Princess and the peeve
AS Vera was floating about at defence headquarters in Pretoria she came across a woman sobbing inconsolably. On closer inspection it turned out it was none other than Princess Nonceba Lindiwe Sisulu. People in the corridors were whispering that she had just been moved from the glamorous Defence Ministry to the gritty Public Service ministry. So she would now no longer be able to wear those sexy military uniforms to state events. She would no longer be saluted by generals and admirals. She would also no longer be in a position to refuse to answer questions for "security reasons". No longer will she be able to scream at the DA's David Maynier.
Aaagh shame, poor thing.
Wardrobe malfunction
Adding to the princess' misery is that she will now have to hang around Zwelinzima Vavi, Sadtu's Thobile Ntola, Nehawu's Fikile Majola and those guys from Solidarity. And instead of slapping striking soldiers with court-martials, she will have to accept memoranda from angry workers. Vera can't wait to see which fashion label she'll be wearing when she addresses workers from the back of a truck.
Blunt Blade cuts losses
Vera's favourite bourgeois communist put on his boxing gloves and went to Durban recently to put workers in their place. After angering the workers by chastising them for demanding that he leave his cushy government job and lose his flashy car, he then tried to charm them. He did many Phansi! slogans and got the enthusiastic Phansi! responses from the workers. But being a cabinet minister he could not bring himself to say Phansi !nge e-tolls Phansi!, prompting workers to shout him down.
The bourgeois communist, who had never been booed by unionists before, ended up in hospital recovering from the emotional breakdown. But as soon as he heard that some ANC leaders planned to take on President Jacob "I know what I'm doing" Zuma at the NEC meeting, he got out of his pyjamas and ran off to defend his paymaster.
Know where your bread is buttered...
Cop is being caught up
THE new top cop, Mangwashi Phiyega, started her career on a high note this week by feeding the media with nice sound-bites. Quizzed about her lack of policing experience, she simply said: "You do not need to be a drunkard to own a bottle store." She may as well have continued to say you do not need to be a drug addict to push drugs. Nice start, but Vera thinks she will need a lot of work to catch up to Bheki Cele, the master of great quotes.
Vera would like to share a little observation. When Maria Ramos arrived at Transnet in 2004, she and Phiyega were immediately at each others' throats. Phiyega jumped ship and went to Absa. Then Ramos left Transnet to head up Absa. Phiyega was forced to jump ship again to flee her nemesis. Based on this pattern, Vera predicts that Ramos' next job is minister of police.
Vera's Question of the Week: Will the new top cop be patrolling the streets of Hillbrow on New Year's eve?
Source: The Sowetan
Showing posts with label David Maynier. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David Maynier. Show all posts
Friday, June 15, 2012
Friday, March 25, 2011
Protector agrees to probe alleged arms sales to Libya
Public Protector Thuli Madonsela agreed this week to a request by Democratic Alliance MP David Maynier to investigate allegations that South Africa sold more than 100 sniper rifles and 50 000 rounds of ammunition to Libya in late 2010.
Maynier told the Mail & Guardian he believes that the investigation could establish whether the alleged sale, brought to his attention by reliable sources, was illegal. Madonsela informed Maynier on Thursday her office would commence with a "preliminary investigation".
Maynier was expelled from Parliament on Wednesday for asking Justice Minister Jeff Radebe, chairperson of the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC), whether he had allowed the sale and, "if the answer is yes, will the honourable minister tell this House what it feels like to have blood on his hands?"
An irate ANC raised a point of order that "talk of blood on hands was unparliamentary and out of order".
In November Maynier was ejected from the House after telling Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu that she was telling Parliament a "big political fib" after she refused to make available to MPs reports on conditions in the military. While the sale of the arms would have taken place before a United Nations arms embargo on Libya, Maynier said he did not believe it would have complied with the provisions of South Africa's legislation, which sets a high human rights standard. "There have been multiple reports that security forces used sniper rifles to fire on protesters in Libya," he told the M&G. "The company alleged to have exported the sniper rifles and ammunition not only lists Libya as a target market in Africa, but also exhibited sniper rifles at an arms fair in Libya in 2008. We understand that the export of sniper rifles and ammunition was authorised by the NCACC."
Maynier said that parliamentary oversight of conventional arms exports had "effectively collapsed". The NCACC quarterly reports had not been distributed to members of the portfolio committee on defence and military veterans or the joint standing committee on defence. "The NCACC last appeared before the portfolio committee on defence and military veterans on September 2 2009," he said. "Radebe should appear before the portfolio committee on defence and military veterans as soon as possible to properly account to Parliament. We have to get to the bottom of whether these sniper rifles and ammunition, or indeed any other weapons, were sold to Libya."
In February Radebe confirmed that the NCACC had "duly authorised arms trade between South African companies operating in defence-related industry and the Republic of Libya". However, he said in a press release that at the time the transaction was concluded with Libya, there was no evidence that there would be any political unrest in the country. "Some in the media or through the use of the media as a platform have been quick to conclude that the deaths that have been reported in Libya during the period of political unrest have a direct link with the arms sold by the South African companies to Libya," Radebe said. "There is no evidence to back up such a claim."
Radebe said that the transactions were authorised and complied with the guiding principles and criteria set out in the law regarding the conventional arms trade. However, the details of the transactions could not be provided because of confidentiality clauses in the contracts with Libya. In his letter to Madonsela, Maynier asked that she establish who signed the transaction. "I suspect that inter alia, given the human rights standard, obligation to avoid contributing to terrorism and crime and the end-user certificate reliability criteria, that the decision to authorise the transaction did not comply with guiding principles and criteria set out in the law regulating conventional arms sales in South Africa," he wrote.
Maynier also asked the protector to look at whether information concerning conventional arms sales could be lawfully withheld from the public, given the alleged "confidentiality clauses" in the contracts with Libya.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Maynier told the Mail & Guardian he believes that the investigation could establish whether the alleged sale, brought to his attention by reliable sources, was illegal. Madonsela informed Maynier on Thursday her office would commence with a "preliminary investigation".
Maynier was expelled from Parliament on Wednesday for asking Justice Minister Jeff Radebe, chairperson of the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC), whether he had allowed the sale and, "if the answer is yes, will the honourable minister tell this House what it feels like to have blood on his hands?"
An irate ANC raised a point of order that "talk of blood on hands was unparliamentary and out of order".
In November Maynier was ejected from the House after telling Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu that she was telling Parliament a "big political fib" after she refused to make available to MPs reports on conditions in the military. While the sale of the arms would have taken place before a United Nations arms embargo on Libya, Maynier said he did not believe it would have complied with the provisions of South Africa's legislation, which sets a high human rights standard. "There have been multiple reports that security forces used sniper rifles to fire on protesters in Libya," he told the M&G. "The company alleged to have exported the sniper rifles and ammunition not only lists Libya as a target market in Africa, but also exhibited sniper rifles at an arms fair in Libya in 2008. We understand that the export of sniper rifles and ammunition was authorised by the NCACC."
Maynier said that parliamentary oversight of conventional arms exports had "effectively collapsed". The NCACC quarterly reports had not been distributed to members of the portfolio committee on defence and military veterans or the joint standing committee on defence. "The NCACC last appeared before the portfolio committee on defence and military veterans on September 2 2009," he said. "Radebe should appear before the portfolio committee on defence and military veterans as soon as possible to properly account to Parliament. We have to get to the bottom of whether these sniper rifles and ammunition, or indeed any other weapons, were sold to Libya."
In February Radebe confirmed that the NCACC had "duly authorised arms trade between South African companies operating in defence-related industry and the Republic of Libya". However, he said in a press release that at the time the transaction was concluded with Libya, there was no evidence that there would be any political unrest in the country. "Some in the media or through the use of the media as a platform have been quick to conclude that the deaths that have been reported in Libya during the period of political unrest have a direct link with the arms sold by the South African companies to Libya," Radebe said. "There is no evidence to back up such a claim."
Radebe said that the transactions were authorised and complied with the guiding principles and criteria set out in the law regarding the conventional arms trade. However, the details of the transactions could not be provided because of confidentiality clauses in the contracts with Libya. In his letter to Madonsela, Maynier asked that she establish who signed the transaction. "I suspect that inter alia, given the human rights standard, obligation to avoid contributing to terrorism and crime and the end-user certificate reliability criteria, that the decision to authorise the transaction did not comply with guiding principles and criteria set out in the law regulating conventional arms sales in South Africa," he wrote.
Maynier also asked the protector to look at whether information concerning conventional arms sales could be lawfully withheld from the public, given the alleged "confidentiality clauses" in the contracts with Libya.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Row Looms Over Closed Briefing On Dodgy Arms Sales
A confrontation is on the cards tomorrow if Parliament's defence committee proceeds with a "closed" meeting to discuss alleged "dodgy" arms deals approved by the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC). This follows the publication in parliamentary papers of a notice announcing that committee chairman Jeff Radebe , who is also justice minister, would brief the committee on arms sales behind closed doors. His attendance at the committee follows the publication last month by the Democratic Alliance (DA) of details of arms sales to repressive regimes.
The weekend press quoted African National Congress chairman of the defence committee Nyamezeli Booi as saying the decision to make the meeting closed was taken after consultation with committee members. DA defence spokesman David Maynier denied this, saying he was never canvassed on the issue. Maynier said the decision to let Radebe appear before the portfolio committee on defence and military veterans "in secret is a deliberate attempt to cover up the truth about dodgy arms deals with some of the most repressive regimes in the world. The public have a right to know how it was that we sold, attempted to sell or demonstrated and exhibited conventional arms in states such as Iran, Libya, Syria, North Korea and Zimbabwe, despite legislation aimed at ensuring that we do not trade in conventional arms with states engaged in repression, aggression and terrorism. The NCACC should therefore be held to account in an open and transparent meeting by members of the portfolio committee on defence and military veterans."
Support for the DA's position came independently from the Institute for Democracy (Idasa).The head of Idasa's political monitoring service, Judith February, wrote to Booi, pointing out that the constitution required the National Assembly to facilitate public involvement in the legislative and other processes of Parliament, and hold sittings of committees in public. The public and media could be excluded only when reasonable and justifiable. February noted that the NCACC was required by law to report quarterly to Parliament and to the public on the types of weapons sold and to whom, and, asked Booi, why it had been decided to close the meeting. She copied the letter to National Assembly speaker Max Sisulu.
Maynier said he too had written to Booi, asking who had decided that the meeting should be closed. "The facts about the trade in conventional arms and the dodgy arms deals must not be swept under the parliamentary carpet."
Source: All Africa
The weekend press quoted African National Congress chairman of the defence committee Nyamezeli Booi as saying the decision to make the meeting closed was taken after consultation with committee members. DA defence spokesman David Maynier denied this, saying he was never canvassed on the issue. Maynier said the decision to let Radebe appear before the portfolio committee on defence and military veterans "in secret is a deliberate attempt to cover up the truth about dodgy arms deals with some of the most repressive regimes in the world. The public have a right to know how it was that we sold, attempted to sell or demonstrated and exhibited conventional arms in states such as Iran, Libya, Syria, North Korea and Zimbabwe, despite legislation aimed at ensuring that we do not trade in conventional arms with states engaged in repression, aggression and terrorism. The NCACC should therefore be held to account in an open and transparent meeting by members of the portfolio committee on defence and military veterans."
Support for the DA's position came independently from the Institute for Democracy (Idasa).The head of Idasa's political monitoring service, Judith February, wrote to Booi, pointing out that the constitution required the National Assembly to facilitate public involvement in the legislative and other processes of Parliament, and hold sittings of committees in public. The public and media could be excluded only when reasonable and justifiable. February noted that the NCACC was required by law to report quarterly to Parliament and to the public on the types of weapons sold and to whom, and, asked Booi, why it had been decided to close the meeting. She copied the letter to National Assembly speaker Max Sisulu.
Maynier said he too had written to Booi, asking who had decided that the meeting should be closed. "The facts about the trade in conventional arms and the dodgy arms deals must not be swept under the parliamentary carpet."
Source: All Africa
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