The ANC came to the defence of cabinet ministers accused of wasting tax payers money by staying at luxury" hotels - and said it was "sensationalism of the highest order". The ruling party said in a statement issued yesterday that the "attack" on its ministers confirmed its long-held suspicion that ANC ministers were being "targeted".
"There is nothing immoral, illegal or unconstitutional in public representatives staying in hotels, as this is not a breach of the Public Finance Management Act, or the provisions of the Ministerial Handbook," said the ruling party's spokesman, Jackson Mthembu.
The furore over cabinet members spending millions of rands on hotel accommodation came as more reports over "extravagant" spending by minsters was published. Last week, the Democratic Alliance published its wasteful expenditure monitor table, setting out spending by the ANC considered to be wasteful or excessive. It reported that since President Jacob Zuma was elected president, government departments and state-owned enterprises had blown more that R1.5-billion on cars, parties, World Cup tickets and other luxuries.
But the ANC said yesterday the media was "failing" in its work to "properly inform" the public about laws governing accommodation of public representatives. "In line with the Ministerial Handbook and prescripts governing public representatives, c abinet ministers, MPs MECs and MPLs are entitled to stay in hotels while their permanent accommodation is not yet ready for occupation," Mthembu said. "No luxury can be derived in staying and working from a hotel environment, where you do not have the privacy you would enjoy staying in a proper home," he said.
Source: Times Live
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Saturday, July 17, 2010
The SACP in the headlines
60 years ago, the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) was declared an illegal organisation according to the 'Suppression of Communism Act, No. 44 of 1950'. This apartheid act was approved on 26 June in parliament and came into force on 17 July 1950.
The Suppression of Communism Act banned the CPSA, and gave the government the power to ban publications that promoted the objectives of communism, and the power to 'name' people who could be barred from holding office, practicing as lawyers or attending meetings.
The Act, later extended through the Internal Security Act, sanctioned the banning/punishment of any group or individual intending to bring about 'any political, industrial, social or economic change in the Union by the promotion of disturbances or disorder, by unlawful acts or omissions or by the threat of such acts and omissions'.
This definition of communism was so broad and crude that its liberal opponents suspected it was seeking also to trap liberals in its net. In 1953, the party was renamed the South African Communist Party (SACP) at a national conference, where it was decided that the organisation would operate underground.
It was no accident that the apartheid regime saw communism as its foremost enemy. The Communist Party had been the first to advocate non-racism, and to open its ranks to people of all races and cultures. It had pioneered progressive trade unionism, and supported rural struggles. It had run night schools, and worked on developing its cadres.
The Act was progressively tightened up in 1951, 1954, and yearly from 1962 to 1968. Between 1948 and 1991, the apartheid government banned more than 1,600 men and women. Banned persons endured severe restrictions on their movement, political activities, and associations intended to silence their opposition to the government’s apartheid policies and stop their political activity.
In addition, the Act facilitated the government’s take down of liberation organizations such as the ANC. The Act forced these groups to go underground with their activism. Ironically, because of this act, groups such as Umkhonto we Sizwe (armed and ‘underground’ wing of the ANC) did seek support from Communist parties for financial aid. Liberation struggle leaders like Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Govan Mbeki all received life sentences in prison partly because of this Act (Rivonia Trail).
Source: South African History Online
The Suppression of Communism Act banned the CPSA, and gave the government the power to ban publications that promoted the objectives of communism, and the power to 'name' people who could be barred from holding office, practicing as lawyers or attending meetings.
The Act, later extended through the Internal Security Act, sanctioned the banning/punishment of any group or individual intending to bring about 'any political, industrial, social or economic change in the Union by the promotion of disturbances or disorder, by unlawful acts or omissions or by the threat of such acts and omissions'.
This definition of communism was so broad and crude that its liberal opponents suspected it was seeking also to trap liberals in its net. In 1953, the party was renamed the South African Communist Party (SACP) at a national conference, where it was decided that the organisation would operate underground.
It was no accident that the apartheid regime saw communism as its foremost enemy. The Communist Party had been the first to advocate non-racism, and to open its ranks to people of all races and cultures. It had pioneered progressive trade unionism, and supported rural struggles. It had run night schools, and worked on developing its cadres.
The Act was progressively tightened up in 1951, 1954, and yearly from 1962 to 1968. Between 1948 and 1991, the apartheid government banned more than 1,600 men and women. Banned persons endured severe restrictions on their movement, political activities, and associations intended to silence their opposition to the government’s apartheid policies and stop their political activity.
In addition, the Act facilitated the government’s take down of liberation organizations such as the ANC. The Act forced these groups to go underground with their activism. Ironically, because of this act, groups such as Umkhonto we Sizwe (armed and ‘underground’ wing of the ANC) did seek support from Communist parties for financial aid. Liberation struggle leaders like Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Govan Mbeki all received life sentences in prison partly because of this Act (Rivonia Trail).
Source: South African History Online
Friday, July 16, 2010
Minister wants action on corruption “without fear or favour”
Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane on Friday said it is the duty of law enforcement agency’s to act on allegations of corruption without fear or favour.
Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda is at the centre of another tender storm. It is alleged Nyanda wants all tenders for the department to be cancelled until they have been discussed and approved by him. He is also said to have stripped his director general, Mamodupi Mohlala, of powers to administer tenders because she refused to sign off on tenders linked to him or people close to him. The Communications Ministry has denied the allegations.
Chabane said police need to look into claims and investigate. “We should avoid a situation where we as politicians would interfere with the normal work of the operations of the authorities who have been given responsibilities. Our task needs to be clearly defined in terms of what it is we need to do, law enforcement agencies need to continue doing their work without fear or favour,” said Chabane.
Source: Eye Witness News
Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda is at the centre of another tender storm. It is alleged Nyanda wants all tenders for the department to be cancelled until they have been discussed and approved by him. He is also said to have stripped his director general, Mamodupi Mohlala, of powers to administer tenders because she refused to sign off on tenders linked to him or people close to him. The Communications Ministry has denied the allegations.
Chabane said police need to look into claims and investigate. “We should avoid a situation where we as politicians would interfere with the normal work of the operations of the authorities who have been given responsibilities. Our task needs to be clearly defined in terms of what it is we need to do, law enforcement agencies need to continue doing their work without fear or favour,” said Chabane.
Source: Eye Witness News
A two-day job after minister and DG clash
An acting director general was appointed for two days this week in the communications department after a mysterious fallout between Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda and his director general, Mamodupi Mohlala. Dr Harold Wesso, who was heading an e-skills institute in the department, told the Mail & Guardian he was placed in the post of acting director general late on Wednesday afternoon. The M&G was told that Wesso was temporarily appointed because Nyanda had tried to set up a meeting three times with Mohlala, but she had said she was sick. Because of her claim, Nyanda appointed Wesso in the acting position but did not suspend her. "My appointment letter said it was just for two days, until Friday," Wesso said on Thursday. "What is happening after that, I am not sure. I was appointed acting director general late [on Wednesday] afternoon and I will be trying to maintain the status quo."
Nyanda's and Mohlala's families have strong links with each other, but on Thursday Business Day reported that Mohlala was about to be suspended by Nyanda, following repeated disagreements over tenders she refused to sign. The story reported unsubstantiated claims that she had refused to approve tenders that were awarded to companies linked to people close to Nyanda and a private company partly owned by Nyanda, General Nyanda Security (GNS). Communications department spokesperson Tiyani Rikhotso said Nyanda dismissed the allegations in the report "as false, spurious and malicious". "The minister is not involved in the issuing or adjudication of tenders," he said. "Such is the responsibility of the management of the department." Nyanda would not address administration and human resources issues through the media and was dealing with departmental management internally, Rikhotso said.
Mohlala agreed to answer M&G questions about the tender controversy but then failed to do so. Instead, she confined her response to an explanation of her relationship with the minister and said she would return to the office on July 19. "The minister and I have a conducive work relationship and I respect the mutual relationship both the minister as an executive authority and I as an accounting officer have," wrote Mohlala. In past weeks communications department staff said tensions have become apparent between Mohlala and Nyanda. A source close to the ANC NEC's communications subcommittee said Mohlala had alienated the party when she bypassed the committee on policy issues. "There have been major fireworks ... she doesn't attend meetings with them and has taken new policy to the Cabinet, such as on broadband, where there has been no debate."
Source: Mail & Guardian
Nyanda's and Mohlala's families have strong links with each other, but on Thursday Business Day reported that Mohlala was about to be suspended by Nyanda, following repeated disagreements over tenders she refused to sign. The story reported unsubstantiated claims that she had refused to approve tenders that were awarded to companies linked to people close to Nyanda and a private company partly owned by Nyanda, General Nyanda Security (GNS). Communications department spokesperson Tiyani Rikhotso said Nyanda dismissed the allegations in the report "as false, spurious and malicious". "The minister is not involved in the issuing or adjudication of tenders," he said. "Such is the responsibility of the management of the department." Nyanda would not address administration and human resources issues through the media and was dealing with departmental management internally, Rikhotso said.
Mohlala agreed to answer M&G questions about the tender controversy but then failed to do so. Instead, she confined her response to an explanation of her relationship with the minister and said she would return to the office on July 19. "The minister and I have a conducive work relationship and I respect the mutual relationship both the minister as an executive authority and I as an accounting officer have," wrote Mohlala. In past weeks communications department staff said tensions have become apparent between Mohlala and Nyanda. A source close to the ANC NEC's communications subcommittee said Mohlala had alienated the party when she bypassed the committee on policy issues. "There have been major fireworks ... she doesn't attend meetings with them and has taken new policy to the Cabinet, such as on broadband, where there has been no debate."
Source: Mail & Guardian
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Nyanda denies rift with DG
A terse statement issued today by the Department of Communications (DOC) denies a newspaper report that communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda is about to suspend his director-general, Mamodupi Mohlala. Earlier today, national newspaper Business Day reported that Nyanda was about to suspend Mohlala following repeated disagreements over tenders she refused to sign.
The newspaper said tenders that were the subject of the disagreement included those for advising Telkom on its black economic empowerment strategy, an IT system for the South African Post Office, and the turnaround strategy for the South African Broadcasting Corporation. The report also cited the delay in the digital broadcasting migration strategy, with the process of changing SA's national TV system from analogue to digital as a point of tension between the two.
Nyanda has been on the receiving end of much criticism from the media and other sources, following his company General Nyanda Security being awarded lucrative Transnet contracts. His decision to spend more than R2 million on luxury cars, and his accommodation at luxury Cape Town hotels placed Nyanda close to the top of the official opposition Democratic Alliance's fruitless and wasteful expenditure list.
The DOC statement issued today says the minister dismisses the allegations contained in the report as false, spurious and malicious. “The minister exercises political oversight over the department and he gives it policy direction in line with his statutory and constitutional mandate. Furthermore, he respects the legal prescripts defining the scope, nature and extent of his responsibilities,” the statement says. It further denied any involvement by Nyanda in the issuing or adjudication of tenders. Such is the responsibility of the management of the department, it adds. The statement goes on to say Nyanda will continue with his responsibility of ensuring the provisions of the Public Finance Management Act, Public Service Act, and all relevant laws and regulations are adhered to and not flouted within the department.
It says Nyanda will not address the department's administration and human resources issues through the media. This position is in deference to the department's staff, including Mohlala, it notes. “The minister is dealing with issues that are impacting the management of the department internally and according to the applicable laws, regulations and public service policies,” the statement reads.
Niekie van den Berg, Democratic Alliance shadow minister of communications, says he is not surprised that reports of tension between Nyanda and Mohlala are surfacing. “I noticed during the Parliamentary briefing where both were present that the minister appeared to be very irritated in explaining why the country should be investigating another [Brazilian] system when it had already committed to a European standard,” he says. SA is in the middle of its digital migration strategy, with Cabinet having setting the switch-off date for the analogue system for 1 November 2011. Talk of changing standards at such a late stage has been vigorously opposed by the industry, broadcasters and others, as they have already committed themselves to the European standard and procured some of the equipment needed.
Source: IT Web
The newspaper said tenders that were the subject of the disagreement included those for advising Telkom on its black economic empowerment strategy, an IT system for the South African Post Office, and the turnaround strategy for the South African Broadcasting Corporation. The report also cited the delay in the digital broadcasting migration strategy, with the process of changing SA's national TV system from analogue to digital as a point of tension between the two.
Nyanda has been on the receiving end of much criticism from the media and other sources, following his company General Nyanda Security being awarded lucrative Transnet contracts. His decision to spend more than R2 million on luxury cars, and his accommodation at luxury Cape Town hotels placed Nyanda close to the top of the official opposition Democratic Alliance's fruitless and wasteful expenditure list.
The DOC statement issued today says the minister dismisses the allegations contained in the report as false, spurious and malicious. “The minister exercises political oversight over the department and he gives it policy direction in line with his statutory and constitutional mandate. Furthermore, he respects the legal prescripts defining the scope, nature and extent of his responsibilities,” the statement says. It further denied any involvement by Nyanda in the issuing or adjudication of tenders. Such is the responsibility of the management of the department, it adds. The statement goes on to say Nyanda will continue with his responsibility of ensuring the provisions of the Public Finance Management Act, Public Service Act, and all relevant laws and regulations are adhered to and not flouted within the department.
It says Nyanda will not address the department's administration and human resources issues through the media. This position is in deference to the department's staff, including Mohlala, it notes. “The minister is dealing with issues that are impacting the management of the department internally and according to the applicable laws, regulations and public service policies,” the statement reads.
Niekie van den Berg, Democratic Alliance shadow minister of communications, says he is not surprised that reports of tension between Nyanda and Mohlala are surfacing. “I noticed during the Parliamentary briefing where both were present that the minister appeared to be very irritated in explaining why the country should be investigating another [Brazilian] system when it had already committed to a European standard,” he says. SA is in the middle of its digital migration strategy, with Cabinet having setting the switch-off date for the analogue system for 1 November 2011. Talk of changing standards at such a late stage has been vigorously opposed by the industry, broadcasters and others, as they have already committed themselves to the European standard and procured some of the equipment needed.
Source: IT Web
Why Zuma's top aide is leaving
It is becoming an old and rather monotonous story. Someone resigns from the presidency. Presidential aide Lakela Kaunda gets blamed. Kaunda denies it. And then life goes on, until the next resignation.
Previously the resignations have been those on Kaunda's level as deputy director general (for instance, chief operations officer Jessie Duarte) or beneath her (presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya). The next one that is anticipated is the most senior administrative official in government, the director general in the presidency, Vusi Mavimbela. And the reasons for Mavimbela's imminent departure may be the same as everyone else's but the way they reflect on Zuma makes it more chilling.
Mavimbela, as former spy boss and presidential adviser, is no stranger to government. With his wealth of experience and access to privileged information he was adamant to implement plans to make the presidency run like clockwork as an example of how government can do its job. But insiders say Kaunda would overrule him -- brief ministers and DGs about the president's demands without consulting him or not include him in processes which he should be leading. Eventually senior government officials started to wonder out loud whether he has any real say in the presidency.
When the Mail & Guardian asked Kaunda extensive questions about her leadership in the presidency last week she referred them to Zuma's spokesperson Zizi Kodwa. Kodwa on Thursday did not want to comment on Mavimbela's situation, because a final decision on his future had not yet been made, although those around Mavimbela says he is negotiating a plum diplomatic posting that would suit his status in government. Presidency staffers who are close to Zuma say it is simple: The president could not, after a year, trust his director general as much as he should. And no president would keep someone on whose loyalty he doubts.
Mavimbela's spy background and his former job at Mvelaphanda cast doubt on him. Is he fuelling a campaign for human settlements minister Tokyo Sexwale, rumoured to have presidential aspirations? Will he use priviledged information to undermine Zuma's bid for a second term as president? Does he still carry a torch for his former boss, former president Thabo Mbeki? Zuma couldn't figure it out and therefore decided it was best to let him go.
Another set of presidency officials have a different view: he decided to jump out of frustration. Said one: "If Zuma had a problem with his Mvelaphanda links, why did he hire Mavimbela in the first place for such a strategically important position?" No one seems to know the answer. What everyone does know is that Zuma is not comfortable in a meeting unless Kaunda is there. Some say it is for the president to be secure in the knowledge that someone "has his back", while others believe that she is simply the most effective administrator he has. But Kaunda's relations with colleagues aside, what is of real importance is how Zuma's manages these relations to ensure an effective administration. Although the director general is on his way out, the tensions will not leave with him. Some insiders already talk of a fight brewing in the legal services department because Kaunda instructed junior officials without going through the necessary bureaucratic processes -- which may be cumbersome but are important in the running of the organisation.
And when things come to a head, as they did with Mavimbela, Zuma cannot, as his aides say, "be above it all" and leave these issues to sort themselves out. He needs to take the time to ring fence duties and responsibilities, and hold those people to account. And he must ensure that in all this, loyalty does not trump competence.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Previously the resignations have been those on Kaunda's level as deputy director general (for instance, chief operations officer Jessie Duarte) or beneath her (presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya). The next one that is anticipated is the most senior administrative official in government, the director general in the presidency, Vusi Mavimbela. And the reasons for Mavimbela's imminent departure may be the same as everyone else's but the way they reflect on Zuma makes it more chilling.
Mavimbela, as former spy boss and presidential adviser, is no stranger to government. With his wealth of experience and access to privileged information he was adamant to implement plans to make the presidency run like clockwork as an example of how government can do its job. But insiders say Kaunda would overrule him -- brief ministers and DGs about the president's demands without consulting him or not include him in processes which he should be leading. Eventually senior government officials started to wonder out loud whether he has any real say in the presidency.
When the Mail & Guardian asked Kaunda extensive questions about her leadership in the presidency last week she referred them to Zuma's spokesperson Zizi Kodwa. Kodwa on Thursday did not want to comment on Mavimbela's situation, because a final decision on his future had not yet been made, although those around Mavimbela says he is negotiating a plum diplomatic posting that would suit his status in government. Presidency staffers who are close to Zuma say it is simple: The president could not, after a year, trust his director general as much as he should. And no president would keep someone on whose loyalty he doubts.
Mavimbela's spy background and his former job at Mvelaphanda cast doubt on him. Is he fuelling a campaign for human settlements minister Tokyo Sexwale, rumoured to have presidential aspirations? Will he use priviledged information to undermine Zuma's bid for a second term as president? Does he still carry a torch for his former boss, former president Thabo Mbeki? Zuma couldn't figure it out and therefore decided it was best to let him go.
Another set of presidency officials have a different view: he decided to jump out of frustration. Said one: "If Zuma had a problem with his Mvelaphanda links, why did he hire Mavimbela in the first place for such a strategically important position?" No one seems to know the answer. What everyone does know is that Zuma is not comfortable in a meeting unless Kaunda is there. Some say it is for the president to be secure in the knowledge that someone "has his back", while others believe that she is simply the most effective administrator he has. But Kaunda's relations with colleagues aside, what is of real importance is how Zuma's manages these relations to ensure an effective administration. Although the director general is on his way out, the tensions will not leave with him. Some insiders already talk of a fight brewing in the legal services department because Kaunda instructed junior officials without going through the necessary bureaucratic processes -- which may be cumbersome but are important in the running of the organisation.
And when things come to a head, as they did with Mavimbela, Zuma cannot, as his aides say, "be above it all" and leave these issues to sort themselves out. He needs to take the time to ring fence duties and responsibilities, and hold those people to account. And he must ensure that in all this, loyalty does not trump competence.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Credit Suisse offices raided by tax officials
German prosecutors have raided 13 branches of the Swiss bank Credit Suisse in connection with an inquiry into tax fraud. The prosecutor's office in Dusseldorf said on Wednesday that about 150 investigators took part in searches. The search is focusing on allegations that bank staff assisted clients to evade taxes.
Tax officials bought a CD in February that reportedly contained information on about 1,100 wealthy Germans. There were reports at the time that the authorities paid about 2.5m euros for the disc to an unnamed individual. The data contained information that led prosecutors to believe that some 1.2bn euros (£1bn) of undeclared income was stashed in the Swiss accounts by the 1,100 people.
Investigations were launched into the individuals, but now officials have turned their attention to bank staff for allegedly aiding and abetting customers to avoid taxes. In April, Credit Suisse's chief executive Renato Fassbind said it appeared increasingly likely that some of the bank's clients were listed on a disc containing stolen data. The company was not immediately available for comment on Wednesday's raids.
Governments in Europe and the US have been cracking down on tax evasion. It is not the first time that Germany is thought to have paid for data on bank customers. In France and the UK too, authorities have bought information on wealthy bank customers who may have hidden money in secret accounts.
Source: BBC News
Tax officials bought a CD in February that reportedly contained information on about 1,100 wealthy Germans. There were reports at the time that the authorities paid about 2.5m euros for the disc to an unnamed individual. The data contained information that led prosecutors to believe that some 1.2bn euros (£1bn) of undeclared income was stashed in the Swiss accounts by the 1,100 people.
Investigations were launched into the individuals, but now officials have turned their attention to bank staff for allegedly aiding and abetting customers to avoid taxes. In April, Credit Suisse's chief executive Renato Fassbind said it appeared increasingly likely that some of the bank's clients were listed on a disc containing stolen data. The company was not immediately available for comment on Wednesday's raids.
Governments in Europe and the US have been cracking down on tax evasion. It is not the first time that Germany is thought to have paid for data on bank customers. In France and the UK too, authorities have bought information on wealthy bank customers who may have hidden money in secret accounts.
Source: BBC News
Concern at political interference in media
The Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) is "gravely concerned" about seemingly increasing political interference in the South African media, the institute's executive director, Ayesha Kajee, said on Wednesday. The newly appointed Kajee said in a statement she was especially concerned about allegations of political interference at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) as the national broadcaster, and at renewed calls from various political actors to establish a media tribunal.
It was recently reported that the acting head of news at the SABC, Phil Molefe, had banned senior news executives from using interviews with former president Thabo Mbeki, after an interview with him was screened during the Soccer World Cup. These reports said that Mbeki's appearance on SABC television undermined ANC leader Jacob Zuma. The SABC denied these allegations, but its board said it would investigate the matter. "Given the right to a free press enshrined in the South African Constitution, both developments appear to signal a disturbing trend towards greater political control of the news media, and merit public scrutiny and debate," said Kajee.
Kajee said the recent incident at the SABC had similarities with the blacklisting saga of 2006/07, where former head of news Snuki Zikalala banned certain political commentators (perceived to be critical of Mbeki) from being interviewed on the national broadcaster. Kajee said while the FXI welcomed the SABC board's promise to fully investigate the new allegations, these developments appeared to indicate that censorship continued to be a problem at the public broadcaster. "The SABC has a mandate to represent the full spectrum of South African society, in a manner that is free from political or other bias," she said. "To ensure that the public broadcaster does not become diluted into a state organ subject to the whims of those in political power, it is critical that the SABC withstands pressures that may result in censorship and that the board strongly defend the broadcaster's independence." She said individuals within the ruling tripartite alliance had recently used a number of seemingly unrelated issues in the media as fuel to resuscitate calls for the formation of a media tribunal to regulate the press.
These included allegations of media bias around the investigation and trial of former police commissioner Jackie Selebi, convicted last month on corruption charges; the revelation by former Cape Argus political journalist Ashley Smith that he received payment for writing favourably slanted reports about then-Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool; and an artist's depiction of former president Nelson Mandela as a corpse. Kajee said the concept of a media tribunal was first proposed at the ANC's 2007 elective conference in Polokwane, as the ruling party felt the major media companies in the country were "hostile" towards it and that the self-regulation of the media via the Office of the Press Ombudsman was insufficient.
The proposal was slated by media practitioners as being a move towards state intervention and control of the media. "It must be noted here that neither journalists nor politicians can operate without accountability and that neither group is above the law," Kajee said. She said the possibility of either strengthening the existing Press Ombudsman or the establishing of a truly independent media tribunal merited consideration and a public debate. "In either case, independence must be safeguarded by ensuring that there is no direct regulation by the state or the commercial media," she said.
Source: Mail & Guardian
It was recently reported that the acting head of news at the SABC, Phil Molefe, had banned senior news executives from using interviews with former president Thabo Mbeki, after an interview with him was screened during the Soccer World Cup. These reports said that Mbeki's appearance on SABC television undermined ANC leader Jacob Zuma. The SABC denied these allegations, but its board said it would investigate the matter. "Given the right to a free press enshrined in the South African Constitution, both developments appear to signal a disturbing trend towards greater political control of the news media, and merit public scrutiny and debate," said Kajee.
Kajee said the recent incident at the SABC had similarities with the blacklisting saga of 2006/07, where former head of news Snuki Zikalala banned certain political commentators (perceived to be critical of Mbeki) from being interviewed on the national broadcaster. Kajee said while the FXI welcomed the SABC board's promise to fully investigate the new allegations, these developments appeared to indicate that censorship continued to be a problem at the public broadcaster. "The SABC has a mandate to represent the full spectrum of South African society, in a manner that is free from political or other bias," she said. "To ensure that the public broadcaster does not become diluted into a state organ subject to the whims of those in political power, it is critical that the SABC withstands pressures that may result in censorship and that the board strongly defend the broadcaster's independence." She said individuals within the ruling tripartite alliance had recently used a number of seemingly unrelated issues in the media as fuel to resuscitate calls for the formation of a media tribunal to regulate the press.
These included allegations of media bias around the investigation and trial of former police commissioner Jackie Selebi, convicted last month on corruption charges; the revelation by former Cape Argus political journalist Ashley Smith that he received payment for writing favourably slanted reports about then-Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool; and an artist's depiction of former president Nelson Mandela as a corpse. Kajee said the concept of a media tribunal was first proposed at the ANC's 2007 elective conference in Polokwane, as the ruling party felt the major media companies in the country were "hostile" towards it and that the self-regulation of the media via the Office of the Press Ombudsman was insufficient.
The proposal was slated by media practitioners as being a move towards state intervention and control of the media. "It must be noted here that neither journalists nor politicians can operate without accountability and that neither group is above the law," Kajee said. She said the possibility of either strengthening the existing Press Ombudsman or the establishing of a truly independent media tribunal merited consideration and a public debate. "In either case, independence must be safeguarded by ensuring that there is no direct regulation by the state or the commercial media," she said.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
The ANC, human dignity and freedom of the media
Pierre De Vos wrote the following on his blog:
Source: Constitutionally Speaking
When Tony Blair became leader of the British Labour Party he set out to befriend media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch owns The Sun, the biggest tabloid newspaper in Britain, as well as Sky News. In previous elections The Sun had supported the Conservatives and Blair understood that he needed the support of The Sun (topless page three girls included) to win the next election. He soon got that support and in 1997 won the general election in a landslide.
The Sun remained a supporter of the Labour Party in election after election but switched sides before the general election earlier this year. Labour, of course, lost this election to a coalition of the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. (The fact that Sky News was obviously rooting for the Conservatives might also have helped a bit.)
Clearly the African National Congress (ANC) does not share Tony Blair’s Machiavellian view of how to influence the media. In recent days several ANC leaders and spokespeople have revived the idea of a Media Appeals Tribunal. It is unclear what this Tribunal would do or to what extent it would impose the ideological world view of the ANC on the media.
For Gwede Mantashe, it seems, a Media Appeals Tribunal will help to “correct” the anti-ANC bias in the media. He argues that the media is driven by a dark conspiracy to discredit the National Democratic Revolution (conveniently forgetting that the vast majority of South Africans receive their news from the SABC, a state broadcaster masquerading as a public broadcaster).
Blade Nzimande would like to see the Tribunal used to stop the alleged corruption in the media. He points out, correctly, that the Ashley Smith affair asks some serious questions not only about the integrity of Ebrahim Rasool, but also of Smith and other members of the media and calls for a re-evaluation of the role the media plays in South Africa.
(Is it not ironic that a cabinet Minister has taken the allegations made by former Cape Argus reporter Ashley Smith at face value and has used it to argue for the institution of a Media Appeals Tribunal, while the President has appointed the very person who has allegedly bribed Smith as our ambassador to Washington? Will Nzimande demand that the appointment be rescinded or will he show himself to be a rank hypocrite?)
ANC spokesperson, Jackson Mthembu, so it seems, want to use the Media Appeals Tribunal to censor the media and to stop them publishing things that might be upsetting or distasteful. Lambasting the Mail & Guardian for publishing a picture of the highly controversial Mandela autopsy painting, Mthembu stated:
This unbridled freedom of the media, as evidenced by projection of this so called art in the Mail and Guardian, confirms that the self-regulated print media environment is a recipe for disaster and negates the core values we hold dear as the society as contained in our constitution.
All these statements have at least two very scary things in common. First, it shares an utter lack of understanding of freedom of expression and the media in a well-functioning constitutional democracy. Second it endorses a view that ideas, facts, practices or opinions that the ruling party opposes or thinks is dangerous or harmful (to itself, to the state?) should not be published in the media and that a Tribunal should regulate the media to stop them printing such things.
In an open and democratic society, the media is an important and powerful player. It would be naive to think that members of the media do not have political views and that such views are not reflected in the choices of stories they carry and the way these stories are told. What is excluded is often just as important as what is included.
That is why one does not have to be a rocket scientist to know that the SABC is close to a mouthpiece of the ANC, while ETV and the print media are more critical of the ANC. No wonder the ANC wins every election with more than 60% of the vote, as the SABC is the main source of information and news for almost 80% of South Africans.
A free media is important because it protects and enhances our human dignity. It does this by providing us with different views so that we can make up our own minds about who we are, what we think and how we want to live. A free media helps us to have some agency and thus to become people whose inherent human dignity is respected.
The diversity of views seem all important, which means that as a rule, the majority or the majority political party should not be able to tell the media what it can and cannot publish as this would infringe on the human dignity of every South African. If we know nothing except that which we are allowed to know by our leaders, we do not live lives of dignity. Instead we live lives as people who are only half human, cut off from a sense of self, part of a collective, yes, but not able to change our minds or decide for ourselves what is good or bad in our world and how we want to deal with this reality.
Of course, in a democracy, political parties try to woo the media to get them to write nice things about them. If they make mistakes, they try and manage the media to limit the negative effects of their mistakes. Helen Zille, as a former journalist, is quite good at this kind of media management when she keeps her paranoid anti-ANC rhetoric in check. ANC leaders are seldom good at it and if they are (like Tokyo Sexwale) they are viewed with suspicion.
People who work in the real media (as opposed to those who work for the bureaucratic pro-state SABC) like to think of themselves as cool, intelligent and hip. When the ANC talks about the National Democratic Revolution, deploy fake revolutionary phrases that went out of fashion around the time that the USSR invaded Hungary, and talk about dark conspiracies by the enemies of the new order (by which they usually mean critics of the ANC and the government of the day), they alienate ordinary, decent, journalists who might otherwise have been ideologically rather close to the ANC.
What the ANC and the government it leads actually needs is not a Media Appeals Tribunal, but a media strategy to woo the non-state media to its side by talking the language of ordinary people and citizens. Instead of talking that fuax revolutionary drivel and blaming the Dark Lord Sauron, anti-transformation forces, the CIA or the Devil himself for their bad record on service delivery and for the bad publicity on corruption and the like, the ANC needs to face up to the facts and take quick and decisive action to correct mistakes to try and convince the real media that it really, really cares and is doing its best to stamp out corruption and to improve service delivery.
The ANC has been spoilt by its praise singers at the SABC, so it does not understand or respect real media freedom. Thus it cannot see the difference between disagreeing with something the media did (publishing the Mandela painting, for example) and demanding that the media be stopped from doing it. In a real democracy there are laws of defamation that protects the dignity of everyone and the media must operate within those laws but otherwise freedom of the media means exactly that: freedom to publish even things that the majority party does not like or finds despicable.
When the media does something that one really finds upsetting, one is of course entitled to criticise them. One can call the Mail and Guardian callous for publishing the painting of Mandela’s autopsy, or one can argue that the painting is just a really bad piece of art and that the Mail & Guardian has been sensationalistic and has shown a shocking lack of taste in publishing a “work of art” that is no more than a cheap and pathetic attempt to garner publicity for the artist.
That is all fair comment. But to suggest that the Mail & Guardian should not be allowed to publish the painting is to endorse a kind of censorship that cannot be squared with a constitutional democracy. I for one want to know what the fuss is about and want to make up my own mind on whether the painting is a cheap and pathetic publicity stunt or a meaningful and thought-provoking meditation on wisdom and learning.
The problem is that the ANC has not yet embraced the notion that its own views about what is right and wrong, what is acceptable or not, about what is an affront to the dignity of one of its leaders or not, is just that: its own view and one of many. It has not yet accepted that it does not speak on behalf of the nation (what a paternalistic notion!) and can thus not tell everyone what it is allowed to publish or to think. Its views – no matter how widely shared, cogent or laudable - is just one set of views.
There are many other views and if we want to live in a real democracy (and not the kind of fake democracy found in Hungary after 1956) we have to allow the many different views as long as the expression of these views stays within the bounds of the law of defamation.
This does not mean we cannot get upset or that we have no right to express our contempt and anger at the media. It just means that we cannot impose our own view – which is one of many different views that must be allowed to flourish in a society based on human dignity – on all.
Source: Constitutionally Speaking
Sunday, July 11, 2010
'Lakela Kaunda is an Assertive Black Woman'
For someone with a growing reputation as resident "chief bully" in President Jacob Zuma's office, Lakela Kaunda is remarkably cool about the hullabaloo surrounding her. Broadsides thrown her way publicly include that she is a control freak, a bully, involved in a smear campaign against colleagues, and a selfish gatekeeper to Zuma even denying advisers access to him. But Kaunda, a soft-spoken Durbanite, isn't bothered. She quipped nonchalantly this week, in a brief interview with sister title the Sunday Tribune: "People love wicked women, don't they? A Delilah must be found somewhere."
While Zuma's first year in office played out like a soap opera, behind-the-scenes, Kaunda reportedly had a starring role, eclipsing several high-profile figures. Chief operations officer Jessie Duarte left unceremoniously in April, triggering a mass exodus in which communications chief Vusi Mona, director-general Vusi Mavimbela and senior communications aides Steyn Speed and Vincent Magwenya left.
While Duarte, in her famous e-mail to secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, complained about "a smear campaign, rumour mongering, gossip and vilifications" within the presidency before leaving, she later gave some insight into what Lakela Kaunda stands for. "Kaunda is not a bully. She is an assertive black woman. There are people (in the Presidency) who want to push her around (for their own gain), but she is not one to be pushed."
Affectionately addressed by Zuma as "Ntombinkulu", or Big Girl, Kaunda has an especially good relationship with the President in his 500-member-strong Presidency, having worked with him since the mid-1990s, when Zuma was economic affairs and tourism MEC and would turn to her to do his spin-doctoring. Kaunda, who hails from Hambanathi, in the sugar cane town of Tongaat, has also been a newshound of note. A one-time political correspondent at the Natal Witness, she worked her way up to assistant editor. She was appointed editor of the now-defunct Port Elizabeth newspaper Evening Post in 1999 - the first woman to edit a daily newspaper in the country. She also served as chairwoman of the SA National Editors' Forum.
When Zuma was promoted to deputy president, there she was, at the reins of his PR machinery. When he was fired, she left for the social development ministry, where she became special adviser to Minister Zola Skweyiya. She returned to Zuma's side, managing his office at Luthuli House, and when he was inaugurated as President, she was in the Presidency's communications unit of 40 people. A former colleague described her as highly efficient and a go-getter. She was "always astute and very committed... very focused, very professional in terms of helping us interact with the deputy president. I found her very helpful, that is why it is difficult to comprehend these stories written about her".
Presidency spokesman Zizi Kodwa said Lakela worked as part of a collective. The private office she heads was a small part of the Presidency, with about 40 staff who provide personal support to the President. Kodwa said Zuma was an accessible and a "very humble person who "tries to give his time to as many people as possible, including staff".
Eusebius McKaiser, political analyst at the Centre for Study for Democracy, said the exodus of key staffers was not likely to cripple Zuma's ability to function, but was not something he needed. McKaiser said that in the Presidency a number of positions were created because people had to be given "a slice of the victor pie". The real problem was that "the Zuma camp has to say thank-you to a lot of different constituencies that carried him to victory. Zuma's communications department needed "good communicators and political strategists who understand the power of gatekeeping," he said.
Wisecracks have ventured that it is Kaunda - and not Zuma - who runs the country.
Source: All Africa
While Zuma's first year in office played out like a soap opera, behind-the-scenes, Kaunda reportedly had a starring role, eclipsing several high-profile figures. Chief operations officer Jessie Duarte left unceremoniously in April, triggering a mass exodus in which communications chief Vusi Mona, director-general Vusi Mavimbela and senior communications aides Steyn Speed and Vincent Magwenya left.
While Duarte, in her famous e-mail to secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, complained about "a smear campaign, rumour mongering, gossip and vilifications" within the presidency before leaving, she later gave some insight into what Lakela Kaunda stands for. "Kaunda is not a bully. She is an assertive black woman. There are people (in the Presidency) who want to push her around (for their own gain), but she is not one to be pushed."
Affectionately addressed by Zuma as "Ntombinkulu", or Big Girl, Kaunda has an especially good relationship with the President in his 500-member-strong Presidency, having worked with him since the mid-1990s, when Zuma was economic affairs and tourism MEC and would turn to her to do his spin-doctoring. Kaunda, who hails from Hambanathi, in the sugar cane town of Tongaat, has also been a newshound of note. A one-time political correspondent at the Natal Witness, she worked her way up to assistant editor. She was appointed editor of the now-defunct Port Elizabeth newspaper Evening Post in 1999 - the first woman to edit a daily newspaper in the country. She also served as chairwoman of the SA National Editors' Forum.
When Zuma was promoted to deputy president, there she was, at the reins of his PR machinery. When he was fired, she left for the social development ministry, where she became special adviser to Minister Zola Skweyiya. She returned to Zuma's side, managing his office at Luthuli House, and when he was inaugurated as President, she was in the Presidency's communications unit of 40 people. A former colleague described her as highly efficient and a go-getter. She was "always astute and very committed... very focused, very professional in terms of helping us interact with the deputy president. I found her very helpful, that is why it is difficult to comprehend these stories written about her".
Presidency spokesman Zizi Kodwa said Lakela worked as part of a collective. The private office she heads was a small part of the Presidency, with about 40 staff who provide personal support to the President. Kodwa said Zuma was an accessible and a "very humble person who "tries to give his time to as many people as possible, including staff".
Eusebius McKaiser, political analyst at the Centre for Study for Democracy, said the exodus of key staffers was not likely to cripple Zuma's ability to function, but was not something he needed. McKaiser said that in the Presidency a number of positions were created because people had to be given "a slice of the victor pie". The real problem was that "the Zuma camp has to say thank-you to a lot of different constituencies that carried him to victory. Zuma's communications department needed "good communicators and political strategists who understand the power of gatekeeping," he said.
Wisecracks have ventured that it is Kaunda - and not Zuma - who runs the country.
Source: All Africa
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Premier faces intimidation charge
Mpumalanga police are investigating an intimidation case against the province's Premier David Mabuza, police said on Thursday.
"I can only confirm that a charge of intimidation was laid against the premier in Barberton about three weeks ago," said Captain Leonard Hlathi.
He could not give details about the incident or the person who had brought the criminal charge against Mabuza.
Source: News 24
"I can only confirm that a charge of intimidation was laid against the premier in Barberton about three weeks ago," said Captain Leonard Hlathi.
He could not give details about the incident or the person who had brought the criminal charge against Mabuza.
Source: News 24
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
R30K to clear your criminal record
It was a "get out of jail free" card of sorts. Your R30 000 payment gave you a new, "clean criminal record". That is if you knew three men - one a police captain, who appeared on Tuesday in the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crime Court.
Thabo January Kabini, 49, a casual worker from KwaMhlanga, Mpumalanga taxi driver Thomas van der Merwe, 43, and Captain Mananya Joseph Marokane, 46, of Soshanguve, have pleaded guilty to charges of theft and corruption. Acting with a common purpose, they stole the documents pertaining to the criminal profile of Lucky Tileni Mathebula and removed his criminal record from the police's Criminal Record Centre system. Unknown to them, however, the person who asked for their help was a police informer, working as part of a police sting to crack the "business".
Criminal records may be altered or updated only when a "set aside" document is received from the Justice Department. Although Marokane was stationed at the record centre's adjudication section, he wasn't authorised to cancel or alter any existing criminal records. Van der Merwe said in his plea explanation that Kabini was a childhood friend. "He asked me to recruit 'clients' with criminal records so that we could 'assist' them in return for payment."
The case was postponed to September.
Thabo January Kabini, 49, a casual worker from KwaMhlanga, Mpumalanga taxi driver Thomas van der Merwe, 43, and Captain Mananya Joseph Marokane, 46, of Soshanguve, have pleaded guilty to charges of theft and corruption. Acting with a common purpose, they stole the documents pertaining to the criminal profile of Lucky Tileni Mathebula and removed his criminal record from the police's Criminal Record Centre system. Unknown to them, however, the person who asked for their help was a police informer, working as part of a police sting to crack the "business".
Criminal records may be altered or updated only when a "set aside" document is received from the Justice Department. Although Marokane was stationed at the record centre's adjudication section, he wasn't authorised to cancel or alter any existing criminal records. Van der Merwe said in his plea explanation that Kabini was a childhood friend. "He asked me to recruit 'clients' with criminal records so that we could 'assist' them in return for payment."
The case was postponed to September.
Time for rethink on traditional leaders
Millions of South Africans live much of their lives according to customary law (instead of having their lives regulated via the common law). During the apartheid era, customary law was viewed as second class law. We were told that the law that counted was statute law and, more importantly (for most – white – lawyers and legal academics), the “magisterial”, so called “conceptually refined” and “fundamentally fair” system of common law. When I studied law at Stellenbosch University, we did not study a single aspect of customary law. It was as if customary law (and the millions of people who lived in terms of it) did not exist.
Later I discovered that some of the ideological underpinnings of the Roman Dutch common law were rather suspect, what with its radical assumptions about freedom of contract and a predisposition to favour the powerful and the propertied classes above all others. At the same time it dawned on many that, for better or worse, millions of South Africans lived much of their lives in terms of customary law.
The official view on customary law has thankfully now changed, as the status of customary law in South Africa is constitutionally entrenched. Section 211 of the Constitution provides that the institution, status and role of traditional leadership are recognised subject to the Constitution. As the Constitutional Court has made clear in the case of Alexkor v Richtersveld Community, customary law must now be regarded as equal with the common law and as an “integral part of our law” and “an independent source of norms within the legal system.” Like any other source of law, customary law has a status that requires respect. Customary law must also not be judged through the lens of the common law.
But what happens if traditional customary law rules – interpreted and applied in its proper context and not with reference to the common law – conflicts with other provisions in the Bill of Rights? This question came to mind when I read about claims by Princess NomaXhosa Sigcawu from the East Cape that she had been overlooked to lead the AmaGcaleka Kingdom and that this was unconstitutional.
NomaXhosa said her mother, Queen Nozizwe, had been her father (King Zwelidumile Sigcawu’s) senior wife. Because she had been a baby when he died, King Xolilizwe, her older brother from another mother, had been made king. When King Xolilizwe died in 2006, one of his sons, Mpendulo, took the throne. The Princess claims that this move – based on the customary law rule in that community that only the oldest male heir could become King or Chief – discriminated against her on the basis of her sex or gender.
This case differs from the case of Shilubane and Others v Mwamitwa, where the Constitutional Court recognised the fact that a traditional community itself could change the rules to allow the female children of chiefs to take up the reigns, despite a previous custom that only the oldest male child could do so. This is because in the case of Princess Sigcawu, the community had not changed the custom and is resisting her attempts to become the Queen.
Commenting on the case, Chief Patekile Holomisa, Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (CONTRALESA) president, said custom dictated who should be a royal leader. “Legitimacy of ubukhosi is derived from custom, not from the Constitution and the Bill of Rights,” he said, referring to kingship. “It is not automatic that a woman as the first-born is a successor. If a traditional council decides to go against the custom, the court can allow that, but we do not accept it.”
As the Constitutional Court makes clear, this view by the President of CONTRALESA is not sustainable. Several provisions in the Constitution affirm that – like common law – customary law is now subject to the Constitution and cannot contravene the Constitution. Moreover, although Courts should try and respect the right of communities that observe systems of customary law and should try and respect their right to develop their law as they wish, where a custom discriminates against women or infringes on the rights of individuals, a court had a duty to declare that custom unconstitutional and to amend it.
There is a serious debate raging in academic circles and also amongst judges on how to deal with this issue. On the one hand, courts – especially the Constitutional Court – is acutely aware that customary law has been disregarded and disrespected in the past and that courts should now recognise the fact that customary law is a living law that can change over time. It is not the rigid and inflexible system of fossilised rules, written down by white colonialists and enforced by white judges during the apartheid era, and courts should be sensitive to this and, where possible, should allow the customary law to be develop by the relevant community themselves.
On the other hand, the courts have a duty to develop customary law rules to bring them in line with the spirit, purport and object of the Bill of Rights. Where customary law rules discriminate against women, they must be developed or declared unconstitutional. As the Court said in Shilubana:
courts must be cognisant of the fact that customary law, like any other law, regulates the lives of people. The need for flexibility and the imperative to facilitate development must be balanced against the value of legal certainty, respect for vested rights, and the protection of constitutional rights.
Whether a court will show deference to customary law and wait for it to develop organically, or whether it will intervene will depend on several factors. These factors would include:
the nature of the law in question, in particular the implications of change for constitutional and other legal rights; the process by which the alleged change has occurred or is occurring; and the vulnerability of parties affected by the law.
It is clear that a customary law rule that prohibits women from becoming traditional leaders like chiefs or queens, unfairly discriminates against women. It is based on patriarchal notions about the “proper” roles of men and women in society and is often justified on the basis that a chief or a king can only become one if he was fathered by a chief or a king. As women cannot father any children, they cannot and should not become chiefs or kings.
This view perpetuates the notion that men – because they father children – have a higher status in society than women. Although very few women will therefore directly be affected by this customary law rule (as very few women are actually the daughters of chiefs or kings), the rule would have far-reaching consequences for many women living in traditional communities exactly because it is based on patriarchal assumptions about the general subordination of women to men and because it reinforces and perpetuates this subordination.
I would therefore argue that in this case, the court should not wait for the community to develop the customary law rule to bring it in line with the requirements of gender equality, but should intervene (if asked to do so) to declare this customary law rule unconstitutional.
This is a pressing problem for another reason. There is a dirty little secret at the heart of traditional leadership which is never spoken about or acknowledged by Contralesa. The fact is that many traditional communities are controlled by Chiefs who were appointed as proxies of the apartheid government to exercise control on behalf of the apartheid state and they will not want to diminish their power and prestige by amending customary law rules to recognise gender equality. The very system of traditional leadership has been completely subverted by colonialism and apartheid and is far removed from the kind of benign system which made King Moshoeshoe such a revered leader more than hundred years ago.
Maybe it is time to recognise that our whole system of traditional leadership as it has evolved, is deeply problematic and not really compatable with a system of democratic governance. On the one hand one is acutely aware of the need to respect the traditional beliefs and cultural practices of millions of South Africans whose way of live was so fundamentally circumscribed and for ever changed by colonialism and apartheid.
On the other hand the system of customary law and of traditional leadership has been fundamentally subverted and corrupted by the colonial authorities and the apartheid state – often (but not always) with the collusion of traditional leaders. Some Chiefs or other traditional leaders do not always act in the best interest of the community and according to rules of customary law that protect everyone in the community as a member of the community.
Such unscrupolous and unelected leaders often borrow from customary law those parts that suit them and then also rely on common law or statute law rules based on a more individualistic view of the world in order to subvert the very system of rules which organised communal living, which (it could be argued) used to operate for the benefit of all. Instead many traditional leaders now act to cement their own hold on communities and to enforce completely unacceptable and bastardised forms of customary laws on their subjects. This leads to much hardship and suffering on the part of their “subjects” and seems to be in conflict with principles of democracy and the demand for respect of the inherent human dignity of all.
Maybe it is time for the government to return to the original policies regarding traditional leadership adopted by the ANC when they were still in exile and to do away with the undemocratic and often oppressive system of traditional leadership. I suspect this will not happen, but I also suspect customary law will only be able to take its rightful place as an equal and important body of law alongside the common law – as required by the Constitution – when traditional leadership structures are fundamentally reformed and democratised. The current system is undemocratic and (often) oppressive and has no place in a Constitutional democracy.
Source: Constitutionally Speaking
Later I discovered that some of the ideological underpinnings of the Roman Dutch common law were rather suspect, what with its radical assumptions about freedom of contract and a predisposition to favour the powerful and the propertied classes above all others. At the same time it dawned on many that, for better or worse, millions of South Africans lived much of their lives in terms of customary law.
The official view on customary law has thankfully now changed, as the status of customary law in South Africa is constitutionally entrenched. Section 211 of the Constitution provides that the institution, status and role of traditional leadership are recognised subject to the Constitution. As the Constitutional Court has made clear in the case of Alexkor v Richtersveld Community, customary law must now be regarded as equal with the common law and as an “integral part of our law” and “an independent source of norms within the legal system.” Like any other source of law, customary law has a status that requires respect. Customary law must also not be judged through the lens of the common law.
But what happens if traditional customary law rules – interpreted and applied in its proper context and not with reference to the common law – conflicts with other provisions in the Bill of Rights? This question came to mind when I read about claims by Princess NomaXhosa Sigcawu from the East Cape that she had been overlooked to lead the AmaGcaleka Kingdom and that this was unconstitutional.
NomaXhosa said her mother, Queen Nozizwe, had been her father (King Zwelidumile Sigcawu’s) senior wife. Because she had been a baby when he died, King Xolilizwe, her older brother from another mother, had been made king. When King Xolilizwe died in 2006, one of his sons, Mpendulo, took the throne. The Princess claims that this move – based on the customary law rule in that community that only the oldest male heir could become King or Chief – discriminated against her on the basis of her sex or gender.
This case differs from the case of Shilubane and Others v Mwamitwa, where the Constitutional Court recognised the fact that a traditional community itself could change the rules to allow the female children of chiefs to take up the reigns, despite a previous custom that only the oldest male child could do so. This is because in the case of Princess Sigcawu, the community had not changed the custom and is resisting her attempts to become the Queen.
Commenting on the case, Chief Patekile Holomisa, Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (CONTRALESA) president, said custom dictated who should be a royal leader. “Legitimacy of ubukhosi is derived from custom, not from the Constitution and the Bill of Rights,” he said, referring to kingship. “It is not automatic that a woman as the first-born is a successor. If a traditional council decides to go against the custom, the court can allow that, but we do not accept it.”
As the Constitutional Court makes clear, this view by the President of CONTRALESA is not sustainable. Several provisions in the Constitution affirm that – like common law – customary law is now subject to the Constitution and cannot contravene the Constitution. Moreover, although Courts should try and respect the right of communities that observe systems of customary law and should try and respect their right to develop their law as they wish, where a custom discriminates against women or infringes on the rights of individuals, a court had a duty to declare that custom unconstitutional and to amend it.
There is a serious debate raging in academic circles and also amongst judges on how to deal with this issue. On the one hand, courts – especially the Constitutional Court – is acutely aware that customary law has been disregarded and disrespected in the past and that courts should now recognise the fact that customary law is a living law that can change over time. It is not the rigid and inflexible system of fossilised rules, written down by white colonialists and enforced by white judges during the apartheid era, and courts should be sensitive to this and, where possible, should allow the customary law to be develop by the relevant community themselves.
On the other hand, the courts have a duty to develop customary law rules to bring them in line with the spirit, purport and object of the Bill of Rights. Where customary law rules discriminate against women, they must be developed or declared unconstitutional. As the Court said in Shilubana:
courts must be cognisant of the fact that customary law, like any other law, regulates the lives of people. The need for flexibility and the imperative to facilitate development must be balanced against the value of legal certainty, respect for vested rights, and the protection of constitutional rights.
Whether a court will show deference to customary law and wait for it to develop organically, or whether it will intervene will depend on several factors. These factors would include:
the nature of the law in question, in particular the implications of change for constitutional and other legal rights; the process by which the alleged change has occurred or is occurring; and the vulnerability of parties affected by the law.
It is clear that a customary law rule that prohibits women from becoming traditional leaders like chiefs or queens, unfairly discriminates against women. It is based on patriarchal notions about the “proper” roles of men and women in society and is often justified on the basis that a chief or a king can only become one if he was fathered by a chief or a king. As women cannot father any children, they cannot and should not become chiefs or kings.
This view perpetuates the notion that men – because they father children – have a higher status in society than women. Although very few women will therefore directly be affected by this customary law rule (as very few women are actually the daughters of chiefs or kings), the rule would have far-reaching consequences for many women living in traditional communities exactly because it is based on patriarchal assumptions about the general subordination of women to men and because it reinforces and perpetuates this subordination.
I would therefore argue that in this case, the court should not wait for the community to develop the customary law rule to bring it in line with the requirements of gender equality, but should intervene (if asked to do so) to declare this customary law rule unconstitutional.
This is a pressing problem for another reason. There is a dirty little secret at the heart of traditional leadership which is never spoken about or acknowledged by Contralesa. The fact is that many traditional communities are controlled by Chiefs who were appointed as proxies of the apartheid government to exercise control on behalf of the apartheid state and they will not want to diminish their power and prestige by amending customary law rules to recognise gender equality. The very system of traditional leadership has been completely subverted by colonialism and apartheid and is far removed from the kind of benign system which made King Moshoeshoe such a revered leader more than hundred years ago.
Maybe it is time to recognise that our whole system of traditional leadership as it has evolved, is deeply problematic and not really compatable with a system of democratic governance. On the one hand one is acutely aware of the need to respect the traditional beliefs and cultural practices of millions of South Africans whose way of live was so fundamentally circumscribed and for ever changed by colonialism and apartheid.
On the other hand the system of customary law and of traditional leadership has been fundamentally subverted and corrupted by the colonial authorities and the apartheid state – often (but not always) with the collusion of traditional leaders. Some Chiefs or other traditional leaders do not always act in the best interest of the community and according to rules of customary law that protect everyone in the community as a member of the community.
Such unscrupolous and unelected leaders often borrow from customary law those parts that suit them and then also rely on common law or statute law rules based on a more individualistic view of the world in order to subvert the very system of rules which organised communal living, which (it could be argued) used to operate for the benefit of all. Instead many traditional leaders now act to cement their own hold on communities and to enforce completely unacceptable and bastardised forms of customary laws on their subjects. This leads to much hardship and suffering on the part of their “subjects” and seems to be in conflict with principles of democracy and the demand for respect of the inherent human dignity of all.
Maybe it is time for the government to return to the original policies regarding traditional leadership adopted by the ANC when they were still in exile and to do away with the undemocratic and often oppressive system of traditional leadership. I suspect this will not happen, but I also suspect customary law will only be able to take its rightful place as an equal and important body of law alongside the common law – as required by the Constitution – when traditional leadership structures are fundamentally reformed and democratised. The current system is undemocratic and (often) oppressive and has no place in a Constitutional democracy.
Source: Constitutionally Speaking
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Nyanda under investigation
The decision to start an official probe into allegations of conflict of interest against communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda will be taken at the end of July. Public protector Thuli Madonsela is currently compiling reports based on her investigations into the complaints received against the minister, according to her spokesperson, Kgalalelo Masibi. Masibi says the reports will be ready at the end of the month and the findings will guide the public protector in deciding whether an official probe is necessary.
Masibi explains that the first complaint was about the minister's alleged breach of the Executive Members Ethics Code by receiving benefits from an allegedly irregular tender from Transnet. Julie Killian, of COPE, laid this complaint on 19 March. Nyanda's company, General Nyanda Security (GNS) Risk Advisory Services, was awarded a R55 million contract by the now-dismissed Transnet Freight Rail CEO Siyabonga Gama. Nyanda has come out in support of Gama in his ongoing legal battles.
The second complaint was laid by the Democratic Alliance (DA). “It relates to a tender that was allegedly irregularly issued by the Gauteng Department of Transport to a company linked to Minister Nyanda (Abalozi Security Risk Advisory Services), before he became a minister, and his continued benefit from the contract now that he is a minister and has a duty to protect government interests,” says Masibi. The DA has also asked that the Public Protector investigate any other tenders that may have been irregularly issued to the company in question, she adds. DA Gauteng member of the Provincial Legislature Jack Bloom says the main issue is to discover why the contracts were awarded without tender and then not reviewed. “I think there should be a probe separate from the Ethics Act investigation and it could be done in co-operation with the director-general or the Special Investigations Unit or Hawks, whichever is the relevant body.”
National spokesman for the Congress of South African Trade Unions, Patrick Craven, says the union welcomes an investigation. “It's important in all these cases where the media has been publishing allegations. We're not in any way saying we agree that the people involved are guilty, but it's important because if they are guilty, then the matter can be dealt with, and if they're not, then they can be exonerated.”
Bloom says if the conclusion is that there was irregular lobbying for the tenders on behalf of the minister, and he is benefiting from them, then he could possibly be charged and there could be investigations into him as a sitting Cabinet minister.
Nyanda has previously not responded to requests for comment over the deal, which landed Gama in hot water. Department of Communications spokesperson Tiyani Rikhotso says the minister has no comment to make at this point in the matter. “For now these are just mere complaints taken to the Public Protector and the minister has nothing to say about this, because these complaints were not brought to him.”
Source: IT Web
Masibi explains that the first complaint was about the minister's alleged breach of the Executive Members Ethics Code by receiving benefits from an allegedly irregular tender from Transnet. Julie Killian, of COPE, laid this complaint on 19 March. Nyanda's company, General Nyanda Security (GNS) Risk Advisory Services, was awarded a R55 million contract by the now-dismissed Transnet Freight Rail CEO Siyabonga Gama. Nyanda has come out in support of Gama in his ongoing legal battles.
The second complaint was laid by the Democratic Alliance (DA). “It relates to a tender that was allegedly irregularly issued by the Gauteng Department of Transport to a company linked to Minister Nyanda (Abalozi Security Risk Advisory Services), before he became a minister, and his continued benefit from the contract now that he is a minister and has a duty to protect government interests,” says Masibi. The DA has also asked that the Public Protector investigate any other tenders that may have been irregularly issued to the company in question, she adds. DA Gauteng member of the Provincial Legislature Jack Bloom says the main issue is to discover why the contracts were awarded without tender and then not reviewed. “I think there should be a probe separate from the Ethics Act investigation and it could be done in co-operation with the director-general or the Special Investigations Unit or Hawks, whichever is the relevant body.”
National spokesman for the Congress of South African Trade Unions, Patrick Craven, says the union welcomes an investigation. “It's important in all these cases where the media has been publishing allegations. We're not in any way saying we agree that the people involved are guilty, but it's important because if they are guilty, then the matter can be dealt with, and if they're not, then they can be exonerated.”
Bloom says if the conclusion is that there was irregular lobbying for the tenders on behalf of the minister, and he is benefiting from them, then he could possibly be charged and there could be investigations into him as a sitting Cabinet minister.
Nyanda has previously not responded to requests for comment over the deal, which landed Gama in hot water. Department of Communications spokesperson Tiyani Rikhotso says the minister has no comment to make at this point in the matter. “For now these are just mere complaints taken to the Public Protector and the minister has nothing to say about this, because these complaints were not brought to him.”
Source: IT Web
'No crisis' as Presidency officials resign
The Presidency has announced three more departures by senior officials in its office but denied that there was a "crisis". "There is no exodus of staff, and there is no crisis or turmoil in the institution," the Presidency said in a statement posted on its website on Monday. "What is happening are normal staff movements as it happens in any organisation at any time," the Presidency said, adding it was concerned about "speculative reporting" on staff changes. The comments were contained in a statement entitled, "Staff changes in the Presidency", which confirmed weekend rumours of more departures by senior officials.
The statement said President Jacob Zuma's economic adviser Mandisi Mpahlwa and deputy director-general for communications Vusi Mona would move to other jobs. The presidency said that Mpahlwa had been appointed ambassador-designate to the Russian Federation. "Given the importance of Russia, we needed a seasoned cadre to represent the president and the national interest in that country," said the minister in the Presidency responsible for administration, Collins Chabane. Mpahlwa will assume the post in September.
Mona will move to the Government Communications and Information System. "The weekend media reports that Mr Mona has been asked to resign are incorrect," said the statement. "Meanwhile, President Zuma and Minister Chabane are currently in discussions with the Director-General, Mr Vusi Mavimbela regarding his role and this has not been finalised yet." The resignation of chief director for presidential support services Steyn Speed -- "who is leaving to undertake further studies" -- was also announced in the statement.
Zuma's spokesperson Vincent Magwenya resigned last week to "rejoin the corporate world". Chief operating officer Jessie Duarte resigned in April. At the time, the then deputy director-general in the Presidency -- and now chief of staff -- Lakela Kaunda, dismissed reports linking her to Jessie Duarte's resignation as "grossly incorrect" and "unfortunate". "I have never had a quarrel with Ms Jessie Duarte," said Kaunda at the time.
In February, it was reported that Duarte wrote an "emotional email" to ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, citing a "smear" campaign, "gossip" and "vilification" as reasons for intending to leave.
Source: Mail & Guardian
The statement said President Jacob Zuma's economic adviser Mandisi Mpahlwa and deputy director-general for communications Vusi Mona would move to other jobs. The presidency said that Mpahlwa had been appointed ambassador-designate to the Russian Federation. "Given the importance of Russia, we needed a seasoned cadre to represent the president and the national interest in that country," said the minister in the Presidency responsible for administration, Collins Chabane. Mpahlwa will assume the post in September.
Mona will move to the Government Communications and Information System. "The weekend media reports that Mr Mona has been asked to resign are incorrect," said the statement. "Meanwhile, President Zuma and Minister Chabane are currently in discussions with the Director-General, Mr Vusi Mavimbela regarding his role and this has not been finalised yet." The resignation of chief director for presidential support services Steyn Speed -- "who is leaving to undertake further studies" -- was also announced in the statement.
Zuma's spokesperson Vincent Magwenya resigned last week to "rejoin the corporate world". Chief operating officer Jessie Duarte resigned in April. At the time, the then deputy director-general in the Presidency -- and now chief of staff -- Lakela Kaunda, dismissed reports linking her to Jessie Duarte's resignation as "grossly incorrect" and "unfortunate". "I have never had a quarrel with Ms Jessie Duarte," said Kaunda at the time.
In February, it was reported that Duarte wrote an "emotional email" to ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, citing a "smear" campaign, "gossip" and "vilification" as reasons for intending to leave.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Friday, July 2, 2010
Ex-Police Chief in S. Africa Convicted
South Africa's former national police chief was convicted of corruption Friday after a nation beset by crime heard months of testimony about its top cop going on designer shopping sprees with a convicted drug smuggler. The case against Jackie Selebi, a one-time president of Interpol, has been a chief exhibit in a national debate over whether corruption and political meddling is undermining the fight against crime. South Africa's rates of murder and assault are among the world's highest. Selebi, 60, showed little reaction as the verdict was read, and told reporters he had nothing to say as he left the central Johannesburg courthouse. He was not asked to post bail and is free until his sentence is determined in hearings set to start July 14. Selebi, once an important official in the governing African National Congress, had pleaded innocent. He claimed evidence was fabricated for the charge he accepted money and gifts in exchange for meeting the drug smuggler's business associates and tipping him off to investigations into his crimes. Selebi argued he was targeted by enemies who wanted to punish him for his criticism of an elite and now defunct crime-fighting unit. The unit attached to the national prosecutor's office -- setting up clashes with police -- was known as the Scorpions and disbanded in 2008 after it tried to prosecute Jacob Zuma on corruption charges before he went on to become South Africa's president.
Judge Meyer Joffe, in delivering the verdict, said Selebi's conspiracy theory had no basis, and that the former police chief showed ''complete contempt for the truth'' during the trial. The red-robed Joffe said ruling a witness was not credible ''stigmatizes the person as a liar and a person of low moral fiber. ''Every day, society in general and the courts in particular rely on the honesty, integrity and truthfulness of police men and women,'' Joffe said. Selebi has ''not set an example that should be emulated.''
Johan Burger, a researcher with the independent Institute for Security Studies and a former assistant commissioner in the South African police force, said corruption appeared to be on the rise in the force. But Burger said that was hard to document because Selebi disbanded the police anti-corruption unit soon after he took over the force in 2000. Burger said a public concerned about crime will be left questioning how Selebi was able to get away with wrongdoing for years. ''Although the fact that in the end justice prevailed should in many ways address some of the skepticism in the public's mind,'' Burger said. Burger said many on the force saw Selebi as an outsider imposed on them by the ANC.
Selebi was a former school teacher who in his youth was twice detained without trial for his anti-apartheid activism. He went into exile in Tanzania and later the Soviet Union, where he underwent military training. After apartheid ended in 1994, he was a member of the first all-race parliament, and later served as the envoy to the U.N. in Geneva. Selebi is just one of many prominent ANC members tainted by corruption. In a brief statement Friday, the party said the Selebi case ''clearly indicates that South Africa as a country is governed by laws that are applied without any fear or favor to anyone, regardless of their standing.''
The main opposition Democratic Alliance said it was ''time for the many other senior ANC politicians, not least President Jacob Zuma, who still have unanswered questions about corruption hanging over their heads, to also have their day in court.'' Last April, weeks before Zuma led the party to victory in national elections, top prosecutors dropped corruption charges against Zuma, saying the case had been tainted by political meddling.
South Africa comes in 55th out of 180 on Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, based on surveys of businesses and experts. That means South Africa is seen as less corrupt as places like Greece, Thailand and Zimbabwe, but worse than Botswana, at 37th the highest-ranking African country.
While convicted of corruption, Selebi was found not guilty on the second charge he faced, defeating the ends of justice. The star witness in the trial, which began last October, was convicted drug smuggler Glenn Agliotti. Agliotti himself faces trial later this year, accused in the 2005 murder of mining magnate and ANC financier Brett Kebble. Agliotti has pleaded not guilty to the charge, claiming the death was an assisted suicide. Prosecutors have said that in return for more than 1 million rand ($130,000 U.S.) in cash and gifts over the years, Selebi did favors for Agliotti, including letting him see documents British police sent to their South African counterparts linking Agliotti to drug smuggling. Prosecutors said Agliotti took Selebi shopping at upscale stores in Johannesburg and London, paying for suits, shirts, ties and shoes. Agliotti also bought items for Selebi's sons, wife and girlfriend, prosecutors alleged.
Source: New York Times
Aurora link to suspect land deal
A controversial property developer in the North West province has links to empowerment company Aurora Empowerment Systems. Despite Aurora's dire financial troubles with the liquidated Pamodzi Grootvlei and Orkney mines, the company appears to be interested in a questionable land deal on the Hartbeespoort Dam that has left the local Madibeng municipality divided. It seems the deal secured by developer Naas Grimbeek traded on political clout. The land was sold for R77-million but is said to be worth much more and the deal was pushed through by the province in the teeth of opposition from the local council.
Aurora's political credentials are well established. Khulubuse Zuma, President Jacob Zuma's nephew, Michael Hulley, Zuma's lawyer, and Zondwa Mandela, Nelson Mandela's grandson, are on the Aurora board. In July last year Aurora announced with huge fanfare the R78,5-million acquisition of Zambian-based company, Redwood Timber Merchants, from Grimbeek. The asset would be injected into the listed company Cenmag.
In interviews Khulubuse Zuma said: "Aurora owns Cenmag. Cenmag is the vehicle that we are going to use to make a string of acquisitions. This is only one -- there are other acquisitions that are coming to the fore. Redwood Timber is the biggest timber company in the southern hemisphere, the largest sawmill in the southern hemisphere." Zuma said Grimbeek had already been paid R32-million. But the deal with Cenmag collapsed and it appears there are other claims over the assets of Redwood.
This week Grimbeek first claimed the Redwood deal had collapsed because Aurora was unable to pay for it -- but if financing came through from Aurora's latest funders, the deal would be on again. He later declined to say anything more about the deal, other than the contract was being renegotiated. Meanwhile, the M&G has established that the Industrial Development Corporation has obtained a R14,5-million warrant of execution against Grimbeek and his companies for the non-payment of a loan for Redwood Timbers. Grimbeek would not answer questions about the warrant. It appears the loan was to cover debts still owing on the company and that attempts have been made by the Zambian government to repossess the property on which the sawmill is located.
Now Grimbeek has emerged as the man behind what has been described as a "murky purchase" of approximately 400ha of prime land, the Oberon resort, on the Hartbeespoort Dam. But he denied that Aurora was involved in the land deal, although he said Zuma had expressed an interest in Oberon. But contractors working for Grimbeek on the resort, renamed Eagle Waters Wildlife, said Grimbeek had mentioned Aurora as a stakeholder in the project. There are other smaller links.
The M&G has established that, in December last year, Aurora made a R14 000 payment to Hentiq 2784, a company through which Grimbeek owns the property. Grimbeek says it was repayment of a loan. Merloni Brand Consultancy, owned by Mandela and Yaseen Theba, the son-in-law of Suliman Bhana, a controversial former adviser to Aurora, were employed by Grimbeek to design the website for Eagle Waters. Grimbeek said that the relationship between him, Mandela and Zuma was confidential, though he admitted earlier that he spoke regularly to the two Aurora directors.
Eagle Waters is the talk of the town in Hartbeespoort, with local papers, councillors and business people in an uproar about what they see as a land deal sorely lacking in transparency. Oberon, the land where Eagle Waters is being built, was the last piece of public-access land open to the community. "It's ridiculous," says Titus Mlambo, secretary of the local policing forum. "They didn't even ask our consent. We are surprised that they sold this land because there are informal settlements on it and these people will be evicted. Now, we have no access to the dam." Grimbeek bought the Oberon land from the North West department of public works, roads and transport for R77-million, but local estate agents said the property's value was closer to R450-million. Grimbeek disputes this. He said his valuations showed that the land, without the development of services, was worth between R70-million and R120-million. A high-level source in the North West department of public works told the M&G that the deal did not go through the usual channels but was treated as a special project by the provincial minister and premier.
Originally the land was under a 99-year lease to the Madibeng local municipality, which still had 86 years left on the lease when it was sold off to Grimbeek in 2009. The M&G understands that the provincial department put significant pressure on the municipality to sign a clearance certificate to allow the land to be sold to Grimbeek. A number of ward councillors for the area who initially were vehemently opposed the sale, believing it would be detrimental to the community, later changed their minds. A member of the community who asked not to be named said the councillors felt they were "fighting a losing battle". "There was pressure from the consortium and the provincial government. They said they had already sold the land." A councillor also said that a high-level politician had intervened when the "transparency and legitimacy" of the land deal was questioned and told the councillor to back off.
Grimbeek said the purchase was above board and his company acted "ethically and diligently". He would not say where the funding had come from for it or if the full purchase price had been paid. The M&G had not received responses from the province, the municipality or Aurora at the time of going to print.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Aurora's political credentials are well established. Khulubuse Zuma, President Jacob Zuma's nephew, Michael Hulley, Zuma's lawyer, and Zondwa Mandela, Nelson Mandela's grandson, are on the Aurora board. In July last year Aurora announced with huge fanfare the R78,5-million acquisition of Zambian-based company, Redwood Timber Merchants, from Grimbeek. The asset would be injected into the listed company Cenmag.
In interviews Khulubuse Zuma said: "Aurora owns Cenmag. Cenmag is the vehicle that we are going to use to make a string of acquisitions. This is only one -- there are other acquisitions that are coming to the fore. Redwood Timber is the biggest timber company in the southern hemisphere, the largest sawmill in the southern hemisphere." Zuma said Grimbeek had already been paid R32-million. But the deal with Cenmag collapsed and it appears there are other claims over the assets of Redwood.
This week Grimbeek first claimed the Redwood deal had collapsed because Aurora was unable to pay for it -- but if financing came through from Aurora's latest funders, the deal would be on again. He later declined to say anything more about the deal, other than the contract was being renegotiated. Meanwhile, the M&G has established that the Industrial Development Corporation has obtained a R14,5-million warrant of execution against Grimbeek and his companies for the non-payment of a loan for Redwood Timbers. Grimbeek would not answer questions about the warrant. It appears the loan was to cover debts still owing on the company and that attempts have been made by the Zambian government to repossess the property on which the sawmill is located.
Now Grimbeek has emerged as the man behind what has been described as a "murky purchase" of approximately 400ha of prime land, the Oberon resort, on the Hartbeespoort Dam. But he denied that Aurora was involved in the land deal, although he said Zuma had expressed an interest in Oberon. But contractors working for Grimbeek on the resort, renamed Eagle Waters Wildlife, said Grimbeek had mentioned Aurora as a stakeholder in the project. There are other smaller links.
The M&G has established that, in December last year, Aurora made a R14 000 payment to Hentiq 2784, a company through which Grimbeek owns the property. Grimbeek says it was repayment of a loan. Merloni Brand Consultancy, owned by Mandela and Yaseen Theba, the son-in-law of Suliman Bhana, a controversial former adviser to Aurora, were employed by Grimbeek to design the website for Eagle Waters. Grimbeek said that the relationship between him, Mandela and Zuma was confidential, though he admitted earlier that he spoke regularly to the two Aurora directors.
Eagle Waters is the talk of the town in Hartbeespoort, with local papers, councillors and business people in an uproar about what they see as a land deal sorely lacking in transparency. Oberon, the land where Eagle Waters is being built, was the last piece of public-access land open to the community. "It's ridiculous," says Titus Mlambo, secretary of the local policing forum. "They didn't even ask our consent. We are surprised that they sold this land because there are informal settlements on it and these people will be evicted. Now, we have no access to the dam." Grimbeek bought the Oberon land from the North West department of public works, roads and transport for R77-million, but local estate agents said the property's value was closer to R450-million. Grimbeek disputes this. He said his valuations showed that the land, without the development of services, was worth between R70-million and R120-million. A high-level source in the North West department of public works told the M&G that the deal did not go through the usual channels but was treated as a special project by the provincial minister and premier.
Originally the land was under a 99-year lease to the Madibeng local municipality, which still had 86 years left on the lease when it was sold off to Grimbeek in 2009. The M&G understands that the provincial department put significant pressure on the municipality to sign a clearance certificate to allow the land to be sold to Grimbeek. A number of ward councillors for the area who initially were vehemently opposed the sale, believing it would be detrimental to the community, later changed their minds. A member of the community who asked not to be named said the councillors felt they were "fighting a losing battle". "There was pressure from the consortium and the provincial government. They said they had already sold the land." A councillor also said that a high-level politician had intervened when the "transparency and legitimacy" of the land deal was questioned and told the councillor to back off.
Grimbeek said the purchase was above board and his company acted "ethically and diligently". He would not say where the funding had come from for it or if the full purchase price had been paid. The M&G had not received responses from the province, the municipality or Aurora at the time of going to print.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Environmental probe for dodgy mining rights
A special environmental government task team is to investigate mining in sensitive areas. This follows a swarm of controversial green lights given by the mining department for mining and prospecting rights in sensitive areas in the past couple of years.
The task team is the result of the long-anticipated meeting last week between Environmental Mminister Buyelwa Sonjica and Mining Minister Susan Shabangu. The two had met to discuss Sonjica’s concern over the controversial Vele colliery next to World Heritage Site Mapungubwe. "The minister is still deeply concerned about what is going at the mine," Sonjica’s spokesperson Sputnik Ratau said. But he said the minister believed the task team was a step in the right direction to resolve the environmental concerns. He described the meeting with Shabangu as fruitful.
Shabangu’s department issued mining rights to Coal of Africa at the beginning of this year, but Sonjica came out strongly against the Vele mine. She requested a formal meeting with Shabangu on the matter in February, but last week’s meeting was the first to result in significant reported progress between the two departments.
Last week the Mail & Guardian reported that the Green Scorpions had swooped down on Coal of Africa’s Vele mine in May. Two weeks ago the department of environmental affairs issued an order against the mine for environmental transgressions. Coal of Africa must now make representations to the environmental department on why it should not be prosecuted.
The M&G understands that the department is now conducting regular surveys to determine what exactly Vele had done. This week officials from both departments flew over the mining area as part of the ongoing investigation. "We need to determine whether the work Vele had done is within the scopes of permission it had been granted, and just how far they had gone beyond the legal framework," Ratau said.
Coal of Africa has maintained that all the work it has done so far, including the clearing of bush and building of new structures, falls in within the mining rights order it obtained. Last week Coal of Africa’s CEO Riaan van der Merwe insisted that the mine had acted within the law at all times.
Vele will not be the only mine investigated by the task team, though it is understood that much of its focus will be on Mapungubwe. "The task team is to look at the bigger picture, the ultimate impact of mining on sensitive areas," Ratau said. "And of course Vele will be one of the new focus areas, as it has been a contentious issue." The task team, which will have high-ranking officials from both the mining and environmental department on board, is also aimed at relieving tensions between the two departments and improving dialogue on environmental issues.
Other sensitive spots that have been in the news for mining activities include areas near Dullstroom, Chrissiesmeer and Wakkerstroom in Mpumalanga, Verlorenvlei near Piketberg in the Western Cape, as well as the Winelands. In many of these areas only strong environmental activism served as a warning to the impacts of mining on the local environment. But environmental activists say their job is getting more difficult with the avalanche of mining licenses the mining department has been awarding.
The two ministers will now draft a definition of what they see as sensitive areas, and the locations of these areas. On Thursday, Gareth Morgan, the DA’s spokesperson on water and environmental affairs, welcomed the task team but called for the two departments to extend this project by establishing a mining advisory forum with a specific focus on the effects of mining on the environment. "The discussion on what is a sensitive area should not be contained only in government," he said. "It should be thrown open to stakeholders from civil society, including farming and environmental organisations," Morgan said.
Source: Mail & Guardian
The task team is the result of the long-anticipated meeting last week between Environmental Mminister Buyelwa Sonjica and Mining Minister Susan Shabangu. The two had met to discuss Sonjica’s concern over the controversial Vele colliery next to World Heritage Site Mapungubwe. "The minister is still deeply concerned about what is going at the mine," Sonjica’s spokesperson Sputnik Ratau said. But he said the minister believed the task team was a step in the right direction to resolve the environmental concerns. He described the meeting with Shabangu as fruitful.
Shabangu’s department issued mining rights to Coal of Africa at the beginning of this year, but Sonjica came out strongly against the Vele mine. She requested a formal meeting with Shabangu on the matter in February, but last week’s meeting was the first to result in significant reported progress between the two departments.
Last week the Mail & Guardian reported that the Green Scorpions had swooped down on Coal of Africa’s Vele mine in May. Two weeks ago the department of environmental affairs issued an order against the mine for environmental transgressions. Coal of Africa must now make representations to the environmental department on why it should not be prosecuted.
The M&G understands that the department is now conducting regular surveys to determine what exactly Vele had done. This week officials from both departments flew over the mining area as part of the ongoing investigation. "We need to determine whether the work Vele had done is within the scopes of permission it had been granted, and just how far they had gone beyond the legal framework," Ratau said.
Coal of Africa has maintained that all the work it has done so far, including the clearing of bush and building of new structures, falls in within the mining rights order it obtained. Last week Coal of Africa’s CEO Riaan van der Merwe insisted that the mine had acted within the law at all times.
Vele will not be the only mine investigated by the task team, though it is understood that much of its focus will be on Mapungubwe. "The task team is to look at the bigger picture, the ultimate impact of mining on sensitive areas," Ratau said. "And of course Vele will be one of the new focus areas, as it has been a contentious issue." The task team, which will have high-ranking officials from both the mining and environmental department on board, is also aimed at relieving tensions between the two departments and improving dialogue on environmental issues.
Other sensitive spots that have been in the news for mining activities include areas near Dullstroom, Chrissiesmeer and Wakkerstroom in Mpumalanga, Verlorenvlei near Piketberg in the Western Cape, as well as the Winelands. In many of these areas only strong environmental activism served as a warning to the impacts of mining on the local environment. But environmental activists say their job is getting more difficult with the avalanche of mining licenses the mining department has been awarding.
The two ministers will now draft a definition of what they see as sensitive areas, and the locations of these areas. On Thursday, Gareth Morgan, the DA’s spokesperson on water and environmental affairs, welcomed the task team but called for the two departments to extend this project by establishing a mining advisory forum with a specific focus on the effects of mining on the environment. "The discussion on what is a sensitive area should not be contained only in government," he said. "It should be thrown open to stakeholders from civil society, including farming and environmental organisations," Morgan said.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Friday, June 25, 2010
Zapiro's Zuma rape cartoon cleared
The SA Human Rights Commission (Sahrc) has found a Zapiro cartoon depicting President Jacob Zuma about to rape "Lady Justice" did not constitute hate speech, unfair discrimination or a violation of any human right enshrined in the Constitution, the Mail&Guardian reported on Friday.
The commission dismissed a complaint on the cartoon lodged by the Young Communist League and its national secretary Buti Manamela, that cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro had defamed Zuma or violated his right to dignity in the cartoon, published in the Sunday Times in September 2008. It depicted Zuma undoing his trousers while alliance leaders hold down the woman.
They found that it expressed a level of free, open, robust and even unrestrained criticism of politicians by a journalist and had stimulated valuable political debate. "Although the SAHRC finds the cartoon and the words used in relation thereto probably offensive and distasteful, same falls short of and does not constitute hate speech, unfair discrimination under Promotion of Equality and the Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act or a violation of any fundamental human right contained in the Constitution," the commission's finding reads.
Manamela and the league found it depicted Zuma as a rapist, was distasteful, deplorable and bordered on defamation of character. But, Zapiro believed Zuma and the others depicted in the cartoon had threatened the justice system. In a written submission to the commission, Zapiro argued he was exercising his right to freedom of expression.
He said Malema had threatened to kill for Zuma if the case relating to his corruption charges went ahead. Vavi, depicted in the cartoon, had echoed Malema's pledge and Mantashe said there would be anarchy if the case continued. Judges of the Constitutional Court were also called "counter-revolutionary".
Shapiro felt that the "very real intimidation of the judiciary and of individual judges" justified his use of the metaphor.
The commission said it was common knowledge that Zuma's allies in the tripartite alliance were calling for a political solution to Zuma's corruption charges and that Shapiro had acted with bona fide artistic creativity, in the public interest. The right to freedom of expression therefore outweighed Zuma's right to dignity.
Manamela said the league welcomed the findings, "particularly where it concedes that the cartoon was offensive and distasteful". But, they still believed he could have expressed himself in a way less offensive to Zuma and other alliance leaders.
Source: IoL
The commission dismissed a complaint on the cartoon lodged by the Young Communist League and its national secretary Buti Manamela, that cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro had defamed Zuma or violated his right to dignity in the cartoon, published in the Sunday Times in September 2008. It depicted Zuma undoing his trousers while alliance leaders hold down the woman.
They found that it expressed a level of free, open, robust and even unrestrained criticism of politicians by a journalist and had stimulated valuable political debate. "Although the SAHRC finds the cartoon and the words used in relation thereto probably offensive and distasteful, same falls short of and does not constitute hate speech, unfair discrimination under Promotion of Equality and the Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act or a violation of any fundamental human right contained in the Constitution," the commission's finding reads.
Manamela and the league found it depicted Zuma as a rapist, was distasteful, deplorable and bordered on defamation of character. But, Zapiro believed Zuma and the others depicted in the cartoon had threatened the justice system. In a written submission to the commission, Zapiro argued he was exercising his right to freedom of expression.
He said Malema had threatened to kill for Zuma if the case relating to his corruption charges went ahead. Vavi, depicted in the cartoon, had echoed Malema's pledge and Mantashe said there would be anarchy if the case continued. Judges of the Constitutional Court were also called "counter-revolutionary".
Shapiro felt that the "very real intimidation of the judiciary and of individual judges" justified his use of the metaphor.
The commission said it was common knowledge that Zuma's allies in the tripartite alliance were calling for a political solution to Zuma's corruption charges and that Shapiro had acted with bona fide artistic creativity, in the public interest. The right to freedom of expression therefore outweighed Zuma's right to dignity.
Manamela said the league welcomed the findings, "particularly where it concedes that the cartoon was offensive and distasteful". But, they still believed he could have expressed himself in a way less offensive to Zuma and other alliance leaders.
Source: IoL
Scorpions sting colliery
Senior sources in the Department of Environmental Affairs have revealed that the department cracked down on controversial coal mining near the world heritage site of Mapungubwe last week, ordering the mining company, Coal of Africa, to stop all "illegal" building activities immediately. But Coal of Africa denied receiving an order, saying that the company instead "received regular visits from a number of government departments", including environmental affairs and mineral resources. "Characterising such a visit by the Department of Environmental Affairs as a raid is unjustified," said Riaan van der Merwe, Coal of Africa's chief operating officer. But environmental department spokesperson Roopah Singh confirmed on Thursday a "pre-compliance notice" was issued on June 18. She said Coal of Africa now has to make representations to the department about the mine's transgressions.
The development has again highlighted tensions between environmental affairs and the mineral resources department over mining in this sensitive area of Limpopo. The mining department issued mining rights to Coal of Africa at the beginning of this year. The Mail & Guardian understands that the directive, relating to building at the Vele mine that the department has not approved, followed a raid by the environmental police unit, the Green Scorpions, at the mine earlier this month.
The unit moved in to check whether Coal of Africa had built roads and other structures without the necessary environmental impact assessments. Sources in the department said that the Green Scorpions found several instances where Coal of Africa had ignored departmental regulations. They were also concerned about the clearing of bush on colliery property. In a statement on Thursday Van der Merwe said the company had the necessary authorisation for bush clearing in the area covered by the mining rights. In addition, the necessary permits had been obtained from the national departments of agriculture and forestry and the Limpopo environmental affairs department. He also said that, although the company had not received permission from environmental affairs to build access roads, it was using the existing main road.
The Australian-owned company received a permit earlier this year for its Vele Colliery project next to the Mapungubwe National Park, where the world-famous 800-year-old gold rhino statuette was unearthed in 1933. Though it has not yet started mining, it is constructing the infrastructure required to begin operations later this year.
In May the M&G reported that Coal of Africa had been clearing bush that contained baobab trees. The colliery is 7km from the park's boundaries. The coal-processing plant would be 27km from the world heritage site, Mapungubwe Hill.
Buyelwa Sonjica, the minister of environmental affairs, has openly declared her opposition to the mine and her department has refused to approve the environmental impact assessments for roads and fuel storage sites associated with the mine. The company has signed a letter of intent to supply up to 5-million tonnes of coal annually from Vele and its sister project, Makhado, to steel giant ArcelorMittal. Opponents of the mining claim that the coal will be used to drive a coal-fired power station, Mulilo, that is planned for the region.
The department of mining did not respond to questions.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Also see the Save Mapungubwe website
The development has again highlighted tensions between environmental affairs and the mineral resources department over mining in this sensitive area of Limpopo. The mining department issued mining rights to Coal of Africa at the beginning of this year. The Mail & Guardian understands that the directive, relating to building at the Vele mine that the department has not approved, followed a raid by the environmental police unit, the Green Scorpions, at the mine earlier this month.
The unit moved in to check whether Coal of Africa had built roads and other structures without the necessary environmental impact assessments. Sources in the department said that the Green Scorpions found several instances where Coal of Africa had ignored departmental regulations. They were also concerned about the clearing of bush on colliery property. In a statement on Thursday Van der Merwe said the company had the necessary authorisation for bush clearing in the area covered by the mining rights. In addition, the necessary permits had been obtained from the national departments of agriculture and forestry and the Limpopo environmental affairs department. He also said that, although the company had not received permission from environmental affairs to build access roads, it was using the existing main road.
The Australian-owned company received a permit earlier this year for its Vele Colliery project next to the Mapungubwe National Park, where the world-famous 800-year-old gold rhino statuette was unearthed in 1933. Though it has not yet started mining, it is constructing the infrastructure required to begin operations later this year.
In May the M&G reported that Coal of Africa had been clearing bush that contained baobab trees. The colliery is 7km from the park's boundaries. The coal-processing plant would be 27km from the world heritage site, Mapungubwe Hill.
Buyelwa Sonjica, the minister of environmental affairs, has openly declared her opposition to the mine and her department has refused to approve the environmental impact assessments for roads and fuel storage sites associated with the mine. The company has signed a letter of intent to supply up to 5-million tonnes of coal annually from Vele and its sister project, Makhado, to steel giant ArcelorMittal. Opponents of the mining claim that the coal will be used to drive a coal-fired power station, Mulilo, that is planned for the region.
The department of mining did not respond to questions.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Also see the Save Mapungubwe website
Monday, June 14, 2010
Taxi 'executions' on the rise in KZN
Hunger for a dominant position in the public transport industry and greed have led to a rise in execution-style taxi-related killings in KwaZulu-Natal. This is according to an affidavit by Warrant Officer Sibusiso Ntshangase, submitted to oppose a bail application by three men arrested in connection with taxi-related murders in the province.
Sifiso Mfeka, Dumisa Khumalo and Sonny Boy Mbele were applying for bail in the Durban Magistrate's Court on Friday. The men were arrested earlier this year on suspicion of the murders of two men, Derrick Mlethi and B Mvela, in March 2009 at Amanzimtoti. Mlethi was a member of the Vulamehlo Taxi Association and Mvela was the chairman of the Durban Liner Taxi Association and also had ties with the Umzinto Taxi Association and the Long Distance Taxi Association.
Ntshangase said the men were also suspected of links to the murder of Umzinto taxi owner Dan Cele, the attempted murder of two policemen and the murder of one of the officer's sons. Other accomplices who were allegedly involved in the crimes are still at large. He said Khumalo, who is a primary school principal, allegedly hired hitmen to kill rival taxi owners and Mfeka was said to be a known killer for the industry.
He said Mlethi and Mvela had been travelling on the N2 highway near Amanzimtoti when the suspects, driving in a stolen Toyota Yaris and a Honda, approached the car from the driver's side. The men allegedly opened fire on the car, the driver lost control and the car went into the oncoming lane. "The accused then got out of their vehicles and took the deceased out of their car and fired several shots into them. They both died instantly. AK47 assault rifles were used in the shootings and several empty cartridges were found at the scene."
He added that Cele was allegedly killed in a similar fashion and prominent relatives of Cele now feared for their lives. The police officers were shot in drive-by attacks. AK47 assault rifles were used in all the incidents. In November 2009, one of the officers had been driving with his son on the South Coast when shots were fired at his car. The officer returned fire trying to protect himself and his son. He was wounded and his son was killed.
In March this year the other Umkomaas officer was attacked while with a friend. He sustained spinal injuries and could no longer walk. He said taxi violence had become a serious problem. "Taxi violence is prevalent and is resulting in execution-style murders. These incidents were well planned and and in all cases high-calibre weapons were used." He said if the accused were released on bail they would kill the state witnesses. "A plan to kill witnesses to the double murder was made in April this year but the witnesses were tipped off and managed to survive. These men are dangerous to society."
The bail application continues next week.
Source: IoL
Sifiso Mfeka, Dumisa Khumalo and Sonny Boy Mbele were applying for bail in the Durban Magistrate's Court on Friday. The men were arrested earlier this year on suspicion of the murders of two men, Derrick Mlethi and B Mvela, in March 2009 at Amanzimtoti. Mlethi was a member of the Vulamehlo Taxi Association and Mvela was the chairman of the Durban Liner Taxi Association and also had ties with the Umzinto Taxi Association and the Long Distance Taxi Association.
Ntshangase said the men were also suspected of links to the murder of Umzinto taxi owner Dan Cele, the attempted murder of two policemen and the murder of one of the officer's sons. Other accomplices who were allegedly involved in the crimes are still at large. He said Khumalo, who is a primary school principal, allegedly hired hitmen to kill rival taxi owners and Mfeka was said to be a known killer for the industry.
He said Mlethi and Mvela had been travelling on the N2 highway near Amanzimtoti when the suspects, driving in a stolen Toyota Yaris and a Honda, approached the car from the driver's side. The men allegedly opened fire on the car, the driver lost control and the car went into the oncoming lane. "The accused then got out of their vehicles and took the deceased out of their car and fired several shots into them. They both died instantly. AK47 assault rifles were used in the shootings and several empty cartridges were found at the scene."
He added that Cele was allegedly killed in a similar fashion and prominent relatives of Cele now feared for their lives. The police officers were shot in drive-by attacks. AK47 assault rifles were used in all the incidents. In November 2009, one of the officers had been driving with his son on the South Coast when shots were fired at his car. The officer returned fire trying to protect himself and his son. He was wounded and his son was killed.
In March this year the other Umkomaas officer was attacked while with a friend. He sustained spinal injuries and could no longer walk. He said taxi violence had become a serious problem. "Taxi violence is prevalent and is resulting in execution-style murders. These incidents were well planned and and in all cases high-calibre weapons were used." He said if the accused were released on bail they would kill the state witnesses. "A plan to kill witnesses to the double murder was made in April this year but the witnesses were tipped off and managed to survive. These men are dangerous to society."
The bail application continues next week.
Source: IoL
Friday, June 11, 2010
Aurora mine’s toxic water crisis
The East Rand was an hour away from an environmental disaster this week, when acid mine water started to flood the Grootvlei mine owned by the embattled empowerment company, Aurora Empowerment Systems. Workers angered by months of working without pay had downed tools, bringing the 10 pump stations at the mine to a standstill for the first time in 75 years. The toxic water would have led to the contamination of the East Rand’s groundwater resources within three years and potentially caused sinkholes near Nigel and Springs. Underground water must be pumped out continually for mining to continue. When it flows over the mined rocks, it becomes toxic.
General maintenance has not been conducted at the mine since March, when most Grootvlei workers went on strike over non-payment of wages and the mine’s insurance for their workers had also lapsed.
On Monday 100 remaining workers Grootvlei mine’s care and maintenance unit went on strike. The unit is responsible for pumping acid water out of Shaft 3 to prevent the flooding of the East Basin on the East Rand. On Wednesday water began flooding the underground pump station room. With an hour to go until the station became inaccessible to workers, management pleaded with workers to return to work, offering them 25% of their May wages. “We decided to go back again, because it was the ethical thing to do,” said one employee. A small band of workers ventured down Shaft 3 again to restart pumping. The mine is incredibly unsafe and basically a time bomb,” said Gideon du Plessis, Solidarity deputy general secretary. “The workers are on a suicide mission. They are true heroes for risking their lives.”
Michael Hulley, Aurora non-executive director, has promised in a letter that the worker’s full May salaries will be paid by June 21 and that third party insurance will be reinstated on June 16. Du Plessis said the workers would quit on June 21 if the latest promises were broken. Khulubuse Zuma, President Jacob Zuma’s nephew, Hulley, Zuma’s lawyer, and Zondwa Mandela, Nelson Mandela’s grandson, feature on the Aurora board, giving the company heavy political clout.
Aurora has a management agreement with the liquidators to operate its East Rand and Orkney assets, after its bid to buy the liquidated Pamodzi mines was accepted. But the cashstrapped company had been running into trouble amid allegations of asset stripping, mismanagement and questionable financial transfers. Aurora’s first investor withdrew, while a second investor will release funds only once it lists on the JSE. It is expected to do so only in August. This week a Chinese consortium put in a new bid of $51-million for the Pamodzi assets, but sources close to the deal are worried that there may soon be no mine to operate.
Environmental reports on the East Rand’s East Basin have warned of acid water bubbling into the street of Nigel and Springs within three years and destroying the East Rand’s groundwater resources. The Vaal River barrage could also be at risk. The Grootvlei pumps are the last operating in mostly abandoned mines on the East Rand and carry responsibility for all the East Basin’s acid mine water. Marius Keet, deputy director of water quality management at the department of water affairs, said his department was extremely concerned about the situation at Grootvlei and would have to intervene if pumping ceased again. “Although it’s the mine’s responsibility to ensure that the pumps are all operational, the department will not allow the mine to flood the pumps as this will result in the flooding of the basin and subsequently the decanting of acid mine drainage,” he said. “Apart from the negative impact on the environment, sinkhole formation is not excluded.” He said Aurora would be held accountable for any future environmental disaster if pumping stopped. It already faces criminal charges for pumping acid water into the Blesbokspruit.
But Enver Motala, the Pamodzi liquidator, played down the pump station fiasco. “We had heard about the threats that the pump stations would be switched off, but Aurora assured us that pumping was continuing,” he said. “As far as we’re concerned, the situation is under control.” Thulani Ngubane, Aurora director and spokesperson, did not respond to questions.
Source: Mail & Guardian
General maintenance has not been conducted at the mine since March, when most Grootvlei workers went on strike over non-payment of wages and the mine’s insurance for their workers had also lapsed.
On Monday 100 remaining workers Grootvlei mine’s care and maintenance unit went on strike. The unit is responsible for pumping acid water out of Shaft 3 to prevent the flooding of the East Basin on the East Rand. On Wednesday water began flooding the underground pump station room. With an hour to go until the station became inaccessible to workers, management pleaded with workers to return to work, offering them 25% of their May wages. “We decided to go back again, because it was the ethical thing to do,” said one employee. A small band of workers ventured down Shaft 3 again to restart pumping. The mine is incredibly unsafe and basically a time bomb,” said Gideon du Plessis, Solidarity deputy general secretary. “The workers are on a suicide mission. They are true heroes for risking their lives.”
Michael Hulley, Aurora non-executive director, has promised in a letter that the worker’s full May salaries will be paid by June 21 and that third party insurance will be reinstated on June 16. Du Plessis said the workers would quit on June 21 if the latest promises were broken. Khulubuse Zuma, President Jacob Zuma’s nephew, Hulley, Zuma’s lawyer, and Zondwa Mandela, Nelson Mandela’s grandson, feature on the Aurora board, giving the company heavy political clout.
Aurora has a management agreement with the liquidators to operate its East Rand and Orkney assets, after its bid to buy the liquidated Pamodzi mines was accepted. But the cashstrapped company had been running into trouble amid allegations of asset stripping, mismanagement and questionable financial transfers. Aurora’s first investor withdrew, while a second investor will release funds only once it lists on the JSE. It is expected to do so only in August. This week a Chinese consortium put in a new bid of $51-million for the Pamodzi assets, but sources close to the deal are worried that there may soon be no mine to operate.
Environmental reports on the East Rand’s East Basin have warned of acid water bubbling into the street of Nigel and Springs within three years and destroying the East Rand’s groundwater resources. The Vaal River barrage could also be at risk. The Grootvlei pumps are the last operating in mostly abandoned mines on the East Rand and carry responsibility for all the East Basin’s acid mine water. Marius Keet, deputy director of water quality management at the department of water affairs, said his department was extremely concerned about the situation at Grootvlei and would have to intervene if pumping ceased again. “Although it’s the mine’s responsibility to ensure that the pumps are all operational, the department will not allow the mine to flood the pumps as this will result in the flooding of the basin and subsequently the decanting of acid mine drainage,” he said. “Apart from the negative impact on the environment, sinkhole formation is not excluded.” He said Aurora would be held accountable for any future environmental disaster if pumping stopped. It already faces criminal charges for pumping acid water into the Blesbokspruit.
But Enver Motala, the Pamodzi liquidator, played down the pump station fiasco. “We had heard about the threats that the pump stations would be switched off, but Aurora assured us that pumping was continuing,” he said. “As far as we’re concerned, the situation is under control.” Thulani Ngubane, Aurora director and spokesperson, did not respond to questions.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
The Promise and Unfulfilled Potential of South Africa’s President
President Jacob Zuma, the son of a widowed maid, tried to reason with the rowdy crowd in this restive township. He had come to fix their broken public services, he assured them, but their angry heckling kept drowning him out. Finally, like a glowering patriarch, he lectured and scolded them, threatening to leave. “This means you will live forever in poverty!” he exclaimed. “If we do not listen to each other, how can we fix anything?”
Suddenly, the rage of the throng dissipated. There was a chorus of apologies. A voice shouted, “Sorry, Baba!” Then a cry arose for the president to sing his trademark song from the anti-apartheid struggle, “Bring Me My Machine Gun.” “You want it?” he asked. “Yes!” they shouted. And like an aging entertainer obliging with a golden oldie, Mr. Zuma, 68, crooned and boogied onstage.
It was a moment that encapsulated both the promise and the unfulfilled potential of Mr. Zuma, who has raised the hopes of the dispossessed but not yet delivered the better life they are demanding. Despite persistent corruption charges and the taint of extramarital affairs, he is a political survivor who has risen to lead the continent’s powerhouse nation and will soon step onto the international stage as South Africa holds Africa’s first World Cup. With his rumbling laugh and habit of dancing onstage, Mr. Zuma has a gift for connecting with the country’s impoverished black majority, who are impatient for the better life promised by the dawning of democratic rule 16 years ago. “I’ve never seen a president in Africa in direct dialogue with his citizens like Jacob Zuma,” said Zakhele Maya, 26, an activist in Siyathemba who, like most in the township, is jobless.
But that connection has not quelled the discontent. After an earlier visit, last year, Mr. Zuma ordered the government to improve the township’s health and housing services, yet frustrations continued to rise. In February, residents burned down the library. The books are now charred scraps, the library a pile of blackened rubble.
A year into his five-year term, Mr. Zuma recently signed performance contracts with his ministers, setting out specific results for them to achieve. But analysts are urging action, not aspirations, on South Africa’s core challenges: a failing education system, staggering levels of joblessness and the widening chasm between rich and poor. There is already open speculation about whether his party, the African National Congress, in power since the end of apartheid, will pick him for a second term. “By 2013, the questions arise: Who will govern beyond 2014?” asked Trevor Manuel, who heads the National Planning Commission in Mr. Zuma’s office and was finance minister for the previous 13 years. “And the intense period has to be 2011, 2012, into 2013. Those are the middle years of the term of government, and I think the foundation is now well laid. Now you’ve got to drive the change.”
Mr. Zuma’s highly personal, consensus-building style has helped him lead a sweeping new attack on AIDS after almost a decade of failed leadership under his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki. But even some in his party say that tackling the nation’s deep economic problems will probably require angering allies who put him in office, especially Cosatu — the powerful trade union federation that is part of the governing alliance — and the A.N.C.’s youth wing. It is led by the incendiary Julius Malema, 29, regarded by many here as a demagogue who plays on racial antagonisms and who was recently sent to anger management classes by the party. The dry kindling of resentment is here to be ignited. The ranks of the jobless have grown by more than a million in the past year and a half, and South Africa, population 49 million, already had among the highest rates of chronic unemployment in the world. More than a third of the work force, including those too discouraged to seek work, is jobless. Studies have found that most of the unemployed have never held a job.
Mr. Zuma announced in February that proposals would be put forward to subsidize the wages of inexperienced workers, to help them get a foot in the door. But Cosatu, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, which represents those who already have jobs, opposes the idea — and debate within the government continues.
Another point of tension is education. Last year, Mr. Zuma said teachers and principals — whose union is also part of Cosatu — must be held accountable for whether they show up and do their jobs. In an interview, Mr. Zuma reiterated the need for such a step and said it would be taken by the end of his second year in office. “There’s no teacher who’s going to hide behind the school,” he said.
But critics question whether Mr. Zuma has the support to follow through on these difficult decisions, the vision to address the country’s daunting challenges or the standing to root out corruption. Worries deepened when it surfaced that Mr. Zuma, who already had three wives and a fiancée, had fathered a child, his 20th, out of wedlock with the daughter of a family friend. “The biggest danger we face as a country is the use of office for personal gain, and it is becoming so, so normal, and nobody’s arresting that,” said Mondli Makhanya, a newspaper editor whose reporter broke the story about Mr. Zuma’s child in The Sunday Times. “He lacks the leadership strength at this point to turn against people who supported him, and he lacks the moral authority to say, ‘No, you can’t do that.’ ”
More fundamentally, making choices that would divide the governing alliance goes against Mr. Zuma’s instincts as an African traditionalist who seeks to settle conflicts by gathering his coalition under a metaphoric marula tree to talk for days or weeks until they reach a consensus, said Allister Sparks, a veteran commentator here. “Action dies in the process of eternal, everlasting debate,” Mr. Sparks said.
Mr. Manuel, the former finance minister, says the president’s style is to keep everyone in the tent, recalling Mr. Zuma’s efforts to mediate Burundi’s complex civil war. “He’d sit in Dar es Salaam for tens of days, and he has the most remarkable patience to do that kind of thing,” Mr. Manuel said. “So perhaps he needs the support of ministers who are going to push and shove and try to get things done.” On issues including teacher accountability, Mr. Manuel said, “Instinctively, I would take a much harder line on some of these things.”
Mr. Zuma’s political resilience should not be underestimated. After a decade as a political prisoner, he rose to lead the A.N.C.’s underground intelligence operation during the anti-apartheid struggle. As president, he has filled important police and prosecutorial posts with loyalists, making it unlikely he will face further corruption charges. In an interview, he told a story that suggested the roots of the cool calculation beneath his warm, amiable style. “If you are angry, you can’t think properly, and the other boys will really beat you up,” he said of his days learning stick fighting with other Zulu boys. “You’ve got to be sober so that you can be able to defend yourself and also hit the other boy.”
As the debate over Mr. Zuma swirls, the man himself has fun on the hustings. He recently basked in the adulation of a vast crowd at a township stadium in the Free State for a World Cup prayer service sponsored by the A.N.C. The event was an ecstatic, incantatory fusion of sports, religion and politics that would not have seemed out of place in Texas. Thousands of churchwomen ululated for him and the South African soccer team, Bafana Bafana. “Long live Jacob Zuma!” one cried. “Long live!” the crowd responded. A small smile flickered across Mr. Zuma’s face as the premier of the Free State said: “We are not talking succession. We are just saying the president should be president again and again and again!”
White dignitaries mounted the stage. A blanket imprinted with the South African flag was laid on the floor; Mr. Zuma knelt on it as preachers placed their hands on his head. People gathered around and raised their hands to God, a tableau of racial harmony. “Let us receive our visitors warmly with love,” Mr. Zuma said of the coming games. “Let us embrace them.” And with a mischievous glint, he added, “Those who at times are not good, let them for just four weeks be good.”
Source: New York Times
Suddenly, the rage of the throng dissipated. There was a chorus of apologies. A voice shouted, “Sorry, Baba!” Then a cry arose for the president to sing his trademark song from the anti-apartheid struggle, “Bring Me My Machine Gun.” “You want it?” he asked. “Yes!” they shouted. And like an aging entertainer obliging with a golden oldie, Mr. Zuma, 68, crooned and boogied onstage.
It was a moment that encapsulated both the promise and the unfulfilled potential of Mr. Zuma, who has raised the hopes of the dispossessed but not yet delivered the better life they are demanding. Despite persistent corruption charges and the taint of extramarital affairs, he is a political survivor who has risen to lead the continent’s powerhouse nation and will soon step onto the international stage as South Africa holds Africa’s first World Cup. With his rumbling laugh and habit of dancing onstage, Mr. Zuma has a gift for connecting with the country’s impoverished black majority, who are impatient for the better life promised by the dawning of democratic rule 16 years ago. “I’ve never seen a president in Africa in direct dialogue with his citizens like Jacob Zuma,” said Zakhele Maya, 26, an activist in Siyathemba who, like most in the township, is jobless.
But that connection has not quelled the discontent. After an earlier visit, last year, Mr. Zuma ordered the government to improve the township’s health and housing services, yet frustrations continued to rise. In February, residents burned down the library. The books are now charred scraps, the library a pile of blackened rubble.
A year into his five-year term, Mr. Zuma recently signed performance contracts with his ministers, setting out specific results for them to achieve. But analysts are urging action, not aspirations, on South Africa’s core challenges: a failing education system, staggering levels of joblessness and the widening chasm between rich and poor. There is already open speculation about whether his party, the African National Congress, in power since the end of apartheid, will pick him for a second term. “By 2013, the questions arise: Who will govern beyond 2014?” asked Trevor Manuel, who heads the National Planning Commission in Mr. Zuma’s office and was finance minister for the previous 13 years. “And the intense period has to be 2011, 2012, into 2013. Those are the middle years of the term of government, and I think the foundation is now well laid. Now you’ve got to drive the change.”
Mr. Zuma’s highly personal, consensus-building style has helped him lead a sweeping new attack on AIDS after almost a decade of failed leadership under his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki. But even some in his party say that tackling the nation’s deep economic problems will probably require angering allies who put him in office, especially Cosatu — the powerful trade union federation that is part of the governing alliance — and the A.N.C.’s youth wing. It is led by the incendiary Julius Malema, 29, regarded by many here as a demagogue who plays on racial antagonisms and who was recently sent to anger management classes by the party. The dry kindling of resentment is here to be ignited. The ranks of the jobless have grown by more than a million in the past year and a half, and South Africa, population 49 million, already had among the highest rates of chronic unemployment in the world. More than a third of the work force, including those too discouraged to seek work, is jobless. Studies have found that most of the unemployed have never held a job.
Mr. Zuma announced in February that proposals would be put forward to subsidize the wages of inexperienced workers, to help them get a foot in the door. But Cosatu, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, which represents those who already have jobs, opposes the idea — and debate within the government continues.
Another point of tension is education. Last year, Mr. Zuma said teachers and principals — whose union is also part of Cosatu — must be held accountable for whether they show up and do their jobs. In an interview, Mr. Zuma reiterated the need for such a step and said it would be taken by the end of his second year in office. “There’s no teacher who’s going to hide behind the school,” he said.
But critics question whether Mr. Zuma has the support to follow through on these difficult decisions, the vision to address the country’s daunting challenges or the standing to root out corruption. Worries deepened when it surfaced that Mr. Zuma, who already had three wives and a fiancée, had fathered a child, his 20th, out of wedlock with the daughter of a family friend. “The biggest danger we face as a country is the use of office for personal gain, and it is becoming so, so normal, and nobody’s arresting that,” said Mondli Makhanya, a newspaper editor whose reporter broke the story about Mr. Zuma’s child in The Sunday Times. “He lacks the leadership strength at this point to turn against people who supported him, and he lacks the moral authority to say, ‘No, you can’t do that.’ ”
More fundamentally, making choices that would divide the governing alliance goes against Mr. Zuma’s instincts as an African traditionalist who seeks to settle conflicts by gathering his coalition under a metaphoric marula tree to talk for days or weeks until they reach a consensus, said Allister Sparks, a veteran commentator here. “Action dies in the process of eternal, everlasting debate,” Mr. Sparks said.
Mr. Manuel, the former finance minister, says the president’s style is to keep everyone in the tent, recalling Mr. Zuma’s efforts to mediate Burundi’s complex civil war. “He’d sit in Dar es Salaam for tens of days, and he has the most remarkable patience to do that kind of thing,” Mr. Manuel said. “So perhaps he needs the support of ministers who are going to push and shove and try to get things done.” On issues including teacher accountability, Mr. Manuel said, “Instinctively, I would take a much harder line on some of these things.”
Mr. Zuma’s political resilience should not be underestimated. After a decade as a political prisoner, he rose to lead the A.N.C.’s underground intelligence operation during the anti-apartheid struggle. As president, he has filled important police and prosecutorial posts with loyalists, making it unlikely he will face further corruption charges. In an interview, he told a story that suggested the roots of the cool calculation beneath his warm, amiable style. “If you are angry, you can’t think properly, and the other boys will really beat you up,” he said of his days learning stick fighting with other Zulu boys. “You’ve got to be sober so that you can be able to defend yourself and also hit the other boy.”
As the debate over Mr. Zuma swirls, the man himself has fun on the hustings. He recently basked in the adulation of a vast crowd at a township stadium in the Free State for a World Cup prayer service sponsored by the A.N.C. The event was an ecstatic, incantatory fusion of sports, religion and politics that would not have seemed out of place in Texas. Thousands of churchwomen ululated for him and the South African soccer team, Bafana Bafana. “Long live Jacob Zuma!” one cried. “Long live!” the crowd responded. A small smile flickered across Mr. Zuma’s face as the premier of the Free State said: “We are not talking succession. We are just saying the president should be president again and again and again!”
White dignitaries mounted the stage. A blanket imprinted with the South African flag was laid on the floor; Mr. Zuma knelt on it as preachers placed their hands on his head. People gathered around and raised their hands to God, a tableau of racial harmony. “Let us receive our visitors warmly with love,” Mr. Zuma said of the coming games. “Let us embrace them.” And with a mischievous glint, he added, “Those who at times are not good, let them for just four weeks be good.”
Source: New York Times
Monday, June 7, 2010
Remaining Aurora workers go on strike
The last remaining 100 workers or so have gone on strike at cash-strapped miner, Aurora’s Grootvlei Mine in Springs. Trade union Solidarity spokesman, Jaco Kleynhans, said workers responsible for carrying out care and maintenance at the mine had gone on a full-blown strike from today. “The workers are angry because they have not been paid their salaries for February,” Mr Kleynhans said.
Aurora Empowerment Systems bought the mine from Pamodzi Liquidators last year but they company has been unable to pay an owed amount of R207m to Pamodzi for months. There was a strike in April at Aurora’s mines over unpaid wages for January, February and March. The company has also failed to make unemployment insurance fund payments for its staff.
Solidarity has had notified Aurora’s management of the employee’s dissatisfaction in writing last week, but has not received any response from them yet. The 100-or-so remaining workers had stayed behind to carry out maintenance work after other 2900-odd workers left the company to work elsewhere.
General secretary of Solidarity, Gideon Du Plessis, said the workers were not being insured by Aurora. He said they worked under extremely dangerous circumstances and, in terms, of the Compensation for Occasional Injuries and Diseases Act of 1993, the mine was required to take out the necessary insurance for its employees. Du Plessis said the strike could have a negative impact on the environment and the mine itself. "If the pumping out of contaminated mine water is not resumed this week, the Grootvlei Mine as an asset could be destroyed as a whole,” he said.
Aurora spokesman Thulani Ngubane said only one worker had incited the others to strike. He said other workers would be employed to take care of the maintenance of the mine because it was such a valuable asset. "The Grootvlei mine is a national asset. So they must understand that if they strike they could cause over 3,000 jobs to be lost in the future," he said. Aurora has said it wants to list on the JSE by the end of August so that it can “open a channel for funding from Swiss investment firm, GEMS”.
Source: Business Day
Aurora Empowerment Systems bought the mine from Pamodzi Liquidators last year but they company has been unable to pay an owed amount of R207m to Pamodzi for months. There was a strike in April at Aurora’s mines over unpaid wages for January, February and March. The company has also failed to make unemployment insurance fund payments for its staff.
Solidarity has had notified Aurora’s management of the employee’s dissatisfaction in writing last week, but has not received any response from them yet. The 100-or-so remaining workers had stayed behind to carry out maintenance work after other 2900-odd workers left the company to work elsewhere.
General secretary of Solidarity, Gideon Du Plessis, said the workers were not being insured by Aurora. He said they worked under extremely dangerous circumstances and, in terms, of the Compensation for Occasional Injuries and Diseases Act of 1993, the mine was required to take out the necessary insurance for its employees. Du Plessis said the strike could have a negative impact on the environment and the mine itself. "If the pumping out of contaminated mine water is not resumed this week, the Grootvlei Mine as an asset could be destroyed as a whole,” he said.
Aurora spokesman Thulani Ngubane said only one worker had incited the others to strike. He said other workers would be employed to take care of the maintenance of the mine because it was such a valuable asset. "The Grootvlei mine is a national asset. So they must understand that if they strike they could cause over 3,000 jobs to be lost in the future," he said. Aurora has said it wants to list on the JSE by the end of August so that it can “open a channel for funding from Swiss investment firm, GEMS”.
Source: Business Day
Siyabonga Gama guilty, says Transnet
Former Transnet freight rail chief executive, Siyabonga Gama, has been found guilty of a serious breach of governance requirements in relation to two procurement contracts, the company said on Sunday. The findings by an independent chairman in an internal disciplinary hearing against Gama were delivered on Saturday, spokesperson John Dludlu said in a statement.
Gama was suspended in 2009 to face charges related to the allocation of a contract to refurbish 50 locomotives to Sibanye Trade Services, which allegedly lacks experience in the renovation of locomotives. Gama, who only had authority to sign off on contracts worth less than R10-million, also allegedly awarded a R19-million contract to a security firm with alleged links to Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda. "In a detailed 200-page finding, Mr Gama was found guilty of each of the charges brought against him including one of irretrievable breakdown in relationship with Transnet," Dludlu said. He said the hearing was in the final stage of completion where further submissions were expected before a request was made to its chairman for an appropriate sanction.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Gama was suspended in 2009 to face charges related to the allocation of a contract to refurbish 50 locomotives to Sibanye Trade Services, which allegedly lacks experience in the renovation of locomotives. Gama, who only had authority to sign off on contracts worth less than R10-million, also allegedly awarded a R19-million contract to a security firm with alleged links to Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda. "In a detailed 200-page finding, Mr Gama was found guilty of each of the charges brought against him including one of irretrievable breakdown in relationship with Transnet," Dludlu said. He said the hearing was in the final stage of completion where further submissions were expected before a request was made to its chairman for an appropriate sanction.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Friday, June 4, 2010
Manyi suspended as Labour Dept DG
Labour Department Director General Jimmy Manyi was suspended from his job on Friday, Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana's spokesperson, Page Boikanyo, confirmed. Boikanyo declined to provide further details, saying the matter was "sub judice".
Manyi made headlines recently when Norway's ambassador to South Africa requested a meeting with Mdladlana to raise concerns about Manyi's conduct during an official meeting. "There were certain things discussed and the way in which they were brought up in that meeting that we did not appreciate," ambassador Tor Christian-Hilda told the South African Press Association last Thursday.
Christian-Hilda and two other senior diplomats from the Norwegian mission met Manyi in Pretoria in early March to discuss Norway's cooperation with South Africa's decent work programme through the International Labour Organisation. He said black economic empowerment (BEE) policies were discussed at the meeting, but declined to elaborate further on his reasons for sending a diplomatic note to International Relations and Cooperation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, from where the matter was passed on to Mdladlana. "I do not want to go into the details of what happened," he said.
Manyi said last Thursday the meeting had turned to difficulties Norwegian companies were having with BEE, at which point he offered to brief them in detail about government's policies in this regard "As the discussion flowed, the issue came up of challenges Norwegians were having with BEE. This is why I offered to give them a presentation about BEE and how it works," he said.
Manyi, who is also president of the Black Management Forum (BMF), said he saw nothing untoward about his offer and was surprised that the diplomats took offence. Manyi was reportedly recently told by Mdladlana to choose between his job as director general and the presidency of the BMF. But he said he did not think this was necessary because he was already in charge of the BMF when he was appointed by the Labour Department last year. "So there is nothing in the process of me getting the job indicating that I have to renounce anything," Manyi said. -- Sapa
Source: Mail & Guardian
Manyi made headlines recently when Norway's ambassador to South Africa requested a meeting with Mdladlana to raise concerns about Manyi's conduct during an official meeting. "There were certain things discussed and the way in which they were brought up in that meeting that we did not appreciate," ambassador Tor Christian-Hilda told the South African Press Association last Thursday.
Christian-Hilda and two other senior diplomats from the Norwegian mission met Manyi in Pretoria in early March to discuss Norway's cooperation with South Africa's decent work programme through the International Labour Organisation. He said black economic empowerment (BEE) policies were discussed at the meeting, but declined to elaborate further on his reasons for sending a diplomatic note to International Relations and Cooperation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, from where the matter was passed on to Mdladlana. "I do not want to go into the details of what happened," he said.
Manyi said last Thursday the meeting had turned to difficulties Norwegian companies were having with BEE, at which point he offered to brief them in detail about government's policies in this regard "As the discussion flowed, the issue came up of challenges Norwegians were having with BEE. This is why I offered to give them a presentation about BEE and how it works," he said.
Manyi, who is also president of the Black Management Forum (BMF), said he saw nothing untoward about his offer and was surprised that the diplomats took offence. Manyi was reportedly recently told by Mdladlana to choose between his job as director general and the presidency of the BMF. But he said he did not think this was necessary because he was already in charge of the BMF when he was appointed by the Labour Department last year. "So there is nothing in the process of me getting the job indicating that I have to renounce anything," Manyi said. -- Sapa
Source: Mail & Guardian
Blue Murder: Cops kill 3 brothers in night raid
THE situation remains tense in Mt Moria, north of Durban, after the killing of three Memela brothers by the police. Twins Xolisani and Mzothiswa Memela, 25, and their younger brother Zi-khaliphele , 22, died when police opened fire while they were sleeping. The trigger-happy police accused them of being criminals.
Mthetho’awukho Memela, 27, said police vehicles had been patrolling the area at midnight on Tuesday when he was walking home from work. The distraught man said the police officers asked him why he was out so late. “I was forced into the back of the van and driven home. When we arrived there they forced me to knock at the door and one of my brothers opened,” he said, sobbing. He was allegedly forced back into the police van. Moments later he heard shots. Two of the brothers were allegedly shot while they were sleeping. The police claimed they had been attacked by the deceased and had retaliated in self-defence.
The father, Silawuli Memela, said his family was struggling to come to terms with what had happened. “I never thought I’d lose my boys like this,” he said. “The police’s claim that there were guns in the house is not true.”
Police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Vincent Mdunge said the case was being investigated by the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD). “The information we have is that the police retaliated when they were shot at by occupants of the house. “Two pistols were found. But if it is found that the police acted wrongly they will have to account fo it,” Mdunge said.
ICD spokesperson Moses Dlamini said: “We are investigating. Police weapons and those found on the scene will be taken for ballistic testing.” Angry residents have called on National Police Commissioner General Bheki Cele to intervene by putting the officers involved behind bars. On Tuesday they blocked the highway leading to the city.
Resident Jomba Mtshali said community members had been victims of police brutality for far too long in the area. “We have lost innocent souls. These boys were very disciplined and we used to refer to them as good examples for other children because of their behaviour. “Even a blind person could bear testimony that these boys were killed in their sleep. Their bed is full of blood,” Mtshali said.
Source: The Sowetan
Mthetho’awukho Memela, 27, said police vehicles had been patrolling the area at midnight on Tuesday when he was walking home from work. The distraught man said the police officers asked him why he was out so late. “I was forced into the back of the van and driven home. When we arrived there they forced me to knock at the door and one of my brothers opened,” he said, sobbing. He was allegedly forced back into the police van. Moments later he heard shots. Two of the brothers were allegedly shot while they were sleeping. The police claimed they had been attacked by the deceased and had retaliated in self-defence.
The father, Silawuli Memela, said his family was struggling to come to terms with what had happened. “I never thought I’d lose my boys like this,” he said. “The police’s claim that there were guns in the house is not true.”
Police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Vincent Mdunge said the case was being investigated by the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD). “The information we have is that the police retaliated when they were shot at by occupants of the house. “Two pistols were found. But if it is found that the police acted wrongly they will have to account fo it,” Mdunge said.
ICD spokesperson Moses Dlamini said: “We are investigating. Police weapons and those found on the scene will be taken for ballistic testing.” Angry residents have called on National Police Commissioner General Bheki Cele to intervene by putting the officers involved behind bars. On Tuesday they blocked the highway leading to the city.
Resident Jomba Mtshali said community members had been victims of police brutality for far too long in the area. “We have lost innocent souls. These boys were very disciplined and we used to refer to them as good examples for other children because of their behaviour. “Even a blind person could bear testimony that these boys were killed in their sleep. Their bed is full of blood,” Mtshali said.
Source: The Sowetan
Thursday, June 3, 2010
SA recalls ambassador to Israel
South Africa will recall its ambassador to Israel following a deadly attack on a vessel attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, Deputy International Relations Minister Ebrahim Ebrahim said on Thursday.
However, the government had no intention of expelling the Israeli ambassador to South Africa or of cutting diplomatic ties with that community. "The recall of ambassador Ishmael Coovadia for consultations is a way of protesting and a way of showing our strongest condemnation of the attack. This recent Israel aggression of attacking the aid flotilla severely impacts on finding a lasting solution to the problems of the region," Ebrahim told journalists in Pretoria. He could not say when Coovadia would return to Israel.
Nine people were killed during Monday's raid in international waters, an act which Ebrahim called "unacceptable". The vessel involved in the incident was part of a flotilla trying to break Israel's blockade on Gaza and deliver aid to the area.
Israel had since started releasing and deporting the activists arrested during the military attack, including a Cape Town-based journalist, Gadija Davids. Davids was flown out of Israel with others on Wednesday night by the Turkish government. She was currently in Istanbul with South Africa's ambassador and was expected to arrive home on Friday, said Ebrahim. South Africa had already added its voice to the increasing international condemnation of Israel's actions and had summoned the Israeli ambassador to a meeting.
This was the second time in 15 years that South Africa had recalled an ambassador from a foreign country. In 1995, former president Nelson Mandela recalled then high commissioner George Nene from Nigeria when the country executed the leader of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and eight others. The execution was carried out despite appeals for clemency by various governments, including South Africa.
Ebrahim said there had been no discussion about closing down South Africa's two embassies in Israel as these were important for monitoring purposes. "It could contribute to resolving some problems in the region," he said. The government had also joined the international community in its call for the siege of Gaza to be immediately lifted. "This siege, which has brought untold hardships to the ordinary people of Gaza and made their lives nightmarish, is unconscionable and unsustainable," said Ebrahim.
Ebrahim also spoke of the government's commitment to contributing towards finding peace in the region and ensuring an independent and viable Palestinian state. "A long-term solution to the region can only be achieved through negotiation. What is needed is the creation of a climate of mutual trust and peace." Ebrahim welcomed the decision by Egypt to open the border crossing between it and Palestinian-controlled Rafah.
Source: Mail & Guardian
However, the government had no intention of expelling the Israeli ambassador to South Africa or of cutting diplomatic ties with that community. "The recall of ambassador Ishmael Coovadia for consultations is a way of protesting and a way of showing our strongest condemnation of the attack. This recent Israel aggression of attacking the aid flotilla severely impacts on finding a lasting solution to the problems of the region," Ebrahim told journalists in Pretoria. He could not say when Coovadia would return to Israel.
Nine people were killed during Monday's raid in international waters, an act which Ebrahim called "unacceptable". The vessel involved in the incident was part of a flotilla trying to break Israel's blockade on Gaza and deliver aid to the area.
Israel had since started releasing and deporting the activists arrested during the military attack, including a Cape Town-based journalist, Gadija Davids. Davids was flown out of Israel with others on Wednesday night by the Turkish government. She was currently in Istanbul with South Africa's ambassador and was expected to arrive home on Friday, said Ebrahim. South Africa had already added its voice to the increasing international condemnation of Israel's actions and had summoned the Israeli ambassador to a meeting.
This was the second time in 15 years that South Africa had recalled an ambassador from a foreign country. In 1995, former president Nelson Mandela recalled then high commissioner George Nene from Nigeria when the country executed the leader of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and eight others. The execution was carried out despite appeals for clemency by various governments, including South Africa.
Ebrahim said there had been no discussion about closing down South Africa's two embassies in Israel as these were important for monitoring purposes. "It could contribute to resolving some problems in the region," he said. The government had also joined the international community in its call for the siege of Gaza to be immediately lifted. "This siege, which has brought untold hardships to the ordinary people of Gaza and made their lives nightmarish, is unconscionable and unsustainable," said Ebrahim.
Ebrahim also spoke of the government's commitment to contributing towards finding peace in the region and ensuring an independent and viable Palestinian state. "A long-term solution to the region can only be achieved through negotiation. What is needed is the creation of a climate of mutual trust and peace." Ebrahim welcomed the decision by Egypt to open the border crossing between it and Palestinian-controlled Rafah.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Zuma strongly condemns Israeli attack
President Jacob Zuma has strongly condemned the Israeli naval raid on the humanitarian vessels destined for Gaza. On Monday Israeli troops stormed the aid flotilla in an attack that left nine people dead.
The aid convoy was seeking to overcome the Israeli blockade of the Gaza strip which has been imposed almost continuously since Hamas took control there three years ago. The incident forced the South African government to summon the Israeli Ambassador in South Africa Segev Steinberg to explain the raid incident.
Pretoria has described the Israeli government's action an unjustified military action, with Zuma expressing outrage at the incident. Zuma says from time to time the Middle-East issue exposes itself as one of the most serious issues. He says even the condemnations are subdued from other quarters and it reflects the kind of double standards.
In the absence of International Relations and Co-operation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, who is on an official visit to France, Deputy Minister Sue van der Merwe summoned Steinberg to issue a Démarche, registering Government’s strongest possible protest to the Israeli government for its unjustified military action and resultant loss of life.
Van der Merwe stated that such a military attack was an aberration from acceptable behaviour on the part of a State party in dealing with civilians and that Israel must be held accountable for its actions under international law.
Source: Mail & Guardian
The aid convoy was seeking to overcome the Israeli blockade of the Gaza strip which has been imposed almost continuously since Hamas took control there three years ago. The incident forced the South African government to summon the Israeli Ambassador in South Africa Segev Steinberg to explain the raid incident.
Pretoria has described the Israeli government's action an unjustified military action, with Zuma expressing outrage at the incident. Zuma says from time to time the Middle-East issue exposes itself as one of the most serious issues. He says even the condemnations are subdued from other quarters and it reflects the kind of double standards.
In the absence of International Relations and Co-operation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, who is on an official visit to France, Deputy Minister Sue van der Merwe summoned Steinberg to issue a Démarche, registering Government’s strongest possible protest to the Israeli government for its unjustified military action and resultant loss of life.
Van der Merwe stated that such a military attack was an aberration from acceptable behaviour on the part of a State party in dealing with civilians and that Israel must be held accountable for its actions under international law.
Source: Mail & Guardian
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