South Africa - The Bad News

ANC AND BUSINESS: SOUL FOR SALE

2007-02-18T12:31:00.000-08:00

The African National Congress has traded ideals for influence as the party is corrupted by its members' lust for financial gain. The Financial Mail tracks the rot at the heart of SA's most powerful organisation.

It was a cool spring evening when an ambulance screeched to a halt outside the ANC's provincial office in Dutoitspan Road, Kimberley. Paramedics were rushing to the aid of the city's first citizen, mayor Patrick Lenyibi, who had been hit by flying teacups thrown during a brawl in the ANC offices.

The first cup hit him on the head. The handle of a second lodged itself deep behind the ear after being smashed onto his head with greater force by a senior ANC member.

WHAT IT MEANS
Bending the rules has become a culture
The politics of the ANC has become distorted

From several accounts, the fight, which took place in late 2005, was over a tender to supply coupons for pre paid electricity meters. The mayor is said to have implied that it would go to a group of ANC women, the member's mother included, who had already arranged to be trained to run the enterprise. But instead the tender was advertised, as it should have been, with conditions that cut his mother out of the running.

The blows were exchanged in the office of provincial secretary Neville Mompati, who strenuously denies that the argument was over a tender. Decisions over tenders should be made by neither the mayor nor the ANC but, according to the Municipal Finance Management Act, by officials in the city's tender committee. However, theory and practice are far apart.

Fights over who should get what contract are happening with growing frequency countrywide. It is a matter of embarrassment to the ANC, a party many members proudly think of in terms of its struggle legacy. That legacy is now being severely undermined, and the party seems paralysed.

The ANC, as the party in government, is centrally involved in dishing out tenders and contracts. The introduction of commercial interests is one factor that is undermining its proud political footing. Another is the "deployment" of ANC comrades to business.

This commercialisation has driven a profound change in the nature of the ANC. Once local ANC meetings were all about policies and strategies - the transformation of SA society according to the ideals the party championed for decades. Now these gatherings are frequently preoccupied with business opportunities and who should have access to them.

It's a transformation that wasn't expected. Rather than "transforming the state", as the party describes its goals in official rhetoric, the economy has transformed the ANC.

How did it begin? Trouble started for the ANC almost as soon as it took power, with squabbles over control of provincial structures. But it was only when politicians moved into the world of business that the competition for commercial opportunities began to dominate ANC dynamics.

ANC national leaders, with their clear accomplishments and talents, provided a ready recruiting ground for white business, wanting to deracialise their leadership and management and, to a lesser extent, their ownership. In many cases, senior ANC members did not detach from the party in order to take advantage of such opportunities. Today, most of the senior leadership at the ANC's Luthuli House headquarters are involved in business (one of the exceptions is ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe). As a result, few are ever there to do party work.

In parliament, 40% of ANC MPS are directors of companies, many owning them outright. Such interests are often in construction and mining. The ANC national executive has several ultra-rich members involved in business or, in the case of several cabinet ministers, whose spouses are business high-flyers.

At the ANC's last national conference five years ago, black economic empowerment (BEE) became ANC policy and engaging in business, to transform the economy, won official recognition as an acceptable revolutionary activity.

Quickly, ANC activists at provincial and local level followed the examples of their national leaders and headed into business.

On a macro level, looking at the redistribution of wealth and opportunities and the growth of black business and ownership, progress has been slow but positive. But the grassroots picture is not a such a pretty one.

Kimberley, for example, is a small city where, after mining, government business is the best game in town. The teacup meeting was not unusual: since 1999, when ANC comrades were first deployed in business, the awarding of tenders has been controversial.

Many ordinary members in the ANC say they got the impression from the start that who got what tender was being brazenly staged by their political seniors. At least two senior public servants left their jobs and landed lucrative outsourcing tenders in a matter of weeks, after being "deployed" to business, activists tell the FM, by the top structures of the party.

Soon a handful of ANC-aligned businesspeople were winning contract after contract - whether in security, transport or construction. A minor revolt in the party ended in defeat, when a group of rebels from the Kimberley region tabled a resolution at the party's 2001 conference, arguing that BEE should be broad-based and not favour just a selected few.

In the Kimberley example, three businessmen stand out as having been particularly successful in winning contracts: Motsamai Rantho, Tshego Motaung and Tyron Ruiters. Rantho and Motaung are former civil servants. All three have at some point been business partners with ANC chairman John Block.

Both Motaung and Rantho got their first contracts from Block's department, while he was transport, roads & public works MEC. Motaung, who once worked for Block, won part of a contract to manage the government garage - an enterprise for which Motaung himself had written the specifications before leaving the department to win the tender.

Like almost all "emerging" businessmen, contractors in Kimberley donate handsomely to the ANC - sometimes far more handsomely than they would like. One contractor who was asked for a R20 000 donation paid up willingly, he told the FM, but could not afford a second request for more than 10 times that amount. Such donations are common (see "Untold Millions").

John Block - Good contact to have

Block, it was widely reported, was forced to step down as an MEC in 2003 for splurging public money on hotels and entertainment for himself, his wife and friends, including a trip to Cape Town's jazz festival. In a criminal trial he was acquitted - despite having admitted on television that he did it because he was a "jazz maniac" and hoped that the nation would forgive him.

But the days when the Northern Cape's ANC leadership harmoniously discussed placing comrades in business are over. Both the chairman, Block, and the secretary, Mompati, are in business for themselves, alliances are constantly shifting as business deals succeed or fail and though Mompati strongly denies any tension, trust in the ANC is in short supply.

"In the Northern Cape," says an ANC member fed up with corruption and the fight for contracts, "we no longer have an ANC leadership. We have an ANC dealership."

Behaviour like that in Kimberley is a real problem for the party. Motlanthe, as national secretary-general, has been inundated with complaints from all over, particularly about unfair monopolisation of business opportunities. An endless stream of people have come to his door complaining. Some say they have been betrayed by the ANC, cheated out of tenders or told to cut the friends of certain politicians into their deals. Sometimes ANC colleagues shop one another when they fall out - as when North West premier Edna Molewa reported then Women's League secretary Yvonne Makume to the ANC head office. An ANC official says Makume had written to municipal managers, telling them to dispense with some tender regulations when it came to evaluating her company's bids.

There is no scientific measure of how bad corruption in SA really is. Organisations like Transparency International measure corruption on the basis of perceptions through interviews. SA comes out reasonably well, rated the second-least corrupt country in Africa. This might reflect the macro picture of SA's big corporates and government departments. But it is certainly a radical underestimation of what is happening at a micro level in provinces and municipalities.

Motlanthe, in touch with the ANC's nearly 200 branches, has a better view than most. He believes corruption is far worse than anyone imagines.

"This rot is across the board. It's not confined to any level or any area of the country. Almost every project is conceived because it offers opportunities for certain people to make money. A great deal of the ANC's problems are occasioned by this. There are people who want to take it over so they can arrange for the appointment of those who will allow them possibilities for future accumulation," he says.

Members the FM interviewed implied that sending contracts the way of an ANC-linked businessman was frequently legitimised by the notion that doing so was "good for the ANC". Often, it is claimed, the profit will be for the ANC itself - a statement, says Motlanthe, that is far more often false than true.

Direct donations to the ANC are frequently solicited, sources say. Contractors are also known not just to donate to the party generally but also to bankroll particular factions or individuals, well placed to dispense large contracts.

Bending the rules, says Motlanthe, becomes a culture when people lower down see that higher-ups do it.

The ANC and its structures are the first stop for anyone hoping to make money out of government contracts. And the party is highly vulnerable to manipulation by those looking to gain influence.

Corrupting the ANC is not an expensive business. Membership costs R12/year and the practice of buying members to support an individual in a branch or provincial conference election is common. ANC membership rises and sometimes even doubles in the lead-up to a provincial conference (see graphs).

Procedures put in place to confound ghost members had been subverted, Motlanthe said in an official report in July 2005, and people had been able to "capture branches" and "advance self-serving agendas".

One local councillor - a community worker of excellent standing who lost his seat on the Emfuleni city council (Vereeniging) when his branch failed to nominate him in 2005 - told the FM the branch nomination process was "mad".

"Almost everybody was pushing to get in [as a councillor]. I saw a lot of people I didn't know. These people had just been given membership - they had not been in the organisation at any point before."

The impact on the party is clear. Businessman Saki Macozoma says he is deeply concerned about how "the expectation of making money out of government distorts the politics of the ANC".

"People who have no interest in advancing the politics of the ANC have stormed in and taken over. Once inside, they displace others - and competence goes out of the window," he says.

Access to provincial cabinet positions now carry an additional significance. The highest prize are those with capital budgets to spend: housing, public works, roads and transport.

To see how access to such power is distorting the way the party should work, consider another example.

Mcebisi Skwatsha - Deployed

Mcebisi Skwatsha is the popular secretary of the Western Cape ANC - a position he has held for two terms. Though things have changed now, for many years Skwatsha was one of only a few African members of the ANC on the provincial executive. But though Skwatsha was close to Ebrahim Rasool, the ANC leader before 2005 and the premier since 2004, he wasn't automatically considered by Rasool for appointment to his cabinet.

Ebrahim Rasool - Faction fighting in the Western Cape

When Rasool put his cabinet together in April 2004, he was lobbied to include Skwatsha by the ANC's national structures. He was given the coveted transport & public works portfolio, which allows him to oversee the valuable property interests of the province, complete with a substantial capital budget.

The party was trying to solve another problem. It had become concerned by complaints of a monopoly on economic opportunities by a small group of businessmen in the Western Cape (see case study, "Ethnic wrangling").

But not long into his term, Skwatsha's responsibilities were summarily re organised by Rasool, who took the management of government's property assets away from Skwatsha and reallocated them to his office.

The FM has been told that Skwatsha was negotiating with businessman Brett Kebble over the disposal of the provincial government's most precious jewel, the Somerset Hospital site, situated near the Waterfront complex and ripe for a multi billion-rand development. Those negotiations have been confirmed by an associate of Skwatsha's.

The result of the reorganisation was outrage and pandemonium in the ANC. Skwatsha parted ways with Rasool and teamed up with the "Africanist" faction that both had previously disdained. The provincial conference (during which the Skwatsha faction, according to a well-placed source, had its pre conference caucus meeting in a Seapoint hotel bankrolled by Kebble) saw Rasool stripped of much power. He lost his position as chairman and only barely held on to an ordinary seat on the provincial executive.

According to sources in the Skwatsha camp, Rasool had one more stab at Skwatsha before losing his position. Two weeks before the provincial conference, Skwatsha was hit by corruption allegations, accused of trying to get a security tender from the city council for his brother's company by using his political influence.

Rasool, says a member of the ANC provincial executive, admitted afterwards that he had met the investigating officer twice - which may explain why the police raiding the city's tender offices said in an affidavit that they were doing so on the orders of the premier.

Cleared over a year later of any wrong doing by the elite Scorpions unit, the ebullient Skwatsha cracked open a bottle of champagne at a press conference late last year.

"The champagne was not just because there was no case against him, but because Rasool had used state resources against him and failed," says a friend.

The broedertwis in the Western Cape ANC shows how the arrival of business opportunities has changed political life.

SA Communist Party leader and intellectual Jeremy Cronin says that the ideology of the ANC has shifted. While the general thinking used to reflect an organisational and collective approach to change, nowadays the emphasis is an individualistic one, a prevailing notion that "you can get whatever you want, if you want it badly enough".

Saki Macozoma - The ANC is being distorted to make money

Motlanthe and Macozoma both speak of the rise of the "Lotto mentality" and how the idea that it is possible to become an instant millionaire has taken root. Working for low wages or low returns in a small-scale enterprise is scorned.

"People see that others are making reported millions - even though it's actually all debt. Ordinary ANC members ask themselves why not me?'," says Macozoma.

So can the ANC get its house in order? For more than 18 months the party has been paralysed by leadership succession. Little else has been discussed at the NEC, the most senior committee of the party, despite a general recognition from across the board that the ANC is rotting from within.

A sub committee of the NEC, made up of Macozoma, finance minister Trevor Manuel and others, was recently asked to produce guidelines on how the ANC should deal with the problems arising from its members' dealings in business.

This was after Motlanthe rang alarm bells more than 18 months ago at the ANC's national general council, where he warned that the involvement of members in business was destroying the soul of the party.

Expedient membership of the ANC

Some of the group's suggestions include: declarations of interest for ANC officials; guidelines on what kind of donations the ANC should accept; and the suggestion that a special committee elected at the party's five-yearly national conference deal with disputes between members.

Solutions, though, are constrained heavily by two things.

The history of political and economic dispossession makes it unlikely that anyone, politician or high-ranking civil servant or not, will be excluded from the exceptional opportunities that BEE provides for wealth accumulation.

"You've got to be reasonable and pragmatic about this. Cooling-off periods [where ex-government officials are restricted from participating in the sectors they have regulated] won't work for our generation. Where a person has built up skills and knowledge in an area, you can't tell them they can't participate," says Macozoma.

Neither is excluding serving politicians from participation in business a realistic option, he says. "BEE creates a particular opportunity with a limited shelf life - you can't exclude people from it."

But more immediately, the ANC is constrained most heavily in finding a solution by its own organisational paralysis. Obsessed with its leadership battle, the party has been rendered incapable of honest self-reflection at a time when it is faced with challenges that can bring about its own destruction. It is crucial for the party to reflect on its own systems and processes. The ANC national conference, at the end of this year, must choose the future leader of the party. But it may be more important to decide the future of the party itself.

Motlanthe's words in reference to the Western Cape can be applied to the party as a whole: "I told them that they have no ideological differences; they have no racial differences. They are fighting over control and monopoly of tender processes."
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Violent Attacks, Criminals' Lack of Fear Among SA's Challenges

2007-02-07T07:43:00.000-08:00

Business Day February 2, 2007
THE Institute for Security Studies says the violent nature of aggravated robbery in SA, and the obvious lack of fear of being caught by culprits who pick times when the public is likely to be around, are among the country's most serious crime challenges.

Institute researcher Antoinette Louw said yesterday the public perception that crime was out of control could be linked to the violent nature of crime and lack of communication by the police. This was made worse by the public having to wait a year-and-a-half for crime statistics.

While crime incidence is 7% higher than it was 12 years ago, there has been a steady decrease over the past three years in most categories. Louw, who has been monitoring the statistics for years, sees this as positive. But the rate of robbery, said Louw, was significantly higher than it was 12 years ago, with common robbery increasing 89% and aggravated robbery by 16% between 1994-95 and 2005-06.

Most robbery-type crimes had decreased over the past three years, with the exception of car theft and cash-in-transit heists.

"The response of police leaders has left the public with the sense that government, and the police in particular, don't care enough about the problem of crime or its consequences," she said.

"What would help is a sincere and informed acknowledgement of the problems, followed by a clear outline of how these will be dealt with in various parts of the country."

Louw said Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula's remark last June, that people who "whinge" about crime should leave the country, had not helped.

It had not reduced public fears that robberies at shopping malls, banks and homes often targeted people. The threat of rape and murder and that these crimes were generally committed by large groups tends to fuel public fears.

After peaking in 2001-02 at 15846, reported robberies declined steadily, reaching 12434 in 2004-05. In the past financial year, robberies increased 3%.

Car theft was up 2,5% on 2004-05. Louw attributed this to an increase in the number of registered vehicles and the fact that organised crime was generally rising. The 74% increase in cash-in- transit heists between 2004-05 and 2005-06 was seen as a matter of concern.

Factors were more cash in circulation, inadequate cash management, the absence of minimum standards for vehicles, training and vetting among companies that moved cash, and guards generally being outnumbered by criminals during attacks.

A decrease in bank robberies because of banks stepping up security could also be a factor.

Louw said promises by the police that the next set of crime statistics would be released in early May, rather than in September, were encouraging and would reduce speculation about crime.

"Of the information that has been provided to the public it's encouraging to know that organised crime has been identified as a priority and that intelligence capacity and border control will be improved, although we know little about the precise restructuring of the police service." It was also seen as encouraging that Nqakula had hired the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation to help police in understanding violence.

Research by Robert Mattes of the Centre for Social Science Research found that while SA police were often better resourced than their African neighbours, the perception of its performance ranked among the lowest on the continent.

He said this suggested that "throwing more money" at the police or employing more people would not reduce crime. What was needed was a more community-orientated police service.
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How FNB Was Forced to Drop Mbeki Campaign

2007-02-07T07:39:00.000-08:00

Business Day February 5, 2007
BIG business in SA is often pilloried by the left for holding government policies to ransom. Late last week, though, the men who run the country's biggest companies discovered the true limits of their ability to influence politics.

While it may be a political turning point in this country, it was not a pretty sight.

For two weeks First National Bank (FNB) had carefully planned an audacious campaign, backed by its own money, to try to convince an apparently unbelieving President Thabo Mbeki how anxious citizens really are about violent crime. They would print 1,5- million large posters, each containing a letter to Mbeki and a postage-paid envelope, begging him to do something about their security, letters that were to have been inserted into newspapers yesterday and today. The cost? More than R10m. Yet, at the eleventh hour on Friday, FNB pulled the campaign, with the posters and letters printed and virtually in the delivery trucks.

FirstRand CEO Paul Harris has magnanimously said he will shoulder the blame for the mess (what to do with 1,5- million posters, for a start?) but to his credit, he has studiously avoided talking of the intense political pressure that was put on his bank and which ultimately convinced him to scrap the campaign; the startling point is that this pressure came largely from his own constituency, big business.

Of course, there was also political pressure. It is now understood, for example, that a delegation of senior ANC leaders, apparently led by Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula and accompanied by Business Against Crime officials, visited FirstRand's head office on Friday to get them to pull the campaign -- although this could not be confirmed.

But what has since leaked into our possession is a series of letters in which it becomes clear that leaders of the country's top business organisation, Business Leadership SA (BLSA, formerly the SA Foundation) went out of their way to distance themselves from FNB's efforts and to isolate Harris.

BLSA members are the cream of SA business. Its board includes Cyril Ramaphosa, Saki Macozoma, Steve Booysen, Jacko Maree and Derek Cooper. Cooper is chairman of BLSA as well as chairman of Standard Bank. Anglo American's former political strategist, Michael Spicer, is CEO. BLSA is not to be trifled with.

Someone forgot to tell that, though, to Johann Rupert, who laid into Spicer in a letter (printed on our front page) and laid bare obvious differences of opinion in BLSA about how to talk to government.

Rupert was responding to a letter written by Spicer on behalf of BLSA and President Thabo Mbeki's Big Business Working Group, which is co-ordinated from the BLSA offices in Parktown, Johannesburg. Spicer had sent a note to his members saying that the "core group of leadership" had "deeply questioned the wisdom of the FNB initiative". Spicer's note, part of a flurry of correspondence and meetings in the last few days of last week, was sent to more than 30 top executives of blue chip companies, including the JSE, Anglo American, Gold Fields, Old Mutual, Murray & Roberts, Nedbank and SABMiller. Spicer said the "core group" tried to persuade FNB to "alter course" to no avail, and spoke of preserving "the relationship of trust built with government" and the leadership of Business Against Crime.

Cooper, meanwhile, had called Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula after hearing of the FNB plans. He also spoke to the Presidency. Both Spicer and Cooper were determined to impress upon government that the FNB campaign was FNB's alone. This seems to have angered Rupert. In his reply to Spicer, Rupert tells Spicer that since the Business Against Crime group met Mbeki in August, "we have heard nothing of substance (but) during this period a number of friends/acquantances/colleagues have been murdered, violated and robbed".

Rupert says Remgro would deliberately not follow BLSA's path of non-confrontation, and "it can be expec-ted that Remgro will back the FNB campaign, both as a loyal South African corporate citizen and as a key shareholder (of RMB)".

"During the apartheid days, business was continually confronted with similar problems, and many people and companies chose not to speak up. This included the then 'core group of leadership'," he wrote.

He said that speaking up about things that are "patently wrong in a society is not disloyal -- it is the moral right and duty of any citizen".

Spicer yesterday defended his position, saying he told FNB he could not support the campaign, as his organisation was actively working with government to improve the criminal justice system.

He said FNB was free to go ahead with its campaign but would be "responsible for its own actions".

This implies that FNB had much to lose. On Friday, Harris said the campaign was cancelled after "various discussions" that highlighted potentially negative consequences of the campaign. He said the "possible outcomes might not have matched the intentions of the campaign".

FNB had done its best to forestall any political fallout from the campaign. Harris had written to director-general in the Presidency, Rev Frank Chikane, on January 31 to reassure him that the campaign was a "nation-building initiative" and not meant to "jeopardise any of the hard work and progress of on-going initiatives between government and business".

"The campaign," wrote Harris, "is designed to create a platform for South Africans to constructively engage the president and government on the issue of crime. We believe that dealing with crime effectively will put SA in a strong position to achieve the ultimate goal -- the elimination of poverty."

But FNB is the banker for many government and quasi-government bodies, including the National Treasury, the SA Revenue Service, three provincial governments and companies such as Telkom and Transnet, and private discussions and comments in other newspapers suggest government would have taken a very dim view of FNB's campaign. The result is a bruised bank and a victorious Presidency, which, with the help of BLSA, managed to head off a potentially awkward campaign just before Mbeki gives his state of the nation speech to Parliament this week.

After this drubbing, and Anglo American CE Tony Trahar's public mauling by Mbeki a few years ago for suggesting SA was still a political risk for investors, business will probably now keep its head down and, publicly at least, mind its own business.
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State not a party political organ

2007-02-02T12:53:00.000-08:00

The ANC has acknowledged that it should not manage the state as a party political instrument.

This is contained in the party's draft strategy and tactics document that has been forwarded to branches for discussion ahead of the party's national congress in December.

The ANC's cadre deployment policy has repeatedly come under fire from opposition parties with the ANC accused of abusing state resources for party political ends.

Moreover, internal party battles have also spilled over into the state, affecting the intelligence services, among others, particularly in the context of the succession battle.

The document notes that many leaders and cadres of the movement were in positions of massive influence in the executive, the legislatures and state institutions.

"Enticing opportunities" had been created for cadres in business and professions.

Even within the trade union movement, student, youth, women and other mass democratic organisations, "unprecedented opportunities for individual material gain" have opened up.

"All this creates a problem of 'social distance' between these cadres and ordinary members and supporters, the majority of whom are working class and poor," the document says.

Moreover, political incumbency also presented a myriad problems in the management of the ANC's organisational relations, the document says.

"Patronage, arrogance of power, bureaucratic indifference, corruption and other ills arise, undermining the core values of the organisation: to serve the people."

Significantly it notes that the ANC should give strategic leadership to those of its cadres in institutions of government.

In its conduct in relation to the state, "the ANC should manage the state as an organ of the people as a whole rather than a party political instrument", the document says.

The party's chief strategist Joel Netshitenzhe yesterday briefed the ANC's parliamentary lekgotla in Cape Town about the document, with MPs breaking into commissions to discuss the draft.

President Thabo Mbeki and his deputy Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, in her capacity as head of the ANC's political committee in parliament, will address MPs today. The lekgotla ends on Sunday.

The 16-page document will, once adopted at the end of the year, replace the 10-year-old strategy and tactics approved at the ANC's national conference in Mafikeng in 1997.

It takes into account global shifts that have taken place, changes in the country in the first 13 years of democracy and in the democratic movement itself.

The draft notes that the progress made since the attainment of democracy was such "that we are still some way from the ideal of national democracy".

"The ownership and control of wealth and income, the poverty trap and access to opportunity are still in the main defined, as under apartheid, on the basis of race and gender."

It says that the achievement of democracy had seen the dramatic, if still exceedingly limited, emergency of the black capital group, which was largely a product of democratic change.

"However, because their rise is dependent in part on co-operation with elements of established white capital, they are susceptible to co-option into serving its narrow interests …

"Because their advance is dependent on a variety of interventions, and on opportunities provided by the state, they are tempted to use corrupt means to advance their personal interests."
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Crime and energy: State failing SA

2007-01-31T11:20:00.000-08:00

If the primary responsibility of governments is to protect their citizens from murderous criminals and lawless bandits, the Mbeki administration is open to criticism for downplaying the threat posed to South Africa by its high levels of crime.

If the second obligation of governments in the age of electricity and the marvels the microchip is to maintain a sufficient and reliable supply of power, President Thabo Mbeki is vulnerable to censure for allowing demand to exceed supply.

He cannot fairly be criticised for ignoring or denying that crime is a destructive force in post-apartheid South Africa. He can, however, be reproached for adding so many riders to his admissions of concern that they almost negate them.

'Mbeki asserted that most South Africans would agree with him'
Thus, while he referred to crime as "a scourge" in his recent address commemorating the 95th anniversary of the founding of the ANC, he later felt the need to qualify it by describing crime as a problem rather than an out-of-control crisis.

In an apparent bid to emphasise his qualifying point, Mbeki asserted that most South Africans would agree with him.

He needs to ask himself why, according to the Human Science Research Council's massive social attitude survey, 75 percent of adult South Africans support the execution of convicted murderers, if it is not because they think these criminals are literally getting away with murder.

While official police crime statistics point to a steady decrease in several categories of serious crime, including murder, it should be noted that the overall levels are still high and that the decreases need to seen in the context of increases in cash-in-transit robberies and rape, as well as a 7 percent increase in the 21 most serious crimes in the 12 years from 1994 to 2006.

In what might be interpreted as a sign that crime is not taken as seriously as it should be, South Africa's programme of action on how to address the deficiencies and weakness in contemporary society does not include crime as one of the problems that needs be tackled urgently.

The reason given for that astounding omission from the programme - which was submitted to the African Peer Review secretariat - is a decision by the programme drafters to restrict it to issues where a "discernible impact" can be made through limited and specifically targeted government interventions.

The African Union was not impressed, judging by the leaked contents of a report that it sent to Mbeki. The AU urged South Africa to take a tough stand against violent crime and radical action to remedy the underlying causes of poverty and unemployment.

Charles Nqakula, the minister of safety and security, has been sharply criticised for failing to take the concerns of opposition members of parliament seriously about the continuing high level of crime.

He is on record as advising three opposition parliamentarians to emigrate to another country if they believe crime makes life in South Africa intolerable. His facetious response contains a corollary: the imputation that they do not talk on behalf of the black majority, an insinuation that was repudiated by black as well as white people the next day.

On the critical shortage of electricity, and the recurring outages that disrupt the economy, inconvenience the citizenry and impede the flow of traffic on already congested and perilous roads, there is a similar inclination by Mbeki's ministers to belittle the distress of those affected or to deflect blame from themselves and/or the government. Instead of maintaining a tactful silence on the complaints of the businessmen about the loss of production and damage to the economy of the latest major outage - the one that cast a literal pall of gloom over large areas of Johannesburg and Cape Town - Trevor Manuel, the minister of finance, dismissed their estimates of the costs as "overcooked and utter garbage".

As Eskom is a state-owned and, ultimately, state-controlled utility, the suspicion exists that Manuel's outburst was a defencive response, an attempt to minimise the damage to the government he serves by minimising the cost of the outage to the economy.

Manuel, who has been highly praised for his skillful management of the government's macro-economic policy, is normally a man who chooses his words carefully and presents his case skilfully. His colloquial outburst is not unprecedented, however.

He delivered a similar outburst during a budget debate in 2004, when he accused opposition parliamentarians of "speaking voodoo" for daring to press the government to make anti-retroviral drugs available at state health institutions for the treatment of HIV/Aids.

As it turned out, the government eventually agreed that there were sound medical reasons to prescribe anti-retroviral drugs as an integral part of its comprehensive treatment plan for the dreaded pestilence.

To return to the recurring outages that increasingly characterise South Africa: like Nelson Mandela, Alec Erwin, the minister of public enterprises, is another minister who is generally respected for his cool-headedness and rationality.

But late in February last year, as Cape Town's residents seethed because of a series of power cuts and as the national local government elections approached, Erwin further inflamed anger in many households that had reverted to primus stoves to boil water for tea or coffee.

In what seemed to be a deliberate intervention to deflect public anger away from the ANC government and the ANC-controlled city council for failing to ensure the supply of power to the city, he raised the spectre of sabotage.

He publicly postulated that a loose bolt that had brought a unit of the Koeberg nuclear power station to a standstill had not been caused by incompetent maintenance of the unit but, instead, by a deliberate act of sabotage.

Erwin's statement did not save the ANC from defeat in its battle against the Democratic Alliance for the control of Cape Town, however.

Later, in August last year, when police investigations failed to establish that saboteurs had been at work, Erwin took another tack. He strongly denied that he had mentioned the word "sabotage", although, he said, at the time there was a "serious possibility" that it had been the work of a saboteur or saboteurs.

Unfortunately for Erwin, he was recorded by e.tv news as saying: "This is in fact not an accident… Any interference with any electricity installation is an exceptionally serious crime. It is sabotage."

He referred in the same statement to pending legal action and the laying of a charge. Neither occurred.

The saga is not over yet. The full cost of folly and incompetence has still to be paid. South Africa's reserve supply of power is well below the international standard of between 10 percent and 15 percent. A winter of discontent looms ominously.
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Drumsticks roll asunder

2007-01-31T10:55:00.000-08:00

The inside track on how South Africa’s political economy is headed for crises on all major fronts.

There are but few countries where illicit commando-type militias can roam around at will and, deploying deadly and significant ordnance, plunder, rape and murder at will. Believe it, that La Victoria ranks as a full-blown ghost town. Its final denizens fled last month when members of an irregular militia popped two of the village’s young men in broad daylight.

But the 1999 massacre in La Gabarra (when 40 people were slain by an irregular militia), remains one of the bloodiest single incidents against civilians in this country’s recent history. Another massacre two years ago left 34 farmers dead in the same hamlet.

These stories are set up near the Venezuela border in the north-eastern Catatumbo region of Colombia. The other country is South Africa, which this week released statistics showing that 18 545 South Africans were slaughtered in the year to 31 March 2006, equal to 51 people a day, holidays included. These numbers pale over La Gabarra, especially considering that Colombia has been in a war for four decades.

Colombia and South Africa have the highest murder rates in the world, but while South African leaders remain ominously silent on crime, Colombian president Álvaro Uribe Vélez recently appealed to all members of the UN General Assembly to support his country's security policies. Just as the UN has labeled Colombia as the worst humanitarian crisis in the Americas, the UN remains as silent on South Africa’s shocking crime problem as do South African leaders in the ruling party.

In Colombia, the fuel of violence is cash generated from coca, cultivated in the first step to processing cocaine, the champagne of the illicit drugs trade. Even then, Uribe has had the resolution to appeal for international help; “it is time”, he said, “for the international community to urgently call on violent groups to make peace without any more delays”.

South Africa is no small player in the global illicit drugs scene. Close to 100 000 cases of “drug related” crime were recorded by the police in 2005/2006. The big crime syndicates, which may well be protected in some or other way, somehow remain untouchable.

In a recent drugs bust in Alberton, near Johannesburg, some R250m of hashish and cannabis was seized. It was to be a single shipment. Several arrests were made but the kingpin of the syndicate (which imports hashish from the Middle East via cannabis-growing Swaziland and Lesotho, prior to re-shipment from South Africa to Canada and then Holland) is yet to be arrested, even when his identity is hardly a secret.

President Thabo Mbeki needs to clarify South Africa’s policy over illicit drugs, which play an increasingly important role in the economy. According to the latest UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report, South Africa and its neighbours comprise one of the world’s biggest growers and exporters of cannabis. The drug is rated as the third biggest export earner for Lesotho; Swaziland exports cannabis to the UK, US, Netherlands, and Japan. In 2004, the Republic of Ireland reported that 99% of the cannabis consumed in their country originated from South Africa.

In both South Africa and Colombia, money generated from illicit drugs corrupts a swamp-chain of never-ending crimes, ranging from money laundering and illegal possession of firearms and ammunition to bribery and, where required, contact crimes. While Colombia has long had a narco-economy, South Africa has quickly developed and adapted a crime-economy, illustrated by the 2.3m crimes reported to the police in 2005/2006.

Crime is institutionalized in both countries. Uribe argues that the root of the problem in his country is organized violence under “fictitious political pretexts”. Afrikaans author Andre Brink this week wrote in French daily Le Monde that South Africa’s “new elite” are “directly related to the increase in violence in the country”. Their first priority, Brink argues, “is apparently to fill their own pockets and those of family and friends and to abuse their positions, even if they have to step on the victims of murder, rape and violence and telling those who dare protest to shut up or leave”.

For the optimists, there may be an innovative way to deal with South Africa’s burgeoning crime-economy, courtesy of an idea that cropped up at a recent conference in Kenya. The idea is that those involved in serious corruption cases should be charged with crimes against humanity.

Under international law, the most serious crimes include genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression. Those charged under such headings can be put on trial anywhere in the world. The conference heard that corruption drains Africa of about 25% of its GDP (gross domestic product), and that the collateral damage, universally recognised, is that corruption is a major cause of poverty.

Corruption hideously undermines the foundations and basics, never mind advancement, of human rights. The Registrar of the International Tribunal for Rwanda, Adama Dieng, was reported as saying that in poor countries economic crimes might be as damaging as the worst violations of human rights, as they may cause starvation of the citizens for whom funds were intended.

South Africa is rotten with corruption. Its public sector has been overwhelmed by financial mismanagement, which includes unknown elements and degrees of corruption. An analysis of 135 annual audits conducted by auditor-general Shauket Fakie on the 34 national government departments and public entities from 2001/2002 to 2004/2005 shows that just seven “clean reports” were issued. There were 35 graded as “qualified” or branded with “adverse opinion” or slammed with “disclaimer”; 128 had an “emphasis of matter”.

Qualified reports, adverse opinions or disclaimers from the auditor-general denote entities in a state of financial disarray and mismanagement. Those that received reports in these categories expended (in the 2004/2005 year alone) a massive R52bn, or 30% of the national budget. Reports of fresh dirty accounts are starting to roll out, as the 2005/2006 reporting season hits parliament. This week, for instance, home affairs again received a qualified audit opinion from the auditor-general, for the fifth consecutive year.

Below this mismanagement and its attendant corruption, poverty remains an insoluble problem. This week Statistics SA estimated that South Africa’s “population of working age” stood at 29,9m persons on March 31 2006. The “labour force” is defined as 16,7m persons; of this, 4,3m (25,6%) are officially defined as unemployed, while 3,7m (22%) are defined as “discouraged work-seekers”. A combination of the latter two groups means that close to 50% of South Africa's labour force don’t have jobs. Just 41,7% (12,5m) of South Africa’s working force population (29,9m) have jobs.

South Africa’s politicians, and new elite, are punching way above their weight on the international stage while their backyards develop into ever-deeper pits of toxic chaos. The chickens, vapid, starving and moth-eaten as they may be, are staggering home to roost. This year’s PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) global economic crime survey found that 83% of companies and entities surveyed in South Africa were victims of economic crime in the past two years, in comparison with 45% globally.

South Africa’s refusal to recognise its crime-economy is costing more by the second. This week, the country slipped badly in the ranking tables of the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2006-2007. High crime, poor levels of health care and primary education were cited as key reasons for South Africa being shoved down to the ranking of 45, five places lower than the previous year.

In the basic requirements sub-index, South Africa fell 12 places to 58. The country’s human development ranking, as measured by the UNDP’s Human Development index, has been declining since 1995 and South Africa now ranks only 103rd in the world for basic health and education.

Earlier this year, reports from the Stellenbosch-based Bureau for Economic Research and the World Bank’s International Financial Corporation graphically illustrated how the South African government clutters the economy with regulatory obstacles. A more recent publication, the Fraser Institute’s regulatory survey of 64 mining jurisdictions, placed South Africa a lowly 37th.

Next month, Tito Mboweni, governor of South Africa’s central bank, will lead a number of top business executives to major New York meetings “in the biggest bid ever to attract trade and investment”. What will he be saying?
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Diverting hospital cash and firearms

2007-01-28T11:06:00.000-08:00

South Africa diverts hospital cash to pay for World Cup
A hospital building program in South Africa has been delayed to help pay for the country's hosting of the 2010 football World Cup. The construction of two hospitals in the remote Northern Cape has been held up for a year while funds are diverted to pay for the tournament. The South African Treasury said spending on health was increasing but did not deny that the money had been transferred. The cost of providing new and renovated stadiums for the World Cup is rapidly rising, with construction bills hundreds of millions of dollars over budget. The budget blow-out is due to inadequate government planning. President Thabo Mbeki has staked South Africa's reputation on the success of the World Cup.
Surrendered guns used by criminals
A "sizable number" of guns surrendered to the police for destruction have mysteriously found their way to criminal syndicates and warring taxi groups. Crooked police working at firearm centres at several police stations countrywide have been selling guns to criminal syndicates. The guns were meant to be kept in safes pending their destruction.
We are at war
South Africa’s top businessmen have expressed outrage at spiralling crime, saying violent criminals have plunged the country into crisis. Johann Rupert spoke of South Africans “being at war with ourselves”, and Saki Macozoma decried the country’s descent into “criminality” following the murder on Friday of world-renowned KwaZulu- Natal battlefields historian David Rattray at his home. The 49-year-old Anglo-Zulu War expert was shot three times in the chest at his home in Fugitive’s Drift, apparently by would-be robbers, and died in front of his wife Nicky. The historian had influential friends throughout the world. Billionaire businessman and chairman of Swiss luxury goods group Richemont Johann Rupert described the murder as “senseless”. “Is this the society that thousands of people fought and sacrificed their lives for? People who do not believe that our country is in crisis with violent crime must be in denial,” said Rupert. “This is not the type of country I’d hoped my children would live in ... we must now realise that in this country we’re at war with ourselves. South Africa has definitely lost one of its great sons ... he gave his life to promoting Zulu culture,” he said. Businessman, former activist and ANC National Executive Committee member Saki Macozoma described his death as “an example of the criminality that pervades our society.”

On crime and contradictions in a nervous country

2007-01-26T23:30:00.000-08:00

JOHN Lennon once sang, “How can I go forward when I don’t know which way I’m facing?” How right he was. Everyone is a little exercised on the issue of crime right now, but the contradictions abound.

For a start, we give convicted criminals resounding farewells at the gates of our prisons, sending entirely the wrong message to those who might be considering augmenting their income by illegal means. Loyalty is a good thing, particularly when it is shown to someone who has shared the trenches with you, but as leaders we really do need to be a little more circumspect about these things.

African National Congress (ANC) leaders could, for instance, on the occasions of Tony Yengeni’s entry to and departure from prison, have demonstrated their loyalty in a less public fashion. Simply because when you carry Yengeni to prison shoulder-high but scream in protest when a farmer who accidentally shot a young boy gets what you perceive to be a lenient sentence, you are harming the very fabric of the justice system.

And that is quite apart from the damage done by perceptions that some prisoners are more equal than others: that apparent parole violations go unpunished, that the rules that apply to release into correctional supervision are bent, and that animal cruelty laws can be ignored in the interests of “cleansing”. What an extraordinary irony it will be if Yengeni returns to prison for animal cruelty. But that is another matter.

Then, of course, when four police officers are slaughtered by an armed gang in the so-called Jeppestown massacre, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula instructs his police service not to hesitate in using their firearms when they perceive themselves to be under threat.

President Thabo Mbeki and his cabinet engage with big business in trying to devise better ways of combating the crime wave. It seems at last that the penny has dropped and that government is going to take the war against crime more seriously than in the past. The slight improvements in the annually released crime statistics are simply irrelevant in the context of the deluge of crime committed each year.

While he is no longer a member of the government, Jacob Zuma is the second-in-command of the ANC. He muddied the waters considerably when he gave an interview to a German newspaper, making the astonishing claim that football lovers who visit our shores for the 2010 Fifa World Cup will be safe. How he could say that is anybody’s guess, particularly remembering that the coach of a foreign team of disabled swimmers was raped within 100m of the front door of her hotel.

But Zuma went further. He said that the perception that crime was rampant in SA was a media creation. In other words, that the high crime rate did not really exist. Wow!

Mbeki appeared to take issue with his deputy when, in his New Year’s message to the nation, he appealed to all people to co-operate with the police in fighting crime. It seemed that the president was moving to fill what many commentators have seen as a vacuum in government responses to crime. That vacuum has in the past been characterised as a failure by government to clearly and loudly condemn all crime.

Mbeki went further when, sharing a platform with Zuma during the ANC’s birthday celebrations, he again urged an increase in community action to combat crime. He was taking the lead, telling the nation to stop tolerating crime and criminals. It was the leadership many believe is a vital component of taking the war to the criminals.

But, within days, Mbeki would tell the nation that it was only a “perception” that crime was out of control in SA. He told radio journalist Tim Modise that he could not believe that South Africans would be afraid to walk in the streets outside the SABC offices in Auckland Park. He was entirely wrong: people are generally afraid to walk in the streets, particularly after dark.

Now the ANC has, after its lekgotla last weekend, made what is probably its toughest statement yet on the crime wave. It appeared to be highly critical of Mbeki and Zuma and said that government’s response to the crime situation had to be well considered, effectively co-ordinated and comprehensive. But ANC spokesman Smuts Ngonyama reportedly said that seeing the ANC statement as a repudiation of Mbeki was “politicking” and unhelpful in the fight against the criminals.

I have heard that a clear space should be kept between party and state, but this is ridiculous.

Lennon asked a good question.
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SA fed up with crime

2007-01-26T23:17:00.000-08:00

Nobody can prove that the majority of the country’s 40 million to 50 million citizens think that crime is spinning out of control

President Thabo Mbeki

South Africans believe government is failing to combat crime despite President Thabo Mbeki’s claim that crime is not spinning out of control.

A Markinor survey revealed today shows that South Africans are more critical of the government’s handling of crime now than they were a year ago.

"In fact, crime and unemployment are two of the critical delivery areas in which government has consistently achieved less than a pass mark over the years," Markinor Director and political analyst Mari Harris said in a statement.

Only four in every ten adult South Africans think the government does enough to reduce crime, according to a Markinor bi-annual government performance barometer conducted among 3,500 people in November 2006.

However, they do have a "relatively high level" of trust in the Scorpions and mostly agree with the way in which the elite team handles high-profile corruption investigations.

"But, when it comes to government’s crime fighting efforts in general, the survey shows a significant drop in confidence," said Harris.

A fifth of adult South Africans were of the opinion that the country was becoming less safe - among them a substantial number of African National Congress supporters, said Harris. While 44 percent of people surveyed in November 2005 rated their personal safety as improving, only 37 percent felt the same way in November 2006.

Although President Thabo Mbeki had acknowledged the negative impact of crime on the public, he had raised ire in suggesting that crime was not out of hand, she said.

On Monday, Mbeki told television interviewer Tim Modise that it was just a perception that crime was out of control.

"It’s not as if someone will walk here to the (television) studio in Auckland Park and get shot.

"That doesn’t happen and it won’t happen. Nobody can prove that the majority of the country’s 40 million to 50 million citizens think that crime is spinning out of control."

However, the survey showed that only four out 10 South Africans believed that the government was effectively reducing the crime rate "very well" or "fairly well".

"South Africans thus do not necessarily share the perception expressed by the president that crime is under control," said Harris.

Crime experts and victims have accused Mbeki of being out of touch with reality.

Institute for Security Studies senior researcher Johan Burger told the daily newspaper Beeld that Mbeki had shown he was not clued-up about the experiences of ordinary people.

Former Springbok rugby wing Gerrie Germishuys, who was recently attacked at his home in Northcliff, Johannesburg, said: "If the government’s armed bodyguards were taken away from them, they would realise how unsafe the country has become."

Burger said there were some positive indicators that crime was levelling off, but it had to be appreciated that this was from an extremely high level.

"If crime is not out of control, it is under control. And, it may be a bit early to say that," he said.

"One should not be duped by positive tendencies, because it does not make one any safer."
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Projectitis is incurable

2007-01-26T23:02:00.000-08:00

President Thabo Mbeki, dismissing crime as a perception problem rather than a death problem, said you could walk from Auckland Park to the SABC studios (a block away) without getting shot. Of course it’s possible. Probable even.

But the sad fact of Mbeki’s SA, and with which he will not deal, is that being shot, savaged or raped here is nevertheless a serious prospect.

I first thought Mbeki was being cynical. But his uncontrollable (and therefore not premeditated) default on crime (and AIDS) seems to be denial.

Yes, the president will concede, levels of perception are unacceptably high. There were 19000 fatal perceptions last year. A good friend of the chief of police has just been charged with one fatal perception and, last week, a narcotics perception. Mbeki trusts the chief of police, he says.

The president says he knows crime is not out of control because he travels around and speaks to imbizos. But it is impossible to be frank with Mbeki. If a peasant in Mpumalanga were to stand up at a presidential imbizo and complain about crime, Mbeki would argue with him until he won. That’s how he talks to people. Ask his many advisory groups how stilted their exchanges are. People who cross Thabo Mbeki are cut dead. At the imbizos, he says, no one raises fears of safety with him. What’s his point? That the problem doesn’t exist?

There’s no point getting hot under the collar about the president. Mbeki has just over two years to go and, in truth, he’s lost interest in us. Wipe yourself out in a celebrity drug binge or car crash and your family may warrant a presidential visit. But that’s all the sympathy on offer.

Mbeki knows the political game from here on in is all about a graceful exit. His thankfully conventional default on economic policy (basically, to leave things alone apart from colour tweaking) means he comes to the end of his term with more honour intact than many a departing leader. He’s made a political mess of the country, but not an economic one and, like scissors cuts paper, economy trumps politics. The trick for the next two years is to follow George Bush’s advice and to remember that “you can fool some of the people all the time and those are the people you need to concentrate on”. ‖

YOU still have time to go out and buy the current issue of the FM. It has a fantastic cover story on the way the ANC is being eaten away from the inside by greedy officials securing contracts for themselves and their friends.

The article helped me crystallise something I have only half realised, and that is the way we have been overwhelmed in this country since the ANC took power in 1994 by projects. Have you noticed?

Everyone seems to be working on a project. Of course, it’s because projects have budgets and budgets are there to be bled dry by officials and consultants and friends. Some of the projects even have some sort of good intent, though usually only when government is not involved.

I wonder how many projects actually stand the test of time. Normally, it’s just build it and bugger off. Collect your cheques when you pass Go. A few years ago, it was decided to build a ferry over the bottom reaches of the Mbashe River in Transkei, to join the communities on either side. More than R20m was spent on building a magnificent winding road down the to the river and up the other side. The pont itself was a gleaming piece of engineering, powered by huge outboard motors. A new boathouse housed spares, petrol and staff.

Six months later the pont was gone; stolen or washed away, never to be replaced. The road is now a crumbling mess and the boathouse has burned down. Projectitis is incurable and it kills the one thing all successful societies take seriously — maintenance and the culture of caring for what you already have.
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ANC Youth League in crisis

2007-01-26T22:54:00.000-08:00

26 January 2007
A confidential internal report has painted a grim picture of disarray in the African National Congress Youth League, with seven of its provincial structures collapsing or in deep crisis.

And insiders say the unwavering support of the league’s national leaders for Jacob Zuma is a significant factor in this decline.

The plight of the youth league is acknowledged in last year’s organisational report of its national working committee, which has been leaked to the Mail & Guardian.

The report paints a picture of leadership squabbles, political infighting and internal rebellion. Seven of the league’s provincial structures have been replaced by “task teams” dispatched by the national leadership. The only provinces to escape the imposition of task teams are the Northern Cape and Limpopo.

The findings of the report raise major questions about who the league speaks for, and whether it can bring a meaningful mandate to this year’s key ANC national conference in Polokwane.

With the ANC Women’s League, it has guaranteed representation and voting rights at the conference, and was recently elevated to the status of a province in the ANC constitution. This means the youth league could have a much higher number of delegates than the 50 that is traditionally sent to the conference.

Zizi Kodwa, the league’s national spokesperson, acknowledged that the organisation was facing problems, but denied that it was paralysed in some provinces. The situation differed from province to province. “From where we stand, the youth league is not weak in seven provinces,” Kodwa said.

The league’s national leadership does not appear to be in a hurry to arrest the slide described in the report.

Instead, the organisation has postponed its elective conference, scheduled for July, to March next year, saying that it has an interest in, and hopes to influence, the outcome of the ANC conference in December.

This hints at the national leadership’s vehement desire to install Zuma as ANC president. However, league sources say they are facing “increasing opposition” over their support for him.

The league’s national leaders face a rebellion in the Eastern Cape after disbanding the provincial executive committee (PEC) last December. Eastern Cape leaders claim they are being persecuted for successfully campaigning against Zuma loyalists at last year’s ANC provincial conference and supporting a conference resolution nominating Mbeki as the Eastern Cape’s candidate for the ANC presidency.

The report lends credence to this version of events, referring to “continued pronouncements of the ANCYL in the Eastern Cape on ANC leadership issues, which have reflected contrary views to the policy positions of the organisation.”

After the ANC provincial conference the ANCYL Eastern Cape provincial spokesperson, Nkosifikile Gqomo, went public, saying that the ANCYL in Eastern Cape “supports the third term for the current president [Thabo Mbeki]”.

There is also known to be strong resistance to the league’s national position on the ANC succession battle in Gauteng, North West and the Western Cape.

The 64-year-old league played a key role in the ANC’s shift away from passive resistance in the early 1950s under such leaders as Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu, and has historically been an influential power-broker in the ANC.

Instead of its traditional allocation of 50 delegates it has been given the status of a separate province at this year’s ANC conference -- apparently meaning that the size of its delegation will reflect its organised membership. Kodwa claims the league has 800 000 paid-up members. This potentially gives its president, Fikile Mbalula, significant clout.

The right of youth league and women’s league to nominate candidates independently was withdrawn when the women’s league in KwaZulu-Natal named Winnie Madikizela-Mandela for the position of party deputy president on the eve of the 1997 conference in Mafikeng.

With the advent of South Africa’s democracy, under Peter Mokaba’s leadership, the “Young Turks” were a force to be reckoned with in the broad movement and played a key role in positioning Mbeki to fill Mandela’s shoes. In 1997, with Zuma’s support, it carried Mbeki to the party’s highest office, despite a challenge from Cyril Ramaphosa’s camp.

Its autonomous status in the ANC has allowed it to publicly endorse leadership candidates well in advance of elections and promote them, giving them an edge in a party that discourages open campaigning for top positions.

However, there are clear signs that its influence in the ANC is waning.

In Mafikeng in 1997, it failed to secure the ANC deputy presidency for its candidate, Mathews Phosa, after the league was told by party elders that the post would go to Zuma.

At the same conference, the league -- then aligned with Mbeki -- also failed to have Steve Tshwete elected as party chairperson, a job which went to Mosiuoa Lekota.

The league has also been weakened by its attempted forays into business and links with such figures as murdered mining boss Brett Kebble. Political commentator William Mervin Gumede, writing in Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC, says: “ANC Youth League members, once among the major power-brokers, are now too focused on making a fast buck to swing the election, but the yuppie politicians could be useful as noisy campaign troops.”

The ongoing leadership dogfight in the league, with some provinces opposed to giving the leadership to Zuma, means the league might not vote as a homogeneous block and that may decrease its influence at the conference and dilute support for its preferred candidate, Zuma.
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Parliament becoming toothless

2007-01-26T22:50:00.000-08:00

19/01/2007 21:07
Parliament was quickly losing its influence and power to hold the government to account, Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Tony Leon charged in his weekly letter on Friday.

Suggestions that Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad lied to parliament was evidence that the legislature was now perceived as toothless, he said.

"Did Minister Pahad lie to parliament? If so, what will the reaction of government be... what is parliament going to do about one of its most senior members and ministers misleading the house?" he asked.

In response to DA parliamentary questions, Pahad denied that writer Ronald Suresh Roberts was working on a biography of President Thabo Mbeki when he was allegedly involved in brokering the R1.43m deal.

"But it is not just such aberrations emanating from the ruling party that undermine public trust in parliament.

"More serious is a broader systemic failure, whereby the legislature's operations are continuously undermined by the ruling party and its standing reduced to that of a second-class institution," said Leon.

A steady decline in parliament's influence and standing in 2006 did not bode well for 2007, he said.

"A drastic change is required if our highest legislative body is to fulfil its constitutionally entrenched function, namely, to frame, debate and pass the laws and to offer a check to executive power."

Leon said the sexual harassment claims against expelled former ANC chief whip Mbulelo Goniwe was merely the most sensational evidence of senior government appointees undermining the reputation of the legislature.

"Through his actions, President Mbeki's hand-picked appointee gravely tarnished the reputation of our highest legislative body," said Leon.

The impression that sleaze was defaming parliament was also underscored by the Travelgate affair.

'Important for MPs to focus'

"Regardless of declarations from Goniwe that the offenders were innocent until proven guilty, fully 32 MPs accepted plea bargains, effectively admitting guilt and agreeing to pay fines.

"While some of the early ANC plea-bargainers were fired, the ANC has yet to take action against the latest offenders," he said.

Leon blamed Speaker Baleka Mbete for parliament's degeneration into a "second class" institution.

"(Her) inability to assert parliament's prerogatives, and to forward tough questions about governmental corruption or ineptitude, confirms the unsettling impression that parliament is allowing its teeth to be pulled," he said.

It was important that MPs focus on their core functions if the house was to regain its standing in the eyes of the public and its effectiveness.

"It is vital that MPs commit to their Constitutional function as guardians of public liberties and of our citizens' right to know - in a word, to resume with vigour and determination their role as overseers of the executive," said Leon.
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Let's not upset the generals

2007-01-26T22:26:00.000-08:00

Jan 25th 2007
A controversial vote shows how far the country's foreign policy has changed

LESS than a month after taking up its seat (for two years) at the UN Security Council, South Africa created a stir with its very first vote. It was the only country to side with China and Russia in opposing a resolution calling on Myanmar's military rulers to improve their appalling human-rights record. China's and Russia's knuckles are regularly rapped over their own records in this respect, and the Chinese have vested interests in the Burmese junta. So their veto was no surprise. But South Africa's vote seemed odd for a country whose first democratic president, Nelson Mandela, said it would regard human rights as “the light that guides our foreign policy”. Archbishop Desmond Tutu declared that the vote was a betrayal of South Africa's past.

The official explanation is that, although the situation in Myanmar is bad, it does not pose a security risk, so it is beyond the Security Council's mandate. The problem, South Africa argues, would be best tackled in other UN bodies, such as the Human Rights Council. But South Africa's vote may have had less to do with UN procedure and more to do with sending some strong signals about its foreign priorities.

The vote presented a chance for South Africa to “nail its colours to the mast”, says Garth Le Pere of the Institute for Global Dialogue, a local research outfit. That means waving a flag for poor countries to redress the perceived hegemony of the West. China has become a big trading partner for Africa, and Vladimir Putin, Russia's president, made his first visit to South Africa last year. South Africa is building closer links with Brazil and India, and has defended Iran over its nuclear ambitions. It also wants the poor world to have a louder voice in the Security Council, the World Bank and the IMF.

This is quite a change from the Mandela presidency, when a freshly democratic South Africa, basking in its moral glory, promoted the upholding of human rights as its guiding foreign-policy principle. Now President Thabo Mbeki's priority is to put African interests and those of the poor world, as he sees them, first. South Africa has been preoccupied with building a stronger continent, including new structures such as the African Union (AU), in the hope of reducing Africa's reliance on Western help and its vulnerability—in Mr Mbeki's view—to Western meddling. South Africa has sent peacekeepers or mediators to trouble spots across Africa, from Sudan to Côte d'Ivoire, and may now send troops to Somalia. These efforts have produced patchy results, but South Africa, once an international pariah, has become a favourite mediator for addressing Africa's myriad conflicts.

But the Myanmar vote is an awkward way to advance such worthy aims. Mr Tutu argued that South Africa would not be the free country it is today if others had taken similar views at the UN in the apartheid years. Its moral reputation has already been tarnished by its failure to denounce Robert Mugabe's dreadful regime in neighbouring Zimbabwe. South Africa will have a chance next week to redeem itself, at least partly, when the AU decides whether to let Sudan, whose government has overseen mass-murder in the Darfur region, take the organisation's annual chair. South Africa is expected to oppose the move, as it did last year. But from being a rare African beacon for human rights, it has become more like most other countries around the world—putting their own interests before principle.
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ANC's Cronyism Rots Society

2007-01-26T22:06:00.000-08:00

January 22, 2007
The version of the free market system adopted by the African National Congress (ANC) government had led to "truly bizarre" outcomes in government policy and was to blame for the crony capitalism in SA, Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) president Mangosuthu Buthelezi said on Friday.

"There is a dangerous disjuncture which has led to multiple contradictions in a government committed to, as President Thabo Mbeki eloquently put it, the 'broad family of ideas that might be called left'. In practice this has led to some truly bizarre policy outcomes," Buthelezi said in a statement.
Western Union

An example of this was that while Finance Minister Trevor Manuel had rightly said that people should not become dependent on social grants and should seek work, it was the "crippling rigidity of the labour market legislation" that the government enacted which had made it onerous for work seekers to get jobs, he said.

"This heart and head split in government thinking is again expressed in its reluctance to develop standard antitrust and a pro-competition legislation to break the grip of our public and private cartels and monopolies on our economy."

The consequences of this "free market" were painful, Buthelezi said. Bank charges were among the highest in the world and provided little incentive for poor people to put money into bank accounts. Yet without banking facilities, people could not obtain loans to purchase property or start their own small businesses.

"Many in the ANC have clearly twisted the fundamentals of the free market model to suit the needs of its real constituency -- the lucky elite few in its own ranks at the expense of the unlucky masses," he said.

The South African free market model should be based on "meritocracy, hard work, integrity and genuine individualism".

The ANC had laid the foundations for a well-functioning enterprise economy in 1994. "Thirteen years on, clearly something has gone wrong in this country as crony capitalism and rampant materialism have, hand in hand, rotted our society," Buthelezi said.
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Cabinet Puts Skills Shortage On Agenda

2007-01-26T21:56:00.000-08:00

January 22, 2007
The critical lack of skills crippling virtually all structures of government and impeding effective service delivery will be high on the agenda when ministers and other senior government officials meet at this week's cabinet lekgotla.

While the cabinet remains tight-lipped about what will be discussed, it is understood that senior government officials are deeply concerned that skills development and acquisition could become a stumbling block for government's Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for SA (Asgi-SA), aimed at overcoming the obstacles to a higher rate of economic growth.
Western Union

The skills shortage has become the focus of a dedicated joint initiative for priority skills acquisition, under the leadership of Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, which aims to radically reduce the skills deficit within three years. The lack of skills is regarded as an obstacle to improving the capacity of government to spend the ever higher revenue collected by the South African Revenue Service in the current buoyant economic conditions.

Government's massive R410bn infrastructure programme and the preparations for the 2010 Soccer World Cup have also boosted demand on the very small pool of skilled people in the country.

In desperation, cabinet ministers such as Mlambo-Ngcuka and Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi have been driven to extend the hunt abroad for skilled foreigners and South African expatriates.

The challenge for government to spend its resources is likely to become more acute when Finance Minister Trevor Manuel tables his budget in Parliament next month, as he is expected to report a very small deficit, if not an embarrassing budget surplus.

The medium-term budget policy statement tabled in October projected a budget deficit of 0,4% of gross domestic product, but this could again be overtaken by strong revenue inflows and high levels of underspending by the state.Another obvious programme to receive attention will be poverty alleviation.

Mbeki is expected to announce an expansion of the expanded public works programme as a way of providing job opportunities for the unemployed in his state of the nation address early next month.

Mbeki said in the African National Congress (ANC) national executive committee's January statement that the programme was on course to reach its target of 1-million job opportunities in five years.

By June last year it had surpassed its employment creation targets across four sectors, with more than 300000 work opportunities created.

An extended meeting of cabinet ministers and other key government officials is held each year at this time, and was preceded by this weekend's ANC lekgotla. The ANC lekgotla debated the party's approach to the issues to be raised at the cabinet lekgotla.
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South Africa's humanitarian facts and figures

2007-01-24T21:43:00.001-08:00

Here is a picture of the sad decline of South Africa as told by the numbers.

Population in 2006 was 47.6 million. In 2000 it was 45.6 million.

Percentage urban population in 2007 is 60.2 percent. In 2000 it was 56.9 percent.

Percentage of population under 15 in 2004 was 32.8 percent. It was 34.0 percent in 2000.

Average life expectancy in 2004 was 47.0 years, down from 50.2 years in 2000.

Infant mortality remained constant between 2000 and 2005 at 55 per 1 000 live births.

Child mortality - deaths before the age of five - showed a slight drop from 70 per 1,000 live births in 2000 to 68 per 1,000 live births in 2005.

Births attended by skilled personnel stayed at 84 percent from 1996 to 2004.

Maternal mortality was 230 per 100,000 live births in 2000. No other figures are available.

The Human development index (HDI rank) in 2004 was 121, down from 107 in 2000.

Percentage of children under weight for age (under age 5) remained the same from 1996 to 2005 at 12 percent.

Population with access to improved water showed a slight increase. In 2004 it stood at 88 percent, compared to 86 percent in 2000.

Population with access to improved sanitation showed a dramatic fall. In 2004 it was only 65 percent, compared to 87 percent in 2000.

The average literacy rate dropped from 85.3 percent in 2000 to 82.4 percent in 2003.

Landlines telephones dropped to 100 per 1,000 people in 2005, from 109 per 1,000 people in 2000.

Cellular telephone subscribers stood at an incredible 716 per 1,000 people in 2005, compared to 183 per 1,000 people in 2000!

Internet users nearly doubled. In 2005 it stood at 108 per 1,000 people. It was only 53 per 1,000 people in 2005.

The Transparency International corruption ranking (1=least corrupt, 145=most corrupt) tells another sad story. It dropped from 34th in 2000 to joint 51st in 2006.

From 1990 to 2001 the percentage of population living on less than US$1 a day was less than 2 percent. From 1990 to 2004 it was 10.7 percent.

TB cases in 2004 were 718 per 100,000 people, up from 515 per 100,000 people in 2000

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Population explosion in Beitbridge due to border jumpers

2007-01-20T07:54:00.000-08:00

19 January 2007
The border town of Beitbridge faces a massive population explosion as authorities struggle to relocate border jumpers deported from South Africa. The high number of people in the town is also choking and stretching the district council’s service delivery to the limit.

Investigations by Newsreel this week reveal that since the beginning of the year South African immigration officials have been deporting at least ten bus-loads of border jumpers to Zimbabwe each day.

A source at the border town said once immigrants are ‘dumped’ in the country, authorities face a daunting task of providing accomodation, food and transport back to their home areas.

‘In many of the cases the deportees refuse to go back to their hommes in the hope of trying their luck again to cross the crocodile infested Limpopo river. In the end, they end up loitering around the town doing all sorts of things in search of food, money and shelter,’ said our source.

This week alone our source said he has seen a huge influx of deportees from South Africa.

Over a 100 Zimbabweans are illegally crossing into South Africa daily in search of jobs despite intensified police patrols along the Limpopo River and the dangers of drowning, possible arrest and deportation. Recently the Ministers of Labour from Zimbabwe and South Africa, Nicholas Goche and Membathisi Mdladlana met in Beitbridge over the issue.

South Africa is now deporting an average of 500 Zimbabweans every day, with about 1000 being sent home every Thursday when the biggest holding camp Lindela is cleared for new arrivals.

But it is the number of new deportees who hang around the border town that is worrying authorities. In recent press articles police in Beitbridge have accused the deportees of fanning crime in the border town.

‘Cases of robberies, house breaking and violence have risen sharply in the last six months and we suspect the authorities are failing to cope because they are overwhelmed by the sheer number of new arrivals in the town,’ said our source.
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Do you know who I am?

2007-01-20T07:23:00.000-08:00

Suitcase and blazer in hand, the man walks up to the airport information desk and, in an authoritative manner, demands to board a flight - for which he is late - to Cape Town. The clerk tries to tell him that the plane has left and that she could arrange a later flight.

But the man wants none of this and says: "This is a business class ticket. Do you know who I am?"

This is the scenario of a popular television advert where the clerk takes mild revenge on the arrogant man and announces over an intercom: "Ladies and gentlemen. May I have your attention, please? There's a gentleman here who doesn't know who he is. If anyone is able to assist him, please report to the information desk urgently."

Clever! But this isn't how things work in reality. Some of our leaders use this tactic when in hot water, and instead of being reprimanded, they are treated with kid gloves. They receive the kind of treatment that ordinary citizens can only dream of after any wrongdoing.

George Orwell, in his book Animal Farm, says: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." And in the case of Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride, former commissioner of correctional services Linda Mti and Pretoria High Court Judge Nkola Motata, it begs the question whether South Africa is being run like Mr Jones's farm.

Mti allegedly used the same words as the advert - "Do you know who I am?" - after he smashed into Abe Mashile in November.

Mashile told the Saturday Star that Mti had been so drunk that he fell to the ground and slept until the police arrived. He was let off on a warning and hasn't appeared in court.

The Mail & Guardian reported how Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Lulama Xingwana "hijacked" a seat on a South African Airways flight in April last year. Xingwana allegedly "muscled an SAA passenger off her business class seat", "stormed" through the boarding gate and "hijacked" seat 1F when she discovered she had been removed from Flight SA570 from Durban to Johannesburg.

Steve Galane, spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture, retaliated and said the M&G article had made serious insinuations that bordered on character assassination, disrespect for the truth and blatant defamation.

In 2003 Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang "freaked out and hurled insults" at a fellow passenger when she found out that the man had refused to sit next to her because he accused her of being "responsible for the deaths of thousands of Aids victims".

German businessman Jens von Wichtingen said he was repeatedly yelled at by Tshabalala-Msimang, who eventually followed him to his new seat, continuing the tirade. "I was trembling of fear," he said.

German and South African media widely reported on the minister's "crude and uncontrollable behaviour" and how she allegedly told the German national to "f*** off".

Also in 2003, Susan Shabangu, the Deputy Minister of Minerals and Energy Affairs, reportedly lifted her skirt "in frustration" at O R Tambo International Airport after she activated a metal detector and was then told she would be physically searched.

She allegedly shouted at security officer Benny Edwards when he tried to calm her down. Edwards told her that the only people exempt from searches were the president, the first lady and presidential guests. Edwards was later fired by the Airports Company South Africa after being found guilty of bringing the company into disrepute and "causing the minister to lift her dress".

Edwards laid charges of crimen injuria against Shabangu, but the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions refused to prosecute.

An angry Edwards said: "It seems politicians are above the law in South Africa. This decision has politics written all over it and sends a worrying message to the ordinary man."

Late last year, Collen Msibi, the transport department's spokesperson, announced that "senior government leaders are allowed to exceed the country's speed limits". This came after it was reported that his minister, Jeff Radebe, and his motorcade had been seen speeding.

Ironically, Radebe had minutes earlier launched a national road safety project, where he had said 75 percent of road accidents were caused by speeding.

Msibi added that "convoys are allowed to exceed the speed limit if there is a security risk" - although he couldn't say what exactly the security risk was on that particular day.

Last month, McBride crashed his car near Pretoria. Witnesses have claimed that he was intoxicated when the accident happened.

But instead of being arrested, he was whisked away by his Ekurhuleni metro police colleagues - and no tests were done to determine his sobriety. In addition, eyewitnesses claimed they were intimidated by McBride's subordinates.

Police have said they are investigating only charges of reckless and negligent driving. McBride has not appeared in court.

More recently, Judge Motata, who was arrested last Friday on allegations of drunken driving after he crashed his vehicle into a wall of a Johannesburg home, also hasn't appeared in court. Witnesses said he was drunk, abusive and had resisted arrest. Six audio clips and edited transcripts purporting to be exchanges between Judge Motata, the homeowner and metro police appear on the Sunday Times website.

In them, a man identified as the judge says: "I know the law... Ja, you mustn't look at me as a black man... Anybody who insults me, I say f*** you."

The homeowner, who said eight people were present, tells him: "It is my opinion that you are drunk, yes, because you smell of alcohol... "

In a fourth clip, the man said to be Judge Motata comments: "If people take my keys, why should I co-operate with you... I don't have to co-operate. No, no. F*** you."

The judge is expected to appear in court on January 27.

The Saturday Star spoke to two opposition parties and asked them what they thought about the behaviour of their fellow MPs.

The Democratic Alliance's Dianne Kohler-Barnard said: "We are indeed seeing the evolution of a culture of entitlement which ensures that those in positions of power are automatically protected against their own worst efforts, and we have to fight this move with every last breath.

"We cannot sink back into the apartheid-era culture with goons beating up anyone who saw something distasteful... Our democracy is precious, and we cannot allow it to be tarnished in this fashion."

Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille said it was a shame that high-profile people did not get the same treatment from law enforcers when they committed crimes.

"We are all supposed to be equal before the law. If a high-profile person commits a crime, the best thing to do is to bring that person before a court immediately.

"This could act as a deterrent for ordinary citizens. But unfortunately, here it happens the other way around," said De Lille.

Aeyasha Kajee, a board member of Transparency International SA, had a different view on the matter, saying this phenomenon was not restricted to South Africa.

"It used to happen a lot more during the apartheid regime - but nobody knew about it. Thankfully, now we have a free media. The media can inform the public of our leaders' behaviour.

"There is a perception that corruption is on the rise in this country and, given our history, we expect our leaders to be more accountable for their actions," said Kajee.
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Evita to appoint kitchen cabinet

2007-01-20T07:17:00.000-08:00

Wed, 17 Jan 2007

Evita Bezuidenhout, the drag figure produced by satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys, says she intends to be a fully independent candidate when she runs for president of South Africa in 2009 — and intends to stay at home and appoint a kitchen cabinet.

She said a key policy initiative under her leadership would be to make learning many languages tax-deductible. People would go to an oral test of their skill.

Entering an "international" press conference at a city hotel — to meet the press ahead of her announcement of "Evita for President" at the Summer festival at Spier at the end of the month — Bezuidenhout, the former ambassador of the imaginery apartheid homeland of Bapetiskosweti, brandished a toy weapon and said he had brought former deputy president Jacob Zuma's — who liked to sing a song about it — machine gun. "Now that he has his machine gun, I hope that he goes away."

"My song is going to be a different song," said Evita, noting that potential leaders in the ruling African National Congress had to deny within 24 hours that they were standing for the nation's highest office, but she said she would make herself available in any event.

Wearing a black frock and gold sequined jacket, Evita declared that her diamond necklace — which she received from former apartheid Plural Affairs Minister Piet Koornhof while she was still ambassador — would be donated to the poor.

While she did not mention in this regard Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo- Ngcuka — who once received a diamond tiara while Minerals and Energy Minister — she was asked whether the 2009 race was likely to be "a two-women race".

Evita replied that Mlambo-Ngcuka would have to "sort out" her voyager miles. "She is a very elegant woman," said Evita.

Asked at the conference what she would do with the "white male problem" — which in the new South Africa had replaced the black spot problem — she said that she had noted the white males who brandished the old apartheid flag at sports matches in London.

Now all the white racists were there and "it couldn't happen to a nicer country", she quipped.

Asked if she would throw lavish parties as the president of the nation, she said: "I think we are all exhausted. We have too many political parties."

Asked who she would appoint as her deputy president, she said she would have a revolving deputy presidency so that they did not get accustomed to "the same first class seat".

She said United States President George W Bush reminded her of former South African dictator PW Botha. "It was PW who said it first: he who is not for us is against us."

Asked who would be in her cabinet, she said she would like to see Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who had been ill of late, remaining horizontal. She would keep Finance Minister Trevor Manuel who was "so clever. He acts like a black and thinks like a white".

She intended to stay at home — close to her three grandchildren, Winnie- Jeanne, Nelson-Ignatius and La Toya-Ossewania — and appoint her cabinet at the kitchen table.
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A Fairy Story

2007-01-15T07:35:00.000-08:00

Here's an absolutely imaginary short story for you to read… any similarity to real events is purely coincidental and absolutely unintentional.

Once-upon-a-time in Lalaland there was a judge and a police chief, each separately suspected of driving under the serious influence of alcohol and the latter already guilty of blowing some young people to pieces with a bomb, would you believe?

Each, vision temporarily impaired and co-ordination shot, had crashed his car, fortunately without injury to any third party – one was whisked away by his men after they threatened bystanders with guns and personal violence. Also unbelievable – this is, after all, just a story to frighten children and learner drivers.

The other, after using foul language, having difficulty standing and refusing to submit to police authority, was eventually subdued and taken away in a police vehicle to spend the night in jail. Next morning he was released on R1000 bail and headed back to sit on his Bench, still proclaiming his innocence, sobriety and a liking for drinking tea.

Each had Friends in High Places in Lalaland but nevertheless was duly processed for doing Very Bad Things under the Road Traffic Act and eventually set free with some soothing balm to put on the red mark caused by being slapped on the wrist.

There was, of course, a happy ending. Being honourable men and very aware of how the thinking public now viewed them – that is, with serious distaste and deep mistrust – they resigned from their comfortable positions paid for by the taxes of those same thinking people and sought work helping the victims and families of those at the receiving end of drunk driving and lived happily ever after.

Like I said, this is a fairy story and nothing in it must be believed.
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Cult of mediocrity

2007-01-12T12:01:00.000-08:00

"We have displayed a consistent inclination since we assumed management of our affairs to opt for mediocrity and compromise, to pick a third and fourth eleven to play for us."

South Africa? No. The description by Chinua Achebe was of Nigeria, his homeland, published in the 1983 monograph The Trouble with Nigeria. Yet it is apt for South Africa in 2007.

This is no diatribe against equity and affirmation. It is a diatribe against the cult of mediocrity that we have come to accept from our leaders across the private, public and civil society sectors.

Between 1990 and 1994 we miraculously talked our way out of trouble, negotiated a path through minefields and constructed an imperfect but widely admired democracy.

A set of world-class leaders who thought laterally, fought from a position of principle and compromised tactically was assembled at Kempton Park, where the key political negotiations took place.

The trade unions brimmed with men and women who sculpted a labour law regime that is world-class (though in need of some real-world modification). They were able to think beyond their special interests; they also wrote and debated social and economic policies, many of which were adopted by the post-apartheid government.

The same quality of leadership was evident in our NGOs. Many leaders of that era took jobs in international bodies where they have made global strides for humanitarianism. The pickings in civil society are paper-thin nowadays.

And in the private sector, visionary leaders shaped wage agreements based on performance and productivity.

I wager that if our freedom was in the hands of the present crop of leaders we'd still be bickering at Kempton Park. We have picked "a third and fourth eleven" to play for us, to paraphrase Achebe.

Look at Parliament, where, until recently, the majority party was under the discipline of chief whip Mbulelo Goniwe.

It is sobering to think that the sex pest kicked out of the African National Congress (ANC) is the nephew of Matthew Goniwe, who gave his entire adult life to overthrowing apartheid and died a martyr at the age of 38.

Mbulelo is almost the same age. His political career died after he sexually harassed a young parliamentary aide of the kind his uncle would probably have mentored and empowered.

He did not rise to prominence by helping to make the ANC in Parliament a force to be reckoned with. Instead, he owned businesses he did not declare, used Parliament to shield himself from maintenance suits and tried to force ANC MPs to sign an oath of allegiance to President Thabo Mbeki.

It is an extreme example -- but the two men personify the qualities that helped usher in our democracy and the dross that we have now become used to.

There are notable exceptions, but the cream has not risen to the top in the new millennium.

Perhaps freedom has made us fat and complacent. Perhaps we are too much of an "Ag shame" nation, quick to forgive and overlook. Instead of a spur to action, freedom has become a comfort zone for leaders who have largely abrogated policy thinking to technocrats who model "solutions" on laptops. Of course, state management is a science, and a tough one.

Perhaps as the ANC starts its fourth term its elected leaders will become more comfortable and adept at power and display the qualities required to build democracy and foster development.

The affliction of mediocrity is also apparent in party leadership across the spectrum. Helen Zille has potential, but other DA leaders in the wings are still in political diapers.

Ditto the ANC Youth League and Young Communist League, whose deification of Jacob Zuma and anachronistic ideologies hamper the flowering of creative young leadership.

The ANC's Luthuli House headquarters is mediocrity city, headed by the underwhelming Kgalema Motlanthe and spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama, who last year seriously told South Africans there was no battle over the leadership of the ANC.

And what of the trade unions, who have birthed some of South Africa's best leaders? Last year, Congress of South African Trade Unions general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi threatened that if new charges were brought against Zuma he would take workers on to the streets. Such intellectual paucity and disrespect for democratic institutions is widespread in these crucial movements of the working class.

Many of the world-class political representatives who remain will exit the stage come the election in 2009.

Thabo Mbeki will go -- a great politician, though one who has helped usher the country and his party into the culture of the so-so.

Goniwe, it must be remembered, was Mbeki's choice. So is our team of premiers who, but for Gauteng's Mbhazima Shilowa, are uniformly unimpressive. Mbeki has not punished mediocrity, as the fortunes of Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri illustrate.

In a sea of mediocrity, good leaders come to be viewed as excellent, often making them complacent. Trevor Manuel is a fine finance minister, a clever politician and an orator in several languages, as his annual budget performance shows. But he can also be intolerant, arrogant and plain hardegat -- and the adoring plaudits do not encourage him to mend his ways. Likewise, Tito Mboweni is the country's best-ever central bank governor but a vain and impatient man.

2007 offers us a chance to raise the bar. It's the year in which the ANC will choose a new president, a moment which could have a domino effect on leadership throughout the country.

There is much at issue. As Achebe argued prophetically more than 20 years ago, "the cult of mediocrity will bring the wheels of modernisation grinding to a halt throughout the land".
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The Other Genocide

2007-01-12T11:59:00.000-08:00

Because Iraq is dominating international headlines, there wasn’t much response to an African story that Zimbabwan President Robert Mugabe arrested 20,000 miners as a prelude to taking over the nation’s gold mines.

Mugabe has already nationalized agriculture and almost every other industry in the nation. The results have been what always follows state collectivization — starvation and despair.

Millions have died due to the government’s policies and untold numbers of others have been brutalized or killed by Mugabe’s secret police.

According to Australian reporter R. W. Johnson, "A vast human cull is under way in Zimbabwe, and the majority of deaths are the result of government policies. Ignored by the U.N., it is a genocide 10 times greater than Darfur and more than twice as large as Rwanda’s."

Simply put, the population of Zimbabwe should be about 18 million, but social scientists estimate only 8 to 11 million people remain in the country. Millions have fled. Others have died of malnutrition or have been executed.

A few items in Mr. Johnson’s story are chilling:

n More than 42,000 women died in childbirth last year. A decade ago, the number was less than 1,000.

n So many babies have been dumped in the bush that hyenas have acquired a taste for human flesh.

However, Mugabe has a friend in South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has deftly kept the topic of the Zimbabwan atrocities off the U.N. table.

According to Mr. Johnson, the two heads of state, "have been responsible for more deaths than Rwanda suffered and the number is fast heading into realms previously explored only by Stalin, Mao and Adolf Eichmann."

Not to worry though. Amnesty International and other human rights groups plan to protest and demonstrate this month demanding that … the prison at Guantanamo Bay be closed.
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Bright hopes betrayed

2007-01-12T11:46:00.000-08:00

News that the Serious Fraud Office is investigating allegations of substantial payments to a senior advisor to South Africa's defence minister at the time of a massive arms deal comes as no surprise to those of us who have been asking questions about the transaction for years. Nor should it come as a surprise that the UK government is intimately involved in the dubious transaction.

The deal, and the allegations of high-level corruption associated with it, continues to bedevil South African politics six years after the contracts were signed.

The ANC government was initially heavily criticised for agreeing to spend £5bn on arms at a time when, fuelled by Thabo Mbeki's Aids denialism, it claimed to be unable to afford the provision of anti-retrovirals and other essential drugs to the millions of South Africans living with HIV and Aids.

In 2001, President Mbeki and the ANC leadership went to great lengths to neuter an investigation into the deal that myself and other MPs on the South African parliament's public accounts committee had initiated. Mbeki, deputy president Jacob Zuma and a host of cabinet ministers repeatedly denied that there was any corruption in the deal.

Since then, Tony Yengeni, the ANC's chief whip at the time and former chairperson of parliament's defence committee, has been sentenced to four years in prison for accepting a massive discount on a luxury car from one of the successful bidders and lying to parliament about it. The financial advisor to the then deputy president is serving 15 years in prison for corruption and fraud. Among other charges, the court found that a French arms company, Thomsons CSF (now known as Thales), agreed to pay the deputy president 0.5m rand a year to ensure their role in the deal was not investigated. Jacob Zuma, who remains deputy president of the ANC, was charged with corruption but the case was struck from the roll late last year. It is possible that he will be re-charged in May of this year.

As revealed by Der Spiegel recently, German investigators in Düsseldorf are investigating allegations of $25m-worth of bribes paid to South African politicians, officials and middlemen by Thyssen, another beneficiary of the arms deal.

The deal has taken centre stage in the divisive succession battle currently raging inside the ANC. Allies of Thabo Mbeki - who constitutionally cannot seek a third term, but is rumoured to be considering changing the constitution, or at least ensuring his chosen candidate succeeds him - point to the action against Zuma and his advisor as evidence of his commitment to fighting corruption. Zuma's supporters, in turn, suggest that the corruption trial, and an earlier rape trial in which Zuma was found not guilty, have been manufactured to prevent their man from succeeding his foe, Mbeki.

In court papers responding to the corruption charges, Zuma's lawyers suggested that they would, in all likelihood, have to call President Mbeki as a witness, suggesting that he is the only person able to pronounce on whether the arms deal was corrupt or not. Zuma may judge that Mbeki, who chaired the cabinet committee that made the final decisions on the deal and who was involved in discussions with a number of the ultimately successful bidders, will be reluctant to take the stand.

While investigating the deal, I never heard allegations that Mbeki himself benefited from the deal, but was told by a senior ANC leader and other sources that the ANC had received money from the successful bidders, possibly to fund its 1999 election effort. This has never been proved or disproved.

BAE Systems has admitted that they had made a payment of R5m to the ANC-aligned MK Veterans' Association while they were bidding for the contract. Of this donation, BAE has said: "It demonstrates that we wish to be good corporate citizens doing business in South Africa." The defence minister at the time, Joe Modise, was life president of the association, and I did hear from a number of sources that he had personally benefited inappropriately.

It is hardly surprising that BAE's role is under further scrutiny. The allegations of their paying massive bribes to Saudi royals in relation to the al-Yamamah arms deal have hardly dissipated after the UK government's shameful intervention to close down the SFO's investigation just as major breakthroughs might be achieved.

The UK government is similarly entwined in the South African deal. Tony Blair took the highly unusual step of signing a memorandum of understanding with President Mbeki endorsing the deal and its economic benefits. This came after the most dubious decision of the deal was made in favour of BAE Systems. The South African Air Force had plumped for an Italian jet fighter as technically superior to, and half the price of, the equivalent BAE/Saab offering. The decision-making body then took the extraordinary decision to remove cost as a criterion (in the country's largest ever procurement). Following this ruling, the BAE jet beat its favoured rival.

Tony Blair's role as BAE's premier salesperson, along with the loans for peerages scandal and the on-going Iraq debacle, is emblematic of just how badly the new Labour project has been tarnished since those heady days of 1997. Similarly, as 2006 ended, a divided and weakened ANC found itself mired in allegations of senior figures benefiting inappropriately from government-linked business deals. In addition, during the year, at least six senior ANC leaders were charged with sexual harassment, including the chief whip who succeeded the disgraced Tony Yengeni. (He has now been dismissed from his post and expelled from the ANC.)

How far this seems from that momentous day in 1994 when the world watched the incomparable Nelson Mandela inaugurated as South Africa's first democratic President. As investigators here, and in Germany, continue their endeavours, we can only hope that Tony Blair and Thabo Mbeki don't attempt to prevent the real facts emerging.
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Interesting developments

2007-01-05T07:38:00.000-08:00

As we well know, the regime has some strange friends who do strange things that are conveniently overlooked. Furthermore, they run some strange projects of their own. What on earth is down-blended weapon graded uranium? It seems like a multi-purpose material. Is the PBMR just a cover for other things?
Russian warheads to fuel SA
South Africa will use uranium downgraded from old Russian nuclear warheads to fuel its planned pebble bed modular reactors (PBMR), according to public enterprises minister Alec Erwin. "On the PBMR, that uranium we will bring in from Russia, which is down-blended weapon graded uranium," Erwin said. The PMBR is based on old German technology and has been modified by South African scientists. A pilot fuel plan with an initial annual production of 270 000 tennis ball-sized uranium dioxide spheres or pebbles is being developed at Pelindaba, South Africa's nuclear research facility north of Pretoria. The PBMR facilities - essentially mini-reactors regarded as extremely safe by their developers - will all use Russian uranium and would be located around the country, including Coega, the new harbour development off the coast of Port Elizabeth in the east of the country, according to Erwin.
Is China Africa's new imperialist power?
GEAR and NEPAD aim at attracting more trade and more foreign investment, and China fits both bills. Intelligence Minister (and ageing Young Communist League politburo member) Ronnie Kasrils enthused in a glossy book China Through the Third Eye: South African Perspectives - funded by the China Chamber of Commerce and Industry in SA - that China’s building boom, including the controversial Three Dams project on the Yangtze that will displace 1-million people, “is a construction engineers’ dream”. This is a good thing, it seems: “If China is to remain a sustainable economy, it has to speed the transition from a rural to an urban society, from an agricultural to an industrial economy.”

Chief state spin-doctor Joel Netshitenzhe claimed in the same book that “South Africa and China share mutual goals as both countries are committed to ensuring a better life for all their citizens. Both aim to lower the levels of poverty.” Given the state-enforced poverty of the Chinese people, one wonders what Netshitenzhe has in mind when he praised the role of the Chinese state propaganda machine for “the rigour and focus with which China uses information to mobilise people around common objectives and a shared vision…”

A chill settles in one’s bones when one reads him hailing the “diversity of voices” in the Chinese media, while studiously ignoring state censorship and the complicity of Western search engines such as Yahoo in helping China jail political dissidents.

The view of SACP deputy secretary general and one-man think-tank Jeremy Cronin is even more revealing. The SACP, terrified that the bubble of “real, existing socialism” was washing down the drain with the restructuring of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in China, sent a delegation there in 2001 to check things out.

Cronin and his delegation were clearly wowed by their CCP hosts: he quotes a 1999 central committee document that “The public-ownership economy, which includes the State-owned economy, is the economic basis of China’s socialist system… China must always rely on and bring into full play the important role of the SOEs to develop the productive forces of the socialist society and realise the country’s industrialisation and modernisation…” China, it seems, is socialist as well as capitalist! What are we to make of such confused thinking?

Home Affairs considering ID audit
The Home Affairs Department is considering a forensic audit to find out how many fraudulent identity documents are in circulation. However, the final decision on the feasibility of an audit would take into account the impending introduction of the smart card ID, which would possibly identify fraudsters and drastically reduce fraudulent IDs through a structured multi-level identification service, Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said.
Kortbroek gets new teeth
Government is proposing powerful legislation to ensure that SA's 3 000 km coastline is made pristine and kept that way. The Department of environmental affairs & tourism spokesman is adamant that the Integrated Coastal Management Bill will be used conservatively amid fears that government could stick to the letter of the law, which provides it with new draconian powers over private properties. But the draft bill's 105 sections and three schedules are necessarily tight to protect a vital economic and natural resource. How they will be applied is crucial but the rights given to environment minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk are powerful.
Booming car sales hobble RAF
South Africa's booming car sales have hit the Road Accident Fund hard as accidents increase and more people claim compensation. The RAF's latest annual report attributed the increase in claims to an increase in motor vehicles on the roads and increased public awareness of the fund. About 1 million new vehicles have been added to the country's roads due to an expanding domestic economy enabling more people to afford cars. For the RAF, the boom has meant a corresponding increase in vehicles involved in accidents and people claiming compensation. The fund settled a whopping R5,131-billion of claims last year, compared to R3,105-billion in the previous financial year. The National Treasury gave the RAF R2,7-billion in March after it technically went bankrupt due to mismanagement, fraud and corruption. The insolvency saw outstanding claims soar to the current 443 399 from 216 648 in 2002.

Liberation before education

2007-01-05T07:26:00.000-08:00

The students (learners in regime-speak) who wrote Matric in 2006 were the first who completed their entire school career in the new, improved, post-apartheid, non-racial democratic South Africa. And they got the finest education and did very well. Meanwhile, in the real world the picture is very bleak.
Scary trend in Matric results
The declining pass rate is of grave concern and shows that the Education Department is failing the youth of this country and its future economic prospects. This year's matric pass rate is a mere 66.6% - a decline of 1.7% from 2005 - which means that a third of those who wrote the matric exams failed the core test of their schooling. In KwaZulu-Natal the situation is even worse, with a pass rate that has dropped from 70.5% in 2005 to 65.7% this year. The scary fact is the education system is failing to supply South Africa's youth with the necessary tools to graduate from secondary to tertiary education or from schools into the market place. What makes it worse is that this is the third year in a row that the results have declined, on top of which the number of learners who received exemptions and the number who passed matric maths and science on Higher Grade also dropped.
Matrics depressed about future in SA
A national counselling centre says a large portion of an average 200 calls a day have come from depressed matriculants in the Western Cape, despite the province's 83,7 percent pass rate. The South African Depression and Anxiety Group (Sadag) has been inundated with calls from matriculants who failed their exams or, having passed, were concerned about their futures. The phone calls had eased up recently but they were ringing off the hook when the results were released.

Mandela Has no Clothes

2007-01-05T07:09:00.000-08:00

Tailored guilt comes in varying shades; most of it is black on white. Penance being paid can be worn as many garments, be it a Mandela pin, a Bono/Geldoff Save-Africa rock concert, affirmative action, South African black economic empowerment or a Brangelina Black-baby adoption shopping-spree. Uniform in complexion, all are interwoven with a single strand displaying the conscious intention of its Western wearer to placate a troublesome conscience.

On the catwalk of guilt those who strut their stuff in white are invariably assured of popular acclaim in a moral universe subsisting on blame. To clothe a multi-colored world in the most preciously-held Western ideals demands absolute dedication to perceived universal designs (e.g. freedom, democracy, human rights, and scientific/universal truths). Wearing the most ill-fitting clothes of Western design, Africa continuous to steal the limelight by virtue of parading its moral nudity as enlightened purity. And no amount of African horror can stain the liberal perception that all is to be gained by allowing Rousseau's Noble Savage to dictate the high ground of 21-century morality.

Mandela has, in a recent poll, been voted as the most admired leader in the world. Admired for what? Well, basically for being the best dressed African in Western clothing. Having adorned himself with all that we in the West deem as virtuous, Mandela (as a symbol of African moral purity), has been elevated to the position of judge and jury of all that is good and evil in this complex world we live in.

Credit should be given where it is due; Mandela certainly struts his borrowed clothes like a model of the highest repute (e.g. Naomi Campell), but does the Emperor have any real (home-spun) clothes? People tend to forget that Mandela is of 'noble' birth. I.e. his forefathers (and peers) were/are the dictatorial leaders of the Africa we have become so accustomed to ever since the West ventured to the shores of the Dark Continent. It suffices to say that he was born to lead, come hell (his ex-anti-capitalism) or high water (Apartheid). It also goes without saying that all leaders want freedom...to rule! But does the quest for freedom automatically translate into adherence to human rights& dignities and true democracy? Even a cursory glance at modern-day Iraq tells us that certain Western assumptions can be used as weapons of mass distraction.

Getting back to Mandelatopia; there were no human rights in pre-colonial Africa, nor were there any freedoms for the individual, scientific progress (a written language, the wheel, etc); nothing we can now, given our own civilization's journey through history, recognize as remotely progressive. In short; there was no Afro-Atlantis, something recalcitrant liberals conveniently forget in their suicidal quest to clothe the Other in their ideals in the hope of straightening the crooked timber of humanity....for all eternity.

Be that as it may, how well does/did Mandela's Western clothes fit him? The most prudent way to judge a leader is to look at his/her legacy. Hitler was a brilliant leader, but what were the consequences (legacy) of his actions? One only has to look at the legacy of the American Founding Fathers to realize what a magnificent contribution they made to humanity as a whole. Their efforts may not be appreciated in modern-day Iraq and Afghanistan, but they surely cannot be blamed for trying to enlighten the unenlightened. Mandela's legacy on the other hand is definitely not as commendable as lauded ad nauseum in Oprahverse.

When it comes to acknowledging universal scientific facts, he failed abysmally. For example, he blatantly ignored dire warnings by the Apartheid government that AIDS will have a devastating effect on the black population. With 800 blacks dying of AIDS per day in South Africa - and having buried his own son because of AIDS, the Emperor must surely take a long hard look at himself in the mirror every morning. Hell, even his chosen successor, Mbeki, still does not belief that AIDS is caused by a virus! It is therefore also no wonder that America asked the Apartheid government to dismantle its nuclear weapons, lest Mandela's old cronies (Arafat, Ghadaffi, Castro, etc) get hold of technology that would have emboldened them to live out their own dictatorial instincts...power at all cost!

When it concerns Western-induced moral imperatives, Mandela also fails to make the grade. He has never, not once, criticized Mugabe's horror regime in Zimbabwe, even though Mugabe exemplifies everything that he (Mandela) is praised (and given a Nobel Peace Prize) for opposing. Moral schizophrenia is nothing new on a continent whose fate is determined by Golem-like* leaders who will not hesitate, for one moment, to use the end to justify the means.

These are but a few examples of how ill-fitting the Emperor's clothes really are, if he has any! What is good enough to wear for the Western goose is obviously not good enough to adorn the African gander. And yet we still 'feel good' when heaping accolades on those who defile the very fabric of all that we hold dear. Africans are above reproach! The race-card is the Joker that always wins the hand for those who excel in the politically-correct game of populist power-poker.

In short; we keep on washing Africa's blood-stained garments with a Macbethian vigor (White Guilt) hell-bent on tearing asunder all that our hard-earned conscience (e.g. the Reformation, the French Revolution, and the American Constitution) shed a million tears for. Who abolished slavery? Who ended slavery and Apartheid? It definitely wasn't Africa. Slavery is alive and well on the Dark Continent; child soldiers, black-owned white sex-slaves and ethnic Apartheid still soil the very ground intended to bear the fruit of our US$ half-trillion investment in Africa's upliftment, not to mention the millions of Westerners who have died to make the world a better place for all humanity.

We surely have taken on a tremendous task in endeavoring to tailor the world according to our designs. Whether our garments will be fashionable in times to come, is obviously best left to the modeling of human history. But, lest we deny ourselves, let us not further the agendas of the naked who have managed to slip into (and under) our moral skin in order to make the Emperor appear clothed.
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Unhappy new year

2007-01-01T11:52:00.000-08:00

Minister fails to reach taxi scrapping target
Government's aim to scrap 10 000 old taxis by the end of the year in its multi-billion-rand taxi recapitalisation programme has not been met. "The target as such is not what we intended to achieve because of procedures in the scrapping process," said Sam Monareng, the transport department spokesperson. Jeff Radebe, the transport minister, told taxi operators in March this year that he intended to have 10 000 of the country's oldest taxis scrapped by December. All of 6000 taxi operators have volunteered to scrap their taxis. Perhaps they should count involuntary scrapping as well.
Matric pass rate down by 2%
The national matric pass rate dropped almost two per cent this year, with the blame being put on absenteeism, bad management and lack of infrastructure at schools. Pupils aren‘t scoring high enough to further their education. Unacceptably high levels of absenteeism were reported among educators in poorly performing schools. Pupil absenteeism is also a growing concern. The reasons for this included drug abuse, teenage pregnancies, cohabitation, social grant payments, poverty and customary rites. Despite appeals to traditional leaders, he said, Grade 12 pupils were undergoing rites at critical times of the year and absenteeism was frequent on either side of school holidays.
No freebies for the Mbekis
In contrast to the British leader Tony Blair and South African Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, President Thabo Mbeki is apparently not taking any freebies and is taking his holidays according to the rule book. Mukoni Ratshitanga, Mbeki's spokesperson, said that the president had taken no one except his wife and "essential security personnel" on his recent vacation to Tanzania's Serengeti plains. The president had been accompanied by a large party of perhaps close to 20 people during his stay.
Here comes South Africa 2010...ready or not
Fifa gambled on the host nation for the World Cup, and it’s already a tense race against time. As for Fifa, the owner of the World Cup, the tournament will arrive quite soon enough: lately, its president, Sepp Blatter, has looked at his watch and given it a tap as he surveys the preparations. Of the 10 stadiums earmarked for the tournament across South Africa, four are not much further than site-clearing, and one is not there yet. The 2006 World Cup had barely wound down in Berlin when a few of the game’s chancers thought they glimpsed an opening. John O’Neill, the then chief executive of Football Federation Australia, seemed to be offering an alternative when he spoke of “all sorts of question marks” over South Africa’s readiness.

Special message for spammers (and my ISP)

2006-12-30T10:22:00.000-08:00

To all of the spammers posting on my blog: thanks for all of the offers. I really want to make lots of easy money while doing almost nothing. I need it to pay for all the easy loans that you dish out. Lucky for me I can still get cheap medicine to calm my nerves.

And to my ISP: stick your lousy cap where it belongs. Thanks to you I am unable to respond to all the lonely ladies in Russia offering love and friendship...

China Colonizing Africa?

2006-12-30T10:19:00.000-08:00

Is China becoming Africa's new colonizer? In what is reminiscent of a new scramble for Africa, China has rushed to plant its flag on the continent, offering soft credit, bricks and mortar investment and promising non-interference in local politics. China's political clout in Africa has never been greater.

But is this all too good to be true? In November, China hosted an Africa summit in Beijing attended by 50 African leaders, the biggest showcase of China's new foreign policy shift towards the developing world, to expand its political reach and to secure raw materials to feed its rapidly growing economy. Beijing offered Africa US$3bn in preferential loans and US$2bn in export credits over the next three years. China envisaged annual trade with Africa to reach $100bn by 2010. Whereas Western nations such as the US, France and UK have year-on-year slashed development aid, China promised to double aid by 2009. Most of the Chinese aid to Africa is tied to business deals. Nevertheless, China has offered aid without insisting on onerous conditions as Western donors do. This is sweet music to African nations, who for long now have protested the hypocritical insistence by Western countries that they must open their markets, while they (Western nations) heavily subsidize their own agriculture sectors and maintain prohibitively high tariff barriers. As a case in point, China early this year granted Nigeria a $2.5bn loan soft loan and the Angolan government $9bn.But China has offered many African despots, such as Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe a lifeline. China has major investments in Sudan's oil-fields and fiercely supports the Sudanese regime which is responsible for an internal conflict that has seen millions perished and displaced. China worked effortlessly to water-down a United Nations resolution condemning the Sudan for the bloodshed in Darfur.

China accounts for 65% of all Sudanese oil exports and 35% of Angolan oil sold abroad. Again, the argument can be made that many Western nations are often quite happy to turn a blind-eye to allied undemocratic regimes, especially if there are Western oil interests to protect. Most African economies are depended one or at least a few commodities. The Chinese dragon's big appetite for commodities has given some African economies a handy windfall. However, very few Africans have used the extra cash to diversify their economies. But to prosper, African nations need to diversify their economies as soon as possible. In fact, most of these rich returns from commodities appear to be pocketed by a handful of African ruling elites. China's strategy of making friendship by targeting leading members of African ruling parties have encouraged this trend. The easy money China dangles in return for oil or other commodities could foster corruption. It is also true that China's interest in Africa has given African nations more options to negotiate better trade deals with Western competitors. In the past African countries had to accept the poor deals Western countries forced on them. In terms of global politics, many Africans do see China is potential ally in a world where African interests are either ignored or dismissed by the big powers. South African President Thabo Mbeki's says the continent has a "dire need for close friends, reliable partners and good brothers". (http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=qw1163161982436B251)

However, China's public rhetoric of altruism masked a hard-nosed approach - and many Africans appear not to notice this. As a case in point, China in spite of its stated aims to make the UN more representative, has opposed the initiatives to secure a permanent seat for Africa on the UN Security Council. (http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=vn20050805063523423C706133)

In Latin America, China similarly bestowed on Brazil favourite nation status. However, Brazilian soon discovered in spite of this their products faced huge tariff barriers in China. Furthermore, China promised to invest billions of dollars in infrastructure projects in Brazil. Predictably this was very slow to materialize. Another sticking point was that China insisted on bringing Chinese nationals as work crews, instead of transferring local skills. This is already a sore point across Africa. (http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=qw116124444127B251)

Many African businesses complain Chinese companies dump cheap end of line stocks, often bypassing customs and import duties. Not only does this drive locals out of business, the cheap items are often of poor quality. The influx of cheap Chinese goods to Africa decimates the struggling local manufacturing industry. In South Africa, official figures shows that cheap Chinese textiles have led to the lost of at least 67 000 jobs the past 4 years. South African unions have lobbied the government who is busy negotiating a free trade deal with China to include clauses committing China to respect minimum labour, human rights and environmental standards. Most African countries, just like South Africa export the capital-intensive commodities or raw materials that China hungers for, and import labour-intensive manufactured goods from China. So, the rise in exports to China typically generates few jobs, while imports from China take away jobs. If this continues, argues South African President Thabo Mbeki the African continent could be "condemned to underdevelopment", and "recolonisation".
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6178897.stm)

Africans should heed the warning.
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Money for almost nothing

2006-12-30T10:04:00.000-08:00

A couple of days ago we speculated about a possible improvement in the Eastern Cape matric results. The question has been answered...
Why should we pay under-performers?
Why should we pay under-performers?
EASTERN Cape Education MEC Mkhangeli Matomela has ordered district managers to crack the whip on all principals whose matric results dropped this year despite the special support their schools got from the government. Matomela’s stern warning followed his announcement of a 59,3 percent matric pass rate in the Eastern Cape – an increase of 2,6 percent on last year. The Education Department spent more than R23 million on its Matric Intervention Programme (MIP) to assist 353 schools whose matric
results dipped to less than 50 percent last year. About 46 of these schools received extra attention through the MEC’s Intervention Programme, which saw mentors visiting the schools weekly and motivational speakers doing monthly rounds. Only six showed improvement in their overall pass rates.

The wages of sin

2006-12-29T05:46:00.000-08:00

People are so gatvol about crime, they are gatvol with being gatvol!
Crime diminishing Mbeki's popularity
Rampant crime has been a contributor to a decline in President Thabo Mbeki's popularity. That's according to two research surveys, which showed a marked decline in his popularity standings since the local government elections earlier this year. The first poll showed that Mbeki had a 53 percent approval rating, 8 percent down on the figure recorded six months ago. Another public opinion survey showed Mbeki's popularity dropped from the 7.4 percent he had in May this year to just 6.9 percent last month.
The time for excuses is over
Crime is fast destroying the great SA dream and it need not be so. How can it be an act of patriotism to pretend that crime, and specifically violent crime, isn't a major threat to South Africa's social cohesion and stability? This bizarre notion is put forward by Jacob Zuma. The media are making crime look worse by over-reporting it, he told a German magazine. It is disloyal to the country - the media in other countries are far more responsible when they reflect criminality in their societies, he says.

Deny it and it will go away, appears to be Zuma's approach. For once the Minister of Safety and Security, Charles Nqakula, must be in agreement with his party's deputy leader. If we ignore it, the raped and the violated will feel better. If you really love South Africa and our democracy, you will pretend that we live in a gentle, peaceful paradise. There's a subtle subtext to this approach: it is mostly selfish, fatcat whites who are unhappy with black majority rule who complain about crime. What utter nonsense.

All is OK (not)

2006-12-28T12:47:00.000-08:00

No reason for the gloom
Education experts were predicting that the Eastern Cape’s matric class of 2006 is set for gloomy news today. They believe that, when the matric results are officially released this morning, they will show, at best, a small improvement on last year’s pass of 56,7 percent – or, at worst, the unthinkable, a decline. This comes on the back of a promise by the province after last year’s terrible results that this year would be different. A senior government insisted that despite the gloom in education circles there had been an improvement. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said: “What is definite is that there is some improvement. We are steadily improving year-by-year, contrary to what people expect, despite the challenges that we face.” He refused to give the exact figure.
Teachers have mixed feelings about pass rate
The decline in the pass rate is cause for concern. We need a qualitative leap forward in terms of pass rates. We need more information and workable strategies to improve the quality of education on the ground. But we also need teachers, learners, parents and the department to come together and commit themselves to improving the quality of education. The increase in the number of matriculants in the last five years had not been matched by an increase in resources. The department must explain why results are uneven across the provinces with improvements in four provinces, the Eastern Cape, Gauteng, Mpumalanga and the North West and deterioration in the rest. Limpopo stands out with a decline of over nine percent in the pass rate. 139 schools produced a pass rate below 20 percent.
Education system fails kids
The South African education system and the economy are failing the pupils of the country, the Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa) said following the release of the 2006 matric results. The education system does not yet prepare learners for the world of work, as the recent policy reforms are not established enough to deliver tangible results in practice. Fedusa was also concerned about the lagging standards in South African schools. This two-fold problem has been acknowledged by the Department of Education. On the one hand we find a syllabus that has arguably diminished over the past years, while on the other we find numerous problems relating to capacity. The Democratic Alliance say that the education system is failing to provide South Africa's youth with the skills needed to move into tertiary education institutions or enter the job market.
Urgent 2010 rescue plans needed
Pressure is mounting for comprehensive emergency rescue plans to be implemented in South Africa ahead of the 2010 World Cup. There is currently a serious shortage of trained specialists available to provide search and rescue operations in the event of an act of terrorism, a natural disaster or the collapse of a stadium grandstand. Ian Scher, founder of Rescue South Africa said that up to 500 more specialised rescue personnel were needed around the country ahead of the tournament. "We need to get moving. We don't have enough staff for 2010," Scher said. He called for a "buy in" from national government and an increase in funding.

Bad news in Africa

2006-12-28T12:44:00.000-08:00

Africa always has its fair share of bad news, with poor leadership in Africa a strong territory for cartoonists across the continent.

Foreign affairs and other strange affairs

2006-12-27T11:31:00.000-08:00

SADC Action Group on Zim mired in controversy
Controversy surrounds a SADC Ministerial Action Group (MAG) reportedly appointed by the regional body’s chair, Lesotho, to compile a report on the ‘Zimbabwe crisis’. Harare would not accommodate the body as it was commissioned outside the organisation’s Summit. SADC chair, Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili of Lesotho, after consultations with South African President Thabo Mbeki, commissioned a three-country group to report on the situation in Zimbabwe. However, it increasingly looks as if the MAG might never visit Zimbabwe, as there was no consensus among various SADC member States over how to proceed, adding that there was a "media blackout on what was now taking place behind the scenes". A rift is emerging in SADC over how to engage Zimbabwe, with some members like "Namibia, Mozambique and Tanzania emphasising non-interference while others were pushing for a tougher line" including the commissioning of an MAG.
We'll fight on
Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, the wife of sex-pest former diplomat Norman Mashabane, will stand by her man despite a High Court ruling that said he should have been fired on allegations of sexual harassment. Nkoana-Mashabane, the MEC in charge of local government and housing in Limpopo, said the family would challenge the department of foreign affairs through the labour court. "Elements in the media continue to pursue the unsubstantiated and disputed allegations that featured in internal proceeding in the department of foreign affairs more than three years ago, with an unexplained frenzy," she said.
Charges laid against police in McBride accident
Charges of crimen injuria and assault have been laid against metro police officers who arrived at the accident scene of Robert McBride, the Ekurhuleni metro police chief. McBride crashed after he lost control of his car in Centurion. The couple who arrived at the scene first alleges they were roughed up by the police. Charges were laid at the Randburg police station. Meanwhile, McBride is recovering at home with head and back injuries. Claims that he was drunk at the time of the accident sparked an outcry. Police are investigating charges of negligence and reckless driving against McBride.
Pressure growing for ousting of Doctor Beetroot
South Africa’s Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has had a rough year. In a country where more than 5.5mn people are infected with the Aids virus, any politician charged with managing the pandemic has their task cut out. 2006 may have been the controversial politician’s last in her post. South Africans are tired of the saga surrounding her portfolio. The latest swipe at the Russian-trained doctor came in a newspaper advertisement paid for by Blue Ribbon, a bread and maize manufacturer, and poking fun at her apparent fondness for potatoes, beetroot, garlic and olive oil as Aids cures. "Tired of people constantly calling for your resignation?," read the advertisement in the Star newspaper which featured a sandwich stacked with the minister’s favourite vegetables and recommending Tshabalala-Msimang eat Blue Ribbon bread to cope with her demanding job.
ANCYL moves to prevent total collapse
The national ANC Youth League said it had ordered its Eastern Cape provincial leadership to disband. "The National Executive Committee of the ANC Youth League has resolved that in the interest of safeguarding the organisation from total collapse in the province an urgent intervention is necessary," said ANCYL President Fikile Mbalula. "The provincial leadership has become so weak and if no action was taken this could have resulted in the total collapse of the organisation in the province," he said. The NEC meeting was not impressed with the pace at which the Integrated Youth Development Strategy was being implemented. Mbalula placed the blame for lack of delivery on this crucial strategy squarely on the door of the Minister in the Office of the Presidency Essop Pahad. "This is due to intransigency and arrogance of the Minister in the Office of the Presidency," he said.

Why Many Whites Are Experiencing A New Great Depression

2006-12-25T16:04:00.000-08:00

If PW Botha had died 10, even five years ago, there wouldn’t have been so many whites praising him as we have seen during the last 10 days. I think these eulogies to a man who did great harm to us all should be seen as part of the great wave of pessimism lately plaguing much of the white community and, to a lesser extent, also other minorities.

People who were once proud and enthusiastic New South Africans now curse the ANC government and privately make racist jokes. Most of those who have enough money or good enough education, talk about joining the more than a million whites already living overseas.

Progressive writers such as Andr√© P Brink, Rian Malan and Christopher Hope paint a bleak picture of our future in pieces published overseas, and are suddenly hailed as heroes by the very people who called these writers traitors during the apartheid days.

This new Great Depression is a phenomenon of the last six, nine months or so. It manifests itself in angry and reactionary letters to newspapers, calls to talk radio stations, conversations in pubs and around braai fires and exchanges on internet chat rooms. There are even early signs of a revival of a narrow, old-style Afrikaner nationalism.

Crime is the biggest complaint, and more and more South Africa’s excessive crime rate is understood in racial terms, even as a kind of conspiracy against whites. Yet crime is not worse now than a year or two ago; if anything, there has been a slight improvement.

Affirmative action is another big complaint, yet statistics show very few whites are unemployed and they still dominate most plum jobs outside the civil service. So what triggered the new wave of pessimism?

Perhaps the old fear many whites had of a black government during the apartheid years had not disappeared completely. Events in Zimbabwe, the Congo, Somalia, Sudan, Ivory Coast and Liberia have made sure that suspicions remained alive that Africa was not democracy-friendly. And then a series of events triggered a feeling among a group already feeling alienated and marginalised, that the skies are about to fall in on them.

The Zuma debacle has certainly contributed. Minorities felt that the vicious in-fighting in the ANC was a “black thing”, even a Xhosa/Zulu thing, that they could not understand or influence. Angry crowds threatening a witness and publicly disrespecting the president made them fearful, while Zuma’s own behaviour and statements and the wildly irresponsible utterances of the youth leagues of the ANC and the Communist Party gave them a sense of instability.

Anything that reminds whites of Africa’s “typical” weaknesses pushes a button. An example is the daily reports of corruption among politicians and civil servants and lucrative secret deals by senior ANC leaders. The ANC leadership’s behaviour when former whip Tony Yengeni went to jail (he was accompanied by, among others, the Speaker of Parliament, remember?) didn’t help.

Neither did the evidence and allegations that many ANC figures were beneficiaries of the murdered tycoon Brett Kebble.

The health minister’s continuing weird antics regarding HIV/Aids, and the fact that she is never censured by the president, are another example.

Other examples are exorbitant salaries of city managers, parastatal bosses and other officials and the gross inefficiency of the Department of Home Affairs and certain provincial and local governments.

The arrogant and unilateral fashion in which the changing of names and symbols is being pushed through is a serious source of discontent among whites. They remember that former president Nelson Mandela said at the time of his inauguration in 1994 that the domination of one group over another would never be allowed again in South Africa, and they feel the ANC has not remained true to that promise. They feel dominated.

The standard black response that whites should be thankful for the generous deal they got and that they still form the bulk of the upper middle class somehow doesn’t make much of an impression on them.

The Western Cape ANC’s attempt to grab power in the Cape Town City Council sent an alarming signal to whites that the ANC wasn’t a truly democratic organisation and wouldn’t accept defeat if it ever lost an election.

Whites are also nervous about the government’s new attempts at re-racialising South African society. (I had a taste of this last week when I was asked to fill in a form of appointment by a university demanding that I classify myself as “African/Coloured/Indian/White/ International Person (white)/International Person of colour”. Of course, I classified myself as African.)

Former Mpumalanga premier Mathews Phosa was quoted last week as saying a critical test of a democracy is how it is accommodating minorities. Of course he is right. The fact that minorities, especially whites, are materially still better off than most others is not enough of an argument. Many of their problems are ghost pains, but they experience them as real.

But the white minority should also stop knee-jerk reactions to events and examine their prejudices if they want to be happy citizens.
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The State of the Nation

2006-12-23T13:22:00.000-08:00

Warren Buffett, an iconic investor who resides in Omaha, Nebraska, has given the world many words of wisdom and wit extending far beyond money matters. One indelible quote left his lips during the 1995 annual general meeting of Berkshire Hathaway, his mother company. He told shareholders that “it’s only when the tide goes out that you learn who’s been swimming naked”.

South Africa’s long-term tide started going out during 2006, and there’s no knowing when it will turn again. It started coming in around 1994, when the country held its first democratic elections. Those were the joyful times when practically everyone in the country, on the continent and indeed in the world believed in a rainbow-hued future. It seemed that an impossible fairytale, held on the fingertips of valkeries, had descended from the clouds.

But now the tide is really going out. The nakedness of those running the country is becoming increasingly apparent. It is not a pretty picture. According to the United Nations development programme 2006 Human Development Index (HDI), South Africa now ranks 121 out of 177 countries. Of all the measures and indices and statistics that conspire to drown daily lives, there is possibly none so profound and useful as the HDI.

Last year, South Africa was in position 120. South Africa has now slipped 36 places since 1990. As the tide continues to go out, South Africa’s placing on the HDI ladder will continue slipping. A single bleak fact can be cited here. This year a Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) report found that 63% of Grade six pupils couldn’t read, write or count. If these are the fruits of democracy, the tree is poisoned.

But forget the Zimbabwe syndrome and the continuing meltdown in and around Darfur; the most cynical of cynics will tell you that South Africa has the Haitian disease. Earlier this year, as a “stylish” Finance Minister Trevor Manuel tabled his annual budget in Parliament, so Desmond Tutu, a famous man of the cloth, was airlifted out of Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti.

Tutu had spent four days preaching reconciliation before his hotel was stormed and he was airlifted by military helicopter to neighbouring Dominican Republic. Make no mistake; République d'Haïti is one hell of a place. Situated south east of Cuba, occupying the western portion of Hispaniola, Haiti is one of the maddest places in the universe.

It has been independent for 202 years but is crazier and crueller than ever, with humans living on dirty outcrops above a huge sewage farm that adds up to no more than the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere.

Each day, the tide comes in up the stinky Haitian shores, and each day it goes out. Some say the sun never sets in Haiti, because it cannot be trusted in the dark. Haiti has been independent longer than any other black country in the world.

South Africa has the Haitian disease, all right. This year, the South African auditor-general gave only three “clean reports” to 32 national departments and public entities that tabled annual reports for the 2005/06 financial year.

Staying with the statistics, 18 entities had “Emphasis of Matter” highlights and 11 entities received “Qualifications” or a “Disclaimer” of opinion. An audit disclaimer is the most severe opinion issued by the auditor-general; it’s issued where an audit simply cannot be performed.

Today, a very costly UN Mission of 6 500-plus troops and 1 700 police effectively runs Haiti. From Geneva, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour last month voiced “serious concern” about abuses in Haiti. “Though more is being said about civil and political rights, such as arbitrary detention and extra judicial executions, the general population suffers from violations of their economic and social rights in an equally severe way.” She noted that most people live in extreme poverty without basic goods and services.

In South Africa the rot is everywhere. At the provincial level, take, for example, the putrid Eastern Cape provincial administration that was unable to account for R30,2bn (89%) of R34,1bn it spent during 2005/06. The Eastern Cape auditor general issued five provincial departments with disclaimers for the 2005/06 financial year, including each of the four major service delivery departments, viz., health, education, social development and housing.

Economic Affairs was also issued with an audit disclaimer. It all means that the province’s cumulative figure disclaimed has almost doubled from the previous financial year when the auditor general disclaimed a total of R16,8bn, or 54%, of expenditure. The Eastern Cape Health Department was not only hit by yet another audit disclaimer, it is the department’s ninth disclaimer in the past ten years. This is real McCoy Haitian stuff, all right.

According to the lady in Geneva, “the government expressed its commitment to solving pressing human rights problems and to put an end to abuses and violations originating from violence, impunity and the absence of the rule of law. A lack of resources hampers the achievement of these goals and the support of the international community is, therefore, indispensable”.

There is sleaze everywhere in South Africa. As for the people, it was at the end of August when ANC politicians, including correctional services minister Ngconde Balfour, Parliament’s speaker Baleke Mbete and Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool all gathered to form a guard of honour for convicted fraudster and former ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni as he was ushered into prison. He was quickly taken to a nicer one.

For years, powerful gangs controlled areas of Port-au-Prince, forcibly recruiting children and banning outsiders. But the gangs declared a unilateral truce after the election of René Préval as the new president in February 2006. Around this time, auditor-general Shauket Fakie stated that South Africa was “in a vicious downward spiral as a result of rampant economic fraud”.

The auditor general’s report on the declaration of interest by ministers, deputy ministers and government employees released in January found that 1678 politicians and designated government employees held 3 747 directorships or memberships in 3 615 entities not related to government. Nothing was done about that. There are stenches in every direction.

KPMG’s Africa Fraud and Misconduct Survey, Transparency International’s own Corruptions Perceptions Index, and PricewaterhouseCooper’s Global Economic Crime Survey have each found that fraud and corruption is a severe problem in South Africa. It is hurting the country’s image at home and abroad. There are always people. The morbid fascination with erstwhile deputy president Jacob Zuma continues, while his friend, convicted fraudster Schabir Shaik, rots in a hospital bed, terrified of serving 15 years behind bars. What kind of a man is Shaik?

Then there is ANC chief whip Mbulelo Goniwe, accused of sexual harassment amid a slew of other allegations. Then there is Linda Mti, the erstwhile commissioner of prisons, forced to resign after being arrested for close-to-comatose drunk driving, and following allegations surrounding the illegal awarding of tenders to companies with which he was allegedly associated. Nothing has been done.

Then there are the streets. There are but few countries where illicit commando-type militias can roam around at will and, deploying deadly and significant ordnance, plunder, rape and murder at will. These criminal militias of unique South African distinction can number up to twenty or thirty, and sometimes as many as forty. South Africa now ranks as the world crime champion; if that is in doubt, it certainly ranks as the world violent crime champion.

The other country mentioned in this regard is Colombia, but there, people have indulged in a civil war for the past four decades. War crimes are very different to those occurring in a country boasting possession of “the world’s best constitution”. In Colombia, the 1999 massacre in La Gabarra (when 40 people were slain by an irregular militia) remains one of the bloodiest single incidents against civilians in that country’s history. In South Africa, this is not even a day’s work.

Jealously guarded police statistics show that 18 545 South Africans were slaughtered in the year to March 31 2006, equal to 51 people a day, holidays included. South Africa is a crime economy. This year’s UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report showed how South Africa and its neighbours comprise one of the world’s biggest growers and exporters of cannabis, one of the world’s leading illicit drugs, along with heroin and cocaine.

Cannabis is rated as the third biggest export earner for Lesotho; Swaziland exports cannabis to the UK, US, Netherlands, and Japan. In 2004, the Republic of Ireland reported that 99% of the cannabis consumed in their country originated from South Africa. Here, bear in mind that Haiti is the only country that ever staged a successful slave revolution.

In both South Africa and Colombia, money generated from illicit drugs corrupts a swamp-chain of never-ending crimes, ranging from money laundering to human trafficking, illegal possession of firearms and ammunition, bribery and, where required, contact crimes. The tide is going out, all right. There are naked people walking around. They are rude and don’t look pretty, either.
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Contempt for Parliament

2006-12-23T13:20:00.000-08:00

In the latest instalment of the battle between government and the opposition over parliamentary questions, the Democratic Alliance (DA) has charged that the failure to answer questions was yet another example of the executive's contempt for Parliament.

Conflict between the ruling African National Congress (ANC) executive and the DA official opposition has been raging for years. At times cabinet ministers refuse to answer questions, saying they are too complicated or make unreasonable demands on available resources to research.

In the most recent clash, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula refused to answer any questions that might involve "operational" information.

Traditionally, parliamentary questions must be answered truthfully and as fully as possible. This, however, is a convention. During apartheid's state of emergency, the privilege accorded to parliamentary questions was one of the few ways of getting information from the government on matters it would rather have kept secret. While all opposition parties ask questions, most of them are from the DA.

DA chief whip Douglas Gibson said yesterday that when the parliamentary year closed last Friday, cabinet ministers had failed to reply to 177 questions the DA posed during the year. "This is yet again another indication of the ANC government's complete unwillingness to be held accountable and to treat Parliament with the respect it deserves."

He found four departments accounted for about half the outstanding replies. The health department had 38 outstanding replies; provincial and local government had 28; justice and constitutional development 21; and correctional services 10.

Justice and constitutional development, provincial and local government, and correctional services had replies outstanding to questions posed as far back as February and March. "It is completely unacceptable that government departments merely receive a warning that all outstanding replies have to be submitted before Parliament closes while absolutely no disciplinary action is taken against them when they fail to do so.

"The fact that the rules of Parliament contain no effective provisions to ensure written questions are replied to means that ministers and their government departments continuously get away with making a mockery of one of the very mechanisms that is meant to ensure oversight over them and to hold them accountable for their actions and failures," Gibson said.
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Why did the chicken cross the road?

2006-12-23T13:13:00.000-08:00

Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri (Communications): For a Spice Girl re-union? The chicken mumbled something about a cheap broad band.

Balfour Nconde (Correctional Services): As far as I know, no chicken managed to cross the road on my watch…. (burp)….excuse me.

Robert Mugabe (President of the Former People’s Republic of Zimbabwe): No chicken crossed the road. This is a lie perpetrated by the IMF! (Psst Thabo, we need that chicken back.)

Pravin Gordhan (SARS Commissioner): Why don’t we just ask the chicken? But first, let’s wring its neck.

Manto Tshabalala- Msimang (Health): It saw me coming with garlic and lemons. It may have gotten the wrong idea.

Thabo Mbeki (President): I have done my own research on this, and I do not agree with the conventional interpretation of events. I do not think we should focus on the chicken, or even the farmer in charge of protecting the chicken. Rather, let us blame the road, which was built by the previous regime.

Thoko Didiza (Agriculture): I am confused. It has been reported in the news, this bird flew. But even I know chickens can’t fly.

Charles Nqakula (Safety and Security): Only one? Oh, you mean today…

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka (Deputy President): How many shots do I get at this? As many as I want, I guess, I am the Deputy President after all, hee, hee, hee. Let’s see…to do some shopping perhaps? No? Mmm, maybe to look at the cranes? Still not right? Ah yes, I know. To champion the cause of female empowerment in the construction industry! Wrong again? Gosh, let me phone a friend, I am really messing up here. Hello, it’s me, Phumba. Listen, why did the chicken cross the road? Out of a deep sense of entitlement? Of course! Why did I not think of that? Thanks, Jacob.

Anan Singh (Film Director): That was a sheep, not a chicken. We are busy filming the Lambshank Redemption in the Karoo.

Fikile Mbalula (ANCYL President): What is the legitimacy of this chicken that you are talking about, and which road did it cross? It is a truism that we all come to a crossroad in our life, and when we do, we must not anger it more, for the road is innocent until proven guilty. Of course, we also stand behind the chicken. 101%.

Essop Pahad (State Parasite): That is what we fought for all these years… so that chickens could move around freely and express themselves any way they want. It is their constitutional right. HEY, WHO DREW A CARTOON OF THE CHICKEN?? MAY THE FLEAS OF A THOUSAND CAMELS INFEST HIS (or her) SMELLY ARMPITS!!

Bridgette Mabandla (Justice and Constitutional Development): We cannot tolerate these chickens thinking independently, defying the farmer. Their actions lack legitimacy, their movements do not express the will of the people. We shall replace them with stuffed chickens.

Marthinus van Schlkwyk (Environmental Affairs): Why are you looking at me? And who are you calling a chicken? … PAAA! HULLE PIK AL WEER OP MY!

Trevor Manuel (Finance): I believe it is a gift from Sasol. Very kind of them, giving me the bird…

Pallo Jordan (Arts and Culture): What is the relevance of this question? I do not think a chicken crossing the road reflects African reality.

Ronald Kasrils (Intelligence): The chicken is on a top-secret mission to Zimbabwe. Who told you about this? Oh, I just did?

George W. Bush (Leader of the Fried World): You call that a chicken? …. This is a chicken! … not now Donald, I’m busy… sorry….what….a turkey? … oh…. ahem…ok… well that’s all folks. No more questions. (aside) A turkey? …really?
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Facing the challenge of AIDS, Zuma, BEE, judges…

2006-12-23T10:17:00.000-08:00

FOR those who thought 2006 was rough on the political front, brace yourselves, it’s only going to get worse next year.

As the African National Congress (ANC) readies itself to elect a new leadership in December 2007, the political temperature is going to rise. All indications point to a bloody fight over everything — from who takes over the party’s presidency, to its political, economic and strategic direction.

Compounding matters further is the exceptionally poor form displayed by its leadership on key challenges facing the alliance. The ANC has shown an inability to crack the whip on a range of issues — from rampant corruption to cosy empowerment deals involving party high-ups. This despite President Thabo Mbeki’s much-publicised anticorruption efforts and the fact that the long arm of the law finally succeeded in nailing some of the ANC’s top brass, such as Tony Yengeni, who is serving a jail sentence for defrauding Parliament.

The first reason for the ANC’s inability to act decisively against wrongdoing is its doublespeak and double standards. The second is that corruption and cronyism are threatening to become all-pervasive. These factors partly explain why the party’s moral and political authority has been so eroded this year. Given that corruption is so widespread within the ruling elite, unless the crackdown is applied across the board, anticorruption efforts are likely to be seen as selective and as attempts to destroy political opponents by those with access to state resources.

Take, for example, the latest scandal involving “sex pest” Norman Mashabane, who was eventually sent packing when he was axed as the political adviser to Limpopo premier Sello Moloto. When the scandal around Mashabane first broke a few years ago, he was SA’s ambassador to Indonesia and was shielded from the fallout by powerful figures in the ANC national executive. Then the influential Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma (touted in some quarters as a potential successor to Mbeki in 2009 as SA’s next president) threw Mashabane a lifeline, in vintage ANC style. Mashabane — known as “fellow fighter” from his days in the youth movement — survived the ANC’s commitment to fight sexual abuse and harassment.

He was an “untouchable” protected by the ANC’s inner circle. Meanwhile, ANC chief whip Mbulelo Goniwe was rightfully removed from his position after allegations of sexual exploits involving his staff surfaced publicly. When one compares this “swift” action against Goniwe with that experienced by Mashabane, one has to consider the argument that the ANC is selective in how it deals with wrongdoers.

Sadly, these mixed messages have become the norm for an organisation plagued by infighting — infighting that has more to do with vested financial and commercial interests than political principle or ethics. These commercial and financial interests will have a huge effect on how allegiances in the succession battle play out when the ANC’s elective conference rolls round next year. The lines between patronage and principle have become blurred as ANC bigwigs line up to take their place among the economic elite.

Local politics this year will be remembered for the sordid scandals — rape allegations, sexual harassment, politicians doing jail time, MPs copping pleas and striking deals with the National Prosecuting Authority to avoid going to prison for defrauding Parliament. Government’s selective approach to dealing with corruption was appropriately summed up by a comment made by the governor of the Reserve Bank, Tito Mboweni, during the World Economic Forum meeting in Cape Town this year. To paraphrase, Mboweni said those who shouted loudest against corruption were often found to be the most corrupt.

The much vaunted ANC “centre” — which has traditionally always held in times of crisis and rallied the troops in service of the overall interest of the “movement” — has become a thing of the past. As the ANC leadership race intensifies, so will divisions deepen, resulting in a fractured leadership unable or unwilling to unite on critical issues.

Already ANC national executive members experience difficulty in presenting united positions on policy and operational matters. This division has afflicted the ANC-led alliance on many issues — the Jacob Zuma saga, positions on the judiciary, government’s handling of HIV/AIDS, the lack of service delivery, black economic empowerment and how to achieve greater economic growth. The divisions extend beyond who has to succeed Mbeki.

The stakes have never been higher in the ANC-led alliance, especially for anyone seeking to take over from Mbeki and for those who want to influence and eventually control the alliance’s strategic orientation.
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Cabinet rejects score-cards rating

2006-12-23T10:16:00.000-08:00

Cabinet has dismissed opposition parties' end of year "report cards" on its performance, saying it will not be judged by the wish lists of opposition parties.

"The 'silly' season is upon us and with it comes the publication of the so-called 'score-cards' by the opposition parties," government communications (GCIS) chief Themba Maseko told journalists after Cabinet's final fortnightly meeting of the year.

"Government has a programme of action to improve the life of our people," he said.

This programme was based on the mandate this government received from the electorate.

"Therefore, we will disregard all these opposition play-cards, because our performance must, and will, be judged against our implementation of the programme of action and not the wish lists of position parties."

The programme was published on the government website and progress reports were updated regularly in line with the two-monthly cluster reports to Cabinet, so that the public could
assess government's performance based on factual information, Maseko said.
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ANC gets failing mark on FF+ report card

2006-12-23T09:49:00.000-08:00

The ruling African National Congress (ANC) has scored an average of 30% in the past year -- down from 38% last year -- in the eyes of the average Freedom Front Plus (FF+) supporter, says its leader, Dr Pieter Mulder.

On Tuesday, he released the results of his party's annual "report card" of the ANC's performance on the basis of the viewpoint of the average FF+ supporter in key areas.

Under crime prevention and clean governance, the ruling party got just one out of 10 compared with four out of 10 last year. "The biggest mishap was most probably the minister of safety and security's statement in Parliament that people who complain about crime should either stop complaining or leave the country."

There is also a "dark cloud" hanging over Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and Social Development Zola Skweyiya in the so-called Oilgate issue, the leader charged.

The figure for education, however, was the only area where the rating was up -- to four out of 10 compared with three out of 10 last year.

Education Minister Naledi Pandor has made "positive noises" about mother-tongue education but unfortunately it has not been established because parents -- especially of black children -- "do not believe that education can take place in any other language than English", Mulder said.

Although 85% of South African children attend school at primary level -- the highest in Africa -- there is "serious concern" about the content of school learning plans and the standard of education.

On economic growth and job creation, the party gave the governing party 50% -- down from 60% last year. "For the first time since 1994 the growth rate [of 5%] has surpassed the interest rate [of 4,7%]," the leader said.

The party welcomed increased growth but was disappointed about black economic empowerment, which was accessible to "only a small number of black elites".

On language and cultural rights the party supporters gave the ANC just one out of 10, the same as last year, while on foreign affairs it was a 40% mark -- down from 50% last year. It was also down on sport at 30%, compared with 40% last year.

Mulder, who did not divulge the size of the party-supporter sample, said changing the name of Lydenburg to Mashishing and the proposed change of Potchefstroom to Tlokwe "were low points of the year".

With the transfer of government in 1994, South Africa had an international reputation as a "fighter for human rights". This image has been blurred by its lack of reaction to serious human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.

"The annual report of the Department of Foreign Affairs [devotes] only 11 sentences to Zimbabwe, while a country such as Canada gets a whole page," Mulder said.

Sport has come under the ANC's political pressure. The Sport and Recreation Amendment Bill would give the government the right "to actively interfere with sport administration", he said.
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Cabinet flunks DA’s report card test

2006-12-23T08:18:00.000-08:00

Government did not have the calibre of leadership required to tackle the enormous challenges facing SA, such as crime, corruption and chronic unemployment, said Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Tony Leon yesterday when releasing the party’s cabinet report card for this year.

“What remains of concern is the fact that, overall, cabinet has failed for the second year running. The cabinet’s average score drops again from five in 2004 to 4,5 in 2005 to 4,3 this year,” Leon said. “Cabinet performance will have to improve greatly if we are to have any chance of effectively dealing with the serious problems we face.”

President Thabo Mbeki scored a “middling” five, the third in a row, with his successes in managing the economy and in international peacekeeping undermined by a lack of strong domestic leadership.

Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka won the DA’s approval for the turnaround in government’s HIV/AIDS strategy and received 6,5. But she got a no-no for her state-funded Christmas holiday to the United Arab Emirates.

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel and Science and Technology Minister Mosibudi Mangena came top of the class of 2006 with scores of seven out of 10. Manuel’s slip from last year’s eight was due to his lack of boldness in improving incentives to attract investors and exporters. It was also due to his “meek acquiescence” to contentious, large-scale spending projects, the DA said.

The ministers of foreign affairs (up from four to six), provincial and local government (two to five), sport and recreation (four to six) and the Presidency improved their marks.

The lowest scorers were Health Minister Manto Tshabalala- Msimang (0), Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour (two), Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula (two) and Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana (two). The succession crisis within the African National Congress would enhance the need for decisive leadership from Mbeki downwards if state capacity was not to be further compromised, Leon said.

Seven ministers — of labour, science and technology, public service and administration (three) health, transport (five), public enterprises (five) and Mbeki — marked time with the same score as last year. The remaining 18 out of 30 cabinet ministers performed worse than they did last year, in the DA’s view.

The DA’s report card was drawn up on assessment criteria which corresponded closely with 29337 public ratings logged on its website.

Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula continued to lose points for his lacklustre handling of the crime crisis and the continuing problem of South African Police Service commissioner Jackie Selebi.

The most drastic fall from DA grace came in the form of Ngconde Balfour, whose marks plummeted from seven to two because of his reluctance to release the Jali commission report, his failure to deal with corruption in prisons, and his public support for fraudster Tony Yengeni.

Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu lost two points from five because “her housing delivery stage show is more glitter than substance”.
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The backwards attitude of men

2006-11-28T06:42:00.000-08:00

War is too much of a man's thing
The armed forces in Southern Africa are moving too slowly towards gender transformation, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said. "War is considered a man's thing... where is the basis of this backwards attitude of men?" Lekota asked. He was speaking at a two-day seminar on the role of women in defence forces. "The struggle for equality must be fought... intelligence does not only reside in those who wear trousers and grow beards." Lekota said he still had a struggle with some male generals in the defence force when the promotion of women to positions of command was considered.
Curricula blamed for drop-out rate
The way students in tertiary education were taught, and what they were taught, should be critically reviewed in light of the needs of SA’s youths and the economy, Education Minister Naledi Pandor says. “We simply cannot continue with business as usual when we are falling short of meeting the needs of students and, in turn, the economic and social aspirations of the country,” Pandor told a conference. The mismatch between traditional curricula and teaching methods, and the needs of the majority of students entering higher education, was to blame for the “staggering” 50% drop-out rate among university students, and the racially skewed tertiary education success rate, Pandor said. Far-reaching curriculum change and innovation will now follow. In other words, the standards are too high and they will be dropped.
Ministers calls for joint Iran-SA fund
Iranian Minister of Science, Research and Technology Mohammad-Mehdi Zahedi called for establishment of a joint financial fund with South Africa to support research projects in the two countries. During a meeting with South African Minister of Science and Technology Mosibudi Mangena, Zahedi expressed Iran's readiness to exchange university professors and students with South Africa. Speaking of Iran's nuclear program, he said the country was pursuing a nuclear program as part of its desire to advance its scientific capabilities. Mangena referred to the friendly ties between Tehran and Pretoria and urged direct cooperation between their universities. Stronger ties between Iranian and South African researchers and scientists would bring remarkable benefits to the two nations, he said.
Vusimuzi plays vroom-vroom
The department of social development's director-general, Vusimuzi Madonsela, may be Johannesburg's fastest driver. Police plan to confiscate Madonsela's top-of-the-range Mercedes-Benz SLK55 AMG sports car through the Asset Forfeiture Act. He was trapped doing 228km/h in a 120km/h zone on the N1 between the Golden Highway and the Grasmere toll plaza. After been photographed, Madonsela continued to race towards the toll plaza, but unbeknown to him, the metro police were hot on his trail. He was eventually caught as he slowed down to pay the toll fee. If it was not for the toll plaza, we would not have not caught him. We gave chase in one of our Jettas," Johannesburg metro police spokesperson Wayne Minnaar said. Madonsela topped the previous high speed, recorded in Johannesburg last year. A driver of a BMW M3 was caught doing 212km/h.

All boomed out

2006-11-28T06:22:00.000-08:00

Feeling exhausted and burnt out? Need a holiday but the work pace is unrelenting? Welcome to a booming economy.

We do not need statistics and growth numbers to tell us that something extraordinary is happening around us.

Burnout is taking over from crime as the number one dinner conversation as well as frustration at the lack of supply of goods and services as hardware stores run out of cement, just when you are trying to complete your renovations and no one can give you a quote until next year because they are too busy.

Working longer hours and faced with daily frustrations of lack of delivery, not to mention traffic congestion, means more money is being made but stress levels are also soaring.

Apart from traffic lights not working, the roads have simply become busier. The number of new cars on the road exceeds the population growth.

Last year there were 43 500 new cars on the road compared to a net population growth of 41 500 people.

So it is not surprising that South Africa is operating at its highest capacity in 10 years, with demand in the manufacturing sector doubling since 2001, which is outstripping supply.

We have already had sporadic shortages in petrol, gas, electricity, cement and carbonated soft drinks. Observers say capacity constraints can be expected from time to time in these and other commodities as the economy kicks into a higher gear. Schussler points out that the shortage of electricity, a result of demand, is also adding to the hours people have to work to catch up on lost productivity.

The capacity utilisation in manufacturing is running at more than 85%, which by definition means that we are working at full capacity. Lack of skilled labour and materials is the only thing stopping us from producing even more. If we had more skilled labour and materials our capacity utilisation would be more than 90%.

As people work harder they make more money and buy more things. This means that the pressure on labour and materials is going to get even greater and that pressure on supply, especially in skilled labour, is only going to get worse. Take, for example, the growth in the cellphone market with the number of cellphone contracts growing at double the population growth. There’s more cellphone sex than actual sex.

When the revised GDP figures for 2005 are released next week we may find the economy growing at more than 5%. That would make it the highest growth rate since 1981. As Schussler points out, in the Eighties the economy was only driven by the commodity boom, this time we also have consumer demand creating a broader goods and services demand.

South Africa is experiencing a convergence of several growth factors, including the property boom, retail boom, commodity boom as well as increased financial activity because of BEE. There is a lot of money being made and spent, so people are busy.

This creates a lot of opportunity but also stress and pressure. While executives are seeing enormous opportunities for deals, there are concerns about taking on more than they can chew.

A big issue is the war for talent. The shortage of skilled workers is putting increased pressure on those with skills, especially in management and leadership positions. As a result, already stretched managements are caught between focusing on the hard issues of growing their businesses in this opportunistic period but, at the same time, having to focus on the softer people issues in order to obtain and retain skilled people.

It takes around six to 12 months to ensure that a new staff member is properly trained and inducted to the company, but this is time corporations don’t have. So staff are feeling overwhelmed, and there is too much pressure to deliver.

Economic growth comes at a cost. If you want to survive to the new year, avoid the radio, television or newspapers, which will make you take on other people’s stress. Just listen to beautiful music when sitting in the traffic jam and go with the flow.

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The gravy train rolls on

2006-11-27T12:54:00.000-08:00

Outrage at ANC links to Gautrain
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) was outraged by reports that two cabinet ministers and National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete had shares in the consortium that is building the Gautrain. “The reports reinforced the belief expressed at Cosatu’s recent congress that a worryingly growing number of African National Congress (ANC) and government leaders had a personal self-enrichment culture,” spokesman Patrick Craven said. Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and Education Minister Naledi Pandor are part of the shareholding structure of the Bombela consortium, which won the R23bn Gautrain bid. Greed and selfishness had clearly overtaken the culture of service for the people. The ministers confirmed they had taken part in cabinet meetings at which the Gautrain project was discussed and approved last December — against the advice of Parliament’s portfolio committee on transport.
Four seconds for a speech?
Political parties in the city of Joburg may get as little as four seconds of speaking time in future meetings. This is in terms of a proposal to allocate speaking time in accordance with the representation of each political party. Sparks are expected to fly as the DA and minority parties, that are known for routinely sucking up to the ANC, attempt to oppose the proposal. The proposal states that no more than 15 minutes would be spent on any specific report at council meetings.

When calculated according to representation, the ruling ANC will have almost nine-and-a-half minutes with the opposition DA getting a little more than four minutes. The Inkatha Freedom Party will have 29 seconds, while the Independent Democrats will only speak for 16 seconds. The African Christian Democratic Party and Pan Africanist Congress will each speak for eight seconds. The seven minority parties, among them the Christian Democratic Party, Azanian People’s Organisation, Operation Khanyisa Movement and Freedom Front Plus will speak for about four seconds, which is only enough time to address the Speaker of Council.
Why SA is so energy inefficient
South Africa is energy inefficient because we don’t value our carbon resource sufficiently. We have the world’s cheapest electricity. Cheap energy means little incentive to save it. The pebble-bed modular reactor (PBMR) gets R1,1-billion in funding with not a single megawatt (MW) generated compared to demand-side management’s R600-million budget.

The difference between South Africa and Asian Tigers is that the tigers did not develop resource-based economies, but service and knowledge economies. Countries in Africa with much resource wealth continue to suffer human poverty -- the resource curse. We are consciously using our cheap energy to get foreign investment. Keeping our energy dirty (coal-based) keeps it cheap.

In South Africa, social issues override environmental. The environment has never been mentioned in the State of the Nation or budget addresses. Even in the 2002 State of the Nation address, the World Summit on Sustainable Development was called a “summit on poverty” with no mention of the environment.
Is 2010 a race issue?
Is security around the 2010 Soccer World Cup being questioned because South Africa has a majority black government? Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula wants to know why security concerns were never an issue when it came to international “white” sporting events, such as rugby and cricket, being staged in SA. “Do we want people to say it is because it is not the white man’s sport, but soccer, the black man’s sport?” It has been suggested that Fifa is considering moving the World Cup to Australia. Regarding such suggestions, Nqakula asked: “Is it because in South Africa the government of the day is a predominantly black one, and in Australia it is a predominantly white government?”
Uncertain threat
In a country where HIV/Aids kills 900 people each day, full hospitals and beleaguered doctors are nothing new. But a new public health nightmare is taking its toll as doctors and nurses grapple with a new, highly drug-resistant form of tuberculosis. At least 74 people, including staff, have died in Tugela Ferry after catching the drug-resistant strain. Most were HIV-positive.

The new strain is resistant to most if not all of the lines of defence against the highly infectious lung disease spread through coughing and sneezing. Left untreated, TB attacks the lungs and can travel to other organs, the brain and bones.m South Africa's health department said 263 cases of extremely drug-resistant TB, or XDR-TB, had been recorded in KwaZulu-Natal, with about 30 new cases being reported each month. Another 40 cases have been recorded in other regions.

Riding on the gravy train

2006-11-26T10:50:00.000-08:00

Who gets the gravy on the Gautrain?
The Gautrain saga comes amid criticism that large government tenders mainly benefit a well-connected elite. The shareholding structure in the Bombela Consortium, which won the R23-billion bid, has been a closely guarded secret. It has now been established that high-profile beneficiaries of the Gautrain tender include:

Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula: shares in Dyambu Holdings
Education Minister Naledi Pandor: involved in Black Management Forum Investments (BMFI)
Deputy Health Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge: shareholders in Dyambu
National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete: shares in Dyambu Holdings
ANC head of international affairs Mavivi Myakayaka-Manzini: shareholder in Dyambu
Businessman Tokyo Sexwale;
Malose Kekana, chief executive of the Umsobomvu Youth Fund;shareholder in BMFI
former special economic adviser to President Thabo Mbeki Wiseman Nkuhlu: shareholder in BMFI
Sasol executive director Nolitha Fakude: shareholder in BMFI
chief executive of Business Unity SA Bheki Sibiya: shareholder in BMFI
Danisa Baloyi, a prominent businesswoman: linked to TSM Enterprises, another Bombela partner.

Dyambu Holdings, Black Management Forum Investments (BMFI) and 11 others have a 25% stake — worth R5-billion — in Gautrain through Strategic Partners Group, which is the empowerment partner in Bombela. The Gautrain project denies that Dyambu has any shares in it, but tender committee documents show otherwise.

The two ministers sat in a Cabinet meeting that approved the project in December 2005 against the advice of Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Transport. MPs objected because they believed the train served the already comfortable middle class and excluded vast portions of society through its ticket pricing and connections to other transport nodes. Cosatu and other civil-society groups have also questioned the wisdom of spending so much money on the train when general public transport is in such poor shape. The government argues that it will ease congestion on the Johannesburg-Tshwane highway, the busiest stretch of road in the country.

Mapisa-Nqakula claims that she was unaware at the time that Dyambu was part of the Gautrain consortium. "If the minister had been aware that Dyambu was involved in Gautrain, she would have recused herself from Cabinet discussions on Gautrain,” her spokesman said. Pandor confirmed her shareholding in BMFI but denied her involvement constituted a conflict of interest. “I am an ordinary shareholder in BMFI. I am not a director of the company and I am not involved in decision-making,” she said. Mbete did not responded to questions.

Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, Deputy Minister of Provincial and Local Government Nomatyala Hangana and Gauteng MEC for Housing Nomvula Mokonyane were among the founders of Dyambu. All three claim that they have since cut ties with the company.

2010 in danger
Eric Bost, the new US ambassador to South Africa, weighed in on the 2010 security debate this week, warning that few would travel to South Africa for the Fifa World Cup if crime continued at current levels. He said South Africa was a wonderful country with fantastic potential, but the balance sheet of positives and negatives was tilting towards the negative. The German ambassador had told him about a group of German tour operators who had visited South Africa soon after the World Cup to look at the facilities that would be available to soccer tourists in 2010. They were robbed...

Bost also expressed disappointment at the lukewarm reception he had received from the government, especially those involved in fighting HIV/Aids. “I have been trying to reach out to the Health Minister [Manto Tshabalala-Msimang] and then, when the Deputy President [Phumzile Mlambo-Ngucka] was given the responsibility for HIV, I reached out to her and tried to meet with her. “We give you more money than any other country in the world to help you address HIV and Aids, we give you more money to address HIV and Aids than all the donors combined, and I would like to have a conversation with the leadership in the country that is responsible for managing it and I haven’t been able to meet them. We’ve been reaching out for four months. You can’t have a partnership if only one side is talking.”

Chaos as usual

2006-11-26T08:50:00.000-08:00

Postal chaos
Chaos has erupted in the South African Post Office. This culminated in the suspension of group CEO Khutso Mampeule, following a series of allegations which raise serious questions about corporate governance at the organisation, about the role of the board and about how Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri has handled this crisis. The lingering impression is that the Post Office, long maligned as being hopelessly inefficient and corrupt, is once again in deep trouble.

Former Post Office CEO Maanda Manyatshe has been locked in a bruising battle with Mampeule. Mampeule cancelled a R100m contract awarded during the former CEO’s tenure to a company called Vision Design House. He then laid a criminal complaint against Manyatshe for awarding the tender without proper procedure amid allegations that Vision Design would do work on Manyatshe’s house. Manyatshe threatened to sue Mampeule and the Post Office for a staggering R100m.

Mampeule, in turn, stands accused of calling a board meeting without including Post Office chairperson Phuti Tsukudu in order to discuss selling insurance products through Postbank branches. Mampeule argues that because Tsukudu was on the board of Mutual & Federal, a competitor in this matter, there was a conflict of interest. Further, he points fingers at the board of the Post Office, saying his suspension is an attempt to divert attention from his fight against corruption. To top it all, Tsukudu needs to explain why R89000 was allegedly paid by the Post Office to a placement company she owns, Tsukudu Associates. Confused yet?

Boosting literacy
Retired professionals (newspeak for white people) will be called on to help the government implement a R6,1-billion national literacy campaign. Government spokesperson Themba Maseko announced it was hoped the five-year campaign would reach 4,7-million people. However, the programme would be implemented only from 2008, "because a lot of planning still has to be done".

Row over Aids death certificate
A South African doctor faces a charge of unprofessional conduct for naming Aids on a death certificate against family wishes. A complaint was filed with the national health watchdog against Dr Leon Wagner after the woman died in April 2005. Dr Wagner has not yet entered a plea, saying it is unclear what rule he has broken. The hearing has been adjourned. Aids-related deaths are usually covered up. The stigma attached to Aids means doctors do not commonly list it as the cause of death. Deaths are attributed on death certificates to related diseases, such as tuberculosis or pneumonia, rather than Aids. South Africa, where 5.5 million people are living with HIV, is one of several countries where the HIV epidemic is continuing to worsen, according to a UNAids report.

Proceedings against Dr Wagner were triggered by a complaint by the family of a 30-year-old woman to the national health watchdog. The South African Heath Professions Council said Dr Wagner should face a charge of unprofessional conduct. The case could be a watershed for South Africa, as it would have tremendous consequences for the statistical documentation of this pandemic. Current policies that protect the confidentiality of Aids patients at all costs is not helping the national Aids awareness campaign.

Ousted spy tries to get his job back
Ousted spy boss Billy Masetlha has claimed in the Pretoria High Court that President Thabo Mbeki's "decision" to suspend him lacked legal power as the president merely "rubber-stamped" the decision taken by Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils. Masetlha wants his job as head of the National Intelligence Agency back.

He maintains that the President took no decision in October last year to suspend him. The decision was in fact taken by Kasrils, who lacked the legal power to take such a decision. This would explain why the president was unable to provide a proper record on strength of which he had made his decision. The president endeavoured to have the suspension application "go away". Mbeki sweetened the pill to Masetlha by paying from the public purse Masetlha's costs in the suspension application as well as a gratuity of R1 035 391 through Public Service Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi. Masetlha gave the money back and decided to fight his case in court instead.

The worst is yet to come
South Africans who still think the series of interest rate hikes is about to end and that the rand is over the worst, must think again. Matthew Lester, Professor of Taxation studies at Rhodes University, says chances are good that interest rates could hit 16%. South Africans haven't kept up with the economic changes that have taken place since February. At the same time, no one is saving and people are still buying as if there's no tomorrow.

South Africa's salvation is that US Federal Reserve chairperson Ben Bernanke has put the brakes on interest rate increases in the US for now. If those brakes come off, South Africa would have to keep on hiking rates to keep and lure foreign investors to the country.

The flow of more than R25bn in foreign capital into the country is unthinkable. The role of the three T's (Thabo Mbeki, Tito Mboweni and Trevor Manuel) in the economy is greatly responsible for this. The foreign capital is the glue holding everything together. If this should turn around, South Africa is in big trouble. South Africa's image abroad is tainted with incidences such as Oilgate, Travelgate, Spygate and Armsgate. The last time the graph of the huge deficit on the current account looked so worrying was when Barend du Plessis was still minister of finance.

A lack of communication

2006-11-24T16:18:00.000-08:00

Dear Ivy, how are you going to save the Post Office from itself?
As an organisation that South Africans love to hate (running a close second to Telkom), the South African Post Office has long borne the brunt of consumer anger. Whether it has been through incompetence, high tariffs or corruption scandals, there has been no shortage of copy about the organisation. But the Post Office has managed to outdo even itself with the latest shenanigans. Former CEO Maanda Manyatshe and his successor, Khutso Mampeule, have engulfed the Post Office in a swirl of accusations and counteraccusations, leaving those watching from the sidelines dumbstruck. This includes Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, who seems to have been caught off-guard. At the heart of it is a battle over who gets to claim the title of postal “Mr Clean”.

Manyatshe was appointed MD of the Post Office in late 2000. He led one of government’s first attempts to forge a public-private partnership. A consortium led by New Zealand Post International had been appointed in 1999 to turn around the entity. Government subsidies were to be phased out and financial targets were established. Manyatshe and his management team clashed with the consortium. Less than a year later, they were gone and subsidies were back.

Manyatshe then embarked on a big anticorruption drive. Hair-raising stories emerged and the Scorpions were called in to investigate widespread criminal activities involving both employees and outsiders. Just some of these included contracts with nonexistent companies and kickbacks for employees. By the time he left in 2004, Manyatshe pronounced that order had been restored.

When Mampeule took over in 2005 he also went on a big anticorruption drive. The new CEO went on the warpath and laid a criminal complaint against Manyatshe for allegedly awarding a R100m tender without proper procedure.

Neither man has since covered himself in glory. Both have taken to the trenches to defend themselves, attempting to gag the press and making outrageous allegations about one another and the board. Both are now out of jobs, with Manyatshe resigning as MD of MTN and Mampeule suspended while the board looks into allegations that he flouted governance procedures. If ever there was an unseemly squabble, this is it.

Government not delivering
Sentech was promised government funding to help with the roll out of wireless broadband infrastructure to improve their coverage, but the government coffers have as yet not opened for the parastatal. According to Sentech’s Winston Smith: “No money has come through for Sentech yet.” The Minister of Communications, Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, reiterated her commitment towards making Sentech the ‘Government’s wireless broadband provider’ in her budget speech earlier this year, but despite these words nothing has happened. For Sentech to meet the Department of Communication’s demands a great deal of money is needed, but so far it’s been all talk.

This is normal
The SABC paid R123 000 for its CEO, Dali Mpofu, to be featured on the front cover of the glossy Leadership magazine in June this year. Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri used public funds for the profiling and marketing of an individual. She claims that "this is normal in organisational communication and does not amount to personal publicity". The money came out of the corporation's marketing and public affairs division as well as the international and regulatory affairs budgets.

Scrumming down

2006-11-24T15:46:00.000-08:00

The Zimbabweans are coming
South Africa has temporarily scrapped stringent visa requirements for Zimbabweans. This emerged during the second session of the Zimbabwe-South Africa Joint Permanent Commission on Defence and Security in Harare. SA Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota told the session that the two countries' home affairs ministers would meet as a matter of urgency on the issue of visas. Lekota added: "Existing arrangements have been suspended. No more (stringent) visa requirements subject to further consideration by the two governments." He rejected claims that Zimbabweans were fuelling crime in SA.
A medal for fraud and illegal firearm
The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has honoured a soldier who has convictions for illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, and for fraud. Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota insists the soldier’s award for services to the department and the country will not be withdrawn even though there was full knowledge of his criminal record. The convictions and sentence were known to the SANDF before the September 1 medal parade. The person was convicted by a civilian court on two counts of fraud relating to a fraudulent degree and diplomas. He was also convicted for possession of an unlicensed firearm and possession of ammunition. On the two counts of fraud, he was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, suspended for five years. On the counts of unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition, he was fined R5000. The soldier has not faced a departmental disciplinary charge for either matter.
Rugby in the Eastern Cape is extremely complex
Rugby leaders in the Eastern Cape will attend a three- day indaba in December to develop strategies for restoring the glory days of rugby. When was that? The Nelson Mandela Bay municipality has lodged papers at the Port Elizabeth High Court asking for the provisional sequestration of the Eastern Province Rugby Union in an effort to claim an apparently long-outstanding debt of about R3,4-million. The indaba, under the banner of “Scrumdown”, is targeted at all rugby stakeholders from the region. Eastern Cape sports department head Bubele Mfenyana said everybody is invited:

representatives from national, provincial and local government
community and business leaders,
rugby administrators,
union officials and representatives involved in developmental initiatives at school, rural and regional rugby levels
all rugby structures and stakeholders
Eastern Province rugby union
South Western Districts rugby union
Border rugby union
the presidents of all three unions mentioned above
SA Rugby
SA Rugby chairman Mpumelelo Tshume,
SA Rugby president Oregan Hoskins
Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile,
Sports MEC Noxolo Abrahams-Ntantiso,
Nelson Mandela Bay recreation and cultural services chairman Nancy Sihlwayi

“It presents an opportunity for everybody to put their heads together to formulate a blueprint – a deliverable, actionable plan – to revive and develop rugby in the Eastern Cape and to ensure that it is run in accordance with good governance principles and practice,” he said. Maybe he should invite Father Christmas, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy as well. Everybody else will be there.

Still unsafe and insecure

2006-11-23T13:04:00.000-08:00

R810m stolen in SA heists
More than R810m has been stolen in about 3 400 cash-in-transit robberies in South Africa since 2000. These figures emerged in Durban regional court in response to bail applications by 26 men charged with two robberies in the Umfolozi area. The 26 accused were arrested last month at the Mvoti Toll Plaza. It emerged in that 21 of them had previous convictions or cases pending against them.

Anton Widd, general manager of the violent crime office of the SA Banking Risk Information Centre, said this year alone - up until October - saw 468 incidents involving more than R86m. It stands to reason that the threat, trauma or losses will have a direct influence on the economy. The ripple effect goes without saying.

The left hand does not know what the right hand is doing
Dozens of former police officers responding to a call last month by Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula to rejoin the South African Police Service, have been turned away. They all received letters refusing their requests to re-enlist.

An urgent meeting was held in October between six government departments and the boot-lickers from Business Against Crime and Business Leadership SA. Nqakula said retired police officers and former members of the judiciary would be recalled to help fight crime. That meeting came after high-level discussions between President Thabo Mbeki and ass-kissing business leaders in August.

During the talks they expressed "grave concern" over attacks on businesses and "poor strategies" used in fighting crime. Nqakula agreed with Business Leadership South Africa's Michael Spicer that the recall of former police officers from the private sector was a way to boost the capacity of the South African Police Service. Bringing back former police officers and other crime-fighters would "inject" a wealth of experience into the safety and security department," Nqakula said then.

But a letter, signed by South African Police Service personnel services divisional Commissioner Martha Stander and dated November 3, stresses that a 2002 policy blocking the re-enlistment of police officers has not changed. In it Stander says the number of inquiries from former police officers wanting to re-enlist "is so vast" that the police has had to clarify its position.

Shortage of handcuffs led to escape
There was a shortage of handcuffs and that is why three prisoners who overpowered him with his service firearm had not been individually cuffed, Inspector Piet Kgafele Maleka told the Johannesburg High Court yesterday. He was wounded in the chest but survived. His colleague Sergeant Modikeni Riba was fatally wounded but he managed to shoot two of the armed prisoners, one fatally.

This was evidence in the trial of Thulani Ndlovu, 30, of Yeoville and Andrew Thobolo, 56, of Hillbrow. Earlier this week the two pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, attempted murder, robbery, escaping from police custody, illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.

Land claims forges ahead despite leadership challenges

2006-11-23T12:52:00.000-08:00

Claiming 64 farms to expand cloud cuckoo land
The future of various business owners and farmers on prime agricultural land hangs in the balance after it became known that a claim for the restitution of land rights had been lodged on their properties. An estimated 20 000ha of land comprising about 64 farms will be influenced, including areas like Rhenosterkop and Uitkyk.

According to Zithini Dlamini, senior communications officer for the regional land claims commission in Mpumalanga, the claim was lodged by Sicelo Audacious Nkosi, tribal leader of the Mpakeni Tribal Authority. The claim was accepted by the Land Claims Commission as valid. Most landowners affected were unaware of the claim.

Land affairs faces leadership challenges
Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Lulama Xingwana admitted to problems in her department. She blamed it on leadership and management "challenges." The problems include the implementation of land-reform and restitution programmes, the administration of state land, land audits and human resource management. Capacity constraints are also affecting the ability to deliver and there is a lack of personnel to manage leases and plans at provincial level. There are currently 1 000 vacancies in the department and only about a third of state land has been audited to date.

Fantasy and reality of health

2006-11-23T12:28:00.000-08:00

In fantasy land, traditional healers back Manto
South Africa's embattled health minister received a rare public boost when hundreds of traditional healers marched in Johannesburg to support her natural treatments for HIV/Aids. They praised Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and urged the government to give greater weight to traditional remedies as it battles one of the world's worst Aids pandemics.

Speakers voiced harsh feelings that Western medicine was taking advantage of traditional knowledge for profit and greed. The marchers called for the fast-tracking of the Traditional Healers Practice Act, which has bee delayed by 18 months. They demanded the establishment of a provincial directorate of traditional medicine and asked: "Can the department protect this noble profession from thugs that claim to be interested in our profession but only want to modernise us through research that is aimed at fulfilling their selfish financial interest and greed?"

The national coordinator of the Traditional Healers' Association, Phephsile Maseko, said that Tshabalala-Msimang was the only person in high office to understand the disparities between Western and traditional medicine. She has been trying hard to narrow the gap. Tshabalala-Msimang is advocating natural remedies, including garlic, olive oil and beetroot and questioning the role of ARVs in Aids programmes.

Extent of collapse too difficult to describe
Lots of problems came to light during an audit of Limpopo department of health.

Dilokong hospital in Sekhukhuneland does not have laundering facilities. The linen that is washed at another venue and conveyed to and fro on an open lorry, on a dirt road.

884 000 condoms had to be thrown away in Polokwane because they lay exposed in sun and rain. The expiry date of the condoms was 2009.

At the new Nkhensani hospital, which should have been completed in March this year, only the recreation facilities were ready on time. Not without problems though - a marula tree had started growing in the basketball court.

Medical refuse is dumped, lying around or unsafely stored. This presents a serious health danger to the public.

Financial records are in a bad state. Sometimes the highest rather the lowest tender was approved, for no apparent reason. The list of debtors very unreliable. In addition, repayments by debtors are not reflected accurately. Debtors are frequently over-billed after they had paid off their debts.

Other flashpoints are:

donations from abroad are mismanaged
mistakes in payments of employment benefits, to the tune of millions (and without any proper records)
no proper registry of fixed assets and
serious questions about housing benefit payments (R30,9m)
laxness about collecting debts
personnel are often guilty of a clash of interests in transactions
people live in government houses on hospital property without rental agreements,
out-patient debts amounting to R213,6m
over-generous overtime payments.

In spite of this chaotic state of affairs, all senior managers received a 6% bonus, irrespective of merit.

Fantasies and realities of education

2006-11-23T12:19:00.000-08:00

Fantasy of turning around SA education
Naledi Pandor, SA’s education minister, says changes in regulations to deal with random drug testing at schools could be in place as soon as the beginning of next year.

Pandor says some schools are already using parental consent and existing regulations on searches to guide them.Pandor and her team are putting their heads together to improve SA education. The battle against drugs is an on-going concern for the minister.

The recent Human Rights Commission hearings into violence at schools exposed a lack of understanding from teachers, principals and the police. In the Western Cape, where 400 schools have been identified as high risk, random searches are a regular feature.

The sad reality
A seven-year-old grade two pupil was killed and several others were injured when a classroom collapsed at a school in Mthatha. The child was hit by falling mud bricks. The school is one of many mud structures left unstable by heavy rains in recent months. It was full of cracks and unsuitable for schooling. The government has been dragging its feet in addressing challenges of proper infrastructure in the Transkei.

World Cup 2010: fantasy and reality

2006-11-23T11:52:00.000-08:00

Fantasy: get off my back
World Cup 2010 CEO, Danny Jordaan, has angrily denied suggestions that Australia will step in to host the football spectacle. "Utter nonsense - they must get off our backs," was his reaction to yet another report that Australia have offered to step in and stage the 2010 showpiece.

He stormed: "Fifa have time and again stated that Australia have no chance of taking the 2010 World Cup away from us. I wish they would stop. They have no chance but they keep on and on. Fifa president Sepp Blatter was in Australia recently where he told them that Plan A is to host the 2010 finals in South Africa, Plan B is South Africa and Plan C is South Africa. I do not know where the Australians are coming from."

Reality: phantom 2010 World Cup briefing
Numerous representatives of the national and international press and television walked out en bloc from a briefing due to be staged by the board of directors of the Local 2010 World Cup Organising Committee.

The walk-out will impart embarrassingly worldwide on the organising committee's ability to organise without glitches the 2010 tournament. It was agreed on when none of the board members had arrived for the briefing a matter of 70 minutes after the stipulated "1pm sharp" starting time.

"We have become accustomed to this kind of thick-skinned arrogance and disrespect towards the media," said one local soccer journalist, "but we had hoped matters would change once the World Cup operation swung into gear." Apparently this is not the case.

The media were not given any explanation for the non-appearance of Khoza, Jordaan and company. Even the LOC's marketing company did not know what was happening".

Similar confusion emerged a month ago before the LOC's initial briefing on how the organisation of the World Cup was progressing, with half the media only informed of the session at the last-minute and the other half not at all. "This kind of shortcoming will not happen again," said Khoza at the time. Famous last words.

Reality: bid to grab the Cup
New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma has called on FIFA to award the 2010 World Cup to Australia as uncertainty continues to plague South Africa's attempt to host the world's biggest sporting party.

Iemma says there is bi-partisan support at state and federal level for Australia to step in should the rainbow nation be stripped of the tournament amid fears it has neither the infrastructure nor the collective will to stage the World Cup.

"We have an international reputation for hosting major events like the 2000 Olympics," said Iemma. "We have the infrastructure and the capacity to step into the breach at a moment's notice. If it can't come off with South Africa, and there are doubts that it can, then we are by far the best alternative."

Iemma is a regular visitor to South Africa's 2010 World Cup website and has been staggered by the lack of progress of the five designated "multi-purpose" stadiums due to be constructed for the tournament. All you can see are photographs of architects' impressions of the stadia. It hasn't progressed much beyond that.

South Africa's other logistical problems include:

a lack of infrastructure
the lack of a transnational rail system and roads that would not be able to accommodate the expected weight of traffic.
a violent crime wave that is only surpassed by Colombia.

Self-imposed skills shortages

2006-11-22T12:37:00.000-08:00

Country needs engineering skills
A top Japanese businessman has highlighted the need for South Africa to develop engineering skills in order to achieve this. Chief executive officer and Managing Director of Isuzu South Africa Masatoshi Kobayashi said the challenge faced by the country is the lack of suitable skills in the engineering sector, especially in the automotive sector.

"For example we only manufacture bakkies and heavy weight trucks, while we could also be providing extra heavy weight trucks but the lack of proper skills to fix such trucks in the country is not available and as a result it would not make business sense for us to manufacture such vehicles," said Mr Kobayashi.

Science and Technology Minister Mosibudi Mangena has said that engineering education is of prime importance to the economic advancement of all countries, especially in Africa, with a low number of engineers per capita. Higher education institutions have agreed to increase the number of engineering graduates by an extra 1000 a year, as part of government's plan to deal with the demand for scarce skills in the country. Government intends to recruit 1 500 engineers, 1000 educational professionals, 3 500 information technology specialist, 5 450 health and medical specialists and 1 500 agricultural science professionals.

Critical shortage of air traffic controllers
THE aviation industry was facing an acute shortage of air traffic controllers, resulting in staff poaching among air traffic and navigation service providers. The shortage of qualified air traffic controllers has led to some staff being forced to work longer shifts than internationally recommended, a move that could compromise air safety if no preventative measures are taken soon. Transport Minister Jeff Radebe complained that there was a 13% shortage of air traffic controllers globally.

According to a recent study by the Development Bank of Southern Africa, about $200bn is needed to bring Africa’s 617 main airports up to standard. Africa contribute less than 4% of the global air traffic and yet has the highest number of air crashes.

Nqakula says we're all right

2006-11-22T12:29:00.000-08:00

Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula called on them to provide better safety for their employees — security guards who are targeted in cash-in-transit heists.

He stated: "The poor guards are driving vehicles that are not reinforced. Those business people have money, why are they not reinforcing those vehicles? Why are those companies not training people adequately and providing them with high-calibre weapons?" Many cash heists were inside jobs, he added.

Nqakula called for greater community involvement in crime fighting as 80 percent of it is so-called social crime, which happens in places common to both victims and perpetrators and were connected to substance abuse.

The other 20 percent of the country's crime, and which was the sole responsibility of the police to stop, was organised and included cash-in-transit heists. While cash heists had increased by 74 percent in the past year, he played down their part in the big picture. They are apparently few compared to the rest of crimes in South Africa. There were over 300 heists in the year to September.

He said there was no need to declare a state of emergency over the levels of crime in the country. Nqakula claimed that levels of serious and violent crime were on the decrease. Since 1995 crime levels had "very consistently" been going down.
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The president's inner circle

2006-11-22T12:12:00.000-08:00

Who does Thabo Mbeki listen to and who does he take advice from? Without noise or fanfare, Mojanku Gumbi has glided into position as the president’s right-hand woman, though her official title is legal adviser to the president. Seldom does Mbeki meet anyone, or go anywhere, without her. Gumbi’s role now extends far beyond that of legal adviser -- she is less lawyer and more political fixer. She is still Azapo, but there is a meeting of minds between the president and her on African nationalism.

Trevor Manuel, as minister of finance, is the key player from the government within a government’s perspective, for obvious reasons.

As to the ANC, it is more complex, but the key person and the lynchpin for all of this is Joel Netshitenzhe. He attends all Cabinet meetings, is a member of the ANC’s National Executive Committee and is also one of the ANC’s leading thinkers and intellectuals, drafting many of the most influential internal discussion papers of the past 15 years. To one former Cabinet minister, Netshitenzhe is elliptical, and GCIS [Government Communication and Information System] is "absolute crap”, Netshitenzhe and Mbeki are brothers in all but name. They share a disinclination for the limelight, they write prodigiously; they philosophise as much as they strategise; both men turn to Marxist theory to help explain political economy.
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Health system breaking down

2006-11-22T11:55:00.000-08:00

Dispensing fees cause pharmacies to close
South African pharmacies face closure due to dispensing regulations coming into effect in January, the United South African Pharmacies (USAP) group said. USAP chairperson Julian Solomon said the new regulations would lead to many pharmacies having to close down. Director of Management Healthcare System, David Boyce, said the department of health's pricing committee did not make provision for inflation.

The implementation of the regulations would lead to pharmacies not being able to cover their expenses. Boyce said that of the 2 467 pharmacies polled, 63 percent would fail, 22 percent were "likely to survive", while 15 percent were at a significant risk of failing. Solomon added that at least six towns in South Africa were without pharmaceutical services.

Complete breakdown of Limpopo health care
The Democratic Alliance urged Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang to establish a special task team to investigate the "complete breakdown" of financial and operational management in the Limpopo health department. The Auditor-General issued the department with a 21-page qualified audit report for 2005/06. The AG found significant problems with the control of assets. None of the hospitals visited had proper asset registers, and none had conducted stock counts or could even say when last a stock count had been conducted. Control over departmental vehicles was chaotic. Petrol cards that had been reported lost or stolen were in use, and sensors in cars were malfunctioning, resulting in odometer readings sometimes moving backwards. Vehicle accidents were routinely unreported.

Many examples of suspicious processes in the purchase of goods and equipment had been found, including bids to supply goods and services were only accepted from historically disadvantaged individuals, which led to 'extremely inflated' prices, because no attempt was made to establish whether prices tendered were market-related. In some cases, goods and services were purchased from businesses belonging to departmental employees, but these vested interests were not mentioned anywhere and no approval had been obtained. Cases were found where the highest quotation was accepted for no good reason, and the department was unable to supply a list of all tenders awarded or of all tenders where the best-qualified applicant was not accepted.

The AG had also identified many problems with the HIV and Aids programme, and in particular enormous deviations from the approved business plan. No training on post-exposure prophylaxis had taken place, no research had been conducted into the low uptake of nevarapine, and the department distributed only 35 000 of the 400 000 tins of baby formula it should have distributed

Fire them all

2006-11-20T23:14:00.000-08:00

Suspend all Post Office managers
Post Office chief executive Khutso Mampeule has been suspended on full pay, pending the outcome of a disciplinary case against him. The Communication Workers' Union (CWU) would challenge the decision if it was an attempt to divert attention from, or tamper with, the corruption investigation. All South African Post Office managers and board members should be suspended pending a forensic audit into its contracts, the CWU said.

Board chairperson Phiti Tskudu said that the board had lost confidence in Mampeule. He appears to undermine the board's authority and his impartiality has been called into question with regard to the management of the planned forensic audit the board has commissioned to investigate allegations around improper tender practices.

Mampeule claimed that his suspension is an attempt to divert attention from his concerted effort to uproot corrupt actions. Seven Post Office executives have resigned or been axed in the past 18 months. Thirteen suspect contracts had been uncovered and cancelled. Mampeule said his fight against corruption had "affected some powerful and well-connected people" on the board.

The easy way out
Fifteen awaiting trial prisoners escaped from the Komatipoort Prison. "When police came to the cells the next day, they found only five of 20 prisoners inside," Superintendent Mtsholi Bhembe said. The fifteen men used a cutting tool to cut through the bars of the cell window. "It is difficult to say how they got their hands on it, people visiting sometimes smuggle things in but we don't know for sure how they got the tool," said Bhembe. The escapees were facing charges ranging from murder to the theft of firewood.

Annanias Mathe, 29, a dangerous detainee awaiting trial, escaped from Pretoria's C-Max prison. Mathe mysteriously uncuffed himself, climbed through several small windows after breaking them, and forced himself out onto the roof of the prison.

Skweyiya sticks by his BIG guns
South Africa's Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya has stuck by his call for a basic income grant in South Africa but he declined to attach a monthly figure that would apply. He said that it was his personal view that such a grant should be paid out by the state but it would have to be discussed at the national conference of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) at the end of next year.

Meanwhile, about 400 000 recipients of social-welfare grants, are being investigated for alleged fraud. This figure includes 45 000 public servants. Most of the fraud detected so far was the alleged misuse of child-care grants where the recipients held other jobs or sources of income. An average of the various grants paid out by the state is about R430 a month. This translates into R172-million a month.

Fight against work-equity violators to intensify
The new year would see "an even more" intensified fight against employment-equity violators, Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana said. The department's investigation of such companies -- which led to much controversy this year -- was just the beginning. The issue of employment-equity violation is going to be his project next year. "Employment equity reports indicate that eleven years since our democracy, we have not moved much in the higher echelons of industry in terms of race and gender. These are the kinds of things that make people uncomfortable," he said. The input of workers and the current labour legislation are the primary reasons the country's economy is doing so well, he argued.

Africa and homosexuality

2006-11-20T22:44:00.000-08:00

SOUTH AFRICA
On 14 November South Africa became the first African nation to legalise same-sex marriage. Under apartheid, sex between men was outlawed. Even today 63 per cent believe that homosexuality should not be accepted.
ZIMBABWE
Male homosexuality is illegal and since 1995 President Robert Mugabe has pursued a "moral campaign" against homosexuals. He has said being gay is a "white disease". "Unnatural sex acts" carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.
GHANA
Male homosexual activity is illegal. Gay men can also be punished under provisions concerning assault and rape, if "in public or with minor". Two months ago a gay rights conference was banned.
MOROCCO
Homosexuality is illegal and can be punished with up to three years in prison and a fine of up to £75, but the law is seldom enforced, and homosexual activity is fairly common, especially in the resorts.
CHAD
There is no law against being gay. Homosexual behaviour is not mentioned as a criminal offence in the penal code. However, homosexuality is considered immoral and is a taboo subject.
ETHIOPIA
The law prohibits homosexual acts by both sexes, with a penalty of up to three years in prison. This may be increased by five or more years when the offender "makes a profession of such activities".
EGYPT
There are no laws against homosexuality, but it has started to become illegal de facto under various laws such as "offences against public morals" and "violating the teachings of religion".
KENYA
Homosexual behaviour is banned between men, which is referred to as "carnal knowledge against the order of nature". The penalty is five to 14 years' imprisonment. The age of consent is 16. Lesbian relations are not prohibited by law.
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Corruption, incompetence and other mayhem

2006-11-20T12:49:00.000-08:00

Ongoing mayhem at home affairs
The Democratic Alliance has called for the Public Protector to institute an investigation into "ongoing mayhem" in the department of home affairs. A ceaseless public outcry as regards the department's ineffective and inefficient service delivery has continuously fallen on the minister's deaf ears. The department is one of the most corrupt government departments, with officials committing fraud, extorting money, and aiding and abetting illegal immigrants. All assurances given by Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to combat fraud and corruption had failed dismally. The department is delivering sub-standard service with regard to all the statutory responsibilities entrusted to it. The standard of service delivery is declining at such a rate that the intervention by the Public Protector is necessary.
Unviable rural telecoms
Two years after the government licensed seven consortiums to offer telecommunications services to rural communities, the country has yet to see the benefits. The consortiums were tasked with rolling out cellular network services and internet to areas with a teledensity of less than 5 percent. The seven underserviced area licensees (Usals) operate in Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Free State. They were given R5 million each to set up the network. A further R10 million each is still pending. A report by research firm BMI-Techknowledge (BMI-T) paints a gloomy picture of what the future looks like for the Usals. The report shows that of the six Usals that participated in the study, three have made a combined R2.4 million in revenue. Two did not disclose revenues and one was not available. It has been more than two years and none of these Usals are close to breaking even. Without intervention from the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa), most may not survive.
Mbeki keeps Oil-for-Food report under wraps
President Thabo Mbeki declined to commit himself to a timeframe for the release of the findings of the Donen commission, which probed the alleged involvement of senior African National Congress (ANC) members in the Iraq oil-for-food scandal. The Donen probe had been concluded and Mbeki received the report on November 6. South African companies and prominent ANC politicians were named in a United Nations (UN) report on kickbacks paid by then Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. A UN Security Council probe implicated eight firms in kickbacks, including Omni Oil, Sandile Majali's Imvume Management, and Montega Trading. Majali allegedly posed as Mbeki's adviser. Mvelaphanda chairman Tokyo Sexwale and ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe were originally among witnesses to give evidence to the commission. Mbeki declined to reveal any details of the Donen report.
Job-hopping black professionals
Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni recently complained in Parliament that the central bank was unable to retain skilled black professionals. When they join the bank, they purchase cars, houses and other expensive items. This whets their appetite for more pay, resulting in them being susceptible to poaching by other companies. A few months down the line, they leave for greener pastures. Higher salaries for skilled black professionals raise demand in the economy with corresponding inflationary pressures. On another occasion, Mboweni introduced another element in his argument: he likes the Afrikaner assistants at the bank. They stay long enough on the job and become experts. Finance Minister Trevor Manuel has also ranted against black accountants. He blasted them for being paid high salaries caused by a shortage of accountancy skills and argued that this was creating a barrier to new entrants.

Affirmative action is an oxymoron

2006-11-19T11:17:00.000-08:00

Swimming in the shallow waters of conformity inevitably brings one ever closer to the perilous shores of mediocrity. And the very last thing any 21st-century nation can afford is to be mediocre. Living in a globalized world where the skills of talented individuals are sold to the highest international corporate bidder, any feel-good romantic notion of enforcing demographic equality in the national workplace is simply foolhardy.

We might all have the same human rights, but that certainly does not automatically imply that we all have the same abilities. And what is even more unfair, is the willful negation of proven quality when it comes to accommodating the lecherous egos of the less gifted and their affirmative action lobbyists.

The body is indeed the prison of the mind as Foucault said, but true quality inevitably shines through: ask Stephen Hawking or Condoleeza Rice. To therefore demand that those who cannot transcend their bodies (racial stereotypes, sociocultural predilections, etc) be given preferential treatment above those who have earned it, is utter nonsense. It is quite noble and civilized to uplift the weak, when you can afford it. But to do so while your competitors only concentrate on promoting their best, borders on evolutionary suicide. Evolution runs on inequality; it will always seek out the fittest, no matter what Oprah would have us believe.

To state that all and sundry are equal in terms of progress is simply false. If we were all equal then why did the Chinese discover paper, the West the atom and the Indians the mathematical concept of '0', while Africans (excluding the ancient Egyptians) were still living in mud huts? To blame the Alpha-civilizations (especially the West) for Africa's evolutionary backwardness is simply unfair. By demanding constant affirmative action for 21-century blacks implies that they cannot look after themselves. In other words, they are not fit enough to pull their own weight, even after more than 5000 years of interaction with more advanced races and their places.

This backwardness characterizing Africa has found a shining example in South Africa. More than one million (a quarter) of all whites, and many qualified black professionals, have left the country over the past 10 years. Why? It's quite elementary: evolutionary and individual human quality has been sacrificed on the altar of African sit-in-the-sun feel-good mediocrity. Same story, different epoch! Mandelatopia is fast becoming yet another African disaster simply because those in power are still unable, or unwilling, to grasp the fact that unique individual human qualities and skills are commensurate with progress. You simply need the best in order to survive! And to be the best, the individual needs to take actions that will separate him/her from the pack. These actions, when successful, will ensure the individual's survival and, eventualy, that of his/her family, culture, nation and civilization.

That existence demands constant proactive actions goes without saying. Time waits for no one and, all being fair and equal, actions taken by an individual and his/her forefathers cannot be nullified just because of the colour of one's skin. If someone has the ability (innate quality) - and opportunity provided by his/her forefathers' actions - why deny them the quality of life that they are rightfully eligible to pursue?

Affirmative action is an oxymoron. Instead of affirming action, this feel-good notion engenders nothing except heap accolades on the inaction underpinning ineptitude. And the affirmation of inaction is the last thing Africans can afford in their quest to assert themselves in a world driven by the solitary actions of unique individuals who, ultimately, mould that part of existence mortals have a say in.
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A can of worms

2006-11-19T10:49:00.000-08:00

Kebble can opens further
Another business associate of slain mining magnate Brett Kebble's pending arrest Down Under, and the ruling party's unanimous support for embattled National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi, added twists to South Africa's high-profile murder mystery. Both Kebble and Selebi had been friends with Agliotti, who now has the media reputation of being known as "The Landlord" in the drug and smuggling world, a divorcee after two wives dumped him for bigamy and a police informer. Agliotti had allegedly approached Kebble's former security man, Clinton Nassif, to assist in an orchestrated assassination that would leave Kebble's family with life insurance payouts as he faced major debts. However, because Kebble apparently tried to escape the scene, it gives credit to a theory that he may have been killed in an illegal diamond-dealing trap. It was known that in his last days Kebble was desperate to get his hands on money and would have done almost anything to make a few million rands to afford his and his family's high lifestyle.
Concept of twins too tough for Home Affairs
Who among us doesn’t understand being driven to irrational behaviour by the Department of Home Affairs — particularly when you’re told to share one ID between you. Mduduzi and Dumisani, who are responsible family men, are identical twins. The have a complicated problem. For the past 12 years they have been living as one person. Every time they applied for new IDs, the Home Affairs Department would issue them with two separate documents — but, apart from their names, the rest of the information was exactly the same, which shouldn’t be the case. It is hard to be a twin while Home Affairs is the shameful circus that it is. It got worse when the supermarket chain that they work for changed its payroll system. In terms of the new system, you get paid on the basis of your ID number. Because the twins share the same ID number, this new system has been nothing but hell for them. One of the twins did not get his salary, while the other twin was paid twice . Numerous visits to the Home Affairs offices did not help. Every time they raised the issue with the bureaucrats, they would get shouted down.
Teachers attacked in front of pupils
Twenty-two terrified Grade Two pupils screamed as they watched two men savagely attack their teachers in their classroom. After assaulting the women, the men grabbed their handbags and ran.

South Africa's Watergate?

2006-11-18T14:41:00.000-08:00

Another dent in police's armour
The arrest of a friend of South Africa's top police officer for murder, signals further embarrassment for the beleaguered law enforcement agency in one of the world's most crime-ridden countries. The Scorpions has arrested businessman Glenn Agliotti for the mafia-style killing of mining tycoon Brett Kebble. Agliotti's friendship with national police Commissioner Jackie Selebi has triggered calls for the top cop's resignation. Selebi said: "I've never denied my relationship with Glenn. Never. I don't know of his alleged criminality. He did not tell me about it." Selebi said. Not only has Selebi been hugely damaged by his ties to Agliotti, long regarded as a key figure in the underworld, but so has President Thabo Mbeki's government, which expressed its confidence in Selebi only last week after reports that he was under the surveillance of the Scorpions. The arrest has opened up the biggest can of legal worms in South Africa's criminal history.
SA’s own JR Ewing
Brett Kebble was described as the JR Ewing of South Africa – an unscrupulous, charismatic businessman who was almost larger than life. Killed on Tuesday, September 27, 2005, the mining magnate left behind him a world of shady dealings and political controversy. He was twice forced to resign as the chief executive of Western Areas mining. In 2000 he was found to have “committed a breach of corporate governance” after a secretive share-buying scheme was exposed. In 2002 Kebble registered JCI on the stock exchange after merging his company with Consolidated African Mines Limited (CAM). At the time he said the Kebbles were “the first to release mines from burdensome management contracts, initiating a period of profound transformation in the South African gold mining industry.” Kebble was found to have donated millions to the ANC’s coffers while simultaneously assisting with the cash-flow of the official opposition, the DA. He said he would “support any political party that upholds patriotic and democratic principles”.
Kebble probe hiccups
The investigation into Brett Kebble’s death has been controversial from the start. Investigators appointed by the Kebble family to assist the police probe were adamant that the crime scene investigation was botched and handled unprofessionally. Late in 2005 the investigators were told by the police that their services were no longerrequired. Clinton Nassif, who provided Kebble’s security, ordered the premature removal of Kebble’s car from police custody late in 2005, before forensic investigators had had a look at the vehicle. He got away with it. In August 2006 a homeless man claimed to have seen the Kebble killing take place. In October Nassif was arrested for alleged insurance fraud. This arrest flowed from wider Scorpions investigations into smuggling rings in which Nassif and Glenn Agliotti were believed to be involved.
O’Sullivan breaks down
Former Airports Company SA security chief Paul O’Sullivan - the author of a dossier alleging the involvement of senior police officials in a criminal organisation - described attempts on his life and the effects of a "character assassination". Gunmen has twice fired at his car, he’s had to send his wife away to protect her from harm and can’t spend holidays with his children. He’d also lost his job. It all began after he terminated an airport security contract, back in 2001, only to find the company had influential friends and contacts. He was then harassed, sacked from his job and his life threatened. He reported this to government agencies like the Independent Complaints Directorate and the courts. He has also embarked on numerous actions and court cases in the intervening years in an attempt to fight his dismissal from Acsa and to "combat the conspiracy against me", but says he has been left penniless and without justice.

Living in cloud cuckoo land

2006-11-18T13:32:00.000-08:00

Soweto wants to lure the white rand
Developers involved in a massive multi-use development in Soweto, want to draw the "white rand" to South Africa's most famous township. A consortium of Soweto business people are looking to attract black and white non-Soweto residents to a development which centres on the old Orlando power station. To this end, they are negotiationg with local taxi associations to provide park-and-ride transport to outsiders. The idea is that visitors to Orlando Ekhaya would park at the Nasrec showgrounds, south of the Johannesburg CBD, and be transported from there to the development. They want "traditional" white people to get over their fear of Soweto. Once they get used to coming to the place, then they will drive in themselves. Yeah right...
Manto bounces back
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who is yet to return to her post six weeks after succumbing to an ill-defined lung infection, has moved to reclaim her mantle as leader of government’s efforts to fight HIV/AIDS. In her absence, Deputy Health Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge has praised AIDS activist Zackie Achmat, who repeatedly clashed with the minister, and has spoken out strongly on government’s failings on the HIV/AIDS front. Tshabalala-Msimang said she had often been misunderstood and dismissed criticisms as a conspiracy. “A group of fellow South Africans teamed up with their partners at the occasion of the AIDS Conference in Toronto … to portray us as uncaring and indifferent to the plight of its own electorate — the very people who reaffirmed their confidence in the ANC by giving a close to 70% majority in the general election.”
The exodus continues
South Africa's communications regulator, Icasa, has had a spate of high profile departures. More are imminent - at a time when Icasa is shouldering the burden of implementing SA's new Electronic Communications Act (ECA). Disgruntled senior managers overlooked for councillor positions are also on their way out. Deputy Communications Minister Roy Padayachie is lobbying National Treasury to boost funding for Icasa. As long as there's a shortage of specialised skills, any increase in funding won't solve Icasa's woes. The blame lies with Icasa head Paris Mashile's managerial incompetence.
Jobs for arms fall short
THE offset programme of the strategic defence procurement package is expected to deliver only a quarter of the direct and indirect jobs promised by cabinet ministers at the time the controversial R30bn arms contracts were signed six years ago. A government official has made the first admission that arms contractors were likely to create only 2000-3000 direct jobs via offset investments by 2011, and not the 12000 promised at the time by then trade and industry minister Alec Erwin. Trade and industry chief director Sipho Zikode said Erwin, who is now public enterprises minister, was probably referring to the entire national industrial participation programme and not just its defence component. This was clearly not the understanding Erwin and other cabinet ministers gave at the time they were trying to sell the controversial arms deal to a sceptical public.
High-ranking ANC members get treated better
Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour's assurance in the National Assembly that disgraced former ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni was not receiving special treatment, has been met with scepticism. Until the day before his controversial weekend release last week, he was a category B prisoner, and thus not entitled to such privileges. The morning before his weekend pass, Yengeni was reclassified as a category A prisoner - only two and a half months after he reported to jail. Yengeni was sentenced to four years imprisonment. He will effectively serve just over four months. Despite Balfour's insistence that Yengeni was being treated like any other prisoner, he is receiving five-star treatment. He was transferred to Malmesbury Prison and given a hospital cell when inmates with serious complaints are on the waiting list for beds.

Disturbing news

2006-11-18T07:55:00.000-08:00

South Africa Christians deeply disturbed by homosexual law
South Africa became the first African nation and the world's fifth country to pass a law legalizing gay marriages. Millions of devoted Christians remain angry or in a state of shock, with some calling the move "an act of satanism." The Civil Union Bill gives homosexual couples the right to register their unions with the same state recognition as those of heterosexuals. Christian leaders, some of them working in prostitution-ridden areas, said that although the law has been passed, the debate is not over yet as churches here and around the world are praying for South Africa’s future. Until 2005 homosexuality activity was banned in traditionally conservative South Africa under the 'law against sodomy'. Sexual relationships between people of the same sex was often described as a "dreadful sin" by both Christians and non-Christians. In tribal African communities, it was a reason for expulsion.
Crazy man gets crazy sentence
The five-year jail sentence meted out to 22-year-old Kabelo Thibedi, who held a Home Affairs official hostage out of frustration over not receiving his identity document for years, is ridiculous and proves the country’s justice system is crazy. This is according to Young Communist League of South Africa national secretary Buti Manamela. "Thibedi had no intention of hurting anyone, he used a toy gun and he was frustrated for not getting his ID. We believe he should have not been sentenced to anything at all. The guilty ones are lazy Home Affairs workers who get off scot-free – they must go to jail,” said Manamela.
Goniwe told to extend sick leave
Mbulelo Goniwe, the ANC chief whip, has effectively been stripped of his powers in a move tantamount to suspension, pending the outcome of his disciplinary hearing. Goniwe, who is facing an ANC disciplinary inquiry for alleged sexual harassment, went on sick leave last week. The party's national disciplinary committee (NDC) said there was a strong prima facie case which warranted a disciplinary hearing against Goniwe. The action against Goniwe has been pushed by the ANC's women's caucus in parliament and backed by the party's Women's League, who "have had it" following the latest allegations of this nature against Goniwe. The matter is also due for discussion in the ANC's last parliamentary caucus for the year. Some male ANC MPs have taken offence to accusations that they had intimidated the complainant.
Foster families struggling to get grants
Zola Skweyiya, the social development minister, has called for citizens to open their homes to vulnerable children. In the Eastern Cape, families and care centres that look after these children often end up in court trying to get their grants. The Child Care Act provides for financial support to those who take vulnerable children into their homes. There is still a huge amount of stubbornness on behalf of the department to recognise the volume of the problem. The department says that it is succeeding in fighting the litigations. “We are fighting these litigations and we can say that we are succeeding,” said Phumlani Mdolomba, the spokesperson for the provincial social development department. Last year, 11 000 people took the department to court and it has yet to win a case. R25 million was awarded against the department in its court battles over welfare grants.

Get out of jail free

2006-11-17T11:43:00.000-08:00

Escapism to keep prisoners in jail for Christmas
The Department of Correctional Services plans to keep prisoners from escaping over the festive season by involving them in so-called "offender escapism". Operation Vala (Zulu for "tightening") will channel inmates' attention towards recreational and sporting activities, according to Luphumzo Kebeni, national spokesperson for the department. "There is a conception, a misconception, that there is a lull in correctional services in the festive season," Kebeni said. He conceded that lax and corrupt personnel are often to blame for escapes.

Explaining the link between recreation and prison breaks, Kebeni said: "If you don't escalate and encourage issues of recreation, they will just sit and do nothing and obviously think of criminal things, including escaping." The plan to keep inmates occupied will comprise a range of indoor sporting and recreational activities, including volleyball, cricket, soccer, table tennis, chess and boxing. The department intends to limit outdoor activities, as these could influence inmates' thoughts of escaping.

No one bothered to get our side of our story
Tony Yengeni's wife, Lumka, defended her husband, saying he was not an hour late after his weekend parole and had not drunk alcohol despite photographs showing a beer bottle in his hand. She said: "Everyone who knows Tony will know that he does not drink beer. What does the bottle of alcohol in one's hand, in one's yard, where there were so many people drinking, say? I could have had that bottle in my hand - were you going to say I was drinking? It could have been a (different story) if that bottle was moving towards his mouth."

Yengeni loses some privileges
Former ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni has had his prison privileges curbed pending an investigation into allegations that he breached his weekend parole conditions. Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour said he had taken serious note of the allegations of the violation of the weekend parole conditions by "offender Tony Yengeni". Yengeni would forfeit all privileges related to visits by his family and close associates for two weeks. He also would forfeit the privilege of using the phone to communicate with family, friends and colleagues for the same period.

Yengeni, Schaik in safe cells
Fraudsters Tony Yengeni and Schabir Shaik are languishing in hospital cells. Former African National Congress chief Whip Yengeni is prone to hay fever and that, apparently, is why he is being kept in a hospital cell at Malmesbury Prison. Businessman Schabir Shaik, former financial advisor to ex-deputy president Jacob Zuma, is in a hospital cell at Qalakabusha Correctional Centre in Empangeni because he has high blood pressure. Correctional services spokesperson Manelisi Wolela said neither Yengeni nor Shaik was receiving preferential treatment in prison.

Former convict Gayton McKenzie claimed that correctional services often placed wealthy prisoners in hospital cells because there was less chance of them being robbed or raped. Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour denied that Yengeni was being given special treatment. He said: "We try to rectify offending behaviour. We will do the same with him."

Conviction rate only 30%
Only 30 per cent of criminals arrested for armed robbery in Uitenhage over the past year have been successfully convicted. An armed gang robbed at least 12 businesses in central Uitenhage over six weeks in June and July this year. Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said 256 armed robberies had been reported in the Uitenhage area between April 1, 2005, and March 31 this year. The police had arrested 76 individuals connected to the robberies, but only 23 of those, or 30%, had been successfully convicted. The figures clearly showed that the police simply did not have the capacity to address the problem.

There is clearly a lack of manpower in the police. Businesses are being forced to turn to private security companies, at their own expense, to protect their premises. It is not just the police. The whole justice system is clogged up. The courts simply cannot handle the case load and, even if a person is convicted, the chances of his being released early are significant because the prisons are overcrowded.

ANC does what it wants, when it likes

2006-11-17T11:29:00.000-08:00

The ruling African National Congress (ANC) has an "amazing self-belief" that because it demands a majority among the electorate, it has a divine right to do "what it wants, when it likes", official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Tony Leon charged.

The ANC believes it can deploy whomever it likes to do any job it deems appropriate for that person -- regardless of his or her suitability for office. It is time for President Thabo Mbeki to break his wall of silence on a range of controversies.

In 12 years the ANC and the government has never been "so defensive about so many issues simultaneously".

There is [former ANC chief whip] Tony Yengeni, not satisfied with having been convicted of defrauding Parliament and who has now apparently breached his parole conditions.

National Commissioner Jackie Selebi is embroiled in a cloud of controversy over his relations with underworld figures, including Glen Agliotti who arrested on charges of murdering Brett Kebble.

The doleful roll call continues. ANC chief whip Mbulelo Goniwe stands accused of sexual harassment amongst a slew of other allegations; Linda Mti, the commissioner of prisons, was forced to resign after being arrested for drunk driving and following allegations surrounding the illegal awarding of tenders to companies with which he was allegedly associated.

Much of this is carried out in the name of racial transformation, which instead of being used as a tool of redress has simply become a blunt instrument in the hands of the ANC to perpetuate its power and place its cronies atop every nook and cranny of public -- and increasingly private -- life in South Africa.

Mbeki is at the centre of many of these crises "although he generally refuses directly, or actively, to engage with them".

Mbeki handpicked every director general in every government department and certainly the police commissioner and the ANC's chief whips. We have already seen one fall disastrously from grace -- all the way to a prison cell -- while the current incumbent seems destined for a well-earned tumble too.

Tthe Goniwes of this world hold sway in the ANC for the simple reason that South African voters do not punish the governing party for the corruption, for the rampant crime affecting every household in this country, for the cronyism and the back-scraping and the baantjies vir boeties [cronyism] which constitutes the tender processes in many government departments.

Thabo Mbeki deserves a profound amount of blame for converting government into a virtual ethics-free zone. It is time for the president to break his wall of silence and to stop backing his political allies no matter in how much serious trouble they land themselves.

Leon noted that it was under Goniwe's "malign influence" that Parliament took the extraordinary decision to censure DA chief whip Douglas Gibson -- the only MP to be thus arraigned in the 12-year history of the democratic Parliament. "Why? For effectively standing on the pavement outside the president's house asking legitimate questions about how much the taxpayer may be contributing to the cost of the project," he concluded.
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The plot thickes

2006-11-17T10:39:00.000-08:00

This story is starting to read like a cheap crime novel. There's no telling what sort of outrageous thing will happen next.

Where is Kebble's killer?
A former Hell's Angels biker who, it is believed, killed mining magnate Brett Kebble last October, has vanished. A Johannesburg police commissioner has been arrested in connection with Glenn Agliotti, the businessman arrested in connection with the murder. Police and Scorpions investigators had arranged to meet Kebble's alleged killer after he had made a statement, but he had failed to turn up. The disappearance of the man -- a prominent bouncer in Gauteng -- follows confirmation by police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi that the alleged gunman was one of four men who had struck a deal with the Scorpions.

Another is security-company owner Clinton Nassif who got police to release Kebble's vehicle before proper forensic tests had been done. Selebi said that police had planned to arrest the four for Kebble's murder but found that the Scorpions had already arrested them -- and granted them immunity. Selebi had been kept in the dark about Agliotti's arrest by the Scorpions and was informed of it three hours after it had happened.

He's my friend, finish and klaar
Calls are mounting for police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi's suspension in the wake of crime boss Glenn Agliotti's arrest in connection with the Brett Kebble murder. The the fact that the Scorpions effected an arrest while the police had been investigating the matter for more than a year proved that the Scorpions had far better investigative skills and abilities than the police. Placing the Scorpions under the police national commissioner would hamper the effectiveness of the Scorpions.

The relationship between Selebi and a man accused of murder raises serious questions. Selebi was recently quoted as saying of his relationship with Agliotti: "[He's] my friend, finish and klaar." The controversy around Selebi was to be discussed at the African National Congress's (ANC) national executive committee meeting. The ANC earlier expressed support for Selebi, but indicated it could review its position.

The man who compiled a dossier painting a picture of a criminal organisation involving senior police officials, including Selebi, said he felt vindicated. "You should resign now, finished and klaar," Paul O'Sullivan said about Selebi. The fact that Selebi had a relationship with Agliotti was enough reason for him to resign.

Agliotti arrest shows Selebi in a good light
The arrest of businessman Glen Agliotti clearly shows police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi "in a good light", Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Johnny de Lange said. He and his principal, Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla, denied that the breakthrough in the Brett Kebble murder case "put a cloud" over the national commissioner.

The Scorpions has raided premises belonging to Agliotti, whom they have identified as "the Landlord", a kingpin in a major drugs and contraband cigarette syndicate. The raid has placed Palto, a murky security company that freelanced for the police, in the spotlight.

Catching up with old friends

2006-11-17T10:03:00.000-08:00

Some news from ministries that seldomly make it onto this blog. It's not so much that they don't screw up, it's more a case of not doing anything.
On hold, not felled
The Forest Sector Transformation Charter, initially scheduled for implementation in December last year, has been put on hold until February or March next year. The Charter aims to achieve broad-based black economic-empowerment (BEE) in the forestry sector. “Forestry is a complicated industry and Water Affairs and Forestry Minister Lindiwe Hendricks wants to be satisfied with certain aspects of the Charter before it is launched and implemented,” says Department of Water Affairs and Forestry spokesperson Themba Khumalo. Hendricks’s core priority is to facilitate the entry of women into the sector and to make sure that they are well represented in the industry. And that is why the Charter had to be put on hold.
SA seeks to exploit geography
Geography has become a fundamental factor in South Africa’s science policy. “We have a philosophy – we should look at our geographical advantages: we have to look at what we are strong at, what we can give the world,” says Science and Technology Minister Mosibudi Mangena. Today, cutting-edge science is usually big science, big science is very expensive, and the country’s ability to fund such science on its own is very limited – hence, the need to attract overseas research agencies and funders. “We realised that we were a strong environment for astronomy, both optical and radio – in the Karoo we have very clear skies and very little radio interference; hence, the Southern African Large Telescope and the Karoo Array Telescope (Kat) project,” he cites.
In other words, SA has lots of nothing. What other things does it have to offer big science?

Living in South Africa is bad for your health

2006-11-17T01:28:00.000-08:00

Hospital treated me like a dog
Buoyed by Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang’s call to the public to use state hospitals, Mmapula Thoane went to Coronation for a check-up. She said the nurses who attended to her were discourteous, insolent and sarcastic. They said they were busy but were merely chatting. She said that “patients, mostly black, desperate and poor, are treated like downtrodden dogs.” Patients said they were always treated badly. The staff are mostly coloured and racist – coloured patients all came out of the consultation room smiling.
800 people die every day of HIV/Aids
In the past, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang had stressed the importance of good nutrition, including beetroot and garlic, rather than anti-retroviral drugs. The Department of Health says a five-year strategic HIV/Aids plan which will be unveiled on World Aids Day on 1 December. Lobbyists from the Treatment Action Campaign and other civil society groups have been working more closely with the government since the health minister was - in effect - sidelined. But there are still huge challenges to address. An estimated 800 people die every day as a result of HIV/Aids. There are approximately 1,400 daily new infections, and a critical shortage of health workers.
Medication could be fatal
6,000 HIV-positive people had died while receiving antiretroviral (ARV) drugs since the government rollout began in 2004. The factors encouraging the deaths are all too real. These could be anything from fear of stigma and discrimination from both family and community to confusing information about the benefits of ARVs, as publicly expressed by the Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang herself. Scores of people who still turn down or prematurely quit ARV therapy because they are too afraid of the exaggerated side effects. Some side effects of ARV medication could be fatal, such as cases of lactic acidosis (a condition caused by the buildup of lactic acid in the body) in patients using Stavudine which is included in South Africa's free programme. Patients are also reporting to treatment sites when they were already in the advanced stage of infection.
Controversial prof resigns

Controversial University of Cape Town (UCT) Professor Girish Kotwal has resigned following an investigation into his ties with an untested “anti-HIV” remedy. Kotwal is chief of medical virology at UCT’s Institute of Infectious Diseases and Molecular Medicine. An investigation by the internationally renowned “Nature Medicine” magazine earlier this year exposed Kotwal’s role in a concoction called Secomet V, which its Stellenbosch-based manufacturer claimed lowered HIV positive patients’ viral loads. Secomet V (marketed as “Ithemba Lesizwe” or hope of the nation) has never been tested in clinical trials, only in Kotwal’s university laboratory. University laboratories are run according to strict protocols, but in Kotwal’s case there were breaches in those protocols. Kotwal’s laboratory had been closed and decontaminated. There had been an absence of certain appropriate procedures, records and laboratory disciplines. In an earlier statement, which was later withdrawn, the university said that no researcher, student or staff had been exposed to “hazardous material”. The new statement omitted this and said that nobody was “actually harmed or injured in the laboratory”.

Red wine and steak

2006-11-16T05:36:00.000-08:00

A glass of red wine traditionally goes well with a steak, so at the behest of a top Japanese chef an Australian company is adding wine to beef – while it is still on the hoof.

Each animal gets about a litre of a fruity cabernet shiraz merlot mixed in with its feed each day for 60 days. They followed the example of the Japanese producers of famed Wagyu beef, who pamper their cattle with beer, massages and music.

The antioxidant properties associated with red wine appear to have an effect on the meat's colour and shelf life, and the meat also tastes sweeter.

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Too corrupt for us

2006-11-16T02:04:00.000-08:00

Russians call off big SA trade meeting
The Russian government has called off a big meeting with the South African government, which had been scheduled for Pretoria later this month. The initiative came from Moscow for cancellation of the Intergovernmental Committee on Trade and Economic Cooperation (ITEC). This is the high-level group which meets annually, and is chaired by Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Russian Minister of Natural Resources, Yury Trutnev. Russian investment in manganese mining in South Africa has been one of the ITEC topics at sessions over the past two years. The Kremlin has turned negative towards the role of Russian businessmen trying to further their business in southern Africa by positioning themselves between the governments in the two places. This concern was one of the reasons for the last-minute cancellation of Putin's planned visit to Angola. There was a trade of political favours and mining licences in South Africa by Victor Vekselberg, the Russian metals and oil magnate.
Mbeki vows action on Iraq oil scandal
South Africa has completed an inquiry into alleged involvement of its companies in a $1.8 billion Iraq oil-for-food scandal and any breaches of the law will be dealt with by authorities, President Thabo Mbeki said. A United Nations report linked some 2,200 companies worldwide to a web of illegal payments to former President Saddam Hussein's regime. The U.N report, released in October 2005, also suggested Saddam's government may have tried to influence politicians in several major countries by giving them favours in a bid to get U.N. sanctions lifted. South African entities mentioned in the report include private company Imvume and Mocoh Services South Africa, which was linked to holding firm Mvelaphanda Group Ltd. Mbeki would not be drawn on what action his government was likely to take against any senior officials of his ruling African National Congress (ANC) implicated in the report of his own commission.
Varsity computers used for porn
A 394-page forensic audit report into the affairs of the Durban University of Technology (DUT) has revealed that there are "widespread and endemic" irregularities. DUT administrator Jonathan Jansen said that the forensic audit "made substantial findings of potentially corrupt, fraudulent and irregular activities". One of the irregularities discovered was the use of the unitech's computers for the mass mailing of pornographic material. Jansen, dean of the faculty of education of the University of Pretoria, was appointed as administrator of the unitech by education minister Naledi Pandor after a report released by independent assessor Professor Chadani Manganyi. Exactly how much DUT had lost as a result of "irregular conduct" was not known.
SAA executives in illegal share deal
South African Airways (SAA) have contravened a number of statutes during the tenure of former CEO André Viljoen, over and above failing to follow proper procedures in the sale of the company’s shares to its executive directors, a report co-authored by corporate governance doyen Mervin King says. The report followed an investigation instituted by Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa on the “affairs of SAA since its incorporation as a company in December 1997”. At the centre of the report was the investigation of the incentive shares that were sold to the airline’s top management and to pilots. 13 former SAA executives illegally benefited from the sale of 27-million shares that were held under the SAA Employee Share Trust. Viljoen and his management team assumed the duties of the trustees, acting contrary to the provisions of the Trust Properties Control Act. Management took control of the trust because the first three official trustees — Bheki Sibiya, Sango Ntasluba and Gloria Serobe — were found to be “inactive and never met”.
Zim no threat to world peace
Zimbabwe had never been on the United Nations security council agenda because it had never made a determination that it constituted a threat to international peace and security, said President Thabo Mbeki. Democratic Alliance MP Sheila Camerer asked how South Africa would use its non-permanent seat to "ameliorate" the situation in Zimbabwe. Mbeki said: "The security council has never put Zimbabwe on its agenda." He said he didn't know if the council would change this position in the future.

Outlaw and disorder part 3

2006-11-16T01:31:00.000-08:00

Error of judgment
The error contained in the Supreme Court of Appeal’s (SCA’s) judgment in the civil asset forfeiture case that arose from Schabir Shaik’s corruption and fraud convictions could not have come at a worse time for the South African judiciary. There is mounting pressure for the racial makeup of the judiciary to reflect that of the population, and for the courts to pass judgments that are sensitive to the country’s fraught political history. Government reluctantly backed off after a concerted effort to push through amendments to the laws governing the courts that were ostensibly intended to improve the efficiency of the system. Eminent jurists feared they would in fact impinge on the independence of the judiciary. Transformation of the courts remains high on the national agenda, however, and the SCA’s error in repeating the media’s mistaken attribution of the phrase “a generally corrupt relationship” to Judge Hilary Squires will play into the hands of those who believe they might gain by limiting checks and balances on political power.
Yengeni's jaunt could cost him
Parliament has vowed to hold both the parole board and prison officials to account if disgraced African National Congress (ANC) heavyweight Tony Yengeni's alleged parole violations are not properly investigated. Yengeni enjoyed a two-day parole, but he was more than an hour late for his return to Malmesbury Prison, and also consumed alcohol while on parole, which is forbidden. Yengeni's weekend parole caused an outcry from opposition parties, and Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour expressed "disappointment and unhappiness" with his behaviour. Yengeni's jaunt could be very costly for him, as the Correctional Services Act treats a late return from parole as "absconding", and if the inmate is found guilty, provides for a prison sentence of up to 10 years for the offence.
Mti blames it on the media
Outgoing Correctional Services Commissioner Linda Mti portrayed himself as the victim of a media smear even though police have confirmed that he was arrested for drunken driving. Mti said the media had twisted the incident that took place in Johannesburg earlier this month. He was reported to have been involved in a car accident while under the influence of alcohol, to have refused to co-operate with police and to have used the status of his office. Johannesburg police confirmed Mti's arrest for drunken driving and said that he would appear in court in January next year. Mti blamed the media for distorting the accident "as if I'm an irresponsible commissioner". He intimated that he was sober.
SA's new murder capital
Nyanga may have the official tag of murder capital of South Africa, but more murders have been reported in Khayelitsha in the past year. The sprawling township's three police stations had 410 reported murders from April last year to March. According to crime statistics released by Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula, the Khayelitsha police station recorded 219 murders and Nyanga 284. Khayelitsha has two sister police stations, Harare and Lingelethu West, which were built two years ago. Before the new stations were opened, the Khayelitsha police station had 358 reported murders in 2003/04. In 2002/03 it recorded 528 murders. Shack congestion made effective policing, including vehicle patrols, difficult and was one of the main factors contributing to rampant crime in this area.
'Former soldiers' wait for Lekota
About 1300 men who claim to be former soldiers remain camped in the bush for the third week near Mandeni, northern KwaZulu-Natal, in protest against not being integrated into the South African National Defence Force (SANDF). The deputy president of the South African Uninterrupted Forces, Zenzele Sishi, said the men, who are in tents, would march through Mandeni. "We've got roots here now. We will not move until (Defence) Minister (Mosiuoa) Lekota comes here to address issues we raised in our letter to him and we are integrated into the SANDF," Sishi said. Lekota's spokesman, Sam Mkhwanazi, said he was not aware of any meeting that had been planned. The men claim to be former soldiers of the Inkatha Freedom Party's (IFP's) Self-Protection Unit, the Pan Africanist Congress-aligned People's Liberation Army, as well as the African National Congress's (ANC's) former military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe. The integration process of all former military forces in SA has been over since 1999. The Termination of Integration and Intake Bill was passed in 2000, bringing to the end an almost 10-year process. Part of Sishi's group has allegedly been planning to cross the border to Mozambique to go for underground military training.
SA youths risk death on ultimate thrill ride
For the youths of Soweto the desire to seek out the ultimate thrill is all too often overwhelming. The death of four youngsters in the last three weeks has failed to deter their friends from practising as stuntmen on the top of locomotives hurtling towards the centre of the City of Gold. Some of the daredevils limbo-dance under bridges while others do "the gravel", which involves dragging their heels along the ground from a moving train. Another popular trick is to "staff ride" by jumping off one of the front carriages and leaping back on another a few seconds later. The consequences of failure frequently end in death, whether by slamming into a 3 000-volt electricity cable or landing badly after jumping. "It is way out of hand. The problem is too big to handle now. It is stupidity on the side of the kids," says Johannesburg Emergency Services chief superintendent Malcolm Midgely.

Unbiased and unhinged

2006-11-15T01:37:00.000-08:00

Manuel cautions on race bias
When awarding tenders for government projects it was important not only to look at the issues of race and gender representivity, but also at the tender specifications. Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said that one of the worst things he had seen was a road that was built where the contractors had met the gender and race specifications but had not met the specification of being able to construct the road. The road disappeared within two years. While the minister did not indicate where the road had been, he said the disappearance of the road was not in the interests of the inhabitants of the area who used the road.
Anger at gay marriage law
South Africa's parliament overwhelmingly approved a bill to make the nation the first on the continent to legalise gay marriage. The bill was pushed through the National Assembly by the ruling African National Congress amid protests by religious groups and opposition parties in a region where homosexuality remains largely taboo. South Africa will accord homosexual couples over the age of 18 the same rights as their heterosexual counterparts.
MTN boss quits over Post Office scandal
Maanda Manyatshe quit as MD of cellphone company MTN yesterday over a scandal involving allegations that he approved a tender without following proper procedures during his tenure as CE of the South African Post Office. Manyatshe's resignation, ostensibly to "clear his name", raises the stakes with his former employer and is likely to increase tensions with his successor at the Post Office, Khutso Mampeule. This latest twist also throws the spotlight on to how this matter is being handled by Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri. The damage to the Post Office's reputation could be immense. Mampeule has laid a criminal complaint against Manyatshe and others over a controversial tender to design a "new image" for the Post Office. Although the accusations against Manyatshe relate to the time before he arrived at MTN, the cellphone company's shares climbed 3,1% on the JSE.
Murder accused sent on peacekeeping duties
South African National Defence Force authorities are struggling to clarify how a soldier accused of murder, was sent to Burundi as a peacekeeper. Toolo was part of an anti-stock-theft operation between police and the SANDF in rural KwaZulu-Natal at the time of the killing. After an angry crowd confronted Toolo and his colleague and removed the allegedly stolen cattle that they had recovered, the state claims that Toolo - armed with his state-issue R4 rifle - shot a retreating man in the back. The SANDF was not in a position to explain how Toolo was deployed to Burundi while out on bail for murder, which prevented the case against him from proceeding, or to clarify when and if he was repatriated back to South Africa.
Forefathers said he would not make an aircraft accident
An airforce student pilot, who failed various tests since 2003 but was allowed to continue with his training, has finally been declared unfit by a Zimbabwean flying instructor. The student, 2nd Lt Wandile Mphaka, had his flying career cut short after he twice failed to carry out instructions during flight. If the instructor did not take action, they would certainly have flown into the ground. Mphaka wrote off a training aircraft in 2004 when he extended the airbrake after he was to take-off immediately after a landing. He had already failed repeated exams, while higher authority decided that he would benefit from further training. The instructors were later accused of racism by the Minister of Defence, Mr Mosiuoa Lekota. They were asked to walk 'the extra mile' with the previously disadvantaged students. After this, six senior Zimbabwean instructors were brought to the flying school in an exchange program. Mphaka believed that his forefathers indicated that he would not die in a plane crash and consequently he did not need to come to his instructors.
Jewish weekly slaps ban on Kasrils
South African Minister of Intelligence, Ronnie Kasrils has been refused a right of reply to criticism of his anti-Israel stance by a local Jewish paper. In defence of its decision to slap a ban on Kasrils’ response to an attack on his well known position of solidarity with Palestinian victims of Israeli policies, the Jewish Report editorial claims that “some of his statements were so offensive to the sensibilities of the majority of our readers that they would not contribute to constructive debate, but would simply give deep offence”. The so-called “offensive” statements refer to “comparing Israel with the Nazis” and “other comments in that vein”, according to the editor.

Stick to beer

2006-11-14T06:25:00.000-08:00

Beer will flow as usual over the festive season while the supply of certain fizzy soft drinks could be affected by a carbon dioxide shortage. SA Breweries' is self reliant when it came to supplies of the crucial gas. Beer production is normal and is not affected.

South Africa faces the shortages due to production problems experienced by the major CO₂ supplier. Production was being focused on core brands -- Coca-Cola, Fanta and Sprite -- and to ensure some sizes were available. Less popular drinks -- such as Fanta Pine, Fanta Grape, Sprite Zero and TAB -- will be in short supply.
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Liberation before education part 5

2006-11-14T05:55:00.000-08:00

More than bullying
Teachers warn that schoolyard crime is contributing to the decline in education standards, also blamed on staff shortages, an HIV/Aids epidemic that has struck down many teachers, overcrowded classrooms and a lack of textbooks. There has been a spate of fatal school stabbings where teenage pupils were both the perpetrators and victims. South African Education Minister Naledi Pandor reminded headmasters of their search-and-seize powers for weapons and illegal drugs and said she was considering random drug testing of pupils. Pandor's department propose installing metal detectors, X-ray machines, and security cameras in schools. The poor quality of public education will threaten future growth if not corrected. Government has been accused of neglecting public schools, especially in poor townships and rural areas. Police reports indicate that unruly behaviour and sexual violence plague both under-resourced schools and elite private schools.
Gauteng school in shambles
No formal education is taking place at the Mokonyama Primary school in Hammanskraal. Only three teachers are visible at the dilapidated school. They seem oblivious to the 1 300 children swinging on trees and hanging out the broken windows. Children play around unsupervised. Some amuse themselves playing games in the rented pit toilets, from which filthy water is leaking into the playground. There is only one tap available, which the children use to make puddles of mud in which to play. The stuffy corridors reek. In one of the classrooms, Siyanda Mashaba, 12, was lying across some chairs, covered in flies, unattended by teachers. She had a sore throat and was crying, but nobody came to her aid. The tiny classrooms do not have windows, tables, chalkboards or even basic stationery. The wooden floors and ceilings are pockmarked. Electric wires dangling from the ceilings are used as swings by the younger children. Most classrooms do not have doors. Where there are doors, there are no handles. Squatters from around the area regularly break into the school. They have destroyed everything; there is nothing left for the children.
Cape pupils underperfoming
Pupils in Grades 1-9 in the Western Cape have been achieving below what is expected for the curriculum. That's according to the annual report that Education MEC Cameron Dugmore presented to the Special Committee on Public Accounts. Learner achievement in the Western Cape is below what is expected in Grades 1-9. These pupils have also been underperforming when compared with other developing countries. Only 38 percent of learners are achieving the reading and numeracy outcomes expected in Grade 3. The vast majority of learners are still achieving two or three years below expectation.
KZN pupils lack basic knowledge
Sixty-eight percent of grade six pupils in KwaZulu-Natal cannot read, write and count properly. This is in line with the national figure of 63 percent revealed by a study compiled by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). More than half of KwaZulu-Natal's grade six pupils were not achieving the required levels in their grades due to socio-economic status, geographical location of schools and home languages. One of the major reasons is the failure to teach young children in their mother tongues at school. Those pupils whose home language was the same as the language in which they were taught obtained significantly higher scores than those who were not taught in the language used at home. It will have a detrimental affect on the learning abilities of pupils when they reach high school.

Rejection of merit and lowering of standards

2006-11-14T00:29:00.000-08:00

We are obliged to adhere to affirmative action
The top students undergoing flight training at the SA Air Force who are white would not be trained as fighter pilots because they had to make way for black students. "We have no other choice. "We are obliged to adhere to government's policy of affirmative action," said Lieutenant General Carlo Gagiano, Chief of the Air Force. They will now have to choose between helicopter and transport plane flying. The Air Force has now proven that the aspirations, ideals and hard work of these young people are being destroyed because as a result of their race. Their rejection for training on the Hawk fighter jets, just because they are white, makes a mockery of Lekota. His assurances that whites would not be discriminated against in the defence force had now been proved wrong. The continuous rejection of merit and lowering of standards will cause flying accidents which will not only cause loss of life but will also be wasting taxpayers' money,
Red tape affecting civil service
Bureaucracy strongly frustrates most senior government managers, pushing them to the brink of leaving the public service. The capacity of departments is coming under ever increasing strain as the workload increases from year to year. Vacancy levels across all ranks are unacceptably high, and are rising over time. Directors-general are frustrated by frictional relations with ministers or political executives. The relationship between the political and administrative heads of department is fraught with ambiguity, and subject to divergent interpretations as it is governed by different pieces of legislation. There appears to be no clear mechanism for intervening in disputes between them.
Making it BIG
Just as we thought government had utterly rejected the idea of a basic income grant (BIG), Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya puts it right back on the table. Even though SA is running a balanced budget and might be able to afford the grant now, once introduced we would be stuck with it, in upturns and downturns. SA already has the largest non-contributory social security system in the world. Pensions, disability, foster care and child support grants already reach nearly a quarter of SA’s population and cost 3,4% of SA’s gross domestic product. Social security is the second-largest item in the national budget, behind education. We spend as much on grants as we do on police, prisons, justice and defence combined. So should we spend more and create a culture of dependency?
Bringing new dimensions to denial
President Thabo Mbeki had declined to investigate the links police chief Jackie Selebi have with organised crime. The government, apparently, doesn’t launch commissions of inquiry into rumours. Mbeki brings new dimensions to denial. There’s AIDS (for which poor Dr Beetroot has had now to take a fall), Zimbabwe (on which he has been spectacularly defeated by Robert Mugabe), and now crime (it’s just another “challenge”) and the police chief who I suspect he fears. Selebi can’t be touched because he could influence the outcome of the ANC presidential succession if aroused. Even Manto has to be treated with kid gloves. She knows too much. Her husband, Mendi, is the treasurer of the ANC and knows where all the money comes from. Mbeki’s battles are all inside his party and they will absorb him until he leaves office in 2009. Looking for a leader? Forget about it.
Beetroot gets the boot
The regime's more vigorous approach to HIV/AIDS has been hailed as a "sea change", with Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and Deputy Health Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge as the new captains. Madlala-Routledge acknowledges that there is a new energy in government to address HIV/AIDS and that the catalyst for this was the international AIDS conference in Toronto in August. At the conference, South Africa was written off as the lunatic fringe by Stephen Lewis, the United Nations Special Envoy on AIDS. This was after the health ministry put up what resembled a vegetable stall, and the health minister punted beetroot and garlic as AIDS treatments.
Keeping a low profile in the murder capital of SA
The police chief tasked with sorting out rampant crime in Nyanga - which boasts the country's highest murder rate - has had a low profile since he took office in September. In fact station commander Kenneth Mkhize has not been at his office since early October, and Director Hendrik Burger was appointed acting station commander. Mkhize is apparently on sick leave. Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula identified the Nyanga policing area as the country's murder capital. There were 284 reported murders in Nyanga in the past year. Mkhize was appointed to turn the station around and give direction on strategic crime prevention.
Balfour saddened by Yengeni
Ngconde Balfour, the minister of correctional services, says he is saddened by the breach of parole conditions by Tony Yengeni, the former ANC chief whip. Parole conditions prohibit alcohol consumption. Yengeni appears on front page of The Star holding a bottle of beer in the company of friends at his Cape Town home. He was released on weekend parole on Friday and arrived back at Malmesbury prison an hour late on Sunday afternoon. It is not clear what consequences he face.
Elephant calves need help
Interim legislation was urgently needed to stop elephant calves from being removed from herds for use in the safari and film industry and as working animals. Tourists should be informed about the serious ethical and moral issues regarding the capture and taming of these animals. Permits are still being issued by provincial authorities for the capture and sale of elephant calves. These elephant calves were broken-in and tamed for use in elephant safaris and the film industry. Marthinus van Schalkwyk, minister of environmental affairs and tourism, apparently need to establish interim legislation until norms and standards for elephant management have been finalised, as the lack of legislation created loopholes for the exploitation of these animals for financial gain.
Deadly TB on upward spiral
An alarming 267 new cases of extreme drug-resistant TB (XDR TB) have been detected in KwaZulu-Natal. Another shocking revelation is that the disease has been found in 10 of the province's 11 health districts, and is not confined to the Tugela Ferry area, as was previously thought. Doctors say this could have dire consequences for those suffering from HIV and Aids. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has urged provincial health authorities to re-test samples in their laboratories for XDR TB. Over the past few months, 68 people have died from the disease in the province. The deadly XDR TB is now found in 10 of the 11 health districts in KwaZulu-Natal.

From the sublime to the ridiculous

2006-11-13T08:26:00.000-08:00

Most of the deaths were stress-related
The police are buckling under the pressure of a shocking increase in the number of attacks on policemen. Attacks on policemen went up to 1 274 during 2005 to 2006, compared with 721 attacks in the previous 12 months. This increase in attacks on policemen is the highest in five years. Compounding the stress on the force were the high annual murder rate of policemen, poor pay, uncertainty over the future and their unrelenting exposure to gruesome crimes. 585 policemen had been murdered in the past five years, 95 of them in the past year. Most of those killed were not on duty. Stress has resulted in a high number of policemen committing suicide. Charles Nqakula, the minister of safety and security, told parliament recently that, between 1998 and 2002, 508 officers took their own lives.
What a hell of a guy!
National correctional services commissioner and former Port Elizabeth struggle veteran Linda Mti has resigned from his job amid controversy – to take up a post as head of security for the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Mti is under investigation for drunken driving and is also accused of irregularly benefiting from the department‘s procurement deals. He received a performance bonus of more than R30 000 while his department had received qualified audit reports for the past five years. The department saluted Mti for the role he had played in the transformation of the department, “from the quagmire of its apartheid legacy to its status as a leading player in offender corrections and rehabilitation in South Africa and (Africa)”. Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour credited Mti for leading the transformation of prisons in Africa into rehabilitation-centred correctional facilities. The Democratic Alliance said that under Mti the department had been characterised by mismanagement and prisons had remained overcrowded, corrupt and violent.
Friendly arithmetic
Convicted former ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni spent the weekend in the comfort of his Milnerton, Cape Town, home. Senior ANC leaders in Western Cape gathered for a celebratory get-together with their friend on Friday night. Yengeni has served less than three months of a four-year sentence for fraud. Friendly arithmetic by the department of correctional services is likely to ensure that the disgraced ANC bigwig will be released early in the new year. Yengeni will be released on parole on January 15. The department said Yengeni would have served one-sixth of his sentence by January 13, making it possible for it to be converted to correctional supervision.
America's Funniest Home Videos is nothing compared to this
The crime rate in central Johannesburg has dropped by 80% since surveillance cameras were installed in 2000. While some footage is horrific, such as a taxi driver who deliberately runs over a pedestrian and a robber who shoots a man in the stomach from a metre away, other incidents are just plain bizarre and stupid. It's amazing what people will do when they think no one is watching. Men dig holes in the ground to have sex with them. The surveillance cameras caught out a bank employee who spent his lunch break paying a homeless child for sex. America's Funniest Home Videos is nothing compared to what we have here. A man smashed a Foschini display window and robbed the store of its fully clothed mannequins. It was Valentine's Day and he was just trying to steal something nice for his girlfriend. The romantic thief was arrested within minutes.
Sloppy municipal management a time bomb
South Africa could face a mass revolt that might undo its democratic gains if municipalities' sloppy record of service delivery did not improve, president Thabo Mbeki warned. The weaknesses in municipalities were a serious threat to the country's democracy and if left unattended would fuel disenchantment, creating a gulf between councillors and the masses. The lack of proper coordination among government departments and skills shortages are some of the key factors hampering development in South Africa. Schools without water and sanitation or clinics without electricity are classical illustrations of this. Mbeki took on the same point, saying if government departments worked jointly as they should, "we will avoid clinics being built without medicines or health workers.
Policies to be reviewed
Certain policies will be reviewed next year to ensure better service delivery. This was revealed by Pesident Thabo Mbeki. The President also expressed confidence in next year's ANC National Conference. Mbeki says there is a need to re-evaluate some of the country's policies to make them more relevant to service delivery. His comments come just months before the ANC's policy conference in June next year. Mbeki says: “The policy conference will review policy to say what is it that we need to do to improve policy so that we speed up provision of better life for people."

No more Brandy and Coke

2006-11-12T11:48:00.000-08:00

'Tis almost the season to be jolly, but holidaymakers could be left thirsty and unhappy without their favourite drinks - thanks to a severe shortage of carbon dioxide used to put the bubbles into fizzy drinks. The shortage is a result of production problems experienced by the country's largest carbon dioxide producer, Afrox, at its Sasolberg and PetroSA plants. Coca-Cola Sabco is doing all it can to stem panic-buying and calm upset customers. The shortfall is expected to continue until early next year.

We'll just have to get by with drinking beer.
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Corrupt relationships

2006-11-12T11:03:00.000-08:00

Underworld heavy recorded coffee dates with commissioner
The Scorpions have seized a diary that reveals that South Africa’s most senior policeman has much more than a casual friendship with the man dubbed the “landlord” of a huge smuggling syndicate. Glenn Agliotti’s diary, seized from the boot of his car, contains dates and times of regular meetings he had with National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi. The diary also contains other explosive information on Agliotti’s international operations. The Scorpions seized the diary when they raided Agliotti’s home in September as part of a criminal investigation into a R250-million drug bust, racketeering, money-laundering and corruption. For months Selebi has cried foul, saying Agliotti is just a friend, and that there is nothing sinister about their relationship. But the diary shows that the two men were in constant contact, setting up appointments to have “tea, coffee and breakfasts”. The contents of the diary shed more light on the inappropriate relationship that Selebi, president of Interpol, has with Agliotti, a known underworld character.
He went out of his way to buy influence
The Supreme Court of Appeal judgment in the Schabir Shaik case could not have had a worse outcome — for Jacob Zuma. Not only did the five-member panel of judges uphold Judge Hilary Squires’s conviction and sentence imposed on Shaik, but they found that Shaik paid Zuma what amounted to an “unlawful retainer” aimed at having the ANC deputy president undermine his constitutional duties — in order to punt Shaik’s business interests. As an elected government official (both MEC and deputy president) Zuma could not undertake any other paid work; act in a way inconsistent with his office or in a way that exposed him to a conflict of private and official interests; or use his position to enrich himself or anyone else . Shaik’s payments to Zuma — they totalled R1.29-million — were clearly aimed at ensuring that Zuma violate these constitutional duties to Shaik’s benefit and that of his companies.
Yengeni out of jail for weekend
While Schabir Shaik spends his first weekend in jail, another prominent jailed South African, Tony Yengeni, has a weekend pass to spend two days with his family at home. Eleven weeks after beginning his four-year jail sentence for fraud, Yengeni is a free man this weekend. The former ANC chief whip is on his first parole weekend, and will be on parole every weekend - including the Christmas and New Year weekends - until his release. He is expected to be a free man in just more than two months.
Cops on R25 000 booze cruise
Cape Town traffic cops were taken on a R25 000 "booze cruise" in Table Bay harbour by Labat Traffic Solutions, the company that holds a lucrative contract to operate the City of Cape Town's speed cameras. Labat holds a controversial five-year contract with the city to supply speed cameras and other traffic enforcement equipment and to administer the collection of traffic fines. It gets 50 percent of all speeding fines plus 25 percent of all other traffic fines.
Hospital clerk fingered as fraud mastermind
Celiwe Khumalo lived a simple life as a clerk in the human resources department of Vryheid Hospital in northern KwaZulu-Natal. Her job included doing paper work, handling queries and issuing notices on behalf of the department. She was paid a basic salary of R9294 a month. She bought a R500000 suburban house in Newcastle for cash, filled it with state-of-the- art furniture and splurged generously on cars. Khumalo also bought a farm and a second house in Volksrust. She has been identified as the mastermind behind an elaborate scheme that had defrauded the health department of over R6-million. The syndicate enticed nurses and other employees to resign, get paid an inflated pension settlement, pay a portion of the money to Khumalo as commission for inflating their payouts and rejoin the department later.
Tainted blood on the market
A syndicate has been selling HIV-positive blood to people who then used it to access disability grants. The blood trade, which started in the Eastern Cape in 2003, has cost the province millions. Although authorities bust the syndicate last year, officials say that not all those who used the HIV status of others to make a quick buck have been arrested. 10 people are serving sentences ranging from two to three years. One departmental official who had approved the fraudulent grants was jailed for 19 years. A Nigerian doctor who wrote "motivating letters" for those who wanted to claim the grants, is still on trial. Eastern Cape health officials has cracked down on a human saliva scam in which recipients obtained saliva from people suffering from TB and then used it to get state grants. Many women fall pregnant as a means of accessing child support grants.

A few minor problems

2006-11-11T13:10:00.000-08:00

Agriculture in severe decline
SA’s Agriculture Research Council is confident agriculture can reverse its fortunes and sustain thousands of blacks the government wants to enter the sector, the state-funded body’s chief said. Agriculture has been in severe decline for several years, battered by post-apartheid liberalisation and exposure to global competition. Shadrack Moephuli, the newly appointed CEO of the council, said that the agricultural sector is not declining -- the number of smallholder farms has actually been increasing. “The area where you’ll have the biggest impact in terms of family crops” he added. South African farming shrank 6,9% in the first quarter of this year, whereas it grew at an annual rate of around 6% in the 1980s. Its dwindling performance has raised questions about the government’s plans to encourage more blacks to take up farming.
Labour Department under scrutiny
The National Department of Labour (DoL) is in hot water with the national legislature's Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa). The department has not taken adequate action to withdraw more than R45,5 million from its Seta Zero fund. At year-end the nature or purpose of the monies in the Seta Zero account could not be verified. The DoL could not provide documents to back R90,1 million in claims owed to them. The DoL was rapped on the knuckles by Scopa for not implementing “elementary” aspects of proper financial administration. They are also guilty of various instances of non-compliance with the Public Finance Management Act and Treasury Regulations.
Foreigners tied up in red tape
Businesses which need foreign language-speakers for call centres are reluctant to employ foreigners because of the work permit process. A number of South African firms refuse to employ skilled foreigners because of nightmarish immigration bureaucracy, say recruiting agents and immigration experts. This despite an immigration law that the department of home affairs amended last week to help firms combat the domestic skills shortage by employing skilled foreigners.
Lawrence of Evadia, the ANC Protector
Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana is the ruling party’s secret weapon in the war against the abuse of power by its members. Whenever the ugly spectre of abuse by a top African National Congress (ANC) member appears, Mushwana simply makes it go away. With a raft of investigations into ANC members under his belt, his track record is notable for one thing: a paucity of negative findings against his former colleagues.

Lots of problems in the Defence Force

2006-11-11T12:59:00.000-08:00

Lekota acknowledges problems
Mosiuoa Lekota, the defence minister, has acknowledged that there was a problem of management of equipment and vehicles during peacekeeping operations in Burundi. Earlier this month, Lekota reacted with outrage to reports that the defence force had lost millions of rands worth of equipment and vehicles in the operations.
Health staff leave military in droves
The South African Military Health Service (SAMHS) is facing a national crisis as medics, doctors and nurses are leaving the defence force in droves. The situation will only get worse. Despite multi-million rand upgrades to military hospitals in Pretoria, Cape Town and Bloemfontein, not enough was being done to keep professional health practitioners. Because of the crisis in the Health Department, health professionals are leaving the country by the hundreds. This affects the SAMHS; doctors, nurses and other health professionals are leaving the service for more lucrative positions in the private sector," Jankielsohn said. SAMHS health practitioners were also leaving because of affirmative action policies, which limited many individual's opportunities for promotion in the service.
We need bean counters
The South African peacekeeping mission in Burundi struggled for four years with chaotic accounting systems, inadequate logistical support and complex supply lines that left numerous vehicles and other equipment unserviceable, ammunition supplies vulnerable to theft and accident, and made it impossible for the mission to balance its books. Those problems are graphically illustrated in the proceedings of a 2005 board of inquiry into discrepancies at the Burundi base.

Outlaw and disorder

2006-11-11T12:12:00.000-08:00

Scandal rattles South Africa's elite
South Africa is agog over the sensational Kebble murder. He was one of the sharpest confidence tricksters the South African investment community has ever hosted. At the time of his death he owed billions of rand and faced a tax bill of R250m (£18m). He blatantly exploited the country's commitment to black economic empowerment for personal gain. The extent of Kebble's ties with senior figures in the ANC became apparent only at his funeral when black politicians vied to carry his coffin and delivered orations in a send-off worthy of a national hero. They included the likes of leaders of the ANC youth league, Dali Tambo, the son of former ANC president, Oliver Tambo, and Essop Pahad, minister in the presidency. South Africa's top law enforcement officer has been dragged into the Kebble saga. The commissioner of police, Jackie Selebi, called an extraordinary press conference on Sunday to deny that he had been the recipient of a corrupt payment of R50,000 (£3,600) by Kebble's head of security. The payment, among other activities, is the subject of an investigation by the Scorpions - the South African counterpart to the FBI.
Smoke and mirrors
THE allegations of links between the Mafia and our top police echelons cast the SA Police Services in a bad light. The claims come at a time when the police are battling to hold back the swelling crime wave and citizens continue to worry about their personal safety. Most South Africans are not sure what to make of the claims that national commissioner Jackie Selebi has been bankrolled by the Mafioso and that the rot of corruption has infiltrated deeply into SAPS. Selebi argues that the allegations are part of an elaborate smear campaign – a denial that has become a familiar refrain in South Africa.
Parole plan is no answer
Overcrowding of prisons is a vexatious problem for both the government and civil society. On the one hand the government seems to have neither the budget nor the will to build sufficient jails to hold all the criminals the justice system sentences for punishment and re-habilitation; on the other, most people demand that criminals be removed from the society they have injured in some way for a proper period of time. Thus it is hardly surprising that Minister of Correctional Services Ngconde Balfour's plan to release 300 long-term prisoners on parole has hit a wall of objection from the victims of violent crime, who are trying to organise themselves into a body to fight the plan.
Mugabe is abusing SA courts
President Thabo Mbeki and South Africa must put to an end the abuse of South Africa institutions and courts by the Zimbabwe government. President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe is using white lawyers to lie to the South Africa courts that Mugabe was the most honourabloe man. Mugabe is justifying his property and company seizures in SA courts through unconstitutional laws that had been promulgated in Zimbabwe.

SA ranked 121 in UN Human Development Index

2006-11-10T15:38:00.000-08:00

South Africa has been ranked 121st on the United Nations Development Programme’s latest Human Development Index (HDI).

This is one position below Equatorial Guinea, and one above Tajikistan, on the 177-country-long scale.

The HDI, released annually, measures the state of human development in a country through indices calculated from life expectancy, adult literacy and school enrolment rates, and income. It is based on the most recent reliable data from UN partners and other official sources.

According to the index, South Africa’s overall score is 0.653 on a scale that has a high of 0.965 (Norway) and low of 0.311 (Niger).

South Africa falls into a group of countries categorised on the index as achieving “medium human development”.

Many of its neighbours to the north do not fare so well. Of the 31 countries at the bottom of the index -- in the “low human development” category -- a total of 28 are from Africa south of the Sahara.

The data in the index is mainly from 2004.

The HDI gives life expectancy at birth in South Africa as 47 years; adult (15 and older) literacy as 82.4 percent; and GDP per capita as US$11,192.

It says the country’s combined gross enrolment ratio for primary, secondary and tertiary schools is 77 percent.

The top-scoring African countries in the index are the Indian Ocean island nations of Seychelles and Mauritius, which made it into the “high human development” category, ranking 47th and 63rd respectively.

According to the HDI, the country with the lowest life expectancy at birth is Swaziland. A child born in that country in 2004 could expect, on average, not to live many months past his or her 31st birthday (31.3).

Next is Botswana (34.9), followed by Lesotho (35.2), Zimbabwe (36.6) and Zambia (37.7).

In comparison, a child born in Japan in that year has a life expectancy of 82.2 years.

The report attributes low life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa mainly to Aids.
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The bungling continues

2006-11-10T14:38:00.000-08:00

The problem with ANC Inc
First oil. Now manganese. The second major funding front set up by the ruling ANC has been revealed. The party is clearly behind Chancellor House, an empowerment holding company that has won a stake in manganese mining rights with a potential value of R1-billion. It is part of a consortium chasing a R26-billion power station tender, and has lesser stakes in many other businesses. The Oilgate investigation showed how the party’s linked company, Imvume Management, had paid more than R11-million to the ruling party. The manganese has not yet been mined and the project will take some years to come on stream but the party could benefit in amounts that will make the Oilgate millions seem tiny.
Cipro’s crippling problems
Well over a year after the alarm was officially raised over the huge backlogs and administrative problems dogging the Companies and Intellectual Property Office (Cipro), no action has been taken. Not only did auditor-general Shauket Fakie issue a disclaimer in his 2004-05 audit report because of serious financial problems within the organisation, but Cipro’s own chairman, Rob Angel, expressed concern in the annual report the same year about the body’s substandard performance. There is quite obviously a major problem at Cipro, and it is up to the responsible ministry — trade and industry — to take action. That has not happened. The problems have been going on for years. Complaints about Cipro’s poor performance, like that of many other trade and industry institutions, have fallen on deaf ears.
ANC in about turn on same-sex marriage bill
In a major about turn, the African National Congress (ANC) in Parliament’s home affairs committee swept aside opposition objections to the same-sex marriages bill and used its 70% majority to force the use of the terms “civil union” and “marriage” equally. The approved version of the bill makes the term “civil union” the same as a “marriage” and wherever the one appears, so too does the other. This is a direct rejection of the masses of submissions from religious groups objecting to giving homosexual couples the choice of using the term marriage. It is also a direct rejection of traditional leaders who wanted the constitution to be changed rather than the bill approved. It has been an open secret since the tabling of the Civil Unions Bill, which allows same-sex couples to solemnise their partnerships and to call them marriages, that the ANC is deeply divided on the issue. Many of the ruling party’s MPs sympathise with traditional leaders and the religious lobby, who believe that the bill harms the sanctity of marriage. It seemed the conservative ANC component had been whipped into line.
Budget would have to double
Welfare Minister Zola Skweyiya has rejected claims that the government is failing social services and questioned the credibility of the organisation that made the criticism. Chairperson of the National Coalition of Social Services (Nacoss) Solly Mokgata claimed that social services are on the verge of collapse because they are not properly supported by the government. Several services might have to be discontinued because of poor government support. The coalition represents 3 600 organisations, including churches, that deliver social services across South Africa and in all communities. They provide services to 11.5 million people every year, employ 26 000 full-time and 42 000 voluntary workers. Their joint annual budget amounted to R1.3bn of which the government contributed less than 30% through subsidies. The government should contribute 75% in a fair system.
Numerous flaws with R6bn toll road
The national roads agency has been accused of manipulating a multibillion-rand highway project in a report quietly released by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) following pressure from environmental groups. The report is a scathing review of the proposed N2 Toll Road between Durban and East London, and details numerous flaws with the controversial R6-billion venture, which was approved by then Environmental Affairs Minister, Valli Moosa, in 2003 but rejected by his successor, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, a year later. Van Schalkwyk accepted the report’s conclusions that there was a lack of independence of the part of the environmental consultants, Bohlweki, who were partly owned by one of the member companies in the consortium. The roads agency manipulated the bidding process to overcome the glaring conflict of interest between the environmental consultants and the consortium.
Disastrous freeze on land sales
The proposed moratorium on the sale of land to foreigners would have a disastrous impact on property development in the country. A panel of experts, chaired by Unisa academic Shadrack Gutto, investigated the influence of foreign land ownership on property prices and land reform. The panel recommended that a moratorium be imposed with immediate effect, as an interim measure until appropriate legislation has been promulgated. The proposed moratorium would have negative impact on foreign investment and would stall golf and polo estates across the country. It would result in job losses and financial ruin for many estate agents and property developers.
Pebble-bed reactor not feasible
A damning report doubting the feasibility of the pebble-bed nuclear reactor project was given to the government four years ago — yet the country is pressing ahead with plans to build one. The government has already invested R2-billion, and the report has been kept under wraps. The report, commissioned by then Minerals and Energy Affairs Minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, was drafted by 15 nuclear and environmental experts and given to the Cabinet in 2002. Mlambo-Ngcuka is now the deputy president. The demonstration unit will only be completed by 2011, and will therefore not meet South Africa’s short-term electricity needs, The plan is to build 24 reactors for Eskom and further reactors for the international market, but the world market for nuclear technology has dropped significantly. The costs could rise to R50-billion if the demonstration plant fails and has to be decommissioned. South Africa does not have the capacity to deal with a nuclear disaster should an accident occur at the plant.

It's tough at the top

2006-11-10T00:48:00.000-08:00

Tshwane boss quits
Tshwane municipal manager Blake Mosley-Lefatola has resigned. He handed his letter of resignation to Tshwane mayor Gwen Ramokgopa who had not yet responded. His resignation comes a month after the council denied that he had been suspended. The council is now almost without top management. Action against Mosley-Lefatola had triggered a spate of resignations, suspensions and non-renewal of contracts of several other senior managers. Mosley-Lefatola was linked to one of the companies allegedly awarded contracts irregularly.
I'm under siege
Effusive but unapologetic, outgoing Correctional Services national commissioner Linda Mti says he is "very honoured" to be appointed head of security for the 2010 World Cup, and claims he is unfairly "under siege" by a critical media. Mti officially resigned from the government and confirmed that he had accepted a post to head security arrangements for the 2010 Local Organising Committee (LOC). He would not go into details surrounding his arrest on a drunken driving charge last week. Eyewitnesses claimed he was so drunk that he fell to the ground and "slept in the sand" after causing an accident.
Mti hasn't got 2010 job
The local organising committee (LOC) of the 2010 Soccer World Cup denied that former correctional services commissioner Linda Mti had been appointed head of security for the tournament. Mti left his post as the country's prisons chief after months of sustained pressure on him to resign. The department of correctional services announced that Mti was leaving to take up the post of head of security for the tournament. Department spokesperson Manelisi Wolela said Mti had been approached by the LOC, and his appointment was confirmed several months ago. However, LOC spokesperson Tumi Makgabo denied this, saying Mti was being considered for the post, but discussions and negotiations were continuing and nothing had been decided yet. The post of security chief had been widely advertised and Mti had not been approached by the LOC, Makgabo added.
It's not my fault
Eastern Cape Health Department boss Lawrence Boya has been ordered to recover R46 million owed to his department by former employees. The debt, which has been piling up since 2002, is a result of miscalculations, overpayment of salaries and excessive telephone bills. When responsible employees resigned, the department failed to dock the money from their payouts. Mike Basopu, the chairperson of the health oversight committee in the Legislature, threatened to hold Boya personally accountable for the debt if he failed to recoup the money.
Top job for sex pest envoy
South Africa's former ambassador to Indonesia, Norman Mashabane, who still has charges of sexual harassment pending against him, is to start work next week as political adviser to Limpopo Premier Sello Moloto. The premier's office has confirmed the new appointment, endings weeks of speculation and denials. His wife Maite Nkoana-Mashabane is the MEC for housing and local government in Limpopo. In an internal inquiry held by the department of foreign affairs in 2004, Mashabane was found guilty of 22 counts of sexual harassment of embassy employees.
Boss vows to clean up
The Eastern Cape Development Corporation’s new chief executive, Mxolisi Matshamba, vowed to pull the organisation back from financial disarray. Matshamba said he would not sleep easy until the organisation delivered a clean audit report. The ECDC annual report showed its operating loss rose from R60 million in the 2004/5 financial year to R80,8m last year. The ECDC was shown not to be aligned with other emerging development agencies and government departments. The provincial legislature economic affairs portfolio committee has ordered the ECDC board and senior management to come up with a turnaround plan.
Defying common sense
The Public Protector's finding that Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya was not duly influenced in awarding a large government contract to an investment company defies common sense. Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana said an investigation by his office had found that a R65 000 interest-free loan paid by Fandi Majali, of Imvume Investments, to Skweyiya's wife for renovations on the couple's Waterkloof home did not influence the awarding of a multimillion-rand contract to a company partly owned by Imvume. As with his earlier report on the Oilgate scandal, the Public Protector's findings are undermined by common sense. The practical implications of what is suggested in the report are simply not believable and, it appears, the logical follow-up questions were not asked.

Money for nothing

2006-11-09T03:41:00.000-08:00

The continuing Hollywood-style harassment
A fuming Ngoako Ramatlhodi has demanded that the state also bankroll his legal fees - if he is charged. He has been raided by the Scorpions and is the subject of a corruption investigation. The former Limpopo premier's intention to seek state help if he is prosecuted comes after the Presidency's agreement to set aside R10-million for Jacob Zuma's defence costs. Zuma had to sign an undertaking that he would pay the money back, if he was found guilty of corruption. If the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) reinstates corruption charges against Zuma and decides to charge Ramatlhodi, the state could find itself flooded with demands from former politicians accused of criminal cases that allegedly happened during their term of office.
Plastic bag levy for nothing
The government's 3c tax on every plastic carrier bag manufactured or imported into the country is built into the price - from 15c to 21c - that shoppers pay for a bag at the till. The tax was imposed on the manufacturing industry with the intention that the money collected would be used to set up a national recycling programme, which would both clean up the environment and create thousands of jobs. While the price of plastic bags has meant consumers have not tossed them away as readily as they did in the past, resulting in a noticeable reduction of plastic bag litter, none of the money has been used to recycle plastic bags, nor have any recycling jobs been created.
Called to account on diamond taxes
Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica is to be called to account to parliament's watchdog committee on public finances for her department's failure to act against diamond exporters who have not paid taxes. The loss to fiscus is a huge amount of money and not less than R1-billion.
South African mines forfeit billions
South Africa’s mining industry is forfeiting R5 billion ($680 million) to R10 billion ($1.35 billion) a year in fixed investment because companies could not invest in projects without legal title, said Chamber of Mines president Lazarus Zim. Respondents in a survey expressed concern about delays in issuing mining rights, additional red tape in the empowerment requirements of the mining charter, the capitalisation of environmental trust funds and delays in processing water rights. Another major issue was the logistical constraint on rail and port infrastructure. Although mineral prices rose to record highs over the past 12-18 months, investment in mining had fallen by a third since 2004. The industry’s employment had dropped by more than 20,000 jobs. South Africa’s mining sector has not enjoyed the same benefits as the rest of the world from the phenomenal commodities boom. In Australia, pretax profits in the mining sector rose 95% last year, compared with a 12% increase in South Africa. Capital investment in Australia surged by 34% last year, while real fixed investment in South Africa’s mining sector declined 16.5% last year and 18.6% in 2004.
Overly protected SAA keeps SA’s tourism industry from taking off
The launch of a new airline in SA has brought with it another price war. That’s inevitable, and it’s great for consumers — at least in the short term. What’s just as inevitable is that prices will rise again. Mango is owned by South African Airways (SAA) which, in turn, falls under the public enterprises department. The minister, Alec Erwin, argues that there’s no problem with government backing the start of a new airline. Other low-cost airlines fear that SAA is using Mango as a ruse to drive them out of business. Backed by government’s bottomless coffers, Mango will offer below-cost air fares for months, even years, on end. The other carriers will either go out of business trying to match these fares. Why sanction hundreds of millions of rands going into SAA in order to kill off a thriving domestic airline industry?

The lunatics are in charge

2006-11-09T02:09:00.000-08:00

The latest lunatic ruling
South Africa's independent corner chemists say they will die fighting as they fear their survival is hugely threatened by the latest lunatic ruling on dispensing fees announced by Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. Pharmacists have warned that poor communities in outlying areas are likely to be hardest hit as patients will have to incur travelling expenses to obtain medicine from large chain stores in town centres as more and more local chemists are forced to shut their doors. The dispensing fee favours big chain stores and will obliterate independently owned chemists. This is already happening in at least six small towns which are without a chemist as a result of the regulations. The department is exacerbating the brain drain as pharmacists are being actively recruited by American drug companies. We lose about 30 pharmacists every six months.
More brawn than brains in SA
South Africa has a unique problem for a developing economy - more muscle than brains. It has more cash than it has quantity and quality of public servants to spend it. SA's 1.1m public servants can't do what's required of them - to manage the money they receive and put it to optimal use. Some government departments have more than 40% of all their approved posts vacant. The sport & recreation department is currently running the highest vacancy rate. Of most concern are those departments crucial to delivering basic services, key to the success of infrastructural projects and the 2010 Soccer World Cup - including the departments of transport, trade & industry and public works. Overall, it would seem that government is looking for 40 000 people to fill approved posts. Government's personnel database suggests that the number of vacancies stands at 318 000. The bottom line is that nobody really knows.
Selebi cleared by Scotland Yard
The Independent Complaints Directorate, with help from Britain's New Scotland Yard, have cleared national police commissioner Jackie Selebi of allegations he is connected to criminal activity. The ICD's findings showed that "allegations of attempts on the life of (former airport security chief Paul) O'Sullivan proved to be inconclusive"; "material provided to the ICD, details of descriptions of vehicles and suspects involved, are lacking"; and the witnesses provided by O'Sullivan "did not progress the evidential part of this investigation". In a 750-page docket, O'Sullivan alleged that Selebi was the boss of a "cop mafia" and took bribes (including a payment of R50 000). He claimed that the ICD had "whitewashed the matter" and had not responded to his calls and letters.
Come eat your cake
The country's longest serving Member of Parliament, Koos van der Merwe, was ordered to leave the National Assembly after he demanded a meeting with President Thabo Mbeki and accused his staff of being incompetent in dealing with his year-long request. During discussion of the budget of the Presidency on Wednesday, Van der Merwe, of the Inkatha Freedom Party, said part of the budget was R4.6-million to be spent on overtime expenditure. He asked how this was reasonable given that he was now celebrating one year of "waiting to see the president".
Soldiers past their sell-by date
The SA Air Force, now just a shadow of the pride of the nation it was in 1994, has seen 70 pilots and 535 technicians resign. They will be seriously short-handed when the Hawk trainers and Gripen fighters become operational. SA Military Health Services are now sitting with more than 600 vacant posts covering doctors, nursing officers, staff nurses, assistant nurses and specialists. At the same time in the SA Army there are hundreds of soldiers who have passed their sell-by date age-wise, when it comes to being able to perform effectively on missions, be they peace support or battlefield.
We're at war
Crime through armed robbery and hijacking is costing the country R10-billion a year. According to an international risk group, crime-wise we're in the same category as Russia, El Salvador, and Bolivia. Hardly the sort of places that anybody would want to walk around the streets at night and it gives an idea of how the international community sees the crime risk to South Africa. In fact, we're at war, which we could lose totally.
Strategy for small business out soon
Government would release its small-enterprise strategy in the next two months at the latest, said trade and industry department chief director for enterprise development Mandisa Manjezi. The strategy was initially completed and submitted to cabinet last year but cabinet felt that there were certain areas that needed to be strengthened.

Hospital is a dangerous place

2006-11-08T05:10:00.000-08:00

Doctors fear for their lives
Limpopo province has less than 500 state doctors who had to help about 17 million patients last year. There's a huge skills shortage. Doctors are forever working overtime. Some patients were forced to return home without seeing a doctor because the shortage. Communities are threatening and abusing staff. This is not helping the situation at all. Doctors have to work in environments where they fear for their lives.
Violent hospital strike
A major strike at the Rob Ferreira and other hospitals continued while union leaders and Health MEC Pogiso Pasha met to try to resolve staff grievances. Police were forced to use rubber bullets to disperse an angry crowd, which had protested illegally. Striking members of staff prevented vehicles from entering the premises. A car was stoned and the driver assaulted. They demanded immediate payment of overtime, the filling of all vacant posts and additional bridging courses.

Blame it on the politicians

2006-11-08T01:37:00.000-08:00

Politicians to blame for school violence
Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, the public service and administration minister, got more than she bargained for during a surprise visit to a school. A grade eight learner told the minister that violence in schools was a symptom of corruption trickling down from high ranking government officials to learners. Students are violent is because there are corrupt ministers in Cabinet. The students are trying to be as corrupt as their examples.
No end to strike
There is no end in sight to a four-month long strike at the beef supplier Karan Beef. The strike began in July over wages, alleged racism and unfair labour practices. The striking workers, members of the SA Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union (Saccawu), have demanded a 12 percent increase for all permanent staff and the permanent employment of casual staff. The company has offered eight percent. Karan Beef pays 47 percent more than the sectoral determination in the agricultural industry in South Africa. Cosatu has urged Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana to intervene in the strike.
Breeding grounds for criminals
A Pretoria primary school pupil is fighting for his life in a city hospital after being stabbed during a fight on the school grounds. Bonga Mlambo, 13, who attends Hamilton Primary School in Visagie Street, was stabbed three times in the chest and back with a serrated kitchen knife after he and a group of friends began teasing a 14-year-old boy from Pretoria Technical High School. The knife narrowly missed his heart, but is believed to have punctured several vital organs, including his spleen, intestines and a kidney. The attack comes less than two days after Gauteng education MEC Angie Motshekga said urgent steps needed to be taken to prevent the province's schools from being turned into "breeding grounds for criminals".
Party department big spenders
Since becoming a Ministry four years ago, the Department of Arts and Culture has hosted more than 60 functions locally and internationally. Minister Pallo Jordan insists it is unfair to label it the the “party department”.
Plastic bag tax not used as planned
The government has failed to use the money collected from plastic bag tax -- about R100 million -- for the intended purpose of recycling. Not a single plastic bag has so far been recycled from the fund.