The suspended head of South Africa's main union body, an ally of President Thabo Mbeki, has been expelled after a probe into the disappearance of a large cash donation, media reports said on Wednesday.
Willie Madisha's expulsion was decided at the central executive committee meeting of the labour federation, Cosatu, which considered a report on the missing money, public radio reported. The Sowetan and Business Day newspapers also said Madisha, a vocal backer of Mbeki, had been fired.
Source: News24
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Monday, February 25, 2008
Don't sacrifice lives for profit, says Motsepe
No life could be "sacrificed" in the name of profits, mining magnate and businessman Patrice Motsepe told protesting workers at a ferromanganese smelter near Durban on Monday. Speaking to workers, who on Monday staged a protest at the Assmang smelter following Sunday's blast that claimed the lives of five people, Motsepe said: "There is no life that can be sacrificed in the name of profits or making money. I will not tolerate it."
Motsepe, who is the largest single shareholder in African Rainbow Minerals, which is a 50% shareholder in Assmang, said that the circumstances surrounding Sunday's accident appeared to be similar to an accident that happened at the smelter last year. Motsepe spoke to workers after meeting with the Assmang management as well as senior workers' representatives. The explosion and subsequent fire ripped through the number six furnace of the smelter shortly before 5am in Cato Ridge, about 60km from Durban. One person died at the scene while a further four died during the course of Sunday and Monday morning. After addressing the workers, Motsepe told journalist that he could not comment on the cause of the accident until the completion of investigations. "We are not representing shareholders' interests if there is no zero tolerance towards [poor] safety," he said. Following the blast, the smelter's six furnaces were shut down. Motsepe could not immediately say how much the shutdown was costing the company. However, even though the smelter had been shut down, the estimated 700 workers were still expected to report for work to ensure that they were paid.
KwaZulu-Natal provincial minister of social welfare Meshak Radebe and Durban mayor Obed Mlaba also briefly spoke to the protesting workers. Earlier in the day about 100 workers marched from the smelter to the Cato Ridge Country club with a coffin, which they then placed in the middle of a hall where a Labour Department inquiry into a manganese poisoning case at Assmang was being held. The inquiry had to be postponed and was resumed later in the afternoon when the workers returned to the smelter. The inquiry, headed by Vuli Sibisi, is investigating the alleged 40 cases of manganism caused by workers breathing in fumes with airborne manganese particles.
Manganism is acquired by over-exposure to airborne manganese and is a disease that affects the sufferer's central nervous system, leaving them with symptoms very similar to Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis. Assmang executive director, Brian Brookeman, was about to give testimony when the workers marched into the hall with their coffin. On Monday, the Labour Department announced that the company would be subject to a second inquiry that would investigate the cause of Sunday's explosion. Labour department spokesperson Zolisa Sigabi said "a full-scale government investigation is under way following yesterday's [Sunday] massive explosion. The inquiry aims at establishing the cause of the tragedy, including any possible negligence or flouting of occupational health and safety measures," she said. On Sunday she said: "Labour inspectors who immediately arrived at the scene have in a preliminary report indicated that it is suspected that a water leakage into furnace number six caused the explosion to occur."
Earlier, National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa) spokesperson Mziwakhe Hlangani said that the company's engineers had ordered that the furnace be shut down before the explosion "after it was detected to have a water leakage". "We do not know how and why it was operated by the night-shift staff operators, because it was declared unsafe to put it [the furnace] in operation and we believe drastic steps after thorough investigations should be taken," Numsa local organiser Siphiwe Ntsele said. He said it was the second blast in nearly three months. He claimed that a worker had died on December 14 2007, in a similar blast.
Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana on Monday condemned the blast and vowed to "pull all stops in getting someone to account for the deaths and injuries" in Sunday's incident.
Source: IoL
Motsepe, who is the largest single shareholder in African Rainbow Minerals, which is a 50% shareholder in Assmang, said that the circumstances surrounding Sunday's accident appeared to be similar to an accident that happened at the smelter last year. Motsepe spoke to workers after meeting with the Assmang management as well as senior workers' representatives. The explosion and subsequent fire ripped through the number six furnace of the smelter shortly before 5am in Cato Ridge, about 60km from Durban. One person died at the scene while a further four died during the course of Sunday and Monday morning. After addressing the workers, Motsepe told journalist that he could not comment on the cause of the accident until the completion of investigations. "We are not representing shareholders' interests if there is no zero tolerance towards [poor] safety," he said. Following the blast, the smelter's six furnaces were shut down. Motsepe could not immediately say how much the shutdown was costing the company. However, even though the smelter had been shut down, the estimated 700 workers were still expected to report for work to ensure that they were paid.
KwaZulu-Natal provincial minister of social welfare Meshak Radebe and Durban mayor Obed Mlaba also briefly spoke to the protesting workers. Earlier in the day about 100 workers marched from the smelter to the Cato Ridge Country club with a coffin, which they then placed in the middle of a hall where a Labour Department inquiry into a manganese poisoning case at Assmang was being held. The inquiry had to be postponed and was resumed later in the afternoon when the workers returned to the smelter. The inquiry, headed by Vuli Sibisi, is investigating the alleged 40 cases of manganism caused by workers breathing in fumes with airborne manganese particles.
Manganism is acquired by over-exposure to airborne manganese and is a disease that affects the sufferer's central nervous system, leaving them with symptoms very similar to Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis. Assmang executive director, Brian Brookeman, was about to give testimony when the workers marched into the hall with their coffin. On Monday, the Labour Department announced that the company would be subject to a second inquiry that would investigate the cause of Sunday's explosion. Labour department spokesperson Zolisa Sigabi said "a full-scale government investigation is under way following yesterday's [Sunday] massive explosion. The inquiry aims at establishing the cause of the tragedy, including any possible negligence or flouting of occupational health and safety measures," she said. On Sunday she said: "Labour inspectors who immediately arrived at the scene have in a preliminary report indicated that it is suspected that a water leakage into furnace number six caused the explosion to occur."
Earlier, National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa) spokesperson Mziwakhe Hlangani said that the company's engineers had ordered that the furnace be shut down before the explosion "after it was detected to have a water leakage". "We do not know how and why it was operated by the night-shift staff operators, because it was declared unsafe to put it [the furnace] in operation and we believe drastic steps after thorough investigations should be taken," Numsa local organiser Siphiwe Ntsele said. He said it was the second blast in nearly three months. He claimed that a worker had died on December 14 2007, in a similar blast.
Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana on Monday condemned the blast and vowed to "pull all stops in getting someone to account for the deaths and injuries" in Sunday's incident.
Source: IoL
Friday, February 22, 2008
New evidence challenges official picture of Kennedy shooting
The official record states that senator Robert F Kennedy, like his brother before him, was killed by a crazed lone gunman. But the assassination of a man who seemed to embody so much hope for a bitterly divided country embroiled in an unpopular war still troubles this nation. Little about the official explanation of the events at the Ambassador Hotel on June 5 1968 makes sense. Now a new forensic analysis of the only audio recording of the fatal shots has given new weight to a controversial theory that there were in fact two shooters, and that the man convicted of Kennedy's killing — Sirhan Sirhan - did not fire the fatal shots.
Following his victory speech to supporters after clinching a tight democratic primary victory in California, Kennedy left the podium in the Embassy ballroom to address a press conference. But the shortcut he and his entourage took through the hotel's pantry quickly descended into bloody mayhem. As Kennedy turned from shaking hands with two of the kitchen staff, a gunman stepped forward and began firing. Kennedy was hit by four shots including one which lodged in the vertebrae in his neck and another which entered his brain from below his right ear. He died in hospital the following day. Five other people were injured but survived.
Sirhan - a Palestinian refugee who said he wanted to "sacrifice" Kennedy "for the cause of the poor exploited people" - was quickly apprehended. He was eventually sentenced to life imprisonment. "Sirhan was apprehended at the scene with literally a smoking gun," said acoustic forensic expert Philip Van Praag of PVP Designs, who has carried out the new analysis. "At the beginning many people looked upon this as an open-and-shut case. It was one man, Sirhan Sirhan, who was observed by a number of people, who aimed and fired a gun in the direction of Kennedy's entourage."
But the lone gunman explanation has always looked shaky. The autopsy of Kennedy's body suggested that all four shots that hit him came from behind, and powder marks on his skin showed they must have been from close range. But Sirhan was in front of Kennedy when he fired, and after shooting two shots was overcome by hotel staff, who pinned him to a table. Also, Sirhan fired eight shots in total, yet 14 were found lodged around the room and in the victims. "There is no doubt in our minds that no fewer than 14 shots were fired in the pantry on that evening and that Sirhan did not in fact kill Senator Kennedy," said Robert Joling, a forensic scientist who has been involved with the Kennedy case for nearly 40 years. He and Van Praag have published a book on the killing this week entitled "An Open and Shut Case".
The inconsistencies in the case have bred numerous conspiracy theories, including the involvement of the CIA and the idea that Sirhan - who claims not to remember the shooting and pleaded insanity at his trial - was a "Manchurian Candidate" assassin who was hypnotically programmed to kill the senator.
Now Van Praag has added new weight to the 'two shooters' theory. He reanalysed the only audio recording of the shooting, which was made by an independent journalist, Stanislaw Pruszynski. "At the time Pruszynski was not even aware that his recorder was still on," said Van Praag. The recording quality is poor, but it is possible to make out 13 shots over the course of just over 5 seconds, before what Van Praag describes as "blood-curdling screams" obscure the sound. That is more than the eight rounds that Sirhan's cheap Iver Johnson Cadet 55 revolver carried.
Also, there are two pairs of double shots that occurred so close together it is inconceivable that Sirhan could have fired them all. The third and fourth shots and the seventh and eighth were separated by 122 and 149 milliseconds respectively. In tests, a trained firearms expert firing under ideal conditions could only manage 366 milliseconds between shots using the same weapon. And he was not being pinned to a table at the time.
Lastly, five of the shots - 3, 5, 8, 10 and 12 in the sequence - were found to have odd acoustic characteristics when specific frequencies were analysed separately. Van Praag thinks this is because they came from a different gun pointing away from Pruszynski's microphone.
To recreate this he recorded the sounds made by firing the Iver Johnson and another revolver, a Harrington and Richardson 922. At least one member of Kennedy's entourage was carrying this weapon when the killing happened. In the acoustic tests it produced the same frequency anomalies Van Praag had seen in the original recording but only when fired away from the microphone. He presented his results on Thursday at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences annual meeting in Washington DC.
Paul Schrade, a close associate of Kennedy's who was director of the United Auto Workers union, was at the senator's side in the pantry and was shot in the head. He told the meeting that America lost an outstanding leader and potentially great president that day. "I think we were in a position of really changing this country," he said. "What we lost was a real hope and possibility of having a better country and having better relations around the world."
He wants to see the case reopened and properly investigated. "We're going to go ahead and do our best to find out who the second gunman was and that's going to take a lot of work," he said. Van Praag also wants the case reexamined. "We would hope that the evidence that we have uncovered ... would make a strong enough case to get serious consideration once again by the authorities," he said.
The following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column, Monday March 3 2008
In the report below (regarding new interpretations of forensic evidence relating to the assassination of Robert Kennedy) we stated that he was hit by four shots. However, only three bullets entered his body; the fourth was lodged in a shoulder pad. One of the pistols referred to was a Harrington & Richardson and not, as we had it, a Harrison & Richardson. This has been corrected.
Source: Guardian
Following his victory speech to supporters after clinching a tight democratic primary victory in California, Kennedy left the podium in the Embassy ballroom to address a press conference. But the shortcut he and his entourage took through the hotel's pantry quickly descended into bloody mayhem. As Kennedy turned from shaking hands with two of the kitchen staff, a gunman stepped forward and began firing. Kennedy was hit by four shots including one which lodged in the vertebrae in his neck and another which entered his brain from below his right ear. He died in hospital the following day. Five other people were injured but survived.
Sirhan - a Palestinian refugee who said he wanted to "sacrifice" Kennedy "for the cause of the poor exploited people" - was quickly apprehended. He was eventually sentenced to life imprisonment. "Sirhan was apprehended at the scene with literally a smoking gun," said acoustic forensic expert Philip Van Praag of PVP Designs, who has carried out the new analysis. "At the beginning many people looked upon this as an open-and-shut case. It was one man, Sirhan Sirhan, who was observed by a number of people, who aimed and fired a gun in the direction of Kennedy's entourage."
But the lone gunman explanation has always looked shaky. The autopsy of Kennedy's body suggested that all four shots that hit him came from behind, and powder marks on his skin showed they must have been from close range. But Sirhan was in front of Kennedy when he fired, and after shooting two shots was overcome by hotel staff, who pinned him to a table. Also, Sirhan fired eight shots in total, yet 14 were found lodged around the room and in the victims. "There is no doubt in our minds that no fewer than 14 shots were fired in the pantry on that evening and that Sirhan did not in fact kill Senator Kennedy," said Robert Joling, a forensic scientist who has been involved with the Kennedy case for nearly 40 years. He and Van Praag have published a book on the killing this week entitled "An Open and Shut Case".
The inconsistencies in the case have bred numerous conspiracy theories, including the involvement of the CIA and the idea that Sirhan - who claims not to remember the shooting and pleaded insanity at his trial - was a "Manchurian Candidate" assassin who was hypnotically programmed to kill the senator.
Now Van Praag has added new weight to the 'two shooters' theory. He reanalysed the only audio recording of the shooting, which was made by an independent journalist, Stanislaw Pruszynski. "At the time Pruszynski was not even aware that his recorder was still on," said Van Praag. The recording quality is poor, but it is possible to make out 13 shots over the course of just over 5 seconds, before what Van Praag describes as "blood-curdling screams" obscure the sound. That is more than the eight rounds that Sirhan's cheap Iver Johnson Cadet 55 revolver carried.
Also, there are two pairs of double shots that occurred so close together it is inconceivable that Sirhan could have fired them all. The third and fourth shots and the seventh and eighth were separated by 122 and 149 milliseconds respectively. In tests, a trained firearms expert firing under ideal conditions could only manage 366 milliseconds between shots using the same weapon. And he was not being pinned to a table at the time.
Lastly, five of the shots - 3, 5, 8, 10 and 12 in the sequence - were found to have odd acoustic characteristics when specific frequencies were analysed separately. Van Praag thinks this is because they came from a different gun pointing away from Pruszynski's microphone.
To recreate this he recorded the sounds made by firing the Iver Johnson and another revolver, a Harrington and Richardson 922. At least one member of Kennedy's entourage was carrying this weapon when the killing happened. In the acoustic tests it produced the same frequency anomalies Van Praag had seen in the original recording but only when fired away from the microphone. He presented his results on Thursday at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences annual meeting in Washington DC.
Paul Schrade, a close associate of Kennedy's who was director of the United Auto Workers union, was at the senator's side in the pantry and was shot in the head. He told the meeting that America lost an outstanding leader and potentially great president that day. "I think we were in a position of really changing this country," he said. "What we lost was a real hope and possibility of having a better country and having better relations around the world."
He wants to see the case reopened and properly investigated. "We're going to go ahead and do our best to find out who the second gunman was and that's going to take a lot of work," he said. Van Praag also wants the case reexamined. "We would hope that the evidence that we have uncovered ... would make a strong enough case to get serious consideration once again by the authorities," he said.
The following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column, Monday March 3 2008
In the report below (regarding new interpretations of forensic evidence relating to the assassination of Robert Kennedy) we stated that he was hit by four shots. However, only three bullets entered his body; the fourth was lodged in a shoulder pad. One of the pistols referred to was a Harrington & Richardson and not, as we had it, a Harrison & Richardson. This has been corrected.
Source: Guardian
Monday, February 18, 2008
Cape High Court confirm evitions
The Cape High Court on Monday dismissed an application for leave to appeal against an eviction order that compelled illegal occupiers of unfinished homes in Delft on the Cape Flats to vacate their houses by 6pm last Sunday.
Grounds for the application for leave to appeal were that the court had erred in treating the eviction application as urgent, in the first instance, and in making the provisional eviction order that was granted final. A third ground was that the scheduled eviction of about 1 600 people was not just and equitable, and a fourth was that the court should instead order mediation through the authorities and the illegal occupiers.
Judge Deon van Zyl ruled late on Monday that the grounds were altogether without merit and that no other court would reach a conclusion different to his.
Earlier on Monday, the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign said: "The residents have vowed not to stop the fight. They are now preparing to petition the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein and thereafter will take their fight to the Constitutional Court. "The judge and African National Congress government and Thubelisha Homes are treating the residents of Delft as if they have alternative accommodation. Yet not one of them has any place to go. All of those who moved into the new houses were either homeless or backyard dwellers."
Asked when evictions would get under way, Thubelisha general manager Xhanti Sigcawu said he was expecting to hear from the sheriff before the end of the day. "We'll take our cue from the sheriff," he said.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Grounds for the application for leave to appeal were that the court had erred in treating the eviction application as urgent, in the first instance, and in making the provisional eviction order that was granted final. A third ground was that the scheduled eviction of about 1 600 people was not just and equitable, and a fourth was that the court should instead order mediation through the authorities and the illegal occupiers.
Judge Deon van Zyl ruled late on Monday that the grounds were altogether without merit and that no other court would reach a conclusion different to his.
Earlier on Monday, the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign said: "The residents have vowed not to stop the fight. They are now preparing to petition the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein and thereafter will take their fight to the Constitutional Court. "The judge and African National Congress government and Thubelisha Homes are treating the residents of Delft as if they have alternative accommodation. Yet not one of them has any place to go. All of those who moved into the new houses were either homeless or backyard dwellers."
Asked when evictions would get under way, Thubelisha general manager Xhanti Sigcawu said he was expecting to hear from the sheriff before the end of the day. "We'll take our cue from the sheriff," he said.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
ANC is committed to protecting free speech
In the front of his book The Fourth Estate, ex-editor of the Sunday Times Joel Mervis quotes former British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, who in 1937 said: "What the proprietorship of these papers is aiming at is power, and power without responsibility, a prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages".
Part of the ANC's resolution calling for debate on the Media Appeals Tribunal deals with accountability of the media.
Noting that "freedom of expression in society, including freedom of media, is located within the context of the Constitution of the Republic" and that the "media conducts itself in many instances to the detriment of the constitutional rights of others", the organisation argues that the media should contribute to the transformation of this new society and "be accountable for its actions".
What these quotes show is that the increasing exasperation felt by South Africans about media in general and the commercial press in particular, is not unique to South Africa. Of course here the dynamics are decidedly different from Britain in the 1930s, but the problem is the same a media that believes it is not subject to societal accountability. The most problematic fact about the South African media landscape is the lack of a diverse ownership profile, which in turn has an impact on the media products on offer from the commercial press.
Three large companies, Media 24, Independent Group and Johncom (the latter recently renamed Avuso), own virtually all the newspapers in this country. The vast majority publish only in English and Afrikaans. In the middle of last year, the ANC policy conference adopted the resolution cited above. It called for an investigation of the feasibility of establishing a Media Appeals Tribunal. This resolution was confirmed at the ANC's December conference in Polokwane. Not surprisingly, the commercial press is opposed to this idea. They argue that it is tantamount to interfering with the freedom of expression and freedom of media guaranteed under the Constitution.
The actual resolutions are interesting to read and should in fact be broadly circulated so that they can form the basis for public debate around the role of the media in a society in transition. Not surprisingly the print media has gone into attack mode and sensationalised the proposals as an attempt to control the media. What they fail to appreciate is that this is precisely the type of response that confirms to the public that the media is unwilling to introspect or acknowledge that there are problems.
On the whole, space is not provided for critical, independent-minded black people to air their views either about the media or matters that would upset white people. There are exceptions. When editor of The Star Moegsien Williams approached me in 2006 to write for the Independent Group, he stressed that he wished to make the opinion pages of more representative. City Press is also an exception. It is always possible to trivialise the ANC's concerns as an attempt to force the press to be less critical of it or the government. There is a far bigger body of public opinion that believes the commercial press does not reflect post-apartheid reality.
The resolution is a reflection of long and frustrating appeals to the media to respect the rights of all people and to try to be present in this democratic phase instead of being stuck in a default consciousness from our unequal past. If a referendum were to be to be held on the establishment of an Appeals Tribunal, it is probable most Africans who read the commercial press would say yes to the question of whether or not it should be established. The resolution reaffirms the ANC's commitment to media freedom, which it says is entrenched. It notes "that the ANC is faced with a major ideological offensive, largely driven by the opposition and factions in the mainstream media, whose key objective is the promotion of market fundamentalism, control of the media and the images it creates of a new democratic dispensation in order to retain old apartheid economic and social relations".
The ANC envisages the Tribunal to be a forum where the rights to freedom of expression can be balanced with other constitutional rights. It would adjudicate complaints by individuals against the print media in the same way as BCCSA and the Complaints and Compliance Committee of Icasa do in respect of the electronic media.
They believe that the Tribunal would not supplant, but strengthen the current Ombudsperson"s office. These are proposals for discussion. Despite my longstanding criticisms of the commercial press in this country, I have serious reservations about the desirability of such a Media Tribunal. While the motivation is persuasive, it is not likely to work in practice. It has the potential for acting as an editorial constraint, which is not at all what the intention is. The sense of responsibility and accountability that we seek as a nation, cannot be achieved through such a mechanism.
Other ways of ensuring representivity in the newsrooms and ownership is for Black business to either buy into existing media houses or set up their own. Also, all of us have a choice as to which newspapers to read. If papers do not reflect all perspectives, buy the one that does. Those who read poor quality newspapers out of habit, deserve to be aggravated. The key issue raised in the resolution is that as a matter of urgency the commercial press must be brought into the BEE charter processes.
The print media should give their readers an opportunity to debate the resolution by extracting it and giving a fair opportunity to ANC to explain to the public why they came to this conclusion. Scare tactics won't assist a balanced discussion of the implications. This is a chance for the commercial press to turn over a new leaf and to listen to the public. Humility can go a long way.
Source: IoL
Part of the ANC's resolution calling for debate on the Media Appeals Tribunal deals with accountability of the media.
Noting that "freedom of expression in society, including freedom of media, is located within the context of the Constitution of the Republic" and that the "media conducts itself in many instances to the detriment of the constitutional rights of others", the organisation argues that the media should contribute to the transformation of this new society and "be accountable for its actions".
What these quotes show is that the increasing exasperation felt by South Africans about media in general and the commercial press in particular, is not unique to South Africa. Of course here the dynamics are decidedly different from Britain in the 1930s, but the problem is the same a media that believes it is not subject to societal accountability. The most problematic fact about the South African media landscape is the lack of a diverse ownership profile, which in turn has an impact on the media products on offer from the commercial press.
Three large companies, Media 24, Independent Group and Johncom (the latter recently renamed Avuso), own virtually all the newspapers in this country. The vast majority publish only in English and Afrikaans. In the middle of last year, the ANC policy conference adopted the resolution cited above. It called for an investigation of the feasibility of establishing a Media Appeals Tribunal. This resolution was confirmed at the ANC's December conference in Polokwane. Not surprisingly, the commercial press is opposed to this idea. They argue that it is tantamount to interfering with the freedom of expression and freedom of media guaranteed under the Constitution.
The actual resolutions are interesting to read and should in fact be broadly circulated so that they can form the basis for public debate around the role of the media in a society in transition. Not surprisingly the print media has gone into attack mode and sensationalised the proposals as an attempt to control the media. What they fail to appreciate is that this is precisely the type of response that confirms to the public that the media is unwilling to introspect or acknowledge that there are problems.
On the whole, space is not provided for critical, independent-minded black people to air their views either about the media or matters that would upset white people. There are exceptions. When editor of The Star Moegsien Williams approached me in 2006 to write for the Independent Group, he stressed that he wished to make the opinion pages of more representative. City Press is also an exception. It is always possible to trivialise the ANC's concerns as an attempt to force the press to be less critical of it or the government. There is a far bigger body of public opinion that believes the commercial press does not reflect post-apartheid reality.
The resolution is a reflection of long and frustrating appeals to the media to respect the rights of all people and to try to be present in this democratic phase instead of being stuck in a default consciousness from our unequal past. If a referendum were to be to be held on the establishment of an Appeals Tribunal, it is probable most Africans who read the commercial press would say yes to the question of whether or not it should be established. The resolution reaffirms the ANC's commitment to media freedom, which it says is entrenched. It notes "that the ANC is faced with a major ideological offensive, largely driven by the opposition and factions in the mainstream media, whose key objective is the promotion of market fundamentalism, control of the media and the images it creates of a new democratic dispensation in order to retain old apartheid economic and social relations".
The ANC envisages the Tribunal to be a forum where the rights to freedom of expression can be balanced with other constitutional rights. It would adjudicate complaints by individuals against the print media in the same way as BCCSA and the Complaints and Compliance Committee of Icasa do in respect of the electronic media.
They believe that the Tribunal would not supplant, but strengthen the current Ombudsperson"s office. These are proposals for discussion. Despite my longstanding criticisms of the commercial press in this country, I have serious reservations about the desirability of such a Media Tribunal. While the motivation is persuasive, it is not likely to work in practice. It has the potential for acting as an editorial constraint, which is not at all what the intention is. The sense of responsibility and accountability that we seek as a nation, cannot be achieved through such a mechanism.
Other ways of ensuring representivity in the newsrooms and ownership is for Black business to either buy into existing media houses or set up their own. Also, all of us have a choice as to which newspapers to read. If papers do not reflect all perspectives, buy the one that does. Those who read poor quality newspapers out of habit, deserve to be aggravated. The key issue raised in the resolution is that as a matter of urgency the commercial press must be brought into the BEE charter processes.
The print media should give their readers an opportunity to debate the resolution by extracting it and giving a fair opportunity to ANC to explain to the public why they came to this conclusion. Scare tactics won't assist a balanced discussion of the implications. This is a chance for the commercial press to turn over a new leaf and to listen to the public. Humility can go a long way.
Source: IoL
Sunday, February 10, 2008
ANC rejects concerns over press freedom
South Africa's ruling African National Congress on Sunday rejected media accusations that its proposal for a new media complaints body was an attack on press freedom. The ANC said it had a good record on free speech in the country's vibrant media and said the press was over-reacting to the planned Media Appeals Tribunal, which would be accountable to parliament. "The aim is to strengthen the self-regulation mechanism of the print media... There is no such thing as an attack on media freedom," ANC Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe told the South African National Editors Forum, the Sapa news agency reported.
At a congress in December the party called for the creation of a tribunal through which the public could file complaints against the media. How the new body would work in practice is not yet clear. South Africa already has an press ombudsman that deals with complaints. Relations between South Africa's government and its independent media has been strained at times, with ANC leaders often accusing it of harbouring a racist agenda. "As usual the media are over-reacting," Motlanthe said. "They say that the ANC is hyper-sensitive to criticism but look at the reaction of the media to this (the tribunal). They see it as an attack on media freedom," he said.
Pallo Jordan, a senior ANC member and minister of arts and culture, said media freedom had been "on the masthead of the ANC since its inception". "There is no (South African) political party with a comparable record on media freedom," Sapa quoted him as saying. "We value it ... it lends quality to our democracy and it should prevail," he added.
South Africa's print media is mainly privately owned, while the broadcast media is still dominated by state-owned SABC.
Source: IoL
At a congress in December the party called for the creation of a tribunal through which the public could file complaints against the media. How the new body would work in practice is not yet clear. South Africa already has an press ombudsman that deals with complaints. Relations between South Africa's government and its independent media has been strained at times, with ANC leaders often accusing it of harbouring a racist agenda. "As usual the media are over-reacting," Motlanthe said. "They say that the ANC is hyper-sensitive to criticism but look at the reaction of the media to this (the tribunal). They see it as an attack on media freedom," he said.
Pallo Jordan, a senior ANC member and minister of arts and culture, said media freedom had been "on the masthead of the ANC since its inception". "There is no (South African) political party with a comparable record on media freedom," Sapa quoted him as saying. "We value it ... it lends quality to our democracy and it should prevail," he added.
South Africa's print media is mainly privately owned, while the broadcast media is still dominated by state-owned SABC.
Source: IoL
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
CIA admit 'waterboarding' al-Qaida suspects
Interrogators used "waterboarding" on three men shortly after the September 11 attacks, the CIA admitted today, naming for the first time the victims of a technique widely perceived as torture.
The men subjected to waterboarding, which simulates drowning, were al-Qaida suspects Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the CIA director, Michael Hayden, told the US Congress. "We used it against these three detainees because of the circumstances at the time," Hayden said. "There was the belief that additional catastrophic attacks against the homeland were inevitable. And we had limited knowledge about al-Qaida and its workings. Those two realities have changed."
Hayden told the senate intelligence committee that Mohammed - the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks - and the other two men were subject to waterboarding in 2002 and 2003. "The circumstances are different than they were in late 2001, early 2002," Hayden said, adding that he opposed limiting the CIA to interrogation techniques permitted in the US Army field manual, which bans waterboarding. Hayden told the committee that fewer than 100 people had been held in the CIA's terrorism detention and interrogation programme, with less than one-third subjected to "coercive" techniques. The CIA said in December that it had destroyed videotapes depicting the interrogations of Zubaydah and Nashiri, prompting a justice department investigation. The tapes were destroyed as Congress moved to pass a ban on inhumane interrogations and a prosecutor is investigating whether US intelligence officials broke the law or violated court orders in destroying the tapes.
In waterboarding, the victim's mouth is covered and water poured over his face, making the victim feel as if they are drowning. "Waterboarding taken to its extreme, could be death - you could drown someone," McConnell acknowledged. He said waterboarding remains a technique in the CIA's arsenal, but it would require the consent of the president and legal approval of the attorney general.
At the same hearing, the US director of national intelligence said the Taliban, which was overthrown in Afghanistan in late 2001, has expanded its operations into once-peaceful areas of western Afghanistan and around the capital, Kabul, despite the death or capture of three top commanders in the last year. McConnell also said al-Qaida maintains a "safe haven" in Pakistan's tribal areas, where the group is able to stage attacks supporting the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan. The Pakistani tribal areas provide al-Qaida "many of the advantages it once derived from its base across the border in Afghanistan, albeit on a smaller and less secure scale", allowing militants to train for strikes in Pakistan, the Middle East, Africa and the US, McConnell said. "Al-Qaida remains the pre-eminent threat against the United States, both here at home and abroad," McConnell said, even though the terror network had suffered setbacks in Iraq. He expressed concern that al-Qaida in Iraq is shifting its focus elsewhere in the region. "They may deploy resources to mount attacks outside the country," McConnell said, although fewer than 100 terrorists have moved to establish cells in other countries. McConnell also told the senate panel that US officials believe that Osama bin Laden is hiding in Pakistan's tribal areas. A report released in London said nearly 400 militant groups now operate around the world and the greatest proliferation has been in the border regions between Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
The number of violent "non-state" groups has grown about 10% in the past year, according to the 2008 military balance report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Iraq and India, with more than 30 active guerrilla groups each, are the most volatile countries, the report said, with the Afghan-Pakistan border and the disputed Kashmir region between India and Pakistan the worst-affected areas.
Source: Guardian
The men subjected to waterboarding, which simulates drowning, were al-Qaida suspects Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the CIA director, Michael Hayden, told the US Congress. "We used it against these three detainees because of the circumstances at the time," Hayden said. "There was the belief that additional catastrophic attacks against the homeland were inevitable. And we had limited knowledge about al-Qaida and its workings. Those two realities have changed."
Hayden told the senate intelligence committee that Mohammed - the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks - and the other two men were subject to waterboarding in 2002 and 2003. "The circumstances are different than they were in late 2001, early 2002," Hayden said, adding that he opposed limiting the CIA to interrogation techniques permitted in the US Army field manual, which bans waterboarding. Hayden told the committee that fewer than 100 people had been held in the CIA's terrorism detention and interrogation programme, with less than one-third subjected to "coercive" techniques. The CIA said in December that it had destroyed videotapes depicting the interrogations of Zubaydah and Nashiri, prompting a justice department investigation. The tapes were destroyed as Congress moved to pass a ban on inhumane interrogations and a prosecutor is investigating whether US intelligence officials broke the law or violated court orders in destroying the tapes.
In waterboarding, the victim's mouth is covered and water poured over his face, making the victim feel as if they are drowning. "Waterboarding taken to its extreme, could be death - you could drown someone," McConnell acknowledged. He said waterboarding remains a technique in the CIA's arsenal, but it would require the consent of the president and legal approval of the attorney general.
At the same hearing, the US director of national intelligence said the Taliban, which was overthrown in Afghanistan in late 2001, has expanded its operations into once-peaceful areas of western Afghanistan and around the capital, Kabul, despite the death or capture of three top commanders in the last year. McConnell also said al-Qaida maintains a "safe haven" in Pakistan's tribal areas, where the group is able to stage attacks supporting the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan. The Pakistani tribal areas provide al-Qaida "many of the advantages it once derived from its base across the border in Afghanistan, albeit on a smaller and less secure scale", allowing militants to train for strikes in Pakistan, the Middle East, Africa and the US, McConnell said. "Al-Qaida remains the pre-eminent threat against the United States, both here at home and abroad," McConnell said, even though the terror network had suffered setbacks in Iraq. He expressed concern that al-Qaida in Iraq is shifting its focus elsewhere in the region. "They may deploy resources to mount attacks outside the country," McConnell said, although fewer than 100 terrorists have moved to establish cells in other countries. McConnell also told the senate panel that US officials believe that Osama bin Laden is hiding in Pakistan's tribal areas. A report released in London said nearly 400 militant groups now operate around the world and the greatest proliferation has been in the border regions between Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
The number of violent "non-state" groups has grown about 10% in the past year, according to the 2008 military balance report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Iraq and India, with more than 30 active guerrilla groups each, are the most volatile countries, the report said, with the Afghan-Pakistan border and the disputed Kashmir region between India and Pakistan the worst-affected areas.
Source: Guardian
Monday, February 4, 2008
South African court rules against extraditing Radovan Krejčíř
One of the country’s most notorious fugitives, billionaire Radovan Krejčíř, is another step closer to escaping Czech justice forever. Almost a year after he was arrested in South Africa, a Johannesburg court on Friday ruled against his extradition to the Czech Republic. The court said that the murder plot and three-billion-crown tax fraud he was accused of are not considered crimes in South Africa.
The news from Johannesburg was a bad blow for the Czech Republic where Krejčíř has already been sentenced in absentia to six and a half years for tax fraud and is charged with a variety of other crimes including conspiracy to murder, counterfeiting, extortion and abduction. Although the prosecutor in the case Deon Barnard is mulling over whether to file an appeal, saying he needs more time to study the court's justification of its decision, the Czech Justice Ministry has not given up on the case. On Friday the ministry’s spokeswoman Zuzana Kuncová read out a brief statement to the press: “The Czech Republic has cooperated fully with the South African authorities in this extradition request and we are prepared to continue doing so in the future. Friday’s ruling is that of an independent court in a sovereign state and the ministry is not in a position to pass judgment on it.”
Radovan Krejčíř has thumbed his nose at the Czech authorities for years. He first gained notoriety by giving the police the slip while they were raiding his luxury villa in Prague and escaping to the Seychelles where he and his family lived for two years – beyond the reach of Czech justice. The Interior Ministry vowed to catch up with him and when in April of last year he was apprehended at Johannesburg airport in South Africa Czech Interior Minister Ivan Langer said this was a message to all criminals that one could not escape justice forever. On Friday a triumphant Radovan Krejčíř parodied the minister’s words from Johannesburg: “I have two messages for my countrymen. First good news for all the decent people like myself – namely that justice has been done. And I have bad news for all the corrupt politicians back home, whom I warn that the truth will eventually come out and every one of them will be held accountable.”
Krejčíř’s latest triumph in his cat and mouse game with the Czech authorities is a major embarrassment, especially since the Czech side made some procedural mistakes which slowed down the Johannesburg court case, while Krejčíř never put a foot wrong. He had clearly studied the South African legal system in great detail and has asked for political asylum in the country. A decision on that request may take years and Krejčíř cannot be extradited before it is reached. If the court decides that it has reason to do so, which at present seems more unlikely than ever.
Source: Radio Praha
The news from Johannesburg was a bad blow for the Czech Republic where Krejčíř has already been sentenced in absentia to six and a half years for tax fraud and is charged with a variety of other crimes including conspiracy to murder, counterfeiting, extortion and abduction. Although the prosecutor in the case Deon Barnard is mulling over whether to file an appeal, saying he needs more time to study the court's justification of its decision, the Czech Justice Ministry has not given up on the case. On Friday the ministry’s spokeswoman Zuzana Kuncová read out a brief statement to the press: “The Czech Republic has cooperated fully with the South African authorities in this extradition request and we are prepared to continue doing so in the future. Friday’s ruling is that of an independent court in a sovereign state and the ministry is not in a position to pass judgment on it.”
Radovan Krejčíř has thumbed his nose at the Czech authorities for years. He first gained notoriety by giving the police the slip while they were raiding his luxury villa in Prague and escaping to the Seychelles where he and his family lived for two years – beyond the reach of Czech justice. The Interior Ministry vowed to catch up with him and when in April of last year he was apprehended at Johannesburg airport in South Africa Czech Interior Minister Ivan Langer said this was a message to all criminals that one could not escape justice forever. On Friday a triumphant Radovan Krejčíř parodied the minister’s words from Johannesburg: “I have two messages for my countrymen. First good news for all the decent people like myself – namely that justice has been done. And I have bad news for all the corrupt politicians back home, whom I warn that the truth will eventually come out and every one of them will be held accountable.”
Krejčíř’s latest triumph in his cat and mouse game with the Czech authorities is a major embarrassment, especially since the Czech side made some procedural mistakes which slowed down the Johannesburg court case, while Krejčíř never put a foot wrong. He had clearly studied the South African legal system in great detail and has asked for political asylum in the country. A decision on that request may take years and Krejčíř cannot be extradited before it is reached. If the court decides that it has reason to do so, which at present seems more unlikely than ever.
Source: Radio Praha
Friday, February 1, 2008
Fidentia financial director gets jail time
The financial director of Fidentia, Graham Maddock, was on Friday effectively jailed for seven years on 54 counts involving fraud, theft, money laundering, contraventions of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act and the reckless or fraudulent conduct of business. Maddock appeared in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court before magistrate Amrith Chabilall. His wife and family sat on benches behind the dock, and all embraced him before the police court orderly led him from the courtroom to the holding cells to be transported to Pollsmoor Prison. The hearing took the form of a plea-bargain agreement. Although the charges concerned his involvement with J Arthur Brown's Fidentia group as its financial director, Maddock's chartered accounting firm, Maddock Incorporated, was cited in the plea-bargain agreement as accused number one, and Maddock as accused number two.
Scorpions prosecutor senior counsel Bruce Morrison said the case was the fist time in South African legal history that any company had been found guilty of money laundering -- especially involving a sum of R200-million. Maddock was in the dock in his personal capacity, as well as representing Maddock Incorporated. Morrison said Maddock Incorporated was in fact Maddock's alter ego. The firm itself was fined R50-million for money laundering, but the fine was suspended for five years. For five violations of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, the firm was fined an additional R10-million, also suspended for five years.
Morrison said the sentences imposed on both were a message to other accountable institutions that they had to comply with the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, as well as the Prevention of Organised Crime Act. Morrison added: "When we come after them, this is the kind of fine they will have to pay." On the money laundering charges, the plea agreement said Maddock's conduct was deliberately orchestrated by Brown.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Scorpions prosecutor senior counsel Bruce Morrison said the case was the fist time in South African legal history that any company had been found guilty of money laundering -- especially involving a sum of R200-million. Maddock was in the dock in his personal capacity, as well as representing Maddock Incorporated. Morrison said Maddock Incorporated was in fact Maddock's alter ego. The firm itself was fined R50-million for money laundering, but the fine was suspended for five years. For five violations of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, the firm was fined an additional R10-million, also suspended for five years.
Morrison said the sentences imposed on both were a message to other accountable institutions that they had to comply with the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, as well as the Prevention of Organised Crime Act. Morrison added: "When we come after them, this is the kind of fine they will have to pay." On the money laundering charges, the plea agreement said Maddock's conduct was deliberately orchestrated by Brown.
Source: Mail & Guardian
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