The cheapest political point for any youth formation to score at this time is to jump onto the bandwagon of hatred for Angie Motshekga. The minister of basic education, as the foremost educator in the government, is taking a lot of heat for the mess that is the Limpopo education department. Having failed to deliver textbooks for schools for Grades 1 – 3 and 10 for more than half a year, the department has become a mockery and even the intervention of a provincial task team and the national department has not cleared the mess up. This has become so big that alliance members of the ruling African National Congress have started to voice their concerns. Very loudly and publicly.
When it emerged that national treasury would have to fork out additional funds to support a catch-up programme and pay teachers overtime, the Congress of South African Students president Bongani Mani said, “We reiterate our call to Mama Angie to stop playing games and embarrassing the ANC-led government any further and resign immediately [to] spare President Jacob Zuma the pain of having to fire her… Minister Angie must not force the National Treasury to waste taxpayers’ money; rather she must take [it] from her salary and all those found responsible [should] pay for all that needs to be paid to remedy the crisis that has emerged on her watch.”
For its part, the ANC Youth League threatened action if Motshekga did not go. The deputy secretary general Kenetswe Mosenogi said, “Minister Motshekga is herself an obstacle to education; she cannot take responsibility for the most basic of challenges. She must resign within two weeks or we will mobilise our members and occupy the basic education department in Pretoria.”
Yet at the 91st birthday rally of the South African Communist Party on Sunday, the secretary of the Young Communist League Buti Manamela said that firing Motshekga may not be a smart move since the rot actually lies deep in her department.
In an interview with Daily Maverick, he said that he did not specifically call for the DoBE minister to be fired because this was really the prerogative of the president. “[Zuma] has commissioned a report on the matter and he will decide what action to take based on that report, whether it is a rap on the knuckles, or redeploying [Motshekga], or whatever,” Manamela said.
He continued: “Whether the president decides to fire her or not, there are people in the department who are responsible for this. Even if you fire her, you have to clear out these people as well. You can call for Angie’s head, but it won’t help the situation.”
The YCL secretary directed most of his ire at EduSolutions, the company that won the tender to deliver textbooks in Limpopo. He said, “The people who were given business by government – they should not have been working with the government in the first place if they cannot do something as simple as taking a textbook from A to B. This goes to the heart of the crisis in the system. It goes to our call to ban tenders in crucial services in government.”
At the birthday rally, communist party general secretary Blade Nzimande said that the government should not be outsourcing services in ‘priority services’ as identified by the ANC, like education and health, but the state should build capacity to deliver these services itself.
Manamela said that there were stories emerging that suggested the EduSolutions problem was not limited to Limpopo, but that the company was overcharging the government in other provinces, and delivering the wrong textbooks all over the country where it has tenders.
He said that they were not excluding the possibility that someone or some people in Limpopo were deliberately sabotaging this task so as to interfere with the Section 100 administrative action taken by the national government in several departments in Limpopo.
At the end of last year, the Cabinet took a decision to enact a provision of the Constitution which allows it to inject itself unilaterally into a provincial government. Since the same document is very strict about separation of powers between the different tiers of government, a lot has to go wrong before the uppermost echelon can take such an action. Unfortunately for the people of that province, premier Cassel Mathale and several of his key people chose to interpret this as a hostile political move (perhaps aimed at punishing Mathale for his longstanding support for Zuma’s enemy, Julius Malema).
Whether the textbook crisis could have been sparked deliberately is a question we may never be able to answer, but we do already know that several suspects in the department have tried to silence one of the key whistle-blowers.
Ironically, the YCL stance brings it in line with that of the opposition party Democratic Alliance, which has said that Motshekga is perhaps not the one person to blame in this.
Party leader Helen Zille wrote, “…we in the Western Cape have experienced Minister Angie Motshekga as one of the few – perhaps the only – education ministers since the dawn of democracy 18 years ago who genuinely understands the needs of the school system and is prepared to take some tough decisions to fix it. She stands virtually alone, in the wasteland of education's ‘shell state’, where many incompetent cadres masquerade as top officials with fancy titles, but have little understanding of and even less commitment to the needs of education.”
Despite this stance, the party has since called for her to resign.
Meanwhile, the outcomes of a report commissioned by Zuma, and another by the Limpopo premier, are still to be announced or released publicly. An independent auditor sent out by the DoBE found that many schools still hadn’t received textbooks despite a court order compelling the department to clear the mess up by June 27.
Perhaps calls for Motshekga to resign are not that misplaced. The buck ought to, after all, stop with her. Sipho Hlongwane
Source: Daily Maverick
Showing posts with label Blade Nzimande. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blade Nzimande. Show all posts
Monday, August 6, 2012
Friday, June 15, 2012
It's just a case of putting them in their place
Princess and the peeve
AS Vera was floating about at defence headquarters in Pretoria she came across a woman sobbing inconsolably. On closer inspection it turned out it was none other than Princess Nonceba Lindiwe Sisulu. People in the corridors were whispering that she had just been moved from the glamorous Defence Ministry to the gritty Public Service ministry. So she would now no longer be able to wear those sexy military uniforms to state events. She would no longer be saluted by generals and admirals. She would also no longer be in a position to refuse to answer questions for "security reasons". No longer will she be able to scream at the DA's David Maynier.
Aaagh shame, poor thing.
Wardrobe malfunction
Adding to the princess' misery is that she will now have to hang around Zwelinzima Vavi, Sadtu's Thobile Ntola, Nehawu's Fikile Majola and those guys from Solidarity. And instead of slapping striking soldiers with court-martials, she will have to accept memoranda from angry workers. Vera can't wait to see which fashion label she'll be wearing when she addresses workers from the back of a truck.
Blunt Blade cuts losses
Vera's favourite bourgeois communist put on his boxing gloves and went to Durban recently to put workers in their place. After angering the workers by chastising them for demanding that he leave his cushy government job and lose his flashy car, he then tried to charm them. He did many Phansi! slogans and got the enthusiastic Phansi! responses from the workers. But being a cabinet minister he could not bring himself to say Phansi !nge e-tolls Phansi!, prompting workers to shout him down.
The bourgeois communist, who had never been booed by unionists before, ended up in hospital recovering from the emotional breakdown. But as soon as he heard that some ANC leaders planned to take on President Jacob "I know what I'm doing" Zuma at the NEC meeting, he got out of his pyjamas and ran off to defend his paymaster.
Know where your bread is buttered...
Cop is being caught up
THE new top cop, Mangwashi Phiyega, started her career on a high note this week by feeding the media with nice sound-bites. Quizzed about her lack of policing experience, she simply said: "You do not need to be a drunkard to own a bottle store." She may as well have continued to say you do not need to be a drug addict to push drugs. Nice start, but Vera thinks she will need a lot of work to catch up to Bheki Cele, the master of great quotes.
Vera would like to share a little observation. When Maria Ramos arrived at Transnet in 2004, she and Phiyega were immediately at each others' throats. Phiyega jumped ship and went to Absa. Then Ramos left Transnet to head up Absa. Phiyega was forced to jump ship again to flee her nemesis. Based on this pattern, Vera predicts that Ramos' next job is minister of police.
Vera's Question of the Week: Will the new top cop be patrolling the streets of Hillbrow on New Year's eve?
Source: The Sowetan
AS Vera was floating about at defence headquarters in Pretoria she came across a woman sobbing inconsolably. On closer inspection it turned out it was none other than Princess Nonceba Lindiwe Sisulu. People in the corridors were whispering that she had just been moved from the glamorous Defence Ministry to the gritty Public Service ministry. So she would now no longer be able to wear those sexy military uniforms to state events. She would no longer be saluted by generals and admirals. She would also no longer be in a position to refuse to answer questions for "security reasons". No longer will she be able to scream at the DA's David Maynier.
Aaagh shame, poor thing.
Wardrobe malfunction
Adding to the princess' misery is that she will now have to hang around Zwelinzima Vavi, Sadtu's Thobile Ntola, Nehawu's Fikile Majola and those guys from Solidarity. And instead of slapping striking soldiers with court-martials, she will have to accept memoranda from angry workers. Vera can't wait to see which fashion label she'll be wearing when she addresses workers from the back of a truck.
Blunt Blade cuts losses
Vera's favourite bourgeois communist put on his boxing gloves and went to Durban recently to put workers in their place. After angering the workers by chastising them for demanding that he leave his cushy government job and lose his flashy car, he then tried to charm them. He did many Phansi! slogans and got the enthusiastic Phansi! responses from the workers. But being a cabinet minister he could not bring himself to say Phansi !nge e-tolls Phansi!, prompting workers to shout him down.
The bourgeois communist, who had never been booed by unionists before, ended up in hospital recovering from the emotional breakdown. But as soon as he heard that some ANC leaders planned to take on President Jacob "I know what I'm doing" Zuma at the NEC meeting, he got out of his pyjamas and ran off to defend his paymaster.
Know where your bread is buttered...
Cop is being caught up
THE new top cop, Mangwashi Phiyega, started her career on a high note this week by feeding the media with nice sound-bites. Quizzed about her lack of policing experience, she simply said: "You do not need to be a drunkard to own a bottle store." She may as well have continued to say you do not need to be a drug addict to push drugs. Nice start, but Vera thinks she will need a lot of work to catch up to Bheki Cele, the master of great quotes.
Vera would like to share a little observation. When Maria Ramos arrived at Transnet in 2004, she and Phiyega were immediately at each others' throats. Phiyega jumped ship and went to Absa. Then Ramos left Transnet to head up Absa. Phiyega was forced to jump ship again to flee her nemesis. Based on this pattern, Vera predicts that Ramos' next job is minister of police.
Vera's Question of the Week: Will the new top cop be patrolling the streets of Hillbrow on New Year's eve?
Source: The Sowetan
Friday, September 3, 2010
'Coalition of the wounded' turns on Zuma
A new "coalition of the wounded" has emerged in the ANC ahead of the party's national general council, with many of President Jacob Zuma's once most ardent backers now joining forces to stop his serving a second term. It took slightly more than two years for Zuma to alienate some of his staunchest supporters, including the ANC Youth League. Now his future lies in the hands of the left -- Cosatu and the South African Communist Party -- at a time when alliance relations are at a nadir.
According to several ANC sources linked to the Youth League, the SACP, Cosatu and the government, many party leaders have their eye on higher office or want to punish Zuma for not rewarding them sufficiently for their support in the run-up to the ANC's 2007 Polokwane conference. They are said to include Siphiwe Nyanda, the communications minister, Fikile Mbalula, the deputy police minister, and Julius Malema, the league's president.
Lobbyists wanting Zuma to retain his position at the ANC's next conference in 2012 claim Nyanda aspires to become the party's treasurer general, although this week Nyanda denied this, saying he has "no such intentions". "I can't choose for myself what I want to be. I went to Polokwane as an ordinary branch member of the ANC and was elected to the national executive committee. The ANC decides, I don't have a say," he said.
ANC sources said that Nyanda was also resentful that he had not landed the defence portfolio, which went to Lindiwe Sisulu. Some Zuma supporters are suspicious of former intelligence chief Billy Masetlha, saying he hankers after higher office -- something he denies. Zuma lobbyists say that Masetlha, who was not given a Cabinet position, wants to be in the ANC's "top six", a platform from which, he believes, he can counter detractors effectively. He denied this, saying he had previously been approached to be a minister, but had declined. He said he had no ambition to have a higher office in the ANC. "What is the fun in being in the top six?" he asked. But he did take a dig at his fellow national executive committee members, who needed to "pull up their socks". "Sixty percent of the people in the NEC are doing other things, like this lobbying and pushing their own agendas. They are not doing their jobs." He said his criticisms would make him "even more unpopular than I already am, but I've had enough".
A second group of leaders, calling themselves the "new frontier", is a subgroup of the broad front that questions Zuma's leadership. They are talking to one another and their constituencies about what they see as the erosion of traditional ANC values. Key new frontier members are Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale, Zwelinzima Vavi, Cosatu's general secretary, and Sisulu.
An ANC insider close to them said that they were discussing a return to such values as a rejection of corruption and a clear division between party and state. "The new frontier is where the action is," said the source. "New alliances are coalesced around the future of the ANC and of government and these leaders are having a conversation about what is to be done."
A government official with strong ANC links said that the realignment taking place did not bode well for the national general council, which kicks off on September 20. An ANC-aligned government official said: "Anyone who thinks the NGC can be managed must think again. There is an organic unhappiness that will come out there. Each sector [including the youth and women's leagues] is going to the NGC with a position and that will cause huge debate. There is less talk about tickets and more about where the ANC is going." Although Sisulu has kept a low political profile of late, insiders say that she has been thrown into the mix because of a need to ensure gender representation. She is seen as the most senior women leader in the ANC after national chairperson Baleka Mbete. Mbete, who is currently active in business, is said to have lost interest in furthering her career in the ANC.
Also prominent in the coalition is Malema, who was once quoted as saying he was prepared to "kill for Zuma". As recently as January this year, the league was the only major ANC formation to defend the president. But in April Zuma publicly rebuked him for acting in ways "alien to the ANC" after Malema had defied the ANC NEC by singing the song Shoot the Boer and calling the opposition Movement for Democratic Change in Zimbabwe a "Mickey Mouse party". He was later dragged into a humiliating disciplinary process, which forced him to make a public admission of guilt and apologise to Zuma. Malema has joined forces with Fikile Mbalula, a former youth league chief who expected more than a "mere" deputy minister position in return for his efforts in ensuring a Zuma victory at Polokwane, youth league sources say. To show their disdain for his "low-ranking position", Mbalula's supporters are urging Zuma to relieve him of his executive duties and return him to Luthuli House.
Even former Mbeki supporters, previously in the political wilderness, have been roped in to boost the numbers in both the Zuma and anti-Zuma camps. One such a figure, who is being lobbied to support ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe, said Mbeki's former supporters fear a takeover by the Youth League and their circle. "[We are more frightened of] an ANC Youth League takeover, which will destroy the organisation. The Youth League's supporters have no intention of rebuilding or uniting the party -- they just want to use positions to accumulate wealth."
Former ANC leaders in the Western Cape say they are being lobbied to support either of the two camps and are being promised plum government jobs. According to sources, Vavi is being lobbied to take over the position of Blade Nzimande, South African Communist Party boss, giving him a better chance to secure a senior ANC position.
The SACP is holding its elective conference in July 2012, six months before the ANC national conference in Mangaung. Zuma can still rely on Cosatu's support, but in return the federation will expect him to strengthen alliance relations. Masetlha is confident that there is no threat to Zuma, despite the Youth League's withdrawal of support and the opposition of other leaders. "There is no threat to JZ. The ANC cannot be run by children and opportunists. We know where to get them and how to get them, so watch this space," he said.
Cosatu's rank and file still support Zuma, despite the government's response to the two-week public service strike. "The president is still relevant. Our hope is not gone. But his strength comes from the strength of the alliance," said Zet Luzipho, Cosatu's secretary in KwaZulu-Natal.
Source: Mail & Guardian
According to several ANC sources linked to the Youth League, the SACP, Cosatu and the government, many party leaders have their eye on higher office or want to punish Zuma for not rewarding them sufficiently for their support in the run-up to the ANC's 2007 Polokwane conference. They are said to include Siphiwe Nyanda, the communications minister, Fikile Mbalula, the deputy police minister, and Julius Malema, the league's president.
Lobbyists wanting Zuma to retain his position at the ANC's next conference in 2012 claim Nyanda aspires to become the party's treasurer general, although this week Nyanda denied this, saying he has "no such intentions". "I can't choose for myself what I want to be. I went to Polokwane as an ordinary branch member of the ANC and was elected to the national executive committee. The ANC decides, I don't have a say," he said.
ANC sources said that Nyanda was also resentful that he had not landed the defence portfolio, which went to Lindiwe Sisulu. Some Zuma supporters are suspicious of former intelligence chief Billy Masetlha, saying he hankers after higher office -- something he denies. Zuma lobbyists say that Masetlha, who was not given a Cabinet position, wants to be in the ANC's "top six", a platform from which, he believes, he can counter detractors effectively. He denied this, saying he had previously been approached to be a minister, but had declined. He said he had no ambition to have a higher office in the ANC. "What is the fun in being in the top six?" he asked. But he did take a dig at his fellow national executive committee members, who needed to "pull up their socks". "Sixty percent of the people in the NEC are doing other things, like this lobbying and pushing their own agendas. They are not doing their jobs." He said his criticisms would make him "even more unpopular than I already am, but I've had enough".
A second group of leaders, calling themselves the "new frontier", is a subgroup of the broad front that questions Zuma's leadership. They are talking to one another and their constituencies about what they see as the erosion of traditional ANC values. Key new frontier members are Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale, Zwelinzima Vavi, Cosatu's general secretary, and Sisulu.
An ANC insider close to them said that they were discussing a return to such values as a rejection of corruption and a clear division between party and state. "The new frontier is where the action is," said the source. "New alliances are coalesced around the future of the ANC and of government and these leaders are having a conversation about what is to be done."
A government official with strong ANC links said that the realignment taking place did not bode well for the national general council, which kicks off on September 20. An ANC-aligned government official said: "Anyone who thinks the NGC can be managed must think again. There is an organic unhappiness that will come out there. Each sector [including the youth and women's leagues] is going to the NGC with a position and that will cause huge debate. There is less talk about tickets and more about where the ANC is going." Although Sisulu has kept a low political profile of late, insiders say that she has been thrown into the mix because of a need to ensure gender representation. She is seen as the most senior women leader in the ANC after national chairperson Baleka Mbete. Mbete, who is currently active in business, is said to have lost interest in furthering her career in the ANC.
Also prominent in the coalition is Malema, who was once quoted as saying he was prepared to "kill for Zuma". As recently as January this year, the league was the only major ANC formation to defend the president. But in April Zuma publicly rebuked him for acting in ways "alien to the ANC" after Malema had defied the ANC NEC by singing the song Shoot the Boer and calling the opposition Movement for Democratic Change in Zimbabwe a "Mickey Mouse party". He was later dragged into a humiliating disciplinary process, which forced him to make a public admission of guilt and apologise to Zuma. Malema has joined forces with Fikile Mbalula, a former youth league chief who expected more than a "mere" deputy minister position in return for his efforts in ensuring a Zuma victory at Polokwane, youth league sources say. To show their disdain for his "low-ranking position", Mbalula's supporters are urging Zuma to relieve him of his executive duties and return him to Luthuli House.
Even former Mbeki supporters, previously in the political wilderness, have been roped in to boost the numbers in both the Zuma and anti-Zuma camps. One such a figure, who is being lobbied to support ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe, said Mbeki's former supporters fear a takeover by the Youth League and their circle. "[We are more frightened of] an ANC Youth League takeover, which will destroy the organisation. The Youth League's supporters have no intention of rebuilding or uniting the party -- they just want to use positions to accumulate wealth."
Former ANC leaders in the Western Cape say they are being lobbied to support either of the two camps and are being promised plum government jobs. According to sources, Vavi is being lobbied to take over the position of Blade Nzimande, South African Communist Party boss, giving him a better chance to secure a senior ANC position.
The SACP is holding its elective conference in July 2012, six months before the ANC national conference in Mangaung. Zuma can still rely on Cosatu's support, but in return the federation will expect him to strengthen alliance relations. Masetlha is confident that there is no threat to Zuma, despite the Youth League's withdrawal of support and the opposition of other leaders. "There is no threat to JZ. The ANC cannot be run by children and opportunists. We know where to get them and how to get them, so watch this space," he said.
Cosatu's rank and file still support Zuma, despite the government's response to the two-week public service strike. "The president is still relevant. Our hope is not gone. But his strength comes from the strength of the alliance," said Zet Luzipho, Cosatu's secretary in KwaZulu-Natal.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
'Stop the politicians' feeding frenzy'
Cosatu leader Zwelinzima Vavi has warned that South Africa was slipping into becoming a "predatory state" where a new tier of leaders believed it was their turn to "feed". "There is an order in a predatory state - and I'm not saying that is what is happening - but in an ordinary predatory state there is an order in the feeding trough. The first family must feed first, and then the cabinet must come, and its family, and then the provincial leadership and the council. In the process we have battles of short-term interest," he said.
The Cosatu general secretary was speaking at a political school organised by the National Union of Metalworkers' of SA (Numsa) in Joburg last night. Fellow panellist, ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, told the gathering the success of the ANC's struggles was not to be measured "on how many billionaires we have produced", but rather how the poverty experienced by the majority of people was addressed. The alliance leaders' comments come after multibillion-rand deals involving people directly linked to President Jacob Zuma, including his son, Duduzane, and his nephew, Khulubuse Zuma.
Mantashe asked whether having 20 black people among the top richest people in the country was really all that the "national democratic revolution" was about. The ANC's renewal campaign was about returning the party to its members. "It can't be dominated by a small inner circle that controls resources and gives access to wealth," he said.
Steel giant ArcelorMittal has come under fire after announcing a R9 billion deal to sell a 26 percent stake in its business, a transaction in which Duduzane Zuma as well as the Gupta family and other close associates of Zuma have scored millions of rands. Vavi said when it became a matter of politicians awaiting their turn to "feed", this was a "vulgarisation" of the alliance's struggle to liberate black African people. Economic empowerment and job creation were inextricably linked, he said. He criticised the government's "dilly-dallying" and "confusion" over developing a plan to curb the "job-loss bloodbath", that saw more than one million people lose their jobs in the past year. "Since April we are being told there is an economic growth path (policy document) and that it is coming. Up to now we have nothing in our hands, and we are going to discuss it for the first time in the (ANC's national general council, its mid-term policy review conference). Even that shows that there is a state of confusion up there," Vavi said. There was a growth path envisaged by cabinet and a separate one envisioned by the ANC, Vavi said. "As a result... you might be going in two different directions. It is a crisis."
Also present was SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande, who called for a review of the country's black economic empowerment policies. "Who has it worked for? And is it being corrupted in a big way?" he asked. Nzimande repeated his warnings against "tenderpreneurs" - people who manipulate state contracts to enrich themselves - and businesses that chased state tenders rather than creating opportunities in the private sector. "BEE is in a big crisis, so its roots (are) in picking on the state. When that goes on, we will turn South Africa into one big tender which will be sold to the highest bidder," he said. "You will bring in counter-revolution, because anything that stands in the way, will be dealt with quite severely."
Source: IOL
The Cosatu general secretary was speaking at a political school organised by the National Union of Metalworkers' of SA (Numsa) in Joburg last night. Fellow panellist, ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, told the gathering the success of the ANC's struggles was not to be measured "on how many billionaires we have produced", but rather how the poverty experienced by the majority of people was addressed. The alliance leaders' comments come after multibillion-rand deals involving people directly linked to President Jacob Zuma, including his son, Duduzane, and his nephew, Khulubuse Zuma.
Mantashe asked whether having 20 black people among the top richest people in the country was really all that the "national democratic revolution" was about. The ANC's renewal campaign was about returning the party to its members. "It can't be dominated by a small inner circle that controls resources and gives access to wealth," he said.
Steel giant ArcelorMittal has come under fire after announcing a R9 billion deal to sell a 26 percent stake in its business, a transaction in which Duduzane Zuma as well as the Gupta family and other close associates of Zuma have scored millions of rands. Vavi said when it became a matter of politicians awaiting their turn to "feed", this was a "vulgarisation" of the alliance's struggle to liberate black African people. Economic empowerment and job creation were inextricably linked, he said. He criticised the government's "dilly-dallying" and "confusion" over developing a plan to curb the "job-loss bloodbath", that saw more than one million people lose their jobs in the past year. "Since April we are being told there is an economic growth path (policy document) and that it is coming. Up to now we have nothing in our hands, and we are going to discuss it for the first time in the (ANC's national general council, its mid-term policy review conference). Even that shows that there is a state of confusion up there," Vavi said. There was a growth path envisaged by cabinet and a separate one envisioned by the ANC, Vavi said. "As a result... you might be going in two different directions. It is a crisis."
Also present was SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande, who called for a review of the country's black economic empowerment policies. "Who has it worked for? And is it being corrupted in a big way?" he asked. Nzimande repeated his warnings against "tenderpreneurs" - people who manipulate state contracts to enrich themselves - and businesses that chased state tenders rather than creating opportunities in the private sector. "BEE is in a big crisis, so its roots (are) in picking on the state. When that goes on, we will turn South Africa into one big tender which will be sold to the highest bidder," he said. "You will bring in counter-revolution, because anything that stands in the way, will be dealt with quite severely."
Source: IOL
Monday, August 16, 2010
The ANC's anti-media campaign and its unexpected brilliance
Over the past couple of months, many editors, journalists and analysts have been surprised, indeed taken aback by the effectiveness of the ANC's march towards what would effectively be criminalising the free media. Here's how they're doing it.
For many years now we've grown accustomed to just about anything touched by the ANC-dominated government wilting and dying. Government departments are in chaos, many of them without functioning directors general, with parastatals faring even worse. And yet it appears that the ANC just had a moment of shining clarity in its latest war against its über-enemy, the media. They are actually doing it well, very well.
Unity is a crucial element in doing anything of importance in an organisation as diverse as the ANC. Riven by divisions and run through with meetings dominated by “robust discussion”, the ANC was always at its best when mobilising against the common enemy. And this time, it’s facing one enemy that all its factions can heartily unite against - the media. The desire and, quite frankly, the need, to stop freedom of the media in this country runs so strongly, that it even managed to split previously unbreakable ties between SA’s communists and Cosatu, which is so far resisting calls to muzzle the media.
In its anti-media march, the ANC felt, or knew, that it would never be able to convince anyone else except its own ranks, that its moves were nothing other than extreme ways of protecting its own turf and extinguishing what it sees as its own enemy. And that's exactly where its campaign's brilliance lies.
In every campaign, and especially in one as tough as this is shaping up to be, it is important to understand what needs to be achieved. This time (and at this point, we need to clarify that we do not know if it was a conscious decision or a lucky fluke) the focus is, quite rightly, being put on convincing ANC members and voters that the party is right.
When you position your goal in that way, it is not about building the best argument anymore, but rather about building an entire eco-system in which all things ANC are good, and all things media are bad. It allows for statements that appear mind-bogglingly crazy and easily debunked by anyone with a triple-digit IQ and 30 seconds on Google. Because it is not about truth or lies. It is about the right; the ANC's right to set the rules in South Africa, and that is that.
The way the ANC officials update their thoughts and statements daily also smacks of the recipe taken from the US Republican party's handbook. It is an incredibly effective system of talking points that the GOPers developed, in which the notes are distributed daily to all the talking heads and spokespeople for the party. As a result, each and every newspaper, TV and radio station quotes the people singing from the same song sheet, amplifying the message of the day. And, more than anything, statements that are repeated all the time make people remember them. (We are reluctant to give the ANC that much credit though; it is possible that the mechanism of repeating the message could be just plain parroting, but the result is the same: Every time the position of the day is repeated, one more morsel is added to its audience's resolve.)
And the ANC leaders know their own audience. They know how to talk to them, they know what buttons to push to get the “down with media!” reaction. For Blade Nzimande it was even easier to convince his party members that the media is the root of all evils. Never in history has there been a communist party ruling a one-party state in which any kind of free media was allowed.
Here are the best examples of the campaign, its nature and its efficiency. Use Lenin's old saying: Many times repeated a lie becomes the truth. Use it liberally.
When Blade Nzimande says the media is the greatest threat to South African democracy, it is obvious that the statement has nothing to do with reality. Quite the opposite, actually. No true democratic state can exist without a thriving free media, which has been proven all over the world. On one side, the good doctor probably genuinely believes that the USSR, China, Cuba, Libya, North Korea and, God bless them, the German Democratic Republic, were or are true genuine democracies. But to the rest of the world they are not. And yet, the same “media threatening our democracy” statements are repeated by so many officials that many people in South Africa will now readily repeat it as an absolute truth, regardless of its non-existing connection with truth. Lenin would have been proud of his little helper.
Use half-truths, reverse logical processes, but make sure your target market never bothers thinking about the whole truth:
Nzimande uses his favorite example (you could use 'whipping boy'), former Cape Argus reporter Ashley Smith, who was bribed by Ebrahim Rasool, as solid proof that every South African journalist has sold out.
The logic will say that the rules are always made by observing many events, measuring the elements of many experiments and then, after careful comparison, drawing a proper conclusion that would successfully predict the way other elements will behave. In the case of Argus journalist Ashley Smith’s bribing scandal, the good doctor Blade turns that principle upside down, using a sample of one to presume how thousands would behave.
The same logic is being used every time someone in the SA media makes a mistake, making it a good and properly scientific reason to deal with the entire media community. That logic has been enhanced somewhat of late by using, hold on to your hats, a mere possibility that someone's dignity could be hurt, as a good reason to stop free media from ever coming into position that might make it possible.
But that's not the doctor's only fallacy, of course. In an extraordinary somersault of logic, he avoids the principle he just established and fails to conclude that, if Ibrahim Rasool bribes a journalist, then every ANC official bribes journalists.
Of course, Julius Malema considerably added to the “robust media debate” by claiming that the media put his and his family's lives in danger during the days immediately after Eugene Terre-Blanche's death by claiming that him singing “kill the boer” song encouraged the murderers. Of course, he conveniently forgot to say that he did sing the incendiary song, many times, to start the race debate and make the media forget about his tenderprenurial woes at that moment. And by saying a half-truth, Malema knows that his target market forgot any inconvenient truths and would believe everything he said, no matter how remote its connection was to reality.
All these examples owe their effectiveness to the existence of this crucial ANC's eco-system: it is a double-standard system which makes it impossible for the “Greatest Liberation Movement” to ever be wrong. In that system, it becomes entirely logical that Rasool was only an aberration that was harshly dealt with by being sent to Washington DC, while the entire media needs to be punished because of the one. Malema is also the victim of the horrible media monsters. Because the ANC can't be wrong.
Media is THE most powerful group in the country and, because of this, it must be dealt with by the representatives elected by the people.
Statements like this would mostly produce a chuckle were it not that such nonsense at such dangerous moments have immense power. A party that controls almost 66% of Parliament, federal government with all parastatals, eight out of nine provinces, institutions of democracy, a party that has infiltrated big and small business nationwide, that directly controls the state broadcaster, is somehow a weakling here. Somehow, the media, that does not control a cent of the budgets, nor issues any licenses or concessions, BEE processes, appointments of officials or actually anything else, is now the big bad wolf out to get the ANC's poor little sheep. And yet this picture, as preposterous as it is, is currently taking hold among ordinary ANC members and their voters. Because they WANT to believe it.
But still, all of the examples listed so far can be seen as one side fighting a smart battle, not much different from a usual US election duel. The members of the ANC these days routinely call talk shows to debate and leave long comments on websites and that could be a sign that they are becoming serious about taking their views to the public. (A cynic could also point that they are using the media network in order to destroy it.)
But the way the following issues are framed by the ANC are where things become downright dangerous and will probably haunt this country for a long time to come. The first one is:
Free media is somehow against black culture and only serving white liberals.
Racial profiling has been a deeply worrying element of the SA's political scene of late. Its champions, the Youth League under Malema's leadership, are not strangers to using the most crass racism in their press statements and speeches. We now find more and more voices adding to statements that it is not in African culture to criticise elders and that the party in power is, by default, an elder. Also by default, is that only white people support the media that can do whatever they want and that fighting against freedom of media in our society is somehow part of the black DNA. The ANC will probably be relatively successful in pushing this dangerous point that will turn to bite this country many times in the future.
Together with the racially divisive tactics, is the equally dangerous framing of the creation of false choices. Here's the one used the most:
What is more important, for the poor to get water or to have free media?
The structure is always the same: on one side is something really important and close to hearts of many, and on the other side is the free media. It is, of course, a complete nonsense that these are mutually exclusive and the village is far more likely to get the water if the media reports on government's delays or shoddy delivery. But the emotional power of the left hand side of the choice will blind many an inexperienced person into believing the free media should die right now in order for granny to get water. It is a truly dangerous, criminal way of conducting the propaganda war.
The ANC's war against the media is a truly fascinating subject and one day will be a basis of the great study of a society desperately trying to push a self-destruct button. By choosing not to really talk to the media or anyone else supporting the freedom of expression in the country, and only to their own people, the ANC has chosen an effective path that will strengthen its lines for the time being and may even finally bring them the obedient media they so crave. But the reversal of the late 20th century's gains of freedom of expression will bring long-term misery to South Africa. Unfortunately, there's only one way for them to find that out.
Source: The Daily Maverick
For many years now we've grown accustomed to just about anything touched by the ANC-dominated government wilting and dying. Government departments are in chaos, many of them without functioning directors general, with parastatals faring even worse. And yet it appears that the ANC just had a moment of shining clarity in its latest war against its über-enemy, the media. They are actually doing it well, very well.
Unity is a crucial element in doing anything of importance in an organisation as diverse as the ANC. Riven by divisions and run through with meetings dominated by “robust discussion”, the ANC was always at its best when mobilising against the common enemy. And this time, it’s facing one enemy that all its factions can heartily unite against - the media. The desire and, quite frankly, the need, to stop freedom of the media in this country runs so strongly, that it even managed to split previously unbreakable ties between SA’s communists and Cosatu, which is so far resisting calls to muzzle the media.
In its anti-media march, the ANC felt, or knew, that it would never be able to convince anyone else except its own ranks, that its moves were nothing other than extreme ways of protecting its own turf and extinguishing what it sees as its own enemy. And that's exactly where its campaign's brilliance lies.
In every campaign, and especially in one as tough as this is shaping up to be, it is important to understand what needs to be achieved. This time (and at this point, we need to clarify that we do not know if it was a conscious decision or a lucky fluke) the focus is, quite rightly, being put on convincing ANC members and voters that the party is right.
When you position your goal in that way, it is not about building the best argument anymore, but rather about building an entire eco-system in which all things ANC are good, and all things media are bad. It allows for statements that appear mind-bogglingly crazy and easily debunked by anyone with a triple-digit IQ and 30 seconds on Google. Because it is not about truth or lies. It is about the right; the ANC's right to set the rules in South Africa, and that is that.
The way the ANC officials update their thoughts and statements daily also smacks of the recipe taken from the US Republican party's handbook. It is an incredibly effective system of talking points that the GOPers developed, in which the notes are distributed daily to all the talking heads and spokespeople for the party. As a result, each and every newspaper, TV and radio station quotes the people singing from the same song sheet, amplifying the message of the day. And, more than anything, statements that are repeated all the time make people remember them. (We are reluctant to give the ANC that much credit though; it is possible that the mechanism of repeating the message could be just plain parroting, but the result is the same: Every time the position of the day is repeated, one more morsel is added to its audience's resolve.)
And the ANC leaders know their own audience. They know how to talk to them, they know what buttons to push to get the “down with media!” reaction. For Blade Nzimande it was even easier to convince his party members that the media is the root of all evils. Never in history has there been a communist party ruling a one-party state in which any kind of free media was allowed.
Here are the best examples of the campaign, its nature and its efficiency. Use Lenin's old saying: Many times repeated a lie becomes the truth. Use it liberally.
When Blade Nzimande says the media is the greatest threat to South African democracy, it is obvious that the statement has nothing to do with reality. Quite the opposite, actually. No true democratic state can exist without a thriving free media, which has been proven all over the world. On one side, the good doctor probably genuinely believes that the USSR, China, Cuba, Libya, North Korea and, God bless them, the German Democratic Republic, were or are true genuine democracies. But to the rest of the world they are not. And yet, the same “media threatening our democracy” statements are repeated by so many officials that many people in South Africa will now readily repeat it as an absolute truth, regardless of its non-existing connection with truth. Lenin would have been proud of his little helper.
Use half-truths, reverse logical processes, but make sure your target market never bothers thinking about the whole truth:
Nzimande uses his favorite example (you could use 'whipping boy'), former Cape Argus reporter Ashley Smith, who was bribed by Ebrahim Rasool, as solid proof that every South African journalist has sold out.
The logic will say that the rules are always made by observing many events, measuring the elements of many experiments and then, after careful comparison, drawing a proper conclusion that would successfully predict the way other elements will behave. In the case of Argus journalist Ashley Smith’s bribing scandal, the good doctor Blade turns that principle upside down, using a sample of one to presume how thousands would behave.
The same logic is being used every time someone in the SA media makes a mistake, making it a good and properly scientific reason to deal with the entire media community. That logic has been enhanced somewhat of late by using, hold on to your hats, a mere possibility that someone's dignity could be hurt, as a good reason to stop free media from ever coming into position that might make it possible.
But that's not the doctor's only fallacy, of course. In an extraordinary somersault of logic, he avoids the principle he just established and fails to conclude that, if Ibrahim Rasool bribes a journalist, then every ANC official bribes journalists.
Of course, Julius Malema considerably added to the “robust media debate” by claiming that the media put his and his family's lives in danger during the days immediately after Eugene Terre-Blanche's death by claiming that him singing “kill the boer” song encouraged the murderers. Of course, he conveniently forgot to say that he did sing the incendiary song, many times, to start the race debate and make the media forget about his tenderprenurial woes at that moment. And by saying a half-truth, Malema knows that his target market forgot any inconvenient truths and would believe everything he said, no matter how remote its connection was to reality.
All these examples owe their effectiveness to the existence of this crucial ANC's eco-system: it is a double-standard system which makes it impossible for the “Greatest Liberation Movement” to ever be wrong. In that system, it becomes entirely logical that Rasool was only an aberration that was harshly dealt with by being sent to Washington DC, while the entire media needs to be punished because of the one. Malema is also the victim of the horrible media monsters. Because the ANC can't be wrong.
Media is THE most powerful group in the country and, because of this, it must be dealt with by the representatives elected by the people.
Statements like this would mostly produce a chuckle were it not that such nonsense at such dangerous moments have immense power. A party that controls almost 66% of Parliament, federal government with all parastatals, eight out of nine provinces, institutions of democracy, a party that has infiltrated big and small business nationwide, that directly controls the state broadcaster, is somehow a weakling here. Somehow, the media, that does not control a cent of the budgets, nor issues any licenses or concessions, BEE processes, appointments of officials or actually anything else, is now the big bad wolf out to get the ANC's poor little sheep. And yet this picture, as preposterous as it is, is currently taking hold among ordinary ANC members and their voters. Because they WANT to believe it.
But still, all of the examples listed so far can be seen as one side fighting a smart battle, not much different from a usual US election duel. The members of the ANC these days routinely call talk shows to debate and leave long comments on websites and that could be a sign that they are becoming serious about taking their views to the public. (A cynic could also point that they are using the media network in order to destroy it.)
But the way the following issues are framed by the ANC are where things become downright dangerous and will probably haunt this country for a long time to come. The first one is:
Free media is somehow against black culture and only serving white liberals.
Racial profiling has been a deeply worrying element of the SA's political scene of late. Its champions, the Youth League under Malema's leadership, are not strangers to using the most crass racism in their press statements and speeches. We now find more and more voices adding to statements that it is not in African culture to criticise elders and that the party in power is, by default, an elder. Also by default, is that only white people support the media that can do whatever they want and that fighting against freedom of media in our society is somehow part of the black DNA. The ANC will probably be relatively successful in pushing this dangerous point that will turn to bite this country many times in the future.
Together with the racially divisive tactics, is the equally dangerous framing of the creation of false choices. Here's the one used the most:
What is more important, for the poor to get water or to have free media?
The structure is always the same: on one side is something really important and close to hearts of many, and on the other side is the free media. It is, of course, a complete nonsense that these are mutually exclusive and the village is far more likely to get the water if the media reports on government's delays or shoddy delivery. But the emotional power of the left hand side of the choice will blind many an inexperienced person into believing the free media should die right now in order for granny to get water. It is a truly dangerous, criminal way of conducting the propaganda war.
The ANC's war against the media is a truly fascinating subject and one day will be a basis of the great study of a society desperately trying to push a self-destruct button. By choosing not to really talk to the media or anyone else supporting the freedom of expression in the country, and only to their own people, the ANC has chosen an effective path that will strengthen its lines for the time being and may even finally bring them the obedient media they so crave. But the reversal of the late 20th century's gains of freedom of expression will bring long-term misery to South Africa. Unfortunately, there's only one way for them to find that out.
Source: The Daily Maverick
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Why ANC hates a free press
There has been anger, consternation and disappointment over the ANC's two-pronged move to gag the media through a tribunal and a "protection of information" bill. I am surprised there has been so much surprise. These attempts to gag the press have nothing to do with the need for accuracy on the part of journalists, or protecting the dignity of South Africans, as claimed by ANC spokesmen.
They have, however, everything to do with the fact that the ANC right now has the weakest, greediest, most corrupt and compromised leadership since its birth 98 years ago. These so-called leaders want to shut down the medium that exposes their corruption, looting and hypocrisy.
In Polokwane, the ANC had a choice between a high road and a low road. It could, in thumping Thabo Mbeki's ambitions for a third term, have elected a leader more talented and better equipped to deliver on the promise of a free, united, non-racial and democratic South Africa. But, as happens in all kangaroo courts and mob slayings, in its rush to destroy Mbeki the ANC chose a man whose most marked traits were a talent for populist rhetoric and an inability to lead effectively. The ANC went for the lesser man, someone whose moral, intellectual and leadership skills remain a mystery to the nation.
The ANC did not stop there. Many in its current leadership know nothing but the world of the jackboot and violence: securocrats dominate the top echelons of the party. These are not leaders who enjoy the light shone by a free press. They prefer the dark; they like secrets and the cover-ups that allow corruption to flourish. A man who sleeps with his friends' children - one of them with mental problems and HIV-positive - cannot tolerate a free press that keeps putting the spotlight on the reprehensible behaviour of elected representatives. Such a man cannot understand or tolerate the watchdog role of the press, hence President Jacob Zuma's utterance this week: "The constitution talks about the privacy of people. At times, things that are private are not made private in the manner in which the reportings are done."
It is in this context that one must understand the virulence of the ANC and the president on this matter. Zuma would much rather have had the country be silent while he spoke with a forked tongue on moral regeneration (a programme of which he was a government leader), safe sex (an issue on which he was supposedly a government leader) and the dangers of having multiple concurrent relationships without using protection. This is not an elected leader who wants to be examined. The continued spotlight on him, every day and every hour, ensures that he will be found wanting. So we should not be surprised that he does not like the light. He likes things to remain "private" despite the fact that he occupies a public office.
The ANC leadership is aware that the rot has spread through the whole organisation. The party's discussion documents for its national general council meeting paint such a damning picture that it is amazing that an organisation so committed to secrecy should have made them public. But debate is one thing and action is another. This is an ANC that is ready to acknowledge in public that corruption is destroying it - but, as evidence mounts that all is not right with the business dealings of its senior leader and Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda (the Public Protector has called for an investigation of the man) - the party stands frozen.
This is the party that wants the press to stop pointing out these wrongs. Nyanda himself wants a media tribunal. Of course he would. The press is the only entity that has dared to expose his extravagant lifestyle at taxpayers' expense: buying hugely expensive cars, living it up on champagne and sleeping at five-star hotels. All this in a country where millions go hungry every day.
We should not be surprised. When Zwelinzima Vavi pointed out that Zuma was dragging his heels on Nyanda and allegations of corruption against another minister, the ANC decided to haul Vavi before a disciplinary hearing.
We should not be surprised. Blade Nzimande, a communist leader who disgustingly chose to buy himself a car worth more than a million rands, wants a media tribunal. This is understandable. His hypocrisy in buying himself the car while teachers, doctors and nurses earn a pittance is exposed by the press. He wants these things to be "private".
We should not be surprised. This is what the ANC is today: a rotten, greedy, corrupt and compromised leadership which wants to muzzle the media to hide its looting of the country.
Source: Times Live
They have, however, everything to do with the fact that the ANC right now has the weakest, greediest, most corrupt and compromised leadership since its birth 98 years ago. These so-called leaders want to shut down the medium that exposes their corruption, looting and hypocrisy.
In Polokwane, the ANC had a choice between a high road and a low road. It could, in thumping Thabo Mbeki's ambitions for a third term, have elected a leader more talented and better equipped to deliver on the promise of a free, united, non-racial and democratic South Africa. But, as happens in all kangaroo courts and mob slayings, in its rush to destroy Mbeki the ANC chose a man whose most marked traits were a talent for populist rhetoric and an inability to lead effectively. The ANC went for the lesser man, someone whose moral, intellectual and leadership skills remain a mystery to the nation.
The ANC did not stop there. Many in its current leadership know nothing but the world of the jackboot and violence: securocrats dominate the top echelons of the party. These are not leaders who enjoy the light shone by a free press. They prefer the dark; they like secrets and the cover-ups that allow corruption to flourish. A man who sleeps with his friends' children - one of them with mental problems and HIV-positive - cannot tolerate a free press that keeps putting the spotlight on the reprehensible behaviour of elected representatives. Such a man cannot understand or tolerate the watchdog role of the press, hence President Jacob Zuma's utterance this week: "The constitution talks about the privacy of people. At times, things that are private are not made private in the manner in which the reportings are done."
It is in this context that one must understand the virulence of the ANC and the president on this matter. Zuma would much rather have had the country be silent while he spoke with a forked tongue on moral regeneration (a programme of which he was a government leader), safe sex (an issue on which he was supposedly a government leader) and the dangers of having multiple concurrent relationships without using protection. This is not an elected leader who wants to be examined. The continued spotlight on him, every day and every hour, ensures that he will be found wanting. So we should not be surprised that he does not like the light. He likes things to remain "private" despite the fact that he occupies a public office.
The ANC leadership is aware that the rot has spread through the whole organisation. The party's discussion documents for its national general council meeting paint such a damning picture that it is amazing that an organisation so committed to secrecy should have made them public. But debate is one thing and action is another. This is an ANC that is ready to acknowledge in public that corruption is destroying it - but, as evidence mounts that all is not right with the business dealings of its senior leader and Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda (the Public Protector has called for an investigation of the man) - the party stands frozen.
This is the party that wants the press to stop pointing out these wrongs. Nyanda himself wants a media tribunal. Of course he would. The press is the only entity that has dared to expose his extravagant lifestyle at taxpayers' expense: buying hugely expensive cars, living it up on champagne and sleeping at five-star hotels. All this in a country where millions go hungry every day.
We should not be surprised. When Zwelinzima Vavi pointed out that Zuma was dragging his heels on Nyanda and allegations of corruption against another minister, the ANC decided to haul Vavi before a disciplinary hearing.
We should not be surprised. Blade Nzimande, a communist leader who disgustingly chose to buy himself a car worth more than a million rands, wants a media tribunal. This is understandable. His hypocrisy in buying himself the car while teachers, doctors and nurses earn a pittance is exposed by the press. He wants these things to be "private".
We should not be surprised. This is what the ANC is today: a rotten, greedy, corrupt and compromised leadership which wants to muzzle the media to hide its looting of the country.
Source: Times Live
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Deadly threat to all
The collapse of the Soviet Union two decades ago exposed not only the bankruptcy of its ideology but the rich and obscene lifestyle of its leaders — the dachas where they romped and lolled and the extravagantly furnished bunkers where they would have safely repaired in the event of a nuclear attack. Meanwhile ordinary people were constantly exhorted to put their faith in the revolution. It was dachas for the cream of society and gulags for dissenters.
Communism is an ideology conceived in a lie. Leaders say one thing while doing the other. They live a life of deception. They don’t seem prepared to live the life or reality they often romanticise, or to which their policies condemn ordinary people. And because the media and other forms of communication are controlled by the state, the so-called working class are kept in the dark and therefore meekly accept their lot.
That is the nirvana that Blade Nzimande has in mind for us. The general secretary of the SA Communist Party, who works as minister for higher education when he feels like it, wants the media shackled because it has shown him up to be a hypocrite. This champion of the working class drives posh cars and lives it up in fancy hotels — at our expense. Now he wants a tribunal to stop or frustrate the media from telling the truth.
But that’s par for the course, I suppose. After all it was Vladimir Lenin who blurted: “Telling the truth is a bourgeois prejudice. Deception, on the other hand, is often justified by the goal.”
It’s revealing that the two men leading the campaign against the media have been in the news for the wrong reasons : Nzimande and communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda. Nyanda, the man with a fine taste for tenders, has seen his name crop up in many an unsavoury scrap as a result of his business dealings. He got a tender that got Siyabonga Gama fired at Transnet. He’s currently embroiled in a messy fight with his director- general, and tenders are at the heart of the dispute. On Sunday he wrote a long, rambling article in favour of a media tribunal. The logic was difficult to follow. He should stick to tenders.
There are those who may think the media is obsessed with gazing at its own navel. This is not a war waged against the media only, but against democracy itself. It challenges the very essence of our constitution. As the FM argued recently, it is a battle that should involve all strands of society — business, civil society — against those who are intent on imposing darkness on us, so that they can loot and plunder at will.
This is by no means an isolated attack. In the eyes of Jacob Zuma’s supporters, the media forms part of that axis of evil — to borrow a phrase — which almost denied their hero what he was due ; the other axis members being the Scorpions and the judiciary. Zuma’s triumph in Polokwane sounded the death knell for the Scorpions, who were immediately consigned to the scrapheap. The judiciary has been shouted down and almost cowed. Which leaves the media, with its enormous power to influence public opinion and to expose, shame and embarrass those in authority.
As Lenin once posed the question, what then is to be done? The media tribunal and the Protection of Information Bill seem to be the answer. The notion of “protecting” information from the public in a democracy is, frankly, bizarre.
It’s not the first time government has tried to rein in the media. The Nats tried several times, and failed each time . This lot, which seem keen to learn from their predecessors, will also fail. But that would demand concerted action from all sectors of society, including the business community. For once, business needs to raise its voice against what is arguably the biggest threat to our democracy since the fall of apartheid.
Source: Financial Mail: Barney Mthombothi
Communism is an ideology conceived in a lie. Leaders say one thing while doing the other. They live a life of deception. They don’t seem prepared to live the life or reality they often romanticise, or to which their policies condemn ordinary people. And because the media and other forms of communication are controlled by the state, the so-called working class are kept in the dark and therefore meekly accept their lot.
That is the nirvana that Blade Nzimande has in mind for us. The general secretary of the SA Communist Party, who works as minister for higher education when he feels like it, wants the media shackled because it has shown him up to be a hypocrite. This champion of the working class drives posh cars and lives it up in fancy hotels — at our expense. Now he wants a tribunal to stop or frustrate the media from telling the truth.
But that’s par for the course, I suppose. After all it was Vladimir Lenin who blurted: “Telling the truth is a bourgeois prejudice. Deception, on the other hand, is often justified by the goal.”
It’s revealing that the two men leading the campaign against the media have been in the news for the wrong reasons : Nzimande and communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda. Nyanda, the man with a fine taste for tenders, has seen his name crop up in many an unsavoury scrap as a result of his business dealings. He got a tender that got Siyabonga Gama fired at Transnet. He’s currently embroiled in a messy fight with his director- general, and tenders are at the heart of the dispute. On Sunday he wrote a long, rambling article in favour of a media tribunal. The logic was difficult to follow. He should stick to tenders.
There are those who may think the media is obsessed with gazing at its own navel. This is not a war waged against the media only, but against democracy itself. It challenges the very essence of our constitution. As the FM argued recently, it is a battle that should involve all strands of society — business, civil society — against those who are intent on imposing darkness on us, so that they can loot and plunder at will.
This is by no means an isolated attack. In the eyes of Jacob Zuma’s supporters, the media forms part of that axis of evil — to borrow a phrase — which almost denied their hero what he was due ; the other axis members being the Scorpions and the judiciary. Zuma’s triumph in Polokwane sounded the death knell for the Scorpions, who were immediately consigned to the scrapheap. The judiciary has been shouted down and almost cowed. Which leaves the media, with its enormous power to influence public opinion and to expose, shame and embarrass those in authority.
As Lenin once posed the question, what then is to be done? The media tribunal and the Protection of Information Bill seem to be the answer. The notion of “protecting” information from the public in a democracy is, frankly, bizarre.
It’s not the first time government has tried to rein in the media. The Nats tried several times, and failed each time . This lot, which seem keen to learn from their predecessors, will also fail. But that would demand concerted action from all sectors of society, including the business community. For once, business needs to raise its voice against what is arguably the biggest threat to our democracy since the fall of apartheid.
Source: Financial Mail: Barney Mthombothi
Sunday, May 23, 2010
SOUTH AFRICA: New university clusters emerge
New clusters of universities have emerged in South Africa in the past decade, with fewer truly research-focused institutions following mergers, according to a study by the Centre for Higher Education Transformation, CHET. Three clusters revealed by an analysis of universities using nine input and output variables look very different to the formal categories used to differentiate the tertiary sector - with potentially major implications for policy.
"We need evidence-based rather than ideologically-driven policy-making," CHET director Professor Nico Cloete told the Stakeholder Summit on Higher Education held in Cape Town last month, sparking heated debate in the commission on institutional differentiation. An empiracle set of data had painted a picture of the higher education system as it actually was.
Historically there have been different forms of differentiation in South Africa. Apartheid differentiated institutions by race and there was a binary divide between universities and technikons (polytechnics).
Post-apartheid, differentiation was driven by the funding formula and then by restructuring and mergers from 2000 that slashed the number of institutions from 36 to 23 including 11 research universities, six universities of technology and six 'comprehensive' universities that combine formative and vocational higher education.
But a very different picture emerged from Cloete's 'empirical clustering' analysis of differentiation, which used information from government's Higher Education Management Information System, research publication data and university financial statements for 2008.
The CHET study combined six input and three output variables* and clustered institutions in relation to how they showed up against the variables. The distance University of South Africa was excluded because its huge student numbers and low success rates messed up the statistics, said Cloete.
The object of the study was to investigate universities by purpose, not to rank them. The three clusters of universities that emerged performed vastly different purposes in terms of student intake and success, staff qualifications, research outputs and income, among other things.
In the 'red' cluster were five research-intensive universities - Cape Town, Pretoria, Rhodes, Stellenbosch and the Witwatersrand. They produced the bulk of postgraduates and future academics and had high student success and graduation rates, high proportions of academic staff with PhDs, high research outputs, high income and low staff-student ratios.
In the 'green' cluster were nine universities - Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, North-West, Fort Hare, Limpopo, Western Cape, Johannesburg, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan and Zululand.
This group scored in the middle on the variables and included former research-intensive institutions whose performance in terms of research, success rates, postgraduates and staff qualifications declined following mergers with historically disadvantaged institutions, as well as a three formerly disadvantaged universities and three 'comprehensive' universities.
In the 'blue' cluster were eight institutions including two rural historically disadvantaged universities and six universities of technology. They had relatively lower postgraduate enrolments, success and graduation rates, qualified staff, research outputs and income but high enrolments in science, engineering and technology and high staff-student ratios.
The clusters fulfilled very different but equally important functions, Cloete stressed.
Interestingly, there was a sharper class than race attachment to the three constellations. For example, the five universities in the red cluster - all formerly 'white' - produced 45% of black African and mixed-race PhDs. "If we want to raise the number of black postgraduates and academics, we need to understand which part of the sector is producing them."
Surprising findings were a low negative correlation between staff-student ratios and student success, a low positive correlation between the percentage of academics with doctorates and student success - and a high correlation between lecturer qualifications and masters and doctoral enrolments, and research outputs.
A major implication, said Cloete, was that it was time to move away from a 'one policy fits all' approach to differentiated policy with differentiated funding.
"For example, there is an efficiency question for the blue group because their student success rates are low. The efficiency factor would be to improve student success. For universities with high success rates, the efficiency factor would be to produce more PhDs and more black graduates."
The green group was interesting because with certain policy interventions these universities could move into either the red or the blue group. "But it would be very difficult, unless there was collapse of the whole system, to move from the red to the blue group or visa versa."
South Africa, Cloete concluded, had a three-cluster system different to the current formal classifications and it was important to look at how this fitted into the state's development policy. "The problem is that there is no government policy on regional development."
A shortcoming of the data was the absence of direct quality and development indicators. The government did not have the capacity to collect the full range of information, said Cloete, and he called for a specialised agency to be created to do this work.
Reporting back on the commission Professor Derrick Swartz, Vice-chancellor of Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, said policy ambiguity meant the higher education funding system only partially supported differentiation.
South Africa, he said, had 'strategic' differentiation in which institutions were evolving within and across formal categories in complex and dynamic ways - 'self-differentiation'. "What is missing is a coherent policy framework within which this evolution takes place."
It was important to make progress on differentiation in the interests of institutional self-confidence and stability of planning, and because scarce resources made it necessary to strategically concentrate investment to enhance optimal growth paths for all institutions.
Also, with a new Department of Higher Education and Training and with human resource development planning and reforms underway, there was an opportunity for universities to position themselves within a wider post-school system.
The commission, Swartz said, felt the CHET framework revealed an 'as is' picture but did not explain the legacy of inequality that created the differentiated outcomes. Any prospective differentiated 'model' should transcend rather than reinforce unacceptable institutional and social inequalities. "There was a very passionate argument over this," he said.
The commission felt a differentiation framework should provide some steering but also be sufficiently flexible to allow individual institutional trajectories to be negotiated in a realistic and responsive way, taking into account local and regional dynamics.
Differentiation should not be focused on rankings but on purposes, enabling the system to pursue multiple purposes more effectively and coherently.
Any model of differentiation should enable the sector to enhance student access and success, should be linked to the wider post-secondary system and to human resource development planning, and should not stunt research-intensive institutions while also strengthening under-developed institutions and supporting others to find optimal growth paths.
The commission suggested empirical clustering could offer a basis for comparing institutions within the system and enable deep questions to be asked about underlying correlations and intra-systemic shifts. It offered a heuristic tool to describe the system and to isolate the most fundamental axes of differentiation - but it must be further nuanced to take into account other variables and to identify and define key drives of transition within and across the clusters.
While the empirical clustering model should not be seen as a classification or a planning tool, with further development it could offer starting points to work towards an appropriate framework for higher education differentiation that allowed evolutionary transition across categories and should be linked to adequate funding - especially for under-capitalised institutions - as well to regional and local economic networks.
"Whatever we do, the system must allow portability of students, academics and knowledge across the sector. An academic must be able to have currency," said Swartz. It should also support key transformation goals such as equity of access and success.
"After a stormy start, we made more progress than in the last five years," said Theuns Eloff, Vice-chancellor of North-West University.
"We agreed on the need to fund differentiation. We agreed that differentiation needs to be developmental in character, that probably purpose is the best indicator, that we can't compromise efficiency and quality, and on self-differentiation within a funding framework."
Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande concluded that differentiation should "be driven by a transformation imperative premised by leveling of the playing field" - institutionally by tackling the challenges of formerly black universities, and also by transforming the sociology of higher education spaces, which implied creating inclusive, caring universities.
* The input variables were: percentage of headcount enrolment in science, engineering and technology; masters and doctoral enrolments; student to staff ratios; permanent staff with doctoral degrees; private and government income; and student fee income. The output variables were student success rates, graduation rates and weighted research output units per permanent staff member.
There were many factors in favour of differentiation, he continued. Important for South Africa was that "high student participation and high differentiation go together, and that supports development," said Cloete. "In a high participation system, there should be a large number of different institutions catering for many kinds of students.
Source: University World News
"We need evidence-based rather than ideologically-driven policy-making," CHET director Professor Nico Cloete told the Stakeholder Summit on Higher Education held in Cape Town last month, sparking heated debate in the commission on institutional differentiation. An empiracle set of data had painted a picture of the higher education system as it actually was.
Historically there have been different forms of differentiation in South Africa. Apartheid differentiated institutions by race and there was a binary divide between universities and technikons (polytechnics).
Post-apartheid, differentiation was driven by the funding formula and then by restructuring and mergers from 2000 that slashed the number of institutions from 36 to 23 including 11 research universities, six universities of technology and six 'comprehensive' universities that combine formative and vocational higher education.
But a very different picture emerged from Cloete's 'empirical clustering' analysis of differentiation, which used information from government's Higher Education Management Information System, research publication data and university financial statements for 2008.
The CHET study combined six input and three output variables* and clustered institutions in relation to how they showed up against the variables. The distance University of South Africa was excluded because its huge student numbers and low success rates messed up the statistics, said Cloete.
The object of the study was to investigate universities by purpose, not to rank them. The three clusters of universities that emerged performed vastly different purposes in terms of student intake and success, staff qualifications, research outputs and income, among other things.
In the 'red' cluster were five research-intensive universities - Cape Town, Pretoria, Rhodes, Stellenbosch and the Witwatersrand. They produced the bulk of postgraduates and future academics and had high student success and graduation rates, high proportions of academic staff with PhDs, high research outputs, high income and low staff-student ratios.
In the 'green' cluster were nine universities - Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, North-West, Fort Hare, Limpopo, Western Cape, Johannesburg, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan and Zululand.
This group scored in the middle on the variables and included former research-intensive institutions whose performance in terms of research, success rates, postgraduates and staff qualifications declined following mergers with historically disadvantaged institutions, as well as a three formerly disadvantaged universities and three 'comprehensive' universities.
In the 'blue' cluster were eight institutions including two rural historically disadvantaged universities and six universities of technology. They had relatively lower postgraduate enrolments, success and graduation rates, qualified staff, research outputs and income but high enrolments in science, engineering and technology and high staff-student ratios.
The clusters fulfilled very different but equally important functions, Cloete stressed.
Interestingly, there was a sharper class than race attachment to the three constellations. For example, the five universities in the red cluster - all formerly 'white' - produced 45% of black African and mixed-race PhDs. "If we want to raise the number of black postgraduates and academics, we need to understand which part of the sector is producing them."
Surprising findings were a low negative correlation between staff-student ratios and student success, a low positive correlation between the percentage of academics with doctorates and student success - and a high correlation between lecturer qualifications and masters and doctoral enrolments, and research outputs.
A major implication, said Cloete, was that it was time to move away from a 'one policy fits all' approach to differentiated policy with differentiated funding.
"For example, there is an efficiency question for the blue group because their student success rates are low. The efficiency factor would be to improve student success. For universities with high success rates, the efficiency factor would be to produce more PhDs and more black graduates."
The green group was interesting because with certain policy interventions these universities could move into either the red or the blue group. "But it would be very difficult, unless there was collapse of the whole system, to move from the red to the blue group or visa versa."
South Africa, Cloete concluded, had a three-cluster system different to the current formal classifications and it was important to look at how this fitted into the state's development policy. "The problem is that there is no government policy on regional development."
A shortcoming of the data was the absence of direct quality and development indicators. The government did not have the capacity to collect the full range of information, said Cloete, and he called for a specialised agency to be created to do this work.
Reporting back on the commission Professor Derrick Swartz, Vice-chancellor of Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, said policy ambiguity meant the higher education funding system only partially supported differentiation.
South Africa, he said, had 'strategic' differentiation in which institutions were evolving within and across formal categories in complex and dynamic ways - 'self-differentiation'. "What is missing is a coherent policy framework within which this evolution takes place."
It was important to make progress on differentiation in the interests of institutional self-confidence and stability of planning, and because scarce resources made it necessary to strategically concentrate investment to enhance optimal growth paths for all institutions.
Also, with a new Department of Higher Education and Training and with human resource development planning and reforms underway, there was an opportunity for universities to position themselves within a wider post-school system.
The commission, Swartz said, felt the CHET framework revealed an 'as is' picture but did not explain the legacy of inequality that created the differentiated outcomes. Any prospective differentiated 'model' should transcend rather than reinforce unacceptable institutional and social inequalities. "There was a very passionate argument over this," he said.
The commission felt a differentiation framework should provide some steering but also be sufficiently flexible to allow individual institutional trajectories to be negotiated in a realistic and responsive way, taking into account local and regional dynamics.
Differentiation should not be focused on rankings but on purposes, enabling the system to pursue multiple purposes more effectively and coherently.
Any model of differentiation should enable the sector to enhance student access and success, should be linked to the wider post-secondary system and to human resource development planning, and should not stunt research-intensive institutions while also strengthening under-developed institutions and supporting others to find optimal growth paths.
The commission suggested empirical clustering could offer a basis for comparing institutions within the system and enable deep questions to be asked about underlying correlations and intra-systemic shifts. It offered a heuristic tool to describe the system and to isolate the most fundamental axes of differentiation - but it must be further nuanced to take into account other variables and to identify and define key drives of transition within and across the clusters.
While the empirical clustering model should not be seen as a classification or a planning tool, with further development it could offer starting points to work towards an appropriate framework for higher education differentiation that allowed evolutionary transition across categories and should be linked to adequate funding - especially for under-capitalised institutions - as well to regional and local economic networks.
"Whatever we do, the system must allow portability of students, academics and knowledge across the sector. An academic must be able to have currency," said Swartz. It should also support key transformation goals such as equity of access and success.
"After a stormy start, we made more progress than in the last five years," said Theuns Eloff, Vice-chancellor of North-West University.
"We agreed on the need to fund differentiation. We agreed that differentiation needs to be developmental in character, that probably purpose is the best indicator, that we can't compromise efficiency and quality, and on self-differentiation within a funding framework."
Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande concluded that differentiation should "be driven by a transformation imperative premised by leveling of the playing field" - institutionally by tackling the challenges of formerly black universities, and also by transforming the sociology of higher education spaces, which implied creating inclusive, caring universities.
* The input variables were: percentage of headcount enrolment in science, engineering and technology; masters and doctoral enrolments; student to staff ratios; permanent staff with doctoral degrees; private and government income; and student fee income. The output variables were student success rates, graduation rates and weighted research output units per permanent staff member.
There were many factors in favour of differentiation, he continued. Important for South Africa was that "high student participation and high differentiation go together, and that supports development," said Cloete. "In a high participation system, there should be a large number of different institutions catering for many kinds of students.
Source: University World News
Friday, December 18, 2009
Are you a nationalist or a communist?
That’s what ANC members will need to decide before the 2012 national conference, the battle lines of which are being drawn with much public kicking and screaming. Supporting Deputy Police Minister Fikile Mbalula for the post of party secretary general will show you’re a nationalist. A vote for the present incumbent, Gwede Mantashe, will mean you’re a communist. Or will it? In the debates now raging within the alliance, ideologies don’t really feature. This is a game about playing the man — the ball is practically off the pitch.
Nowhere in the world is the line between communists and nationalists fading faster than it is in the latest skirmish between the ANC and the South African Communist Party (SACP). Mantashe is the chairperson of the SACP but at the same time the darling of the business world. So to call him simply “red” would be a mistake.
ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema, who serves as Mbalula’s proxy, supposedly fights under the nationalist banner, saying President Jacob Zuma must not “surrender” to communists. But Malema introduced the debate on the mines, which he believes should be nationalised. So has Malema become a communist? Enter what Malema likes to call “the yellow communist” — cowardly fakes or the 21st-century version of champagne socialists. These communists say they feel the plight of the people, but they do it while living in mansions in upper-class suburbs with, to paraphrase an old struggle song, “garden boys and kitchen girls” all round.
Malema’s favourite “yellow communist” right now is SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande. True, he’s no stranger to the good life and things only got better with the acquisition of a new R1.2-million BMW. In turn, Nzimande’s favourite “African chauvinist” nationalist is Malema. As for who is the pot and who is the kettle, both share a taste for the finer things in life, including their 4x4s — Nzimande loved his black Jeep Cherokee before he became higher education minister; Malema adores his grape-coloured Range Rover. Both have chauffeurs. Perhaps they would argue that they need their SUVs when visiting the rural masses who elected them in the hopes of a better life.
ANC stalwarts say the “real ANC” operates within a nationalist framework — nationalism implying a common identity and entrenching ideas about “us” (the people) and “them”. In theory the ANC leans towards the left in its belief in nonracialism and popular sovereignty — meaning the party believes it can derive legitimacy only from its popular support. Yet, in effect, the nationalists find the leftwingers a nuisance, believing the communists are using the ANC as their ticket to the spoils of liberation.
Maybe SACP deputy general secretary Jeremy Cronin has the answer. He claims Malema displays communist tendencies to feed the greedy black bourgeoisie. Therefore, Malema is using communist principles to gain access to the same spoils for himself and his friends. Which is exactly the same thing the nationalists fear the communists will do.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Nowhere in the world is the line between communists and nationalists fading faster than it is in the latest skirmish between the ANC and the South African Communist Party (SACP). Mantashe is the chairperson of the SACP but at the same time the darling of the business world. So to call him simply “red” would be a mistake.
ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema, who serves as Mbalula’s proxy, supposedly fights under the nationalist banner, saying President Jacob Zuma must not “surrender” to communists. But Malema introduced the debate on the mines, which he believes should be nationalised. So has Malema become a communist? Enter what Malema likes to call “the yellow communist” — cowardly fakes or the 21st-century version of champagne socialists. These communists say they feel the plight of the people, but they do it while living in mansions in upper-class suburbs with, to paraphrase an old struggle song, “garden boys and kitchen girls” all round.
Malema’s favourite “yellow communist” right now is SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande. True, he’s no stranger to the good life and things only got better with the acquisition of a new R1.2-million BMW. In turn, Nzimande’s favourite “African chauvinist” nationalist is Malema. As for who is the pot and who is the kettle, both share a taste for the finer things in life, including their 4x4s — Nzimande loved his black Jeep Cherokee before he became higher education minister; Malema adores his grape-coloured Range Rover. Both have chauffeurs. Perhaps they would argue that they need their SUVs when visiting the rural masses who elected them in the hopes of a better life.
ANC stalwarts say the “real ANC” operates within a nationalist framework — nationalism implying a common identity and entrenching ideas about “us” (the people) and “them”. In theory the ANC leans towards the left in its belief in nonracialism and popular sovereignty — meaning the party believes it can derive legitimacy only from its popular support. Yet, in effect, the nationalists find the leftwingers a nuisance, believing the communists are using the ANC as their ticket to the spoils of liberation.
Maybe SACP deputy general secretary Jeremy Cronin has the answer. He claims Malema displays communist tendencies to feed the greedy black bourgeoisie. Therefore, Malema is using communist principles to gain access to the same spoils for himself and his friends. Which is exactly the same thing the nationalists fear the communists will do.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Monday, August 24, 2009
Nzimande rejects claim economic cluster is not black enough
South African Communist Party secretary Blade Nzimande has hit back at ANC Youth League president Julius Malema for referring to some cabinet ministers as minorities and claiming they were “not black enough”. Nzimande told a media briefing yesterday that the SACP rejected comments that President Jacob Zuma’s finance cluster was not black enough.
Malema had charged that the Zuma government had seen an increase in the power of minorities (whites, Indians and coloureds) in economic portfolios such as Finance, Trade and Industry, Economic Development, Public Enterprises and National Planning. He said blacks dominated less influential posts in the security cluster, which included the ministries of Defence, Police, Home Affairs and Intelligence. Malema’s charge put the spotlight on Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel, Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies, National Planning Minister Trevor Manuel, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, Public Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan and the newly appointed Reserve Bank governor Gill Marcus.
Nzimande said the SACP central committee, which met at the weekend, “affirmed our party’s full confidence in and support for our comrades in the cabinet, including those in key economic portfolios”. He called on the ruling tripartite alliance, which includes the ANC and Cosatu, to root out “narrow African chauvinism” within their structures. “We are pleased to note the robust defence of the core non- racial principles of our movement by senior ANC leaders, and their forthright rejection of any opportunistic attempt to play an ethnic card. “While ugly white chauvinistic attitudes persist in many places, sometimes brazenly and sometimes subliminally, and should be fought at all times – a counter, narrow Africanist chauvinism simply reproduces and feeds its counterpart. “Such trends must be nipped in the bud as they have been throughout the history of the ANC.”
Last week the Youth League said it “reaffirms its position on the principle of African leadership, particularly on key economic cluster responsibilities”. “We have never said we doubt the capabilities of the incumbent leaders . “The principle we wish to reaffirm amid the misinterpretations is that African leadership should not be compromised when future appointments are made, as that could play into a racist perception that Africans are incapable to perform key economic roles in the government and corporate sector.”
Source: The Sowetan
Malema had charged that the Zuma government had seen an increase in the power of minorities (whites, Indians and coloureds) in economic portfolios such as Finance, Trade and Industry, Economic Development, Public Enterprises and National Planning. He said blacks dominated less influential posts in the security cluster, which included the ministries of Defence, Police, Home Affairs and Intelligence. Malema’s charge put the spotlight on Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel, Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies, National Planning Minister Trevor Manuel, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, Public Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan and the newly appointed Reserve Bank governor Gill Marcus.
Nzimande said the SACP central committee, which met at the weekend, “affirmed our party’s full confidence in and support for our comrades in the cabinet, including those in key economic portfolios”. He called on the ruling tripartite alliance, which includes the ANC and Cosatu, to root out “narrow African chauvinism” within their structures. “We are pleased to note the robust defence of the core non- racial principles of our movement by senior ANC leaders, and their forthright rejection of any opportunistic attempt to play an ethnic card. “While ugly white chauvinistic attitudes persist in many places, sometimes brazenly and sometimes subliminally, and should be fought at all times – a counter, narrow Africanist chauvinism simply reproduces and feeds its counterpart. “Such trends must be nipped in the bud as they have been throughout the history of the ANC.”
Last week the Youth League said it “reaffirms its position on the principle of African leadership, particularly on key economic cluster responsibilities”. “We have never said we doubt the capabilities of the incumbent leaders . “The principle we wish to reaffirm amid the misinterpretations is that African leadership should not be compromised when future appointments are made, as that could play into a racist perception that Africans are incapable to perform key economic roles in the government and corporate sector.”
Source: The Sowetan
Monday, May 25, 2009
YCL: No conflict in Nzimande's dual roles
There is no conflict in Blade Nzimande being both South African Communist Party (SACP) general secretary and higher education minister, the Young Communist League (YCL) said on Monday.
"There wouldn't be any problem with the general secretary of the SACP becoming the minister of higher education," YCL chairperson Buti Manamela said in Johannesburg.
Recently there had been controversy over Nzimande's role as both SACP leader, whose youth league was demanding the removal of Barney Pityana as the vice-chancellor of the University of South Africa (Unisa), and his position as minister of higher education. He had thus far declined to intervene directly in the Unisa matter.
Manamela said the controversy had been "overplayed" in the media.
"Even if the minister of higher education can't join us in that call, at least the general secretary of the SACP can join us." -- Sapa
Source: Mail & Guardian
"There wouldn't be any problem with the general secretary of the SACP becoming the minister of higher education," YCL chairperson Buti Manamela said in Johannesburg.
Recently there had been controversy over Nzimande's role as both SACP leader, whose youth league was demanding the removal of Barney Pityana as the vice-chancellor of the University of South Africa (Unisa), and his position as minister of higher education. He had thus far declined to intervene directly in the Unisa matter.
Manamela said the controversy had been "overplayed" in the media.
"Even if the minister of higher education can't join us in that call, at least the general secretary of the SACP can join us." -- Sapa
Source: Mail & Guardian
Thursday, May 29, 2008
New Cosatu president appointed
The Congress of South African Trade Unions on Wednesday elected S'dumo Dlamini to take over as president after the sacking of its embattled president, Willie Madisha.
This was announced by Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi at a press briefing after the union's three-day central executive committee meeting in Johannesburg. Ousted Cosatu president Madisha, said to be a close ally of President Thabo Mbeki, was axed in February. This was shortly after Jacob Zuma was elected president of the African National Congress in Polokwane in December last year.
Madisha's exit came after Malawian businessman Charles Modise claimed to have made a R500 000 donation to the South African Communist Party (SACP). He said he gave the money, in black plastic bags, to Madisha, who in turn said he handed the cash to SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande. The latter said he never received it. -- Sapa
Source: Mail & Guardian
This was announced by Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi at a press briefing after the union's three-day central executive committee meeting in Johannesburg. Ousted Cosatu president Madisha, said to be a close ally of President Thabo Mbeki, was axed in February. This was shortly after Jacob Zuma was elected president of the African National Congress in Polokwane in December last year.
Madisha's exit came after Malawian businessman Charles Modise claimed to have made a R500 000 donation to the South African Communist Party (SACP). He said he gave the money, in black plastic bags, to Madisha, who in turn said he handed the cash to SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande. The latter said he never received it. -- Sapa
Source: Mail & Guardian
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