Amid the gathering of a "small" group of protesters outside the Sandton Convention Centre, former British prime minister Tony Blair said that the most successful countries in the world are those with open-minded people who accept innovation. "Those countries who are open to people who are different, those who are open to nations who are different, those who are open to ideas and innovation create successful economies and societies," he said at the Discovery Invest Leadership Summit in Johannesburg.
"This globalised world offers huge opportunities if people are open-minded. I feel that right now that it is very important in terms of leadership... you have to take responsibility for difficult and often profound long-term decisions." Blair joked about Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu's decision to pull out of the summit in protest at his attendance. "It's amazing how nice people are to you when you stop being prime minister -- except archbishops of course," he said. "He [Tutu] is perfectly entitled to do what he wants to do. The essence of democracy is that sometimes you are faced with very difficult positions."
Tutu withdrew from the conference because of Blair's decision to back the United States invasion of Iraq in 2003. Blair said removing Iraqi president Saddam Hussein from power had been difficult. "We are faced with the same types of decisions now with Syria. Do we intervene or not intervene? With Iran, do we allow them to get nuclear capability? Are we prepared to intervene and stop them?"
Tutu's office said earlier in the week that the summit had leadership as its theme, and this could not be separated from ideas of morality. Tutu believed Blair's support of the US's military invasion was morally indefensible. Blair fielded questions from the audience about his decision to invade Iraq. "I took the decision in good faith... I knew it was a highly controversial and difficult thing, but I believed it was right. "The one thing that I have learnt about leadership is that in the end, that is my responsibility. I have to stand by that [decision]. In the end that is what you will elect leaders to do. I will never regret removing a brutal dictatorship."
Blair, flanked by bodyguards, spoke about the attempts that had been made to place him under citizen's arrest for crimes against humanity. "Why don't they actually go protest against the people doing the killing and the bombing and the suicide attacks?" He said the threat of Islamic fundamentalism was still an important issue the world had to overcome.
"Extremism is still there, but we are not going to [see it end]... until we tackle it for what it is. It is based on a perversion of religion and it has to be stood up to," Blair said. "They [extremists] are funded and financed by people with a very warped view of the world and who will take away a lot of the freedoms that we have."
Protest
A member of the audience heckled Blair during his speech. "Thank you... a little bit of protest to make me feel at home," he said. The heckler was escorted out of the hall. He heckler told Talk Radio 702 he had said: "Tony Blair, you are a war criminal and I'd rather listen to Tutu". Meanwhile, outside the convention centre protesters gathered because of his role in the deployment of soldiers in Iraq in 2003. .
The Society of the Protection of our Constitution is seeking a warrant of arrest for Blair. The society's secretary Muhammed Vawda says they've filed a 'crimes against the state' complaint with the police, who've opened a docket. He says the case will now go to the National Director of Public Prosecutions for a decision. The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal - an alternative to the International Criminal Court with no UN recognition or authority - found Blair and former US President George W. Bush guilty in absentia last year of crimes against humanity and genocide in the 2003 Iraq war.
Muslim political party Al Jama-ah earlier said it plans to affect a citizen’s arrest on Blair outside the convention centre. "We hope that Mr Blair will do the right thing and try and clear his name at the International Court of Justice in the Haque. However, our dossier indicates that there is overwhelming evidence that he is guilty of crimes against humanity," said party leader, Ganief Hendricks."
He said in spite of the heavy security at the conference - which led to the conference being delayed - the party had hoped that "one of the delegates will get to Mr Blair so he realizes the charges against him will never be buried and be top of mind until he has his day in court. When this happens, it is then up to the law enforcement authorities to take the matter forward."
The police had cornered off the area and closely monitoring the situation where protesters could be seen carrying poster that read "Tony u phony" and "Blair is a war criminal". Among them was the national secretary of the Young Communist league (YCL) Buti Manamela who also addressed the protestors. The protest was broken up shortly after Blair's address. VOC/AGENCIES
Source: The Voice of the Cape
Showing posts with label YCL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label YCL. Show all posts
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Friday, August 17, 2012
'Youth must not fight old battles'
The youth in South Africa need to stop fighting their leaders’ battles, DA national spokesman Mmusi Maimane said on Thursday. “We have a new South Africa led by old South Africans with old South African thinking,” Maimane said in Johannesburg. “We need to look at what are we mobilising the youth to do.”
He said it was concerning when young people stood up and said they would kill for their leaders, and called to make provinces ungovernable. Former ANCYL leader Julius Malema said in 2008 that he was prepared to “take up arms and kill for [President Jacob] Zuma”. The league recently said it intended making the Western Cape ungovernable.
Maimane was speaking at a debate, hosted by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, between the Democratic Alliance, the Young Communist League of SA, and the ANC Youth League, about youth participation and mobilisation.
YCLSA national chairman Yershen Pillay said the country’s youth needed bold and radical policy decisions. “We need less dependence on the State if we are going to drive change.” This was why the proposed youth wage subsidy would not work. “It doesn’t adequately respond to... the unemployment we face.” Pillay said the youth subsidy served the interest of business rather than the youth, and did not consider the education and skills gap. The YCLSA was proposing a medium-term, and a long-term plan for 2050. This included investment in co-operative development. “We need to give young people a chance,” said Pillay. “There needs to be a cultural change, make education fashionable.” He said the youth needed education and skills development, access to information, and entrepreneurship development. “You have a melting pot of interventions. A culture of service needs to replace a culture of entitlement,” said Pillay.
The ANCYL’s Vuyo Roji said there were people in South Africa who wanted the economic status quo to stay the same. “There are enemies,” he said. On the National Development Plan tabled in Parliament on Wednesday, Roji said the ANCYL did not believe a “political elite” could solve the problems. “We don’t think academics can sit in a corner and tell us what we need to do.” The ANCYL’s vision was to have an economy which eliminated poverty. He said the youth league still believed in nationalising strategic sectors of the economy, expropriation of land without compensation, and free education. Youth leaders needed to provide leadership. “They must be able to persuade and be persuaded,” he said.
Source: Sowetan
He said it was concerning when young people stood up and said they would kill for their leaders, and called to make provinces ungovernable. Former ANCYL leader Julius Malema said in 2008 that he was prepared to “take up arms and kill for [President Jacob] Zuma”. The league recently said it intended making the Western Cape ungovernable.
Maimane was speaking at a debate, hosted by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, between the Democratic Alliance, the Young Communist League of SA, and the ANC Youth League, about youth participation and mobilisation.
YCLSA national chairman Yershen Pillay said the country’s youth needed bold and radical policy decisions. “We need less dependence on the State if we are going to drive change.” This was why the proposed youth wage subsidy would not work. “It doesn’t adequately respond to... the unemployment we face.” Pillay said the youth subsidy served the interest of business rather than the youth, and did not consider the education and skills gap. The YCLSA was proposing a medium-term, and a long-term plan for 2050. This included investment in co-operative development. “We need to give young people a chance,” said Pillay. “There needs to be a cultural change, make education fashionable.” He said the youth needed education and skills development, access to information, and entrepreneurship development. “You have a melting pot of interventions. A culture of service needs to replace a culture of entitlement,” said Pillay.
The ANCYL’s Vuyo Roji said there were people in South Africa who wanted the economic status quo to stay the same. “There are enemies,” he said. On the National Development Plan tabled in Parliament on Wednesday, Roji said the ANCYL did not believe a “political elite” could solve the problems. “We don’t think academics can sit in a corner and tell us what we need to do.” The ANCYL’s vision was to have an economy which eliminated poverty. He said the youth league still believed in nationalising strategic sectors of the economy, expropriation of land without compensation, and free education. Youth leaders needed to provide leadership. “They must be able to persuade and be persuaded,” he said.
Source: Sowetan
Monday, August 6, 2012
Young Communist League - firing Angie Motshekga won't help
The cheapest political point for any youth formation to score at this time is to jump onto the bandwagon of hatred for Angie Motshekga. The minister of basic education, as the foremost educator in the government, is taking a lot of heat for the mess that is the Limpopo education department. Having failed to deliver textbooks for schools for Grades 1 – 3 and 10 for more than half a year, the department has become a mockery and even the intervention of a provincial task team and the national department has not cleared the mess up. This has become so big that alliance members of the ruling African National Congress have started to voice their concerns. Very loudly and publicly.
When it emerged that national treasury would have to fork out additional funds to support a catch-up programme and pay teachers overtime, the Congress of South African Students president Bongani Mani said, “We reiterate our call to Mama Angie to stop playing games and embarrassing the ANC-led government any further and resign immediately [to] spare President Jacob Zuma the pain of having to fire her… Minister Angie must not force the National Treasury to waste taxpayers’ money; rather she must take [it] from her salary and all those found responsible [should] pay for all that needs to be paid to remedy the crisis that has emerged on her watch.”
For its part, the ANC Youth League threatened action if Motshekga did not go. The deputy secretary general Kenetswe Mosenogi said, “Minister Motshekga is herself an obstacle to education; she cannot take responsibility for the most basic of challenges. She must resign within two weeks or we will mobilise our members and occupy the basic education department in Pretoria.”
Yet at the 91st birthday rally of the South African Communist Party on Sunday, the secretary of the Young Communist League Buti Manamela said that firing Motshekga may not be a smart move since the rot actually lies deep in her department.
In an interview with Daily Maverick, he said that he did not specifically call for the DoBE minister to be fired because this was really the prerogative of the president. “[Zuma] has commissioned a report on the matter and he will decide what action to take based on that report, whether it is a rap on the knuckles, or redeploying [Motshekga], or whatever,” Manamela said.
He continued: “Whether the president decides to fire her or not, there are people in the department who are responsible for this. Even if you fire her, you have to clear out these people as well. You can call for Angie’s head, but it won’t help the situation.”
The YCL secretary directed most of his ire at EduSolutions, the company that won the tender to deliver textbooks in Limpopo. He said, “The people who were given business by government – they should not have been working with the government in the first place if they cannot do something as simple as taking a textbook from A to B. This goes to the heart of the crisis in the system. It goes to our call to ban tenders in crucial services in government.”
At the birthday rally, communist party general secretary Blade Nzimande said that the government should not be outsourcing services in ‘priority services’ as identified by the ANC, like education and health, but the state should build capacity to deliver these services itself.
Manamela said that there were stories emerging that suggested the EduSolutions problem was not limited to Limpopo, but that the company was overcharging the government in other provinces, and delivering the wrong textbooks all over the country where it has tenders.
He said that they were not excluding the possibility that someone or some people in Limpopo were deliberately sabotaging this task so as to interfere with the Section 100 administrative action taken by the national government in several departments in Limpopo.
At the end of last year, the Cabinet took a decision to enact a provision of the Constitution which allows it to inject itself unilaterally into a provincial government. Since the same document is very strict about separation of powers between the different tiers of government, a lot has to go wrong before the uppermost echelon can take such an action. Unfortunately for the people of that province, premier Cassel Mathale and several of his key people chose to interpret this as a hostile political move (perhaps aimed at punishing Mathale for his longstanding support for Zuma’s enemy, Julius Malema).
Whether the textbook crisis could have been sparked deliberately is a question we may never be able to answer, but we do already know that several suspects in the department have tried to silence one of the key whistle-blowers.
Ironically, the YCL stance brings it in line with that of the opposition party Democratic Alliance, which has said that Motshekga is perhaps not the one person to blame in this.
Party leader Helen Zille wrote, “…we in the Western Cape have experienced Minister Angie Motshekga as one of the few – perhaps the only – education ministers since the dawn of democracy 18 years ago who genuinely understands the needs of the school system and is prepared to take some tough decisions to fix it. She stands virtually alone, in the wasteland of education's ‘shell state’, where many incompetent cadres masquerade as top officials with fancy titles, but have little understanding of and even less commitment to the needs of education.”
Despite this stance, the party has since called for her to resign.
Meanwhile, the outcomes of a report commissioned by Zuma, and another by the Limpopo premier, are still to be announced or released publicly. An independent auditor sent out by the DoBE found that many schools still hadn’t received textbooks despite a court order compelling the department to clear the mess up by June 27.
Perhaps calls for Motshekga to resign are not that misplaced. The buck ought to, after all, stop with her. Sipho Hlongwane
Source: Daily Maverick
When it emerged that national treasury would have to fork out additional funds to support a catch-up programme and pay teachers overtime, the Congress of South African Students president Bongani Mani said, “We reiterate our call to Mama Angie to stop playing games and embarrassing the ANC-led government any further and resign immediately [to] spare President Jacob Zuma the pain of having to fire her… Minister Angie must not force the National Treasury to waste taxpayers’ money; rather she must take [it] from her salary and all those found responsible [should] pay for all that needs to be paid to remedy the crisis that has emerged on her watch.”
For its part, the ANC Youth League threatened action if Motshekga did not go. The deputy secretary general Kenetswe Mosenogi said, “Minister Motshekga is herself an obstacle to education; she cannot take responsibility for the most basic of challenges. She must resign within two weeks or we will mobilise our members and occupy the basic education department in Pretoria.”
Yet at the 91st birthday rally of the South African Communist Party on Sunday, the secretary of the Young Communist League Buti Manamela said that firing Motshekga may not be a smart move since the rot actually lies deep in her department.
In an interview with Daily Maverick, he said that he did not specifically call for the DoBE minister to be fired because this was really the prerogative of the president. “[Zuma] has commissioned a report on the matter and he will decide what action to take based on that report, whether it is a rap on the knuckles, or redeploying [Motshekga], or whatever,” Manamela said.
He continued: “Whether the president decides to fire her or not, there are people in the department who are responsible for this. Even if you fire her, you have to clear out these people as well. You can call for Angie’s head, but it won’t help the situation.”
The YCL secretary directed most of his ire at EduSolutions, the company that won the tender to deliver textbooks in Limpopo. He said, “The people who were given business by government – they should not have been working with the government in the first place if they cannot do something as simple as taking a textbook from A to B. This goes to the heart of the crisis in the system. It goes to our call to ban tenders in crucial services in government.”
At the birthday rally, communist party general secretary Blade Nzimande said that the government should not be outsourcing services in ‘priority services’ as identified by the ANC, like education and health, but the state should build capacity to deliver these services itself.
Manamela said that there were stories emerging that suggested the EduSolutions problem was not limited to Limpopo, but that the company was overcharging the government in other provinces, and delivering the wrong textbooks all over the country where it has tenders.
He said that they were not excluding the possibility that someone or some people in Limpopo were deliberately sabotaging this task so as to interfere with the Section 100 administrative action taken by the national government in several departments in Limpopo.
At the end of last year, the Cabinet took a decision to enact a provision of the Constitution which allows it to inject itself unilaterally into a provincial government. Since the same document is very strict about separation of powers between the different tiers of government, a lot has to go wrong before the uppermost echelon can take such an action. Unfortunately for the people of that province, premier Cassel Mathale and several of his key people chose to interpret this as a hostile political move (perhaps aimed at punishing Mathale for his longstanding support for Zuma’s enemy, Julius Malema).
Whether the textbook crisis could have been sparked deliberately is a question we may never be able to answer, but we do already know that several suspects in the department have tried to silence one of the key whistle-blowers.
Ironically, the YCL stance brings it in line with that of the opposition party Democratic Alliance, which has said that Motshekga is perhaps not the one person to blame in this.
Party leader Helen Zille wrote, “…we in the Western Cape have experienced Minister Angie Motshekga as one of the few – perhaps the only – education ministers since the dawn of democracy 18 years ago who genuinely understands the needs of the school system and is prepared to take some tough decisions to fix it. She stands virtually alone, in the wasteland of education's ‘shell state’, where many incompetent cadres masquerade as top officials with fancy titles, but have little understanding of and even less commitment to the needs of education.”
Despite this stance, the party has since called for her to resign.
Meanwhile, the outcomes of a report commissioned by Zuma, and another by the Limpopo premier, are still to be announced or released publicly. An independent auditor sent out by the DoBE found that many schools still hadn’t received textbooks despite a court order compelling the department to clear the mess up by June 27.
Perhaps calls for Motshekga to resign are not that misplaced. The buck ought to, after all, stop with her. Sipho Hlongwane
Source: Daily Maverick
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Manamela re-elected at violent YCL congress
Young Communist League's Buti Manamela was on Saturday re-elected unopposed as the organisation's national secretary. Manamela survived the much talked about contest for the position at a chaotic and violent congress of the South African Communist Party's youth wing.
Four delegates from Mpumalanga were taken to hospital after they were injured by chairs allegedly thrown by disgruntled KwaZulu-Natal delegates. They supported Khaye Nkwanyane, the former deputy general secretary who was contesting Manamela for the national secretary position. KwaZulu-Natal is his home province.
Police fired teargas inside the Great Hall of the University of the North West's Mafikeng campus to disperse the violent crowd. On Saturday the congress was dominated by disagreements ranging from credentials to electoral rules. The Mail & Guardian had earlier learnt from delegates close to the process that the outgoing national committee had reached a deal whereby Manamela would retain his national secretary position and Nkwanyane would be guaranteed the national chairperson position in the name of "unity and ensuring that this process goes on".
The newly-elected top five leadership of the YCL are:
* Chairperson: Yershen Pillay
* Deputy chairperson: Mawethu Rune
* Treasurer: Joyce Tsipa
* National Secretary: Buti Manamela
* Deputy Secretary: Mike Mofutsane
A delegate from KwaZulu-Natal told the M&G that the province appreciated the contribution that Manamela made to the YCL, but did not want him to serve another term in office. "We are the ones who went to Polokwane and said Thabo Mbeki should not serve the third time. Why should we now allow it in the YCL?" asked the delegate. "He has served his time. We cannot reduce the organisation to one person". Aggrieved delegates said that Manamela and his supporters "stole" the conference. "They told us that we are breaking for dinner and once some people left the hall they decided to continue with the nominations," said a delegate from Limpopo.
The congress was so chaotic that delegates did not break into commissions, which normally discuss the state of the organisation and constitutional amendments should they be needed. It was expected that the YCL's Mafikeng congress would amend the constitution to allow Manamela to serve as both an ANC MP and the young communists' national secretary without being full-time at the SACP's head office. "Nothing was done since Thursday," a delegate from KwaZulu-Natal said, who added that the province would not recognize the leadership elected on Saturday. He and other delegates, who were outside the congress venue, were prevented from entering the hall by armed police who stood guard after calm was restored. "There is YCL BM (Young Communist League Buti Manamela) inside that hall and then there is YCL SA (Young Communist League South Africa) outside," the angry delegate said.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Four delegates from Mpumalanga were taken to hospital after they were injured by chairs allegedly thrown by disgruntled KwaZulu-Natal delegates. They supported Khaye Nkwanyane, the former deputy general secretary who was contesting Manamela for the national secretary position. KwaZulu-Natal is his home province.
Police fired teargas inside the Great Hall of the University of the North West's Mafikeng campus to disperse the violent crowd. On Saturday the congress was dominated by disagreements ranging from credentials to electoral rules. The Mail & Guardian had earlier learnt from delegates close to the process that the outgoing national committee had reached a deal whereby Manamela would retain his national secretary position and Nkwanyane would be guaranteed the national chairperson position in the name of "unity and ensuring that this process goes on".
The newly-elected top five leadership of the YCL are:
* Chairperson: Yershen Pillay
* Deputy chairperson: Mawethu Rune
* Treasurer: Joyce Tsipa
* National Secretary: Buti Manamela
* Deputy Secretary: Mike Mofutsane
A delegate from KwaZulu-Natal told the M&G that the province appreciated the contribution that Manamela made to the YCL, but did not want him to serve another term in office. "We are the ones who went to Polokwane and said Thabo Mbeki should not serve the third time. Why should we now allow it in the YCL?" asked the delegate. "He has served his time. We cannot reduce the organisation to one person". Aggrieved delegates said that Manamela and his supporters "stole" the conference. "They told us that we are breaking for dinner and once some people left the hall they decided to continue with the nominations," said a delegate from Limpopo.
The congress was so chaotic that delegates did not break into commissions, which normally discuss the state of the organisation and constitutional amendments should they be needed. It was expected that the YCL's Mafikeng congress would amend the constitution to allow Manamela to serve as both an ANC MP and the young communists' national secretary without being full-time at the SACP's head office. "Nothing was done since Thursday," a delegate from KwaZulu-Natal said, who added that the province would not recognize the leadership elected on Saturday. He and other delegates, who were outside the congress venue, were prevented from entering the hall by armed police who stood guard after calm was restored. "There is YCL BM (Young Communist League Buti Manamela) inside that hall and then there is YCL SA (Young Communist League South Africa) outside," the angry delegate said.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Monday, September 13, 2010
YCL concerned about Derby-Lewis release
The Young Communist League is appalled by attempts at securing parole for Clive Derby-Lewis, who was jailed for the murder of its general secretary Chris Hani. "We re-iterate that Clive Derby-Lewis' release will be a travesty to justice and the end of any possibility of unfolding the truth about the death of [comrade] Chris Hani," it said in statement on Monday. It was responding to a weekend report that Derby-Lewis could be released.
The YCL's statement joins that of the Congress of SA Trade Unions which said it was concerned about the report in the Saturday Star headlined: "Hani Killer to walk free". Hani was shot in the head as he climbed out of his car outside his home in Dawn Park, Boksburg, on April 10, 1993 by Polish immigrant Janusz Walus, using a pistol leant to him by Conservative Party MP Derby-Lewis. Six months later, Walus and Derby-Lewis were convicted of murder and conspiracy to commit murder and were sentenced to death. However this was commuted to life imprisonment in 1995, when capital punishment was abolished.
The publication reported that the parole board had recommended for a second time that Derby-Lewis be freed, and with a decision expected next month, he could be out by Christmas. His last application for parole was dismissed by the High Court in Pretoria in March last year. Cosatu said it backed the SA Communist Party's view that Derby-Lewis should not be paroled unless and until he had fully disclosed the identities of all those involved in Hani's murder.
In 1996, Derby-Lewis and Walus applied to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) for amnesty for the murder. On April 7, 1999, the TRC's amnesty committee rejected the application on the basis that they had failed to prove the killing was politically motivated, and had failed to make a full disclosure, another prerequisite for amnesty.
The correctional services department dismissed as "false" the Saturday Star's claim that a decision on parole would be made next month. "It is also false to say that he [Derby-Lewis] will be out by Christmas," ministerial spokesman Sonwabo Mbananga said.
In determining whether parole was granted to a prisoner serving a life sentence, the parole board first made a recommendation to the National Council on Correctional Services (NCCS), which then made a recommendation to the minister of correctional services, who in turn made a decision based on these recommendations, he said. The parole board had made a recommendation regarding Derby-Lewis, but this information had not yet reached the NCCS. Its next sitting would be at the end of October, when Derby-Lewis's case might be tabled, said Mbananga.
Source: Times Live
The YCL's statement joins that of the Congress of SA Trade Unions which said it was concerned about the report in the Saturday Star headlined: "Hani Killer to walk free". Hani was shot in the head as he climbed out of his car outside his home in Dawn Park, Boksburg, on April 10, 1993 by Polish immigrant Janusz Walus, using a pistol leant to him by Conservative Party MP Derby-Lewis. Six months later, Walus and Derby-Lewis were convicted of murder and conspiracy to commit murder and were sentenced to death. However this was commuted to life imprisonment in 1995, when capital punishment was abolished.
The publication reported that the parole board had recommended for a second time that Derby-Lewis be freed, and with a decision expected next month, he could be out by Christmas. His last application for parole was dismissed by the High Court in Pretoria in March last year. Cosatu said it backed the SA Communist Party's view that Derby-Lewis should not be paroled unless and until he had fully disclosed the identities of all those involved in Hani's murder.
In 1996, Derby-Lewis and Walus applied to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) for amnesty for the murder. On April 7, 1999, the TRC's amnesty committee rejected the application on the basis that they had failed to prove the killing was politically motivated, and had failed to make a full disclosure, another prerequisite for amnesty.
The correctional services department dismissed as "false" the Saturday Star's claim that a decision on parole would be made next month. "It is also false to say that he [Derby-Lewis] will be out by Christmas," ministerial spokesman Sonwabo Mbananga said.
In determining whether parole was granted to a prisoner serving a life sentence, the parole board first made a recommendation to the National Council on Correctional Services (NCCS), which then made a recommendation to the minister of correctional services, who in turn made a decision based on these recommendations, he said. The parole board had made a recommendation regarding Derby-Lewis, but this information had not yet reached the NCCS. Its next sitting would be at the end of October, when Derby-Lewis's case might be tabled, said Mbananga.
Source: Times Live
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Afriforum drops court case over ANCYL military training
AfriForum has withdrawn an urgent court application against Defence and Military Veterans Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, after she decided not to give the ANC Youth League and Young Communists’ League military training. It had applied for an the urgent interdict to review Sisulu’s decision to send the youth organisations’ leaders on a two week special programme at Saldanha Navy Base, in the Western Cape. This was to enable the youth to experience the curriculum and activities of national service. “Serious concerns were raised at the time as a result of parallels drawn with [Zimbabwe President] Robert Mugabe’s militia training for Zanu-PF youths in Zimbabwe,” AfriForum’s legal representative Willie Spies said in a statement on Sunday.
He said it was a pity that AfriForum had to make a court application to get answers from the minister. “This would not have been necessary if the minister showed the basic courtesy of responding to letters addressed to her.” Spies said Sisulu had made her latest declaration under oath. “If it appears at any stage that the minister wants to continue with her initial plans, AfriForum will re-enroll the urgent application immediately.”
AfriForum would apply this week for a new court date to argue the issue of costs, he said. On Friday, Sisulu’s spokesman Ndivhuwo Mbaya said a national service two week special programme designed for the leadership of all youth organisations would continue as soon as all logistics and consultation processes had been concluded.
Source: Times Live
He said it was a pity that AfriForum had to make a court application to get answers from the minister. “This would not have been necessary if the minister showed the basic courtesy of responding to letters addressed to her.” Spies said Sisulu had made her latest declaration under oath. “If it appears at any stage that the minister wants to continue with her initial plans, AfriForum will re-enroll the urgent application immediately.”
AfriForum would apply this week for a new court date to argue the issue of costs, he said. On Friday, Sisulu’s spokesman Ndivhuwo Mbaya said a national service two week special programme designed for the leadership of all youth organisations would continue as soon as all logistics and consultation processes had been concluded.
Source: Times Live
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
South Africa: workers reject offer but trade union leaders suspend strike
South Africa was moving towards a general strike type situation as the public sector strike that started on August 18 was building up momentum. Now the strike has been suspended by union leaders because of some concessions on the part of the government. This has angered many workers who wanted to step up action, not take a step back.
In a joint press statement on Monday, September 6, public sector unions affiliated with COSATU and the ILC, announced their decision to “suspend the strike” while announcing that this did not mean “that we have accepted the state offer”. (Strike is Suspended, COSATU)
The strike by 1.3 million public sector workers started on Wednesday, August 18 and had paralysed schools, hospitals and other public services. The strike reflected the deep seated anger of South African workers at the two-faced policies of the ANC government led by Zuma, with ministers getting high wages and all sorts of perks during the World Cup, while workers are denied their demands for a living wage and access to housing.
From the beginning the attitude of the government was provocative, with strongly worded statements by ministers saying there was no more money to be offered and giving the trade unions an ultimatum. This was combined with the use of the tribunals, the police and the army against the strikers, as well as a high profile media campaign accusing the strikers of murder for paralysing hospitals. This further enraged the trade union activists, who played a key role in replacing former president Mbeki for Zuma and were expecting him to be on their side.
Despite the government provocations the strike remained solid for two weeks and the mood was building up for solidarity action, possibly leading to a general strike in support of the public sector workers. The municipal workers’ union SAMWU moved a motion at the COSATU executive, which decided that all affiliated unions should issue 7 day notices for strike action. A general strike would have started, effectively, on September 2.
It was only the threat of a general strike, which had the full backing of powerful unions like the mineworkers’ NUM, which forced the government back to the negotiating table. President Zuma returned from his state visit to China and ordered the ministers to reach a deal with the unions. Too much was at stake and Zuma could not risk alienating his labour allies completely (as some were threatening not to support the ANC in forthcoming elections). Under these conditions, the government backtracked from its earlier position of “there is no more money” and agreed to increase its pay increase offer from 7% to 7.5%, though this was still short of the workers’ demands for 8.6%. The unions are correct in considering this as a victory, or at least a partial one.
However, the deal had to be put to union members. At this point, on Wednesday, September 1, COSATU decided to cancel the general strike. This was clearly a mistake. If you are in a position of strength, you do not abandon it. The trade union leaders probably thought that the membership would accept the revised offer. For all their radical language, the trade union leaders did not seem prepared to go all the way in their confrontation with the government.
To their surprise, the union ranks decided to reject the new offer. This was the case particularly with the teachers’ union SADTU, but also with the health and government workers’ union NEHAWU. It seems that even the ILC affiliated unions also rejected the offer, though only narrowly.
However, despite this mandate from the members, the trade union leaders decided to suspend the strike and give themselves 21 days to “finalise consultations on the draft agreement”. It seems likely that at least some of the trade union leaders who participated in the negotiations with the government were confident that they could sell the agreement to their members.
The level of anger at local meetings was such that the union leaders had to acknowledge that the proposal had been rejected. Business Report wrote that, “Sizwe Pamla, the national spokesman for the National Education Health and Allied Workers' Union, said on Friday that after a flood of e-mails and text messages ‘we had to acknowledge the rejections’.” But as this NEHAWU leader was not happy with the decision he tried to turn it into its opposite by saying that, “it was difficult to say it was an official rejection as members had not been properly consulted”. In other words, the trade union leaders did not manage to convince their members, but this was only because they did not explain the agreement properly, or fully, and therefore, another 21 days are needed.
This is a scandalous position. Once the momentum of the strike has been lost, it will be very difficult to build it up again. The union leaders should not have called off the general strike before getting an agreement that was acceptable to its members; this should be the ABC of trade union tactics. Once the threat of a general strike is lifted and the workers go back to work, even if the deal is rejected, what leverage do the unions have to extract more concessions from the government? None.
Many workers were rightly angry when they found out about the decision to stop the strike. City Press reported that NEHAWU “union leaders were chased out of the meeting in Johannesburg this afternoon”. The report quoted NEHAWU member Ramarumo as saying: “Members are angry and they want to protest by going to the national office to burn their membership cards”. The same report quoted the general secretary of Gauteng Central branch of SADTU, Ronald Nyathi as saying: “Teachers are not happy but after we learnt that some unions belonging to COSATU and the Independent Labour Caucus (ILC) accepted the government’s offer, we realised we can’t carry on with the strike alone.”
This will certainly raise a lot of questions amongst the trade union activists about their own leaders, particularly since COSATU has a proud tradition of standing for workers’ control over the union structures and officials.
Whatever the outcome of this particular battle, the main questions that were raised during the strike, particularly in relation to the policies of the ANC government, the relationship of the trade union movement with the government and the ANC, and also regarding the role of the SACP leaders in government, will not go away.
The forthcoming meeting of the ANC National General Council will be the place where many of these issues will be discussed. The ANC Youth League will certainly raise the need to nationalise the mines, as part of their campaign for “economic freedom in our lifetime”. The so-called Black Economic Empowerment will also be discussed. BEE has basically allowed a small minority of blacks (some in the circle of family and friends of Zuma himself) to join the capitalist class, while the majority of working people and the poor who carried out the struggle against apartheid have seen their living conditions deteriorate and the gap between rich and poor increase.
On Sunday, September 5, the chairperson of the Young Communist League, David Masondo, published a sharply written article in the City Press, denouncing BEE as a policy through which “certain black millionaires associated with the liberation movement have been cherry-picked by white businesses.” (BEE has evolved into a family affair, Citypress)The article has already caused divisions within the YCL, with a statement signed by YCLSA National Office Bearers distancing themselves from Masondo’s public criticism of Zuma (Statement by the YCL National Office Bearers on the article by David Masondo, YCL).
What is needed is to focus the debate on the crucial issue: the need for a socialist alternative which can really achieve “economic liberation within our life time”. Only by challenging the logic of capitalism, through the expropriation of the mines and big monopolies, can the pressing problems of the majority of South Africans, the workers and the poor, begin to be addressed. Whilst the economic power remains in the hands of an unelected minority, genuine liberation will not be achieved. Housing, land reform, education and health care for all, jobs… none of these issues can be solved within the limits of capitalism, as has been amply demonstrated in the 16 years since the end of apartheid. The formal rule of the vile regime of racial discrimination was abolished through the heroic struggle of the masses. But the capitalist regime which it served remains in place.
Source: International Marxist Tendency
In a joint press statement on Monday, September 6, public sector unions affiliated with COSATU and the ILC, announced their decision to “suspend the strike” while announcing that this did not mean “that we have accepted the state offer”. (Strike is Suspended, COSATU)
The strike by 1.3 million public sector workers started on Wednesday, August 18 and had paralysed schools, hospitals and other public services. The strike reflected the deep seated anger of South African workers at the two-faced policies of the ANC government led by Zuma, with ministers getting high wages and all sorts of perks during the World Cup, while workers are denied their demands for a living wage and access to housing.
From the beginning the attitude of the government was provocative, with strongly worded statements by ministers saying there was no more money to be offered and giving the trade unions an ultimatum. This was combined with the use of the tribunals, the police and the army against the strikers, as well as a high profile media campaign accusing the strikers of murder for paralysing hospitals. This further enraged the trade union activists, who played a key role in replacing former president Mbeki for Zuma and were expecting him to be on their side.
Despite the government provocations the strike remained solid for two weeks and the mood was building up for solidarity action, possibly leading to a general strike in support of the public sector workers. The municipal workers’ union SAMWU moved a motion at the COSATU executive, which decided that all affiliated unions should issue 7 day notices for strike action. A general strike would have started, effectively, on September 2.
It was only the threat of a general strike, which had the full backing of powerful unions like the mineworkers’ NUM, which forced the government back to the negotiating table. President Zuma returned from his state visit to China and ordered the ministers to reach a deal with the unions. Too much was at stake and Zuma could not risk alienating his labour allies completely (as some were threatening not to support the ANC in forthcoming elections). Under these conditions, the government backtracked from its earlier position of “there is no more money” and agreed to increase its pay increase offer from 7% to 7.5%, though this was still short of the workers’ demands for 8.6%. The unions are correct in considering this as a victory, or at least a partial one.
However, the deal had to be put to union members. At this point, on Wednesday, September 1, COSATU decided to cancel the general strike. This was clearly a mistake. If you are in a position of strength, you do not abandon it. The trade union leaders probably thought that the membership would accept the revised offer. For all their radical language, the trade union leaders did not seem prepared to go all the way in their confrontation with the government.
To their surprise, the union ranks decided to reject the new offer. This was the case particularly with the teachers’ union SADTU, but also with the health and government workers’ union NEHAWU. It seems that even the ILC affiliated unions also rejected the offer, though only narrowly.
However, despite this mandate from the members, the trade union leaders decided to suspend the strike and give themselves 21 days to “finalise consultations on the draft agreement”. It seems likely that at least some of the trade union leaders who participated in the negotiations with the government were confident that they could sell the agreement to their members.
The level of anger at local meetings was such that the union leaders had to acknowledge that the proposal had been rejected. Business Report wrote that, “Sizwe Pamla, the national spokesman for the National Education Health and Allied Workers' Union, said on Friday that after a flood of e-mails and text messages ‘we had to acknowledge the rejections’.” But as this NEHAWU leader was not happy with the decision he tried to turn it into its opposite by saying that, “it was difficult to say it was an official rejection as members had not been properly consulted”. In other words, the trade union leaders did not manage to convince their members, but this was only because they did not explain the agreement properly, or fully, and therefore, another 21 days are needed.
This is a scandalous position. Once the momentum of the strike has been lost, it will be very difficult to build it up again. The union leaders should not have called off the general strike before getting an agreement that was acceptable to its members; this should be the ABC of trade union tactics. Once the threat of a general strike is lifted and the workers go back to work, even if the deal is rejected, what leverage do the unions have to extract more concessions from the government? None.
Many workers were rightly angry when they found out about the decision to stop the strike. City Press reported that NEHAWU “union leaders were chased out of the meeting in Johannesburg this afternoon”. The report quoted NEHAWU member Ramarumo as saying: “Members are angry and they want to protest by going to the national office to burn their membership cards”. The same report quoted the general secretary of Gauteng Central branch of SADTU, Ronald Nyathi as saying: “Teachers are not happy but after we learnt that some unions belonging to COSATU and the Independent Labour Caucus (ILC) accepted the government’s offer, we realised we can’t carry on with the strike alone.”
This will certainly raise a lot of questions amongst the trade union activists about their own leaders, particularly since COSATU has a proud tradition of standing for workers’ control over the union structures and officials.
Whatever the outcome of this particular battle, the main questions that were raised during the strike, particularly in relation to the policies of the ANC government, the relationship of the trade union movement with the government and the ANC, and also regarding the role of the SACP leaders in government, will not go away.
The forthcoming meeting of the ANC National General Council will be the place where many of these issues will be discussed. The ANC Youth League will certainly raise the need to nationalise the mines, as part of their campaign for “economic freedom in our lifetime”. The so-called Black Economic Empowerment will also be discussed. BEE has basically allowed a small minority of blacks (some in the circle of family and friends of Zuma himself) to join the capitalist class, while the majority of working people and the poor who carried out the struggle against apartheid have seen their living conditions deteriorate and the gap between rich and poor increase.
On Sunday, September 5, the chairperson of the Young Communist League, David Masondo, published a sharply written article in the City Press, denouncing BEE as a policy through which “certain black millionaires associated with the liberation movement have been cherry-picked by white businesses.” (BEE has evolved into a family affair, Citypress)The article has already caused divisions within the YCL, with a statement signed by YCLSA National Office Bearers distancing themselves from Masondo’s public criticism of Zuma (Statement by the YCL National Office Bearers on the article by David Masondo, YCL).
What is needed is to focus the debate on the crucial issue: the need for a socialist alternative which can really achieve “economic liberation within our life time”. Only by challenging the logic of capitalism, through the expropriation of the mines and big monopolies, can the pressing problems of the majority of South Africans, the workers and the poor, begin to be addressed. Whilst the economic power remains in the hands of an unelected minority, genuine liberation will not be achieved. Housing, land reform, education and health care for all, jobs… none of these issues can be solved within the limits of capitalism, as has been amply demonstrated in the 16 years since the end of apartheid. The formal rule of the vile regime of racial discrimination was abolished through the heroic struggle of the masses. But the capitalist regime which it served remains in place.
Source: International Marxist Tendency
Monday, September 6, 2010
Young Reds leave Zuma-attack chair high and dry
In an unprecedented move, the Young Communist League has distanced itself from its national chairman, David Masondo, who criticised ANC president Jacob Zuma in a weekend newspaper. League national office bearers yesterday said they distanced themselves and their organisation from Masondo's views. He lashed out at Zuma for his business dealings in a City Press article on Sunday.
Masondo said the ousting of former president Thabo Mbeki in 2007 was billed as a shift towards ''egalitarian economic policy, including Black Economic Empowerment [BEE]". But instead ''BEE is increasingly becoming too narrow, amounting to ZEE - Zuma Economic Empowerment''.
Masondo based his attack on the recent multibillion-rand ArcelorMittal SA deal in which Zuma's son is involved. But it seems his colleagues in the Young Communist League are not amused. League national office bearers said in a statement that Masondo had not canvassed the opinions with members before he publicly attacked Zuma. "We have emphasised the need to desist from public attacks on any leader of the [ANC-led tripartite] alliance in the manner in which Comrade Masondo has attacked the president of the ANC and of the republic, and will further take this engagement internally," said league spokesman Gugu Ndima.
The Young Communist League said it has raised its concerns about the Arcelor-Mittal BEE deal and corruption, but has called on it members not to make public attacks on any leader of the alliance as Masondo did in the article. "There are already strained relations within the alliance partners and, as a result, the [league] will play no further role in deepening these strained relations but will seek to. build unity and cohesion of the alliance. We call on all our members to exercise restraint and ensure that we use all organisational platforms to raise whatever issues that we deem burning before resorting to public pronouncements."
Source: Times Live
Masondo said the ousting of former president Thabo Mbeki in 2007 was billed as a shift towards ''egalitarian economic policy, including Black Economic Empowerment [BEE]". But instead ''BEE is increasingly becoming too narrow, amounting to ZEE - Zuma Economic Empowerment''.
Masondo based his attack on the recent multibillion-rand ArcelorMittal SA deal in which Zuma's son is involved. But it seems his colleagues in the Young Communist League are not amused. League national office bearers said in a statement that Masondo had not canvassed the opinions with members before he publicly attacked Zuma. "We have emphasised the need to desist from public attacks on any leader of the [ANC-led tripartite] alliance in the manner in which Comrade Masondo has attacked the president of the ANC and of the republic, and will further take this engagement internally," said league spokesman Gugu Ndima.
The Young Communist League said it has raised its concerns about the Arcelor-Mittal BEE deal and corruption, but has called on it members not to make public attacks on any leader of the alliance as Masondo did in the article. "There are already strained relations within the alliance partners and, as a result, the [league] will play no further role in deepening these strained relations but will seek to. build unity and cohesion of the alliance. We call on all our members to exercise restraint and ensure that we use all organisational platforms to raise whatever issues that we deem burning before resorting to public pronouncements."
Source: Times Live
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Guest Columnist BEE has evolved into a family affair: ZEE
There was cautious optimism among many leftists in the ANC that the ousting of Thabo Mbeki in Polokwane might mark a shift towards a much more egalitarian economic policy, including Black Economic Empowerment (BEE). Instead, BEE is increasingly becoming too narrow, amounting to ZEE – that is, Zuma Economic Empowerment.
The recent multibillion-rand Arcelor-Mittal BEE deal involving Duduzane, President Jacob Zuma’s son, is another example of how BEE has become too narrow. To crown it all, the president’s nephew, Khulubuse Zuma, seems to have suddenly become an African imperialist, amassing oil resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
ZEE is not only an assault on the Young Communist League and South African Communist Party (SACP) resolutions – which called for the nationalisation of monopoly industries – it amounts to a burial of the Freedom Charter. Only a few can be misled to believe that there is no link between Zuma’s rise to the presidency and his family’s rise to riches. One’s leadership position in a political party, particularly the ANC, allows one to gain and/or retain access to the institutional power that makes one the preferred candidate for white business to select to be part of its established enterprises. These politicians rely heavily on the control of organisational power to generate wealth. Access to the state provides politicians with leverage to select those who can acquire shares in white-owned firms.
South Africa’s political system is based on a multiparty electoral democracy. Access to state institutional power is achieved through elections. Consequently, many politicians are interested in party politics. Since they rely on organisational power for wealth accumulation, potential and actual entrepreneurs find it rational to contest directly or indirectly for political organisational leadership positions as an entry point to the state and its economic resources. However, not every political party matters.
Because the ANC is backed by the SACP and the Congress of South African Trade Unions – not to mention its history in the national liberation struggle – it is highly supported by the electorate and, therefore, matters. Individuals acting within and through the state have the power to decide who gets state-owned resources. However, the fact that individuals in the state have this institutional power does not mean we will know beforehand which black politicians will secure access to these resources. This is mediated by a dominant political party in government.
The BEE model is structured favourably for politically connected politicians and their proxies to enter into business through the state. The state owns key economic resources required by business that can only be accessed with state permission. The state acts as a purchaser of services from the private sector. Through its financial institutions, the state acts as a money lender. It is also a grantor of licences for, among other things, mining rights. Through privatisation, it acts as a seller of its assets.
Business can gain access to state-owned resources through a BEE criterion that requires black people to be owners and managers of enterprises. White businesses can use black people who are politically connected to gain access to these resources – and more recently, as a means to deflect ANC Youth League calls for nationalisation. This explains why certain black millionaires associated with the liberation movement have been cherry-picked by white businesses.
The BEE model has promoted competition among politicians for access to institutional power and co-option by white business. This competition finds expression in political conflicts within the ANC and the state. We are indeed on the wrong economic redistribution path. BEE has become a family affair. Children whose parents are not politicians will have to lift themselves out of poverty by their own bootstraps.
The youth’s cynical acquiescence of ZEE may find concrete expression in non-participation in political activism, including voting. After all, why vote if voting means empowering politicians to empower their children.
Source: City Press
The recent multibillion-rand Arcelor-Mittal BEE deal involving Duduzane, President Jacob Zuma’s son, is another example of how BEE has become too narrow. To crown it all, the president’s nephew, Khulubuse Zuma, seems to have suddenly become an African imperialist, amassing oil resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
ZEE is not only an assault on the Young Communist League and South African Communist Party (SACP) resolutions – which called for the nationalisation of monopoly industries – it amounts to a burial of the Freedom Charter. Only a few can be misled to believe that there is no link between Zuma’s rise to the presidency and his family’s rise to riches. One’s leadership position in a political party, particularly the ANC, allows one to gain and/or retain access to the institutional power that makes one the preferred candidate for white business to select to be part of its established enterprises. These politicians rely heavily on the control of organisational power to generate wealth. Access to the state provides politicians with leverage to select those who can acquire shares in white-owned firms.
South Africa’s political system is based on a multiparty electoral democracy. Access to state institutional power is achieved through elections. Consequently, many politicians are interested in party politics. Since they rely on organisational power for wealth accumulation, potential and actual entrepreneurs find it rational to contest directly or indirectly for political organisational leadership positions as an entry point to the state and its economic resources. However, not every political party matters.
Because the ANC is backed by the SACP and the Congress of South African Trade Unions – not to mention its history in the national liberation struggle – it is highly supported by the electorate and, therefore, matters. Individuals acting within and through the state have the power to decide who gets state-owned resources. However, the fact that individuals in the state have this institutional power does not mean we will know beforehand which black politicians will secure access to these resources. This is mediated by a dominant political party in government.
The BEE model is structured favourably for politically connected politicians and their proxies to enter into business through the state. The state owns key economic resources required by business that can only be accessed with state permission. The state acts as a purchaser of services from the private sector. Through its financial institutions, the state acts as a money lender. It is also a grantor of licences for, among other things, mining rights. Through privatisation, it acts as a seller of its assets.
Business can gain access to state-owned resources through a BEE criterion that requires black people to be owners and managers of enterprises. White businesses can use black people who are politically connected to gain access to these resources – and more recently, as a means to deflect ANC Youth League calls for nationalisation. This explains why certain black millionaires associated with the liberation movement have been cherry-picked by white businesses.
The BEE model has promoted competition among politicians for access to institutional power and co-option by white business. This competition finds expression in political conflicts within the ANC and the state. We are indeed on the wrong economic redistribution path. BEE has become a family affair. Children whose parents are not politicians will have to lift themselves out of poverty by their own bootstraps.
The youth’s cynical acquiescence of ZEE may find concrete expression in non-participation in political activism, including voting. After all, why vote if voting means empowering politicians to empower their children.
Source: City Press
Monday, May 25, 2009
YCL: No conflict in Nzimande's dual roles
There is no conflict in Blade Nzimande being both South African Communist Party (SACP) general secretary and higher education minister, the Young Communist League (YCL) said on Monday.
"There wouldn't be any problem with the general secretary of the SACP becoming the minister of higher education," YCL chairperson Buti Manamela said in Johannesburg.
Recently there had been controversy over Nzimande's role as both SACP leader, whose youth league was demanding the removal of Barney Pityana as the vice-chancellor of the University of South Africa (Unisa), and his position as minister of higher education. He had thus far declined to intervene directly in the Unisa matter.
Manamela said the controversy had been "overplayed" in the media.
"Even if the minister of higher education can't join us in that call, at least the general secretary of the SACP can join us." -- Sapa
Source: Mail & Guardian
"There wouldn't be any problem with the general secretary of the SACP becoming the minister of higher education," YCL chairperson Buti Manamela said in Johannesburg.
Recently there had been controversy over Nzimande's role as both SACP leader, whose youth league was demanding the removal of Barney Pityana as the vice-chancellor of the University of South Africa (Unisa), and his position as minister of higher education. He had thus far declined to intervene directly in the Unisa matter.
Manamela said the controversy had been "overplayed" in the media.
"Even if the minister of higher education can't join us in that call, at least the general secretary of the SACP can join us." -- Sapa
Source: Mail & Guardian
YCL: No conflict in Nzimande's dual roles
There is no conflict in Blade Nzimande being both South African Communist Party (SACP) general secretary and higher education minister, the Young Communist League (YCL) said on Monday.
"There wouldn't be any problem with the general secretary of the SACP becoming the minister of higher education," YCL chairperson Buti Manamela said in Johannesburg.
Recently there had been controversy over Nzimande's role as both SACP leader, whose youth league was demanding the removal of Barney Pityana as the vice-chancellor of the University of South Africa (Unisa), and his position as minister of higher education. He had thus far declined to intervene directly in the Unisa matter.
Manamela said the controversy had been "overplayed" in the media.
"Even if the minister of higher education can't join us in that call, at least the general secretary of the SACP can join us." -- Sapa
Source: Mail & Guardian
"There wouldn't be any problem with the general secretary of the SACP becoming the minister of higher education," YCL chairperson Buti Manamela said in Johannesburg.
Recently there had been controversy over Nzimande's role as both SACP leader, whose youth league was demanding the removal of Barney Pityana as the vice-chancellor of the University of South Africa (Unisa), and his position as minister of higher education. He had thus far declined to intervene directly in the Unisa matter.
Manamela said the controversy had been "overplayed" in the media.
"Even if the minister of higher education can't join us in that call, at least the general secretary of the SACP can join us." -- Sapa
Source: Mail & Guardian
Thursday, July 17, 2008
COSATU on arrest of David Masondo
The Congress of South African Trade Unions has learned with anger of the bloody assault by officers from Sandringham Police Station on David Masondo, National Chairperson of the Young Communist League of South Africa, and a member of the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party, both organisations which are among COSATU's working-class allies within the tripartite alliance.
Cde Masondo was stopped at a roadblock while jogging in his tracksuit in the suburb where he lives. When addressed by two police officers he answered in his first language, Shangaan (a language spoken both in South Africa and in Mozambique), whereupon the officers called him a "(swearword) foreigner". While the first two officers were harassing him in this way, a third more senior one intervened to say that they should calm down and search Cde David.
As one was searching him, and while Cde David consequently had his hands up in the air, the other one suddenly and without any provocation punched him in the face, starting a fracas during which several other officers assaulted him. They then took him to the police station, trumped up a charge against him, and continued to mistreat him until eventually, later, and with the assistance of his fellow SACP Central Committee members, Solly Mapaila and YCL National Secretary Buti Manamela, he was released from custody. In the process, Cdes Mapaila and Manamela were also threatened with arrest.
David Masondo is a distinguished and respected South African national leader who is also a renowned university lecturer, who will shortly be going to work at New York University for a year with the internationally famous academic David Harvey and others. He was prominent among those who spoke on public platforms condemning the xenophobic pogroms that began on 11 May 2008 in Alexandra Township, not more than two kilometres from where he lives, and where he has now himself been beaten up in a xenophobic attack - by the police!
COSATU is particularly shocked that this should have happened to a gentle person whom we know and love, and who is a valued part of the national leadership of the movement. We are determined to defend our leaders. The federation has consistently denounced xenophobia and are well aware that it most often affects the most vulnerable people in our country, including members of our affiliated unions and others who have few friends at all to defend them.
COSATU therefore backs the YCL's demand that the xenophobic officers who assaulted Cde David Masondo should be subjected to an exemplary, rigorous, and speedy disciplinary process to demonstrate to the country that the South African Police Service intends to mend its ways and purge xenophobia from its own ranks, not just in Sandringham and Alexandra, but everywhere in South Africa.
It is intolerable to COSATU that the very force that is supposed to protect everyone in the country, of whatever origin, should be continuing to prove in incidents like this, of which we believe there are many every single day, that it is itself riddled with xenophobia.
Source: Politicsweb
Cde Masondo was stopped at a roadblock while jogging in his tracksuit in the suburb where he lives. When addressed by two police officers he answered in his first language, Shangaan (a language spoken both in South Africa and in Mozambique), whereupon the officers called him a "(swearword) foreigner". While the first two officers were harassing him in this way, a third more senior one intervened to say that they should calm down and search Cde David.
As one was searching him, and while Cde David consequently had his hands up in the air, the other one suddenly and without any provocation punched him in the face, starting a fracas during which several other officers assaulted him. They then took him to the police station, trumped up a charge against him, and continued to mistreat him until eventually, later, and with the assistance of his fellow SACP Central Committee members, Solly Mapaila and YCL National Secretary Buti Manamela, he was released from custody. In the process, Cdes Mapaila and Manamela were also threatened with arrest.
David Masondo is a distinguished and respected South African national leader who is also a renowned university lecturer, who will shortly be going to work at New York University for a year with the internationally famous academic David Harvey and others. He was prominent among those who spoke on public platforms condemning the xenophobic pogroms that began on 11 May 2008 in Alexandra Township, not more than two kilometres from where he lives, and where he has now himself been beaten up in a xenophobic attack - by the police!
COSATU is particularly shocked that this should have happened to a gentle person whom we know and love, and who is a valued part of the national leadership of the movement. We are determined to defend our leaders. The federation has consistently denounced xenophobia and are well aware that it most often affects the most vulnerable people in our country, including members of our affiliated unions and others who have few friends at all to defend them.
COSATU therefore backs the YCL's demand that the xenophobic officers who assaulted Cde David Masondo should be subjected to an exemplary, rigorous, and speedy disciplinary process to demonstrate to the country that the South African Police Service intends to mend its ways and purge xenophobia from its own ranks, not just in Sandringham and Alexandra, but everywhere in South Africa.
It is intolerable to COSATU that the very force that is supposed to protect everyone in the country, of whatever origin, should be continuing to prove in incidents like this, of which we believe there are many every single day, that it is itself riddled with xenophobia.
Source: Politicsweb
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