote an open letter to Mkhize saying the company was attempting to "tarnish our name and question our integrity as leaders". He said Maisela had been consulted on the content of Mkhize's communiqué.

Maisela could not be reached for comment. Questions submitted to PetroSA's communications department went unanswered. The phones of Mkhize, who had said earlier that he would be available at the weekend, and PetroSA spokesperson Neil Lewis were switched off.

2.6 Miniskirt assaults continue on Women’s Day

Daily Dispatch, 10 March 2008

TWO Limpopo women were abused for wearing miniskirts as the world was celebrating Women’s Day.

The SABC said the two women had to flee the Malamulele taxi rank in Limpopo on Saturday because they were wearing miniskirts.

The report said that a crowd of men shouted obscenities at the women and told them to undress.

The two women had to seek refugee inside a tent used as a barber shop.

The attack came two weeks after Nwabisa Ngcukana, 25, was undressed and assaulted by taxi drivers and hawkers, because she was wearing a miniskirt, at Johannesburg’s Noord Street taxi rank. Her story drew condemnation, with marches organised against the taxi drivers’ actions.

On Saturday, International Women’s Day, KwaZulu-Natal’s premier, Sibusiso Ndebele, denounced the earlier attack on Ngcukana.

“Today more than a billion people in the world, the great majority of whom are women, live in unacceptable conditions of poverty, illiteracy and abuse,” he said. “It is against such abuse as ... (was) experienced by the woman who was stripped naked by chauvinist males at the Noord Street taxi rank ... that we need to intensify our struggle for the total emancipation of women.”

The Young Communist League said there could be no “real” liberation without the liberation of women. “Women of South Africa and the world have unapologetically played a significant role in the struggle to defeat oppression ... (and) patriarchal and exploitative regimes ... to construct a ... society free from exploitation and oppression,” said the league’s Castro Ngobese. — Sapa

2.7 Airline docks workers' leave

Karyn Maughan, The Star, 11 March 2008

Nationwide staff have been forced to take the embattled airline's nine-day grounding as leave or pay up.

And angry cabin crew say their objections to the scheme, under which some staff who have resigned have had their salaries docked by thousands of rands, have fallen on deaf ears.

"We've been told that everyone must make sacrifices to save money for the company … and for the betterment of the Nationwide family," claimed one stewardess, who last week handed in her resignation.

Speaking to The Star, the Airline Pilots Association of South Africa (Alpa) confirmed on Friday that it was addressing grievances raised by "a significant number of Nationwide pilots".

Alpa chairperson Tony Laubsher said, "Our industrial practitioner is looking into the complaints, but we can't go into detail about what they involve. We hope that the situation can be resolved amicably," he said.

Nationwide spokesperson Rodger Whittle told The Star yesterday he was "aware" of the pilots' complaints but was unable to comment further.

"Our human resources manager is the only person who is dealing with this and he is not available," he said.

Nationwide has been hit with at least 30 resignations since the airline was grounded last year, after an engine fell off one of their planes.

The pilot who steered the disabled plane to safety, first officer Daniel Perry, is among the staff who have resigned.

Perry is due to start at a rival airline on May 1.

2.8 Assmang operations limited to short capacity until August

Slindile Khanyile, 11 March 2008

Assmang would operate at full capacity only by the end of August when furnace six, which killed six people last month, was reopened, Jan Steenkamp, the company's executive director, said yesterday.

Steenkamp said the first four furnaces would be operational at the end of this month. Furnace five would be started up at the end of next month.

Furnace six would be the last to resume production, because it still had to be installed with protection walls, which would prevent future injuries or fatalities in the event of an explosion.

Production at Assmang was halted three weeks ago following prohibition notices by the labour department. This was a result of the furnace explosion that killed the six workers.

The KwaZulu-Natal agriculture and environmental affairs department reacted to the incident by stopping the environmental impact assessment (EIA) on the firm's plans to expand the plants by building two more furnaces.

These would have cost more than R1 billion and would have created at least 120 jobs.

Steenkamp said: "We received two letters from the department on Friday.

"It gives us everything that we are supposed to do and the timelines, which range from 30 days to six months."

He said the company was still discussing whether to continue with the expansion plans.

Shareholders African Rainbow Minerals and Assore were also questioning if they should pour more capital into Cato Ridge.

The company is reassessing its expansion plans at Cato Ridge. Steenkamp said: "For now, we will continue with the EIA once all the compliance issues have been done, but we are discussing the expansion plans. The events that have happened have negatively influenced the decision."

An expert appointed by the firm and the unions has finished the assessment and made recommendations. Steenkamp said the company would meet the labour department on Thursday to discuss the findings and recommendations.

The firm's ferromanganese smelter is also facing an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the excessive exposure of its workers to the poisonous manganese dust.

Three months ago, a furnace exploded and one person was killed.

3 Union matters

3.1 Tensions run high between Numsa and Cosatu

SABC, 10 March 2008

Tension over National of Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) General-Secretary, Silumko Nondwangu's pending disciplinary action, is intensifying.

The union's biggest region, Ekurhuleni, has threatened to withhold its subscription fees to the Congress of South Africa trade union (Cosatu).

"We will call on Numsa members to suspend paying affiliate fees to Cosatu," says Numsa chairperson in Ekurhukleni, Stanford Ndobo.

Nondwangu and dismissed Cosatu President, Willie Madisha, were on the Polokwane nomination lists in President Thabo Mbeki's camp during the ANC's policy conference.

Nondwangu says he is still waiting to hear from Cosatu on the disciplinary steps the federation announced that it would take against him.

Numsa's National Executive Committee, which held its meeting a week ago, has called for a meeting with Cosatu to discuss Nondwangu. The organisation is still adamant that Madisha's dismissal needs to be revisited.

3.2 Nondwangu pays price for opposing Zuma

Matuma Letsoalo and Rapule Tabane, Mail & Guardian, 7 March 2008

The political future of Silumko Nondwangu as leader of the Congress of South African Trade Unions's powerful National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) appears to be in tatters.

He is due to appear before Cosatu's disciplinary committee for agreeing to be on President Thabo Mbeki's national executive committee list in defiance of the labour federation's formal endorsement of African National Congress president Jacob Zuma.

Now the Mail & Guardian has learned that the campaign to topple him as Numsa's general secretary has intensified ahead of the union's elective congress in October. Sources within Numsa told the M&G that some leaders within the union structures aligned to Zuma have been working hard to persuade its members to oust Nondwangu.

The Zuma group is pushing for Irvin Jim, Numsa's regional secretary in the Eastern Cape, to replace Nondwangu as the union's general secretary.

"There is a strong view within Numsa structures that he must go. Politically, he is not where other unionists are," said one provincial leader who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Within Cosatu, some leaders who are sympathetic to Nondwangu believe the federation's intention to charge him aims at preventing him from succeeding Zwelinzima Vavi as Cosatu's general secretary.

The Zuma group wants Vavi's successor to be Fikile "Slovo" Majola, general secretary of Cosatu's health and education union, Nehawu.

Nondwangu's ideological conflict with other Cosatu leaders is an open secret. He is one of the few leaders in Cosatu who has criticised the federation's endorsement of Zuma as ANC president. He also objected to the federation's decision to identify people who should be included in ANC leadership positions. His argument has been that, instead of Cosatu interfering in the ANC's internal affairs, it should be paying more attention to workers' interests.

His view is that the trade union movement should not allow itself to be an instrument for attaining political office for individuals.

In a discussion paper titled The NDR and the Struggle for Socialism: Can Trade Unions Lead the Struggle for Socialism?, which he presented at the Harold Wolpe Memorial Lecture last year, he wrote: "Perhaps the real and fundamental debate that we should pursue is not whether trade unions can or cannot lead the struggle for socialism, but rather the possibility of them being turned into instruments for struggles for political office …

"There is a body of literature in many parts of the world where this has happened. The continent has got a fair share of this experience. We are yet to learn how far the MDC [Movement for Democratic Change] in Zimbabwe will have abused the ZCTU [Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions]."

He added that Frederick Chiluba in Zambia brutally used the Zambian Congress of Trade Unions not only to become president of the country but to reverse 30 years of gains Zambian nationalists had won for Zambian workers.

"Have we taken the time to study … these experiences … and to understand how, in the midst of confusion and generated expectations of the post-colonial society, ordinary workers become the most vulnerable instruments for … sometimes dubious political projects?" he wrote.

Nondwangu quoted former SACP general secretary Joe Slovo saying that a trade union would be committing suicide if it tried to simultaneously play trade union politics and have an overall revolutionary leadership. "A trade union cannot carry out this dual role … the very nature and purpose of the trade union disqualifies it from carrying out tasks of a revolutionary vanguard."

He argued that it was difficult to find a balance between overburdening a union with class politics and reducing it to a burial society which members join on the basis of what benefits the union provides.

"The fundamental issue, though, is to safeguard trade union independence … irrespective of the immediate interests and conditions."

He warned against the union clamping down on differences of opinion within it.

"I have strong views in this regard that unions are gradually becoming what one comrade in Nigeria told me recently: 'A group appropriating an organisation for its own sake and not for the masses.'"

3.3 Fidentia curator blames union's investment arm

Donwald Pressly, Business Report, 11 March 2008

Fingers should be pointed at officials in the National Union of Mineworkers investment arm, who invested about R800 million in Fidentia even though it did not have a credible financial record or history, Fidentia curator Dines Gihwala told MPs yesterday.

He reported to a parliamentary adhoc committee on mine worker investments in Fidentia that much of this investment had been moved from a reputable investment house, Old Mutual, which had a long history and record, and inexplicably placed with a company that effectively operated at the time from "a garage".

The question had to be asked: ''Why would people [investors] do that?'' He said he did not wish to defame people, but the behaviour was odd.

Gihwala suggested that certain people at the mine workers' union "need a visit from people in uniforms".

He was hopeful of getting about R100 million back from various investments made by Fidentia in property, including a beach front property at New Horizons in Port Elizabeth and the Constantia home of a former director, Graham Maddock.

Gihwala hoped to raise about R6.3 million from Maddock's property alone. Maddock, he noted, had been recently convicted of fraud and sentenced to 49 years in jail, of which he would serve seven years.

Maddock pleaded guilty to more than 100 charges in connection with the theft of about R215 million, including from the transport sector education and training authority.

Gihwala said Arthur Brown, the former head of Fidentia, still believed he and Fidentia had done nothing wrong. The curators could not lay claim to his assets as they were all held in trusts. Brown was challenging his and his wife's sequestration in court at the end of next month.

Much of the money invested in Fidentia had been spent on game farms, coastal property and rugby and football clubs, noted Gihwala.

The curators had recovered about R93 million for the mine worker union's provident fund for widows and orphans and about R90 million had been paid out so far.

Asked whether Fidentia had effectively been shut down, he said it was currently in "high care", but it was eventually going to die.

The Mail & Guardian reported recently that 70 percent of the money belonging to widows and orphans lost by Fidentia could have been recovered. It quoted Winston Matlala, a pension fund specialist, as saying he had advised the mine workers' provident fund to sever ties with Fidentia.

He had also warned the trustees they could face legal claims from beneficiaries. About 49 000 beneficiaries are associated with the fund.

3.4 More Fidentia arrests expected

Linda Ensor, Political Correspondent, Business Day, 11 March 2008

The axe is about to fall on more people implicated in defrauding investors of about R1bn in the collapse of financial services company Fidentia, curator Dines Gihwala said yesterday.

He said more arrests were in the pipeline, but refused to disclose the identities of those targeted for fear of alerting them. These were people directly and indirectly involved, he said.

“We have also issued summonses against various entities and are looking to institute an action against an institution which we believe is culpable and without whose acquiescence the fraud (could) not have happened,” Gihwala said.

He would not disclose the identity of the institution as this was quite sensitive to the investigation.

If this litigation was successful, curators could gain up to R100m for investors and thereby raise the likely refund from about 30c in the rand to 35c-40c in the rand, he said.

Gihwala briefed an ad hoc parliamentary committee established to investigate matters relating to the former Mineworkers’ Union on the progress of the curatorship. The issue was of concern to the committee as the Mineworkers’ Union Provident Fund invested R789m in Fidentia.

He urged the committee to investigate why the mineworkers’ provident funds were transferred from a well-established institution such as Old Mutual to Fidentia which had no track record. He said there was “something improper” in this which the committee needed to look into.

Former transport, education and training authority CE Piet Bothma has been charged with theft and fraud for allegedly accepting R5m in kickbacks for investing the Seta’s funds with Fidentia.

Gihwala said there was a difficulty in realising the assets in the present economic climate.

For instance, Fidentia financial director Graham Maddock, convicted and jailed for seven years for fraud and theft, had handed over R6,3m in assets to the curators, including a holiday home in Cape Infanta and a home in Constantia. However, the downturn in the property market might mean that the full amount was not obtained.

Gihwala said R93m had been recovered so far, of which R90m had been paid out by the end of November as stipends to widows and orphans. A significant part of this was recovered from the South African Revenue Service, in the form of VAT paid on fraudulent transactions to provide them with a cloak of legitimacy.

Curators believe that Fidentia gained control of the R1,47bn in Living Hands trust fund, which was holding money for 46000 widows and orphans, before paying the R94m for Living Hands administration company. It is alleged money from the trust fund was in fact used to purchase the administration company.

4 Alliance politics

4.1 Zuma clarifies media 'misrepresentations'

Mail & Guardian, 10 March 2008

African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma on Monday sought to "clarify" recent statements of his, which he said had been misrepresented in the media, and denied having been "summoned" by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) to explain some of them.

"There have been a lot of reports in the media in the past two weeks on remarks made by the ANC president at public engagements, which are claimed by various journalists and commentators to be inconsistent with ANC policy," he said in a statement.

"I would like to clarify some of the points made, as they have been grossly misrepresented by some sections of the media."

On the issue of labour-market flexibility, the ANC's Polokwane conference had resolved that creating decent work opportunities was the primary focus of ANC economic policy.

At the same time, given the existence of two economies in the country, it was necessary to continuously seek ways of improving the lot of people in the second economy.

"That is a reinforcement of our policy. Not a deviation. As the ANC, we will continue to guard and work to deepen the hard-won rights of workers.

"I chose to brief a meeting of the Cosatu central executive committee on this matter as I felt I needed to explain to them what was fast being distorted by the media.

"I was not 'summoned' by Cosatu as some sections of the media reported," Zuma said.

Neither was there any ambiguity in the ANC's position on the death penalty, "as I have consistently stated", he said.

The ANC was opposed to capital punishment, for cogent reasons.

"I have also made it clear that we are a democratic country and that it would be difficult for us as the ANC to tell people they cannot debate whether or not there should be a referendum on the matter.

"It would be a contradiction if we say we believe in democracy, but refuse to allow people space to tell us what they think."

However, a debate would not change the fact that the ANC's policy and the Constitution remained very clear on the right to life of every South African.

"We who believe in this view should be ready to defend it through engagement and persuasion, not through denying others a platform to state their views."

Dialogue

Regarding affirmative action, Zuma said that during an interaction with trade union Solidarity, a white parent had asked on behalf of his young son whether he would battle to find a job when he finished school due to the affirmative action policies.

"I indicated that I welcomed Solidarity's view on affirmative action, in which they stated clearly that they were not opposed to the policy, but wanted to engage us on how we can find a way to accommodate white South Africans, especially with regard to scarce skills where no suitable black candidates were available.

"I said there should be dialogue on the matter. As the ANC, we welcome interaction between the different formations of organised labour in the country.

"We believe the sharing of views would enable us to deal with any perceptions that may exist within the white community on affirmative action."

Media hype around an interview he had with Britain's internationally circulated Financial Times, which reported he said President Thabo Mbeki no longer had any powers, had been mischievous.

"It is a misrepresentation of what I said in the interview," Zuma said.

It had been repeatedly stated that the ANC government implemented ANC policy.

Therefore, all ANC members in the government, from a national to a local level, were accountable to the movement.

This was nothing new. Nor should it change simply because the positions of ANC president and president of the country were held by different people.

"The powers, duties and responsibilities of the President of the Republic, which are prescribed by the South African Constitution, have not been changed or diminished."

On ANC policy, Zuma said the party continuously monitored and evaluated implementation of its policies in various forums and conferences.

The ANC had a responsibility to engage in these processes to ensure its policies were advancing the objective of a better life for all.

"That is why I said that policies should not be seen as equivalent to the Ten Commandments.

"Instead, they should be open to review and ongoing interrogation," he said.

Meanwhile, Cosatu on Monday joined Zuma in taking issue with the media.

"The editors, journalists and analysts responsible for this biased coverage are people who consistently opposed Zuma's bid for the presidency," said Patrick Craven, Cosatu's spokesperson, "and are now trying to undermine the democratic decision of the ANC conference by a policy of biased and malicious misreporting of his speeches." -- Sapa, I-Net Bridge

4.2 Zuma bids to clear air as ANC denies gag

Amy Musgrave, Political Correspondent, Business Day, 11 March 2008

AFRICAN National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma felt compelled yesterday to “clarify” comments he has made to several minority groups on issues such as the death penalty and affirmative action over the past fortnight, resulting in a statement yesterday.

Zuma’s statement came after the party also had to fend off claims that it had gagged him.

Yesterday, though, Zuma was backed by his close ally, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), which said it condemned the way his speeches had been “grossly distorted” by the media.

Zuma’s charm offensive in the past two weeks started going sour not so much because of his visits, but because of comments seemingly in conflict with ANC policy.

In the statement Zuma stuck to his guns, saying that his call for a debate on the death penalty and affirmative action was not in conflict with the ANC’s policy.

“It would be a contradiction if we say we believe in democracy, but refuse to allow people space to tell us what they think. In the course of such a debate, some people may be persuaded to change their views,” said Zuma.

“A debate would not change the fact that the ANC’s policy and the country’s constitution remain very clear on the right to life of every South African citizen. We who believe in this view should be ready to defend it through engagement and persuasion, not through denying others a platform to state their views.”

Zuma also raised eyebrows last week with his statements on affirmative action to a gathering of trade union Solidarity , with some interpreting what he said as a call to review the policy. He said the ANC would be willing to discuss affirmative action with the mainly white union because the laws were meant to redress inequalities of the past, but not at the expense of a certain ethnic group.

“I said there should be dialogue. As the ANC, we welcome interaction between the different formations of organised labour. We believe the sharing of views would enable us to deal with any perceptions that may exist within the white community on affirmative action,” he said yesterday.

Zuma also denied that Cosatu “summoned” him, during its recent central executive committee meeting, to account for remarks on a more flexible labour policy.

Zuma said at the Cosatu meeting he would “lay down his life” for the rights of workers after he made a case in the Financial Mail for uplifting SA’s “second economy”, by asking: “Is it not possible to have the flexibility so that you can address both the first and second economy?”

He stated yesterday: “On the issue of labour market flexibility, the Polokwane conference resolved the creation of decent work opportunities is the primary focus of ANC economic policy.

“At the same time, given the existence of two economies in the country, we need to continuously seek ways of improving the lot of people in the second economy. That is a reinforcement of our policy, not a deviation.”

Zuma said he chose to brief the Cosatu meeting because he needed to explain “what was fast being distorted by the media”.

Zuma also defended himself, saying at the Solidarity supper that ANC policies were not equivalent to the “Ten Commandments” — they should be open to review and continuing interrogation, as the policies had to represent what the majority wanted.

Cosatu spokesman Patrick Craven said an analysis of Zuma’s speeches showed he was in line with resolutions adopted at the ANC elective conference last year.

4.3 Zuma sets the record straight

Michael Hamlyn, The Times, 10 March 2008

Jacob Zuma, the leader of the African National Congress (ANC), believes his views have been "grossly misrepresented" recently. And today he issued a long statement setting the record straight.

Zuma said that on capital punishment all he meant was that it would be difficult for the ANC to tell people they cannot debate whether or not there should be a referendum on the matter.

"There is no ambiguity in the ANC’s position on the death penalty, as I have consistently stated. The ANC is opposed to capital punishment, for cogent reasons," Zuma said. "I have also made it clear that we are a democratic country. It would be a contradiction if we say we believe in democracy, but refuse to allow people space to tell us what they think. In the course of such a debate, some people may be persuaded to change their views."

On affirmative action, Zuma explained that he welcomed Solidarity’s view on affirmative action, in which they stated clearly that they were not opposed to the policy, but wanted to engage on finding a way to accommodate white South Africans, especially with regard to scarce skills where no suitable black candidates were available.

"I said there should be dialogue on the matter," he said. "As the ANC, we welcome interaction between the different formations of organised labour in the country. We believe the sharing of views would enable us to deal with any perceptions that may exist within the white community on affirmative action."

On the issue of labour market flexibility, Zuma recalled that the Polokwane conference resolved that the creation of decent work opportunities was the primary focus of ANC economic policy. "At the same time, given the existence of two economies in the country, we need to continuously seek ways of improving the lot of people in the second economy," he said. "That is a reinforcement of our policy. Not a deviation."

He said he chose to brief a meeting of the Cosatu central executive committee on this matter. "I felt I needed to explain to them what was fast being distorted by the media," he said. "I was not ’summoned’ by Cosatu as some sections of the media reported. We should not be afraid to listen to other views and to persuade each other of the correctness of our positions."

He said that the media hype around an interview he had with the Financial Times, which reported that he said the President of the Republic no longer had any powers, was mischievous. "It is a misrepresentation of what I said in the interview," he said. "We have stated repeatedly that the ANC government implements ANC policy.

"Therefore all ANC members in government, from a national to a local level, are accountable to the movement. This is nothing new. Nor should it change simply because different people occupy the positions of ANC President and President of the country.

"The powers, duties and responsibilities of the President of the Republic, which are prescribed by the South African Constitution, have not been changed or diminished."

The ANC chief concluded that policies should not be seen as equivalent to the "Ten Commandments".

Instead, they should be open to review and ongoing interrogation. "The ANC is clear on its policies," he said.

"But we are not afraid of debate."

4.4 Damage control for Zuma

Sibusiso Ngalwa, The Mercury, 11 March 2008

ANC president Jacob Zuma, backed by his Cosatu ally, on Monday moved to rehabilitate his dented image after a series of controversial public statements that have attracted widespread criticism and fuelled perceptions that he is fickle.

He issued a statement "clarifying" some of his comments, which have raised eyebrows and led some of his detractors to question whether he is committed to ANC policies or merely playing to the gallery.

It also gave DA leader Helen Zille the ammunition to brand him a "political polygamist".

However, the ANC president blamed some sections of the media for distorting his recent comments - including those on the death penalty, affirmative action, President Thabo Mbeki's alleged lame-duck status and labour-market flexibility.

Both Zuma and Cosatu accused the media of gross misrepresentation and distortion. Cosatu went one step further, saying those responsible for the "biased coverage" were people who were consistently opposed to Zuma's attempt to become ANC president "and are now trying to undermine the democratic decision of the ANC conference by a policy of biased and malicious misreporting of his speeches".

In his clarification on Monday, Zuma said he had been consistent in stating that the ANC was opposed to capital punishment, but given that South Africa was a democracy, "it would be difficult for us as the ANC to tell people they cannot debate whether or not there would be a referendum on the matter".

"A debate would not change the fact that the ANC's policy and the country's constitution remain very clear on the right to life of every South African citizen. We who believe in this view should be ready to defend it through engagement and persuasion, not through denying others a platform to state their views."

On affirmative action and his comments to the white union Solidarity, calling for broader debate so that "we can find common ground for the common good of the country", Zuma repeated that there was nothing wrong with dialogue.

His response to Solidarity was in relation to a question from a white parent who asked whether his young son would battle to find a job because of affirmative action.

"I said there should be dialogue on the matter. As the ANC, we welcome interaction between the different formations of organised labour in the country," he said.

Zuma also denied as "mischievous" reports that he had told the influential Financial Times that Mbeki did not wield any power.

Zuma was quoted as saying that Mbeki had no "authority", as he was no longer part of the ANC leadership and couldn't even take "serious decisions in terms of governance".

On Monday, Zuma repeated that "the ANC government implements ANC policy" and therefore all of its elected public representatives in government were responsible to the movement.

On his statement that the ANC policy was not the equivalent of the 10 commandments, Zuma said the party was dynamic and continuously monitored and evaluated policy.

"Our democracy enshrines the principle of freedom of expression. It is therefore, in my view, correct to allow South Africans the space to make their views known."

Zuma's statement followed weekend reports that the ANC had moved to tighten the control of communications around Zuma to avoid sending "mixed" messages that created a public relations nightmare for Luthuli House.

The ANC has denied this.

4.5 Death penalty debate will be another Zuma inconsistency

Quentin Wray, Business Report, 10 March 2008

Jacob Zuma's undertaking to reopen the long-closed debate on the death penalty rocked South Africa. A Google search on Friday afternoon using the words zuma "death penalty" came up with 26 900 hits, showing how wide interest in the debate is.

But we must not forget that Zuma is the consummate politician and what he says and what he means are not necessarily connected by a straight line. His few months as president of the ANC have shown that he will say whatever he needs to to win over the people sitting in front of him.

Speaking to the Financial Mail (FM), the influential business magazine, he acknowledged the need to get more people into jobs and implied that increasing labour flexibility was an option. The business community sighed with relief, thinking the shackles that bind them so tightly may be loosened a wee bit.

Cosatu boss Zwelinzima Vavi, who clearly also reads the FM, had a hissy fit and before you could say "moral flexibility", Zuma was promising to lay down his life to protect workers' rights.

In what sums up the relationship between Zuma and Cosatu, Vavi sounded like the understanding father of an errant schoolboy who had to take a tough stand to correct some bad behaviour when discussing his victory in last week's Mail & Guardian (M&G). (As an aside, I don't think Cosatu is keeping Vavi busy enough. His M&G interview was littered with so many football analogies that I think he is spending too much time watching soccer on the telly.)

Zuma's main skill as a politician is that he knows how to choose conversations that will allow him to engage with people at all levels very effectively. He is a master of honing in on what is important to his audience and tailoring his message accordingly.

The fact that, because of who he is, every word he utters in public gets written down and reported and that the inconsistencies contained in what he says will be noted with varying degrees of disbelief, embarrassment and derision, does not seem to bother him. And why should it? He has done far worse than make the odd verbal faux pas and has always been forgiven by his backers, who seem more interested in finding a puppet than a leader. But I digress …

By promising a debate on the death penalty Zuma has made an astute political decision. He has honed in on the thing that bothers us most - crime - and hung out the prospect of meting out the most severe punishment to the people who make our lives so scary.

South Africans have been brutalised and they want somebody to pay.

The fact that the death penalty is a woefully ineffective deterrent - the US, which has it, has a murder rate more than five times that of the UK, which doesn't - matters not. Neither does the fact that our criminal justice system is so dysfunctional that the punishment simply could not be effectively administered.

But, in what has become his signature tune of convenience, populism and moral ballet, Zuma will happily give hope for revenge to poor township residents who are nailed by crooks when they head home at night, farmers who have seen so many of their number gunned down in cold blood and 'burbanites who are sick of worrying about hijackings, rapes and murder.

Until, of course, Cosatu says the death penalty is a no go zone or Zuma starts talking to constitutional lawyers and the Human Rights Commission: he will then become one of the most passionate anti-death penalty advocates around.

4.6 SACP sits on Madisha report

Nic Dawes, Mail & Guardian, 7 March 2008

The South African Communist Party (SACP) is keeping under wraps the details of an investigation into whether its general secretary, Blade Nzimande, took and failed to pass on a R500 000 donation from businessman Charles Modise.

Even officials on the party's central executive committee were not given copies of a report by chartered accountants SAB&T, which investigated Nzimande's finances after allegations made by Modise and axed Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) president Willie Madisha that Nzimande had failed to pass on the cash, delivered in black garbage bags, to the party.

The officials had access only to the findings of the report, which cleared Nzimande on the basis that "no tangible and corroborating evidence could be located and/or traced so as to substantiate the allegation made by Mr Madisha".

The central committee, in a statement read by deputy general secretary Jeremy Cronin, nevertheless called on the police "to investigate the probability that both Modise and Madisha have involved themselves in serious perjury".

Madisha, however, stands by his story, and this week suggested to Independent Newspapers that he might take court action over what he called "defamatory" allegations.

The SACP has declined to release a copy of the SAB&T report, saying the party does not need to defend itself against allegations that have been proved wrong.

"The report was not distributed to the central committee [CC] as the SACP felt that there were certain aspects that needed to be pursued further. The national treasurer did brief the central committee on the principal findings of the report and the CC accepted the findings. We are satisfied that the substance of the findings will not be affected by the aspects still to be followed up," party spokesperson Malesela Maleka said.

The snippet quoted by the central committee on Monday, however, is seen by Madisha's backers as evidence that the auditors were less than rigorous: "Other possible witnesses mentioned by Madisha in his various statements could not be interviewed as Madisha would not direct us to them. It would not have been financially judicious to make more effort to trace these possible witnesses as their possible contribution/s to a more positive conclusion of the investigation is seriously doubted," SAB&T said.

"If it was cash, you aren't going to find a record of it that easily," responded one party insider sympathetic to Madisha.

The firm was also not asked to investigate claims by the party's former treasurer, Phillip Dexter, that Nzimande failed to pass on two other donations, each of R300 000 from Limpopo provincial secretary Justice Pitso.

Dexter made the claims in a financial report that party brass prevented him from presenting at the SACP congress last year. Dexter was suspended and faces a party disciplinary hearing for leaking a document he wrote questioning the direction of the party.

Maleka said SAB&T had not been asked to investigate these allegations because Dexter had never raised them with the party. They remained hearsay.

Three people who were present at a meeting where the two R300 000 donations were discussed confirm that Pitso acknowledged the donations. Pitso has repeatedly denied this, and last week told the Mail & Guardian: "I don't know what you are talking about."

A commission of inquiry established by Cosatu to examine whether Madisha had brought the union federation into disrepute was more circumspect than the SAB&T report, saying that the "truthfulness of the president's version on the handing over of the donation is not at issue here … the focus of the investigation … is not based on resolving the dispute of fact that exists between him and the general secretary of the SACP … the commission is not enjoined to investigate whether in fact the money was handed over in the manner described by the president … and it accordingly makes no finding in that regard".

The commission, chaired by mediator Charles Nupen, did find that Madisha had brought Cosatu into disrepute, and that trust between him and Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi had broken down irretrievably. The union's central executive committee responded by axing Madisha as president.

Unmentioned in the commission's report is the fact that Modise's wife, Hloni, offered corroborating testimony. "I told them how my husband informed me that he had been approached about a donation, and about two weeks later he told me he had handed it over," she said.

She also told the commission that she had attended an SACP lunch at the Birchwood Hotel where Modise was formally introduced to Nzimande. "At the lunch [Nzimande] shook Charles's hand and thanked him," she told the M&G.

Nzimande has consistently denied meeting Modise or receiving the money.

Modise's wife told the M&G that she had set out this version of events in a sworn affidavit.

Modise himself is in a Kimberley jail awaiting trial on charges of fraud. He has been denied bail on the basis that he has Malawian travel documents and is a flight risk.

The charges against him relate to allegations of massive corruption involving consulting work awarded to his Sedibeng Construction by then Northern Cape minister for transport and public works John Block.

Modise told the M&G from prison this week that he believes the charges against him were trumped up as part of a complex conspiracy involving the African National Congress and SACP leadership in the province, and insisted that he wanted to go to court to clear his name.

4.7 ANC has new plans to start own newspaper

Angela Quintal, 11 March 2008

The ANC's top brass has resurrected a proposal that it should start its own commercial newspaper, ANC spokesperson Jesse Duarte said on Monday night.

The party also plans to relaunch its Mayibuye and Umrabulo publications.

Duarte was speaking after a national working committee meeting at Luthuli House on Monday, in which it was decided that the need for a commercial newspaper should be placed on the agenda of the party's national executive committee meeting at the weekend.

The viability of an ANC newspaper was last discussed in any seriousness in 1992, Duarte said.

Asked whether the ANC's possible launch of its own newspaper, should be read as a vote of no confidence in the country's print media, Duarte said the issue had not been discussed in a negative way.

Instead the reasoning behind the proposal was that the "ANC should communicate to the people in an ANC way".

On whether the ANC had identified potential funders, Duarte said it was still early days and the viability of a party-owned newspaper first had to be debated and agreed to by the NEC.

Resolutions at the Polokwane conference specifically called for the ANC to establish its own platforms for the production and distribution of information within and outside the organisation.

Before the ANC dropped the idea of its own newspaper for several years. In the 1990s, there was speculation that the party wanted a stake in the then Times Media, while there was also talk of a joint venture with Malaysia.

The idea never got off the ground, with then ANC president Thabo Mbeki opting instead to communicate online. He launched the electronic ANC Today, which featured his weekly online letter on Fridays.

Under the new ANC leadership the electronic publication appears to have lost favour.

5 South Africa

5.1 Pressure mounts to prove consultation on health services plan

Nwabisa Makunga, The Herald, 10 March 2008

THE Eastern Cape health department is under fire from the provincial ANC to come up with proof of extensive consultation at community level regarding its controversial health service transformation plan.

The R24-billion, 10-year plan – which would see the province‘s three provincial hospital complexes dismantled – was canned by the provincial ANC and Premier Nosimo Balindlela‘s executive council shortly after it became public last year, because of lack of consultation with affected communities and for failing to go through party processes.

The ANC told the department late last year to go back and consult with community members in the seven districts of the province.

ANC provincial secretary Siphatho Handi said the department was to have met with the party about two weeks ago to present documents proving their consultation but the meeting was cancelled because the department did not have the documents ready.

Handi said the meeting had been postponed until all the provincial policy speeches had been delivered. “We need them to send relevant people to explain to communities what this plan is and how it will improve their health services. At the moment there are communities who are unsettled about it because they feel it is taking crucial health services away from them.”

At the Port Elizabeth hospital complex, most specialist services like maternity and general surgery are done at Dora Nginza Hospital. The plan would see Livingstone Hospital being upgraded to a world-class health facility and specialised services would be moved there from Dora Nginza. Meanwhile, Dora Nginza would be downgraded to a district hospital offering primary health services.

Although the department has not yet explained which specialised services would be moved, the ANC and workers‘ unions say the plan would take away services from poor communities.

Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa) provincial spokesman Kholiswa Tota said: “The current hospital complex is working so well because you know if you need a certain procedure done, you go to Dora (Nginza) or the Provincial Hospital. The complex did away with the apartheid structure of having all procedures done at all hospitals and therefore having people separated into racial groups.”

Provincial health department spokesman Sizwe Kupelo refused to comment, saying the matter was being dealt with by the ANC.

Handi said the plan could not be implemented until communities properly understood how it would affect them and accepted it. “We understand there have been some disagreements on paper between the MEC (Nomsa Jajula) and health portfolio chairperson Mike Basopu, so this means that even within the department there are disagreements about it.”

Basopu said the plan had been put on hold “indefinitely”.

DA provincial leader Athol Trollip said the party supported the ANC‘s move to halt the plan but more needed to be done.

“The department does not only need the buy of the community, but of the portfolio committee on health, and opposition parties. We need to be convinced the plan will see the improvement of health services in this province. At the moment we, together with communities, are in the dark about it.”

Handi said the outcome of the consultation process would determine the course to be taken in implementing the plan. Additional reporting by Nomahlubi Sonjica

6 International

6.1 Women get raw deal at work — ILO

Amy Musgrave, Political Correspondent, Business Day, 10 March 2008

WHILE more women are working now than a decade ago, they are still confined largely to working in less productive sectors lacking benefits such as medical aid, reports the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

The Global Employment Trends for Women report says that although 1,2-billion women across the globe worked last year, there was less of a chance of them having access to social protection, basic rights and a voice at work. Also, because of the sort of work they did they often earned less than men.

The report says “decent” work for women is a precondition for economic development as in the long run economies cannot afford to ignore an untapped resource such as female labour.

In SA, concerns have been raised across the board that the country’s economic growth rate is not sustainable because it has not helped much to uplift the poor majority, especially women.

The government is considering ways to improve conditions for the poor, including a wage subsidy to help bring low-income workers into the economy and creating jobs with its expanded public works programme.

Interestingly, the ILO document notes that east Asia, the most successful region in terms of economic growth over the past decade, has the highest regional labour force participation rate for women, low unemployment rates for both women and men, and small gender gaps in job status and types of work.

“In short, increased labour force participation of women has a great potential as a contribution to economic development, but only if the jobs in which women are engaged are decent. Most regions have a long way to go in working towards economic integration of women, and therefore a huge potential for economic development remains available to be tapped,” the report says.

Sub-Saharan Africa continues to be the region with the highest levels of poverty in the world. Inadequate creation of decent jobs and widespread poverty continue to impose a heavy burden on women.

“In this region, women have little choice but to work — the female employment-to-population ratios are the second-highest in the world. Nonetheless, widespread poverty persists, implying a grave malfunction in the region’s labour markets.

“Decent and productive employment, with its implied decent earnings, social protection, fundamental rights at work and social dialogue, is certainly the exception rather than the rule,” the ILO report says.

The employment-to-population ratios in the region last year were 56,9% for women and 79,7% for men.

But the report warns that the mere fact that a large portion of the population is working should not be seen as a positive development because a poor person has to work regardless of the quality of the job.

Also, many young women who should be at school work to contribute to household income.

Agriculture continues to provide the vast majority of jobs for women in the region, but this is mainly at a subsistence level, where there is little or no economic security. Fewer than two out of 10 women had relatively higher economic security last year as employees or employers.

Last year, the share of women with jobs earnings wages or salaries stood at 15,5%, which was half the share for men.

6.2 'They made me chant Robert Mugabe is always right, while I was being beaten'

Emily Dugan, The Independent (UK), 8 March 2008

Takavafira Zhou is a teacher who was tortured in Zimbabwe. Now he is in London for a rally demanding change.

One of Zimbabwe's leading human rights campaigners has issued the world with a startling reminder of the horrific abuse and torture being suffered under Robert Mugabe's regime ahead of the country's elections in three weeks' time.

Takavafira Zhou, a trade union activist, was seized by government police two weeks ago and, while imprisoned, did not know if he would make it out of the torture chamber alive. Beaten to within an inch of his life, Mr Zhou was told to repeat the slogan "Robert Mugabe is always right", and now he has come to Britain to preach the reverse.

Still bearing the scars that are a testament to President Mugabe's brutal rule, Mr Zhou is to defy his oppressors by telling protesters today at the Action for Southern Africa (Actsa) pro-democracy rally in Trafalgar Square of the human rights violations taking place in his country. From there he and his trade union colleagues will go to Brussels to lobby the EU commissioner for Human Rights to take action against the dictator.

Mr Zhou says the time to act is now. "The suffering in Zimbabwe cannot continue for another day," he said, on arrival in London yesterday. "International leaders are complicit in human rights abuses in Zimbabwe by their failure to provide a solution or to induce a solution in Zimbabwe. We really wonder why Zimbabwe has taken so long to get international help. In Kenya it did not take so long. Why?"

Three weeks from today, Zimbabweans will be going to the polls, but Mr Zhou is not hopeful that the elections on 29 March will be democratic. "There will be no free and fair elections in Zimbabwe", he said. "And anyone who says there can be is daydreaming."

At the end of the month, the 84-year-old President will face two of his strongest opponents yet: his former finance minister Simba Makoni, 57, backed by ruling party rebels, and Morgan Tsvangirai, 55, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change.

But many believe that even these strong candidates do not stand a chance against the closely guarded regime of Mr Mugabe and Zanu-PF. Outside electoral observers are being brought in, but opposition party members say that these will be taken entirely from countries that Mr Mugabe perceives as "friendly" to the regime.

Russia is the only European country to have been invited to monitor the elections while the majority of remaining observers will be from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) – a body which has already been criticised for dealing too leniently with Mr Mugabe.

Zimbabwe's Foreign Minister, Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, openly admitted yesterday that countries which had opposed Mr Mugabe would not be invited to monitor elections. "Clearly, those who believe that the only free and fair election is where the opposition wins, have been excluded since the ruling party, Zanu-PF, is poised to score yet another triumph," Mr Mumbengegwi said. But another Mugabe win would be far from a triumph for the Zimbabwean people, according to Lucia Matibenga, the vice-president of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, and an electoral candidate for the MDC in Harare. She has also seen the catastrophic effects of Mr Mugabe's tight grip of power, and will stand alongside Mr Zhou in Trafalgar Square today.

"I don't see that we are preparing for free and fair elections given that violence is now institutionalised," said Ms Matibenga. "I think particularly in the rural areas people will find it very difficult to vote against Zanu-PF because of the threats made against them. Chiefs are paid by Robert Mugabe to use any means possible to ensure that their people vote for him."

For Mr Zhou, the reasons for a democratic challenge to Mr Mugabe are compelling. The 40-year-old university lecturer and president of the Progressive Teachers Union has witnessed first-hand how the President's clampdown on free speech has penalised innocent protesters.

Two weeks ago the human rights activist was leading a group of teachers handing out leaflets in Harare to campaign against the country's crippled education system when he was taken by Zanu-PF militia.

The leafleting had taken place dangerously close to the party's headquarters, and within minutes of being discovered all the teachers were dragged into an underground cellar. Teams of 15 men used logs and iron bars to beat them. Mr Zhou and his fellow campaigners were battered – and some of the women sexually abused – with the iron rods, until they were left motionless on the blood-stained floor.

"It was so terrible. I've never seen such thuggery; I've never seen such brutality," said Mr Zhou. When the beatings became so bad that three of his fellow-protesters passed out, the police became afraid and took them to hospital, where they remained under police guard for four days.

Now the police are trying to charge them with criminal nuisance, but Mr Zhou says such a charge would be a gross injustice. "I don't see what is criminal or what is a nuisance about trying to save the collapsing education system", he said. Last month, he lost his job as a history lecturer at Great Zimbabwe University after submitting an anti-government paper. But Zimbabwe's universities have been closed anyway for several weeks now, as a jittery Mr Mugabe tightens his control on anti-government sentiment ahead of the elections.

When Mr Mugabe – a former school teacher himself – first became leader, there was hope that he would usher in a new era for education in Zimbabwe. But now, amid crippling inflation and government control, the schools lie empty and dilapidated; 25,000 teachers abandoned their posts last year, and a further 8,000 have left in this year already.

The few teachers who remain have been on strike since January over poor pay and the introduction of untrained militia as teaching staff. "This militarisation is what happened in Nazi Germany or with Mussolini's youth militia", warned Mr Zhou, who says that the teacher Mugabe of the 1960s would not have let such atrocities occur.

"The old Mugabe only wants his voice to be heard, but the young Mugabe wanted to hear the voices of the oppressed," he said. Teachers now have a salary of just four million Zimbabwean dollars, enough for little more than eight bottles of cooking oil. Mr Mugabe's soldiers, meanwhile are paid 2.3bn Zimbabwean dollars. "When Mugabe was 28, he said: 'If the government touch a cent of my salary I'll box them,'" said Mr Zhou. "We don't want to box Robert Mugabe; we're saying teachers have legitimate demands that should be met by the government."

It is unclear what horrors will await Mr Zhou on his return to Zimbabwe next week but he says he will not be gagged in his attempts to hold back the dictator's lust for power. "I am not afraid of going back," he said. "I take casualties as part of the struggle and part of leadership. Zimbabweans must note that they can't afford to stand on the touchline to watch a game they should be playing. Dictators do not willingly give up power, they need to be pushed."

7 Comment

7.1 An SA run by Cosatu would serve only Cosatu

Jabulani Sikhakhane, Busines Report, 11 March 2008

Concern for the poor, or "pro poor", are words that roll off Zwelinzima Vavi's lips like drool off the mouth of a very tired bullmastiff. But as recent events attest, the general secretary of Cosatu doesn't have the interest of the poor at heart.

Take the recent spat between the trade union federation and ANC president Jacob Zuma. In response to a Financial Mail interview where Zuma suggested a pact between the government, labour and business to find common ground on how best to reduce unemployment, Vavi threw his toys out of the cot.

"He [Zuma] is seen to be advocating labour market flexibility and an accord between business, labour and government," Vavi later told the Financial Mail. "Those are pre-Polokwane positions that were defeated."

Zuma's crime was to suggest that one of the ways unemployment could be reduced was to have a two-tier labour market, whereby firms could hire young workers at lower wages to enable them to acquire the necessary work experience.

Cosatu is opposed to a two-tier labour market, fearing, presumably, that it would lead wages in a race to the bottom.

Former president Nelson Mandela foresaw Cosatu's conflict of interest, warning in his presidential report to the ANC's 1997 annual conference in Mafikeng that Cosatu and its leadership represented the interests of the salaried class, a privileged few in a country with such high unemployment.

Because of their place in the socioeconomic ladder and their organised strength, Mandela said, unionised workers owed it to themselves to bargain for themselves in opposition to the demands of all other sectors of society. They also had a duty to fight for the hegemony of their interests, regardless of what the ANC might consider to be in the interest of all South Africans.

Mandela warned that this meant the intervention in the political sphere of leadership emanating exclusively from Cosatu would focus on the interests of Cosatu members.

"Consequently," he said, "we must deal with the complex question of the interconnection between the role of the interests of their members, and the role of these unions as an important component part of the progressive movement for the fundamental social transformation of our society. Our experience over the last three years demonstrates that the two do not necessarily mean the same thing."

Mandela was right. Now that Cosatu and its fellow travellers have captured the ANC, they want to install an ANC government that will put their interests above all else.

Read what Vavi told the Financial Mail last week: "We can't allow the state to be overpopulated by people who despise Polokwane. That war starts today and it goes on to the list conferences which decide who will be going to parliament and to matters such as who will run the presidency - for instance, the choice of the president's spokesman and the economists in that office."

Vavi's words mean: Cosatu plans to use the political space it helped open up in Polokwane to maximise the benefits of the salaried class. That means you can kiss goodbye any chance of improvements in the quality of education, healthcare and other public services that the poor are so dependent on. Not only will Cosatu protect the lackadaisical work ethic of the civil servants, the federation will ensure they are paid top dollar for it.

In professing the dictatorship of the proletariat, Cosatu plans to give South Africa the dictatorship of the salariat*. And the poor have no place under it.

*With due respects to Pranab Bardhan, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

7.2 Zille’s Chancellor House call a rich opportunity

Karima Brown, Business Day, 11 March 2008

I WAS very tempted to dismiss as a complete no-brainer Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille’s request to Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana to investigate the goings-on in African National Congress (ANC) front company Chancellor House.

This was especially so given the track record of Mushwana’s office in dealing with ANC and government malfeasance. A cynical political hack laughed out loud as she read the story and said: “The public protector is going to investigate Chancellor House. Ja, right!” My colleague’s disparaging attitude was no doubt informed by the fact that Mushwana has in the past chosen to reduce his office to a paper tiger.

Who can forget Mushwana’s obfuscation around Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka’s expensive jaunt to Dubai courtesy of the taxpayer, or the scandal involving PetroSA and Imvume, which resulted in R11m landing up with a cash-strapped ANC?

But then I reminded myself why I did not dismiss Zille’s call out of hand. While I too am sceptical of Mushwana, we are now supposed to be operating in a new era, despite Jacob Zuma’s insistence that “nothing has changed”.

Politics in the ANC post-Polokwane is a chance to re-imagine SA and the body politic, if the spin coming from Luthuli House is to be believed. The ANC is no longer firmly under President Thabo Mbeki’s iron fist. Open debate and transparency are now supposed to characterise the party. That is why spineless ANC MPs, who in the past allowed the executive to use Parliament as a rubber stamp, now suddenly find that they have backbones. The recent bullish attitude displayed by several portfolio committee members is a case in point.

Which brings me back to Chancellor House and the ANC’s challenge to clean up its messy finances. On the face of things, ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa’s determination to ring-fence the party’s Chancellor House investments and develop greater transparency and accountability around its investments and fundraising efforts can only be a good thing, and should be commended.

What he should avoid, though, is using the opportunity to root out corruption involving only the opposing faction. This will result in more of the same as occurred under Mbeki, who was seen to go after corrupt folk only if they were his political opponents. The democratisation genie in the ANC cannot be put back into the bottle and the effects thereof should influence even the public protector’s office.

This means the public protector can now do what he was meant to do all along, if he so chooses, instead of sucking up to ANC heavyweights. Mushwana should have no trouble getting to the bottom of the rot in the ANC as it relates to party funding and shady empowerment deals that tended to enrich not only the ANC fat cats but the party itself.

Zille, a crafty politician, knows that not withstanding the ANC’s hegemony at political level, the party is not immune to public opinion and pressure from below — hence her challenge to Mushwana.

The ANC’s leftist allies, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Communist Party (SACP), can also not escape Zille’s challenge. Both are on the record over the need to delink patronage networks from empowerment and party funding in the ANC. As self-proclaimed champions of the poor, Cosatu and the SACP should also encourage the public protector to go the distance on Chancellor House. Their usual argument, that they will not dance to the DA’s tune, does not hold water. The ANC’s internal audit into Chancellor House is all well and good, but it cannot replace an independent inquiry.

Ironically, Zille’s challenge could become a turning point in ANC politics, which could see the party free itself of unscrupulous benefactors as well as restoring much-needed credibility to Mushwana’s office, which was set up to act as a bulwark against abuse in the first place. Mushwana could be the man to do just that, if he has the courage.

· Brown is political editor.

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Media Monitor 11 March 2008

Patrick Craven

Published by the

A digest of media reports - not the views of COSATU

Tuesday 11 March 2008

CONTENTS

Sowetan, 10 March 2008

Hendrick Mphande, The Herald, 11 march 2008

Janine Oelofse Garden Route Bureau Chief, The Herald, 10 March 2008

IOL, 0 March 2008

SABC, 10 March 2008

Tshwarelo eseng Mogakane, News24, 10 March 2008

Ingi Salgado, Business Report, 10 March 2008

Daily Dispatch, 10 March 2008

2.7 Airline docks workers' leave

Karyn Maughan, The Star, 11 March 2008

Slindile Khanyile, 11 March 2008

SABC, 10 March 2008

Matuma Letsoalo and Rapule Tabane, Mail & Guardian, 7 March 2008

Donwald Pressly, Business Report, 11 March 2008

Linda Ensor, Political Correspondent, Business Day, 11 March 2008

Mail & Guardian, 10 March 2008

Amy Musgrave, Political Correspondent, Business Day, 11 March 2008

Michael Hamlyn, The Times, 10 March 2008

Sibusiso Ngalwa, The Mercury, 11 March 2008

Quentin Wray, Business Report, 10 March 2008

Nic Dawes, Mail & Guardian, 7 March 2008

Angela Quintal, 11 March 2008

Nwabisa Makunga, The Herald, 10 March 2008

Amy Musgrave, Political Correspondent, Business Day, 10 March 2008

6.2 'They made me chant Robert Mugabe is always right, while I was being beaten'

Emily Dugan, The Independent (UK), 8 March 2008

Jabulani Sikhakhane, Busines Report, 11 March 2008

Karima Brown, Business Day, 11 March 2008