As if they haven't done enough damage. Thousands of subprime mortgage lenders and brokers -- many of them the very sorts of firms that helped create the current financial crisis -- are going strong. Their new strategy: taking advantage of a long-standing federal program designed to encourage homeownership by insuring mortgages for buyers of modest means.
You read that correctly. Some of the same people who propelled us toward the housing market calamity are now seeking to profit by exploiting billions in federally insured mortgages. Washington, meanwhile, has vastly expanded the availability of such taxpayer-backed loans as part of the emergency campaign to rescue the country's swooning economy.
For generations, these loans, backed by the Federal Housing Administration, have offered working-class families a legitimate means to purchase their own homes. But now there's a severe danger that aggressive lenders and brokers schooled in the rash ways of the subprime industry will overwhelm the FHA with loans for people unlikely to make their payments. Exacerbating matters, FHA officials seem oblivious to what's happening -- or incapable of stopping it. They're giving mortgage firms licenses to dole out 100-percent-insured loans despite lender records blotted by state sanctions, bankruptcy filings, civil lawsuits, and even criminal convictions.
More Bad Debt
As a result, the nation could soon suffer a fresh wave of defaults and foreclosures, with Washington obliged to respond with yet another gargantuan bailout. Inside Mortgage Finance, a research and newsletter firm in Bethesda, Md., estimates that over the next five years fresh loans backed by the FHA that go sour will cost taxpayers $100 billion or more. That's on top of the $700 billion financial-system rescue Congress has already approved. Gary E. Lacefield, a former federal mortgage investigator who now runs Risk Mitigation Group, a consultancy in Arlington, Tex., predicts: "Within the next 12 to 18 months, there is going to be FHA-insurance Armageddon."
The resilient entrepreneurs who populate this dubious field are often obscure, but not puny. Jerry Cugno started Premier Mortgage Funding in Clearwater, on the Gulf Coast of Florida, in 2002. Over the next four years, it became one of the country's largest subprime lenders, with 750 branches and 5,000 brokers across the U.S. Cugno, now 59, took home millions of dollars and rewarded top salesmen with Caribbean cruises and shiny Hummers, according to court records and interviews with former employees. But along the way, Premier accumulated a dismal regulatory record. Five states -- Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, and Wisconsin -- revoked its license for various abuses; four others disciplined the company for using unlicensed brokers or similar violations. The crash of the subprime market and a barrage of lawsuits prompted Premier to file for U.S. bankruptcy court protection in Tampa in July 2007. Then, in March, a Premier unit in Cleveland and its manager pleaded guilty to felony charges related to fraudulent mortgage schemes.
But Premier didn't just close down. Since it declared bankruptcy, federal records show, it has issued more than 2,000 taxpayer-insured mortgages -- worth a total of $250 million. According to the FHA, Premier failed to notify the agency of its Chapter 11 filing, as required by law. In late October, an FHA spokesman admitted it was unaware of Premier's situation and welcomed any information BusinessWeek could provide.
You'd think the government would have had Premier on a watch list. According to data compiled by the FHA's parent, the U.S. Housing & Urban Development Dept. (HUD), the firm's borrowers have a 9.2 percent default rate, the second highest among large-volume FHA lenders nationally.
Now, members of the Cugno family have started a brand new company called Paramount Mortgage Funding. It operates a floor below Premier's headquarters in a three-story black-glass office building Jerry Cugno owns in Clearwater. In August 2007, only weeks after Premier sought bankruptcy court protection, the FHA granted Paramount a license to issue government-backed mortgages. "I am the only person in the country who really understands FHA," Cugno says with characteristic bravado.
One day recently, Nicole Cugno, his 27-year-old daughter and a Paramount vice-president, was on the phone at her desk, giving advice to new branch managers. Despite past troubles with Premier, the family says Paramount dutifully serves borrowers. The Cugnos stress that the two companies are legally separate organizations.
Similarly worrisome stories are playing out around the country. In Tucson, First Magnus Financial specialized in risky "Alt-A" mortgages, which didn't require borrowers to verify their income. State and federal regulators cited the company for misleading borrowers, using unlicensed brokers, and other infractions. It shut down last summer and laid off its 5,500 employees. But in May, the FHA issued a group of former First Magnus executives a new license to make taxpayer-insured home loans. They have opened a company called StoneWater Mortgage in the same office building that First Magnus had occupied.
G. Todd Jackson, an attorney for StoneWater, said in a written statement that the new company "is not First Magnus." StoneWater employs "a new business model, with different loan products, in a different market," he added. First Magnus had "a long record of compliance," he said. "Isolated incidents and personnel problems occurred, but none were remotely systemic, and all were promptly addressed and corrected by management when discovered."
Back to Life
Nationstar Mortgage, based in suburban Dallas, closed its 75 retail branches in September 2007 after the subprime market crashed. But in August, Chief Information Officer Peter Schwartz told the trade paper American Banker that Nationstar now plans to emphasize FHA-backed loans, which he called a "high-growth channel." The lender received federal approval in March to offer government-guaranteed loans. Just a year earlier, it agreed to pay the Kentucky Financial Institutions Dept. a $105,000 settlement -- one of the largest of its kind in that state -- to resolve allegations that Nationstar employed unlicensed loan officers and falsified borrowers' credit scores. Nationstar didn't admit wrongdoing in the case.
"All loans we originate conform to industry best practices, as well as all applicable federal and state laws," says Executive Vice-President Steven Hess. The settlement in Kentucky, he adds, isn't "relevant to our FHA status."
Lend America in Melville, N.Y., uses cable television infomercials and a toll-free number (1-800-FHA-FIXED) to encourage borrowers in trouble with adjustable-rate mortgages to refinance with fixed-rate loans guaranteed by the FHA. Anticipating the real estate crash, the Long Island firm switched its strategy in 2005 from subprime to FHA-backed mortgages, says Michael Ashley, Lend America's chief business strategist. This year, the company will make 7,500 FHA loans, worth $1.5 billion, he says. "FHA is a big part of the future," Ashley adds. "It's the major vehicle for the government to bail out the housing industry."
But why the federal government would want to do business with Lend America is perplexing. Ashley has a long history of legal scrapes. One of them led to his pleading guilty in 1996 in federal court in Uniondale, N.Y., to two counts of wire fraud related to a mortgage scam at another company his family ran called Liberty Mortgage. He was sentenced to five years' probation and ordered to pay a $30,000 fine. His father, Kenneth Ashley, was sentenced to nearly four years in prison. "I was just a pawn in a chess game between my father and the government," says the younger Ashley, who is 43. "It doesn't affect my ability to do lending." The default rate on Lend America's current FHA loans is 5.7 percent, or 53 percent above the national average, according to government records.
Asked about FHA oversight of former subprime firms, agency spokesman Lemar Wooley says: "FHA has taken appropriate actions, where necessary, with these lenders with respect to their participation in FHA programs." First Magnus, Nationstar, and Lend America met all applicable federal rules, Wooley says. But on two occasions since 2000 one office of Lend America in New York temporarily lost its authority to originate FHA-backed loans because of an excessive default rate, he says. Wooley says the FHA wasn't aware that Lend America's Ashley had been convicted. The firm didn't list Ashley as a principal, Wooley says. FHA lenders are required to disclose past regulatory sanctions and are forbidden to employ people with criminal records.
Founded during the New Deal, the FHA is supposed to promote first-time home purchases. Open to all applicants, it allows small down payments -- as little as 3 percent -- and lenient standards on borrower income, as long as mortgage and related expenses don't exceed 31% of household earnings. In exchange for taxpayer-backed insurance on attractively priced fixed-rate loans, buyers pay a modest fee. Lenders and brokers can get a license to participate in FHA programs if they demonstrate industry experience and knowledge of agency rules.
During the subprime boom, the FHA atrophied as borrowers migrated to the too-good-to-be-true deals that featured terms such as extremely low introductory interest rates that later jumped skyward. But since the subprime market vaporized in 2007, FHA-backed loans have become all that's available for many borrowers. By fall 2008, FHA loans accounted for 26 percent of all new mortgages being issued nationwide, up from only 4 percent a year earlier. As of Sept. 30, the most recent date for which data are publicly available, the FHA had 4.4 million single-family mortgages under guarantee, worth a total of $475 billion.
A Swelling "Tsunami"
Congress and the Bush Administration are strongly encouraging lenders to apply for FHA approval and tap into the government's loan-guarantee reservoir. In September, the agency guaranteed 140,000 new loans, up from 60,000 in January. In October, as Congress and the White House scrambled to respond to the spreading financial disaster, the FHA began to extend $300 billion in additional loan guarantees under the banner of a new program called HOPE for Homeowners. The limit on the amount buyers may borrow will rise in January to $625,000 from $362,790 in 2007.
Some current and former federal housing officials say the agency isn't anywhere close to being equipped to deal with the onslaught of lenders seeking to cash in. Thirty-six thousand lenders now have FHA licenses, up from 16,000 in mid-2007. FHA "faces a tsunami" in the form of ex-subprime lenders who favor aggressive sales tactics and sometimes engage in outright fraud, says Kenneth M. Donohue Sr., the inspector general for HUD. "I am very concerned that the same players who brought us problems in the subprime area are now reconstituting themselves and bringing loans into the FHA portfolio," he adds.
FHA staffing has remained roughly level over the past five years, at just under 1,000 employees, even as that tsunami has been building, Donohue points out. The FHA unit that approves new lenders, recertifies existing ones, and oversees quality assurance has only five slots; two of those were vacant this fall, according to HUD's Web site. Former housing officials say lender evaluations sometimes amount to little more than a brief phone call, which helps explain why questionable ex-subprime operations can reinvent themselves and gain approval. "They are absolutely understaffed," says Donohue, "and they need a much better IT system in place. That is one of their great vulnerabilities."
Low Income? No Problem
Joseph McCloskey, a former director of FHA's single-family asset management branch, says workers reviewing lender applications have had difficulty for years tracking whether executives of previously disciplined mortgage firms were applying for new FHA licenses. "Technologically, they are challenged," McCloskey, now a consultant to FHA lenders, says of his overmatched former colleagues.
The FHA's Wooley disputes these criticisms. The agency can cross-check names and thoroughly examine lender applications, he says.
Foreclosures have spiked in the wake of the subprime crisis, leading to a number of businesses, like this one in Rio Vista, CA, having to close.
AFP
Foreclosures have spiked in the wake of the subprime crisis, leading to a number of businesses, like this one in Rio Vista, CA, having to close.
Like Flies to Honey
There are numerous law-abiding FHA lenders and brokers, just as there are subprime mortgage firms that behaved honestly and cautiously in recent years. But the current economic crisis has turned the FHA into a profit magnet for all kinds of financial players. Major Wall Street investment firms are finding their own angles, which are entirely legal.
In April 2007, Goldman Sachs purchased a controlling stake in Senderra Funding, a former subprime lender in Fort Mill, S.C. Goldman, which has received $10 billion in direct federal rescue money, converted Senderra into an FHA lender and refinance organization. The strategy appears likely to produce hefty margins. In September, Goldman paid 63¢ on the dollar in a $760 million deal with Equity One, a unit of Banco Popular, for a batch of subprime mortgage and auto loans. Through Senderra, Goldman plans to refinance at least some of the mortgages into FHA-backed loans. Because of the government guarantee, it can then sell those loans to other financial firms for as much as 90¢ on the dollar, according to people familiar with the mortgage market. That's a profit margin of more than 40 percent.
Goldman's dealings suggest another reason FHA-insured lending is booming: The federal guarantee creates an incentive for banks to buy FHA loans and bundle them as securities to be sold to investors. This is happening as the securitization of subprime and conventional mortgages has largely ceased.
Operating far from Wall Street, the Cugno clan of Clearwater exemplifies a certain indefatigable American spirit in the face of economic setbacks. Whether that enterprising drive is always something to celebrate is less clear.
The Cugnos concede that their older mortgage firm, Premier, had its flaws. "My dad's company got too big," says Nicole Cugno. "It was too hard to control." At its peak in 2006, Premier originated $1 billion in loans each month and had annual revenue of more than $200 million. It sold what amounted to franchises to brokers around the country who frequently operated with little supervision from the 200-employee home office. "Everybody had a few bad apples, and I had a few of them," Nicole's father, Jerry, says. "If they got in trouble, we fired them."
Mark Pearce, deputy commissioner of banks in North Carolina, one of the five states that banned Premier, counters that the company seems to have invited abuses. North Carolina investigators concluded that Premier's branch in Charlotte allowed, among other deceptive practices, unlicensed brokers from around the country to "park" loans there for a fee. The aim was to make it appear that the mortgages were associated with a licensed broker trained and supervised by a substantial firm. "This is a company that should not be doing business in North Carolina," Pearce says.
But the Cugnos are very much staying in business. While Premier's bankruptcy proceedings continue in Tampa, members of the family are employing essentially the same model with their new company, Paramount. Only this time they are stressing federally guaranteed FHA loans. Paramount charges branches $1,625 a month to use its name, FHA license, and software. On its Web site, it tells brokers that FHA loans are "the new subprime."
"We're taking some of the things Premier did and tweaking [them]," says Barry McNab, a former Premier executive who now heads FHA lending for Paramount. About 9 out of 10 Paramount loans have FHA backing, he explains. It's difficult to evaluate most of those guaranteed loans, since they are so new. But a look at the experiences of some past Premier borrowers isn't encouraging.
U.S. District Judge Richard Alan Enslen in Kalamazoo, Mich., began a June 2007 written opinion about Premier's practices with this observation: "The crooks in prison-wear (orange jump suits) are easy to spot. Those in business-wear are not, though they do no less harm to their unsuspecting victims."
The case before Judge Enslen concerned Marcia Clifford, 53. She won a civil verdict that Premier had violated federal mortgage law when it replaced the fixed-rate loan it had promised her with one bearing an adjustable rate. Enslen also found that Premier had misrepresented Clifford on her application as employed when she was out of work and living on $700 a month in disability payments. Despite his ire, the judge decided to award Clifford, who did sign the deceptive documents, only $3,720 in damages, an amount based on unauthorized fees Premier had pocketed.
Clifford's name now appears along with a lengthy list of Premier's other creditors in the bankruptcy court in Tampa. Unable to make her $600 monthly mortgage payment, she received an eviction notice in June and says she is likely to lose her three-bedroom house in Belding, Mich. "It was a bait and switch," Clifford says, sobbing. "The folks at Premier are coldhearted."
Janice Dixon is also owed money by Premier. In March 2006 an Alabama jury awarded her $127,000 in damages related to a fraudulent refinancing in which, she alleged, the company didn't disclose the full costs of her borrowing. "Who will fix this?" Dixon, 49, asks. "They will continue to do these same things over and over."
Wooley, the FHA spokesman, says the agency noticed Premier's default rate rising earlier this year. But he adds that both Premier and Paramount met FHA requirements.
Low Income? No Problem
Like the Cugnos, Hector J. Hernandez lately has shifted his mortgage business away from subprime and toward FHA loans. The Coral Gables (Fla.) lender has a different twist on the business: He uses FHA-backed loans to help hard-pressed borrowers buy condominiums in buildings he owns.
Sascha Pierson was an unlikely borrower. She had no employment income when she bought a three-bedroom condo in Palmetto Towers, a Hernandez property in Miami, in July 2007 for $318,000. She borrowed almost the entire purchase price from Great Country Mortgage Bankers, Hernandez's loan company. Pierson, 29, says she is pursuing a psychology degree online from Kaplan University. She lives on a $42,000 annual educational grant from the government of the Cayman Islands, where she is a citizen. But the grant ends this year, and even with two roommates, she doesn't know how she's going to pay the $2,600 monthly bill for her mortgage and condo fee. "I am seriously worried about defaulting on my loan," she says.
Less extreme versions of Pierson's situation seem common at Palmetto Towers, a pair of eight-story stucco buildings Hernandez acquired in 1996. BusinessWeek interviewed eight condo owners at the complex, all of whom had obtained FHA-backed loans from Great Country. All eight, including Pierson, say they agreed to terms that required them to make mortgage and condo-fee payments that total considerably more than the FHA's guideline of 31 percent of their monthly income. Four of the eight owners say they received cash payments at closing of $10,000 or more as incentives to buy. The payments, which the FHA says are prohibited, were included in the loans. Pierson says she received $19,500. "They called it a 'cash-back opportunity,'" she explains.
Her neighbor, Lorena Merlo, 27, received a Great Country check for $14,640 at the closing in April on her $316,375 three-bedroom unit. Merlo, a part-time legal assistant, and her husband, Renny Rivas, a drywall laborer, earn a total of $52,000 a year and have two young sons. Their monthly home payments amount to 58% of their gross income, way over the FHA limit. "We are four months behind on our mortgage," says a mournful Merlo.
Defaults and Denials
Of the 158 units in Palmetto Towers, 66 are in foreclosure, records show. An additional 33 are unsold. Great Country has originated 1,855 FHA mortgages since November 2006; 923 of those were in default proceedings as of Oct. 31. The firm's 50 percent default rate is the highest in the entire FHA program.
Hernandez blames the high failure rate on the disastrous South Florida real estate market, not Great Country's practices, which he says are all legitimate. Asked in a phone interview whether he encourages buyers to purchase condos they can't afford, paying them questionable cash incentives, he says flatly, "That is not true." He adds: "(The buyers) are lying. They are disappointed by falling prices."
In October, however, the FHA decided it had seen enough. It ended Great Country's guaranteed-lending privileges in the Miami and Orlando markets where it had been active. Borrowers on nearly half of the company's defaulted loans made payments for only three months or less; 105 borrowers never made any payments at all. Brian Sullivan, another FHA spokesman, says the agency has referred the case to its inspector general's office. In response to BusinessWeek's questions, the Florida Financial Services Dept. has started a separate investigation, a person close to the state agency says.
But don't assume that Hernandez is through with FHA-guaranteed loans. At the Palmetto Towers sales office, Alexis Curbelo, a loan officer for Great Country, explains in an interview that buyers can now obtain FHA loans through Ikon Mortgage Lenders in Fort Lauderdale. Public records show Ikon closed a Palmetto Towers FHA loan in September for $222,957. Edgard Detrinidad, Ikon's president and a former business associate of Hernandez, denies he is financing any other loans for Hernandez's buyers.
Source: SPIEGEL
Thursday, November 20, 2008
SECURITY OF TENURE: DEFINITION OF ‘OCCUPIER’ AND CALCULATION OF THRESHOLD INCOME
Halle & another v Downs (LCC78R/2007) [2008] ZALCC 15 (20 November 2008)
This judgment deals with the scenario where an elderly couple had breached the terms of their lease agreement. When the property owner applied for their eviction, they relied on the provisions of the Extension of Security of Tenure Act 67, 1997 (‘ESTA’) and alleged that they were ‘occupiers’ for purposes of this Act and that they should therefore be provided the benefits of ‘security of tenure’ as contained therein. On the facts, the court found that they were not ‘occupiers’ as defined in the Act, that their continued occupation of the land constituted unlawful occupation as defined in the Prevention Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act 19, 1998 (‘PIE) and that they should therefore be evicted from the property in terms of the latter Act.
The judgment is an interesting example of the application and interaction between the ESTA and PIE Acts and is a worthwhile read for practitioners specialising in the application of these acts.
The judgment can be viewed here.
Facts:
Mr and Mrs Halle, both over 60 years old, were married out of community property. Mrs Halle purchased a farm in [1983] and they have lived on the farm [since 1966]. Due to financial difficulties [1], Mrs Halle sold the farm to Downs in 1994. The agreement included the provision that Mr & Mrs Halle could remain in residence on the farm and would for a period of 5 years have the right to buy back the farm at the same price that Downs had paid for it. Subsequently Mr Halle and Downs entered into a lease agreement in respect of a portion of the farm. At some stage Mr Halle fell into arrears with the lease and subsequently also refused to re-negotiate the terms of the lease with Downs.
Downs accordingly applied to Court for an order evicting Mrs & Mrs Halle from the premises. Their defence was that they are long-term occupiers, over the age of 60 and had resided on the farm for longer than 10 years - and that they accordingly are protected in terms of the Extension of Security of Tenure Act 67, 1997 (‘ESTA’).
The Magistrate’s Court found that they did not fall within the definition of ‘long-term occupiers’ as provided for in ESTA and granted the eviction order in terms of ESTA. Mr & Mrs Halle then appealed to the Land Claims Court.
Held:
ESTA defines an occupier as a person residing on land that belongs to another and who had consent to so reside on 04/02/1997 or thereafter, but excluding a person who uses the land mainly for industrial, mining or commercial farming and excluding a person who has an income in excess of R 5000 a month.
In this matter however the Court agreed with the Magistrate's Court finding that Mr and Mrs Halle did not fall within the definition of an 'occupier'. In the first place, with regard to the position of Mrs Halle, the Court found that she was not an ‘occupier’ in her own right since it was her husband who had concluded the lease agreement with Downs; Mr Halle was the ‘occupier’.
Secondly, with regard to the income requirement in the definition of ‘occupant’ the Court held that in order to avoid absurdities the income referred to in the definition should be interpreted as the income accruing to spouses jointly. To hold otherwise would result in the situation that spouses can claim the protection of ESTA in circumstances where one spouse has the required consent to occupy property but receives a minimal income, while the other (who may not be an occupier in his own right) is wealthy and earns a substantial income.
Furthermore, in order to qualify as an occupier, the spouses must have had a joint income of less than R 5000[2] for a full period of at least 10 years.
On the facts is was apparent that at least for certain periods Mr and Mrs Halle earned an income in excess of R 5000 per month which they earned from running business activities from the farm.
However, the Court noted that even if it was found that Mr and Mrs Halle were ‘occupiers’ for purposes of ESTA, the action would still not succeed because they had committed breaches as contemplated in section 10 of ESTA. The section reads as follows:
“10
(1) An order for the eviction of a person who was an occupier on 4 February 1997 may be granted if -
(a) the occupier has breached section 6(3) and the court is satisfied that the breach is material and that the occupier has not remedied such breach;
(b) the owner or person in charge has complied with the terms of any agreement pertaining to the occupier’s right to reside on the land and has fulfilled his or her duties in terms of the law, while the occupier has breached a material and fair term of the agreement, although reasonably able to comply with such term, and has not remedied the breach despite being given one calendar month’s notice in writing to do so;
(c) the occupier has committed such a fundamental breach of the relationship between him or her and the owner or person in charge, that it is not practically possible to remedy it, either at all or in a manner which could reasonably restore the relationship; or …”
On the [available] evidence, Mr Halle breached the terms of the lease agreement by refusing to tender payment in terms of the lease agreement. He thereafter also refused to enter into consultations with Downs to re-negotiate a lease agreement and has thereby breached the relationship with the property owner.
Taking the above into account the Court held that the Halle pair could not avail themselves of any of the protection afforded under ESTA.
How should they then be dealt with? The Court held that in the circumstances Mr and Mrs Halle are ‘unlawful occupiers’ for purposes of the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act 19,1998 (‘PIE’). Since Downs had complied with the necessary notification procedures as laid down in PIE, the Court was at liberty to grant an eviction order. It was also shown that Mr & Mrs Halle were not destitute in that their children were willing to and in a position to accommodate them.
The order was accordingly granted and Mr and Mrs Halle were evicted from the farm.
Moral of the story: It is important to be aware that for purposes of the definition of 'occupier' in ESTA, the joint income of the spouses are used as a guideline. Moreover, applying for protection in terms of ESTA requires fair play on the side of the occupier. In terms of section 10 of ESTA the occupier is obliged to maintain bona fides in his or her dealings with the property owner failing which he or she may forfeit the protection that the Act can provide.
Source: gqwetha Training Academy
[1] The court did not inquire as to the nature of the financial difficulty
[2] This threshold has not been amended since the inception of ESTA, despite cost of living increases
This judgment deals with the scenario where an elderly couple had breached the terms of their lease agreement. When the property owner applied for their eviction, they relied on the provisions of the Extension of Security of Tenure Act 67, 1997 (‘ESTA’) and alleged that they were ‘occupiers’ for purposes of this Act and that they should therefore be provided the benefits of ‘security of tenure’ as contained therein. On the facts, the court found that they were not ‘occupiers’ as defined in the Act, that their continued occupation of the land constituted unlawful occupation as defined in the Prevention Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act 19, 1998 (‘PIE) and that they should therefore be evicted from the property in terms of the latter Act.
The judgment is an interesting example of the application and interaction between the ESTA and PIE Acts and is a worthwhile read for practitioners specialising in the application of these acts.
The judgment can be viewed here.
Facts:
Mr and Mrs Halle, both over 60 years old, were married out of community property. Mrs Halle purchased a farm in [1983] and they have lived on the farm [since 1966]. Due to financial difficulties [1], Mrs Halle sold the farm to Downs in 1994. The agreement included the provision that Mr & Mrs Halle could remain in residence on the farm and would for a period of 5 years have the right to buy back the farm at the same price that Downs had paid for it. Subsequently Mr Halle and Downs entered into a lease agreement in respect of a portion of the farm. At some stage Mr Halle fell into arrears with the lease and subsequently also refused to re-negotiate the terms of the lease with Downs.
Downs accordingly applied to Court for an order evicting Mrs & Mrs Halle from the premises. Their defence was that they are long-term occupiers, over the age of 60 and had resided on the farm for longer than 10 years - and that they accordingly are protected in terms of the Extension of Security of Tenure Act 67, 1997 (‘ESTA’).
The Magistrate’s Court found that they did not fall within the definition of ‘long-term occupiers’ as provided for in ESTA and granted the eviction order in terms of ESTA. Mr & Mrs Halle then appealed to the Land Claims Court.
Held:
ESTA defines an occupier as a person residing on land that belongs to another and who had consent to so reside on 04/02/1997 or thereafter, but excluding a person who uses the land mainly for industrial, mining or commercial farming and excluding a person who has an income in excess of R 5000 a month.
In this matter however the Court agreed with the Magistrate's Court finding that Mr and Mrs Halle did not fall within the definition of an 'occupier'. In the first place, with regard to the position of Mrs Halle, the Court found that she was not an ‘occupier’ in her own right since it was her husband who had concluded the lease agreement with Downs; Mr Halle was the ‘occupier’.
Secondly, with regard to the income requirement in the definition of ‘occupant’ the Court held that in order to avoid absurdities the income referred to in the definition should be interpreted as the income accruing to spouses jointly. To hold otherwise would result in the situation that spouses can claim the protection of ESTA in circumstances where one spouse has the required consent to occupy property but receives a minimal income, while the other (who may not be an occupier in his own right) is wealthy and earns a substantial income.
Furthermore, in order to qualify as an occupier, the spouses must have had a joint income of less than R 5000[2] for a full period of at least 10 years.
On the facts is was apparent that at least for certain periods Mr and Mrs Halle earned an income in excess of R 5000 per month which they earned from running business activities from the farm.
However, the Court noted that even if it was found that Mr and Mrs Halle were ‘occupiers’ for purposes of ESTA, the action would still not succeed because they had committed breaches as contemplated in section 10 of ESTA. The section reads as follows:
“10
(1) An order for the eviction of a person who was an occupier on 4 February 1997 may be granted if -
(a) the occupier has breached section 6(3) and the court is satisfied that the breach is material and that the occupier has not remedied such breach;
(b) the owner or person in charge has complied with the terms of any agreement pertaining to the occupier’s right to reside on the land and has fulfilled his or her duties in terms of the law, while the occupier has breached a material and fair term of the agreement, although reasonably able to comply with such term, and has not remedied the breach despite being given one calendar month’s notice in writing to do so;
(c) the occupier has committed such a fundamental breach of the relationship between him or her and the owner or person in charge, that it is not practically possible to remedy it, either at all or in a manner which could reasonably restore the relationship; or …”
On the [available] evidence, Mr Halle breached the terms of the lease agreement by refusing to tender payment in terms of the lease agreement. He thereafter also refused to enter into consultations with Downs to re-negotiate a lease agreement and has thereby breached the relationship with the property owner.
Taking the above into account the Court held that the Halle pair could not avail themselves of any of the protection afforded under ESTA.
How should they then be dealt with? The Court held that in the circumstances Mr and Mrs Halle are ‘unlawful occupiers’ for purposes of the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act 19,1998 (‘PIE’). Since Downs had complied with the necessary notification procedures as laid down in PIE, the Court was at liberty to grant an eviction order. It was also shown that Mr & Mrs Halle were not destitute in that their children were willing to and in a position to accommodate them.
The order was accordingly granted and Mr and Mrs Halle were evicted from the farm.
Moral of the story: It is important to be aware that for purposes of the definition of 'occupier' in ESTA, the joint income of the spouses are used as a guideline. Moreover, applying for protection in terms of ESTA requires fair play on the side of the occupier. In terms of section 10 of ESTA the occupier is obliged to maintain bona fides in his or her dealings with the property owner failing which he or she may forfeit the protection that the Act can provide.
Source: gqwetha Training Academy
[1] The court did not inquire as to the nature of the financial difficulty
[2] This threshold has not been amended since the inception of ESTA, despite cost of living increases
Friday, November 14, 2008
Hit squad whistleblower still in jail
The man who exposed the apartheid security force hit squads is trying to get out of jail - but Minister of Correctional Services Ngconde Balfour is ignoring him. Butana Almond Nofemela is in Pretoria Central Prison and has spent 21 years behind bars for a non-politically related murder. His request for parole was approved months ago and the documents were sent to Balfour, as legally required, in March.
Balfour has still not made a decision, Nofemela said in papers filed with the Pretoria High Court, citing the minister. Correctional Services is opposing Nofemela's application, although the court action is a demand for a decision from Balfour, not for parole." The department will defend the case although we have thus far received only a letter of demand," said Correctional Services Ministry spokesperson Manelisi Wolela. He did not respond to requests for further comment. Nofemela has been trying to secure parole for a year. "During November 2007 I was seen by the case management committee of the Pretoria Local Prison, who recommended my placement on parole," Nofemela said in an affidavit supporting his application. The request was then approved by the parole board, then forwarded to the National Council for Correctional Services which is headed by Judge Siraj Desai. The council's recommendation to grant parole was forwarded to Balfour in March, but Balfour had "failed, neglected and/or refused to consider" it, said Nofemela.
Nofemela's lawyer, Julian Knight, wrote to Balfour's office asking for a decision but received no response. Knight said it was "completely unacceptable" that the minister would neglect since March to make a decision, not just for Nofemela but for an unknown number of other parole applicants. "It displays callous disregard for the constitutional rights of prisoners," he said.
Judge Desai confirmed having dealt with Nofemela's case, but would not say what the decision was. It's not known how many other prisoners serving life sentences are also still waiting for decisions by the minister. It's understood that usually the parole board makes the decision, which is then endorsed by the minister. Judge Desai said his 20-member council had met three times this year and dealt with "30 or 40 cases". Another 20 are due to be discussed next month. Once the cases are referred to the minister, the council doesn't see them again as the minister refers his decisions to the department to implement. Judge Desai said there was an increase in parole applications by life-sentence prisoners because the death penalty was abolished about 20 years ago.
Democratic Alliance MP and party spokesperson on correctional services James Selfe said that in terms of the law, an inmate sentenced to life imprisonment could not get parole until he had served at least 25 years, or 15 years if he was over 65 years old. However, he said the act had been amended, which could affect Nofemela's case, or he could have qualified for "special or meritorious remission of sentence. Decisions about releasing inmates on parole should be taken by independent parole boards (or, in serious offenders' cases, by the Parole Review Board) after they have satisfied themselves that the inmate has corrected his behaviour and is rehabilitated," said Selfe. "Such decisions should not be made by any politician, particularly one as inefficient as Ngconde Balfour."
Nofemela was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in September 1987 for the murder of farmer Johannes Hendrik Lourens at Skeerpoort near Brits in September 1986.
In 1989, the night before he was due to be executed, Nofemela got an urgent application to stay the execution when he confessed to being an askari - a turned guerrilla working for the police - involved in a security police hit squad which operated from Vlakplaas near Pretoria. This was the first confirmation of a security force hit squad, and Nofemela's execution was put on hold while his claims were investigated.
Nofemela's story was supported by his former Vlakplaas police commander Captain Dirk Coetzee and fellow askari David Tshikalanga. Their story was also told to the Harms Commission of inquiry into hit squads, which ultimately did not confirm that there were any hit squads. In September 1994 Nofemela's death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment but he remained in jail due to his conviction for Lourens' murder, as this was not politically related but a robbery. Nofemela and Coetzee were later granted amnesty for killing human rights lawyer Griffiths Mxenge in Durban in November 1981. Nofemela was refused amnesty for Lourens' killing.
Last month Clive Derby-Lewis, jailed for killing SACP leader Chris Hani in 1993, brought an application in the Pretoria High Court to demand parole. The matter has been postponed. Derby-Lewis, 72, has been in jail for 15 years and is eligible to apply for parole because of his age.
Source: IoL
Balfour has still not made a decision, Nofemela said in papers filed with the Pretoria High Court, citing the minister. Correctional Services is opposing Nofemela's application, although the court action is a demand for a decision from Balfour, not for parole." The department will defend the case although we have thus far received only a letter of demand," said Correctional Services Ministry spokesperson Manelisi Wolela. He did not respond to requests for further comment. Nofemela has been trying to secure parole for a year. "During November 2007 I was seen by the case management committee of the Pretoria Local Prison, who recommended my placement on parole," Nofemela said in an affidavit supporting his application. The request was then approved by the parole board, then forwarded to the National Council for Correctional Services which is headed by Judge Siraj Desai. The council's recommendation to grant parole was forwarded to Balfour in March, but Balfour had "failed, neglected and/or refused to consider" it, said Nofemela.
Nofemela's lawyer, Julian Knight, wrote to Balfour's office asking for a decision but received no response. Knight said it was "completely unacceptable" that the minister would neglect since March to make a decision, not just for Nofemela but for an unknown number of other parole applicants. "It displays callous disregard for the constitutional rights of prisoners," he said.
Judge Desai confirmed having dealt with Nofemela's case, but would not say what the decision was. It's not known how many other prisoners serving life sentences are also still waiting for decisions by the minister. It's understood that usually the parole board makes the decision, which is then endorsed by the minister. Judge Desai said his 20-member council had met three times this year and dealt with "30 or 40 cases". Another 20 are due to be discussed next month. Once the cases are referred to the minister, the council doesn't see them again as the minister refers his decisions to the department to implement. Judge Desai said there was an increase in parole applications by life-sentence prisoners because the death penalty was abolished about 20 years ago.
Democratic Alliance MP and party spokesperson on correctional services James Selfe said that in terms of the law, an inmate sentenced to life imprisonment could not get parole until he had served at least 25 years, or 15 years if he was over 65 years old. However, he said the act had been amended, which could affect Nofemela's case, or he could have qualified for "special or meritorious remission of sentence. Decisions about releasing inmates on parole should be taken by independent parole boards (or, in serious offenders' cases, by the Parole Review Board) after they have satisfied themselves that the inmate has corrected his behaviour and is rehabilitated," said Selfe. "Such decisions should not be made by any politician, particularly one as inefficient as Ngconde Balfour."
Nofemela was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in September 1987 for the murder of farmer Johannes Hendrik Lourens at Skeerpoort near Brits in September 1986.
In 1989, the night before he was due to be executed, Nofemela got an urgent application to stay the execution when he confessed to being an askari - a turned guerrilla working for the police - involved in a security police hit squad which operated from Vlakplaas near Pretoria. This was the first confirmation of a security force hit squad, and Nofemela's execution was put on hold while his claims were investigated.
Nofemela's story was supported by his former Vlakplaas police commander Captain Dirk Coetzee and fellow askari David Tshikalanga. Their story was also told to the Harms Commission of inquiry into hit squads, which ultimately did not confirm that there were any hit squads. In September 1994 Nofemela's death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment but he remained in jail due to his conviction for Lourens' murder, as this was not politically related but a robbery. Nofemela and Coetzee were later granted amnesty for killing human rights lawyer Griffiths Mxenge in Durban in November 1981. Nofemela was refused amnesty for Lourens' killing.
Last month Clive Derby-Lewis, jailed for killing SACP leader Chris Hani in 1993, brought an application in the Pretoria High Court to demand parole. The matter has been postponed. Derby-Lewis, 72, has been in jail for 15 years and is eligible to apply for parole because of his age.
Source: IoL
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Vodafone takes control of Vodacom
Vodafone, the world's biggest mobile phone group by revenue, will take control of South Africa's largest, Vodacom Group, after announcing on Thursday it had agreed to buy a further 15% stake for R22,5-billion. The British firm said it will buy the stake from fixed-line group Telkom to add to its existing 50% stake, as it pushes further into emerging economies.
Telkom and Vodafone had been in talks since June over the group which has strong market positions in South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Mozambique and Tanzania. Shares in Telkom were up 3,1% at 9.40am GMT while shares in Vodafone were down 3% in a weaker London market.
Vodafone expects the deal to complete in the first half of 2009 and said it would dilute adjusted earnings per share after acquired intangible asset amortisation for three years but be accretive thereafter. "We will continue to support the management team in their strategy of transforming Vodacom into a full service provider in Africa," Vodafone chief executive Vittorio Colao said. "We are confident that the transaction will deliver value to our shareholders."
Telkom says the Vodacom sale would lower headline earnings by 38%. Telkom said earlier this month that its board and the South African government -- a shareholder -- backed the offer. Vodacom Group will be listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and the remaining 35% of Vodacom Group will be demerged by Telkom to its shareholders.
Telkom said the sale would unlock significant value for Telkom shareholders in volatile markets and it would focus after the deal on its fixed-line business and expansion opportunities. As part of the deal, the Vodacom identity will remain visible on the African continent and it will be the exclusive investment vehicle through which Vodafone will make acquisitions in sub-Saharan Africa, excluding Ghana and Kenya where Vodafone is already present.
Source: Mail & Guardian - Reuters
Telkom and Vodafone had been in talks since June over the group which has strong market positions in South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Mozambique and Tanzania. Shares in Telkom were up 3,1% at 9.40am GMT while shares in Vodafone were down 3% in a weaker London market.
Vodafone expects the deal to complete in the first half of 2009 and said it would dilute adjusted earnings per share after acquired intangible asset amortisation for three years but be accretive thereafter. "We will continue to support the management team in their strategy of transforming Vodacom into a full service provider in Africa," Vodafone chief executive Vittorio Colao said. "We are confident that the transaction will deliver value to our shareholders."
Telkom says the Vodacom sale would lower headline earnings by 38%. Telkom said earlier this month that its board and the South African government -- a shareholder -- backed the offer. Vodacom Group will be listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and the remaining 35% of Vodacom Group will be demerged by Telkom to its shareholders.
Telkom said the sale would unlock significant value for Telkom shareholders in volatile markets and it would focus after the deal on its fixed-line business and expansion opportunities. As part of the deal, the Vodacom identity will remain visible on the African continent and it will be the exclusive investment vehicle through which Vodafone will make acquisitions in sub-Saharan Africa, excluding Ghana and Kenya where Vodafone is already present.
Source: Mail & Guardian - Reuters
Monday, November 3, 2008
Statement of the Socialist International Commission on Global Financial Issues, meeting in Vienna, Austria
It is today beyond dispute that the current global financial crisis is the worst in the last twenty-five years and may well be the worst since the Great Depression.
A first response to the crisis was to bail out financial institutions in the developed economies, at an enormous cost for tax payers, with stark differences of opinion on the best way to proceed. Progressive forces and governments moved for accountability, transparency and guarantees for the average citizen, so they would not become the victim of the reckless acts and irresponsibility of those who provoked the crisis.
From the very beginning, at the centre of our concerns have been people’s jobs, housing, pensions, access to health and education services, in short the livelihood and social protection of citizens severely threatened by this crisis.
The social democratic vision of the economy and financial markets is that they should serve the citizens of our society. Financial markets are a means to an end, not an end in themselves. It is not necessarily the case that what is good for Wall Street or other financial centres is good for the rest of the economy. Moreover, trickle down economics - the notion that helping those at the top will benefit all - has been repeatedly rejected.
Four principles continue to guide the social democratic response: solutions to the crisis must be consistent with basic values of social justice and social solidarity as well as basic notions of fairness. The bonds of social solidarity must go across national boundaries; we cannot take actions which help ourselves at the expense of those in the developing world. They must reflect an understanding of the necessary balance between government and markets. Fourthly, any response must respect basic principles of democratic due process, including full transparency.
These principles take on a greater sense of urgency today, as what started as a financial crisis has become very quickly one of the real economy, with the threat of recession a reality around the world, and as we enter a new phase where emerging and developing economies are suffering the consequences of this crisis as well.
Lack of financial regulation triggered the crisis, while fiscal weakness and large public debts have hindered many governments’ ability to formulate policies to tackle it. At the same time, serious deficiencies in the global financial system have also been exposed, such as the limitations of the Bretton Woods institutions to guard against macroeconomic imbalances and provide liquidity to those economies in need; inadequate supervision of financial markets in developed economies and under-representation of emerging economies in the governance of the main multilateral lending institutions.
We will not be able to restore confidence in our financial markets unless we change their behaviour, through regulation. And regulation must be comprehensive. Too often, the regulatory process has been captured by those who were supposed to be regulated. The voice of those injured as a result of inadequate regulation—pensioners who lose their life savings, homeowners who lose their homes, workers who lose their jobs—has to be paramount. Such regulation could encourage real innovation, not the kind that has marked financial markets in recent years, like the derivatives that were supposed to manage risk but instead created it; but innovations that might allow average citizens to remain in their homes in the face of the economic vicissitudes which they face. Banks were allowed to become too big to fail and that was dangerous for all of us.
Given that the restructuring of global finance will take time, the Commission on Global Financial Issues proposes five immediate programmes to protect people today in countries most directly affected by the crisis:
The creation of a Social Protection Fund to assist developing countries that have inadequate or underfunded social protection schemes to set up social security systems to provide minimum social protections, including provisions for the unemployed, for health, and for retirees;
The creation of a Small Enterprises Development Fund to facilitate credit and capital flows to small businesses, as a sector which provides the major source of employment and a large contribution to the GDP, and assisting their technological development and expanding decent work;
The creation of a Financing Infrastructure Fund to help stimulate the economy. Such a fund would simultaneously stimulate the economy in the short run and help our societies meet the long run challenges they face; some funds might be directed, for instance, towards helping meet the challenges posed by global warming; others might be directed at the informal economy from which so many poor earn their living, for example with local programmes for small power plants, rural roads and markets, and technology parks.
The Commission equally supports the immediate and urgent establishment by the International Monetary Fund of a short-term liquidity line for emerging and developing economies which face a liquidity crisis caused not by deficient domestic policies but by sources of financing being severed due to the systemic crisis, as internationally active banks hoard liquidity, capital is repatriated to financial centres and rich countries’ GDP contract. This liquidity facility must allow access to countries by broadening the eligibility criteria in a fair way, so giving support to hundreds of millions of people who are now unwitting victims of this crisis; and it should be provided without the severe conditionalities often imposed in the past.
New sources of funding, and new lending facilities, have to be given urgent consideration. There is a growing consensus that there are insufficient financial resources in multilateral institutions and regional development banks to provide adequate support for the many economies that may face difficulties. Since the sources of liquid funds in the world today are in countries that have inadequate representation within the IMF, the World Bank, and other existing multilateral institutions, it will be imperative to create new governance structures for these lending facilities that are more representative. These new governance structures should be thought of as a precursor to the more fundamental reforms in the global economic governance that have long been demanded, and may entail more active involvement of other international institutions with wider and more diverse representation, including the various agencies of the UN family, such as UNDP and the International Labour Organisation.
Transparent and sustainable financial governance requires robust regulation of the world of finances which, as stated by the Presidium of the Socialist International, should include the establishment of a World Financial Organisation. The nature and extent of such regulation should itself emerge from global, democratic processes. Well designed regulation should focus on financial institutions and products whose failure puts the entire economy at risk. Elements will include, but not be limited to, demands for more transparency, restrictions on compensation schemes, especially those that encourage short sighted and excessively risky behaviour, restrictions on conflicts of interest, oversight of credit rating agencies, and control of other aspects of the behaviour of financial institutions that have imposed large social costs, without commensurate social benefits. Deficiencies in corporate governance that have given rise to compensation schemes that have benefited corporate managers at the expense of other stakeholders, including even shareholders, need to be given urgent consideration. Tax havens should be ended; and, a tax on short-term transactions considered.
There are other reforms to the international financial system that must be addressed if we are to have a more stable, prosperous, and equitable global economy. These include a reform of the global reserve system, better macro-economic coordination, with more attention paid to the consequences of policies for unemployment, and better ways of dealing with cross border bankruptcies and defaults, including those of sovereigns. The system in which countercyclical monetary and fiscal policies were pursued in the advanced industrial countries while pro-cyclical policies were imposed on developing countries has contributed to global volatility and imposed huge costs on developing countries. The current crisis has given new urgency to these long delayed reforms.
The reform process itself must be open, transparent, inclusive, and democratic; this means that the reform of the global regulatory framework or the way in which financial markets are regulated and supervised must take into account opinions and views of all. For this reason, we propose that discussion about reforms to the regulatory and financial framework for private markets be broadened to include the emerging economies, while at the same time providing a role for contributions from existing institutions that are less representative, such as the Financial Stability Forum.
Social democrats have always stood for markets with social responsibility. Markets that put citizens first. For a role for government in the economy with rules and regulation in the market. 75 years ago John Maynard Keynes explained how government action could help the economy recover from the Great Depression. Today his ideas have become part of conventional wisdom. Social democratic policies and their proposals for preventing another such calamity, as the one we are living through today, will in time also be accepted as conventional wisdom. But time is of the essence: the quicker governments can act, the shorter will be our downturn, and the fewer the number of innocent bystanders whose lives and dreams will be dashed in this tragic episode. We are living in a man-made crisis that should never be allowed to happen again. Our Commission is committed to contributing to that end, by constructing a roadmap, in which democracy, inclusion, fairness and green development will find a place in a new political, social and economic vision required for these times.
Source: Socialist International
A first response to the crisis was to bail out financial institutions in the developed economies, at an enormous cost for tax payers, with stark differences of opinion on the best way to proceed. Progressive forces and governments moved for accountability, transparency and guarantees for the average citizen, so they would not become the victim of the reckless acts and irresponsibility of those who provoked the crisis.
From the very beginning, at the centre of our concerns have been people’s jobs, housing, pensions, access to health and education services, in short the livelihood and social protection of citizens severely threatened by this crisis.
The social democratic vision of the economy and financial markets is that they should serve the citizens of our society. Financial markets are a means to an end, not an end in themselves. It is not necessarily the case that what is good for Wall Street or other financial centres is good for the rest of the economy. Moreover, trickle down economics - the notion that helping those at the top will benefit all - has been repeatedly rejected.
Four principles continue to guide the social democratic response: solutions to the crisis must be consistent with basic values of social justice and social solidarity as well as basic notions of fairness. The bonds of social solidarity must go across national boundaries; we cannot take actions which help ourselves at the expense of those in the developing world. They must reflect an understanding of the necessary balance between government and markets. Fourthly, any response must respect basic principles of democratic due process, including full transparency.
These principles take on a greater sense of urgency today, as what started as a financial crisis has become very quickly one of the real economy, with the threat of recession a reality around the world, and as we enter a new phase where emerging and developing economies are suffering the consequences of this crisis as well.
Lack of financial regulation triggered the crisis, while fiscal weakness and large public debts have hindered many governments’ ability to formulate policies to tackle it. At the same time, serious deficiencies in the global financial system have also been exposed, such as the limitations of the Bretton Woods institutions to guard against macroeconomic imbalances and provide liquidity to those economies in need; inadequate supervision of financial markets in developed economies and under-representation of emerging economies in the governance of the main multilateral lending institutions.
We will not be able to restore confidence in our financial markets unless we change their behaviour, through regulation. And regulation must be comprehensive. Too often, the regulatory process has been captured by those who were supposed to be regulated. The voice of those injured as a result of inadequate regulation—pensioners who lose their life savings, homeowners who lose their homes, workers who lose their jobs—has to be paramount. Such regulation could encourage real innovation, not the kind that has marked financial markets in recent years, like the derivatives that were supposed to manage risk but instead created it; but innovations that might allow average citizens to remain in their homes in the face of the economic vicissitudes which they face. Banks were allowed to become too big to fail and that was dangerous for all of us.
Given that the restructuring of global finance will take time, the Commission on Global Financial Issues proposes five immediate programmes to protect people today in countries most directly affected by the crisis:
The creation of a Social Protection Fund to assist developing countries that have inadequate or underfunded social protection schemes to set up social security systems to provide minimum social protections, including provisions for the unemployed, for health, and for retirees;
The creation of a Small Enterprises Development Fund to facilitate credit and capital flows to small businesses, as a sector which provides the major source of employment and a large contribution to the GDP, and assisting their technological development and expanding decent work;
The creation of a Financing Infrastructure Fund to help stimulate the economy. Such a fund would simultaneously stimulate the economy in the short run and help our societies meet the long run challenges they face; some funds might be directed, for instance, towards helping meet the challenges posed by global warming; others might be directed at the informal economy from which so many poor earn their living, for example with local programmes for small power plants, rural roads and markets, and technology parks.
The Commission equally supports the immediate and urgent establishment by the International Monetary Fund of a short-term liquidity line for emerging and developing economies which face a liquidity crisis caused not by deficient domestic policies but by sources of financing being severed due to the systemic crisis, as internationally active banks hoard liquidity, capital is repatriated to financial centres and rich countries’ GDP contract. This liquidity facility must allow access to countries by broadening the eligibility criteria in a fair way, so giving support to hundreds of millions of people who are now unwitting victims of this crisis; and it should be provided without the severe conditionalities often imposed in the past.
New sources of funding, and new lending facilities, have to be given urgent consideration. There is a growing consensus that there are insufficient financial resources in multilateral institutions and regional development banks to provide adequate support for the many economies that may face difficulties. Since the sources of liquid funds in the world today are in countries that have inadequate representation within the IMF, the World Bank, and other existing multilateral institutions, it will be imperative to create new governance structures for these lending facilities that are more representative. These new governance structures should be thought of as a precursor to the more fundamental reforms in the global economic governance that have long been demanded, and may entail more active involvement of other international institutions with wider and more diverse representation, including the various agencies of the UN family, such as UNDP and the International Labour Organisation.
Transparent and sustainable financial governance requires robust regulation of the world of finances which, as stated by the Presidium of the Socialist International, should include the establishment of a World Financial Organisation. The nature and extent of such regulation should itself emerge from global, democratic processes. Well designed regulation should focus on financial institutions and products whose failure puts the entire economy at risk. Elements will include, but not be limited to, demands for more transparency, restrictions on compensation schemes, especially those that encourage short sighted and excessively risky behaviour, restrictions on conflicts of interest, oversight of credit rating agencies, and control of other aspects of the behaviour of financial institutions that have imposed large social costs, without commensurate social benefits. Deficiencies in corporate governance that have given rise to compensation schemes that have benefited corporate managers at the expense of other stakeholders, including even shareholders, need to be given urgent consideration. Tax havens should be ended; and, a tax on short-term transactions considered.
There are other reforms to the international financial system that must be addressed if we are to have a more stable, prosperous, and equitable global economy. These include a reform of the global reserve system, better macro-economic coordination, with more attention paid to the consequences of policies for unemployment, and better ways of dealing with cross border bankruptcies and defaults, including those of sovereigns. The system in which countercyclical monetary and fiscal policies were pursued in the advanced industrial countries while pro-cyclical policies were imposed on developing countries has contributed to global volatility and imposed huge costs on developing countries. The current crisis has given new urgency to these long delayed reforms.
The reform process itself must be open, transparent, inclusive, and democratic; this means that the reform of the global regulatory framework or the way in which financial markets are regulated and supervised must take into account opinions and views of all. For this reason, we propose that discussion about reforms to the regulatory and financial framework for private markets be broadened to include the emerging economies, while at the same time providing a role for contributions from existing institutions that are less representative, such as the Financial Stability Forum.
Social democrats have always stood for markets with social responsibility. Markets that put citizens first. For a role for government in the economy with rules and regulation in the market. 75 years ago John Maynard Keynes explained how government action could help the economy recover from the Great Depression. Today his ideas have become part of conventional wisdom. Social democratic policies and their proposals for preventing another such calamity, as the one we are living through today, will in time also be accepted as conventional wisdom. But time is of the essence: the quicker governments can act, the shorter will be our downturn, and the fewer the number of innocent bystanders whose lives and dreams will be dashed in this tragic episode. We are living in a man-made crisis that should never be allowed to happen again. Our Commission is committed to contributing to that end, by constructing a roadmap, in which democracy, inclusion, fairness and green development will find a place in a new political, social and economic vision required for these times.
Source: Socialist International
Tackling the global financial crisis: For a new relationship between government and the market
First meeting of the Socialist International Commission on Global Financial Issues, Vienna, Austria
The SI Commission on Global Financial Issues met in Vienna on 3 November, for the first of a series of meetings, and in advance of the Socialist International Council in Mexico on 17-18 November where tackling the global financial crisis will be at the top of the agenda.
Hosted by the Chancellor of Austria, Alfred Gusenbauer, a member of the Commission, the discussions highlighted the principles guiding the global social democratic response to the world financial crisis and, given the new phase of the crisis affecting emerging and developing countries and the urgency of the situation of many people around the world today, the Commission set out five concrete initiatives to assist those directly affected by the crisis.
Calling for a new relationship between government and the market, the Commission underlined that confidence would not be restored in the financial markets unless behaviour was changed through comprehensive and robust regulation, accompanied by far-reaching reforms made to the international financial system.
Concerned for people who are unwitting victims of the crisis, losing their homes, jobs, pensions and social services, the Commission put forward the creation of a Social Protection Fund to aid developing countries with inadequate social protection schemes; the creation of a Small Enterprises Development Fund to support small business, as a sector which employs the majority of workers, contributes to the GDP and can expand decent work; the creation of a Financing Infrastructure Fund to help stimulate the economy; support for a short-term liquidity line for emerging and developing countries to be immediately and urgently established by the IMF; tackling the issue of insufficient financial resources in multilateral institutions and regional development banks by seeking new sources of funding and lending facilities, as well as more fundamental reforms in the global economic governance. These proposals emanating from the discussion were expanded upon in a statement of the Commission, called “For a new relationship between government and the market".
The Commission, established by the Socialist International Presidium at its meeting at the United Nations, New York, at the end of September, brings together political leaders, ministers and experts from all continents, and its members include: Professor Joseph Stiglitz from the United States, Nobel laureate and Chair of the Commission; Anatoly Aksakov, Member of the Board of the Russian Federation Central Bank and Member of Russian State Duma, For a Just Russia Party; Dr Héctor Alexander, Minister of Economy and Finances of Panama, Democratic Revolutionary Party, PRD; Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, Founder of the Party for Democratic Revolution, PRD, Mexico and Honorary President of the Socialist International; Elio Di Rupo, Leader of the Socialist Party, PS, Belgium, and SI Vice-President; Alfred Gusenbauer, Chancellor of Austria and SI Vice-President; Eero Heinäluoma, Finnish Social Democratic Party and SI Vice-President; Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, Former Prime Minister of Mali and Leader of the Assembly for Mali, RPM; Pia Locatelli; President of Socialist International Women; Fathallah Oualalou, Former Minister of Finance, Socialist Union of Popular Forces, USFP, Morocco; Professor Shri Arjun K. Sengupta, Member of Parliament, Indian National Congress Party; Antolin Sánchez Presedo, Member of the European Parliament, Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, PSOE, Spain; Peer Steinbrück, Federal Finance Minister of Germany and Deputy Chair of the Social Democratic Party; Andres Velasco, Minister of Finance, Chile; and Fozia Wahab, Member of the Pakistan National Assembly and Chair of the National Finance Committee of the Parliament. A member of the Commission from France will be appointed following the Socialist Party’s upcoming Congress.
George Papandreou, President of the Socialist International and Luis Ayala, Secretary General of the Socialist International, participated alongside the Commission members who took part in this first meeting. Juan Somavia, Director-General of the International Labour Organisation, joined the discussions as an invited guest. And from Austria, Christoph Matznetter, Secretary of State, Federal Ministry of Finance; and, Andreas Schieder, Secretary of State, Civil Service and Administrative Reform, also attended.
A progress report on the Commission’s work will be given by Commission members at the upcoming SI Council meeting in Mexico which takes the global social democratic response to the crisis as its main theme. The Council discussions, incorporating the entire membership of the organisation, will address this issue and a special document prepared by the Chair of the Commission on the social democratic principles towards a new financial architecture will be presented for adoption.
Future meetings of the Commission are envisaged, including seminars with academics and experts and a major Conference in the second half of 2009, to contribute to constructing a roadmap to deal with this crisis, in which democracy, inclusion, fairness, green development and protection for the environment will find their rightful place.
CRISE FINANCIERE MONDIALE : NOTE POUR L’INTERNATIONALE SOCIALISTE
Source: Socialist International
The SI Commission on Global Financial Issues met in Vienna on 3 November, for the first of a series of meetings, and in advance of the Socialist International Council in Mexico on 17-18 November where tackling the global financial crisis will be at the top of the agenda.
Hosted by the Chancellor of Austria, Alfred Gusenbauer, a member of the Commission, the discussions highlighted the principles guiding the global social democratic response to the world financial crisis and, given the new phase of the crisis affecting emerging and developing countries and the urgency of the situation of many people around the world today, the Commission set out five concrete initiatives to assist those directly affected by the crisis.
Calling for a new relationship between government and the market, the Commission underlined that confidence would not be restored in the financial markets unless behaviour was changed through comprehensive and robust regulation, accompanied by far-reaching reforms made to the international financial system.
Concerned for people who are unwitting victims of the crisis, losing their homes, jobs, pensions and social services, the Commission put forward the creation of a Social Protection Fund to aid developing countries with inadequate social protection schemes; the creation of a Small Enterprises Development Fund to support small business, as a sector which employs the majority of workers, contributes to the GDP and can expand decent work; the creation of a Financing Infrastructure Fund to help stimulate the economy; support for a short-term liquidity line for emerging and developing countries to be immediately and urgently established by the IMF; tackling the issue of insufficient financial resources in multilateral institutions and regional development banks by seeking new sources of funding and lending facilities, as well as more fundamental reforms in the global economic governance. These proposals emanating from the discussion were expanded upon in a statement of the Commission, called “For a new relationship between government and the market".
The Commission, established by the Socialist International Presidium at its meeting at the United Nations, New York, at the end of September, brings together political leaders, ministers and experts from all continents, and its members include: Professor Joseph Stiglitz from the United States, Nobel laureate and Chair of the Commission; Anatoly Aksakov, Member of the Board of the Russian Federation Central Bank and Member of Russian State Duma, For a Just Russia Party; Dr Héctor Alexander, Minister of Economy and Finances of Panama, Democratic Revolutionary Party, PRD; Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, Founder of the Party for Democratic Revolution, PRD, Mexico and Honorary President of the Socialist International; Elio Di Rupo, Leader of the Socialist Party, PS, Belgium, and SI Vice-President; Alfred Gusenbauer, Chancellor of Austria and SI Vice-President; Eero Heinäluoma, Finnish Social Democratic Party and SI Vice-President; Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, Former Prime Minister of Mali and Leader of the Assembly for Mali, RPM; Pia Locatelli; President of Socialist International Women; Fathallah Oualalou, Former Minister of Finance, Socialist Union of Popular Forces, USFP, Morocco; Professor Shri Arjun K. Sengupta, Member of Parliament, Indian National Congress Party; Antolin Sánchez Presedo, Member of the European Parliament, Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, PSOE, Spain; Peer Steinbrück, Federal Finance Minister of Germany and Deputy Chair of the Social Democratic Party; Andres Velasco, Minister of Finance, Chile; and Fozia Wahab, Member of the Pakistan National Assembly and Chair of the National Finance Committee of the Parliament. A member of the Commission from France will be appointed following the Socialist Party’s upcoming Congress.
George Papandreou, President of the Socialist International and Luis Ayala, Secretary General of the Socialist International, participated alongside the Commission members who took part in this first meeting. Juan Somavia, Director-General of the International Labour Organisation, joined the discussions as an invited guest. And from Austria, Christoph Matznetter, Secretary of State, Federal Ministry of Finance; and, Andreas Schieder, Secretary of State, Civil Service and Administrative Reform, also attended.
A progress report on the Commission’s work will be given by Commission members at the upcoming SI Council meeting in Mexico which takes the global social democratic response to the crisis as its main theme. The Council discussions, incorporating the entire membership of the organisation, will address this issue and a special document prepared by the Chair of the Commission on the social democratic principles towards a new financial architecture will be presented for adoption.
Future meetings of the Commission are envisaged, including seminars with academics and experts and a major Conference in the second half of 2009, to contribute to constructing a roadmap to deal with this crisis, in which democracy, inclusion, fairness, green development and protection for the environment will find their rightful place.
TESTIMONY BEFORE THE US CONGRESS HOUSE COMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL SERVICES
Joseph E. Stiglitz, University Professor, Columbia University, 21 October 2008
Joseph E. Stiglitz, University Professor, Columbia University, 21 October 2008
CRISE FINANCIERE MONDIALE : NOTE POUR L’INTERNATIONALE SOCIALISTE
Elio Di Rupo, President of the Socialist Party, PS, Belgium
- La crise financière et les limites du libéralisme non régulé
- La nouvelle crise et les prémisses d'un monde multipolaire
- Le Maroc face aux effets de la crise
Fathallah Oualalou, Socialist Union of Popular Forces, USFP, Morocco
- La crise financière et les limites du libéralisme non régulé
- La nouvelle crise et les prémisses d'un monde multipolaire
- Le Maroc face aux effets de la crise
Fathallah Oualalou, Socialist Union of Popular Forces, USFP, Morocco
REFORMING AND STRENGTHENING THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL SYSTEM
Andrés Velasco, Minister of Finance, Chile
SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES AND RESPONSES TO THE FINANCIAL AND ECONOMIC CRISIS
Discussion paper for the Chief Executives Board (CEB) of the United Nations, presented by ILO Director-General Juan Somavia, New York, October 2008
Discussion paper for the Chief Executives Board (CEB) of the United Nations, presented by ILO Director-General Juan Somavia, New York, October 2008
Source: Socialist International
Saturday, November 1, 2008
URGENT anti-Xenophobia action in Durban
Refugees still living in Durban’s Albert Park were confronted by SAPS this morning who came to remove their shelters (a small number of displaced foreign nationals have refused re-integration into communities and repatriation efforts, even from the UNHCR, have been rejected). Read here below an email sent by Oliver Meth to History Matters:
Early Saturday afternoon, November 01, 2008
Just taking a break from the scene of the confrontation, at Albert Park in central Durban, and have more information which can be verified by numerous witnesses:
* around 50 refugees, mainly women and children, were approached at 8am by Durban police, without warning, and their plastic shelters destroyed and most of their possessions confiscated
* the constable in charge of the operation has gone on record saying that the original orders were to evict the refugees at 9pm last night, but for ‘humanitarian’ reasons they delayed until this morning;
* the constable named city manager Mike Sutcliffe as the man responsible (“the great white shark”) and said that his orders were to clear the area both because “2010 is around the corner” and because on Tuesday, there is a major ANC imbizo planned for the park, with high-ranking politicians expected
* Sutcliffe spent a few minutes on the telephone with Sayed-Iqbal Mohamed of the Organization of Civil Rights, telling Mohamed that he could do nothing, and that this was now a police matter
* the police have no information about victims’ human rights during displacement and evictions (i.e. that alternative accommodation must be provided), and they simply expect the refugees to disappear with their remaining belongings
* after a two hour wait, a city ambulance has just taken away one women refugee who collapsed during the scuffling this morning; there was some manhandling of especially children who tried to prevent goods from being confiscated
* the churches we’ve spoken to so far have no money so are turning down the refugees’ request for immediate shelter
* Durban police captain Ragavan said that confiscated goods have been taken to the police department impoundment area
* the media have flocked to the scene, but in addition to support for immediate shelter, lawyers are still needed
A few months ago, here’s Mike Sutcliffe on how wonderfully Durban is managing xenophobia:
https://www.durban.gov.za/durban/government/munadmin/media/cmn/cmnitem.2008-07-25.8057331980/view
Anyone older than 30 years of age would contest very strongly that the recent thuggery and criminality rocking our country was simply about xenophobia. While I have no doubt we all harbour traces of racism, sexism and xenophobia, the attacks required a catalyst. In this case it was groups of men with a clear mission in mind. What happened in our city where foreigners were driven out of their homes was a “spin-off” from the unrest in Gauteng and was not directly fuelled by “locally-based anger or hatred.” The “hotspots” in our city included Albert Park, the Dalton Road hostel, Cato Crest and the area known as Road 1102 in Chatsworth.
The reality is that many foreigners and South Africans were displaced and we were tested and in many cases found wanting. From my side it is clear that national, provincial and local government must work out clearly a modus operandi on who takes the lead in such matter. Whilst primarily a national and provincial responsibility, the reality is that we are the first agencies to get called out. We worked closely with local non-governmental organizations, the Red Cross, faith based organizations, SAPS and provincial government departments, but we must clarify roles and responsibilities and there must be resources backing up those responsibilities.
When the first incident occurred, and for all others, we dispatched officials to put in place a system to provide health, sanitation, waste management, environmental health, feeding, blankets and surveillance by metro police. The health department of the city has being providing health and immunization services at all police stations, community halls, churches and mosques where refugees are being held. Additional nurses and mobile toilets and showers have been hired by the municipality at all these sites to complement the facilities provided by the local churches and mosques.
In the current tough economic climate, he said, with food prices going through the roof, it is understandable that scarcity of basic resources will bring about heightened tension amongst people, especially those who are struggling to survive.
At the height of the tension a few weeks ago, there were about 2000 that needed emergency shelter. Whilst it has been reduced to around 800, what is good is that many of those chased out of their homes are coming back and that is a hopeful sign.
We must always keep the balance between looking after the needs of those who had been displaced and find suitable refuge for them with basic sanitation, and those who face poverty and massive social challenges on a daily basis. While NGOs and the public have assisted the city in alleviating their plight, we also have to take care that we do not perpetuate the situation longer than necessary. A growing refugee problem is something we must try and avoid at all costs.
Our relationship with the local refugee community leadership is good and we must collectively work on ideas to tackle xenophobia and integration of refugees into the local community. Annually the city has hosted the world refugee day celebrations and worked with the local refugee community to explore ways of integrating refugees.
May I express our sincere gratitude to all faith based organizations, NGO’s and individual citizens who have contributed to the plight of refugees. We have realized that there is much room for improvement. At the same time we must work together to remove all criminals from our communities whether they are South African or foreign.
The situation has now stabilised and we must collectively work with all stakeholders towards a climate that promotes a society free from racism, xenophobia and poverty.
Who are the refugees remaining in Albert Park in a particularly downtrodden section of central Durban? Because they have refused offers of support from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (which they say are inadequate to their needs), the group’s plight has not been covered favourably. Below, find some audio testimonials (uploaded by Radio Continental Drift) from the DRC refugees, recorded just over three weeks ago.
Coming soon, a transcript showing explicit police intimidation and violation of the refugees’ human rights, in the course of the eviction this morning.
DURBAN SINGS
audio reports from KwaZulu-Natal
9 October 2008
part I:
http://www.archive.org/DurbanSings
A gathering of makeshift shelters in a public park in the city of Durban, South Africa. A group of Congolese have been living here under plastic cover since June. Pots over open wood fires, washing on lines between the trees, many children are running around the huts. What happened? What made the group settle here under precarious conditions?
What happens to the children when it’s raining…? Gideon, a local passer-bye talks to Delphine, one of the group who is now living at Albert Park (track 03-08). Delphine responds with questions and songs and tells their story. Rebecca Hinely and Oliver Meth, from the Centre for Civil Society are regular visitors. They join the conversation (track 02) while preparations for a chicken-curry are going on in the background.
More songs follow.
These audio reports are published to feed debate and listening exchange for the questions raised here. Comments and responses (written or audio) or links and reports of related experiences and discussions are most welcome and can be posted to the contacts below. For audio comments, please up-load your recordings on archive.org (keyword: Durban Sings) and send us the link.
Source:
Early Saturday afternoon, November 01, 2008
Just taking a break from the scene of the confrontation, at Albert Park in central Durban, and have more information which can be verified by numerous witnesses:
* around 50 refugees, mainly women and children, were approached at 8am by Durban police, without warning, and their plastic shelters destroyed and most of their possessions confiscated
* the constable in charge of the operation has gone on record saying that the original orders were to evict the refugees at 9pm last night, but for ‘humanitarian’ reasons they delayed until this morning;
* the constable named city manager Mike Sutcliffe as the man responsible (“the great white shark”) and said that his orders were to clear the area both because “2010 is around the corner” and because on Tuesday, there is a major ANC imbizo planned for the park, with high-ranking politicians expected
* Sutcliffe spent a few minutes on the telephone with Sayed-Iqbal Mohamed of the Organization of Civil Rights, telling Mohamed that he could do nothing, and that this was now a police matter
* the police have no information about victims’ human rights during displacement and evictions (i.e. that alternative accommodation must be provided), and they simply expect the refugees to disappear with their remaining belongings
* after a two hour wait, a city ambulance has just taken away one women refugee who collapsed during the scuffling this morning; there was some manhandling of especially children who tried to prevent goods from being confiscated
* the churches we’ve spoken to so far have no money so are turning down the refugees’ request for immediate shelter
* Durban police captain Ragavan said that confiscated goods have been taken to the police department impoundment area
* the media have flocked to the scene, but in addition to support for immediate shelter, lawyers are still needed
A few months ago, here’s Mike Sutcliffe on how wonderfully Durban is managing xenophobia:
https://www.durban.gov.za/durban/government/munadmin/media/cmn/cmnitem.2008-07-25.8057331980/view
Anyone older than 30 years of age would contest very strongly that the recent thuggery and criminality rocking our country was simply about xenophobia. While I have no doubt we all harbour traces of racism, sexism and xenophobia, the attacks required a catalyst. In this case it was groups of men with a clear mission in mind. What happened in our city where foreigners were driven out of their homes was a “spin-off” from the unrest in Gauteng and was not directly fuelled by “locally-based anger or hatred.” The “hotspots” in our city included Albert Park, the Dalton Road hostel, Cato Crest and the area known as Road 1102 in Chatsworth.
The reality is that many foreigners and South Africans were displaced and we were tested and in many cases found wanting. From my side it is clear that national, provincial and local government must work out clearly a modus operandi on who takes the lead in such matter. Whilst primarily a national and provincial responsibility, the reality is that we are the first agencies to get called out. We worked closely with local non-governmental organizations, the Red Cross, faith based organizations, SAPS and provincial government departments, but we must clarify roles and responsibilities and there must be resources backing up those responsibilities.
When the first incident occurred, and for all others, we dispatched officials to put in place a system to provide health, sanitation, waste management, environmental health, feeding, blankets and surveillance by metro police. The health department of the city has being providing health and immunization services at all police stations, community halls, churches and mosques where refugees are being held. Additional nurses and mobile toilets and showers have been hired by the municipality at all these sites to complement the facilities provided by the local churches and mosques.
In the current tough economic climate, he said, with food prices going through the roof, it is understandable that scarcity of basic resources will bring about heightened tension amongst people, especially those who are struggling to survive.
At the height of the tension a few weeks ago, there were about 2000 that needed emergency shelter. Whilst it has been reduced to around 800, what is good is that many of those chased out of their homes are coming back and that is a hopeful sign.
We must always keep the balance between looking after the needs of those who had been displaced and find suitable refuge for them with basic sanitation, and those who face poverty and massive social challenges on a daily basis. While NGOs and the public have assisted the city in alleviating their plight, we also have to take care that we do not perpetuate the situation longer than necessary. A growing refugee problem is something we must try and avoid at all costs.
Our relationship with the local refugee community leadership is good and we must collectively work on ideas to tackle xenophobia and integration of refugees into the local community. Annually the city has hosted the world refugee day celebrations and worked with the local refugee community to explore ways of integrating refugees.
May I express our sincere gratitude to all faith based organizations, NGO’s and individual citizens who have contributed to the plight of refugees. We have realized that there is much room for improvement. At the same time we must work together to remove all criminals from our communities whether they are South African or foreign.
The situation has now stabilised and we must collectively work with all stakeholders towards a climate that promotes a society free from racism, xenophobia and poverty.
Who are the refugees remaining in Albert Park in a particularly downtrodden section of central Durban? Because they have refused offers of support from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (which they say are inadequate to their needs), the group’s plight has not been covered favourably. Below, find some audio testimonials (uploaded by Radio Continental Drift) from the DRC refugees, recorded just over three weeks ago.
Coming soon, a transcript showing explicit police intimidation and violation of the refugees’ human rights, in the course of the eviction this morning.
DURBAN SINGS
audio reports from KwaZulu-Natal
9 October 2008
part I:
http://www.archive.org/DurbanSings
A gathering of makeshift shelters in a public park in the city of Durban, South Africa. A group of Congolese have been living here under plastic cover since June. Pots over open wood fires, washing on lines between the trees, many children are running around the huts. What happened? What made the group settle here under precarious conditions?
What happens to the children when it’s raining…? Gideon, a local passer-bye talks to Delphine, one of the group who is now living at Albert Park (track 03-08). Delphine responds with questions and songs and tells their story. Rebecca Hinely and Oliver Meth, from the Centre for Civil Society are regular visitors. They join the conversation (track 02) while preparations for a chicken-curry are going on in the background.
More songs follow.
These audio reports are published to feed debate and listening exchange for the questions raised here. Comments and responses (written or audio) or links and reports of related experiences and discussions are most welcome and can be posted to the contacts below. For audio comments, please up-load your recordings on archive.org (keyword: Durban Sings) and send us the link.
Source:
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Son of Ex-President of Liberia Is Convicted of Torture
A federal jury on Thursday convicted the son of the former president of Liberia of torturing suspected opponents of his father’s government. It was the first case brought under a 1994 law that makes it a crime for United States citizens to commit torture overseas. During the trial, witnesses said the defendant, Charles McArthur Emmanuel, 31, stood by and laughed as soldiers forced prisoners to play “stone football,” kicking large stones until their bare feet were bruised and bleeding. One witness described having flaming plastic melted onto his skin, and another said soldiers had cut his genitals.
Mr. Emmanuel, who was known in Liberia as Chuckie and commanded a military unit known as the Demon Forces, was convicted of conspiracy and torture after two days of jury deliberations. He faces a possible life sentence. The case coincides with the trial of Mr. Emmanuel’s father, Charles Taylor, in a war crimes tribunal in The Hague for atrocities in West Africa during his presidency.
Elise Keppler, senior counsel for the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch, said that the verdict was a milestone in the fight against human rights abuses around the world and that she hoped to see more prosecutions like it. “That’s going to be the key here,” Ms. Keppler said. “This can’t be an anomaly in U.S. practice, but should be the beginning of a trend where the United States actively prosecutes human rights violations committed abroad.”
When the case began a month ago, defense lawyers said the witnesses had fabricated their stories for financial gain and to win political asylum. In opening statements, an assistant federal public defender said that if this case were a newspaper headline, it would read, “Desperate and disgruntled Africans accuse American to escape war-torn Liberia.”
The witnesses shared gruesome stories about Mr. Emmanuel. Sulaiman Solo Jusu, a refugee from Sierra Leone who had been living in Liberia for more than a year, described a 1999 attack in the Liberian town of Voinjama and his arrest by security forces at a bridge checkpoint. Mr. Jusu said Mr. Emmanuel accused the prisoners of being rebels sent to overthrow his father’s government, and he described Mr. Emmanuel shooting three men in the head. “I don’t know how to describe that feeling,” Mr. Jusu testified. “You can just think of you being the next one. I was so afraid.”
In court, as the guilty verdict was read aloud, Mr. Emmanuel sat quietly with his hands in his lap. When all 12 jurors agreed he was guilty, he looked over at his lawyer, who gently patted him on the back. He refused to stand when the jury was dismissed and seemed impatient to leave. In a news conference afterward, United States Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said of Mr. Emmanuel, “The acts of which he was convicted were horrific.”
Born in Boston, Mr. Emmanuel spent most of his life in Orlando, Fla., with his mother, stepfather and older sister. He joined his father in Liberia as a teenager, a few years before Mr. Taylor won the 1997 presidential election. He was arrested on charges of carrying a false passport when he arrived in Miami from Trinidad in March 2006. He will be sentenced in January 2009.
Source: New York Times
Mr. Emmanuel, who was known in Liberia as Chuckie and commanded a military unit known as the Demon Forces, was convicted of conspiracy and torture after two days of jury deliberations. He faces a possible life sentence. The case coincides with the trial of Mr. Emmanuel’s father, Charles Taylor, in a war crimes tribunal in The Hague for atrocities in West Africa during his presidency.
Elise Keppler, senior counsel for the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch, said that the verdict was a milestone in the fight against human rights abuses around the world and that she hoped to see more prosecutions like it. “That’s going to be the key here,” Ms. Keppler said. “This can’t be an anomaly in U.S. practice, but should be the beginning of a trend where the United States actively prosecutes human rights violations committed abroad.”
When the case began a month ago, defense lawyers said the witnesses had fabricated their stories for financial gain and to win political asylum. In opening statements, an assistant federal public defender said that if this case were a newspaper headline, it would read, “Desperate and disgruntled Africans accuse American to escape war-torn Liberia.”
The witnesses shared gruesome stories about Mr. Emmanuel. Sulaiman Solo Jusu, a refugee from Sierra Leone who had been living in Liberia for more than a year, described a 1999 attack in the Liberian town of Voinjama and his arrest by security forces at a bridge checkpoint. Mr. Jusu said Mr. Emmanuel accused the prisoners of being rebels sent to overthrow his father’s government, and he described Mr. Emmanuel shooting three men in the head. “I don’t know how to describe that feeling,” Mr. Jusu testified. “You can just think of you being the next one. I was so afraid.”
In court, as the guilty verdict was read aloud, Mr. Emmanuel sat quietly with his hands in his lap. When all 12 jurors agreed he was guilty, he looked over at his lawyer, who gently patted him on the back. He refused to stand when the jury was dismissed and seemed impatient to leave. In a news conference afterward, United States Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said of Mr. Emmanuel, “The acts of which he was convicted were horrific.”
Born in Boston, Mr. Emmanuel spent most of his life in Orlando, Fla., with his mother, stepfather and older sister. He joined his father in Liberia as a teenager, a few years before Mr. Taylor won the 1997 presidential election. He was arrested on charges of carrying a false passport when he arrived in Miami from Trinidad in March 2006. He will be sentenced in January 2009.
Source: New York Times
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Why Kader Asmal resigned from Parliament
Former Cabinet minister Kader Asmal resigned from Parliament because he did not want to vote for the disbanding of the Scorpions, he said in a lecture on Tuesday evening. It would have been immoral of him to vote for the disbanding of the elite crime fighting unit, Asmal told an audience at the University of Johannesburg, Beeld newspaper reported on Wednesday. He said he had made it clear that he did not want the Scorpions to be disbanded and that he stuck to his principles by retiring.
Asmal also said the so-called Travelgate MPs should not have been allowed to vote on the disbanding of the unit. "The issue here is not whether the member of Parliament is legally entitled to vote, the issue is how it is perceived as a matter of ethics. Is it right to take actions against the very body that has completed the investigation against you?," asked Asmal, according to Sowetan newspaper.
MPs implicated in the Travelgate scandal were allowed to vote on the Scorpions last week after businessman Hugh Glenister failed in a court bid to block them. Glenister insisted that because MPs allegedly involved in the travel-voucher scam had been investigated by the Scorpions, there was a conflict of interest. The National Assembly last Thursday approved legislation to disband the unit, which was responsible for criminal investigations against African National Congress president Jacob Zuma and suspended police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Asmal also said the so-called Travelgate MPs should not have been allowed to vote on the disbanding of the unit. "The issue here is not whether the member of Parliament is legally entitled to vote, the issue is how it is perceived as a matter of ethics. Is it right to take actions against the very body that has completed the investigation against you?," asked Asmal, according to Sowetan newspaper.
MPs implicated in the Travelgate scandal were allowed to vote on the Scorpions last week after businessman Hugh Glenister failed in a court bid to block them. Glenister insisted that because MPs allegedly involved in the travel-voucher scam had been investigated by the Scorpions, there was a conflict of interest. The National Assembly last Thursday approved legislation to disband the unit, which was responsible for criminal investigations against African National Congress president Jacob Zuma and suspended police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Friday, October 24, 2008
WORLD BRIEFING | AFRICA; South Africa: Anticrime Unit Disbanded
The Scorpions, for years the nation's elite crime-fighting unit, were disbanded on Thursday by Parliament and merged into South Africa's police force. Even though the country has one of the world's worst crime rates and the Scorpions had a better track record than the police, the elite unit has been sharply criticized for its corruption investigation of Jacob Zuma, the leader of the African National Congress. The African National Congress has a large majority in Parliament.
Source: New York Times
Source: New York Times
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
United States: Judge rejects 'forced' confession
A military judge in Guantanamo Bay has thrown out the U.S. government's evidence against an Afghan detainee because it was obtained under coercion, a rights group said yesterday. The decision came late Wednesday in a preliminary hearing in the trial of Mohammed Jawad, arrested in Kabul in 2002 on charges of throwing a grenade that wounded two U.S. soldiers and their interpreter.
A representative for the American Civil Liberties Union revealed that Mr. Jawad's confession had been rejected as evidence in the case. "Col. Stephen Henley held that evidence collected while Jawad was in U.S. custody cannot be admitted in his trial" because the evidence was "gathered through coercive interrogations," the ACLU said in a press release.
Lawyers for Omar Khadr, 22, accused of five war crimes charges including the murder of a U.S. serviceman, say the prosecution's evidence against the Canadian-born youth also relies on statements Mr. Khadr says have been coerced. Under the commissions system, a judge can accept "coerced" statements if he thinks they were true anyway, but cannot accept statements obtained under "torture."
Source: Canada
A representative for the American Civil Liberties Union revealed that Mr. Jawad's confession had been rejected as evidence in the case. "Col. Stephen Henley held that evidence collected while Jawad was in U.S. custody cannot be admitted in his trial" because the evidence was "gathered through coercive interrogations," the ACLU said in a press release.
Lawyers for Omar Khadr, 22, accused of five war crimes charges including the murder of a U.S. serviceman, say the prosecution's evidence against the Canadian-born youth also relies on statements Mr. Khadr says have been coerced. Under the commissions system, a judge can accept "coerced" statements if he thinks they were true anyway, but cannot accept statements obtained under "torture."
Source: Canada
Friday, October 17, 2008
Major ANC donor in graft probe
A case of corruption has been opened against Robert Gumede, the chairperson of listed information technology company GijimaAST. The case, opened with the Roodepoort police station under case number 781/2/2007, concerns alleged bribes paid by Gumede to Telkom executives.
Gumede, who recently donated R10-million to the ANC during a fundraising dinner in Sandton, vehemently denies bribing Telkom officials and said he was not aware of the police's probe against him. The charge comes after a series of battles between Gumede and his former business partner, John Sterenborg. Gumede claims to have won all combat rounds thus far. Sterenborg, who lives in England, could not be reached for comment.
The Mail & Guardian has established that the South African Police Service's commercial branch in Johannesburg is actively pursuing the corruption charge against Gumede, relating to the award of a R600-million tender by Telkom to his Gijima Afrika Smart Technologies (GAST) in 2002. GAST is not related to the listed GijimaAST, which Gumede joined in 2005 as its black empowerment partner. Gumede's Guma group, formerly known as Gijima, acquired 37% of AST's shares in 2005 to form GijimaAST. Gumede is the non-executive chairperson of GijimaAST. The investigation of Gumede follows several bouts of litigation between him and Sterenborg about the acquisition of Applied Card Technologies (ACT), a smart-card manufacturer previously owned by Sterenborg.
Gumede was Sterenborg's black business partner in ACT when the company was placed under provisional liquidation. During that period ACT was asked by Telkom to tender for a R600-million contract to manufacture telephone cards until 2005. Gumede bought ACT and the Telkom tender was subsequently awarded to GAST. During a 2006 inquiry by the master of the high court into ACT's liquidation Sterenborg accused Gumede of irregularly diverting the phone card tender to his own company [GAST] while ACT was in dire need of revenue. However, Gumede told the M&G this week he believed Sterenborg "abandoned" the inquiry because he knew it would make adverse findings against him and not Gumede. Now the SAPS is investigating allegations that Telkom executives received benefits from Gumede while adjudicating his bid for the phone card contract.
Gumede told the M&G: "Your approach to this issue is clear: 'Aha, we have dirt on a man who is funding the ANC. Let's expose him.' But you know as well as I do that this 'dirt' does not exist -- because it is not 'dirt' on me, it is mud that was thrown at me by someone (the British citizen Dr John Sterenborg) who has himself been exposed as a liar, fraudster, an extortionist and a rogue," Gumede said in response to the M&G's questions. "I am not aware of any so-called investigation and will expect the SAPS to talk to me directly if there is such an investigation ... I am a law-abiding citizen."
Source: Mail & Guardian
Gumede, who recently donated R10-million to the ANC during a fundraising dinner in Sandton, vehemently denies bribing Telkom officials and said he was not aware of the police's probe against him. The charge comes after a series of battles between Gumede and his former business partner, John Sterenborg. Gumede claims to have won all combat rounds thus far. Sterenborg, who lives in England, could not be reached for comment.
The Mail & Guardian has established that the South African Police Service's commercial branch in Johannesburg is actively pursuing the corruption charge against Gumede, relating to the award of a R600-million tender by Telkom to his Gijima Afrika Smart Technologies (GAST) in 2002. GAST is not related to the listed GijimaAST, which Gumede joined in 2005 as its black empowerment partner. Gumede's Guma group, formerly known as Gijima, acquired 37% of AST's shares in 2005 to form GijimaAST. Gumede is the non-executive chairperson of GijimaAST. The investigation of Gumede follows several bouts of litigation between him and Sterenborg about the acquisition of Applied Card Technologies (ACT), a smart-card manufacturer previously owned by Sterenborg.
Gumede was Sterenborg's black business partner in ACT when the company was placed under provisional liquidation. During that period ACT was asked by Telkom to tender for a R600-million contract to manufacture telephone cards until 2005. Gumede bought ACT and the Telkom tender was subsequently awarded to GAST. During a 2006 inquiry by the master of the high court into ACT's liquidation Sterenborg accused Gumede of irregularly diverting the phone card tender to his own company [GAST] while ACT was in dire need of revenue. However, Gumede told the M&G this week he believed Sterenborg "abandoned" the inquiry because he knew it would make adverse findings against him and not Gumede. Now the SAPS is investigating allegations that Telkom executives received benefits from Gumede while adjudicating his bid for the phone card contract.
Gumede told the M&G: "Your approach to this issue is clear: 'Aha, we have dirt on a man who is funding the ANC. Let's expose him.' But you know as well as I do that this 'dirt' does not exist -- because it is not 'dirt' on me, it is mud that was thrown at me by someone (the British citizen Dr John Sterenborg) who has himself been exposed as a liar, fraudster, an extortionist and a rogue," Gumede said in response to the M&G's questions. "I am not aware of any so-called investigation and will expect the SAPS to talk to me directly if there is such an investigation ... I am a law-abiding citizen."
Source: Mail & Guardian
Monday, October 13, 2008
Politics influencing Zuma probe
The Scorpions' investigations into ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma are calculated to undermine any leadership role he holds or is called to hold in the ANC, his lawyer said on Thursday.
Michael Hulley said a recent meeting convened by the head of the Directorate of Special Operations (Scorpions) which aimed to consider resolutions adopted by the ANC at its mid-year Policy Conference was a matter of "grave concern". "It is a matter of concern that the Scorpions would deem it necessary to react to resolutions of a political party in a manner which influences its prosecutorial decisions against Mr Zuma and other named individuals," he said. Hulley said that at the meeting, the "Zuma matter" was considered problematic and needed to handled in view of the ANC National Conference in December.
He said that according to the minutes of the meeting, Scorpions head Leonard McCarthy and other regional heads and investigators resolved to use "Hollywood Style" tactics to "market" the Scorpions, lobby politicians favourable to the Scorpions "with a view to influence them" and lobby named business executives favourable to the Scorpions in order to similarly influence them. This all needed to be done before the national conference, he said. "This has re-affirmed the long held view that the ongoing investigation against Mr Zuma is influenced by improper political motive, calculated to frustrate any leadership role to which Mr Zuma may be called, by the membership of the ANC," he said.
Hulley said repeated denials by the National Prosecuting Authority and in turn the Scorpions that they had acted without favour or prejudice regarding Zuma, were, in light of recent findings, a "cold comfort".
Source: News 24
Michael Hulley said a recent meeting convened by the head of the Directorate of Special Operations (Scorpions) which aimed to consider resolutions adopted by the ANC at its mid-year Policy Conference was a matter of "grave concern". "It is a matter of concern that the Scorpions would deem it necessary to react to resolutions of a political party in a manner which influences its prosecutorial decisions against Mr Zuma and other named individuals," he said. Hulley said that at the meeting, the "Zuma matter" was considered problematic and needed to handled in view of the ANC National Conference in December.
He said that according to the minutes of the meeting, Scorpions head Leonard McCarthy and other regional heads and investigators resolved to use "Hollywood Style" tactics to "market" the Scorpions, lobby politicians favourable to the Scorpions "with a view to influence them" and lobby named business executives favourable to the Scorpions in order to similarly influence them. This all needed to be done before the national conference, he said. "This has re-affirmed the long held view that the ongoing investigation against Mr Zuma is influenced by improper political motive, calculated to frustrate any leadership role to which Mr Zuma may be called, by the membership of the ANC," he said.
Hulley said repeated denials by the National Prosecuting Authority and in turn the Scorpions that they had acted without favour or prejudice regarding Zuma, were, in light of recent findings, a "cold comfort".
Source: News 24
Thursday, October 9, 2008
U.S. Africa Command Stands Up
On the first day of October, the new United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) became fully operational. The last major action proposed by former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the new command is chartered to support U.S. military and diplomatic initiatives across a huge continent and among an enormously diverse population. It's no secret that the decision to establish the command was controversial in Africa, and that reception initially ranged from cool to frosty, though that is said to be warming slightly.
Certainly the new command is making every effort to appear helpful and collaborative. The four-star commander has two deputy commanders, one three-star for military operations and one ambassador for civil-military relations; its mission statement and other supporting guidance focus on "soft" activities like conflict prevention, consultation and aid. Signally, the title "combatant command," another holdover from the Rumsfeld era, does not appear, replaced instead by "regional military command" and the more historic "unified command." Considering the state of affairs on the African continent, this is all to the good.
Despite understandable uneasiness (or confusion) in some African capitols, this is a propitious time for Africom to stand up. First, change is coming to Africa, though unevenly. In the Moslem north, would-be moderate Arab states are clashing with radical Islamist movements. In the south, states like Botswana are emerging as stable countries after decades of post-colonial and post-Cold War violence; South Africa, the regional powerhouse, continues its emergence from apartheid to a true modern, multiparty democracy. American objectives and policies, distracted by ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and chastened by reality, are more likely to be more consultative and expectations are likely to be more modest than when the Neocons made sweeping gestures over large-scale maps. As a result, U.S. Africa Command's operations are likely to be more truly sensitive to the concerns and needs of host countries than previously, and the United States will be less likely to blunder into ill-considered adventures on the continent. The command's new structure and the military-civil makeup of its staff holds out the hope that U.S. civil-military operations will at long last be better coordinated.
There are certainly reasons why the United States should be involved in Africa's continued development. The command's area of operations covers 53 African countries, ranging from stable democracies to utterly failed states like Somalia. Aside from internal strife from tribalism or other political friction, disintegrative narco-criminal gangs and burgeoning Islamic radicalism challenge many of Africa's 53 states. State terrorism, such as in Sudan, continues to be a source of instability and terror. Finally, the potential reemergence of great-power competition for Africa's natural resources, and in particular its energy supplies, supports a greater American focus on the continent's diverse challenges and opportunities. There has never been a real issue about whether we should take an interest in Africa; the question was always how. Here are a few suggestions for the new commander and his staff.
First, it's essential that every member of the command understand the essentially modest contribution that a headquarters of 1300 people can actually make in Africa, an enormous continent of 800 million people, where nearly half of the population is under the age of 15, where disease and malnutrition are rampant in vast areas and where, despite chaotic conditions, the economy is expected to grow 6.2 per cent next year. A strong dose of humility, and a focus on supporting the aspirations of emerging states, will go a long way.
Second, do not underestimate the great value of American diversity. While the conditions of the African diasporas to the United States was tragic, the consequences are that Africa is the ancestral home to a huge number of Americans, forging common ties of blood and kin not found with any other major power. In a sense, Africans see their African-American descendants "returning" to Africa, much like Irish-Americans going "home" to Erie. This can give the United States a huge advantage in overcoming bitter memories of colonialism if our policies and objectives recognize it.
Third, given the scope and diversity of the continent, U.S. Africa Command's activities will necessarily bring the command much closer to U.S. diplomatic missions and the chiefs of missions, the resident U.S. Ambassador. Given the Africa Command's mission and operational dynamics, the U.S. missions will essentially be the command's "maneuver units," and it is vital for the command and the U.S. ambassadors in the region to work out effective relationships. Even given the necessity for military-to-military contacts, it is the U.S. ambassador, not the commander of Africa Command, who should be the "face" of U.S. policy toward, say, South Africa or Gambia. Rather, U.S. Africa Command's dedication to effective civil-military cooperation should extend beyond its staff, and include recognition of, and support to, U.S. ambassadors and their resident military assistance teams, if present. U.S. foreign policy has a long history of confusion and occasionally conflict between diplomats and soldiers; Africom should dedicate time and effort to insuring that "conflict prevention" -- part of the Africom concept of operations -- begins at home.
Fourth, the Africom staff, teamed with appropriate Department of Defense officials, should propose and support legislation designed to untangle the present laws and regulations governing military assistance. The present laws governing U.S. assistance generally, and military assistance in particular, date back to the passionate 1970s, when legislators set out to clip the wings of military adventurism. The past decade has awakened many in Washington for the need for a fundamental rewrite, but until the present there has been no service or agency willing to take on the bone-wearying, long-term task of seeing military assistance untangled, and the advent of a new administration -- of whatever party -- makes it probable that there won't be movement on this unglamorous but vital subject for at least a couple of years. As a new command with an obvious stake in the outcome, the new military-civilian hybrid headquarters could well take this on.
Fifth, and along the lines of military assistance, the number of African military officers attending U.S. military schools should be ramped up. "African" covers a lot of ground, and in this case includes both the cosmopolitan, Europeanized officer corps of the Mediterranean littoral with those of the deepest interior. Not only would all take back to their home countries ties with America and American officers -- some of whose careers would intersect with their African classmates over the years -- but the command's, and America's interests would be considerably advanced. At present, attendance at U.S. service schools is too expensive, handled by the State Department instead of more expeditiously by Defense, and too restricted by Service classroom space; all should be reversed. Costs should be cut or shared, the Defense Department should have the lead on defense-related schools, and more classroom space should be made available. The lure of a school in the United States is a potent sweetener for military-to-military relations, and U.S. Africa Command should make this an urgent priority above other legislation outlined above. Finally, the command should vigorously resist the well-meaning suggestion, made in some quarters, that special schools or courses should be organized for African officers. The ghettoization of African officers to second-rate schools -- for that is exactly how it would be perceived on the continent -- would be deeply resented, and would frustrate the strategic intent of schooling foreign officers in American classes, alongside American counterparts.
At a recent conference, retired ambassador Bob Houdek, a senior official with wide experience in Africa and the national intelligence community, spoke urgently against the placement of Africom headquarters in Africa itself. Ambassador Houdek pointed out that the establishment of a thousand-person headquarters, with families and homes maintained to U.S. standard, with the attendant and necessary security measures --walls, barbed-wire fences, armored cars -- would create the appearance of a colonial oasis in the midst of a country most liable to be in poverty, and at the mercy of unanticipated coups and changes of government. Better, he said convincingly, to put the headquarters in the United States, as in the case of Central Command, and commute to advanced command posts in Africa when necessary. The United States, he pointed out, is in the process of closing a number of posts in the United States that could easily accommodate a unified command headquarters at a minimum of the cost of establishing a U.S. base in Africa.
Whatever the final form it takes, the establishment of U.S. Africa Command is a good idea whose time has come -- finally. The command's emphasis on civil-military integration and a low-key operational profile is appropriate and well suited to its mission. We should wish it well.
Source: USAFRICOM
Certainly the new command is making every effort to appear helpful and collaborative. The four-star commander has two deputy commanders, one three-star for military operations and one ambassador for civil-military relations; its mission statement and other supporting guidance focus on "soft" activities like conflict prevention, consultation and aid. Signally, the title "combatant command," another holdover from the Rumsfeld era, does not appear, replaced instead by "regional military command" and the more historic "unified command." Considering the state of affairs on the African continent, this is all to the good.
Despite understandable uneasiness (or confusion) in some African capitols, this is a propitious time for Africom to stand up. First, change is coming to Africa, though unevenly. In the Moslem north, would-be moderate Arab states are clashing with radical Islamist movements. In the south, states like Botswana are emerging as stable countries after decades of post-colonial and post-Cold War violence; South Africa, the regional powerhouse, continues its emergence from apartheid to a true modern, multiparty democracy. American objectives and policies, distracted by ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and chastened by reality, are more likely to be more consultative and expectations are likely to be more modest than when the Neocons made sweeping gestures over large-scale maps. As a result, U.S. Africa Command's operations are likely to be more truly sensitive to the concerns and needs of host countries than previously, and the United States will be less likely to blunder into ill-considered adventures on the continent. The command's new structure and the military-civil makeup of its staff holds out the hope that U.S. civil-military operations will at long last be better coordinated.
There are certainly reasons why the United States should be involved in Africa's continued development. The command's area of operations covers 53 African countries, ranging from stable democracies to utterly failed states like Somalia. Aside from internal strife from tribalism or other political friction, disintegrative narco-criminal gangs and burgeoning Islamic radicalism challenge many of Africa's 53 states. State terrorism, such as in Sudan, continues to be a source of instability and terror. Finally, the potential reemergence of great-power competition for Africa's natural resources, and in particular its energy supplies, supports a greater American focus on the continent's diverse challenges and opportunities. There has never been a real issue about whether we should take an interest in Africa; the question was always how. Here are a few suggestions for the new commander and his staff.
First, it's essential that every member of the command understand the essentially modest contribution that a headquarters of 1300 people can actually make in Africa, an enormous continent of 800 million people, where nearly half of the population is under the age of 15, where disease and malnutrition are rampant in vast areas and where, despite chaotic conditions, the economy is expected to grow 6.2 per cent next year. A strong dose of humility, and a focus on supporting the aspirations of emerging states, will go a long way.
Second, do not underestimate the great value of American diversity. While the conditions of the African diasporas to the United States was tragic, the consequences are that Africa is the ancestral home to a huge number of Americans, forging common ties of blood and kin not found with any other major power. In a sense, Africans see their African-American descendants "returning" to Africa, much like Irish-Americans going "home" to Erie. This can give the United States a huge advantage in overcoming bitter memories of colonialism if our policies and objectives recognize it.
Third, given the scope and diversity of the continent, U.S. Africa Command's activities will necessarily bring the command much closer to U.S. diplomatic missions and the chiefs of missions, the resident U.S. Ambassador. Given the Africa Command's mission and operational dynamics, the U.S. missions will essentially be the command's "maneuver units," and it is vital for the command and the U.S. ambassadors in the region to work out effective relationships. Even given the necessity for military-to-military contacts, it is the U.S. ambassador, not the commander of Africa Command, who should be the "face" of U.S. policy toward, say, South Africa or Gambia. Rather, U.S. Africa Command's dedication to effective civil-military cooperation should extend beyond its staff, and include recognition of, and support to, U.S. ambassadors and their resident military assistance teams, if present. U.S. foreign policy has a long history of confusion and occasionally conflict between diplomats and soldiers; Africom should dedicate time and effort to insuring that "conflict prevention" -- part of the Africom concept of operations -- begins at home.
Fourth, the Africom staff, teamed with appropriate Department of Defense officials, should propose and support legislation designed to untangle the present laws and regulations governing military assistance. The present laws governing U.S. assistance generally, and military assistance in particular, date back to the passionate 1970s, when legislators set out to clip the wings of military adventurism. The past decade has awakened many in Washington for the need for a fundamental rewrite, but until the present there has been no service or agency willing to take on the bone-wearying, long-term task of seeing military assistance untangled, and the advent of a new administration -- of whatever party -- makes it probable that there won't be movement on this unglamorous but vital subject for at least a couple of years. As a new command with an obvious stake in the outcome, the new military-civilian hybrid headquarters could well take this on.
Fifth, and along the lines of military assistance, the number of African military officers attending U.S. military schools should be ramped up. "African" covers a lot of ground, and in this case includes both the cosmopolitan, Europeanized officer corps of the Mediterranean littoral with those of the deepest interior. Not only would all take back to their home countries ties with America and American officers -- some of whose careers would intersect with their African classmates over the years -- but the command's, and America's interests would be considerably advanced. At present, attendance at U.S. service schools is too expensive, handled by the State Department instead of more expeditiously by Defense, and too restricted by Service classroom space; all should be reversed. Costs should be cut or shared, the Defense Department should have the lead on defense-related schools, and more classroom space should be made available. The lure of a school in the United States is a potent sweetener for military-to-military relations, and U.S. Africa Command should make this an urgent priority above other legislation outlined above. Finally, the command should vigorously resist the well-meaning suggestion, made in some quarters, that special schools or courses should be organized for African officers. The ghettoization of African officers to second-rate schools -- for that is exactly how it would be perceived on the continent -- would be deeply resented, and would frustrate the strategic intent of schooling foreign officers in American classes, alongside American counterparts.
At a recent conference, retired ambassador Bob Houdek, a senior official with wide experience in Africa and the national intelligence community, spoke urgently against the placement of Africom headquarters in Africa itself. Ambassador Houdek pointed out that the establishment of a thousand-person headquarters, with families and homes maintained to U.S. standard, with the attendant and necessary security measures --walls, barbed-wire fences, armored cars -- would create the appearance of a colonial oasis in the midst of a country most liable to be in poverty, and at the mercy of unanticipated coups and changes of government. Better, he said convincingly, to put the headquarters in the United States, as in the case of Central Command, and commute to advanced command posts in Africa when necessary. The United States, he pointed out, is in the process of closing a number of posts in the United States that could easily accommodate a unified command headquarters at a minimum of the cost of establishing a U.S. base in Africa.
Whatever the final form it takes, the establishment of U.S. Africa Command is a good idea whose time has come -- finally. The command's emphasis on civil-military integration and a low-key operational profile is appropriate and well suited to its mission. We should wish it well.
Source: USAFRICOM
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Plans to mine Wild Coast postponed
Controversial plans to mine titanium at Xolobeni on a pristine stretch of the Wild Coast have been put on hold. The decision came after Minister of Minerals and Energy Buyelwa Sonjica declared that more consultation with the community is needed.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Source: Mail & Guardian
Russian troops leave Georgia war zones
Russian forces on Wednesday abandoned military positions deep inside Georgia in a major pull-back the Kremlin vowed to complete by midnight, two months after the South Ossetia war began.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Source: Mail & Guardian
In bleak forecast, IMF sees major global downturn
In its bleakest forecast in years, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Wednesday the world economy was set for a major downturn, with the United States and Europe either in or on the brink of recession.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Source: Mail & Guardian
Mandoza found guilty of culpable homicide
Kwaito music star Mandoza was found guilty of culpable homicide by the Roodepoort Magistrate's Court on Monday. Justice spokesperson Zolile Nqayi said 30-year-old Mandoza, whose real name is Mduduzi Tshabalala, pleaded guilty to the charge that stemmed from a car accident in March last year.
Two men were killed in the crash on the N1 highway outside Johannesburg. Mandoza admitted that he caused the accident when he drove into the back of the victims' VW Jetta at high speed with his Chrysler Crossfire. He was given a prison sentence of three years and nine months, suspended for five years.
Mandoza was also ordered to reimburse the families of the deceased for all costs incurred because of the accident.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Two men were killed in the crash on the N1 highway outside Johannesburg. Mandoza admitted that he caused the accident when he drove into the back of the victims' VW Jetta at high speed with his Chrysler Crossfire. He was given a prison sentence of three years and nine months, suspended for five years.
Mandoza was also ordered to reimburse the families of the deceased for all costs incurred because of the accident.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Russia's last tsar rehabilitated
Russia's Supreme Court has ruled that the last Tsar, Nicholas II, and his family were victims of political repression and should be rehabilitated. The rehabilitation has long been demanded by imperial descendants.
Nicholas, his wife Alexandra, their five children, doctor and three servants were shot dead by Bolshevik revolutionaries in July, 1918. Lower courts had previously refused to reclassify the killings, which had been categorised as simply murder. The Romanov family have been canonised as saints by the Orthodox Church, which has enjoyed a post-Soviet revival. For most of the last century, Tsar Nicholas II was officially reviled as a tyrant. To Russia's Soviet regime, he personified all they had tried to destroy in the revolution of 1917. The Romanovs were shot by a firing squad without a trial, in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg.
The Supreme Court "declared as groundless the repression of Tsar Nicholas II and his family and ordered their rehabilitation", the judge's decision said on Wednesday. The ruling overturned a decision by a Supreme Court panel in November 2007 not to rehabilitate the imperial family.
The descendants' lawyer, German Lukyanov, argued that the lack of a trial was not sufficient grounds to reject the plea that they be considered victims of political repression. Coercion by state bodies, restricting the freedom and rights of citizens for class, religious or social reasons, constituted repression, he told the court.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, official attitudes to the royal family have changed dramatically. In 1998, their remains were reburied with great ceremony in St Petersburg. The BBC's James Rodgers in Moscow says the supreme court's decision is largely symbolic - but has been welcomed by monarchists and the tsar's descendants.
Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, a Romanov descendant who led the campaign to get the imperial family rehabilitated, "expressed her joy and satisfaction after the decision," her spokesman Alexander Zakatov told the AFP news agency.
A spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church, Georgy Ryabykh, said the decision "strengthens the rule of law, restores historical continuity and 1,000 years of state tradition".
Source: BBC News
Nicholas, his wife Alexandra, their five children, doctor and three servants were shot dead by Bolshevik revolutionaries in July, 1918. Lower courts had previously refused to reclassify the killings, which had been categorised as simply murder. The Romanov family have been canonised as saints by the Orthodox Church, which has enjoyed a post-Soviet revival. For most of the last century, Tsar Nicholas II was officially reviled as a tyrant. To Russia's Soviet regime, he personified all they had tried to destroy in the revolution of 1917. The Romanovs were shot by a firing squad without a trial, in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg.
The Supreme Court "declared as groundless the repression of Tsar Nicholas II and his family and ordered their rehabilitation", the judge's decision said on Wednesday. The ruling overturned a decision by a Supreme Court panel in November 2007 not to rehabilitate the imperial family.
The descendants' lawyer, German Lukyanov, argued that the lack of a trial was not sufficient grounds to reject the plea that they be considered victims of political repression. Coercion by state bodies, restricting the freedom and rights of citizens for class, religious or social reasons, constituted repression, he told the court.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, official attitudes to the royal family have changed dramatically. In 1998, their remains were reburied with great ceremony in St Petersburg. The BBC's James Rodgers in Moscow says the supreme court's decision is largely symbolic - but has been welcomed by monarchists and the tsar's descendants.
Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, a Romanov descendant who led the campaign to get the imperial family rehabilitated, "expressed her joy and satisfaction after the decision," her spokesman Alexander Zakatov told the AFP news agency.
A spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church, Georgy Ryabykh, said the decision "strengthens the rule of law, restores historical continuity and 1,000 years of state tradition".
Source: BBC News
Monday, September 29, 2008
Western Cape ANC denies obvious rift
The entire Western Cape ANC is denying that it faces a major rift along political fault lines between its former chair, James Ngculu, and former premier, Ebrahim Rasool, on the one hand and its newly elected chair, Mcebisi Skwatsha, on the other.
Last week the ANC in the province held its long-awaited provincial conference and the Skwatsha grouping -- seen as strongly pro-Zuma -- made a clean sweep of the top five positions by unanimously electing Skwatsha as party chairperson, Premier Lynne Brown as deputy chair, Sipho Kroma as secretary, Max Ozinsky as deputy secretary and Songezo Mjongile as treasurer.
In contrast with other recent provincial conferences of the ruling party there were no threats, intimidation or mayhem, but about 42% of branches (86 of 205) boycotted the conference claiming that they were deliberately excluded because they supported Lerumo Kalako for the position of chairperson.
Kalako is seen as a Thabo Mbeki supporter and a staunch backer of now ousted Ngculu. He told the Mail & Guardian on Thursday: "I have nothing to say. It's best if you phone Skwatsha and Ozinsky for their comments." Although a member of the ANC's provincial executive committee, recently ousted premier Rasool did not attend the conference either. He told the local media that he did not want to cause further divisions in the organisation.
On the first day of the conference regional secretary Mbulelo Ncedana and about 500 of his supporters held an alternative meeting in Langa, where Ngculu addressed them after delivering his formal conference address. On both sides of the political divide ANC members deny that the boycott of the conference marks an imminent split in the organisation. Garth Strachan, Western Cape finance minister, said the ANC has 54 000 signed-up members in the province, of whom about 400 were disaffected. "These people chose to step outside due process and they're bringing the name of the ANC into disrepute. They're doing the opposition's work for them and we don't see this as signifying a split in the ANC." Strachan is adamant that the ANC's national leadership, under the chairmanship of NEC member Fikile Mbalula, listened to the concerns of the disgruntled members.
Ncedane sent a memorandum to the national executive committee claiming that Skwatsha and his supporters manipulated branches attending the conference to ensure a Skwatsha victory. Both Strachan and Ozinsky denied this. "When you're a democrat you have to abide by the democratic process. You can't cry foul and boycott the process because you don't like the majority vote," Ozinsky said. "Honestly, we're worried about the divisions in the province. It's worrying if senior provincial leaders are playing a factional and divisive role with the intention of disrupting the highest organ of the organisation in the province, namely the conference."
Regional executive committee member Yengwayo Kutta said he and others decided to boycott the conference because "there had been a clear attempt to exclude branches that supported Kalako as the ANC chair". "Eighty-five branches out of 205 are not participating because we're unhappy with the process. Branches in good standing were excluded because of political interference. I myself believe that the conference is fraudulent," Kutta said. "We want the national leadership to listen to our concerns and then we would like another, more inclusive, conference to be held."
Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Last week the ANC in the province held its long-awaited provincial conference and the Skwatsha grouping -- seen as strongly pro-Zuma -- made a clean sweep of the top five positions by unanimously electing Skwatsha as party chairperson, Premier Lynne Brown as deputy chair, Sipho Kroma as secretary, Max Ozinsky as deputy secretary and Songezo Mjongile as treasurer.
In contrast with other recent provincial conferences of the ruling party there were no threats, intimidation or mayhem, but about 42% of branches (86 of 205) boycotted the conference claiming that they were deliberately excluded because they supported Lerumo Kalako for the position of chairperson.
Kalako is seen as a Thabo Mbeki supporter and a staunch backer of now ousted Ngculu. He told the Mail & Guardian on Thursday: "I have nothing to say. It's best if you phone Skwatsha and Ozinsky for their comments." Although a member of the ANC's provincial executive committee, recently ousted premier Rasool did not attend the conference either. He told the local media that he did not want to cause further divisions in the organisation.
On the first day of the conference regional secretary Mbulelo Ncedana and about 500 of his supporters held an alternative meeting in Langa, where Ngculu addressed them after delivering his formal conference address. On both sides of the political divide ANC members deny that the boycott of the conference marks an imminent split in the organisation. Garth Strachan, Western Cape finance minister, said the ANC has 54 000 signed-up members in the province, of whom about 400 were disaffected. "These people chose to step outside due process and they're bringing the name of the ANC into disrepute. They're doing the opposition's work for them and we don't see this as signifying a split in the ANC." Strachan is adamant that the ANC's national leadership, under the chairmanship of NEC member Fikile Mbalula, listened to the concerns of the disgruntled members.
Ncedane sent a memorandum to the national executive committee claiming that Skwatsha and his supporters manipulated branches attending the conference to ensure a Skwatsha victory. Both Strachan and Ozinsky denied this. "When you're a democrat you have to abide by the democratic process. You can't cry foul and boycott the process because you don't like the majority vote," Ozinsky said. "Honestly, we're worried about the divisions in the province. It's worrying if senior provincial leaders are playing a factional and divisive role with the intention of disrupting the highest organ of the organisation in the province, namely the conference."
Regional executive committee member Yengwayo Kutta said he and others decided to boycott the conference because "there had been a clear attempt to exclude branches that supported Kalako as the ANC chair". "Eighty-five branches out of 205 are not participating because we're unhappy with the process. Branches in good standing were excluded because of political interference. I myself believe that the conference is fraudulent," Kutta said. "We want the national leadership to listen to our concerns and then we would like another, more inclusive, conference to be held."
Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Sunday, September 28, 2008
'Child' Malema smacked
Tensions are appearing in the Jacob Zuma camp of the ANC, with senior cabinet minister Zola Skweyiya slamming the "shocking" disrespect shown to Thabo Mbeki in the past year. And he singled out Julius Malema, the controversial ANC Youth League leader, for particular censure, describing him as "an embarrassment to the party" and "un-African". He added: "People... call me every night complaining 'What are you doing about this child?'."
Skweyiya, widely regarded as representing "the soul" of the ruling party, went so far as to invoke legendary ANC leader Oliver Tambo, saying: "If Tambo woke up and found the ANC the way it is, he would have run back to his grave... he would say, 'That can't be my ANC'."
Though a member of the ANC national executive committee, which last weekend decided to axe Mbeki as president of the country, Skweyiya has fiercely criticised the way Mbeki has been treated since he lost his position as president of the party to Zuma in Polokwane in December. Skweyiya was not one of the cabinet ministers who resigned in the wake of Mbeki's departure this week, but he indicated that he would probably retire at the end of his term of office.
In an interview with The Sunday Independent, Skweyiya pulled no punches. He criticised the ANC for not acting against those who had tried to humiliate Mbeki. "We kept quiet... The way Thabo was treated was really shocking to me. Thabo was our president, whether we like it or not. The fact is he was the president of this country and he represented the people of South Africa... That needs to be respected if we respect our constitution. I personally didn't like that." He cited the humiliating incident in Durban last year when Zuma supporters disrupted proceedings during the visit of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and the repeated and much-publicised outbursts against Mbeki by the Youth League president.
Malema's ridiculing of Mbeki was unacceptable, he said. "You can't talk about the president like that... of the ANC and also of the state. It's very sad that [Malema] says he can fire Zuma. "Who is he? He's not even a member of the national executive committee. "How can he fire Zuma when Zuma has been elected by the ANC, by the people? The Youth League does not determine the policy of the ANC."
Malema was an embarrassment to the party and had to be brought into line, Skweyiya said. The party leadership had repeatedly told the youth leader to shut up but he disregarded them. Skweyiya suggested that Malema was ignorant of the ANC's history because he kept asserting that the Youth League was an "autonomous" structure. But youth leaders before Malema had taken instructions from the "mother body", even if they had not agreed with them.
Skweyiya added that Malema's conduct was un-African. "We are Africans and an elderly person is an elderly person. We say, 'You shall not dishonour your parents'. If you can't respect that, what does he think?" Skweyiya found the attacks on the judiciary and the Human Rights Commission by members of the ANC's tripartite alliance "painful". "How we treated our judges... has not been a nice thing. You might not like the judgments but... those are judges. One of the basic conditions that this government [agreed to when it] came into power was the independence of the judiciary, even though we knew that it wouldn't transform rapidly. "[And] the way we treated the Human Rights Commission is for me something very painful."
Skweyiya's remarks about Mbeki echoed those made by two veteran opposition leaders in parliament this week. IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi and PAC MP Motsoko Pheko told MPs that the disrespect shown to the president was unacceptable.
Pheko said that the office of president should be "treated with the dignity it deserves". His remarks were greeted in parliament by an animated Buthelezi, who jumped up from his front bench and, punching his fist in the air, shouted in approval: "That's the truth, that's the truth!"
Later, in parliament, President Kgalema Motlanthe reminded MPs of his predecessor's achievements and leadership. He thanked Mbeki, in whose cabinet, he briefly served. "We have been privileged to have had you as our president these last nine years," he said.
Source: IoL
Skweyiya, widely regarded as representing "the soul" of the ruling party, went so far as to invoke legendary ANC leader Oliver Tambo, saying: "If Tambo woke up and found the ANC the way it is, he would have run back to his grave... he would say, 'That can't be my ANC'."
Though a member of the ANC national executive committee, which last weekend decided to axe Mbeki as president of the country, Skweyiya has fiercely criticised the way Mbeki has been treated since he lost his position as president of the party to Zuma in Polokwane in December. Skweyiya was not one of the cabinet ministers who resigned in the wake of Mbeki's departure this week, but he indicated that he would probably retire at the end of his term of office.
In an interview with The Sunday Independent, Skweyiya pulled no punches. He criticised the ANC for not acting against those who had tried to humiliate Mbeki. "We kept quiet... The way Thabo was treated was really shocking to me. Thabo was our president, whether we like it or not. The fact is he was the president of this country and he represented the people of South Africa... That needs to be respected if we respect our constitution. I personally didn't like that." He cited the humiliating incident in Durban last year when Zuma supporters disrupted proceedings during the visit of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and the repeated and much-publicised outbursts against Mbeki by the Youth League president.
Malema's ridiculing of Mbeki was unacceptable, he said. "You can't talk about the president like that... of the ANC and also of the state. It's very sad that [Malema] says he can fire Zuma. "Who is he? He's not even a member of the national executive committee. "How can he fire Zuma when Zuma has been elected by the ANC, by the people? The Youth League does not determine the policy of the ANC."
Malema was an embarrassment to the party and had to be brought into line, Skweyiya said. The party leadership had repeatedly told the youth leader to shut up but he disregarded them. Skweyiya suggested that Malema was ignorant of the ANC's history because he kept asserting that the Youth League was an "autonomous" structure. But youth leaders before Malema had taken instructions from the "mother body", even if they had not agreed with them.
Skweyiya added that Malema's conduct was un-African. "We are Africans and an elderly person is an elderly person. We say, 'You shall not dishonour your parents'. If you can't respect that, what does he think?" Skweyiya found the attacks on the judiciary and the Human Rights Commission by members of the ANC's tripartite alliance "painful". "How we treated our judges... has not been a nice thing. You might not like the judgments but... those are judges. One of the basic conditions that this government [agreed to when it] came into power was the independence of the judiciary, even though we knew that it wouldn't transform rapidly. "[And] the way we treated the Human Rights Commission is for me something very painful."
Skweyiya's remarks about Mbeki echoed those made by two veteran opposition leaders in parliament this week. IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi and PAC MP Motsoko Pheko told MPs that the disrespect shown to the president was unacceptable.
Pheko said that the office of president should be "treated with the dignity it deserves". His remarks were greeted in parliament by an animated Buthelezi, who jumped up from his front bench and, punching his fist in the air, shouted in approval: "That's the truth, that's the truth!"
Later, in parliament, President Kgalema Motlanthe reminded MPs of his predecessor's achievements and leadership. He thanked Mbeki, in whose cabinet, he briefly served. "We have been privileged to have had you as our president these last nine years," he said.
Source: IoL
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Biggest US bank failure ever
The collapse of the Seattle-based firm, the sixth largest US bank and the largest savings and loan company in the country, was the biggest bank failure in American history.
With $307 billion in assets, $188 billion in deposits and more than 2,200 branches, Washington Mutual’s failure by far eclipsed the previous record bank collapse, that of Continental Illinois in 1984. The latter had $40 billion in assets at the time of its demise.
Source: World Socialist Web
With $307 billion in assets, $188 billion in deposits and more than 2,200 branches, Washington Mutual’s failure by far eclipsed the previous record bank collapse, that of Continental Illinois in 1984. The latter had $40 billion in assets at the time of its demise.
Source: World Socialist Web
Friday, September 26, 2008
Manto axed from Health portfolio
Newly elected President Kgalema Motlanthe used the limited room afforded by a partial Cabinet reshuffle to promise stability, sideline the deeply unpopular Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and soothe divided provincial ANC structures.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Source: Mail & Guardian
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Motlanthe moves to steady the ship
The government will remain true to the policies that have kept South Africa steady and ensured sustained growth, newly elected President Kgalema Motlanthe said on Thursday.
In naming his Cabinet, he reappointed Trevor Manuel as Finance Minister and said his deputy would be Baleka Mbete. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma was reappointed as Foreign Minister. Controversial Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has become a Minister in the Presidency.
New ministers were:
* Defence: Charles Nqakula
* Justice and Constitutional Development: Enver Surty
* Health: Barbara Hogan
* Safety and Security: Nathi Mthethwa
* Public Enterprises: Brigitte Mabandla
* Public Works: Geoff Doidge
* Intelligence: Siyabonga Cwele
Those who retained their positions were:
# Social Development: Zola Skweyiya
# Education: Naledi Pandor
# Labour: Membathisi Mdladlana
# Correctional Services: Ngconde Balfour
# Housing: Lindiwe Sisulu
# Arts and Culture: Pallo Jordan
# Sport and Recreation: Makhenkesi Stofile
# Environmental Affairs and Tourism: Marthinus van Schalkwyk
# Water Affairs and Forestry: Lindiwe Hendricks
# Minerals and Energy, Buyelwa Sonjica
# Home Affairs, Noziviwe Mapisa-Nqakula
In his acceptance speech to the National Assembly after being sworn in by Chief Justice Pius Langa, Motlanthe said it was not his desire to "deviate from what is working".
Source: Mail & Guardian
In naming his Cabinet, he reappointed Trevor Manuel as Finance Minister and said his deputy would be Baleka Mbete. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma was reappointed as Foreign Minister. Controversial Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has become a Minister in the Presidency.
New ministers were:
* Defence: Charles Nqakula
* Justice and Constitutional Development: Enver Surty
* Health: Barbara Hogan
* Safety and Security: Nathi Mthethwa
* Public Enterprises: Brigitte Mabandla
* Public Works: Geoff Doidge
* Intelligence: Siyabonga Cwele
Those who retained their positions were:
# Social Development: Zola Skweyiya
# Education: Naledi Pandor
# Labour: Membathisi Mdladlana
# Correctional Services: Ngconde Balfour
# Housing: Lindiwe Sisulu
# Arts and Culture: Pallo Jordan
# Sport and Recreation: Makhenkesi Stofile
# Environmental Affairs and Tourism: Marthinus van Schalkwyk
# Water Affairs and Forestry: Lindiwe Hendricks
# Minerals and Energy, Buyelwa Sonjica
# Home Affairs, Noziviwe Mapisa-Nqakula
In his acceptance speech to the National Assembly after being sworn in by Chief Justice Pius Langa, Motlanthe said it was not his desire to "deviate from what is working".
Source: Mail & Guardian
Opposition congratulate Motlanthe
PARLIAMENT - Political parties across the spectrum congratulated newly elected President Kgalema Motlanthe in the National Assembly on Thursday.
Source: Citizen
Source: Citizen
Motlanthe sworn in
PARLIAMENT - Newly elected President Kgalema Motlanthe was officially sworn in by Chief Justice Pius Langa at Tuynhuys, adjacent to Parliament, on Thursday afternoon.
Motlanthe was elected by majority vote of MPs in the National Assembly earlier.
Accepting his election, he said he was humbled and honoured by the faith and confidence placed in him.
“I undertake this responsibility fully cognicent of the duties and responsibilities that are attached to this high office and the expectations the people of this nation rightly have of the head of state,” he said.
Source: The Citizen
Motlanthe was elected by majority vote of MPs in the National Assembly earlier.
Accepting his election, he said he was humbled and honoured by the faith and confidence placed in him.
“I undertake this responsibility fully cognicent of the duties and responsibilities that are attached to this high office and the expectations the people of this nation rightly have of the head of state,” he said.
Source: The Citizen
Motlanthe elected South African president
The deputy president of the African National Congress (ANC), Kgalema Motlanthe, was elected President of South Africa in the National Assembly on Thursday by 269 votes to the 50 cast for the chairperson of the Democratic Alliance, Joe Seremane.
There were 41 spoilt ballots.
Source: Mail & Guardian
There were 41 spoilt ballots.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Financial crisis casts cloud over UN poverty meeting
Heads of state, private-sector leaders and development agencies will this week assess the global fight against poverty, where progress is threatened by upheaval in global markets and soaring food prices.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Source: Mail & Guardian
New Minster of Intelligence
President Kgalema Motlanthe on Thursday appointed Dr Siyabonga Cwele as the new minister of intelligence. It is to replace Ronnie Kasrils, who has retired.
He served in the ANC underground structures from 1984 until 1990. He became a member of Parliament in 1994 and was well regarded as the chairperson of the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence. But the committee was criticised for operating behind closed doors and never being open enough. They also trashed the inspector general of intelligence’s report which found against former NIA director general Billy Masetlha in 1996, in the interests of the Zuma camp.
People who have worked with him describe him as hardworking and independent-minded. His public statements have included an emphasis on the basics: intelligence as a means of combating crime and guaranteeing public safety.
Cwele received an MBchB from the University of KwaZulu Natal in 1984, and later also completed his MPhil in Economic Policy at the University of Stellenbosch
source: News 24
He served in the ANC underground structures from 1984 until 1990. He became a member of Parliament in 1994 and was well regarded as the chairperson of the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence. But the committee was criticised for operating behind closed doors and never being open enough. They also trashed the inspector general of intelligence’s report which found against former NIA director general Billy Masetlha in 1996, in the interests of the Zuma camp.
People who have worked with him describe him as hardworking and independent-minded. His public statements have included an emphasis on the basics: intelligence as a means of combating crime and guaranteeing public safety.
Cwele received an MBchB from the University of KwaZulu Natal in 1984, and later also completed his MPhil in Economic Policy at the University of Stellenbosch
source: News 24
Kasrils shields his legacy
Outgoing intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils engaged in a last-minute scramble this week to protect his legacy of reform at the intelligence services. Since 2005 the National Intelligence Agency has been in the thick of claims that the Mbeki and Zuma camps abused state institutions in their battle for supremacy.
On Wednesday Kasrils persuaded outgoing president Thabo Mbeki's last Cabinet meeting to release a hard-hitting review of intelligence policy. The report recommends comprehensive reforms of the country's civilian spy agencies, in particular the NIA, the South African Secret Service (SASS) and the National Communications Centre (NCC), responsible for the interception of electronic communication. The report recommends comprehensive reforms of the country's civilian spy agencies, in particular the NIA, the South African Secret Service (SASS) and the National Communications Centre (NCC), responsible for the interception of electronic communication.
The commission, comprising former deputy-minister Joe Matthews, former speaker Frene Ginwala and academic Laurie Nathan, was set up by Kasrils after the "hoax email" saga which led to the sacking of former NIA boss Billy Masetlha. The report, handed to Kasrils on August 7, was held back pending objections by his spy chiefs to some findings. Released on Thursday, it scrupulously avoids trespassing on operational turf, but its recommendations on the policy terrain are uncompromising. The report notes: "We are concerned that NIA's mandate may have politicised the agency, drawn it into the realm of party politics, required it to monitor and investigate legal political activity …" The commission, with the NIA's support, recommends that the mandate should narrow to focus on "terrorism, sabotage, subversion, espionage, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, organised crime and corruption" and large-scale violence and drug trafficking.
Another key finding is that some methods of surveillance currently used are illegal. The report notes that "infiltration of an organisation, physical and electronic surveillance and recruitment of an informant who reports on the private affairs of an individual or organisation ... are not regulated by legislation and are therefore unconstitutional".The commission rejected the recommendation of an earlier internal task team report that "in the hard reality of intelligence operations … it is sometimes impossible to do things by the book.When operating against terrorist threats or organised crime or other clear threats and targets, it is sometimes necessary to 'bend the rules' in order to ensure that the threat is adequately dealt with. This is an operational reality in order to ensure that the real 'nasties' do not get away with their 'nastiness'."
The commission slams this, saying it is "unconstitutional, flouts the rule of law and undermines efforts to develop an institutional culture of respect for the law…
Source: Mail & Guardian
On Wednesday Kasrils persuaded outgoing president Thabo Mbeki's last Cabinet meeting to release a hard-hitting review of intelligence policy. The report recommends comprehensive reforms of the country's civilian spy agencies, in particular the NIA, the South African Secret Service (SASS) and the National Communications Centre (NCC), responsible for the interception of electronic communication. The report recommends comprehensive reforms of the country's civilian spy agencies, in particular the NIA, the South African Secret Service (SASS) and the National Communications Centre (NCC), responsible for the interception of electronic communication.
The commission, comprising former deputy-minister Joe Matthews, former speaker Frene Ginwala and academic Laurie Nathan, was set up by Kasrils after the "hoax email" saga which led to the sacking of former NIA boss Billy Masetlha. The report, handed to Kasrils on August 7, was held back pending objections by his spy chiefs to some findings. Released on Thursday, it scrupulously avoids trespassing on operational turf, but its recommendations on the policy terrain are uncompromising. The report notes: "We are concerned that NIA's mandate may have politicised the agency, drawn it into the realm of party politics, required it to monitor and investigate legal political activity …" The commission, with the NIA's support, recommends that the mandate should narrow to focus on "terrorism, sabotage, subversion, espionage, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, organised crime and corruption" and large-scale violence and drug trafficking.
Another key finding is that some methods of surveillance currently used are illegal. The report notes that "infiltration of an organisation, physical and electronic surveillance and recruitment of an informant who reports on the private affairs of an individual or organisation ... are not regulated by legislation and are therefore unconstitutional".The commission rejected the recommendation of an earlier internal task team report that "in the hard reality of intelligence operations … it is sometimes impossible to do things by the book.When operating against terrorist threats or organised crime or other clear threats and targets, it is sometimes necessary to 'bend the rules' in order to ensure that the threat is adequately dealt with. This is an operational reality in order to ensure that the real 'nasties' do not get away with their 'nastiness'."
The commission slams this, saying it is "unconstitutional, flouts the rule of law and undermines efforts to develop an institutional culture of respect for the law…
Source: Mail & Guardian
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
A bloodless coup
The ousting of Thabo Mbeki as President of South Africa is nothing short of a bloodless coup. A coup d’etat is defined as “a sudden and decisive action resulting in a change of government illegally or by force”. The dismissal of Mbeki and the consequent resignation of almost one-third of the Cabinet certainly constitutes a sudden and illegal change of government and is therefore a coup.
Source: Main & Guardian thought leader; Ahmed Motala
Source: Main & Guardian thought leader; Ahmed Motala
Monday, September 22, 2008
Dozens of children kidnapped in DRC by rebels
The United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) on Monday urged the immediate release of 90 children kidnapped in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by rebels from Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).
Source: Mail & Guardian
Source: Mail & Guardian
Thabo Mbeki Resigns
Thabo Mbeki, nine and a half years in office as successor to Nelson Mandela as South Africa’s president, resigned on September 21st, 2008 after losing a power struggle to Jacob Zuma, his former deputy and likely political heir.
The resignation brought an end to a once-promising presidency during which Mr. Mbeki accrued both celebration and disrepute. He became internationally notorious for his views about AIDS, joining maverick scientists in questioning whether a virus was the cause of the illness. He led the resistance to antiretroviral treatment, acting as if the AIDS epidemic were a defamatory plot against Africans and a con job by avaricious pharmaceutical companies. This intransigence, critics say, sent countless thousands to needless deaths.
Mr. Mbeki was forced to resign within the same week that some African leaders have praised him for what they hail as a landmark achievement, the brokering of a deal signed Monday in Zimbabwe between President Robert Mugabe and his opposition.
Source: New York Times
The resignation brought an end to a once-promising presidency during which Mr. Mbeki accrued both celebration and disrepute. He became internationally notorious for his views about AIDS, joining maverick scientists in questioning whether a virus was the cause of the illness. He led the resistance to antiretroviral treatment, acting as if the AIDS epidemic were a defamatory plot against Africans and a con job by avaricious pharmaceutical companies. This intransigence, critics say, sent countless thousands to needless deaths.
Mr. Mbeki was forced to resign within the same week that some African leaders have praised him for what they hail as a landmark achievement, the brokering of a deal signed Monday in Zimbabwe between President Robert Mugabe and his opposition.
Source: New York Times
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Cautious optimism returns to Zim
The mother of three, who gives her name just as Beatrice, still doesn't know who raped her all those months ago. They were three men with beer on their breath, iron bars in their hands and Robert Mugabe on their T-shirts.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Source: Mail & Guardian
ANC dumps Mbeki, moves to 'heal rift'
South African President Thabo Mbeki has agreed to resign after the ANC announced that it would remove him from office before the end of his term.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Source: Mail & Guardian
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Heath calls for charges against Mbeki, Maduna, Ngcuka
Former judge Willem Heath has called for criminal charges to be brought against President Thabo Mbeki, former justice minister Penuell Maduna and former chief prosecutor Bulelani Ngcuka. Heath told the weekly Mail & Guardian newspaper that last week's findings by Judge Chris Nicholson were tantamount to prima facie evidence of contraventions of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Act by Mbeki, Maduna and Ngcuka. Nicholson found that the decision to prosecute ruling party leader Jacob Zuma on fraud and corruption charges was invalid.
Heath said South Africans should be protected against the "systematic abuse, detailed in the judgment, of organs of state by the president and his purported henchmen"."If the behaviour found by Nicholson is not addressed, the application of the principle of the separation of powers will remain at the whim of those who have seemingly been using it most effectively for personal gain," said Heath. He criticised the NPA's decision to appeal against Nicholson's ruling. "The findings of Judge Chris Nicholson... will profoundly impact on South Africa. It is probably the most important judgment delivered in this country in the past many years. "What is macabre is that the NPA has decided to lodge their intent to appeal the judgment. "The NPA, represented by Billy Downer SC and Wim Trengove SC in their battle against Zuma, has been given a long overdue chastising for their maverick behaviour -- behaviour which is not limited to the Zuma case," said Heath. He said it was "astounding" that the two senior counsel "did not recognise the procedural irregularities perpetrated by the three consecutive [national directors of public prosecutions] and allowed themselves to be led by such irregularities."
Meanwhile, the suspended national director of public prosecutions, Vusi Pikoli, told the SABC that the decision to prosecute Zuma was based purely on legal grounds and not political grounds, as was hinted by Nicholson in his judgment. Pikoli, who has been suspended by Mbeki for an alleged breakdown in his relationship with Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla, denied that he was ever influenced in deciding to prosecute Zuma.
Pikoli said the decision by the NPA to appeal Nicholson's decision should be respected.
Heath said South Africans should be protected against the "systematic abuse, detailed in the judgment, of organs of state by the president and his purported henchmen"."If the behaviour found by Nicholson is not addressed, the application of the principle of the separation of powers will remain at the whim of those who have seemingly been using it most effectively for personal gain," said Heath. He criticised the NPA's decision to appeal against Nicholson's ruling. "The findings of Judge Chris Nicholson... will profoundly impact on South Africa. It is probably the most important judgment delivered in this country in the past many years. "What is macabre is that the NPA has decided to lodge their intent to appeal the judgment. "The NPA, represented by Billy Downer SC and Wim Trengove SC in their battle against Zuma, has been given a long overdue chastising for their maverick behaviour -- behaviour which is not limited to the Zuma case," said Heath. He said it was "astounding" that the two senior counsel "did not recognise the procedural irregularities perpetrated by the three consecutive [national directors of public prosecutions] and allowed themselves to be led by such irregularities."
Meanwhile, the suspended national director of public prosecutions, Vusi Pikoli, told the SABC that the decision to prosecute Zuma was based purely on legal grounds and not political grounds, as was hinted by Nicholson in his judgment. Pikoli, who has been suspended by Mbeki for an alleged breakdown in his relationship with Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla, denied that he was ever influenced in deciding to prosecute Zuma.
Pikoli said the decision by the NPA to appeal Nicholson's decision should be respected.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Heath: Charge Mbeki, Maduna and Ngcuka
Former judge Willem Heath has called for criminal charges to be brought against President Thabo Mbeki, former justice minister Penuell Maduna and former chief prosecutor Bulelani Ngcuka.
Heath told the weekly Mail & Guardian newspaper that last week's findings by Judge Chris Nicholson were tantamount to prima facie evidence of contraventions of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Act by Mbeki, Maduna and Ngcuka.
Nicholson found that the decision to prosecute ruling party leader Jacob Zuma on fraud and corruption charges was invalid.
Heath said South Africans should be protected against the "systematic abuse, detailed in the judgment, of organs of state by the president and his purported henchmen".
Heath told the weekly Mail & Guardian newspaper that last week's findings by Judge Chris Nicholson were tantamount to prima facie evidence of contraventions of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Act by Mbeki, Maduna and Ngcuka.
Nicholson found that the decision to prosecute ruling party leader Jacob Zuma on fraud and corruption charges was invalid.
Heath said South Africans should be protected against the "systematic abuse, detailed in the judgment, of organs of state by the president and his purported henchmen".
Heath wants Mbeki charged
Former judge Willem Heath has called for criminal charges to be brought against President Thabo Mbeki, former justice minister Penuell Maduna and former chief prosecutor Bulelani Ngcuka.
Heath told the weekly Mail & Guardian newspaper that last week's findings by Judge Chris Nicholson were tantamount to prima facie evidence of contraventions of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Act by Mbeki, Maduna and Ngcuka.
Nicholson found that the decision to prosecute ruling party leader Jacob Zuma on fraud and corruption charges was invalid.
Heath said South Africans should be protected against the "systematic abuse, detailed in the judgment, of organs of state by the president and his purported henchmen".
"If the behaviour found by Nicholson is not addressed, the application of the principle of the separation of powers will remain at the whim of those who have seemingly been using it most effectively for personal gain," said Heath.
Source: News 24.com
Heath told the weekly Mail & Guardian newspaper that last week's findings by Judge Chris Nicholson were tantamount to prima facie evidence of contraventions of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Act by Mbeki, Maduna and Ngcuka.
Nicholson found that the decision to prosecute ruling party leader Jacob Zuma on fraud and corruption charges was invalid.
Heath said South Africans should be protected against the "systematic abuse, detailed in the judgment, of organs of state by the president and his purported henchmen".
"If the behaviour found by Nicholson is not addressed, the application of the principle of the separation of powers will remain at the whim of those who have seemingly been using it most effectively for personal gain," said Heath.
Source: News 24.com
Trouble in Nigeria? Between an Oil War and a Succession Battle
Even more than is usual for Nigeria, the country currently faces critical challenges. For some time now, Nigeria has been suffering the effects of a multi-layered crisis, the most conspicuous manifestations of which are the oil-related insurgency in the Niger-Delta and recurring concerns about President Yar’Adua’s health, which have given rise to unseemly, and probably premature, speculation and manoeuvring within the country’s political leadership.
Source: Institute for Security Studies
Source: Institute for Security Studies
Thursday, September 18, 2008
African Solutions to African Problems
In January next year, the issue of a Union Government for Africa will again be on the agenda of the next Summit of Heads of States and Governments of the African Union (AU). Continental integration through the establishment of the Union Government was initiated in 2005, but the idea was first formally discussed by African leaders at the Accra Summit of Heads of States and Governments of Africa held in July 2007.
It is evident that African people have got the necessary resources and knowledge to address the challenges the continent is facing. Even if the concept needs further development and clarification in terms of defining the problems of Africa and their solutions, “African solutions for African problems” could be employed as a motto since it certainly is inspiring. This applies especially to the youth of Africa who are in the driving seat of Africa’s destiny.
Serekebrhan Fiquremariam, Intern, Direct Conflict Prevention Programme, ISS Addis Ababa
Source: Institute for Security Studies
It is evident that African people have got the necessary resources and knowledge to address the challenges the continent is facing. Even if the concept needs further development and clarification in terms of defining the problems of Africa and their solutions, “African solutions for African problems” could be employed as a motto since it certainly is inspiring. This applies especially to the youth of Africa who are in the driving seat of Africa’s destiny.
Serekebrhan Fiquremariam, Intern, Direct Conflict Prevention Programme, ISS Addis Ababa
Source: Institute for Security Studies
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Pikoli: 'I was not manipulated'
Suspended prosecuting boss Vusi Pikoli has rubbished any suggestion that he was improperly influenced by President Thabo Mbeki's "meddling" in ANC president Jacob Zuma's corruption prosecution.
Judge Nicholson found on Friday that there had been a "distressing pattern" in the National Prosecuting Authority's behaviour and handling of the case against Zuma "indicative of political interference, pressure or influence".
Pikoli's attorney, Aslam Moosajee, said the behaviour complained of related to allegations against acting national director of public prosecutions Mokotedi Mpshe, and Ngcuka, in the latter's interaction with then-justice minister Penuell Maduna before the prosecution of Zuma's former financial adviser, Schabir Shaik.
"There are no facts set out in the judgment which supports any suggestion that Mr Pikoli allowed political interference.
"Mr Pikoli viewed his obligations of independence very seriously and went as far as refusing to comply with an instruction from justice minister Brigitte Mabandla not to proceed with the arrest of national commissioner of police Jackie Selebi.
"We know from the Selebi matter that Mr Pikoli said there was interference, but he resisted those attempts and he was suspended.
"The international community has also recognised Mr Pikoli's dedication to the principles of prosecutorial independence," he said.
Source: News 24.com
Judge Nicholson found on Friday that there had been a "distressing pattern" in the National Prosecuting Authority's behaviour and handling of the case against Zuma "indicative of political interference, pressure or influence".
Pikoli's attorney, Aslam Moosajee, said the behaviour complained of related to allegations against acting national director of public prosecutions Mokotedi Mpshe, and Ngcuka, in the latter's interaction with then-justice minister Penuell Maduna before the prosecution of Zuma's former financial adviser, Schabir Shaik.
"There are no facts set out in the judgment which supports any suggestion that Mr Pikoli allowed political interference.
"Mr Pikoli viewed his obligations of independence very seriously and went as far as refusing to comply with an instruction from justice minister Brigitte Mabandla not to proceed with the arrest of national commissioner of police Jackie Selebi.
"We know from the Selebi matter that Mr Pikoli said there was interference, but he resisted those attempts and he was suspended.
"The international community has also recognised Mr Pikoli's dedication to the principles of prosecutorial independence," he said.
Source: News 24.com
Rising prices tip another 75-million towards starvation
Global numbers afflicted by acute hunger rose from 850-million to 925-million by the start of 2008 because of rising prices, the head of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said on Wednesday.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Source: Mail & Guardian
NPA to appeal against Zuma judgement
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said on Wednesday that it will apply for leave to appeal against the judgment delivered by Judge Chris Nicholson last Friday on the Jacob Zuma matter.
Source: Mail and Guardian
Source: Mail and Guardian
Monday, September 15, 2008
Global Political Agreement
The Agreement between the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) and the two Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) formations, on resolving the challenges facing Zimbabwe can be found here.
Source: Kubatana
Source: Kubatana
Friday, September 12, 2008
Round one to Zuma
The Scorpions' decision to prosecute African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma on fraud and corruption charges was not legal, Judge Chris Nicholson found in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Friday.
Source: Mail & Guardian
"... and blessed be the Angel Gabriel ..."
Three coins in a fountain ...
Source: Mail & Guardian
"... and blessed be the Angel Gabriel ..."
Three coins in a fountain ...
ANC asserts independence from leftist allies
The African National Congress (ANC) does not necessarily share the economic views of its leftist allies, party treasurer Mathews Phosa said, Business Day reported on Friday.
Phosa told a meeting of businessmen and diplomats the ANC respected the views of its allies, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Communist Party (SACP), but did not share all of them, the newspaper said.
Sourc:; Mail and Guardian
Phosa told a meeting of businessmen and diplomats the ANC respected the views of its allies, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Communist Party (SACP), but did not share all of them, the newspaper said.
Sourc:; Mail and Guardian
Thursday, September 11, 2008
SACP: Political left at crossroads
The political left in South Africa is at a crossroads in the history of its revolution, the South African Communist Party (SACP) said in a policy discussion document released on Wednesday.
The struggle to build a coherent, working-class biased, developmental state involves a struggle against the grave dangers of factionalising the state apparatus, and particularly sensitive areas of the state apparatus like courts, prosecutorial authorities, SAPS investigators and the intelligence services.
"Unfortunately there have been worrying developments over the last several years in this regard.
"The SACP needs to be in the forefront of fighting against such tendencies."
"We need to fight for the integrity, the professionalism and the independence of the criminal justice system and its component parts," the document said.
Source: Mail and Guardian
The struggle to build a coherent, working-class biased, developmental state involves a struggle against the grave dangers of factionalising the state apparatus, and particularly sensitive areas of the state apparatus like courts, prosecutorial authorities, SAPS investigators and the intelligence services.
"Unfortunately there have been worrying developments over the last several years in this regard.
"The SACP needs to be in the forefront of fighting against such tendencies."
"We need to fight for the integrity, the professionalism and the independence of the criminal justice system and its component parts," the document said.
Source: Mail and Guardian
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Malema (ANCYL) in a froth over Zuma
African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) leader Julius Malema on Wednesday vowed to "eliminate any force" blocking ANC president Jacob Zuma's path to the presidency.
Source: Mail and Guardian
Source: Mail and Guardian
Cosatu on Zuma: Don't test our patience
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has called on President Thabo Mbeki to reinstate Jacob Zuma as the deputy president of the country.
Source: Mail and Guardian
Source: Mail and Guardian
Portrait of a suicide bomber
The windows are wide open and birds are singing in the trees outside. The Kabul traffic hums in the distance. Abit (21) and not looking a year more in his jaunty cap and black shalwar kameez, is sitting in the headquarters of the National Security Directorate, the Afghan intelligence service, and talking about how he became a suicide bomber.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Source: Mail & Guardian
The Apology (of Socrates)
Plato's version of the speech given by Socrates as he defends himself against the charges of being a man "who corrupted the young, did not believe in the gods, and created new deities". "Apology" here has its earlier meaning (now usually expressed by the word "apologia") of speaking in defense of a cause or of one's beliefs or actions (from the Greek απολογία).
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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