The Kennedy Thirteen were back at court on Friday for their 6th attempt at requesting bail. After two months in detention all charges were dropped against one of the thirteen, six were given bail and the other five were remanded in custody to give the police one more chance to bring some evidence against them to the court. The next court date has been set for 11 December 2009. This will be the 7th opportunity given to the police to provide some evidence of guilt.
As usual Jackson Gumede and Yakoob Baig were at the court and openly advising the prosecution. Gumede is the chairperson of the Branch Executive Committee of the ANC in Ward 25 and the man who seized control of the Kennedy Road settlement on 27th September 2009. Baig is the ANC Councillor for Ward 25 who said that 'harmony' had been restored after the attack on AbM. He was also at the settlement on 27th September and they both stood by while the homes of the Kennedy Road Development Committee and well known Abahlali baseMjondolo members were systematically demolished. Since the ANC seized control of the settlement extreme intimidation has continued in the settlement, including death threats and threats to demolish more people's homes. In fact another home was demolished yesterday, on Sunday 30 November. It is a crime to threaten to kill people if they are suspected of not supporting your political party. It is also a crime to demolish someone's house if they are suspected of not supporting your political party. But these crimes are not investigated. No one is arrested. It is clear that these crimes are carried out with the full support of the local police and the local ANC. Baig and Gumede are, at the very least, complicit with the ongoing and criminal political intimidation in the Kennedy Road settlement. Yet they are able to advise the prosecution. It is clear that the police and the court are there for the ANC and not for the people.
Source: abahlali baseMjondolo
Monday, November 30, 2009
South Africa: the war on commercial crime
The South African Insurance Crime Bureau was established in July 2008 to tackle fraud in the financial sector. What sort of progress has been made to date? Brian Sims talks to Hugo van Zyl, the organisation’s chief operating officer.
Imagine the scenario: you have invited several members of your family to your house for a barbecue and a lovely day catching up with the kids who are playing in the back garden. With all of your guests enjoying themselves, all of a sudden a gang of criminals rushes in, each member of the gang pointing guns at your family, threatening and terrifying everyone, stealing all their personal belongings, ransacking the house and leaving with the vehicles of the homeowners and the guests. Now imagine what would happen if someone tried to protect their family members and loved ones and was shot in the process? Just for their car.
Unfortunately, this is not uncommon in South Africa, where many people are now the unsuspecting victims of organised crime gangs. As hosts to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, and with the English cricket team touring here this coming winter, the world’s media spotlight is firmly placed on South Africa. However, despite the country’s best efforts to tackle the issue of serious, organised and violent crime, many reports are continually focusing on the negative aspects concerning the country’s poor reputation for being able to deal with the problem. Crimes such as burglary and theft are a huge issue in their own right, but within this a key area of concern is car jacking which, unlike in the UK, is often violent and has a major impact on society in South Africa (with many people losing their lives during these raids). This type of crime is extremely hazardous for all, threatening the physical safety of both the carjacker and the victim. To secure the car, the carjacker may sometimes shoot the victim or physically push/pull the victim out of the driver’s seat to force him or her out of the car.
Priority for the South African government
Tackling such crime is now a priority for the South African government, which has recently taken further steps to do so with the appointment of a new National Police Commissioner on 1 August 2009. A new specialised police unit designated the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), to be known as the Hawks, has also been set up to target organised crime, economic crime, corruption and other serious crime referred to it by the National Commissioner of the South African Police Service (SAPS).
The DPCI replaces the National Prosecuting Authority’s Directorate of Special Operations, which was known as the Scorpions, and has formed a close working relationship with various organisations, including the Department of Home Affairs, as part of an integrated and multidisciplinary approach to fighting crime. South Africa’s high crime level also has large financial implications, and adversely affects the short-term insurance industry because the higher the incidence of crime, the more insurance companies have to pay out in claims. One insurance company estimates that it costs them R360 million (approximately £27 million) and the overall South African economy R2 billion (approximately £150 million) on an annual basis. In the UK, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) estimates that around £1,6 billion of fraudulent insurance claims are made each year. Of this figure, up to £200 million is lost to organised insurance crime.
The impact of crime extends far beyond the bottom lines of insurance companies. Crime has a significant impact on the price that consumers pay for cover. In fact, crime is one of the three main factors influencing the cost of short-term insurance and, in the UK, adds up to £40 to the cost of each policy purchased. However, after taking guidance from the UK IFB (Insurance Fraud Bureau) and Swedish Fraud Bureau, a number of insurance companies in South Africa have joined forces to share information with the aim of helping to tackle insurance fraud and crime.
South African Insurance Crime Bureau
The South African Insurance Crime Bureau (SAICB), which was set up in July 2008 and represents 90% of South Africa’s short term insurance market, aims to address insurance crime and fraud within the industry, specifically syndicated and repeat offenders, as well as fraudsters that target multiple insurance companies.
Its role is to make it easier for member companies to share criminal intelligence by working together as ‘fusion centres’ with a centralised information management system from Memex, similar to that typically used in the law enforcement community. Working closely with local police, prosecuting authorities and the commercial Courts, the SAICB ensures insurance companies collect and manage all the necessary information to assist with investigations and to help prosecute offenders who are involved in crimes which affect the insurance companies.
The SAICB currently has 11 member companies on board including Santam, Mutual & Federal, Hollard, Zurich, Lion of Africa, Regent, OUTsurance, Absa Insurance, Standard Insurance, Telesure and MiWay and is in negotiations with several other companies.
While the SAICB was originally formed to address fraud and crime in the short term industry, it has received numerous enquiries about how to expand the function to include other organisations in the financial sector such as life assurance, banking and health insurance. Companies have realised the benefits of sharing information and expanding their database of intelligence, and are in talks with the Bureau with a view to joining in the future.
Joint approach between law enforcement and business
Hugo van Zyl, the chief operating officer at the SAICB, believes that adopting a joint approach with South Africa’s law enforcement and business communities, and using a centralised IT system, is the best way forward in being able to tackle serious organised crime in the country. In conversation with SMT Online, van Zyl commented: “It is vital for South Africa to show the world that it is committed to tackling the serious and organised crime that has plagued the country for so long, making for a safer environment for residents and visitors alike.”
Van Zyl was involved in the fight against organised crime for the last seven of his 25 years in the South African Police Service (SAPS). During his stay in the SAPS, he was involved in criminal intelligence and detective work and since then has worked for the short term insurer, OUTsurance, as the head of the National Forensic/Investigation Department. He joined the SAICB last year and oversees its current activities.
Van Zyl continued: “The idea for the Bureau came five years ago, as part of a joint effort between the SAIA (South African Insurance Association) Fraud Committee and Fraud Task Team as a possible way of addressing the costly and ever-present issue of insurance fraud. At the time, it was estimated that fraud from organised crime cost insurance companies around R2 billion every year. The industry needed a shake-up to tackle the issue and work together instead of against each other, which many were doing naturally as competitors.” He added: “Organisations needed to realise that there were many non-competitive aspects of the industry where collaboration between companies would improve working practices, and how putting in place a central organisation to act as the facilitator could really help tackle fraud across South Africa’s insurance industry and ultimately help reduce the incidence of dangerous crimes such as carjacking.”
Study visits to the UK and Sweden
A voluntary task team went to the United Kingdom to visit the UK IFB, as well as to Sweden to visit Larmtjanst AB, the Swedish crime investigation unit.
Van Zyl stated: “These two operations were selected because the UK IFB is a fairly recent operation that was established in July 2006, while the Swedish operation had been in place since 1961 in various formats. This combination offered lessons from a new operation as well as from an established operation and it was decided that the SAICB should combine the technological approach of the UK IFB with its collaborative data analysis, investigation and publicity and the investigative approach of Larmtjanst.” Much of the first few months was dedicated to the set-up of the not-for-profit organisation and the acquiring of premises and staff, while at the same time customising the central intelligence system to the special needs of the insurance environment, and the specific function of detecting possible fraudulent behaviour from the data.
The Bureau uses a Memex solution enabling secure input, management, development and information sharing across organisations. Each insurance company within the Bureau has its own share of the solution, ensuring secure access to competitive company information. The Memex solution acts as a central store that takes unclassified information from each company and makes it available for access by all authorised users. This is based on an agreement between all the parties involved in the SAICB regarding what information they are willing to share. The final stages involved commencing industry interaction and the integration of data into the central intelligence system, which was thoroughly tested with each member company. “The Bureau has configured the system so that it handles a number of cross-reference searches including street names, identity numbers and postal addresses across each insurance company’s database,” explained van Zyl. “One of the benefits of this system is that you are able to access all the information which is entered, so something which may not be of relevance today could be of relevance tomorrow. Any information entered which does not follow a certain structure actually sends an alert to the Bureau flagging a potential area for further investigation.”
Daily alerts and the Fraudline
As well as the central database, member companies have access to other services such as daily alerts, a monthly Newsletter, website and the Insurance Fraudline, where members of the public can report suspected incidents of fraud.
The Bureau has also just recently launched a new initiative to create and maintain a staff dishonesty database, which will allow member companies to identify ‘insiders’ who are helping the crime syndicates as well as vet potential employees. It is working with various committees to finalise the structure and format of the database, and is speaking to the member companies for input to ensure the industry is well informed on the purpose and value of the initiative. Van Zyl continued: “We are funded by the industry, for the benefit of the industry and it is important that we communicate what we are accomplishing. The Newsletter – the SAICB Report – features updates on how the Bureau is progressing, news on recent successes from committee members and a regular guest spot for partners and stakeholders to discuss current trends and issues within the industry.”
The success of the Bureau is also evident with its inception having led to several leads in new and ongoing investigations, as well as the sharing of information with member companies on queries. It is also currently involved in several multi-insurance company investigations – just one of these investigations encompasses seven insurers with the estimated costs involved in the millions of Rands.
Assistance on over 400 alleged frauds
Van Zyl explained: “We have received and assisted with the details of over 400 alleged fraud investigations from member companies and through the Insurance Fraudline. We have assisted the South African Revenue Service (SARS), South African Police Service (SAPS) and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) on a variety of ongoing investigations, facilitated several vehicle recoveries and assisted member companies with information that has led to their investigations reaching police involvement stage and prosecution.”
Looking to the future, van Zyl is optimistic that other industries will follow suit and that the whole insurance industry in South Africa will eventually be sharing information. He concluded: “It is well known that organisations which are not part of joint fraud investigation organisations such as the SAICB are often targeted because they will not have the information and resources at hand to fight fraud. Without all companies working together, both within the industry and in partnership with the police and National Prosecuting Authorities in their drive to tackle crime, the problem will continue to persist.”
Source: Hi-Tech Security Solutions
Imagine the scenario: you have invited several members of your family to your house for a barbecue and a lovely day catching up with the kids who are playing in the back garden. With all of your guests enjoying themselves, all of a sudden a gang of criminals rushes in, each member of the gang pointing guns at your family, threatening and terrifying everyone, stealing all their personal belongings, ransacking the house and leaving with the vehicles of the homeowners and the guests. Now imagine what would happen if someone tried to protect their family members and loved ones and was shot in the process? Just for their car.
Unfortunately, this is not uncommon in South Africa, where many people are now the unsuspecting victims of organised crime gangs. As hosts to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, and with the English cricket team touring here this coming winter, the world’s media spotlight is firmly placed on South Africa. However, despite the country’s best efforts to tackle the issue of serious, organised and violent crime, many reports are continually focusing on the negative aspects concerning the country’s poor reputation for being able to deal with the problem. Crimes such as burglary and theft are a huge issue in their own right, but within this a key area of concern is car jacking which, unlike in the UK, is often violent and has a major impact on society in South Africa (with many people losing their lives during these raids). This type of crime is extremely hazardous for all, threatening the physical safety of both the carjacker and the victim. To secure the car, the carjacker may sometimes shoot the victim or physically push/pull the victim out of the driver’s seat to force him or her out of the car.
Priority for the South African government
Tackling such crime is now a priority for the South African government, which has recently taken further steps to do so with the appointment of a new National Police Commissioner on 1 August 2009. A new specialised police unit designated the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), to be known as the Hawks, has also been set up to target organised crime, economic crime, corruption and other serious crime referred to it by the National Commissioner of the South African Police Service (SAPS).
The DPCI replaces the National Prosecuting Authority’s Directorate of Special Operations, which was known as the Scorpions, and has formed a close working relationship with various organisations, including the Department of Home Affairs, as part of an integrated and multidisciplinary approach to fighting crime. South Africa’s high crime level also has large financial implications, and adversely affects the short-term insurance industry because the higher the incidence of crime, the more insurance companies have to pay out in claims. One insurance company estimates that it costs them R360 million (approximately £27 million) and the overall South African economy R2 billion (approximately £150 million) on an annual basis. In the UK, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) estimates that around £1,6 billion of fraudulent insurance claims are made each year. Of this figure, up to £200 million is lost to organised insurance crime.
The impact of crime extends far beyond the bottom lines of insurance companies. Crime has a significant impact on the price that consumers pay for cover. In fact, crime is one of the three main factors influencing the cost of short-term insurance and, in the UK, adds up to £40 to the cost of each policy purchased. However, after taking guidance from the UK IFB (Insurance Fraud Bureau) and Swedish Fraud Bureau, a number of insurance companies in South Africa have joined forces to share information with the aim of helping to tackle insurance fraud and crime.
South African Insurance Crime Bureau
The South African Insurance Crime Bureau (SAICB), which was set up in July 2008 and represents 90% of South Africa’s short term insurance market, aims to address insurance crime and fraud within the industry, specifically syndicated and repeat offenders, as well as fraudsters that target multiple insurance companies.
Its role is to make it easier for member companies to share criminal intelligence by working together as ‘fusion centres’ with a centralised information management system from Memex, similar to that typically used in the law enforcement community. Working closely with local police, prosecuting authorities and the commercial Courts, the SAICB ensures insurance companies collect and manage all the necessary information to assist with investigations and to help prosecute offenders who are involved in crimes which affect the insurance companies.
The SAICB currently has 11 member companies on board including Santam, Mutual & Federal, Hollard, Zurich, Lion of Africa, Regent, OUTsurance, Absa Insurance, Standard Insurance, Telesure and MiWay and is in negotiations with several other companies.
While the SAICB was originally formed to address fraud and crime in the short term industry, it has received numerous enquiries about how to expand the function to include other organisations in the financial sector such as life assurance, banking and health insurance. Companies have realised the benefits of sharing information and expanding their database of intelligence, and are in talks with the Bureau with a view to joining in the future.
Joint approach between law enforcement and business
Hugo van Zyl, the chief operating officer at the SAICB, believes that adopting a joint approach with South Africa’s law enforcement and business communities, and using a centralised IT system, is the best way forward in being able to tackle serious organised crime in the country. In conversation with SMT Online, van Zyl commented: “It is vital for South Africa to show the world that it is committed to tackling the serious and organised crime that has plagued the country for so long, making for a safer environment for residents and visitors alike.”
Van Zyl was involved in the fight against organised crime for the last seven of his 25 years in the South African Police Service (SAPS). During his stay in the SAPS, he was involved in criminal intelligence and detective work and since then has worked for the short term insurer, OUTsurance, as the head of the National Forensic/Investigation Department. He joined the SAICB last year and oversees its current activities.
Van Zyl continued: “The idea for the Bureau came five years ago, as part of a joint effort between the SAIA (South African Insurance Association) Fraud Committee and Fraud Task Team as a possible way of addressing the costly and ever-present issue of insurance fraud. At the time, it was estimated that fraud from organised crime cost insurance companies around R2 billion every year. The industry needed a shake-up to tackle the issue and work together instead of against each other, which many were doing naturally as competitors.” He added: “Organisations needed to realise that there were many non-competitive aspects of the industry where collaboration between companies would improve working practices, and how putting in place a central organisation to act as the facilitator could really help tackle fraud across South Africa’s insurance industry and ultimately help reduce the incidence of dangerous crimes such as carjacking.”
Study visits to the UK and Sweden
A voluntary task team went to the United Kingdom to visit the UK IFB, as well as to Sweden to visit Larmtjanst AB, the Swedish crime investigation unit.
Van Zyl stated: “These two operations were selected because the UK IFB is a fairly recent operation that was established in July 2006, while the Swedish operation had been in place since 1961 in various formats. This combination offered lessons from a new operation as well as from an established operation and it was decided that the SAICB should combine the technological approach of the UK IFB with its collaborative data analysis, investigation and publicity and the investigative approach of Larmtjanst.” Much of the first few months was dedicated to the set-up of the not-for-profit organisation and the acquiring of premises and staff, while at the same time customising the central intelligence system to the special needs of the insurance environment, and the specific function of detecting possible fraudulent behaviour from the data.
The Bureau uses a Memex solution enabling secure input, management, development and information sharing across organisations. Each insurance company within the Bureau has its own share of the solution, ensuring secure access to competitive company information. The Memex solution acts as a central store that takes unclassified information from each company and makes it available for access by all authorised users. This is based on an agreement between all the parties involved in the SAICB regarding what information they are willing to share. The final stages involved commencing industry interaction and the integration of data into the central intelligence system, which was thoroughly tested with each member company. “The Bureau has configured the system so that it handles a number of cross-reference searches including street names, identity numbers and postal addresses across each insurance company’s database,” explained van Zyl. “One of the benefits of this system is that you are able to access all the information which is entered, so something which may not be of relevance today could be of relevance tomorrow. Any information entered which does not follow a certain structure actually sends an alert to the Bureau flagging a potential area for further investigation.”
Daily alerts and the Fraudline
As well as the central database, member companies have access to other services such as daily alerts, a monthly Newsletter, website and the Insurance Fraudline, where members of the public can report suspected incidents of fraud.
The Bureau has also just recently launched a new initiative to create and maintain a staff dishonesty database, which will allow member companies to identify ‘insiders’ who are helping the crime syndicates as well as vet potential employees. It is working with various committees to finalise the structure and format of the database, and is speaking to the member companies for input to ensure the industry is well informed on the purpose and value of the initiative. Van Zyl continued: “We are funded by the industry, for the benefit of the industry and it is important that we communicate what we are accomplishing. The Newsletter – the SAICB Report – features updates on how the Bureau is progressing, news on recent successes from committee members and a regular guest spot for partners and stakeholders to discuss current trends and issues within the industry.”
The success of the Bureau is also evident with its inception having led to several leads in new and ongoing investigations, as well as the sharing of information with member companies on queries. It is also currently involved in several multi-insurance company investigations – just one of these investigations encompasses seven insurers with the estimated costs involved in the millions of Rands.
Assistance on over 400 alleged frauds
Van Zyl explained: “We have received and assisted with the details of over 400 alleged fraud investigations from member companies and through the Insurance Fraudline. We have assisted the South African Revenue Service (SARS), South African Police Service (SAPS) and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) on a variety of ongoing investigations, facilitated several vehicle recoveries and assisted member companies with information that has led to their investigations reaching police involvement stage and prosecution.”
Looking to the future, van Zyl is optimistic that other industries will follow suit and that the whole insurance industry in South Africa will eventually be sharing information. He concluded: “It is well known that organisations which are not part of joint fraud investigation organisations such as the SAICB are often targeted because they will not have the information and resources at hand to fight fraud. Without all companies working together, both within the industry and in partnership with the police and National Prosecuting Authorities in their drive to tackle crime, the problem will continue to persist.”
Source: Hi-Tech Security Solutions
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Illegal Evictions Happening at Gunpoint in Mpola Now
Residents of Mpola informal settlement at Marrianridge, near Pinetown, spent Thursday rebuilding and repairing their shacks. This was after a group of armed municipal security guards had ransacked and demolished more than 20 shacks, leaving about 100 people homeless. The guards were acting on the orders of ward councillor Derrick Dimba.
The residents said that the evictions were illegal because the guards did not have an eviction court order. One, Lindiwe Ndlovu, said the guards ordered people out of their shacks before breaking them down. Sipho Hlambisa said he had to take time off from work to rebuild his shack. "If they want to evict us, they must be prepared to take us somewhere else. "They should not just remove our furniture and demolish our shacks." Dimba said he had sent the guards to demolish the shacks because the residents were occupying the land illegally. "The people invaded that land. "The area is not designed to be a residential area - the place is steep and it is near a stream. "The municipality has no plans to build houses or for any projects in that area." Dimba said eviction orders were necessary only where people had built proper houses.
Centre for Applied Legal Studies researcher Kate Tissington said, however, that an eviction without a court order was illegal, "and this most definitely is". "The occupiers of Mpola informal settlement are protected by the Prevention of Illegal Eviction Act and if the municipality wants to evict those living there, it needs to go through the eviction application process and get an order of court."
Tissington said the city had acted illegally by bypassing the act's provisions.
The eThekwini council speaker, James Nxumalo, said he understood that the city had to obtain a court order to evict people. He said although councillors acted as the eyes of the municipality, they did not have the right to evict people.
Source: Cape Times
The residents said that the evictions were illegal because the guards did not have an eviction court order. One, Lindiwe Ndlovu, said the guards ordered people out of their shacks before breaking them down. Sipho Hlambisa said he had to take time off from work to rebuild his shack. "If they want to evict us, they must be prepared to take us somewhere else. "They should not just remove our furniture and demolish our shacks." Dimba said he had sent the guards to demolish the shacks because the residents were occupying the land illegally. "The people invaded that land. "The area is not designed to be a residential area - the place is steep and it is near a stream. "The municipality has no plans to build houses or for any projects in that area." Dimba said eviction orders were necessary only where people had built proper houses.
Centre for Applied Legal Studies researcher Kate Tissington said, however, that an eviction without a court order was illegal, "and this most definitely is". "The occupiers of Mpola informal settlement are protected by the Prevention of Illegal Eviction Act and if the municipality wants to evict those living there, it needs to go through the eviction application process and get an order of court."
Tissington said the city had acted illegally by bypassing the act's provisions.
The eThekwini council speaker, James Nxumalo, said he understood that the city had to obtain a court order to evict people. He said although councillors acted as the eyes of the municipality, they did not have the right to evict people.
Source: Cape Times
South Africa: Illegal Evictions at Gunpoint
The eThekwini Municipality is currently illegally evicting families at gunpoint in Mpola. Thirty people already have been left homeless. The community requests all press to rush to the scene and to witness the rampant criminality of the eThekwini Municipality for themselves.
Five cars from the municipality arrived at 10am, with Blue Ants armed with rifles and shotguns. The demolition team is now breaking down brick houses. according to the demolition team the evictions were ordered by the notorious local ward Councillor Councillor Dimba. The evictions, happening now, are illegal and criminal acts. There was no notice, no consultation, no court order, and no alternative accommodation provided. Some families, whose homes already have been demolished, are at school and at work, and will return to find they have nowhere to sleep tonight. The eviction team demolished all the materials of the houses, including the roofs.
Some of the registration numbers demolition team’s cars are: NDM6904, NDM6902, NDM6903. The demolition team says the municipal official overseeing the eviction is Mr. Zulu (076 354 8921)
Source: anarkismo.net
Five cars from the municipality arrived at 10am, with Blue Ants armed with rifles and shotguns. The demolition team is now breaking down brick houses. according to the demolition team the evictions were ordered by the notorious local ward Councillor Councillor Dimba. The evictions, happening now, are illegal and criminal acts. There was no notice, no consultation, no court order, and no alternative accommodation provided. Some families, whose homes already have been demolished, are at school and at work, and will return to find they have nowhere to sleep tonight. The eviction team demolished all the materials of the houses, including the roofs.
Some of the registration numbers demolition team’s cars are: NDM6904, NDM6902, NDM6903. The demolition team says the municipal official overseeing the eviction is Mr. Zulu (076 354 8921)
Source: anarkismo.net
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Pak anti-terror court declares Lakhvi as 26/11 mastermind
A Pakistani anti-terrorism court formally charged seven suspects, including LeT commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, on Wednesday with planning and helping execute the Mumbai attacks, an action that came a day before the first anniversary of the brazen assault. The court also declared 16 people, including Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist, as "proclaimed offenders". The crew members of the two boats that ferried the 10 attackers to Mumbai are among them, sources said. Anti-terrorism court Judge Malik Muhammad Akram Awan, who is conducting the trial at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi for security reasons, framed the chargesheet against Lakhvi, Zarar Shah, Abu al-Qama, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jamil Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Younas Anjum.The court also rejected the bail pleas of some of the accused. The suspects protested as charges against them under the Anti-Terrorism Act and Pakistan Penal Code were read out, sources said. All seven pleaded not guilty, their lawyers said. The chargesheets came after an agonising spell of delays with India accusing Pakistan of not being serious in bringing to book the perpetrators of the 26/11 attacks. Shahbaz Rajput, one of the defence lawyers, said that the accused had pleaded not guilty as the charges against them were not backed up by evidence.
Lakhvi and the six other suspects were charged with providing accommodation and training facilities to the attackers as they prepared for the assault, the sources said. Kasab and nine others reached Mumbai through sea route on November 26, 2008 and targeted several places, including Taj Mahal Hotel and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, killing 166 people, including foreigners. The accused were also charged with arranging transportation, including boats, and communication equipment, including mobile phone sets and internet-based communication gear, for the terrorists, the sources said.
The court scheduled the next hearing of the case for December 5. At the last hearing of the case on Monday, the defence lawyers had contended that Kasab should be brought to Pakistan to face trial with the other accused. They had said that since Kasab is the lone surviving attacker and his confession to Indian authorities formed a crucial part of the case built by Pakistani authorities against their clients, he should be brought to Pakistan to face trial. Reporters are barred from covering the in-camera proceedings of the anti-terror court and there was no official word on today's proceedings. The indictment of the suspects had been expected for some time as the Federal Investigation Agency, which probed Pakistani links to the attacks, had drawn up its first chargesheet as far back as May. Since then, the judge has been changed twice.
The trial also became mired in confusion and controversy after the accused claimed the court had tried to indict them in the absence of their lawyers. They filed a petition in the Lahore High Court, which said the anti-terror court could proceed with the indictment only after addressing the grievances of the accused.
Source: BBC
Neither fit nor proper
Pierre De Voss, on his blog "Constitutionally Speaking" had the following to say about the appointment of Menzi Simelani as NDPP.
"The Constitution requires that the NDPP must be appropriately qualified and the NPA Act defines “appropriate qualification” as somebody who is: (i) a South Africa citizen; (ii) possesses legal qualifications that would entitle him or her to practice in all Courts in the Republic; and (iii) must be a fit and proper person, with due regard to his or her experience, conscientiousness and integrity to be entrusted with the responsibilities of the office concerned."
"Unfortunately, we know from the Report of the Ginwala Inquiry that Simelane is not honest. Neither is he reliable, nor does he possess the necessary truthfulness and uprightness required by the Act. His appointment is therefore not legally valid as he does not meet the MINIMUM requirements for the job."
"This is the darkest and most scandalous day yet in the short life of President Zuma’s tenure. The appointment shows an utter disregard for the Constitution and the law. It is nothing more than the actions of a gangster hell bent on protecting himself and his cronies. I feel ashamed that I have given our President the benefit of the doubt for all these months."
Other follow up articles by Pierre De Voss expand upon the views expressed above. They can be found in the following articles entitled:
Why Menzi Simelane is a liar
What would Simelane NOT do to protect the President from prosecution?
Our own Minister Ras Dumisani
Simelane: more unanswered questions
Source: Constitutionally Speaking
"The Constitution requires that the NDPP must be appropriately qualified and the NPA Act defines “appropriate qualification” as somebody who is: (i) a South Africa citizen; (ii) possesses legal qualifications that would entitle him or her to practice in all Courts in the Republic; and (iii) must be a fit and proper person, with due regard to his or her experience, conscientiousness and integrity to be entrusted with the responsibilities of the office concerned."
"Unfortunately, we know from the Report of the Ginwala Inquiry that Simelane is not honest. Neither is he reliable, nor does he possess the necessary truthfulness and uprightness required by the Act. His appointment is therefore not legally valid as he does not meet the MINIMUM requirements for the job."
"This is the darkest and most scandalous day yet in the short life of President Zuma’s tenure. The appointment shows an utter disregard for the Constitution and the law. It is nothing more than the actions of a gangster hell bent on protecting himself and his cronies. I feel ashamed that I have given our President the benefit of the doubt for all these months."
Other follow up articles by Pierre De Voss expand upon the views expressed above. They can be found in the following articles entitled:
Why Menzi Simelane is a liar
What would Simelane NOT do to protect the President from prosecution?
Our own Minister Ras Dumisani
Simelane: more unanswered questions
Source: Constitutionally Speaking
Simelane is new NPA head
Former justice director general Menzi Simelane has been appointed National Director for Public Prosecutions with effect from the December 1, the presidency said on Wednesday.
Source: IoL
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Pikoli, the NPA and the R7.5 million
Pierre De Voss on his blog "Constitutionally Speaking" wrote the following: "It is a pity that Vusi Pikoli decided not to embarrass the government by going ahead with his case in which he was challenging the lawfulness of his suspension and eventual firing as head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). Instead, after a marathon mediation process, Pikoli accepted a R7.5 million settlement in which the government admitted that Pikoli was “competent, somebody with integrity, and dutiful” – in other words that he was indeed a fit and proper person and should never have been fired – and that it respected the independence of the judiciary and the NPA.""This settlement to a large extent vindicates Pikoli and others who have maintained that he was fired on spurious grounds. Pikoli was obviously suspended by then President Thabo Mbeki because he failed to follow the unlawful instructions from then Minister of Justice Brigitte Mbandla, who took a few minutes out ohe her busy tea drinking schedule, to order him not to go ahead with the arrest of Jackie Selebi."
"Mbeki and Mbandla – as became clear at the Ginwala Inquiry – had a strange view of the constitutional requirement that the NDPP must act without fear, favour or prejudice and wrongly thought that the government had the power to order the NDPP to conduct specific investigations and arrests in a particular manner – something forbidden by the Constitution and not authorised by the NPA Act."Source: Constitutionally Speaking
Monday, November 23, 2009
NPA won't prosecute Gumede
IT mogul Robert Gumede will not be prosecuted for corruption. The National Prosecuting Authority recently informed Gumede's former business partner and complainant in the case, John Sterenborg, that it could not find "sufficient evidence to warrant a prosecution".
Sterenborg, who was Gumede's business partner in the smart-card manufacturer Applied Card Technologies (ACT), laid charges of corruption against Gumede in February 2007 relating to the awarding of a multimillion-rand phonecard tender by Telkom. ACT originally tendered for the Telkom contract, but was subsequently liquidated and bought by Gumede’s Gijima Afrika Smart Technologies (GAST).
Telkom awarded the tender to GAST in 2002 and Sterenborg accused Gumede, chairperson of listed IT company GijimaAST, of irregularly diverting business from ACT. GAST is not related to GijimaAST. In 2007 Sterenborg laid charges against Gumede with the police that Gumede allegedly bribed Telkom executives to obtain the tender. The case was referred by the police to the NPA's Specialised Commercial Crimes Court (SCCC) in Johannesburg, where prosecutor Pierre Tickner declined to prosecute the matter in June 2007. After making more representations to the NPA, Sterenborg got the case transferred back to the police who further investigated the matter.
However, Gideon Nkoana, a deputy director of public prosecutions at the SCCC, informed Sterenborg on November 2 this year that he was declining to prosecute the matter. "After painstaking perusal and consideration of the available evidence, including the additional evidence obtained by Captain Wie [the investigating officer], I am unable to find sufficient evidence to warrant a prosecution against either Gijima [sic] or Mr Robert Gumede. I therefore decline to prosecute," Nkoana wrote.
According to NPA spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga, the evidence discovered by the police after the case was referred back to it "still did not take the matter any further". Through his lawyer, Gumede declined to respond to questions. Sterenborg was travelling and unavailable to comment.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Sterenborg, who was Gumede's business partner in the smart-card manufacturer Applied Card Technologies (ACT), laid charges of corruption against Gumede in February 2007 relating to the awarding of a multimillion-rand phonecard tender by Telkom. ACT originally tendered for the Telkom contract, but was subsequently liquidated and bought by Gumede’s Gijima Afrika Smart Technologies (GAST).
Telkom awarded the tender to GAST in 2002 and Sterenborg accused Gumede, chairperson of listed IT company GijimaAST, of irregularly diverting business from ACT. GAST is not related to GijimaAST. In 2007 Sterenborg laid charges against Gumede with the police that Gumede allegedly bribed Telkom executives to obtain the tender. The case was referred by the police to the NPA's Specialised Commercial Crimes Court (SCCC) in Johannesburg, where prosecutor Pierre Tickner declined to prosecute the matter in June 2007. After making more representations to the NPA, Sterenborg got the case transferred back to the police who further investigated the matter.
However, Gideon Nkoana, a deputy director of public prosecutions at the SCCC, informed Sterenborg on November 2 this year that he was declining to prosecute the matter. "After painstaking perusal and consideration of the available evidence, including the additional evidence obtained by Captain Wie [the investigating officer], I am unable to find sufficient evidence to warrant a prosecution against either Gijima [sic] or Mr Robert Gumede. I therefore decline to prosecute," Nkoana wrote.
According to NPA spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga, the evidence discovered by the police after the case was referred back to it "still did not take the matter any further". Through his lawyer, Gumede declined to respond to questions. Sterenborg was travelling and unavailable to comment.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Pikoli settles for R7m
Former national director of public prosecutions Vusi Pikoli will walk away with R7,5-million after reaching an out of court agreement with the government, the Presidency announced on Saturday. The mediation comes just two days before the matter was to be heard in the North Gauteng High Court. "The two parties acknowledge that a breakdown took place in their relationship, and now wish to restore their relationship to one characterised by mutual trust and respect," presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said in a statement.
The terms of the agreement include, amongst others, that Pikoli withdraw the application before court. "Mr Pikoli shall be paid an amount of R7,5-million in full and final settlement," he said, adding that the government welcomed the "successful" conclusion of this matter.
Pikoli took the government to court over his non-reinstatement after being cleared by the Ginwala Commission. He believes he lost his job because he decided to prosecute former national police commissioner Jackie Selebi.
Source: IoL
Friday, November 20, 2009
SACP sees red over Malema
The SA Communist Party on Friday defended its general secretary, Jeremy Cronin, after ANC Youth League president Julius Malema lambasted the former's stance on nationalising the mines. "We find it very strange and politically dishonest that whilst on the one hand the ANCYL calls for a debate on the question of nationalisation, yet, on the other hand, it throws insults on those who are taking up the debate," the SACP said in a statement.
It condemned "in the strongest possible terms" the insults hurled at Cronin by Malema in a response to an SACP article on mine nationalisation. Malema described the piece, penned by Cronin, as "openly reactionary".
Cronin provided an analysis of the issues surrounding the nationalisation of the mines. In it, he criticised Malema and the league's calling for nationalisation, saying: "Comrade Malema hasn't always helped his case with off-the-wall sound-bytes. "The impression of a policy being made on the hoof, individualistically, is reinforced by the fact that we are yet to see any serious attempt at a collective policy document on this matter from the ANCYL." He added: "I suspect that comrade Malema and others are missing this bigger systemic picture because when they speak of mineral beneficiation they are thinking of bling... sorry, jewellery."
Malema responded to the piece by describing it as reactionary "clothed in quasi-Marxist rhetoric, with potential to make a sorry and sad reflection of the true character of the SACP's ideological steadfastness". He said he did "not need the permission of white political messiahs to think". Malema said it was "sad" that Cronin had "decided to isolate me" from a league resolution in which it outlines its stance on nationalisation: "... the State should be custodian of the people in its ownership, extraction, production and trade of mineral wealth beneath the soil, monopoly industries and banks."
On mineral beneficiation, Malema said Cronin had reduced the league's call for this to an "obsession with bling". "It is sad that previously those who look like us were considered intellectually inferior by the white supremacists, and today Comrade Jeremy reflects the same sentiment, even before he interacts with the views of the ANCYL," Malema said.
The SACP called on Malema to discuss the issue in a "principled and comradely manner without resorting to the Mbeki-era type of insults against the leaders of our party". It said it had invited the league to take part in its political school last month, where it had discussed nationalisation, but the league had not attended.
Source: IoL
It condemned "in the strongest possible terms" the insults hurled at Cronin by Malema in a response to an SACP article on mine nationalisation. Malema described the piece, penned by Cronin, as "openly reactionary".
Cronin provided an analysis of the issues surrounding the nationalisation of the mines. In it, he criticised Malema and the league's calling for nationalisation, saying: "Comrade Malema hasn't always helped his case with off-the-wall sound-bytes. "The impression of a policy being made on the hoof, individualistically, is reinforced by the fact that we are yet to see any serious attempt at a collective policy document on this matter from the ANCYL." He added: "I suspect that comrade Malema and others are missing this bigger systemic picture because when they speak of mineral beneficiation they are thinking of bling... sorry, jewellery."
Malema responded to the piece by describing it as reactionary "clothed in quasi-Marxist rhetoric, with potential to make a sorry and sad reflection of the true character of the SACP's ideological steadfastness". He said he did "not need the permission of white political messiahs to think". Malema said it was "sad" that Cronin had "decided to isolate me" from a league resolution in which it outlines its stance on nationalisation: "... the State should be custodian of the people in its ownership, extraction, production and trade of mineral wealth beneath the soil, monopoly industries and banks."
On mineral beneficiation, Malema said Cronin had reduced the league's call for this to an "obsession with bling". "It is sad that previously those who look like us were considered intellectually inferior by the white supremacists, and today Comrade Jeremy reflects the same sentiment, even before he interacts with the views of the ANCYL," Malema said.
The SACP called on Malema to discuss the issue in a "principled and comradely manner without resorting to the Mbeki-era type of insults against the leaders of our party". It said it had invited the league to take part in its political school last month, where it had discussed nationalisation, but the league had not attended.
Source: IoL
Prisons graft: Bosasa's empire of influence
The company at the centre of South Africa’s prison corruption scandal is closely connected to powerful individuals on the political landscape, including the country’s new spy boss, Gibson Njenje. A number of them were also close to Thabo Mbeki’s presidency.
Bosasa Operations, exposed this week in Parliament for allegedly bribing top prison officials to secure contracts worth more than R1,7-billion, makes a killing from government business. This includes work for the departments of correctional services, justice, home affairs, transport and the provincial governments of Gauteng and the Eastern Cape. Bosasa’s chief executive, Gavin Watson, has close links with the governing ANC through his family’s anti-apartheid struggle credentials and his brothers’ post-1994 business interests. Njenje is a founding member of Bosasa Operations and was a director of the company before being appointed head of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) in October.
A number of people benefiting from Bosasa contracts or linked to Watson and his family had links to Mbeki’s office, including the ex-president’s political adviser, Titus Mafolo, and Mbeki’s head of office, Lorato Phalatse, who is married to former Strategic Fuel Fund chairperson Seth Phalatse. Watson’s brother, Valence, is the chief executive of Vulisango Holdings, the empowerment partner of controversial mining firm Simmer & Jack. Valence Watson’s business partners include Nozuko Pikoli, the wife of axed prosecutions boss Vusi Pikoli, and Siviwe Mapisa, the brother of Correctional Services Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula.
Mapisa-Nqakula told the M&G this week that she knows Gavin Watson. “Mr Watson is a former CEO of Dyambu Holdings, a company the minister was formerly affiliated to. Mr Watson resigned from Dyambu and went on to form Bosasa. The minister has had no contact with him since then.” According to the minister, she has “no relationship with Bosasa nor has she benefited from the operations of Bosasa”. She is “not aware of any relationships members of her family may have” with Bosasa. The M&G can reveal that Bosasa is seeking to interdict the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) and President Jacob Zuma from continuing its investigation into tender rigging.
In its frantic efforts to halt the SIU’s graft probe -- which could lead to both civil and criminal charges -- Bosasa claims that the SIU leaked sensitive information to the Mail & Guardian that resulted in a “trial by press”. Bosasa is referring to a series of M&G exposés of collusion between Bosasa and senior correctional services officials, including former prisons’ boss Linda Mti and the department’s former chief financial officer, Patrick Gilllingham. Zuma’s involvement in the case stems from Mbeki’s authorisation, as president, of the SIU probe into Bosasa. The SIU and Zuma are defending the matter.
The Bosasa group has benefited from prison tenders worth more than R3-billion since 2004. SIU head Willie Hofmeyr shocked Parliament with sordid tales of corruption inside South Africa’s prisons, disclosing details about how Bosasa put the likes of Gillingham and Mti firmly in its pocket. Hofmeyr’s briefing also raised uncomfortable questions about why Mapisa-Nqakula has been sitting on the SIU report from at least mid-September. It is the duty of the minister -- Mapisa-Nqakula -- or of the acting prisons commissioner, Jenny Schreiner, to launch a civil claim against Bosasa. Hofmeyr said on Tuesday: “It is a matter that justifies the institution of legal proceedings by the department to recover damages from the company.”
Mapisa-Nqakula, who was appointed by Zuma in May to head the prisons department, originally said she had to present the SIU report to Cabinet before releasing it. Her spokesperson, Sonwabo Mbananga, later told the M&G that this release was on hold because of Bosasa’s pending legal action against the SIU. The M&G now has access to the court papers filed by Bosasa against the SIU. Nowhere does it seek to interdict the SIU or Zuma from releasing the final report. Instead the applications focus on the alleged tainting of the probe due to media leaks.
Approached again after Hofmeyr’s explosive briefing to Parliament, Mbananga remained adamant: the minister would still not release the report because the SIU has referred it to the National Prosecuting Authority “and therefore the contents ... are sub judice”. Bosasa’s spokesperson, Papa Leshabane, denied the corruption claims, labelling Hofmeyr’s briefing as “speculative, arrived at without hearing Bosasa, are disputed and will be dealt with in the appropriate forum”. Bosasa also disputes the way in which Hofmeyr dealt with the matter at Parliament. According to Leshabane, their attorneys have advised them that Hofmeyr went beyond the powers of the SIU, acted unlawfully and breached Bosasa’s constitutional rights.
Although Hofmeyr evidently referred to Bosasa, Mti and Gillingham in his briefing, he didn’t name them, citing pending legal action against his unit. Hofmeyr’s presentation this week vindicated the M&G’s revelations in February that Bosasa had access to tender documents before they were publicly advertised. Bosasa is demanding R500 000 from the M&G for referring to a “corrupt relationship” between the group and the department of correctional services.
Bosasa’s strategy to avoid penalties is two-pronged. First, it is pursuing an application for an interdict preventing the SIU from continuing its investigation until the court has made a final decision. The application is brought by Bosasa Operations, the company’s operations coordinator Angelo Agrizzi, financial coordinator Andries van Tonder, buyer Frans Vorster and Watson. The four men were given notices by the SIU to provide certain documentation during interrogation by the unit.
The applicants claim that the SIU’s probe is tainted because of alleged media leaks and the handling of a seizure operation at Bosasa’s premises. In reply the SIU denies leaking information to the M&G and accuses Bosasa of activating a “data deletion utility” on Bosasa’s servers shortly before the SIU arrived.
In the second court action the plaintiffs ask the court for a permanent order against the SIU, “declaring the entire process of the first defendant’s (SIU) investigations into the plaintiffs to be fundamentally tainted”. Hofmeyr’s presentation brought into sharp focus again Bosasa’s astonishing success in winning government tenders. Even after 2007, when it became publicly known that Bosasa was under investigation for tender rigging, the group continued to secure lucrative contracts from the justice department and the Eastern Cape.
The group’s most recent tender is a R3,9-billion contract awarded by the Eastern Cape to Phakisa Fleet Solution, a Bosasa company, to manage the provincial fleet of vehicles. At the time when the Bosasa group was awarded its first major prisons contract for catering in 2004, the company was owned by Watson’s family trust (26%), Bosasa directors Carol Mkele (33,3%) and Joe Gumede (18,5%), and the Bosasa Employees Trust (22,2%). Between 2004 and 2006 three companies in the group -- Bosasa Operations, Sondolo IT and Phezulu Fencing -- were awarded six tenders by the prisons department at the value of R1,8-billion.
The SIU’s probe focused on four tenders: a catering tender for R717-million over three years; an access control tender at R237-million; a fencing contract for R587-million, and a tender for TV systems in prisons at a cost of R224-million. Hofmeyr’s probe found that in almost all cases Bosasa was involved in the drafting of tender specifications and that procurement policies were severely discounted.
Former correctional services chief Linda Mti is a Teflon man. Though he has been involved in numerous controversies and charges, he has never been censured, writes Adriaan Basson. Despite being arrested for drunk driving on at least three occasions and being convicted twice, he still heads security for the 2010 World Cup local organising committee (LOC) with no hint of any action against him.
Hofmeyr’s briefing to Parliament this week adds weight to the suspicion that Mti received more than free air tickets and hotel accommodation from Bosasa, as reported by the M&G in February. Hofmeyr, though not naming Mti directly, told how Bosasa paid architects to design Mti’s house in the luxury Savannah Hills Estate in Midrand. The only concrete penalty Mti has faced to date is the confiscation of his driver’s licence for six months and a R20 000 fine or two months’ imprisonment in his home town, Port Elizabeth, last month. Mti pleaded guilty to drunk driving and paid the fine. In 1992 Mti was also convicted of drunk driving in Port Elizabeth. He was sentenced to two months in prison with the option of a R400 fine. Mti paid the fine. Two years later he was appointed a member of Parliament for the ANC and shortly after that as the country’s national intelligence coordinator.
In 2006 Mti was again arrested on suspicion of driving drunk, this time in Johannesburg. He was acquitted in 2008. At the same time Beeld revealed that he had a business relationship with Bosasa’s company secretary, Tony Perry. Mti was not reprimanded, but he was redeployed from the prisons department to the 2010 LOC to head security. Last month’s conviction after his guilty plea to drunk driving related to a car crash in Port Elizabeth in 2005. He also received a six-month sentence suspended for five years. The LOC has since responded that they still trust him. Mti declined to comment and said the M&G should refer inquiries to the Special Investigating Unit.
Suspended senior prisons official Patrick Gillingham’s opulent lifestyle, allegedly partly bankrolled by Bosasa, was laid bare this week in Parliament. The former finance chief of the prisons department was presented as a main beneficiary in the irregular awarding of lucrative tenders. The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) claims that he was handsomely rewarded for his loyalty to the company. The “at least” R2.1-million of kickbacks allegedly paid to Gillingham included cars for him and his children, rugby tickets at Loftus Versfeld, an overseas trip for his daughter and a house in an exclusive Midrand estate. Court papers before the North Gauteng High Court also mention the cars for his children, but Gillingham’s lawyer Ian Small-Smith this week denied his client’s guilt. “It is factually incorrect to allege that Bosasa Operations and/or any company in the Bosasa group purchased the vehicles in question. Upon proper investigations it would be revealed that not Bosasa Operations, or any company in the Bosasa group, had anything to do with the purchase of the vehicles.” Gillingham does not have a tertiary qualification.
Beeld reported in 2006 that he was managing the department’s budget of more than R9-million a year with only a matric certificate. After school Gillingham joined the prisons service as a warder. His personal and professional lives soon converged when he married the daughter of a senior prisons official in the apartheid regime.
Gillingham’s career in correctional services bloomed. He quickly rose through the ranks to become functional services director and later KwaZulu-Natal’s commissioner, before being promoted to the chief financial officer position. In 2007 it seems Gillingham was becoming a liaibility. He was moved to the position of regional commissioner for Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West -- a move perceived as a demotion and linked to his involvement in the Bosasa saga that was starting to hit the headlines. In September last year he was suspended by former prisons boss Vernie Petersen after he [Petersen] was presented by the SIU with a draft report of its findings.
Gillingham has been on paid leave ever since. During his tenure as chief financial officer, Gillingham was a confidant of both prisons boss Linda Mti and his minister Ngconde Balfour.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Bosasa Operations, exposed this week in Parliament for allegedly bribing top prison officials to secure contracts worth more than R1,7-billion, makes a killing from government business. This includes work for the departments of correctional services, justice, home affairs, transport and the provincial governments of Gauteng and the Eastern Cape. Bosasa’s chief executive, Gavin Watson, has close links with the governing ANC through his family’s anti-apartheid struggle credentials and his brothers’ post-1994 business interests. Njenje is a founding member of Bosasa Operations and was a director of the company before being appointed head of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) in October.
A number of people benefiting from Bosasa contracts or linked to Watson and his family had links to Mbeki’s office, including the ex-president’s political adviser, Titus Mafolo, and Mbeki’s head of office, Lorato Phalatse, who is married to former Strategic Fuel Fund chairperson Seth Phalatse. Watson’s brother, Valence, is the chief executive of Vulisango Holdings, the empowerment partner of controversial mining firm Simmer & Jack. Valence Watson’s business partners include Nozuko Pikoli, the wife of axed prosecutions boss Vusi Pikoli, and Siviwe Mapisa, the brother of Correctional Services Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula.
Mapisa-Nqakula told the M&G this week that she knows Gavin Watson. “Mr Watson is a former CEO of Dyambu Holdings, a company the minister was formerly affiliated to. Mr Watson resigned from Dyambu and went on to form Bosasa. The minister has had no contact with him since then.” According to the minister, she has “no relationship with Bosasa nor has she benefited from the operations of Bosasa”. She is “not aware of any relationships members of her family may have” with Bosasa. The M&G can reveal that Bosasa is seeking to interdict the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) and President Jacob Zuma from continuing its investigation into tender rigging.
In its frantic efforts to halt the SIU’s graft probe -- which could lead to both civil and criminal charges -- Bosasa claims that the SIU leaked sensitive information to the Mail & Guardian that resulted in a “trial by press”. Bosasa is referring to a series of M&G exposés of collusion between Bosasa and senior correctional services officials, including former prisons’ boss Linda Mti and the department’s former chief financial officer, Patrick Gilllingham. Zuma’s involvement in the case stems from Mbeki’s authorisation, as president, of the SIU probe into Bosasa. The SIU and Zuma are defending the matter.
The Bosasa group has benefited from prison tenders worth more than R3-billion since 2004. SIU head Willie Hofmeyr shocked Parliament with sordid tales of corruption inside South Africa’s prisons, disclosing details about how Bosasa put the likes of Gillingham and Mti firmly in its pocket. Hofmeyr’s briefing also raised uncomfortable questions about why Mapisa-Nqakula has been sitting on the SIU report from at least mid-September. It is the duty of the minister -- Mapisa-Nqakula -- or of the acting prisons commissioner, Jenny Schreiner, to launch a civil claim against Bosasa. Hofmeyr said on Tuesday: “It is a matter that justifies the institution of legal proceedings by the department to recover damages from the company.”
Mapisa-Nqakula, who was appointed by Zuma in May to head the prisons department, originally said she had to present the SIU report to Cabinet before releasing it. Her spokesperson, Sonwabo Mbananga, later told the M&G that this release was on hold because of Bosasa’s pending legal action against the SIU. The M&G now has access to the court papers filed by Bosasa against the SIU. Nowhere does it seek to interdict the SIU or Zuma from releasing the final report. Instead the applications focus on the alleged tainting of the probe due to media leaks.
Approached again after Hofmeyr’s explosive briefing to Parliament, Mbananga remained adamant: the minister would still not release the report because the SIU has referred it to the National Prosecuting Authority “and therefore the contents ... are sub judice”. Bosasa’s spokesperson, Papa Leshabane, denied the corruption claims, labelling Hofmeyr’s briefing as “speculative, arrived at without hearing Bosasa, are disputed and will be dealt with in the appropriate forum”. Bosasa also disputes the way in which Hofmeyr dealt with the matter at Parliament. According to Leshabane, their attorneys have advised them that Hofmeyr went beyond the powers of the SIU, acted unlawfully and breached Bosasa’s constitutional rights.
Although Hofmeyr evidently referred to Bosasa, Mti and Gillingham in his briefing, he didn’t name them, citing pending legal action against his unit. Hofmeyr’s presentation this week vindicated the M&G’s revelations in February that Bosasa had access to tender documents before they were publicly advertised. Bosasa is demanding R500 000 from the M&G for referring to a “corrupt relationship” between the group and the department of correctional services.
Bosasa’s strategy to avoid penalties is two-pronged. First, it is pursuing an application for an interdict preventing the SIU from continuing its investigation until the court has made a final decision. The application is brought by Bosasa Operations, the company’s operations coordinator Angelo Agrizzi, financial coordinator Andries van Tonder, buyer Frans Vorster and Watson. The four men were given notices by the SIU to provide certain documentation during interrogation by the unit.
The applicants claim that the SIU’s probe is tainted because of alleged media leaks and the handling of a seizure operation at Bosasa’s premises. In reply the SIU denies leaking information to the M&G and accuses Bosasa of activating a “data deletion utility” on Bosasa’s servers shortly before the SIU arrived.
In the second court action the plaintiffs ask the court for a permanent order against the SIU, “declaring the entire process of the first defendant’s (SIU) investigations into the plaintiffs to be fundamentally tainted”. Hofmeyr’s presentation brought into sharp focus again Bosasa’s astonishing success in winning government tenders. Even after 2007, when it became publicly known that Bosasa was under investigation for tender rigging, the group continued to secure lucrative contracts from the justice department and the Eastern Cape.
The group’s most recent tender is a R3,9-billion contract awarded by the Eastern Cape to Phakisa Fleet Solution, a Bosasa company, to manage the provincial fleet of vehicles. At the time when the Bosasa group was awarded its first major prisons contract for catering in 2004, the company was owned by Watson’s family trust (26%), Bosasa directors Carol Mkele (33,3%) and Joe Gumede (18,5%), and the Bosasa Employees Trust (22,2%). Between 2004 and 2006 three companies in the group -- Bosasa Operations, Sondolo IT and Phezulu Fencing -- were awarded six tenders by the prisons department at the value of R1,8-billion.
The SIU’s probe focused on four tenders: a catering tender for R717-million over three years; an access control tender at R237-million; a fencing contract for R587-million, and a tender for TV systems in prisons at a cost of R224-million. Hofmeyr’s probe found that in almost all cases Bosasa was involved in the drafting of tender specifications and that procurement policies were severely discounted.
Former correctional services chief Linda Mti is a Teflon man. Though he has been involved in numerous controversies and charges, he has never been censured, writes Adriaan Basson. Despite being arrested for drunk driving on at least three occasions and being convicted twice, he still heads security for the 2010 World Cup local organising committee (LOC) with no hint of any action against him.
Hofmeyr’s briefing to Parliament this week adds weight to the suspicion that Mti received more than free air tickets and hotel accommodation from Bosasa, as reported by the M&G in February. Hofmeyr, though not naming Mti directly, told how Bosasa paid architects to design Mti’s house in the luxury Savannah Hills Estate in Midrand. The only concrete penalty Mti has faced to date is the confiscation of his driver’s licence for six months and a R20 000 fine or two months’ imprisonment in his home town, Port Elizabeth, last month. Mti pleaded guilty to drunk driving and paid the fine. In 1992 Mti was also convicted of drunk driving in Port Elizabeth. He was sentenced to two months in prison with the option of a R400 fine. Mti paid the fine. Two years later he was appointed a member of Parliament for the ANC and shortly after that as the country’s national intelligence coordinator.
In 2006 Mti was again arrested on suspicion of driving drunk, this time in Johannesburg. He was acquitted in 2008. At the same time Beeld revealed that he had a business relationship with Bosasa’s company secretary, Tony Perry. Mti was not reprimanded, but he was redeployed from the prisons department to the 2010 LOC to head security. Last month’s conviction after his guilty plea to drunk driving related to a car crash in Port Elizabeth in 2005. He also received a six-month sentence suspended for five years. The LOC has since responded that they still trust him. Mti declined to comment and said the M&G should refer inquiries to the Special Investigating Unit.
Suspended senior prisons official Patrick Gillingham’s opulent lifestyle, allegedly partly bankrolled by Bosasa, was laid bare this week in Parliament. The former finance chief of the prisons department was presented as a main beneficiary in the irregular awarding of lucrative tenders. The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) claims that he was handsomely rewarded for his loyalty to the company. The “at least” R2.1-million of kickbacks allegedly paid to Gillingham included cars for him and his children, rugby tickets at Loftus Versfeld, an overseas trip for his daughter and a house in an exclusive Midrand estate. Court papers before the North Gauteng High Court also mention the cars for his children, but Gillingham’s lawyer Ian Small-Smith this week denied his client’s guilt. “It is factually incorrect to allege that Bosasa Operations and/or any company in the Bosasa group purchased the vehicles in question. Upon proper investigations it would be revealed that not Bosasa Operations, or any company in the Bosasa group, had anything to do with the purchase of the vehicles.” Gillingham does not have a tertiary qualification.
Beeld reported in 2006 that he was managing the department’s budget of more than R9-million a year with only a matric certificate. After school Gillingham joined the prisons service as a warder. His personal and professional lives soon converged when he married the daughter of a senior prisons official in the apartheid regime.
Gillingham’s career in correctional services bloomed. He quickly rose through the ranks to become functional services director and later KwaZulu-Natal’s commissioner, before being promoted to the chief financial officer position. In 2007 it seems Gillingham was becoming a liaibility. He was moved to the position of regional commissioner for Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West -- a move perceived as a demotion and linked to his involvement in the Bosasa saga that was starting to hit the headlines. In September last year he was suspended by former prisons boss Vernie Petersen after he [Petersen] was presented by the SIU with a draft report of its findings.
Gillingham has been on paid leave ever since. During his tenure as chief financial officer, Gillingham was a confidant of both prisons boss Linda Mti and his minister Ngconde Balfour.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Foreclosure Rescue Scams & Loan Modification Fraud
On November 17, 2009, the Departments of Justice, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced the establishment of an interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to strengthen efforts to combat financial crime. The task force's leadership, along with representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities and inspectors general, will work with state and local partners to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, address discrimination in the lending and financial markets, and recover proceeds for victims. In prepared remarks for a news conference regarding the task force, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner announced that "Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has pursued more than 100 cases, partnering with 31 state attorneys general who are aggressively cracking down on mortgage fraud and are shutting down suspect companies."
Two months earlier on September 17, 2009, Secretary Geithner hosted FinCEN Director Jim Freis, Attorney General Eric Holder, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Jon Leibowitz, and attorneys general from 12 states to discuss emerging trends and strategies to combat fraud against consumers in the housing markets as well as best practices to bolster coordination across State and Federal agencies. Participating in the meeting were attorneys general Dustin McDaniel, Arkansas; Terry Goddard, Arizona; Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut; Lisa Madigan, Illinois; Tom Miller, Iowa; Doug Gansler, Maryland; Chris Koster, Missouri; Catherine Cortez Masto, Nevada; Roy Cooper, North Carolina; Richard Cordray, Ohio (by phone); Patrick Lynch, Rhode Island; Rob McKenna, Washington (by phone). Collectively, these offices have taken action on scores of fraud cases in the housing markets and opened hundreds of investigations.
Treasury, FinCEN, DOJ, HUD, and the FTC are committed to curbing abuse by coordinating information and focusing resources in their fraud investigations. This includes alerting financial institutions to emerging schemes, stepping up enforcement actions, and educating consumers to help those in financial trouble avoid becoming the victims of a loan modification or foreclosure rescue scam.
At the September event, the FTC announced two new law enforcement actions in a continuing crackdown on mortgage foreclosure rescue and loan modification scams, bringing to 22 the number of these cases the Commission has filed since the housing crisis began. The FTC also announced developments in similar pending mortgage-related actions, several of which have involved coordinated case work from FinCEN.
This meeting followed up on an announcement by the Obama Administration in April of a multi-agency crackdown on foreclosure rescue scams and loan modification fraud, aligning responses from Federal law enforcement agencies, State investigators and prosecutors, civil enforcement authorities, and the private sector to protect homeowners seeking assistance under the Administration's Making Home Affordable program from criminal actors looking to perpetrate predatory schemes.
At the April event, Treasury and FinCEN announced an advanced targeting effort to combat fraudulent loan modification schemes and coordinate ongoing efforts across agencies to investigate fraud and assist with enforcement and prosecutions. In less than a week, FinCEN's new targeting effort produced leads that helped various agencies halt the illegal practices of those offering loan modification or foreclosure scams. FinCEN continues to marshal information about possible fraudulent actors, drawing upon a variety of data available to law enforcement, regulatory agencies, and the consumer protection community, for the purpose of identifying and proactively referring potential criminal targets to participating law enforcement authorities.
In addition, Treasury has issued an advisory through FinCEN, alerting financial institutions to the risks of emerging schemes related to loan modifications. The advisory identifies certain "red flags" that may indicate a loan modification or foreclosure rescue scam and warrant the filing of a SAR by a financial institution. Examples of possible signs of fraudulent activity, such as requiring that fees be paid before services are provided, are listed in the advisory. In addition, the advisory requests that financial institutions include the term "foreclosure rescue scam" in the narrative sections of all relevant SARs.
For information on the Administration's Making Home Affordable program, please visit www.MakingHomeAffordable.gov.
Source: Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
Two months earlier on September 17, 2009, Secretary Geithner hosted FinCEN Director Jim Freis, Attorney General Eric Holder, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Jon Leibowitz, and attorneys general from 12 states to discuss emerging trends and strategies to combat fraud against consumers in the housing markets as well as best practices to bolster coordination across State and Federal agencies. Participating in the meeting were attorneys general Dustin McDaniel, Arkansas; Terry Goddard, Arizona; Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut; Lisa Madigan, Illinois; Tom Miller, Iowa; Doug Gansler, Maryland; Chris Koster, Missouri; Catherine Cortez Masto, Nevada; Roy Cooper, North Carolina; Richard Cordray, Ohio (by phone); Patrick Lynch, Rhode Island; Rob McKenna, Washington (by phone). Collectively, these offices have taken action on scores of fraud cases in the housing markets and opened hundreds of investigations.
Treasury, FinCEN, DOJ, HUD, and the FTC are committed to curbing abuse by coordinating information and focusing resources in their fraud investigations. This includes alerting financial institutions to emerging schemes, stepping up enforcement actions, and educating consumers to help those in financial trouble avoid becoming the victims of a loan modification or foreclosure rescue scam.
At the September event, the FTC announced two new law enforcement actions in a continuing crackdown on mortgage foreclosure rescue and loan modification scams, bringing to 22 the number of these cases the Commission has filed since the housing crisis began. The FTC also announced developments in similar pending mortgage-related actions, several of which have involved coordinated case work from FinCEN.
This meeting followed up on an announcement by the Obama Administration in April of a multi-agency crackdown on foreclosure rescue scams and loan modification fraud, aligning responses from Federal law enforcement agencies, State investigators and prosecutors, civil enforcement authorities, and the private sector to protect homeowners seeking assistance under the Administration's Making Home Affordable program from criminal actors looking to perpetrate predatory schemes.
At the April event, Treasury and FinCEN announced an advanced targeting effort to combat fraudulent loan modification schemes and coordinate ongoing efforts across agencies to investigate fraud and assist with enforcement and prosecutions. In less than a week, FinCEN's new targeting effort produced leads that helped various agencies halt the illegal practices of those offering loan modification or foreclosure scams. FinCEN continues to marshal information about possible fraudulent actors, drawing upon a variety of data available to law enforcement, regulatory agencies, and the consumer protection community, for the purpose of identifying and proactively referring potential criminal targets to participating law enforcement authorities.
In addition, Treasury has issued an advisory through FinCEN, alerting financial institutions to the risks of emerging schemes related to loan modifications. The advisory identifies certain "red flags" that may indicate a loan modification or foreclosure rescue scam and warrant the filing of a SAR by a financial institution. Examples of possible signs of fraudulent activity, such as requiring that fees be paid before services are provided, are listed in the advisory. In addition, the advisory requests that financial institutions include the term "foreclosure rescue scam" in the narrative sections of all relevant SARs.
For information on the Administration's Making Home Affordable program, please visit www.MakingHomeAffordable.gov.
Source: Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
Monday, November 16, 2009
Sexwale: R1,3bn to rebuild badly constructed houses
It would cost R1,3-billion to rebuild badly constructed houses provided under the government's housing programme, Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale said on Monday. "It's a national shame. This is money down the drain. It is money that should have been spent on new houses," Sexwale said during a visit to the Alphendale community in East London, where 339 poorly constructed houses have to be rebuilt.
He laid the blame for the poor service delivery on corruption by construction companies and government officials. "Wrong things are being done in the name of government," he said. "These are people we have entrusted with government jobs and government contracts -- they are supposed to serve the people, but they are thieves. If you are corrupt, get out," he said. "We want to know who built these houses. We need to ask serious questions and bring people to book. We are going to fix the problem, but we are also going to fix the people who caused the problem." "Where we are given knowledge and information you can trust us, we will act."
Sexwale introduced a national audit task team charged with investigating irregularities in the housing system. It is led by Special Investigations Unit (SIU) head Willie Hofmeyr and a senior representative of the Auditor General's office."We are working with the SIU because they have the power to investigate, but they also have the power to institute criminal and civil action," Sexwale explained. "But they don't work alone. They are also working with the office of the Auditor General, which is in charge of looking at all our books, to check how we spend money."
The team is already investigating 20 projects, one of which is Alphendale.
He laid the blame for the poor service delivery on corruption by construction companies and government officials. "Wrong things are being done in the name of government," he said. "These are people we have entrusted with government jobs and government contracts -- they are supposed to serve the people, but they are thieves. If you are corrupt, get out," he said. "We want to know who built these houses. We need to ask serious questions and bring people to book. We are going to fix the problem, but we are also going to fix the people who caused the problem." "Where we are given knowledge and information you can trust us, we will act."
Sexwale introduced a national audit task team charged with investigating irregularities in the housing system. It is led by Special Investigations Unit (SIU) head Willie Hofmeyr and a senior representative of the Auditor General's office."We are working with the SIU because they have the power to investigate, but they also have the power to institute criminal and civil action," Sexwale explained. "But they don't work alone. They are also working with the office of the Auditor General, which is in charge of looking at all our books, to check how we spend money."
The team is already investigating 20 projects, one of which is Alphendale.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Eskom board confirms Maroga's resignation
Jacob Maroga has resigned as CEO of Eskom, the electricity parastatal's board said on Thursday. "Eskom confirmed that Mr Maroga has resigned. His intention to resign was welcomed by the board," acting board chairperson Mpho Makwana told reporters at Eskom's Megawatt Park head office in Johannesburg.
The announcement ended days of speculation on Maroga's position at the parastatal after a power struggle between Meroga and former board chairperson Bobby Godsell. While Maroga's resignation was announced last week Thursday to Eskom's staff by Godsell, Maroga reportedly returned to work on Monday. On the same day, November 9, Godsell handed in his resignation, saying that the government had refused to support Eskom's board in resolving its dispute with Maroga.
In recent months, Maroga had been criticised for sacking international energy consultant Susan Olsen, who warned in a confidential memo that Eskom's coal-procurement practices were placing electricity supplies in jeopardy. Maroga seemingly ignored Olsen's advice and the country was then plunged into a period of load-shedding in January 2008. Other official Eskom documents were also leaked which painted a picture of its lack of understanding of coal markets and how skilled staff had departed from the parastatal.
The Democratic Alliance recently released a report by Eskom's technical corporate audit division, which highlighted the serious shortages in senior staff at the utility and supported Olson's earlier findings.
Source: Mail & Guardian
The announcement ended days of speculation on Maroga's position at the parastatal after a power struggle between Meroga and former board chairperson Bobby Godsell. While Maroga's resignation was announced last week Thursday to Eskom's staff by Godsell, Maroga reportedly returned to work on Monday. On the same day, November 9, Godsell handed in his resignation, saying that the government had refused to support Eskom's board in resolving its dispute with Maroga.
In recent months, Maroga had been criticised for sacking international energy consultant Susan Olsen, who warned in a confidential memo that Eskom's coal-procurement practices were placing electricity supplies in jeopardy. Maroga seemingly ignored Olsen's advice and the country was then plunged into a period of load-shedding in January 2008. Other official Eskom documents were also leaked which painted a picture of its lack of understanding of coal markets and how skilled staff had departed from the parastatal.
The Democratic Alliance recently released a report by Eskom's technical corporate audit division, which highlighted the serious shortages in senior staff at the utility and supported Olson's earlier findings.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
'Criminal when cops shoot a child'
It was "pure criminality" when police shot a street vendor or a three-year-old child, National Police Commissioner Bheki Cele's spokeswoman said yesterday. Nonkululeko Mbatha was reacting to criticism that the fatal police shooting of three-year-old Atlegang Phalan in Klipfontein View, north of Joburg, on Saturday was related to Cele's shoot-to-kill statements. "People are listening to what the commissioner is not saying," she said. "What (Cele) said was that police must act decisively and accordingly when faced with danger. Police can't die with guns in their pockets. "But it is pure criminality when police shoot a street vendor or a three-year-old child," said Mbatha. "That child (Atlegang) wasn't even running around. Where was the threat? "Police can't be shooting at innocent people, and those who do will be dealt with accordingly," said Mbatha.
Meanwhile, the dead child's father, Vusi Mchunu, was yesterday released by police after spending three nights in custody. They arrested him when he arrived at the scene of his son's killing, allegedly for a murder committed in Alexandra. Alexandra police Constable Neria Malefetse said police were tracking a suspect in a murder case in which a man in his 30s was fatally shot during an argument over parking space. She could not say if they were looking for more than one suspect but emphasised that "the suspect was known to the police".
Atlegang and his uncle Bongani Mchunu were in the backseat when an unmarked police vehicle pulled up next to their vehicle and a shot was fired. The Independent Complaints Directorate said the officer allegedly fired the shot after seeing a pipe that looked like a firearm. No gun was found in the car. Atlegang's father was arrested when he arrived at the scene. Before he could say goodbye to his son, police officers grabbed and handcuffed him. Bongani said all that Mchunu wanted was to see his son's body, but instead he was forced to lie handcuffed several metres away. Another man, identified by police as Peter Monaisa, 39, was also arrested as he came out of the house where the car was parked. Police said Monaisa yesterday appeared in court for the Alexandra murder and his case was postponed to November 17.
Atlegang's death has raised widespread criticism following similar incidents in which police have fatally shot innocent people. The DA said yesterday: "The proximity between the recent spate of police attacks on civilians and (Cele's) wild talk about shooting to kill is surely no coincidence."
Source: News 24
Meanwhile, the dead child's father, Vusi Mchunu, was yesterday released by police after spending three nights in custody. They arrested him when he arrived at the scene of his son's killing, allegedly for a murder committed in Alexandra. Alexandra police Constable Neria Malefetse said police were tracking a suspect in a murder case in which a man in his 30s was fatally shot during an argument over parking space. She could not say if they were looking for more than one suspect but emphasised that "the suspect was known to the police".
Atlegang and his uncle Bongani Mchunu were in the backseat when an unmarked police vehicle pulled up next to their vehicle and a shot was fired. The Independent Complaints Directorate said the officer allegedly fired the shot after seeing a pipe that looked like a firearm. No gun was found in the car. Atlegang's father was arrested when he arrived at the scene. Before he could say goodbye to his son, police officers grabbed and handcuffed him. Bongani said all that Mchunu wanted was to see his son's body, but instead he was forced to lie handcuffed several metres away. Another man, identified by police as Peter Monaisa, 39, was also arrested as he came out of the house where the car was parked. Police said Monaisa yesterday appeared in court for the Alexandra murder and his case was postponed to November 17.
Atlegang's death has raised widespread criticism following similar incidents in which police have fatally shot innocent people. The DA said yesterday: "The proximity between the recent spate of police attacks on civilians and (Cele's) wild talk about shooting to kill is surely no coincidence."
Source: News 24
Armscor asks CEO Thomo to resign
The board of Armscor has asked CEO Sipho Thomo to resign, but a stand-off is looming as he refuses to go. Board chairperson Popo Molefe told Parliament's portfolio committee on defence on Wednesday that he asked Thomo last week to quit, and gave him three days to mull the matter. Briefing the committee while Thomo was asked to leave the room, he said Armscor had come to the conclusion that "he's taking all of us down" and that the state arms-procurement utility's woes would only be resolved if he left. "We have asked him to resign ... He should have come back to me on Saturday. By Monday he has not done so," Molefe said. "We now have to look at which options are open to us."
Thomo told reporters that he had no plans to resign. "I'm not planning to resign. I have no reason to resign," he said. This comes amid the ongoing battle between the Eskom board and CEO Jacob Maroga, which prompted board chair Bobby Godsell to quit on Monday.
Godsell said he had no choice because the board could not secure the government's support for its acceptance of Maroga's earlier resignation. Molefe said the board did not need the state's backing to dismiss Thomo.
Opposition MPs welcomed the board's decision to ask Thomo to step down but asked why it had taken them so long. They suggested that it was his handling of information about the cost of the country's now cancelled deal to buy Airbus A400M heavy-lift planes that finally prompted the board to act despite long-standing tension with Thomo.
Thomo admitted to shocked MPs last month that the cost had rocketed from an already steep R17-billion in 2006 to an "estimated" R47-billion. Cabinet scrapped the deal last week. "That was very badly handled. We think it was the last straw that broke the camel's back," an MP told the South African Press Association.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Thomo told reporters that he had no plans to resign. "I'm not planning to resign. I have no reason to resign," he said. This comes amid the ongoing battle between the Eskom board and CEO Jacob Maroga, which prompted board chair Bobby Godsell to quit on Monday.
Godsell said he had no choice because the board could not secure the government's support for its acceptance of Maroga's earlier resignation. Molefe said the board did not need the state's backing to dismiss Thomo.
Opposition MPs welcomed the board's decision to ask Thomo to step down but asked why it had taken them so long. They suggested that it was his handling of information about the cost of the country's now cancelled deal to buy Airbus A400M heavy-lift planes that finally prompted the board to act despite long-standing tension with Thomo.
Thomo admitted to shocked MPs last month that the cost had rocketed from an already steep R17-billion in 2006 to an "estimated" R47-billion. Cabinet scrapped the deal last week. "That was very badly handled. We think it was the last straw that broke the camel's back," an MP told the South African Press Association.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Friday, November 6, 2009
Ozinsky: 'I can't stay silent'
I'm a political activist. I joined the ANC in 1983 when I was 20 and shortly afterwards Umkhonto weSizwe. I was young and passionate and wanted to liberate our country.
In 1987 I was forced to leave the country but returned to Cape Town as part of Operation Vula in 1989. Since then I have served in various leadership structures of the ANC in the Western Cape.
Some say I'm a hard man. Some say the ANC made me hard. I have witnessed many things in the service of our movement. I even had the misfortune to stand next to my provincial secretary, Mcebisi Skwatsha, as so-called ANC members stabbed and attempted to murder him. At all times I have tried to act in a manner that upholds the traditions of honesty, volunteerism and sacrifice that mark the ANC. I know I've made some mistakes. Nevertheless, despite my shortcomings, I have twice been elected by the ANC branches as regional secretary and later twice as deputy provincial secretary.
Since 1994 I've seen many good comrades corrupted by power in government, business or both. Because of this, I took a decision that while I was a public representative I wouldn't get involved in business or be beholden to any interests.
My pursuit over the years as an ANC public representative was and is simple: ensuring effective oversight of government and ensuring that the programmes of the ANC are implemented. It was in trying to do my job that I was confronted by serious misuses of power by comrade Ebrahim Rasool.
Rasool says that Skwatsha and I destroyed him and his premiership, that we gave information to the DA. The SACP provincial secretary implied that we are impimpis. Rasool also says I stopped the building of a hospital in Mitchells Plain, leaving the impression that I had something to do with depriving coloured people of a much-needed amenity. Rasool made this accusation because I opposed his government's selling its most valuable asset, Somerset Hospital, prime real-estate valued at more than R1-billion. He has left me no choice but to defend myself. Unless we are honest about the real problems facing the ANC in the province, the ANC will never be able to regain the trust of the people of the Western Cape. The decision to release the funds for the construction of the hospital was the prerogative of the national treasury. I had no influence over it.
My questioning of the sale was an attempt to ensure that there was no corruption. For halting the transaction the ANC's provincial leadership received widespread praise. It is something of which I am proud, believing that in the process I have helped to look after the best interests of the province and its people. As for Rasool's allegations about leaks to the DA, for which he has provided no evidence, it is as well to consider his own record. Rasool's term as premier can be understood only if you understand his relationship with the media.
In the run-up to the 2003 ANC's list process to prepare for the 2004 national and provincial elections, then community and safety MEC Leonard Ramatlakane, who was a close ally of Rasool, got his department to produce an "intelligence report". This was leaked to the press as an official document. It said there were three factions in the ANC in the Western Cape and that I, a white, was a leader of the "Africanist" faction.
The Cape Argus ran a series of libellous articles based on this document in an apparent campaign to undermine potential rivals to Rasool. Eventually he became premier after an election campaign coordinated by Skwatsha and myself. Rasool became intimately involved in briefing journalists, and at least one senior journalist from the Cape Argus, but I believe more, benefited financially from their proximity to a web of companies contracted by the province. I don't make this allegation lightly; there is proof. The journalist was compelled to resign because of it.
Rasool also met with representatives of companies that were aggrieved by the outcome of a tender process in the then ANC-controlled City of Cape Town. He then leaked information to The Voice and the Cape Argus, which wrote false stories that Skwatsha was involved in a R40-million fraud. At the time Rasool was provincial chairperson of the ANC. Instead of raising the issue with his provincial secretary, Skwatsha, Rasool instructed South African Police Service Captain Piet Viljoen to raid the city council offices. The ANC and its mayor, Nomaindia Mfeketo, were deeply embarrassed by this action. The National Prosecuting Authority declined to prosecute the case. Although Rasool denied in a press conference that it was he who briefed the police to obtain the search warrant, he confessed doing so in a meeting with the national officials of the ANC. Skwatsha's traffic fines, which he had already paid, were also leaked to The Voice.
In 2007 a document from the forensic investigation unit of Rasool's office was leaked to the Mail & Guardian in an attempt to accuse Skwatsha of corruption in the sale of state land. Skwatsha's actions were vindicated by the high court even though Rasool refused him legal assistance. Out of loyalty to the ANC I've not commented on these matters. I now believe that my silence has allowed the damage to continue for too long. While I deny ever giving documents to the DA, I want to confess to giving documents to the Cape Argus that helped expose the Rasool government's relationship with senior journalists.
In 2006 the ANC was asked by the lawyers for the newspaper to provide them with evidence for the allegations that journalists were paid to write stories. A formal decision was taken by the provincial leadership of the ANC that, to protect the best interests of the party, documents in our possession should be handed over. We provided the same evidence to the national leadership of the ANC.
A disciplinary process was undertaken at the paper that led to the quiet resignation of one journalist, but I do not believe that the full story of this extraordinary scandal was ever told. Comrade Rasool, and those media institutions that worked with him, must come clean about who really campaigned to destroy the ANC in the province, and how.
Max Ozinsky is the ANC's chief whip in the Western Cape legislature. He writes on his own behalf
Source: Mail & Guardian Online
In 1987 I was forced to leave the country but returned to Cape Town as part of Operation Vula in 1989. Since then I have served in various leadership structures of the ANC in the Western Cape.
Some say I'm a hard man. Some say the ANC made me hard. I have witnessed many things in the service of our movement. I even had the misfortune to stand next to my provincial secretary, Mcebisi Skwatsha, as so-called ANC members stabbed and attempted to murder him. At all times I have tried to act in a manner that upholds the traditions of honesty, volunteerism and sacrifice that mark the ANC. I know I've made some mistakes. Nevertheless, despite my shortcomings, I have twice been elected by the ANC branches as regional secretary and later twice as deputy provincial secretary.
Since 1994 I've seen many good comrades corrupted by power in government, business or both. Because of this, I took a decision that while I was a public representative I wouldn't get involved in business or be beholden to any interests.
My pursuit over the years as an ANC public representative was and is simple: ensuring effective oversight of government and ensuring that the programmes of the ANC are implemented. It was in trying to do my job that I was confronted by serious misuses of power by comrade Ebrahim Rasool.
Rasool says that Skwatsha and I destroyed him and his premiership, that we gave information to the DA. The SACP provincial secretary implied that we are impimpis. Rasool also says I stopped the building of a hospital in Mitchells Plain, leaving the impression that I had something to do with depriving coloured people of a much-needed amenity. Rasool made this accusation because I opposed his government's selling its most valuable asset, Somerset Hospital, prime real-estate valued at more than R1-billion. He has left me no choice but to defend myself. Unless we are honest about the real problems facing the ANC in the province, the ANC will never be able to regain the trust of the people of the Western Cape. The decision to release the funds for the construction of the hospital was the prerogative of the national treasury. I had no influence over it.
My questioning of the sale was an attempt to ensure that there was no corruption. For halting the transaction the ANC's provincial leadership received widespread praise. It is something of which I am proud, believing that in the process I have helped to look after the best interests of the province and its people. As for Rasool's allegations about leaks to the DA, for which he has provided no evidence, it is as well to consider his own record. Rasool's term as premier can be understood only if you understand his relationship with the media.
In the run-up to the 2003 ANC's list process to prepare for the 2004 national and provincial elections, then community and safety MEC Leonard Ramatlakane, who was a close ally of Rasool, got his department to produce an "intelligence report". This was leaked to the press as an official document. It said there were three factions in the ANC in the Western Cape and that I, a white, was a leader of the "Africanist" faction.
The Cape Argus ran a series of libellous articles based on this document in an apparent campaign to undermine potential rivals to Rasool. Eventually he became premier after an election campaign coordinated by Skwatsha and myself. Rasool became intimately involved in briefing journalists, and at least one senior journalist from the Cape Argus, but I believe more, benefited financially from their proximity to a web of companies contracted by the province. I don't make this allegation lightly; there is proof. The journalist was compelled to resign because of it.
Rasool also met with representatives of companies that were aggrieved by the outcome of a tender process in the then ANC-controlled City of Cape Town. He then leaked information to The Voice and the Cape Argus, which wrote false stories that Skwatsha was involved in a R40-million fraud. At the time Rasool was provincial chairperson of the ANC. Instead of raising the issue with his provincial secretary, Skwatsha, Rasool instructed South African Police Service Captain Piet Viljoen to raid the city council offices. The ANC and its mayor, Nomaindia Mfeketo, were deeply embarrassed by this action. The National Prosecuting Authority declined to prosecute the case. Although Rasool denied in a press conference that it was he who briefed the police to obtain the search warrant, he confessed doing so in a meeting with the national officials of the ANC. Skwatsha's traffic fines, which he had already paid, were also leaked to The Voice.
In 2007 a document from the forensic investigation unit of Rasool's office was leaked to the Mail & Guardian in an attempt to accuse Skwatsha of corruption in the sale of state land. Skwatsha's actions were vindicated by the high court even though Rasool refused him legal assistance. Out of loyalty to the ANC I've not commented on these matters. I now believe that my silence has allowed the damage to continue for too long. While I deny ever giving documents to the DA, I want to confess to giving documents to the Cape Argus that helped expose the Rasool government's relationship with senior journalists.
In 2006 the ANC was asked by the lawyers for the newspaper to provide them with evidence for the allegations that journalists were paid to write stories. A formal decision was taken by the provincial leadership of the ANC that, to protect the best interests of the party, documents in our possession should be handed over. We provided the same evidence to the national leadership of the ANC.
A disciplinary process was undertaken at the paper that led to the quiet resignation of one journalist, but I do not believe that the full story of this extraordinary scandal was ever told. Comrade Rasool, and those media institutions that worked with him, must come clean about who really campaigned to destroy the ANC in the province, and how.
Max Ozinsky is the ANC's chief whip in the Western Cape legislature. He writes on his own behalf
Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Not much can be done about arms deal — Protector
The newly appointed Public Protector says there is not much she can do about the controversial arms deal. "Going back to the arms deal, I don't know how much I could possibly contribute," Thuli Madonsela told reporters at the National Press Club in Pretoria on Thursday.
"I could contribute to what should have happened, but at what cost?"
Madonsela, who took over the post from advocate Lawrence Mushwana two weeks ago, was being questioned on Mushwana's handling of the matter.
She said the protector's office had a prescription period of two years, which made it difficult to probe old elements of the deal.
"I'm not saying that we shouldn't investigate the arms deal, but I think from our side we would like to go forward and investigate the new things coming to us.
"If it is a new area in the arms deal that hasn't been prescribed then we would do that."
Madonsela said the protector's job was to make sure the state was held accountable. But more importantly it was to "ensure that whatever has been taken away through the improper conduct by the State is restored".
A "pre-investigation" into hotel stays by Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa was underway. "This is still a pre-investigation. We don't have a case regarding the minister."
The preliminary probe would look into whether Mthethwa's conduct was in line with rules in the executive handbook. "We have to at least see whether what happened can be turned into a fully fledged investigation."
The process had to be finalised within a month.
Perceptions her office was a "lapdog" would be tackled through talking to political parties and the general public, she said "Tell us yourselves, what do you want us to do, why do you think we are a lapdog... what are your expectations from this department?
We are governed by the rule of law, whatever we do we have to make sure that we hold people accountable. We only find fault in people if what they did was unlawful, unjust or unreasonable... we want people to work with us... if we paint everyone with the same brush, if we make every high profile South African corrupt and criminal, the real criminals will have joy because there will be no stigma."
Madonsela said in her brief time in her position she had found the top five complaints received by the office were about local government, home affairs, grants, the government pension fund, the unemployment insurance fund and workers' compensation.
The office had also received many complaints about police conduct, which she would refer to the Independent Complaints Directorate as it was better positioned to deal with them.
Her office would meet leaders in various government departments to discuss the complaints she had received about them. She said the government's response and readiness to co-operate with her office was a mixed bag, with some co-operating speedily and others dragging their feet.
Madonsela justified the "golden handshake" of R7-million received by Mushwana, saying it was provided for in a 2002 Government Gazette.
Mushwana was appointed chairman of the SA Human Rights Commission, taking the helm of the Chapter 9 institution from Jodi Kollapen.
Source: Polity
"I could contribute to what should have happened, but at what cost?"
Madonsela, who took over the post from advocate Lawrence Mushwana two weeks ago, was being questioned on Mushwana's handling of the matter.
She said the protector's office had a prescription period of two years, which made it difficult to probe old elements of the deal.
"I'm not saying that we shouldn't investigate the arms deal, but I think from our side we would like to go forward and investigate the new things coming to us.
"If it is a new area in the arms deal that hasn't been prescribed then we would do that."
Madonsela said the protector's job was to make sure the state was held accountable. But more importantly it was to "ensure that whatever has been taken away through the improper conduct by the State is restored".
A "pre-investigation" into hotel stays by Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa was underway. "This is still a pre-investigation. We don't have a case regarding the minister."
The preliminary probe would look into whether Mthethwa's conduct was in line with rules in the executive handbook. "We have to at least see whether what happened can be turned into a fully fledged investigation."
The process had to be finalised within a month.
Perceptions her office was a "lapdog" would be tackled through talking to political parties and the general public, she said "Tell us yourselves, what do you want us to do, why do you think we are a lapdog... what are your expectations from this department?
We are governed by the rule of law, whatever we do we have to make sure that we hold people accountable. We only find fault in people if what they did was unlawful, unjust or unreasonable... we want people to work with us... if we paint everyone with the same brush, if we make every high profile South African corrupt and criminal, the real criminals will have joy because there will be no stigma."
Madonsela said in her brief time in her position she had found the top five complaints received by the office were about local government, home affairs, grants, the government pension fund, the unemployment insurance fund and workers' compensation.
The office had also received many complaints about police conduct, which she would refer to the Independent Complaints Directorate as it was better positioned to deal with them.
Her office would meet leaders in various government departments to discuss the complaints she had received about them. She said the government's response and readiness to co-operate with her office was a mixed bag, with some co-operating speedily and others dragging their feet.
Madonsela justified the "golden handshake" of R7-million received by Mushwana, saying it was provided for in a 2002 Government Gazette.
Mushwana was appointed chairman of the SA Human Rights Commission, taking the helm of the Chapter 9 institution from Jodi Kollapen.
Source: Polity
Resume of Thuli Madonsela
Ms. Thulisile (Thuli) Nomkhosi Madonsela is a human rights lawyer, equality expert, constitutional analyst and policy specialist who holds a BA Law (UNISWA, 1987) and LLB (Wits, 1990). In 1994, she was awarded a Harvard Scholarship to pursue an LLM degree but forfeited the opportunity in favour of her constitution drafting work. In addition to partial LLM studies at the University of Pretoria and the University of the Witwatersrand, her post graduate and vocational training has included Constitutional Analysis and Litigation, Human Rights, Legal Drafting, Equality and Non-discrimination (focusing on race, gender, disability, social context awareness and diversity management), Strategic Planning, Scenario Planning, Project Management, Leadership and Management Development, Governance and Adult Education. She is also a professionally trained mediator, arbitrator, negotiator, trainer and assessor.
Ms. Madonsela is a full-time Commissioner in the South African Law Reform Commission (SALRC). She left the public service at the rank of Deputy Director General in 2003 to start and manage the Waweth Law and Policy Research Agency while serving as the Executive Chairperson of the Centre for Reconciliation and Equality Studies (CRES). Her work as Full-time Commissioner involves supervising the entire programme of the SA Law Reform Commission, liaison with stakeholders and serving as Project Leader for several projects.
Her key current projects include Project 25(Updating and Constitutional Alignment of all SA Statutes), Review of the Interpretation Act and Adult Prostitution. Her relationship with the SALRC dates back to her membership of the Project Committee on Harmonisation of Indigenous Law in the early nineties.
Ms. Madonsela was one of the11 Technical Experts appointed to assist the Constitutional Assembly in drafting South Africa’s new Constitution (1994-5). She was also a member of a Task Team that prepared constitutional inputs for the Gauteng Province of the ANC. She presented the final document at the ANC Gauteng Constitutional Conference in March 1995.
She served on the Task Team that drafted the Local Government Transition Act (1993-4) and the one that drafted the Employment Equity Act and Green Paper on Employment Equity. (1995-7). She is co-architect of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act(Equality Act) and also project managed the drafting process, including taking the Act through Parliament. She contributed to the early version of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act and to the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act (1998), the stillborn Customary Law of Succession Amendment Bill (1998). She prepared a legal opinion that unlocked the passing of the Repeal of the Black Administration Act (2006). She has participated in the drafting of several regulations and Codes of Good Practice under the Employment Equity Act and regulations under the Equality Act. As a Member of a Judicial Transformation Task Team she contributed to the early draft of the Judicial Service Amendment Act, 2008, the Judicial Education Institute Act, 2008 and negotiations with the leadership of the judiciary on these and related matters.
She is the co-architect and coordinated the drafting of Justice Vision 2000, the first comprehensive strategic plan for transforming the justice system and state legal services (1997). She initially led the drafting of the Victim’s Charter (until 2001) and authored the preamble to the final draft. She is one of the core drafters of the Legal Services Charter (2005-7) the National Plan of Action on Human Rights (1998) and National Declaration on Racism (2000). She coordinated a departmental Batho Pele Process that culminated in a Draft Customer Service Charter She served in Task Teams that drafted the National Gender Policy Framework, the Gender Policy Statement of the Department of Justice and the initial Employment Equity Policy of the Department of Justice. In recent years she has coordinated and participated in the drafting of Integrated Human Resources Policies, Gender Policies and Strategies for various government departments and organizations.
She has represented the country in and participated as a drafter and negotiator in various international forums, including the Beijing + 5 Conference (New York 2000), Beijing+10 Conference (New York 2005) and World Conference against Racism & Related Intolerances (WCAR, Geneva and Durban 2001). She was a member of the Substance and Preparatory Committees on WCAR and participated in the drafting of the outcomes document. She co-drafted and chaired the session of SADC Ministers of Justice and Women Affairs that adopted the SADC Addendum on the Prevention and Eradication of Violence against Women and Children (1998). She recently served in AU processes that drafted the AU Gender Policy. She has been a core drafter of various international Country Reports, including the Convention on the elimination of All Forms of Racial discrimination (CERD), Convention on the elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Convention of the Rights of The Child, Copenhagen Declaration on Social Integration, African Charter on Human and People’s Rights and the SADC Declaration on Gender and Development.
She was a member of an EU Team that evaluated the impact of apartheid human rights funding and needs of the new democracy (1995), a UN Team that conducted a Human Rights Needs Assessment in 14 SADC countries (2002) and another that prepared a Common Country Assessment Report for South Africa (2006). She co-led a Justice delegation (MPs, Judicial Officers and Management) on a study tour on best practices in the administration of justice covering the USA, Jamaica, Chile, Bolivia and Brazil (1996).) She accompanied the Minister of Justice on a similar study to several states in Germany (1998) and co-led a study tour on equality and antidiscrimination law and the judiciary to Australia (2001)
A prolific writer and author, Thuli Madonsela conceptualized, co-drafted and directed the drafting of a Bench Book for Equality Courts, a Resource book for Equality Court Clerks (2002) and a Legal Advice Handbook on Family Law and Related Matters. She has authored a number of books, book-chapters, articles, papers, ministerial speeches and reports. She also provides legal advice and capacity building on various aspects of the law and policy focusing on justice and public sector transformation.
A former Chief Director: Transformation and Equity and Deputy Executive Director of the Planning Unit in the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, Thuli Madonsela was a member of the inaugural Commission on Employment Equity (1999-2004). She chaired the Equality Legislation Implementation Team which coordinated the implementation of the Equality Act until 2001, when she became Project Manager for the Equality Legislation Education Unit for judicial education. Until recently, she was a member of the Legal Services Charter Steering Committee, a member of the Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Board of the Department of Defence and a Member of the Justice Ministerial Task Team on the Transformation of the Judiciary. She also served as Chairperson of the SA Labour Development Trust, a project of COSATU, NACTU and FEDUSA (1999-2003), a Board Member of SERVCON Housing Solutions and a Member of the Black Empowerment Advisory Board of the Department of Public Works. She is a member of the National Forum against Racism, the South African Human Rights Commission Section 5 Committee on Equality and has been a member of various transformation task teams. A founder member and member of the Interim National Executive of the South African Women Lawyers (SAWLA), she now serves in the Gauteng Chapter Executive and was instrumental in the formation of the International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ).
In early 2009, Ms. Madonsela lead a task team of the Office of the Status of Women in the Presidency to prepare a discussion document for the incoming Cabinet on the Proposed Women’s Ministry. SAWID takes great pleasure in nominating Ms. Madonsela for the position of Public Protector, convinced that her immense experience and knowledge will uniquely qualify her for the role of South African Public Protector.
Source: ANC
Ms. Madonsela is a full-time Commissioner in the South African Law Reform Commission (SALRC). She left the public service at the rank of Deputy Director General in 2003 to start and manage the Waweth Law and Policy Research Agency while serving as the Executive Chairperson of the Centre for Reconciliation and Equality Studies (CRES). Her work as Full-time Commissioner involves supervising the entire programme of the SA Law Reform Commission, liaison with stakeholders and serving as Project Leader for several projects.
Her key current projects include Project 25(Updating and Constitutional Alignment of all SA Statutes), Review of the Interpretation Act and Adult Prostitution. Her relationship with the SALRC dates back to her membership of the Project Committee on Harmonisation of Indigenous Law in the early nineties.
Ms. Madonsela was one of the11 Technical Experts appointed to assist the Constitutional Assembly in drafting South Africa’s new Constitution (1994-5). She was also a member of a Task Team that prepared constitutional inputs for the Gauteng Province of the ANC. She presented the final document at the ANC Gauteng Constitutional Conference in March 1995.
She served on the Task Team that drafted the Local Government Transition Act (1993-4) and the one that drafted the Employment Equity Act and Green Paper on Employment Equity. (1995-7). She is co-architect of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act(Equality Act) and also project managed the drafting process, including taking the Act through Parliament. She contributed to the early version of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act and to the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act (1998), the stillborn Customary Law of Succession Amendment Bill (1998). She prepared a legal opinion that unlocked the passing of the Repeal of the Black Administration Act (2006). She has participated in the drafting of several regulations and Codes of Good Practice under the Employment Equity Act and regulations under the Equality Act. As a Member of a Judicial Transformation Task Team she contributed to the early draft of the Judicial Service Amendment Act, 2008, the Judicial Education Institute Act, 2008 and negotiations with the leadership of the judiciary on these and related matters.
She is the co-architect and coordinated the drafting of Justice Vision 2000, the first comprehensive strategic plan for transforming the justice system and state legal services (1997). She initially led the drafting of the Victim’s Charter (until 2001) and authored the preamble to the final draft. She is one of the core drafters of the Legal Services Charter (2005-7) the National Plan of Action on Human Rights (1998) and National Declaration on Racism (2000). She coordinated a departmental Batho Pele Process that culminated in a Draft Customer Service Charter She served in Task Teams that drafted the National Gender Policy Framework, the Gender Policy Statement of the Department of Justice and the initial Employment Equity Policy of the Department of Justice. In recent years she has coordinated and participated in the drafting of Integrated Human Resources Policies, Gender Policies and Strategies for various government departments and organizations.
She has represented the country in and participated as a drafter and negotiator in various international forums, including the Beijing + 5 Conference (New York 2000), Beijing+10 Conference (New York 2005) and World Conference against Racism & Related Intolerances (WCAR, Geneva and Durban 2001). She was a member of the Substance and Preparatory Committees on WCAR and participated in the drafting of the outcomes document. She co-drafted and chaired the session of SADC Ministers of Justice and Women Affairs that adopted the SADC Addendum on the Prevention and Eradication of Violence against Women and Children (1998). She recently served in AU processes that drafted the AU Gender Policy. She has been a core drafter of various international Country Reports, including the Convention on the elimination of All Forms of Racial discrimination (CERD), Convention on the elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Convention of the Rights of The Child, Copenhagen Declaration on Social Integration, African Charter on Human and People’s Rights and the SADC Declaration on Gender and Development.
She was a member of an EU Team that evaluated the impact of apartheid human rights funding and needs of the new democracy (1995), a UN Team that conducted a Human Rights Needs Assessment in 14 SADC countries (2002) and another that prepared a Common Country Assessment Report for South Africa (2006). She co-led a Justice delegation (MPs, Judicial Officers and Management) on a study tour on best practices in the administration of justice covering the USA, Jamaica, Chile, Bolivia and Brazil (1996).) She accompanied the Minister of Justice on a similar study to several states in Germany (1998) and co-led a study tour on equality and antidiscrimination law and the judiciary to Australia (2001)
A prolific writer and author, Thuli Madonsela conceptualized, co-drafted and directed the drafting of a Bench Book for Equality Courts, a Resource book for Equality Court Clerks (2002) and a Legal Advice Handbook on Family Law and Related Matters. She has authored a number of books, book-chapters, articles, papers, ministerial speeches and reports. She also provides legal advice and capacity building on various aspects of the law and policy focusing on justice and public sector transformation.
A former Chief Director: Transformation and Equity and Deputy Executive Director of the Planning Unit in the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, Thuli Madonsela was a member of the inaugural Commission on Employment Equity (1999-2004). She chaired the Equality Legislation Implementation Team which coordinated the implementation of the Equality Act until 2001, when she became Project Manager for the Equality Legislation Education Unit for judicial education. Until recently, she was a member of the Legal Services Charter Steering Committee, a member of the Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Board of the Department of Defence and a Member of the Justice Ministerial Task Team on the Transformation of the Judiciary. She also served as Chairperson of the SA Labour Development Trust, a project of COSATU, NACTU and FEDUSA (1999-2003), a Board Member of SERVCON Housing Solutions and a Member of the Black Empowerment Advisory Board of the Department of Public Works. She is a member of the National Forum against Racism, the South African Human Rights Commission Section 5 Committee on Equality and has been a member of various transformation task teams. A founder member and member of the Interim National Executive of the South African Women Lawyers (SAWLA), she now serves in the Gauteng Chapter Executive and was instrumental in the formation of the International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ).
In early 2009, Ms. Madonsela lead a task team of the Office of the Status of Women in the Presidency to prepare a discussion document for the incoming Cabinet on the Proposed Women’s Ministry. SAWID takes great pleasure in nominating Ms. Madonsela for the position of Public Protector, convinced that her immense experience and knowledge will uniquely qualify her for the role of South African Public Protector.
Source: ANC
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Iranians clash with police on hostage crisis anniversary
Iranian protesters are vowing to continue their anti-government demonstrations into Wednesday night, despite violent crackdowns and arrests.The protests are timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the hostage crisis at the U.S. Embassy. Iran celebrates the embassy takeover as an official holiday, and tens of thousands showed up to hear anti-American speeches in front of the building that once housed the U.S. diplomatic corps. Many chanted "Death to America." The anniversary was also an opportunity to reignite the anti-government protests that were sparked in June, following a disputed presidential election.
Thousands of protesters ignored warnings from Iranian authorities to stay home, many chanting "Death to the Dictator" and others saying, "Obama - Either you're with us or with them," referring to the U.S. president. Riot police and pro-government Basij militia turned out in force to quash anti-government protests. Witnesses said many Iranian women took part in Wednesday's demonstration, and were frequently targeted by the Iranian security forces -- which is what also happened during the summer protests. Video posted on YouTube showed many protesters beaten on the head with batons.
Iranian reformists have chosen key anniversaries to protest the hardline government -- the same anniversaries chosen for government-sanctioned anti-American rallies. Wednesday's was the biggest annual anti-American observance of all. On November 4, 1979, Islamic students stormed the U.S. Embassy. They held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.
Source: CNN
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Malema not above the law - Cronin
The government is investigating reports that controversial African National Congress Youth League leader Julius Malema threw his weight around after being stopped for speeding in Limpopo, Deputy Transport Minister Jeremy Cronin said on Tuesday. "No-one was above the law," he told MPs in the National Assembly. "We too in the department of transport department have read the reports about the alleged behaviour of the ANC Youth League president, and we are going into the matter. "We want to assure South Africans that none of us are above the law. These are allegations... But we are seeking to establish what exactly happened. "We would like to use this opportunity to assure traffic officers that they enjoy our support, and they must conduct their business without fear or favour," Cronin said.
Newspapers at the weekend reported that after being pulled over for speeding by traffic police in his home town of Seshego a fortnight ago, Malema allegedly stormed out of his vehicle and abused the officers. He is alleged to have asked them: "Who do you think you are? Are you not aware that I am Julius, the president of the Youth League? I know that some of you hate me." Malema then allegedly made several calls at the scene to senior ANC and government officials, instructing them to "discipline" the policemen. According to the reports, the traffic police at the scene were issued with letters the next day by their bosses, demanding written statements on their alleged mistreatment of Malema.
Speaking in the House on Tuesday, Democratic Alliance MP Dianne Kohler-Barnard described Malema as a man who believed there was one law for South African citizens, and another for him. He had displayed an "Idi Amin-like arrogance" by throwing his weight around in Limpopo. "Malema's ego and contempt for the law... is unparalleled," she said.
Source: IoL
Newspapers at the weekend reported that after being pulled over for speeding by traffic police in his home town of Seshego a fortnight ago, Malema allegedly stormed out of his vehicle and abused the officers. He is alleged to have asked them: "Who do you think you are? Are you not aware that I am Julius, the president of the Youth League? I know that some of you hate me." Malema then allegedly made several calls at the scene to senior ANC and government officials, instructing them to "discipline" the policemen. According to the reports, the traffic police at the scene were issued with letters the next day by their bosses, demanding written statements on their alleged mistreatment of Malema.
Speaking in the House on Tuesday, Democratic Alliance MP Dianne Kohler-Barnard described Malema as a man who believed there was one law for South African citizens, and another for him. He had displayed an "Idi Amin-like arrogance" by throwing his weight around in Limpopo. "Malema's ego and contempt for the law... is unparalleled," she said.
Source: IoL
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)