Presidency South Africa

Thabo Mbeki's new age of denial

2007-02-07T07:33:00.000-08:00

02 February 2007
A week before President Thabo Mbeki’s State of the Nation address, his “age of hope”, trumpeted in last year’s speech, is at risk.

Despite 96 straight months of economic growth his recent dismissal of concerns about of two of South Africa’s most pernicious social ills -- crime and corruption -- have undercut public confidence in his presidency.

An “age of denial”, HIV/Aids, unemployment, crime and corruption now threaten his legacy.

“Where is the age of hope?” asked Florence Nkwashu, a resident from Shawelo, Soweto. “The only hope we have is if the people take things into their own hands. I don’t know where it’s going to end. We are so tired”.

In an interview flighted on South African Broadcasting Corporation television three weeks ago, Mbeki said it was just a perception that crime was out of control.

“It’s not as if someone will walk here to the [television] studio in Auckland Park and get shot. That doesn’t happen and it won’t happen. Nobody can prove that the majority of the country’s 40-million to 50-million citizens think that crime is spinning out of control,” he said.

Asked about recent reports implicating a number of South Africans in a British police probe on corruption between British arms companies and foreign government officials, Mbeki said the bidding process for South Africa’s arms deal was “perfectly correct” and not affected by corruption.

Analysts are divided about whether Mbeki’s recent bout of denials can be equated to his HIV/Aids quackery at the turn of the century in which he fatally refuted the scientific link between HIV and Aids. They agree, however, that his rebuff of crime and corruption combined with South Africa’s recent delay in publishing the African Peer Review Mechanism report, have seriously weakened public trust in his leadership.

“He hasn’t been any more of a denialist in this case than any other leader. All leaders defend their record,” said Richard Calland, executive director for the open democracy advice centre at the Institute for Democracy in South Africa. “But any leader who lacks empathy with his or her people [demonstrates] bad politics.”

Xolela Mangcu, a visiting scholar at the Public Intellectual Life Project at the University of the Witwatersrand and a non-resident WEB DuBois Fellow at Harvard University, said Mbeki’s recent comments “add to a whole series of different kinds of denial that have characterised his leadership. They have fed into the belief that he is out of touch with South Africans.”

Presidential gainsay
The oddity of the president’s remark about crime is that it came a week after the ANC had issued its January 8 statement vowing to dedicate resources and energies to fight the scourge of crime.

“Without decisive action to curb crime, it could undermine our efforts to ensure the country is able to realise its social and economic potential,” the statement said.

According to Mangcu: “When Mbeki is not reading from a script, he feels the need to defend the government and its policies. He needs to stick to the script to avoid these kinds of contradictions.”

The anomaly in the furore over Mbeki’s denialist comments is that crime statistics support him.

According to the South African Police Service’s crime figures for the financial year ending March 2006, crime levels have consistently decreased over the past three years. The total for the 21 most serious crimes (including murder, rape, house robbery and car hijackings) increased by 7% between 1994 and 2003. Since then, however, overall crime levels have dropped by an average of 6% a year.

It is believed that Mbeki circulated a document containing these statistics at the ANC Cabinet lekgotla last month, to demonstrate that, although crime was a problem, it was not out of hand.

Mbeki apparently told the lekgotla that the crime issue was being hijacked by reactionary forces to undermine the democratic movement. The president is said to have expressed his concern about how negative messages about crime were being communicated. It is believed he argued that part of the reason for the uproar about crime was that it was increasing in affluent areas, which had been regarded as safe for many years.

Why the uproar?
So why the public uproar over Mbeki’s comments?

Centre for Policy Studies analyst Aubrey Matshiqi said it appeared Mbeki wanted to enter into an academic debate about the realities of crime, based on statistics at his disposal, as against perceptions of crime.

“What the president is unaware of is steady convergence of opinion on crime, particularly since the Jeppestown shootings last year. Crime is becoming increasingly deracialised as more people become angry over its effects,” said Matshiqi. “It seems to me the president feels that the perceptions of increasing crime are incorrect as viewed against the information he has. But that is significant only for debate.

“The reality is that the levels of crime in this country are unacceptably high. That is what the president should be focusing on; giving leadership instead of winning narrow points.”

According to Antoinette Louw, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, “The response of police leadership has left the public with a sense that the government, and the police in particular, don’t care about the problem or its consequences.

According to Idasa and Afrobarometer public-opinion surveys conducted last year almost half (48%) of South Africans believe that all or most police officials are involved in corruption.

“We feel so pathetic. Our kids come home with stolen goods and what can we say if Mbeki is denying crime?” asks Rebecca Mtimkulu, a resident from Meadowlands, Soweto. “I’ve been travelling with the ANC my whole life and they’ve done nothing [for me].”

Jenny Foden, who lives in Bryanston, Johannesburg, said: “The problem in South Africa at the moment is not so much the crime, it’s that we all feel so alone on the issue of crime. The perception, whether rightly or wrongly, that crime is out of control is fed almost entirely by the denial of the government.”

A besieged nation
Next week Mbeki faces a besieged nation. Only 40% of South Africans think the government is doing enough to reduce crime, according to a Markinor bi-annual government performance barometer survey conducted among 3 500 people in November last year. This has dropped from 51% a year ago.
Mbeki prefaced his State of the Nation address last year with a list of surveys that captured the “age of hope”. This year, the same surveys paint a much bleaker picture.

Last year, Mbeki quoted a Gallup International survey, which ranked South Africa eighth on a “top optimists” list of 12 countries. This year, South Africa hasn’t made the list.

Last year, the Grant Thornton International Business Owners Survey reported that 84% of South African business owners were optimistic about the following year. This year the figure has dropped to 71%.

Last year Mbeki quoted First National Bank and the Bureau for Economic Research, which reported that the consumer confidence index was at its highest in 25 years. The same survey released for the fourth quarter of last year showed that while consumer confidence remained at these levels, it was only so among those earning more than R4 000 a month. “Those earning less than R800 per month dropped sharply compared with the third quarter,” the survey noted.

The dampening of economic sentiment in the country in the short term has been caused by increased interest rates, the sharp depreciation of the rand since May and the country’s precarious balance of payments position, but chief economist at First National Bank, Cees Bruggemans, believes that crime could ultimately undermine the positive growth in the country.

He argued: “Economic performance ever so steadily becomes undermined, even as the bean counters keep on noticing more economic activity.”

Mbeki faces one of his toughest State of the Nation addresses next week -- the price of his denial could cost him his legacy as a strong manager and a good governor.

How to squander a legacy in three steps
Step 1. Deny Aids. In 2001, President Thabo Mbeki began to question the links between HIV and Aids. He established a presidential advisory panel comprised of the world’s most notorious dissident scientists. The dissidents have found a willing supporter in vitamin salesman, Matthias Raath, who in turn has been fondly received in South Africa. Mbeki does not say anything substantive or persuasive about HIV and Aids.

Step 2. Gun for Blair. In Davos last weekend, Mbeki fired an unusual broadside at British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Blair, said Mbeki, was hypocritical for scotching an investigation into allegedly corrupt arms deals involving BAE in Saudi Arabia while allowing an investigation into the South African arms deal to continue. Mbeki has refused to consider new evidence that various South Africans received over R1-billion in commissions and fees from BAE in the course of the arms deal.

Step 3. Act like the Queen. Mbeki is doing a fine impersonation of Queen Elizabeth (as played by Helen Mirren in the movie, The Queen). He is sticking to the technical detail of the fight against crime and refusing to recognise the fear gripping his nation. This is similar to the way in which the queen completely misjudged the mood of her people after the death of Princess Diana.

In his own words
HIV/Aids
2003: Mbeki told the Washington Post: “Personally, I don’t know anybody who has died of Aids. I really, honestly don’t.”
Unemployment:
2005: Questioning the figure of four million South Africans actively looking for work, Mbeki wrote on the ANC website, “This is such a large number of people that nobody could possibly have missed the millions that would be in the streets and in village paths actively looking for work in all places of employment.”
Crime:
2007: In an interview with Tim Modise on SABC television Mbeki said: “It’s not as if someone will walk here to the [television] studio in Auckland Park and get shot. That doesn’t happen and it won’t happen. Nobody can prove that the majority of the country’s 40-million to 50-million citizens think that crime is spinning out of control.”
Corruption:
2007: In the same interview when asked about corruption in the arms deal, Mbeki said the arms deal bidding process was “perfectly correct” and not affected by any corruption.

Mbeki must admit crime crisis

2007-02-02T13:13:00.000-08:00

Sapa 02 February 2007
President Thabo Mbeki might represent all South Africans, but only 2% of the population endorses his views on crime, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said on Friday.

Writing in his weekly letter, Leon said 98% of South Africans believe the president's approach and attitude towards crime are wrong.

"The president likes to claim he represents the majority of our people; that is irrefutably correct as far as his broad political mandate is concerned.

"However, it is fundamentally incorrect in respect of his approach, attitude and denial about crime ... as he appears to speak on behalf of a paltry minority of 2%."

In a recent interview with the South African Broadcasting Corporation, President Mbeki denied crime is out of control in the country.

Leon said a massive 98% of respondents had voted yes to this week's e.tv poll, which posed the question: "Is crime out of control in South Africa?"

"So with regard to the devastating spiral of violent crime, my tip for Mr Mbeki is that he frankly admit the urgency of the crisis," said Leon.

Leon also criticised Mbeki for his failure to take decisive action in instances where government leaders are alleged to be involved in corruption.

When confronted with allegations that some of South Africa's top government officials are implicated in a British police probe investigating corruption in the country's arms deal, Mbeki categorically stated that the transaction was not affected by any corruption.

"President Mbeki's foot-dragging over the arms deal only redoubles public disquiet.

"Moreover, the president has yet to release the Donen Report on South African involvement into the oil-for-food scandal, in spite of receiving it over three months ago and promising action in reply to my question in Parliament," Leon said.

On the skills-development issue, Leon said under Mbeki's leadership, the African National Congress-led government has failed to a strike a balance between the need to transform the country and that of addressing the country's skills shortage.

"While the ANC has put 'transformation' -- an insistence on racial representivity across our society -- at the heart of its agenda, it has also sought to focus on economic growth and addressing our skills capacity.

"The former policy has overwhelmed the latter: in place of a professional cadre of civil servants, well-connected ANC acolytes have been appointed, resulting in a massive capacity problem.

"This has led to the line between party and state being blurred and power being centralised in the Presidency," he said.

President Mbeki is scheduled to open Parliament with his State of the Nation address next week.

In his address, Mbeki is expected to indicate how the government intends to, among other things, tackle the problem of crime, corruption and skills shortage.

Skills crisis dictates a shake-up

2007-02-02T12:52:00.001-08:00

February 02 2007
South Africa needs an expertise revolution to avert the skills shortage plaguing the country, says Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

This is the only way the economy can grow.

Speaking at the official opening of Unisa's academic year on Thursday, Mlambo-Ngcuka praised the institute for its handling of the merger process and related challenges like resource management.

She said it was important to question the role that higher education played in socio-economic transformation and in the consolidation of democracy.

"As educators you undoubtedly understand the imperative for higher education to develop and generate the qualifications, competencies and skills that our nation needs in order to drive its development agenda.

"Nothing short of a skills revolution will enable us to ensure that the economy will grow at the rate that we need it to by 2010," Mlambo-Ngcuka said.

Unisa vice-chancellor and principal Professor Barney Pityana echoed Mlambo-Ngcuka's concerns and said that nothing short of a revolution "is required to break the back of the critical skills shortage, which handicaps the growth and advancement of our economy".

The deputy president also said there was a great need for maths and science teachers and lecturers and that language competence was imperative for educators and students.

"Have you ever heard a French person who can't speak French? An English person who can't speak English? So how can we ever think it is cute for a Tswana child not to be able to speak Tswana?" Mlambo-Ngcuka wanted to know.

She said changes in higher education were not only about staff composition, student intake and gender considerations, but also the identity, character and role of education in terms of socio-economic transformation.

She said the government would give schools, universities and custodians of education full support and would focus on ensuring that the number of unemployed graduates were reduced and that universities' education was in sync with the needs and skills demands of the economy.

"In my view as government we need to find a way of supporting more post-graduate students in critical areas in and out of South Africa and e-learning at all levels must be seen as a critical opportunity to leap-frog to the 21st century," she said.

Youth Commission defends itself

2007-02-01T11:23:00.001-08:00

Daily News: January 31, 2007
The National Youth Commission (NYC) on Tuesday sought to downplay the growing public perception that its days were numbered after a parliamentary sanctioned review of chapter nine institutions and related structures.

The NYC is actually not a chapter nine institution but has been put in the review group along the likes of the South African Human Rights Commission, the Public Protector and the Commission on Gender Equality.

Parliament appointed former education minister Kader Asmal last year as head of its ad hoc committee that is currently investigating the importance and effectiveness of these institutions.

'we have observed with concern the ongoing misinterpretation of our mandate'
The NYC was the first of these bodies to be called before the committee in parliament last week where both Asmal and MPs in the committee raised concerns relating to the commission, including apparent duplication in its work and that of another government department.

Committee members also questioned the existence of a youth desk in the office of the minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad to whom the NYC also reports.

The ANC Youth League was the first organisation last year to question the existence of the youth desk's office in the Presidency and accused Pahad of impeding youth development in the country.

But in a clear attempt not to bite the hand that feeds it, the NYC on Tuesday contended that the youth desk in Pahad's office was "not a duplication of its work". The commission's chairperson, Nobulumko Nkondlo said the commission was intending to engage the public to improve the understanding of its work.

"Having listened to the diverse opinions expressed about the commission in the aftermath of our appearance before parliament ... we have observed with concern the ongoing misinterpretation of our mandate and the commitment and expectation that are aligned to our powers and responsibilities," Nkondlo said in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

The commission's core mandate includes developing youth policies and monitoring their implementation by various government departments.

Some of its detractors have argued that such a mandate was on its own a shortcoming and have called for the introduction of an additional ministry of youth affairs with legislative powers.

But Nkondlo said that in most countries both a youth ministry and council operate alongside each other.

The commission's critics have also faulted it on numerous fronts, including its apparent failure to build political cohesion among youth formations of all political hues.

They also accused it of being an "employment agency for ANC youth leaguers", all charges rejected by Nkondlo and youth commissioners like Mothupi Modiba who attended Tuesday's briefing.

One of the commission's visible projects was the introduction of youth service programmes. And although its formation was endorsed by a multi-party parliament about 12 years ago, a number of opposition parties, including the DA and IFP, have on numerous occasions called for the commission to be disbanded.

Mbeki spared blushes on critical peer review

2007-01-31T11:08:00.000-08:00

The Star: January 29, 2007
Addis Ababa - President Thabo Mbeki has avoided the criticism of his fellow African leaders, after their much-anticipated review of South Africa's record on governance was postponed until July.

The African leaders were expected to consider a report on SA by the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), an African Union initiative through which leaders assess each other's political, economic and social performance.

The APRM panel, a group of eminent and neutral African experts, had drawn up a fairly critical report that other African leaders taking part in the APRM were expected to consider and possibly endorse here on Sunday.

But the leaders decided to defer consideration of the report on SA until July because it was still a "draft". They said the report did not include a programme of action to address the concerns highlighted in the report.

Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, who chaired the governing council that conducted SA's peer review last year, said on Sunday SA was not responsible for the delay.

The APRM panel report, leaked to the press last month, criticised high levels of crime and corruption and the proportional representation voting system, which the panel said gave too much power to party leaders and disempowered MPs.

Roberts primes a bomb

2007-01-26T22:54:00.000-08:00

Saturday January 27
RONALD Suresh Roberts, the man Cape High Court judge Leslie Weinkove recently found to be “paranoid and obsessed” and a name-dropper”, is starting a magazine which he and his business partner, James Sanders, hope to have on the shelves by March.

Sanders told The Citizen yesterday he was in South Africa to set up the magazine.

Sanders told The Citizen the publication, which he and Roberts had styled Molotov Cocktail, would feature investigative stories without the “relentless negativity” toward the government and the ANC, that he claim is the hallmark of much of the South African media.

Sanders, who edited investigative magazine Noseweek for three months, said his business partner Roberts was a “fine writer”, and he had no fear his involvement in the magazine would lead people to regard Molotov Cocktail as a mouthpiece for the ANC or the state.

“Ronald is a fine writer, and when people see my track record they will realize I am not anyone’s mouthpiece,” said Sanders.

Both Sanders and Roberts are harsh critics of the official opposition.

Roberts slammed Tony Leon’s father, Judge Ramon Leon, as a “hanging judge” for passing the death sentence on Andrew Zondo – an MK operative who bombed a block of flats in Amanzimtoti.

But in court advocate Wim Trengrove mocked Roberts by pointing out he repeatedly got Zondo’s name wrong, calling him Matthew – an indication, said Trengove, that Roberts had done “no research whatsoever”.

Handing down judgment in the defamation case brought against the Sunday Times by Roberts, Judge Weinkove said Roberts “Engaged in name-dropping, and he purported to enjoy the patronage of people who occupy high positions in the corridors or power and influence.”

Among other people, Roberts claimed to have President Thabo Mbeki as one of his patrons.
The article that offended Roberts was headlined: “The Unlikeable Mr Roberts.”

In response to questions in Parliament last year, Dr Essop Pahad denied having secured a sponsorship for Roberts to write a book on the “intellectual traditions” of President Thabo Mbeki.

But during Roberts’s defamation claim, papers were lodged showing that Absa had sponsored Roberts after Pahad had approached them seeking funding for Roberts to write the book on Mbeki.

Gibson said he had asked the Speaker to set up a committee to investigate whether Pahad had lied to Parliament or not.

Asked to comment on the new magazine, Gibson said: “The more things change the more they stay the same. Dr Connie Mulder and Doctor Eschell Rhoodie would have said exactly the same.

“I think it is urgently necessary that the funding of this publication be opened for public scrutiny.

“If it turns out that the government or Dr Pahad, whether in his official or his personal capacity, is financing the magazine we will know what to expect.”

Attempts to reach Roberts failed yesterday. Sanders undertook to ask his business partner to contact The Citizen, but Roberts did not do so .

President's office to explain job duplication

2007-01-26T22:47:00.001-08:00

January 25 2007
Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad will be asked to explain to Parliament why a youth desk has been set up in the highest office in the land, when the National Youth Commission (NYC) is already located there.

The National Assembly's ad hoc committee to review Chapter Nine and associated institutions held a bilateral meeting with the NYC on Wednesday, and among concerns raised by MPs was the question of duplication across several fronts, including research.

Committee chairperson Kader Asmal asked why the commission wanted more funds to boost its research capacity, given that several state institutions were covering the same ground.

"Research is very expensive. Your budget is about a fifth of universities, which have 14 000 students, employ about 180 academics and ground staff. It's exactly one-fifth. Are we getting value for money in a developmental state?" he asked.

Since its establishment in 1996, the NYC has been regarded as one of the most ineffective institutions and a waste of taxpayers money by its detractors.

It was once panned by its critics as a costly employment agency for the ANC Youth League. The fact that it has yet to ensure that a national youth policy has been adopted by the cabinet, has raised eyebrows, including from within its own ranks.

Its CEO earns R558 306 a year, its chairperson R591 846, and the deputy chairperson R502 461, while the communications director's package stands at R481 098.

Its budget has grown from just under R15-million in 2002 to R21,6-million next year.

The body's commissioners and chairperson were grilled on Wednesday and were hard pressed to convince sceptical MPs that the NYC was effective and was providing value for money, or was actually engaged in issues that were relevant to youth.

There were probing questions from the multi-party committee, including from the ANC's Mike Masutha, who wanted to know why a youth desk existed side by side with the NYC in the presidency.

Commissioners were loath to reply, saying it was a question best answered by the presidency.

Asmal said the committee, which had not heard from the presidency, would write and ask for clarity.

However, he told the NYC: "On the other hand, be careful. You can't do Pontius Pilate acts all the time."

Asmal noted that the NYC was mandated to "promote uniformity of approach of all organs of state".

"If there are two structures in your own home, is it a semi-detached relation in your own home? Are you divorced? We will take this up with the minister in the presidency," said Asmal.

The review of the Chapter Nine institutions and related associations was the first since they were established. Bodies under review include the SA Human Rights Commission, the Public Protector, the Commission on Gender Equality, and the Auditor-General.

The committee will report to the National Assembly no later than June 30.

Youth commission admits it is highly ineffective

2007-01-26T22:46:00.001-08:00

24 January 2007
The South African Youth Commission has accepted as accurate a damning report by a former employee describing the organisation as highly ineffective and lacking policy, measurable objectives and data on youth practices.

"These are some of the weaknesses that we are currently addressing," commission chairperson Nomi Nkondlo on Wednesday told a Parliamentary committee reviewing the effectiveness, efficiency and appropriateness of state-funded (chapter nine) bodies.

Asked by the ad-hoc committee on review of chapter and associated institutions whether her response could be interpreted as saying the report was accurate, Nkondlo replied: "Yes."

While she believed the commission’s role was to lobby government departments and ensure they prioritised youth issues in their programmes, review committee chairperson Kader Asmal disagreed.

Its mandate was much more broader than that, he said.

"Your function is not to simply advise government ... you must implement measures and review the policies and practices of government departments," he said.

Implementing measures in response to challenges such as the addiction of young people to drugs and alcohol should be one of the commission’s core functions, said Asmal.

However, Nkondlo blamed government departments for not prioritising the youth in their programmes.

"Some of the departments refused to cooperate with the commission," she said, but could not produce any documentation to back her claim.

Despite what appears to be a duplication of functions and a R3-million under-expenditure, the commission needed more money.

Nkondlo said additional funds were still needed to beef up the organisation's policy and research units.

"We are currently aligning our structure to our mandate, and as a result we needed more money to strengthen our research and policy capacity," she said.

Asmal, however, questioned the rationale behind setting up a research unit when there were several research institutions in the country.

The Treasury has increased the commission's R20-million budget by nearly 8%, saying the organisation had indicated it now has additional obligations.

Another area of concern to the committee was the "youth desks" in government departments.

It emerged that their functions were similar to those of the commission.

"You are located within the Presidency and yet there is another youth desk in the Presidency. Is that not a duplication?" asked Asmal.

Nkondlo told the committee to direct the question to Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad.

Which peers will Mbeki listen to?

2007-01-26T22:33:00.000-08:00

26 January 2007
All eyes are on President Thabo Mbeki as he steps up to the podium at the African Union heads of state summit in Addis Ababa this weekend: will he present a whitewashed peer review report or the warts and all assessment of the panel of leading Africans who have made their own assessment?

The panel of eminent persons was led by Nigerian economist Adebayo Adedeje and included the former Reserve Bank governor, Chris Stals, and Graça Machel.

The eminent persons report, leaked last December, said crime was a key challenge facing South Africa and it also dealt extensively with poverty and inequality, land reform, HIV/Aids and violence against women and children.

But government’s report to the AU is far more sanguine and limited in its assessment of the state. Commentators say Mbeki will choose this option.

The government has refused to comment on the eminent persons’ report until after the president’s presentation on Sunday, beyond saying that its peer review plan of action is not set in stone.

“He [Mbeki] must not miss this opportunity to give leadership,” said Hassan Lorgat of the NGO coalition, Sangoco, which sat on the APRM’s governing council. “If he fails, he fails African institutions and he will fail the whole of civil society, much of which is already cynical.”

The 300-page eminent persons’ report discusses a range of issues which were muted in the final report.

South Africa’s governing council, led by the Minister of Public Service and Administration, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, was accused by civil society of whitewashing the country’s final report under the guise of “editing” the manuscript. It is unclear exactly who made the controversial changes.

Civil society organisations say the eminent persons’ report gives a more accurate summary of the national temperature taken through an extensive process of consultation in the course of 2005 and 2006.

Lorgat said Mbeki would set an example for other African countries embarking on the peer review process if he took the “bold step” of engaging the eminent persons’ report.

Civil society has also criticised the criterion used in the programme of action submitted to the peer review secretariat last year.

The document says that it will only address problems where “a discernible impact can be made through limited and specific improvement interventions”.

In other words, South Africa wants a limited and achievable plan of action.

It adds: “Major national priorities such as crime are not addressed in the programme as a result of the application of this criterion. They are primarily caused by factors other than ineffective governance and would be best addressed by more appropriate interventions.”

Critics argue that this drastically limits the scope of the programme of action.

The programme also says that the state’s internal process and performance must be “internally addressed and already appear in the government programmes of action or in departmental strategic plans”.

The document excludes these suggestions because they do not meet the “partnership requirement” -- meaning that only proposals requiring action by more than one social partner are included. “Partners” is a vague term that includes the government, business, labour and NGOs.

Cosatu’s deputy general secretary, Bheki Ntshalintshali, said the government could do nothing on its own, as “everything needs to engage stakeholders”.

Ineffective governance was not the only issue. However, Ntshalintshali emphasised that the government still had a responsibility to address matters such as crime “as the government”.

Cosatu was one of several civil society groups involved in the peer review which wrote to Fraser-Moleketi asking for more time to consider the eminent persons’ report late last year. It has not received a response.

Ntshalintshali said the government’s failure to engage civil society over the report undermined the core principles of participation and inclusion. “It is no longer the peer review process as we understood it to be,” he said. Its exclusion might discourage civil society in other countries from trying to be heard in peer reviews.

Fraser-Moleketi’s spokesperson, Clayson Monyela, said the eminent persons’ report would only become public after Mbeki’s address this weekend.

Fraser-Moleketi would then hold a press conference to discuss concerns relating to the report and the programme of action.

How it works

The country establishes a “focal point” to oversee the review. SA’s is run by Public Service and Administration minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi.
A governing council comprised of civil society and government is established. It sets the parameters and plans for review.
Hearings are held around the country and submissions are heard. Four organisations drafted technical reports. The governing council drafts a final country report.
An eminent persons panel gets this report and it makes its own findings.
The country which has been reviewed has to make a presentation to the AU heads of state. This is what Mbeki will do on Sunday.

Why Mbeki wants a third term

2007-01-26T22:30:00.000-08:00

22 January 2007
Whoever wants to be the next president of the African National Congress will probably have to go through president Thabo Mbeki, who has been asked by the party’s most influential province to guide the 95-year-old ANC towards its centenary years.

Senior members of the Eastern Cape provincial executive committee (PEC) of the ANC are convinced that this “son of the soil will never say no to a mandate by the ANC”. An Eastern Cape member of the ANC’s national executive committee said: “It will not be tough convincing Mbeki to stand again as ANC president despite the fact that he is an unpredictable person …”

This week, members of the PEC who spoke to the Mail & Guardian hinted that a delegation from the province would soon ask Mbeki if he would be available for the job.

Eastern Cape provincial secretary Siphato Handi said Mbeki’s candidacy would be at the heart of discussions at the two-day provincial lekgotla at the end of this month. Mbeki is prohibited by the South African Constitution from seeking a third term in government but the ANC’s constitution is silent on the number of terms a party leader can serve in office. Mbeki’s mentor, Oliver Tambo, held the fort for three decades.

But why would Mbeki consider staying at the helm of Africa’s oldest liberation movement?

Firstly, he makes clear his commitment to the ANC and the struggle. “I was born into the struggle,” he once said.

A member of the Eastern Cape executive committee said: “As the son of ANC stalwart Govan Mbeki and a protégé of the great OR Tambo, Mbeki would not like to leave the ANC in tatters, weakened by dysfunctional branches.”

Having devoted his two terms in office to the geopolitics of the African continent and the economic affairs of the world, Mbeki would like another chance to transform the ANC from a liberation movement into a sophisticated ruling party in charge of a world-class economy.

Secondly, Mbeki’s grip on party power would be his only means of putting an end to the controversial tradition that automatically renders the leader of the ANC the head of state.

Mbeki hopes to prove that the two offices -- ANC president and state president -- can co-exist harmoniously, debunking claims that this would create two centres of power.

It is also no secret that Mbeki’s preferred candidates for the presidency of the country -- Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Cyril Ramaphosa, Trevor Manuel, Terror Lekota and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma -- stand little chance in a toe-to-toe face-off against Jacob Zuma. So for Mbeki to elect the guardian of his legacy, he has to win “round one” of the succession battle by squaring up to and defeating Zuma come December 2007.

Thirdly, Mbeki believes the country is ready for its first female president, and taking a third term as party president would ensure that he would be able to influence the appointment of his successor and shield the guardian of his legacy from the venom of African traditionalists within the ANC and the broad alliance, who may be opposed to the idea of a woman as president.

With the clear backing of the Eastern Cape, Mbeki is a strong candidate who is expected to rely on the support of the Western Cape, Limpopo, North West and Gauteng.

Political commentator William Mervin Gumede said the provinces would be very important in deciding the next president during the conference. “Every province counts, no matter how small. Therefore there is going to be a frantic scramble to win over the smaller provinces such as Mpumalanga, Western Cape and Northern Cape … This is even more important since the big provinces, such as KZN and Eastern Cape, are not united behind one candidate.”

Gumede outlines his picture of provincial allegiances: “Gauteng and North West are definitely behind Mbeki. The Western Cape is now more and more behind Mbeki, after they were split in the past between Zuma and Mbeki.

“The Northern Cape is definitely behind Mbeki. Although the National Union of Mineworkers … is very strong in the province, and Zuma could potentially mobilise them to help campaign.

“Mpumalanga is still split between Mbeki and Zuma, although Mbeki currently has the edge, because the premier is an Mbeki-ite and has been mobilising. Zuma has a lot of support in Mpumalanga, especially among the youth, Communist Party and the traditional leaders who have been very disgruntled there for many years.

“The Free State appears to be split. Although again there is a strong NUM presence there … Northern Province is also split, I think, although the widespread poverty and very rural population in the province could be exploited by Zuma, who really operates best in the context of rural dwellers and the more traditionally orientated.

“KZN at this moment is definitely pro-Zuma. S’bu Ndebele’s public conversion under pressure to the Zuma camp is an indication [of this trend]. Ndebele in his heart of hearts is not really a Zuma supporter, and if it comes to a secret ballot I’m sure he would vote for Mbeki -- even in his sleep,” said Gumede.

Church plans prayer service for Zuma

2007-01-26T21:54:00.000-08:00

Saturday January 27

JACOB Zuma is seeking God. A massive prayer service for the ANC deputy president is planned for Sunday at the Rivers of Living Waters Ministry in Vereeniging.

In a year where Zuma’s hopes of playing a significant part in politics are pinned on him being elected ANC president at the end-of-year conference in December, Zuma may need divine intervention.

He is likely to be recharged with corruption in the coming months.

The service is planned in conjunction with the Friends of Jacob Zuma Trust in Gauteng.

Trust spokesman Kaizer Mohau said the service would provide moral support to Zuma ... and bolster his coffers.

When asked if forgiveness would be sought for Zuma’s much- publicised personal strife, including admitting having had sex with the HIV-positive daughter of one of his struggle comrades, Pastor George Lebusa said no.

“All we want is for him to come here and enjoy the House of the Lord,” said Lebusa. “His past mistakes are not at issue here.

“He needs our prayer, similar to everyone else who has sinned in the past, and has their own things in the closet”.

Lebusa said Zuma needed the prayers of ordinary people, asordinary people could not judge another on the mistakes they may have made in the past.

Zuma has been severely criticised for his lifestyle and attitude, because of the many controversial statements he made during his appearance on a charge of rape in the Johannesburg High Court last year, and his statements concerning gay men.

Lebusa said Zuma was not the first high-profile leader to visit the church for a special prayer service.

They hosted Thabo Mbeki in 1998, when he was still the country’s Deputy President, current Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka in 2006, and a host of other politicians – including African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) leader Reverend Kenneth Meshoe.

“Our doors are open to everyone, and we will pray for anyone and everyone... we hope he (Zuma) will leave the service feeling replenished”.

A business luncheon to further raise funds for Zuma, and for the church’s project in Evaton, outside Vereeniging, will also be held after the prayer service.

The trust has continued raising funds for Zuma’s legal expenses but has refused to divulge how much money it has received to date.

President Mbeki has values bull by the udder

2007-01-20T08:00:00.001-08:00

Fri, 19 Jan 2007
The Sunday Times front page of 14th January 2007 saw President Thabo Mbeki blame colonialism and apartheid for South African greed. Unless (the usual political refuge) he was quoted ‘out of context’, what he said (inter alia) was: ‘….the pursuit of personal wealth to the exclusion of all else is primarily a consequence of the social and economic relations that developed under colonialism and apartheid.’ I read a few days later that the Prez (on Tim Modise’s radio show) thinks crime isn’t out of control but that we all suffer from misperceptions regarding the extent of it. Until then, I would have been amazed by his colonialism statement - but no longer. His well-established forte is clearly denial.

During the apartheid ‘struggle’, people were united against a common enemy – or so they thought, anyhow. In those days there were still faint vestiges of Ubuntu (African Humanism) left in black South African culture. At its best it echoed sentiments like ‘No African child will be an orphan so long as one African woman lives.’ ‘It takes a village to raise a child’. ‘I am my brother’s keeper’. In between lay, ‘you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours’. At its worst, it’s degenerated into ‘every man for himself and God for us all.’ I’m afraid the latter version currently holds sway in South Africa.

If that ‘caring for your neighbour’, altruistic stuff was real and an integral part of the value system of black South Africans, it would have amplified once the oppressor’s jackboot was lifted. But it didn’t do that. It all but evaporated entirely.

Luminaries in the values evolution field, like the late Professor Clare Graves, Professor Don Beck and others, have proven that values can be and often are distorted when there’s oppression. They typically revert to a lower, more self-centred, self-preservation orientated level of functioning. But in an environment of ‘freedom’ the intrinsic, actual values will have the luxury of coming to the fore. That gives the lie to the President’s assertion.

Can President Mbeki legitimately claim that colonialism and apartheid influences (for which read ‘nasty white people’) are responsible for the rampant materialism, greed, selfishness and lack of concern for the poor and downtrodden in (primarily, given the demographics) black South African culture? I think not. He’s fallen into the same trap as many cultural, ethnic or religious groups. They will continue to blame for millennia, not their own paucity of good values, work ethic, morals, innovation or energy, but the legacy of their past. Which means I should be able to take refuge behind and excuse any unacceptable behaviour on my part because I had an alcoholic father. That’s plain stupid. Then so is President Mbeki’s thesis.

Convicted fraudster Tony Yengeni emerges from prison and loudly proclaims that the problem in South Africa is poverty and the fact that the bulk of the wealth is concentrated in the hands of a tiny percentage of South Africans. What the heck does that have to do with his designer-suited criminal behaviour? He’s a fine one to be shouting the odds on caring for the poor when he’s the default author of the term ‘a Yengeni’ when people refer to expensive Mercedes MPVs.

To cap these ANC rants, erstwhile Parliamentary Speaker Frene Ginwala was quoted in the Star newspaper of January 17th 2007. She shot off her mouth saying that business people are corrupting politicians. Indeed? I sat in the Centurion home of an MP – at that stage theoretically earning R 11 000 p.m. I was there with someone else to ask for legit networking assistance with a project. The Chinese silk-upholstered designer stainless steel couch on which we sat, probably cost more than all the furniture in my home put together. The artworks on the walls were original oils and acrylics. This highly placed ANC official gobsmacked the female businesswoman with me when he quite blatantly and without batting an eyelid told us he’d want a significant cut of any ensuing revenues and that his wife would need to be ‘put on the board’ of our company. No kidding. So Frene dear, are you and your political cronies squeaky clean? Never asked for a kick-back? Sure? Really, really sure?

People, regardless of ethnicity or their past, need to take a careful look at their chosen level of social responsibility, morals, ethics and spirituality. You can’t continue to blame others or circumstances for how you live your life. Well, you can of course, but all that says about you is that you’re consciously ‘playing victim’ and you’re unwilling to accept responsibility and accountability for your own future. This doesn’t say a lot (of good, anyhow) about you.

If we were all to blame someone or some other ethnic group, or some set of circumstances, for who and what we are, and use it as an excuse not to evolve and grow up, we’d have a global pandemic of social dysfunction. What a pity that someone of Mbeki’s alleged intellectual brightness can perpetuate chronic claptrap such as ‘the colonial past is to blame’.

I perceive a subtle but escalating trend in South Africa. All that is, was and ever will be generated by white people is evil. I don’t think so. Had it not been for colonisation, many African cities would be non-existent. Simple fact. Or rampant tribalism might still hold sway. Well, heck, it still does in most of Africa and it isn’t too well-concealed in South Africa right now.

Was it all so bad Mr President? No good out of it, whatsoever? No legacy of any merit? In my opinion, you set a bad, misleading and highly divisive example, sir. Just as you did on HIV and AIDS.

Presidency not involved in book

2007-01-20T07:57:00.000-08:00

18 January 2007 06:56
The Presidency on Wednesday night described a claim by the Democratic Alliance (DA) that it had sponsored author Ronald Suresh Roberts to write a book about President Thabo Mbeki as an attempt to tarnish the integrity of the Presidency.

On Wednesday the DA accused Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad of not giving "an honest answer" to a parliamentary question.

The question was whether the presidency had commissioned a R1-million corporate sponsorship for Roberts to write a book about President Thabo Mbeki.

In a written reply, in November 2004, Pahad said it had not.

Responding on Wednesday night, the Presidency, through its spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga said: "The fact of the matter is that the Presidency is not a party to the said contract."

The DA's Gareth Morgan said documents lodged with the Cape High Court, as part of Roberts' recent defamation case against Johncom Media, confirmed the presidency had in fact commissioned such a sponsorship for Roberts to write a book about Mbeki.

"The Minister in the Presidency appears not to have provided an honest answer to a parliamentary question. He seems to have misled Parliament and to have deliberately omitted information and details contrary to the answer he provided," Morgan said in a statement.

Morgan said the DA was in possession of all the documents, and from them it was "quite clear" the Presidency -- and Pahad in particular -- was intricately involved in facilitating, constructing and finalising the entire deal.

"The documents lodged include a series of e-mails exchanged between Absa [who sponsored the book], Mr Roberts and the Presidency, and also contain the actual contract between Mr Roberts, Absa and the Presidency.

Morgan said he would raise the matter with Speaker of Parliament, Baleka Mbete and submit a follow-up question to Pahad.

Ratshitanga provided a background of the "DA's attempt to tarnish the integrity of both Dr Pahad and the Presidency".

"In the latter part of 2004, Mr GR Morgan asked the minister in the Presidency the following":

Whether the Presidency secured R1,2-million in corporate sponsorship in respect of a book to be written ... on the President's intellectual traditions. The minister replied: "No."
Whether the Presidency entered into a contract for the writing of the book. The minister replied: "No."
Whether any office bearers in the Presidency were charged with securing corporate sponsorship for the book. The minister replied: "No such task was performed."

Ratshitanga concluded: "In this respect the question enquired as to whether the Presidency was involved in this matter, and correctly the minister responded by unequivocally saying 'no, the Presidency was not involved'.

"After Dr Essop Pahad was approached with the idea of writing a book on the President, he agreed that the idea was sound. He then, in his personal capacity, agreed to assist in facilitating the financing of such a book. It is in this context that he approached Dr Bosman at Absa."

Since Pahad made the approach in his personal capacity, the Presidency was not involved in the matter at all, Ratshitanga said.

On October 3 2004, the Sunday Times published a profile of Roberts, entitled The unlikeable Mr Roberts, by Chris Barron. Roberts then sued the paper for defamation, but a High Court judge early in January ruled that any damage to his reputation was self-inflicted.

ANC denies censoring members

2007-01-12T11:16:00.000-08:00

South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) swiftly reacted to purported media reports that it has ordered its branches to carefully choose the attendees of the Saturday rally in Witbank to avoid having ANC members embarrassing the President.

It was reported that ANC had asked its branches to provide the names and identity numbers of their members to "protect President Thabo Mbeki from unruly party members" during his address at the 95th anniversary rally of the party, which is expected to be attended by over 20,000 people.

The ANC security measure was said to be aimed at preventing Mr Mbeki from being booed by loyalists of Jacob Zuma, who was sacked as the Deputy President but still has a large and radicalised fellowship. But the party's spokesman, Paul Mbenyane, described the reports as not only unfounded but also "irresponsible and malicious".

For security reasons, he said, only invited guests - journalist, business people and others - would be asked about their ID numbers. Mr Mbenyane added that this exempts ANC members and ordinary people.

Ahead of the rally, there have been reports of national intelligence agents being deployed in Witbank, purposely to counter any security threats in advance. The ANC mouthpiece confirmed that security would be tight at the rally but that it is meant to protect everyone.

ANC officials in Johannesburg today issued a statement saying the Witbank rally is "open to all members of the public who wish to attend, and there is no requirement that they should submit their ID numbers".

For "purposes of planning", ANC members who would use buses of the party however had been required to submit their names to their branches.

It is also said that ANC officials have been sick and tired with the recent mistreatment of President Mbeki at hands of some people during a commemorative rally of an ANC stalwart, Moses Mabhida in Pietermarizburg.

ANC on Saturday clocks 95 years. Formed in the apartheid era, the ANC has been ruling South Africa since 1994 when the yokes of white minority rule, discrimination and racism were broken. With only 12 years in office, the ANC has secured absolute majority in parliament but the party has been confronted with a lot of internal shackles during the past two years.

In December, the party is expected to hold congress to choose a successor to President Mbeki, who received the leadership baton from the former President Nelson Mandela. The leadership debate has opened several months ahead of the convocation.

The two most popular candidates to take over from President Mbeki are current South African Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka - who could become the country's first female leader - and her predecessor, Mr Zuma. While Mr Zuma has faced both corruption and rape charges - exposed to the nation in embarrassing court sessions - the former deputy still counts on many militant followers in the party.

Ms Mlambo-Ngcuka, a more moderate and low-profiled politician, is believed to have the full confidence of Mr Mbeki. This has again contributed to the President's decreased popularity among ANC radicals.

ANCYL moves to prevent total collapse

2006-12-27T11:48:00.000-08:00

The national ANC Youth League on Thursday said it had ordered its Eastern Cape provincial leadership to disband.

"The National Executive Committee of the ANC Youth League has resolved that in the interest of safeguarding the organisation from total collapse in the province an urgent intervention is necessary, and in this regard took a decision to disband the ANC Youth League Provincial Executive Committee of the Eastern Cape," said ANCYL
President Fikile Mbalula.

Briefing the media in Johannesburg on Friday, Mbalula said the decision to disband the organisation's provincial leadership was taken after the league's two-day National Executive Committee meeting that ended on Thursday.

"The NEC received a report on the state of the organisation in the Eastern Cape province and noted the weak state of the organisation in the province despite numerous interventions...," he
said.

The provincial ANCYL is a well-known President Thabo Mbeki supporter and has recently endorsed the proposal that he stands as ANC presidential candidate after the expiry of his second term - a position which the organisation's national leadership has vehemently opposed.

However, Mbalula maintained that the decision to disband the Eastern Cape provincial leadership has nothing to do with the provincial organisation's support for Mbeki.

"Although the ANCYL leadership in the Eastern Cape has come to be defined as part of a particular grouping, the NEC's decision to disband it was never influenced by that view.

"The provincial leadership has become so weak and if no action was taken this could have resulted in the total collapse of the organisation in the province," he said.

While the NEC meeting noted progress in many fronts, Mbalula said it was not impressed with the pace at which the Integrated Youth Development Strategy was being implemented.

He placed the blame for lack of delivery on this crucial strategy squarely on the door of the Minister in the Office of the Presidency Essop Pahad.

"This is due to intransigency and arrogance of the Minister in the Office of the Presidency," he said.

Cosatu slams Mbeki

2006-12-23T09:56:00.000-08:00

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has lashed out at President Thabo Mbeki, a man they believe is “theorising” about racism.

According to Cosatu, Mbeki has created a divided tripartite alliance and is misrepresenting the people’s concerns. They lashed out at the highest office of the land yesterday in reaction to a letter posted on the ANC Today website, saying it was “extremely offensive”.

Cosatu took exception to Mbeki’s “defending” of people with business interests “in a manner that suggests (they) are somehow blacker than the working class components of the alliance”.

The labour federation said it was “angered” by Mbeki’s use of a “race card” against “a mainly black workers’ organisation, justifying” capitalism.

This war of words erupted over allegations in the Sunday Times that the ministers for Education, Home Affairs and the Deputy Minister for Health were all linked to the Gautrain project.

Mbeki jumped to the defence of Naledi Pandor, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, saying people criticising their links to the multi-million rand project were motivated by the stereotype that blacks are corrupt.

The strongest critics were Cosatu, the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Democratic Alliance (DA).

Mbeki said the SACP, Cosatu, DA and the Sunday Times were all brought together in “a shared conviction that the ANC has allowed itself to be transformed into a ravenous monster controlled by individuals dedicated to the pursuit of personal wealth by a well-connected elite”.

Cosatu spokesman Patrick Craven said they were very offended at being lumped together with the DA.

According to Craven, a hallmark of Mbeki’s leadership is “misrepresenting opponents’ arguments” and it was “unprincipled” to indicate Cosatu, the SACP and the DA as being one.

Cosatu said the President’s leadership style has “left the ANC and the alliance fractious and deeply divided”.

They criticised the fact that Mbeki did not deny the ministerial links to the Gautrain project, but rather made a “spurious distinction” between “good greed and bad greed”.

Cosatu responded that Mbeki’s statement that Pandor’s interest in the project was of “no consequence” was like suggesting a schoolgirl could be a “little” pregnant” or that a person could be a “little” capitalist.

Official ANC spokesmen were not available for comment late yesterday.

Mbeki defends Gautrain ministers

2006-12-23T09:54:00.000-08:00

The involvement of Cabinet ministers in the Gautrain rapid rail project shareholding has been defended by President Thabo Mbeki who has argued that there had been a determination to cast them in a bad light — motivated by the stereotype that blacks are corrupt.

On Friday in his regular internet column, ANC Today, the president said that "the multi-party offensive" of accusers of the ANC — including the media, Cosatu, the Democratic Alliance, and the SA Communist Party — were determined to project his ruling movement as being "nothing more than a cabal of mercenary politicians, posing as liberation fighters" and motivated by the conviction that the ANC had been caught in the act of engagement in personal self-enrichment and parasitic capitalism.

"Gautrain: Who gets the gravy?"

This follows a story last weekend in the Sunday Times entitled "Gautrain: Who gets the gravy?". He quotes the article as saying that two Cabinet ministers and a deputy minister — as well as the National Assembly speaker had shares in the consortium that was building the high speed Gautrain between Pretoria and Johannesburg.

Mbeki defended Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and Speaker Baleka Mbete acknowledging that they were "indeed" founding members of Dyambu which is linked with the Gautrain.

But he notes that both of them had not had any contact with Dyambu since 2000 "and do not even own any share certificates". Deputy Health Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge was never among those who established Dyambu which is linked to the winning bidder Bombela.

Education Minister Naledi Pandor bought shares in Black Management Forum Investment Company (BMFI) — also linked to Bombela — "long before she came into government". The fact was that "like thousands of other black shareholders, Naledi Pandor holds a tiny fraction of the issued share capital of the BFMI and would be exceedingly foolish to expect that the dividends that might one day flow from her minute ownership could buy her even a month's supply of brown bread."

He noted that the national Cabinet — in which Mapisa-Nqakula and Pandor serve — had "absolutely nothing to do with the conceptualisation of the Gautrain project, the decision to implement it, the issuing of the tender, the adjudication of the bids and the decision to award the Gautrain contract to the Bombela consortium".

"This process in its entirety was handled by the Gauteng provincial government. The national government was drawn into this matter simply because it became obvious that the Gauteng provincial government would not have the resources to implement the Gautrain project."

Black stereotypes

Mbeki said he had in the past — in reference to the arms deal — "made the point" that a central and permanent feature of racism experienced by black people over many centuries "has been the stereotype that as black people we are inherently amoral and corrupt".

"Thus some in our country and elsewhere in the world know it as a matter of fact that our government is bound to be amoral and corrupt."

Mbeki, noting the temporary alliance of the DA's Tony Leon, Cosatu's Patrick Craven and the SACP's Jeremy Cronin in slamming the ANC over the project, said because of the stereotypes "it is very easy successfully to market all manner of deliberate falsehoods about the ANC and our government, counting on the stubborn persistence of an insulting stereotype to give credibility to the outrageous untruths".

The DA, SACP, Cosatu and the Sunday Times had been brought together in a shared conviction, Mbeki argued, that the ANC "has allowed itself to be transformed into a ravenous monster controlled by individuals dedicated to the pursuit of personal wealth by a well connected elite".

The president's inner circle

2006-11-22T11:55:00.000-08:00

But who does Thabo Mbeki listen to and who does he take advice from? Power comes from different sources. Sometimes from office -- with the political authority that comes with it -- sometimes from access to the office-holder.

Mojanku Gumbi is a fascinating member of President Mbeki’s inner circle and a prime example of the latter category. Without noise or fanfare, she has glided into position as the president’s right-hand woman, though her official title is legal adviser to the president. Asked about this, Joel Netshitenzhe, head of the presidential policy unit, says her constant interaction with the president is partly because “the legal area has a tendency of impacting on everything”. Also, because she is a “very good lawyer and a bloody good negotiator”, according to Alec Erwin.

Gumbi now stands head and shoulders above all the other advisers. Seldom does Mbeki meet anyone, or go anywhere, without her by his side. When the president-elect of Bolivia, Evo Morales, made an impromptu visit to South Africa in early January 2006, Mbeki agreed not only to meet with him, even though it was not a formal state visit -- Morales had not yet been inaugurated -- but greeted him at the bottom of the red-carpeted stairs of the west wing of the Union Buildings as if it were, in fact, a formal state visit.

It is clear that, in terms of influence, Gumbi’s role now extends far beyond that of legal adviser -- that she is less lawyer and more political fixer. She is, as another adviser in the wider presidency put it, “an all-rounder now. She is quite competent, and clearly the president has a lot of confidence in her. She has tremendous access and is close to him. She travels everywhere with him all the time.”

The same source confirms that Gumbi is “still Azapo”, and that there is a meeting of minds between the president and her on issues that are generally termed “African nationalism”.

Partly because of this meeting of minds, she is very loyal to Mbeki, but I suspect that some of her strength and appeal to the president is that she is no “yes-man”. She has the power to walk away, which enhances her ability to yield influence by looking him in the eye while talking to him frankly on a range of issues. Given her access, the value that Mbeki attaches to her views, and the natural advantages that lawyers have in both the domestic and international policy arena, Gumbi is now the president’s most influential adviser, which makes her one of the top five most powerful people in the country.

Trevor Manuel, as minister of finance, is the key player from the government-within-a- government’s perspective, again for obvious reasons. As to the ANC, it is more complex, but the key person and the lynchpin for all of this is Joel Netshitenzhe.

Netshitenzhe is the most extraordinary person. He attends all Cabinet meetings, is a member of the ANC’s National Executive Committee and is also one of the ANC’s leading thinkers and intellectuals, drafting many of the most influential internal discussion papers of the past 15 years.

Despite this awesome array of responsibilities and the power that accompanies it, Netshitenzhe is a remarkably nice person. Once one has got through the innate reserve and shyness, there is warmth and humanity, and a willing smile. It is all but impossible to find someone with a bad word to say about him; incredibly, he commands the respect of a huge range of people across the whole of the ANC-alliance spectrum. Almost everyone will, without prompting, mention his influence and intellectual integrity.

To one former Cabinet minister, Netshitenzhe is “elliptical, but independent -- definitely not a lackey, though GCIS [Government Communication and Information System] is absolute crap”, while to a current Cabinet minister he is “a recessive character, very professional, very loyal, who does not often invoke his status. Because he does not throw his weight about, though he could, he keeps friends and rarely makes serious enemies.”

“Joel would die for the president,” says Bheki Khumalo, Mbeki’s spokesman from 1999 to 2005.

It may be unfair to attach him so closely to Mbeki, but one cannot help but feel that they are brothers in all but name. They share a disinclination for the limelight, yet they do not shun responsibility and take on huge amounts of work; they write prodigiously; they philosophise as much as they strategise; both men turn to Marxist theory to help explain political economy, yet they are both conspicuously determined to ensure that capital remains “onside”.

Mbeki keeps Oil-for-Food report under wraps

2006-11-20T12:49:00.000-08:00

President Thabo Mbeki yesterday declined to commit himself to a timeframe for the release of the findings of the Donen commission, which probed the alleged involvement of senior African National Congress (ANC) members in the Iraq oil-for-food scandal.

Mbeki told the National Assembly that the Donen probe had been concluded and he had received the report on November 6.

The oil-for-food scandal exploded into the news in January, with South African companies and prominent ANC politicians named in a United Nations (UN) report on kickbacks paid by then Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.

A UN Security Council probe implicated eight firms in kickbacks, including Omni Oil, Sandile Majali's Imvume Management, and Montega Trading.

Majali allegedly posed as Mbeki's adviser.

Mvelaphanda chairman Tokyo Sexwale and ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe were originally among witnesses to give evidence to the commission.

Mbeki, speaking yesterday during presidential question time, declined to reveal any details of the Donen report.

But he promised that if there had been breaches of the law, the matter would be taken up by SA's law-enforcement agencies.

In response to a question from Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon, Mbeki said he would not place a time limit on when he would make the commission's findings public and joked that he might do it while Leon was on his Christmas holiday.

Mbeki stressed that the commission was appointed to evaluate the UN report and "advise government on whether any conduct by South Africans referred to in the report amounts to a contravention of our law".

He said government remained committed to ensuring that the recommendations of the UN report were addressed with the necessary urgency.

"The legal challenges to the mandate and powers of the commission resulted in unforeseen delays. Government will, after studying the report, decide on the most expeditious manner to give effect to these recommendations," he said.

Leon suggested to the president that there was "disquiet" at the narrowness of the commission's terms of reference in view of the fact that it involved businessmen with ANC connections and senior members of the ruling party. He asked if it was not a problem that the commission had never held public hearings.

Mbeki responded that further discussion would go nowhere as the report was still being studied.

Goniwe told to extend sick leave

2006-11-18T08:02:00.000-08:00

Mbulelo Goniwe, the ANC chief whip, has effectively been stripped of his powers in a move tantamount to suspension, pending the outcome of his disciplinary hearing.

Goniwe, who is facing an ANC disciplinary inquiry for alleged sexual harassment, went on sick leave last week.

On Thursday, the party's national disciplinary committee (NDC) said there was a strong prima facie case which warranted a disciplinary hearing against Goniwe.

The action against Goniwe has been pushed by the ANC's women's caucus in parliament and backed by the party's Women's League, who "have had it" following the latest allegations of this nature against Goniwe, The Star was told.

The matter was also due for discussion in the ANC's last parliamentary caucus for the year, given that some male ANC MPs had taken offence to accusations that they had intimidated the complainant.

The heavyweights on the NDC include its chairperson, Kader Asmal, Limpopo MEC Collins Chabane, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin, ANC MP Lluwellyn Landers, Deputy Safety and Security Minister Susan Shabangu and Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya.

Goniwe was not present at the meeting and Asmal told the media he had tried to contact Goniwe to inform him of the developments, but had been unsuccessful.

Goniwe has not been in the National Assembly since Tuesday, when he was called to a meeting with ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe in Johannesburg, partly to explain the sexual harassment allegation.

While the NDC met to discuss the matter against him yon Thursday, Goniwe told The Star he was at a soccer tournament in the Eastern Cape, where he was doing "social work".

However, Asmal said Goniwe had applied for sick leave last week and that he had been asked to extend it.

"In order to ensure that the hearing is conducted in a responsible and fair manner, the chief whip must remain on leave of absence until the completion of the hearing and must not perform his duties as chief whip," said Asmal.

He added that the case would be "expedited" because of the "special status" of the chief whip.

Asmal said the case would be prepared by Luthuli House, the ANC headquarters, and that the matter was likely to be finalised by January.

He said the case needed "urgent and immediate attention", although it usually took two to three weeks to get a meeting of the NDC under way.

He said Goniwe was entitled to be represented by a "person of good standing" within the party.

Since the start of the year the NDC has deliberated on nine cases, with four more on the cards for December, Asmal said.

He also issued a stern warning to ANC members, saying tough action would be taken against them if it was found that they were found to have intimidated the complainant.

Asmal said she was an intern employed by the ANC and that the chairperson of the ANC caucus, Vytjie Mentor, was "providing assistance" to the woman.

"There is evidence of attempts to influence and pressure the complainant. This is viewed in a serious light and any ANC member implicated in this is in breach of the obligations of a member," Asmal said.

Earlier this week, Mentor told The Star that the woman was under her "guardianship" after receiving up to 20 abusive phone calls warning her that she had placed her career and Goniwe's in jeopardy.

The case also threatens Goniwe's political ambitions of becoming the Eastern Cape's provincial secretary.

The province will have its election while the investigation against him gets under way.

Asmal said it was up to Goniwe, his conscience and the province to decide whether he should remain in the running for the position of provincial secretary.

Zim no threat to world peace

2006-11-16T02:23:00.000-08:00

Zimbabwe had never been on the United Nations security council agenda because it had never made a determination that it constituted - according to the UN charter - a threat to international peace and security, said President Thabo Mbeki on Wednesday.

Replying to a question - during questions to the president in the national assembly - from Democratic Alliance MP Sheila Camerer, who asked how South Africa would use its non-permanent seat to "ameliorate" the situation in Zimbabwe, Mbeki said: "The security council has never put Zimbabwe on its agenda."

It also had never made a determination that Zimbabwe constituted such a threat, he explained.

He said he didn't know if the council would change this position in the future.

Bringing new dimensions to denial

2006-11-14T00:53:00.000-08:00

I WAS amused the other day to read that President Thabo Mbeki had declined some or other appeal to investigate the links police chief Jackie Selebi is said to have with organised crime because the government, apparently, doesn’t launch commissions of inquiry into rumours.

Really? What was the Hefer Commission, then, if not an official inquiry into rumours that the chief prosecutor had been an apartheid spy?

I guess the difference is that Mbeki knew what the outcome of the Hefer Commission would be but can’t be quite as sure about probing Selebi. So he chooses the soft option — to issue a cabinet declaration supporting Selebi and the sterling job he is doing to keep the nation safe from harm.

Mbeki brings new dimensions to denial. There’s AIDS (for which poor Dr Beetroot has had now to take a fall), Zimbabwe (on which he has been spectacularly defeated by Robert Mugabe), and now crime (it’s just another “challenge”) and the police chief who I suspect he fears.

Selebi can’t be touched because he could influence the outcome of the ANC presidential succession if aroused. Even Manto has to be treated with kid gloves. She knows too much. Her husband, Mendi, is the treasurer of the ANC and knows where all the money comes from. Mbeki’s battles are all inside his party and they will absorb him until he leaves office in 2009. Looking for a leader, mister and missus average citizen? Forget about it for a while and take care of your own stuff.

He went out of his way to buy influence

2006-11-12T11:11:00.000-08:00

The Supreme Court of Appeal judg ment in the Schabir Shaik case could not have had a worse outcome — for Jacob Zuma.

Not only did the five-member panel of judges uphold Judge Hilary Squires’s conviction and sentence imposed on Shaik, but they found that Shaik paid Zuma what amounted to an “unlawful retainer” aimed at having the ANC deputy president undermine his constitutional duties — in order to punt Shaik’s business interests.

The court found that, in terms of the Constitution, as an elected government minister (both MEC and deputy president) Zuma could not undertake any other paid work; act in a way inconsistent with his office or in a way that exposed him to a conflict of private and official interests; or use his position to enrich himself or anyone else .

Shaik’s payments to Zuma — they totalled R1.29-million — were clearly aimed at ensuring that Zuma violate these constitutional duties to Shaik’s benefit and that of his companies.

“Making full allowance for the bonds of friendship there would understandably have been between them ... it is nevertheless clear that Shaik was keenly aware of the many business opportunities that the new political era offered, and anxious not to miss them.

“For his part, Zuma was seen by Shaik and by others in the know as destined for very high political office and possessed of the potent influence appropriate to that situation. Added to that was Zuma’s almost crippling financial vulnerability. He had heavy family commitments but wanted a smart and publicly visible lifestyle,” the court found.

“It is plain that the purpose of using the Zuma connection was not to advance their friendship. Its purpose was commercial exploitation. It found its most telling expression in Shaik’s constant assertion to potential contracting parties that [Shaik’s company] Nkobi was especially well-placed for inclusion in joint ventures because of its political connections, despite its lack of financial strength.”

The court found the state did not need to link the Zuma interventions in various deals with any single payment. Rather, the payments were an “unlawful retainer” paid as part of a “sustained corrupt” relationship.

The inference is clear: Shaik, in going out of his way to ensure he bought Zuma’s influence, in effect imposed on Zuma the role of the corruptee .

On the encrypted fax from Thint South Africa head Alain Thetard to his French bosses requesting a R1-million bribe for Zuma, things went just as badly for the axed deputy president.

The court found that the fax was indeed admissible in evidence, and effectively blocked a Constitutional Court appeal by Shaik on this matter by admitting it under different aspects of law to those challenged at the Appeal Court by his legal team .

The court also dismissed Shaik’s claim that the money was for a donation to the Jacob Zuma Education Trust, as there would have been no need for secretive language of the type used in the fax in this case — whereas “had the request been for a bribe as the fax indicates, the use of these expressions is understandable”.

Lawrence of Evadia, the ANC Protector

2006-11-11T13:25:00.000-08:00

Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana is the ruling party’s secret weapon in the war against the abuse of power by its members.

Whenever the ugly spectre of abuse by a top African National Congress (ANC) member appears, Mushwana simply makes it go away.

He invited this judgment when, in his 2002 interview for the job and in the face of a barrage of criticism about his allegiance to the ANC, he said: “Perceptions will depend on the product. If the results will suggest that I am biased, then people will have the right to think that I’m biased.”

With a raft of investigations into ANC members under his belt, his track record is notable for one thing: a paucity of negative findings against his former colleagues. It is not for nothing that he has been referred to as the ANC Protector, and Lawrence of Evadia.

The latest “vindication” of a senior ANC member came when Mushwana cleared Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya of conflict of interest in his department’s tender process.

But he did nail the minister for breaching executive ethics, in what an opposition party referred to as the “first sign of any courage” during Mushwana’s tenure.

Of 16 investigations into the activities of ANC members reported in the media since 2003, he has made negative findings in only three.

Two of these were against low-profile municipal and provincial officials for wasteful expenditure, and one against then prosecutions chief Bulelani Ngcuka for saying there was a prima facie case of corruption against former deputy president Jacob Zuma.

Among those who have escaped sanction are Zuma, Skweyiya, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota, First Lady Zanele Mbeki, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka (twice), Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride, the entire Cabinet, ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe, presidential advisor Manne Dipico, Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and 17 ministers and deputy ministers fingered by the auditor-general for failing to disclose their financial interests.

In two cases, Mushwana’s rulings have been found wanting by subsequent court action: the prospect of a criminal trial still looms over Zuma; and state oil company Petrosa agreed in a recent court settlement to hand over documents pertaining to the Oilgate scandal, which Mushwana decreed it need not do.

Opposition parties, including one that supported his appointment, laid into him, accusing him of being incapable of managing his office properly and of being tainted by the whiff of whitewash.

Inkatha Freedom Party justice spokesman Koos van der Merwe, whose party supported Mushwana’s appointment in 2002, said it would be “hesitant” to do so given the chance to repeat the selection process. He pointed to Mushwana’s public spat in July with his deputy, Mamiki Shai, who made sexual harassment allegations against her boss, as proof of his inability to manage his office.

When he “ran like a cry baby” to Parliament to get it to handle the situation, “he then proved he’s not capable of managing his own staff”, Van der Merwe said.

The IFP spokesman said he had referred two cases to Mushwana’s office, without ever receiving a reply. “Some of his decisions have surprised me,” he said, without wanting to be specific.

“He sends uncomfortable signals. One would expect him to be beyond reproach.”

Sheila Camerer, justice spokesman for the Democratic Alliance, which vigorously opposed Mushwana’s appointment, said that while “each case has to be regarded on its merits, there has been a pattern”.

The “first sign of any courage” was the finding of a breach of executive ethics against Skweyiya, “but it’s a minor infringement”, Camerer said. His disappointing performance was highlighted by the Oilgate scandal. “He made a finding giving reasons not to give us (Petrosa) documents, which ran counter to a later court case,” she said.

Both parties said they would lobby aggressively when Mushwana’s term expired in 2009 for legislation to be changed so that the post would be filled by an independent candidate.

Mushwana was deputy chairman of the National Council of Provinces before his appointment, and he was one among a host of other candidates, mostly independent.

“It’s not wise to get an active politician in there,” Van der Merwe said. As for an active ANC-aligned politician: “There will always be claims that his ANC petticoat is showing.”

Come eat your cake

2006-11-09T02:59:00.000-08:00

The country's longest serving Member of Parliament, Koos van der Merwe, was ordered to leave the National Assembly after he demanded a meeting with President Thabo Mbeki and accused his staff of being incompetent in dealing with his year-long request.

During discussion of the budget of the Presidency on Wednesday, Van der Merwe, of the Inkatha Freedom Party, said part of the budget was R4.6-million to be spent on overtime expenditure. He asked how this was reasonable given that he was now celebrating one year of "waiting to see the president".

Van der Merwe, first elected as an MP for the National Party in 1977, said he had been promised a meeting by the president a year ago and he had approached his parliamentary counsellor John Jeffrey about it through five letters.

It is understood that Van der Merwe was wanting to meet Mbeki about matters relating to the Afrikaner community but he did not explain the details of the meeting he was seeking.

He said money was being paid to the staff of the Presidency, but they had not done their duty.

Brandishing a box with a cake, he said to the Minister in the Presidency, Essop Pahad, Van der Merwe said: "Here is your cake. Come and eat it. I have waited a year."

Deputy Speaker Gwen Mahlangu ordered him to leave the house after the deputy African National Congress chief whip pointed out that Van der Merwe had been told to seek his meeting through Jeffrey.

Van der Merwe agreed that the president had appointed "Mr Jeffrey". He had sent him "five or six letters" asking for an appointment. He then shouted: "Mr Jeffrey, I want to see the President!"

He was ordered out of the house by the deputy Speaker with his cake.

Democratic Alliance whip Mike Ellis asked for the cake: "Can we have the cake? We would like to eat it." Van der Merwe handed him the cake box before leaving the house.

The deputy and the Dutch tycoon

2006-11-05T10:07:00.000-08:00

The arrest of Bermuda-based Dutch oil tycoon John Deuss has exposed a trail of questionable influence leading to South Africa's second highest office.

The fortunes of Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka's political adviser, Ayanda Nkuhlu, are intimately tied to those of Deuss, whose company has seconded him to Mlambo-Ngcuka's part-time service.

Nkuhlu is in the anomalous position of representing the interests of state oil company PetroSA in a joint venture with Deuss's Transworld group; of also heading a local subsidiary of Transworld; and of being seconded by this subsidiary to advise Mlambo-Ngcuka, to whom he has been close for years.

Nkuhlu has denied he acted in Deuss' interest when he advised Mlambo-Ngcuka, even though Deuss paid the bill.

Deuss has a colourful past, which includes busting the oil embargo for the apartheid regime. In 1985 the then-exiled ANC called him a "criminal . . . engaged in this nefarious trade".

He staged a South African comeback four years ago when PetroSA and Transworld formed a joint venture, PetroWorld, to pursue international opportunities in oil and gas.

PetroWorld has brought PetroSA little but trouble. Its projects have been disallowed or are on hold. And the Reserve Bank has fined PetroSA R12-million ($1.6 million) for entering the joint venture in violation of exchange control regulations.

Deuss' arrest last month in Bermuda, his adoptive home of three decades, may come as vindication for oil sector critics who have long questioned his embrace by PetroSA.

Bermudian police were acting on an international warrant issued by Dutch authorities. He was released on $10-million bail before volunteering to accompany detectives to Holland. The Dutch warrant stated that Deuss was wanted for questioning on allegations of money laundering, handling of stolen property and leading a criminal organisation. This flowed from Dutch and British investigations into "carousel fraud", which has caused European tax authorities to lose hundreds of billions of euros.

Carousel fraud involves bogus value-added tax refund claims on electronic goods round-tripped in and out of European Union countries. It mushroomed as perpetrators used Deuss' First Curaçao International Bank (FCIB), based in the Dutch Caribbean territory of Curaçao, to create virtual carousels.
In September Dutch and British authorities raided the bank in Curaçao and Deuss-linked properties in Holland and the United Kingdom. Deuss was quoted then as saying that FCIB and its affiliates, including Transworld, "have at all times conducted their business in full compliance with all applicable laws, regulations and rules".

And following his arrest in Bermuda a Deuss lawyer stressed: "He is not charged with any criminal offence in The Netherlands, but is simply wanted for questioning."

Just how Deuss pulled off his South African comeback remains unclear. Sources privy to PetroSA's affairs have claimed that political pressure was brought to bear on PetroSA to go ahead with a deal that may not have been in its interests.

Nkuhlu last week said that Mlambo-Ngcuka, then Minister of Minerals and Energy, "did not pressure nor railroad PetroSA".

It is also not clear why PetroSA entered the joint venture without obtaining Reserve Bank approval. PetroSA's 2006 annual report reveals that the Reserve Bank fined the parastatal R12-million, half of it refundable, for the contravention. The report calls it "wasteful expenditure".

Despite the provisions of the Public Finance Management Act, there have been no legal consequences.

The terms of the agreement appear to have been prejudicial to PetroSA in that it tied the parastatal into exclusivity with Transworld on projects abroad.

This has not been respected in practice and PetroSA's present management is understood to have considered terminating the deal.

The connection with Mlambo-Ngcuka, responsible for PetroSA as minerals and energy minister at the time, was apparent from early on.

Nkuhlu had followed Mlambo-Ngcuka from trade and industry, where she was deputy minister, to minerals and energy, where he was her chief of staff. He was later redeployed to PetroWorld to represent the interests of PetroSA. In 2004 a company called PetroWorld RSA was registered locally, with Nkuhlu as CEO.

The original intent, according to Nkuhlu, was for PetroWorld RSA to be a local subsidiary of the Bermudian joint venture holding company, PetroWorld Limited, but the Reserve Bank disallowed this as it would have created a "loop structure".

Such arrangements are outlawed because they could defeat foreign exchange regulations.
As a result, PetroWorld RSA was created as a straight subsidiary of Deuss' Transworld. This put Nkuhlu in the ambiguous position of being in Deuss's employ, but also of representing PetroSA's interests vis-à-vis him.

It is PetroWorld RSA – effectively Deuss (pictured) – that has seconded Nkuhlu to Mlambo-Ngcuka's office as a part-time adviser. Nhkulu is particularly trusted and influential in her office.

Nkuhlu has argued that there was nothing untoward about his overlapping roles in the deputy presidency, PetroSA and PetroWorld, saying: "It will not only be unfair but factually incorrect to say that John Deuss' 'questionable influence' has reached the Deputy President's Office. I do not represent PetroWorld RSA . . . when I act in my capacity as part-time adviser to the deputy president."

SA grapples with black empowerment

2006-11-02T02:59:00.000-08:00

It has created a wealthy black elite but has been decried for leaving millions of people behind; advocates say it has helped redress the economic wrongs of apartheid but critics argue it is deeply flawed.

South Africa's black economic empowerment (BEE) policy was supposed to bring the black majority into the mainstream economy but as opponents grow more vocal, there are signs the government may be ready for a rethink.

Through BEE, the state is pushing companies to meet quotas on black ownership, employment and procurement to increase the majority's share in the white-dominated economy. Often, however, lucrative deals have gone to a few businessmen with ties to the ruling African National Congress (ANC).

"There is concern that ... masses of black people are not benefiting like the ANC would like to see them benefiting," said Prince Mashele, a policy researcher at the Institute for Security Studies.

"It is a fundamental question that the ANC broadly is grappling with."

The ANC long saw opposition to black economic empowerment as an attempt by whites to retain old privileges, but the party now seems to be listening as workers grow more disgruntled over stark income gaps.

A July government study showed there was a dramatic increase last year in strikes by labourers who felt they had been left behind in a booming economy where companies and their directors were enjoying hefty windfalls.

"Top management are earning millions, while the workers struggle to make a decent living," powerful trade union Cosatu said in a statement in March in support of pay-related strikes.

"While management continue to reap the benefits of workers' sweat, the standard of living of workers has continued to drop."

The ANC has yet to even hint at any possible changes to the BEE policy, and analysts say it is difficult to regulate since compliance is voluntary for firms, but there are signs of a sea change in government thinking.

Worshipping wealth
In August, the ANC said it was drafting a code of conduct to address complaints that the system benefited people with links to the ruling party. It has also sought to include more ordinary South Africans in the scheme by putting more emphasis on small businesses and employment and gender quotas.

But 12 years after the first all-race poll marked the end of apartheid, South Africa still has some of the biggest income gaps in the world, largely drawn along racial lines.

Africa's biggest economy last year grew by 4,9% -- the fastest growth in over two decades -- driven in large part by the thriving black middle class.

This group, defined in South Africa as people who earn at least R154 000 ($20 630) per annum, has grown by 368% between 1998 and 2004, mainly due to BEE.

Analysts say this is helping to drive overall growth but the numbers benefiting are small and the productive side of the economy lags the demand side.

Economic success -- and its visible signs in ostentatious consumption -- have deepened the anger of those who feel left behind and has attracted the attention of the political elite.

In July, President Thabo Mbeki rounded on the country's nouveau riche in a speech which analysts said gave perhaps the strongest indication of ANC concerns about BEE shortcomings.

"We nevertheless share a fundamental objective to defeat the tendency in our society towards the deification of personal wealth as the distinguishing feature of the new citizen of the new South Africa," Mbeki said.

The speech was widely viewed as a veiled swipe at the new black middle class, and a signal of change.

Magic unrealism

2006-10-29T11:07:00.000-08:00

Last week saw the 20th anniversary of the air accident in which Mozambican president Samora Machel lost his life along with some 25 other passengers on a Soviet-built and crewed Tupolev TU-134 aircraft. Few will deny that Machel’s death was a grave loss to his country and, in a wider sense, to African politics. What cannot be denied are the extraordinary and often quite bizarre circumstances surrounding investigations into the crash. Also that, with 20 years gone, there remains no closure of the matter. According to an SABC news bulletin, investigations are still underway into the causes of the crash.

Two words are currently very fashionable among our political elite. They trip off tongues eager to display the rare symbiosis of democratic ambition and morality, which are supposed to have marked our first years of liberation. “Dignity” is one, frequently deployed in support is its lexical relative, “respect”. The trouble is that, when it comes to the combined fermentation and abetment of short-term objectives, any such fine sentiments are easily elbowed out of the way. No better proof of this can be seen in the way politicians, all of the 20 years on, are still fulminating about the part they believe was played in the Machel crash by “agents of the apartheid regime”. What ordinary, what decent human courtesy is owed to Samora Machel’s memory has become entirely subordinate to the ever popular diversion of having yet another lightless grovel around the sins of South Africa’s past.

When it comes to summoning the cockroaches from behind the wainscotting, there’s nothing like a good old conspiracy theory; the wilder the better. The Tupolev crash became connoisseur’s grist to that mill. Many were those who sought to capitalise in one way or another on the two tragedies. The spectre of the “apartheid machine” was summoned from its crypt, to stand accused as primary cause in both crashes. Respect and dignity? Not when there’s so much political and other feedstock up for engorgement.

Last Thursday, President Thabo Mbeki suffered one of his increasingly frequent bouts of magical unrealism. Speaking on the anniversary of the Tupolev crash, he trotted out vaporous promises about how no one would rest until “the real causes of the shocking Machel accident” were uncovered. Mr Mbeki is fond of fortifying the dignity of his fellows. Yet, how meticulously any dignity about Machel’s memory is still being shoved aside, supplanted by the unseemly needs of Mr Mbeki, and others, to poach upon the tragedy.

Let me jog the memory. Investigations into the Machel/Tupolev crash began with a board of enquiry headed by the late Judge Cecil Margo. The board was made up of eight members, to include internationally recognised air accident investigators. As both the aircraft and its crew were Soviet in origin, there was Russian representation on the board.

Held under bright public lights, the Margo board found unanimously that the accident was caused by pilot and crew error -- in fact a very charitable definition of what was in fact negligence of criminal proportions. Hardly had this finding been published than a minority report was issued hastily by the Soviet elements on the board. At this stage, and for the first time, the theory of the “decoy navigational beacon” was introduced. It seemed political pressure was being applied from afar. After all, the aircraft had been a donation to Mozambique, its crew were Russian. There was no way a South African board of enquiry could be allowed to blame the death of the Mozambiquean president on the Kremlin.

The decoy beacon theory had the desired effect. Conspiracy loonies swarmed to it like flies to a coffin. Summarily, Margo’s board was denounced as being a political whitewash, a pathetic cover-up of a clandestine assassination plot. Grim apartheid had struck again. Never mind that the elements of this new theorising would embarrass the corniest of thriller writers.

Next, in a preposterous series of knock-ons, was a “special” Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings into the Machel accident. Unlike Margo’s board, the hearing was held in camera, a wise decision as it turned out. The transcript of the Machel component of the secret TRC hearings is still being withheld from the public -- to avoid further embarrassment we must assume. Its findings have, however, been published. They bristle with the absurd: solecism stumbles over supposition, half truth competes with guesswork. The findings are a jot short of being utter nonsense. Any qualified reading of evidence heard by the Margo board shows that its interpretations were the only possible ones: an atrocious lack of airmanship, poor discipline combined with a devil-may-care attitude brought that aircraft to its unnecessary end. No amount of decoy beacon theorising will ever confound that. Any further grave-picking will amount to cynical spoliation.

State about-turn on R10m for Zuma

2006-10-27T09:58:00.000-07:00

After initially insisting that R10m had been set aside simply as a contingency in case Jacob Zuma’s legal costs had to be paid, government has admitted that an agreement to pay has been reached with the former deputy president’s lawyers.

This followed the surprise allocation of R10m in the budget of the Presidency for Zuma’s legal fees. The amount was taken from savings after budgeted posts were not filled in the Presidency.

Chief government spokesman Themba Maseko first told a postcabinet briefing in Cape Town yesterday that the money was a provisional amount, which had been set aside in case the state attorney decided the state was liable for Zuma’s legal costs.

However, in a later statement from the Government Communication and Information system, he said after further investigation it had been found that there was indeed an agreement with Zuma’s lawyers “in line with precedent on these kinds of matters”.

“The delay in finalising the matter was a result of protracted negotiations on the extent of the commitment and criteria for payment. These matters have since been resolved and the Presidency has made a contingency provision for an amount of R10m in its budget to cover this risk.

“No payment has been made at this stage as no invoice has been received from the attorneys of the former deputy president,” the statement read.

It also offered an apology for the incorrect information given at the press conference.

Zuma said earlier this year that the state was obliged to help him financially in his corruption trial because at the time of the alleged offences, he had been employed by government.

The Friends of Jacob Zuma Trust confirmed yesterday that the R10m had not been received. The trust was set up to provide financial and moral support to Zuma for his corruption trial.

Meanwhile, the trust announced it had devised new initiatives to help raise funds, including a feature on its website through which supporters would be able to download a cellphone ringtone playing Zuma’s trademark “umshini wami” song in his own voice.

Zuma has had to retain the services of his legal team to deal with outstanding legal matters, including the team studying a forensic report on the corruption charges in case the National Prosecuting Authority decides to charge him again.

Zuma’s case was struck off the Pietermaritzburg High Court roll after Judge Herbert Msimang refused an application by the state for a postponement.

Tax money to pay Zuma's legal fees

2006-10-26T14:08:00.000-07:00

The South African government is setting "an appalling precedent" by paying former deputy president Jacob Zuma's legal fees, said the official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA).

DA justice spokesperson Sheila Camerer said: "After over a year of evasions and statements that the matter was still under consideration, the government has finally admitted that the taxpayer will have to fork out R10-million to pay for Zuma's highly publicised trials.

"This information has not reached the public by way of an announcement, but was instead surreptitiously hidden away in a section of the mini-budget. It is not even clear which trial this amount is to cover -- the corruption trial, the rape trial, or both."

"It is shocking that the government has agreed to pay for the defence of someone who is alleged to have carried out their job in a corrupt manner. After all, ex-deputy president Zuma is being prosecuted in his personal capacity, and it could never be argued that his alleged criminal conduct was undertaken in furtherance of the business of the state.

"It is therefore unconscionable that the state has chosen to foot the former deputy president's legal fees."

Camerer said further: "This decision also smacks of the most blatant double standards from the African National Congress [ANC] government. In 2004, the ANC-led Western Cape provincial government refused to pay the legal fees in the corruption trial of former Western Cape premier Peter Marais and former [provincial minister] David Malatsi. The provincial government successfully had a lower court ruling that it pay the legal fees of the two overturned."

Camerer said her party would be putting a question on the parliamentary order paper to establish exactly which legal costs in exactly which trial the R10-million is budgeted to cover, "the reasons for this financial support and whether more money will be paid by the taxpayer if Mr Zuma's trial is reinstated".

It is a basic human right to be safe, not a luxury

2006-10-22T12:18:00.000-07:00

A group of former Springbok rugby players want answers from President Thabo Mbeki on crime. This week eight of the more than 200-strong group, calling themselves The Rugby Springboks, delivered a memorandum to Mbeki, calling on him to "act to fight crime and corruption [and] to build the country of our dreams."

Their concern about crime was underscored by the violent hijacking of former provincial rugby player Swys Joubert, in Saxonwold. Joubert was attacked by three armed hijackers. While Joubert was wrestling with them, one man, aged 26, was shot dead.

"I stood in the street with my clothes covered in blood and tried to stop cars but no-one stopped," said a weeping Joubert, 50. "I've been hijacked twice in Benoni. This is the third time. I am traumatised."

He said the crime situation in South Africa was "absurd" and "had to stop". This was echoed in the memorandum of the group of Springboks, led by Wynand Claassen, a former Springbok captain, and Jacques Olivier, a former wing.

Their memorandum to Mbeki read: "As South Africans who have had the privilege to represent our country on the rugby field, we write to you in a spirit of solidarity and genuine concern.

"Like you, we are proud to be South African. Like you, we have the highest hopes for this country.

"We are disturbed by what appears to be the alarming erosion of plain law and order in many areas of public life and the criminal justice system."

They urged Mbeki to lead a "moral renaissance where peace and prosperity becomes the birthright of every South African".

Their call for action follows the recent release of crime statistics in South Africa by the Department of Safety and Security, which showed that crime, overall, was decreasing.

Pharmacist Hannes Strydom, 40, one of the eight, said: "They [the government] are telling us the statistics are down but we are not experiencing that. We've asked [President] Mbeki for a meeting where he won't be able to make unfounded statements and we won't make false allegations.."

He said it was a basic human right to be safe, "not a luxury". It was up to the government to create jobs and educate its citizens so that South Africans would not need to steal to put food on the table as poverty was one of the main causes of crime.

He lamented that the criminal justice system was failing South Africans. "Crime pays. When people sit in jail for just two weeks after committing a murder, why not do it and take a chance?"

Olivier, 37, who now works as a building contractor, started The Rugby Springboks two months ago because he was ready to emigrate to Australia.

In August, ex-Springbok hooker Uli Schmidt, and the former team doctor, left South Africa for Australia, and said his decision to emigrate was chiefly driven by the crime wave.

Joubert's wife, Elize, said the incident had left her family traumatised. "My kids had to go for therapy twice every week for seven months at a cost of R200 per session for one child [after the previous attack]." Now the family has to start visiting a therapist again.

The deputy and the Dutch tycoon

2006-10-20T02:08:00.000-07:00

The arrest of controversial Dutch oil tycoon John Deuss has exposed a trail of questionable influence leading to South Africa’s second highest office.

The fortunes of Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka’s political adviser, Ayanda Nkuhlu, are intimately tied to those of Deuss, whose company has seconded him to Mlambo-Ngcuka’s part-time service.

Nkuhlu is in the anomalous position of representing the interests of state oil company PetroSA in a joint venture with Deuss’s Transworld group; of also heading a local subsidiary of Transworld; and of being seconded by this subsidiary to advise Mlambo-Ngcuka, to whom he has been close for years.

Nkuhlu this week denied he acted in Deuss’s interest when he advised Mlambo-Ngcuka, even though Deuss paid the bill.

Deuss has a colourful past, which includes busting the oil embargo for the apartheid regime. In 1985 the then-exiled ANC called him a "criminal … engaged in this nefarious trade".

He staged a South African comeback four years ago when PetroSA and Transworld formed a joint venture, PetroWorld, to pursue international opportunities in oil and gas. PetroWorld has brought PetroSA little but trouble. Its projects have been disallowed or are on hold. And the Reserve Bank has fined PetroSA R12-million for entering the joint venture in violation of exchange control regulations.

Deuss’s arrest last Friday in Bermuda, his adoptive home of three decades, may come as vindication for oil sector critics who have long questioned his embrace by PetroSA. Bermudan police were acting on an international warrant issued by Dutch authorities.

He was released on $10-million (R75-million) bail on Monday after he agreed voluntarily to accompany detectives to Holland.

The Dutch warrant stated that Deuss was wanted for questioning on allegations of money laundering, handling of stolen property and leading a criminal organisation. This flowed from Dutch and British investigations into "carousel fraud", which has caused European tax authorities to lose hundreds of billions of rands.

Carousel fraud involves bogus value-added tax refund claims on electronic goods round-tripped in and out of European Union countries. It mushroomed as perpetrators used Deuss’s First Curaçao International Bank (FCIB), based in the Dutch Carribean territory of Curaçao, to create virtual carousels.

Dutch and British authorities last month raided the bank in Curaçao and Deuss-linked properties in Holland and the United Kingdom. Deuss was quoted then as saying that FCIB and its affiliates, including Transworld, “have at all times conducted their business in full compliance with all applicable laws, regulations and rules”. This week a Deuss lawyer was quoted saying: “He is not charged with any criminal offence in The Netherlands, but is simply wanted for questioning.”

Just how Deuss pulled off his South African comeback remains unclear. Sources privy to PetroSA’s affairs have claimed that political pressure was brought to bear on PetroSA to go ahead with a deal that may not have been in its interests. Nkuhlu on Thursday said that Mlambo-Ngcuka, then minister of minerals and energy, "did not pressure nor railroad PetroSA".

It is also not clear why PetroSA entered the joint venture without obtaining Reserve Bank approval. PetroSA’s 2006 annual report reveals that the Reserve Bank fined the parastatal R12-million, half of it refundable, for the contravention. The report calls it “wasteful expenditure”. Despite the provisions of the Public Finance Management Act, there have been no legal consequences.

The terms of the agreement appear to have been prejudicial to PetroSA in that it tied the parastatal into exclusivity with Transworld on projects abroad. This has not been respected in practice and PetroSA’s present management is understood to have considered terminating the deal.

The connection with Mlambo-Ngcuka, responsible for PetroSA as minerals and energy minister at the time, was apparent from early on.

Nkuhlu had followed Mlambo-Ngcuka from trade and industry, where she was deputy minister, to minerals and energy, where he was her chief of staff. He was later redeployed to PetroWorld to represent the interests of PetroSA. In 2004 a company called PetroWorld RSA was registered locally, with Nkuhlu as CEO.

The original intent, according to Nkuhlu, was for PetroWorld RSA to be a local subsidiary of the Bermudan joint venture holding company, PetroWorld Limited, but the Reserve Bank disallowed this as it would have created a “loop structure”.

Such arrangements are outlawed because they could defeat foreign exchange regulations.

As a result, PetroWorld RSA was created as a straight subsidiary of Deuss’s Transworld. This put Nkuhlu in the ambiguous position of being in Deuss’s employ, but also of representing PetroSA’s interests vis-à-vis him.

It is PetroWorld RSA — effectively Deuss — that has seconded Nkuhlu to Mlambo-Ngcuka’s office as a part-time adviser. Nhkulu is particularly trusted and influential in her office.

Nkuhlu on Thursday argued that there was nothing untoward about his overlapping roles in the deputy presidency, PetroSA and PetroWorld, saying: “It will not only be unfair but factually incorrect to say that John Deuss’s ‘questionable influence’ has reached the Deputy President’s Office. I do not represent PetroWorld RSA … when I act in my capacity as part-time adviser to the deputy president.”

The age of uncertainty

2006-10-13T13:42:00.000-07:00

South Africa has entered an age of both political and economic uncertainty, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon warned. The one was exacerbated by the other, he said in his weekly newsletter, published on his party’s website.

The darkening political situation has lately been exacerbated by economic factors. Former deputy president JacobÆ Zuma’s corruption trial being struck off the roll has not only unleashed all but open warfare over the presidential succession; it has sent tremors through an overheated economy, and dented investor confidence.

The extent of the jitters is reflected in the rand having lost almost a fifth of its value since May this year. A lack of sound economic judgement at this critical point would prove disastrous for the country.

President Thabo Mbeki’s denial in the National Assembly on Thursday that the succession issue within the ANC was not having a negative effect on governance was “patent eyewash”.

That the succession issue is a crisis for the country as a whole is not just my view; it is objective reality. For the president to say in effect -- like lame-duck British premier Jim Callaghan, faced with the industrial ‘Winter of Discontent’ of 1979 --'Crisis? What crisis?', is utterly disingenuous.

Mbeki’s denial had widened the credibility gap. “The economy is sluggish, government is mired in seemingly endless corruption scandals, the tripartite alliance and indeed the ruling party is in disarray, and government is paralysed by the resurgent figure of Jacob Zuma."

Faced with this gap, we might... aptly describe the present time as an age of uncertainty.”
A lack of movement during Mbeki’s tenure on key reforms to the economy was now thrown into sharp focus: the labour market was held back by inflexible legislation, and the private sector -- the surest means to job creation -- was over-burdened by red tape."

Just as government is committed to embarking on the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative, aimed at boosting growth to six percent... comes a sobering report from the IMF (International Monetary Fund).

The fund has scaled down its forecast of South Africa’s GDP growth outlook to 4.2 percent (from 4.9 percent), and set next year’s estimate at four percent. This means we will be unable to achieve the level of growth required to make a meaningful dent in the unemployment queues.
The danger is that our reforms have slowed to a snail’s pace at a time when a lack of overseas investment... will adversely affect our economy.

A lack of sound economic judgement at this critical juncture, then, will prove disastrous for the country.

“Yet an embattled Mbeki appears increasingly constrained by his unredeemed socialist allies in the Tripartite Alliance with Cosatu and the SACP; since Zuma’s new-found attachment to the left, it seems that the president is being held hostage by these selfsame interests.

There was no greater register of the sense of helplessness gripping the country than the rampant scourge of crime -- one real sign of deepening poverty and government’s inability to provide efficient security and a responsive justice system, Leon said.

Zuma frontrunner to lead SA

2006-10-12T07:56:00.000-07:00

ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma confirmed his frontrunner status in the race to succeed Thabo Mbeki when he won the backing of a majority in a poll as the best choice to lead South Africa.

In the first major survey since Zuma emerged unscathed from rape and graft charges, 57% of those polled said they wanted the veteran Zulu politician to succeed Mbeki, who stands down as president of the ANC next year and as head of state in 2009.

But 43% of respondents said Zuma, sacked last June after his financial adviser was sentenced to 15 years in jail for corruption, should not steer Africa's largest economy.

Zuma (64) has been careful not to lobby openly for the top job and has remained coy about his ambitions.

But his supporters are becoming increasingly vocal in championing his cause after the removal of the major legal obstacles.

"He is enormously popular across the country, especially among the very poor and marginalised," said Adam Habib, director of the Pretoria-based Human Sciences Research Council think-tank. "There is a race on and for the moment there is only one serious candidate who has thrown his hat into the ring, even if by default."

The survey underlined how Zuma splits opinion on class lines. While 56% who voted via the Internet were against Zuma, those who only had access to the phone gave him overwhelming backing.

Cosatu and the SA Communist Party are openly backing Zuma. But others fear a Zuma presidency could spell doom for the country.

Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon has described Zuma as the "useful idiot" of the left who would nationalise "the mining industry and banks, the leading monopolies".

Attempt to contact Hamas

2006-10-11T05:16:00.000-07:00

Diplomatic officials in Jerusalem are sharply criticizing South Africa for attempting to open a dialogue with the Hamas government, and receive President Mahmoud Abbas’ approval for the meeting.

South African President Thabo Mbeki met with Abbas during the UN General Assembly meetings in New York and has reportedly asked for his permission to meet with representatives of the Hamas government. After Hamas was elected to head the government of the Palestinian Authority, South Africa was one of the first nations to initiate contact with them, and invited a delegation of Hamas representatives to the capital Pretoria for an official visit. Ultimately, the visit was cancelled because of objections from President Abbas himself.

The subject was also raised during a recent meeting between Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and President Mbeki. Livni told the president that the suggestion to renew the talks with Hamas is the worst idea of them all. “Now is the time to be consistent. Hamas must make its choice. Israel sees Hamas as an extremist organization which will not fold and so is working with Abu Mazen to renew the negotiations,” Livni said.

Mbeki told Livni that South Africa sees the stalemate as harmful and there is a need to act politically. South Africa supports talks between Hamas and Fatah for the formation of a unity government. “The Palestinian man-on-the-street who is trying to live without a salary is suffering,” said Mbeki.

We are the real Africans

2006-10-10T04:05:00.000-07:00

The insinuation by Afrikaner youth that affirmative action was a racist and discriminatory ideology was a fallacy that needed to be rejected with contempt, the Young Communist League (YCL) said. YCL national secretary Buti Manamela was reacting to the eleven white students who painted their faces black to get the government to recognise them as Africans.

The group, led by CEO of AfriForum Callie Kriel, handed a memorandum to a representative of the president's office, Elisa Ndlovu.

Manamela said the YCL was "strongly" convinced that affirmative action was the right intervention to redress historical inequalities.

However, he said his organisation was aware of the concerns and demands raised by AfriForum about the impact of affirmative action on young white South Africans.

"The matters raised are genuine and legitimate," said Manamela.

There is no acrimony

2006-10-09T13:10:00.000-07:00

Political bickering and name-calling continued as the African National Congress (ANC) lashed out at a "malicious attack and hurling of insults" by Young Communist League (YCL) national secretary Buti Manamela.

"No serious-minded individual will accord respect to such insults as contained in their statement," said ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama.

This was after the YCL said President Thabo Mbeki had struck "a cheap and cowardly blow" against South African Communist Party (SACP) leader Blade Nzimande when Mbeki called Nzimande extraordinarily arrogant during his speech to the ANC's national executive committee meeting over the weekend.

Mbeki said an attack by Nzimande on his leadership and the ANC amounted to serious "provocation".

YCL chairperson David Masondo called Mbeki a dictator during a press conference on Monday.

Ngonyama said the ANC hoped young people would not emulate the example set by the YCL.

"The ANC is an old organisation, with tried, tested and respectable leaders. It continues to be led by a politically matured leadership, steeped in the traditions of its founding fathers.

"It has a highly disciplined membership, and therefore it cannot stoop so low as to even respond to insults of this nature."

The ANC spokesperson was himself a victim of Manamela's wrath, who said "bourgeoisification" of the ANC was increasingly becoming dangerous for the country and the poor.

"It is this bourgeoisification that has also led to stealing of public resources to fund the Telkom deal, of which the ANC [spokesperson] Smuts Ngonyama was a key beneficiary," said Manamela.

Manamela said the YCL stood behind Nzimande's call for the teaching of dialectical and historic materialism in schools, his commitment to the fight against HIV and Aids, the eradication of poverty and for a challenge to the "bourgeoisification" of the ANC.

Mbeki had consistently continued to abuse ANC platforms to insult the integrity of the SACP and its leadership, Manamela said.

He said such a statement by the president proved their long belief that Mbeki was not committed to build the alliance.

"Instead of constructively engaging with alliance partners in bilateral or alliance meetings, he chooses to cowardly attack them in the absence of the SACP collective."

He said both the ANC statement and Mbeki's political overview sought to shift the blame of the crisis that the ANC was facing as being caused by the alliance partners.

"The ANC president is trying to find a scapegoat in the SACP. He has created the crisis in the ANC, and people must not be diverted from this hard fact."

Manamela said there were major problems facing the ANC and the country, including land for the landless, transport, poverty and unemployment.

"Instead of the president identifying and dealing with these problems, and concentrating on uniting the ANC, he chose to divide it further and avoid the impact that the SACP has made through its campaigns."

Despite this and other strains in the tripartite alliance between the ANC, SACP and Congress of South African Trade Unions, the various parties have continued to deny any rift in the alliance.

Ngonyama said: "There is absolutely no combativeness ... There is no acrimony."

The living is easy

2006-10-08T07:52:00.000-07:00

ZUMA time and the living is easy. Unless you happen to be gay, in which case things don’t look too rosy for you under a Zuma presidency.

And the living might not be quite so easy if you are a critical journalist. Or one of those people involved in the long-running unproven conspiracy to keep Jacob Zuma from the presidency. Or a woman wearing a mini skirt. Or someone dying from Aids.

In fact, the list of those who may well find themselves at the wrong end of Zuma’s longed-for machine gun grows by the day.

Now that the fraud case has been chucked out and JZ appears to have taken pole position on the presidential starting grid, the debate concerning his suitability as a future president of this country has a new urgency.

We’ve already seen the rand tumble against major currencies and it would be naive to suggest that the prospect of a Zuma presidency played no part in that. While there is uncertainty over the ANC succession issue there is bound to be rand volatility.

A recurring theme in the Zuma debate is the suggestion that JZ is not intellectually up to the task of leading the country. His amiable buffoon image may appeal to those who attend his rallies, but it certainly doesn’t impress those who believe that a Grade 6 education is inadequate qualification for the world stage.

The Zuma lobby, many of whom regard a Grade 6 education as the pinnacle of intellectual achievement, argue that the US has a democratically elected idiot for president and what is good for the US should be good for South Africa. It’s a persuasive argument and one that highlights one of the many flaws in democracy. If you give idiots a vote then they are quite likely to vote for idiots.

The US may be able to afford the luxury of an idiot president but South Africa certainly can’t.

What we really need is a weighted vote linked to how much tax we pay. The more you contribute to the country’s coffers the more say you should have in who runs the country.

The system of one man one vote works only in a society where the majority are more or less equal. In a country like South Africa, where the gap between rich and poor is so vast, it takes a great leap of faith to believe that the majority would vote for anyone on the side of big business.

Since Zuma’s ideas on how to run a country are virtually non-existent, his popularity obviously isn’t based on future policy. What his supporters seem to relish is the lawlessness of a potential Zuma presidency. They are whipped up to a frenzy of hatred and violence by Zuma the rabble rouser, and all the while he beams benignly.

What the rabble don’t understand is that they will be dumped by Zuma and his dubious power elite once they have served their purpose.

An Ode That Wasn’t

2006-10-08T07:47:00.000-07:00

Embarrassed by the poor turnout at the centenary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi’s Satyagraha attended by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh here, South African President Mr Thabo Mbeki has said it will “remain a black mark against our movement and our people”. “It will, for a long time, remain a black mark against our movement and our people that on 1 October, we brought our esteemed guest, a comrade-in-arms and an outstanding representative of the sister people of India, Manmohan Singh, to a virtually empty Sahara Kingsmead Stadium at Ethekwini,” Mbeki wrote in his online weekly column published on the ruling African national Congress website.

Mr Mbeki was referring to a public meeting at the Sahara Kingsmead cricket stadium where only about 150 people had turned up. People of Indian-origin were conspicuous by their absence. It was among the many functions attended by the Indian leader during his four-day visit to the country. Some of the locals present at the stadium sang a song in support of former deputy president Mr Jacob Zuma, who was sacked by Mr Mbeki last June, and were escorted out by police. In his column, Mr Mbeki said they had not only turned their backs on the noble values of Satyagraha but also on their own glorious history.

It's lonely at the top

2006-10-07T03:13:00.000-07:00

The empty Kingsmead Cricket Stadium in Durban spoke volumes. A meeting to mark the centenary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi’s pacifist movement had been successfully hijacked to embarrass President Thabo Mbeki.

When the crowds heard that ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma was not going to address them, they booed and sang Zuma’s anthem, Umshini Wam, in the presence of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The incident followed a week in which Mbeki’s former close ally, Ngoako Ramatlhodi, had publicly lambasted him as an autocrat. The week before, Mbeki could not address the Cosatu congress, while the federation laid down the red carpet for his political rival.

Zuma has put the pressure on Mbeki, saying it was Mbeki who had the power to fire and hire. “You are asking the wrong person,” Zuma responded, when asked if he wanted his post back.

In recent weeks Zuma has hogged the limelight, while Mbeki has looked increasingly isolated.

Faced with the juggernaut of Zuma’s political campaign the Presidency is on a charm offensive.

Its meeting with the presidential trade union working group was unusually cordial, with political temperatures cooled by government’s decision to impose quotas on Chinese imports. This was a key victory for labour, which has for many years campaigned for protection in the clothing sector.

The other area in which the charm offensive is clear is that of HIV/Aids policy. Faced with international and domestic castigation, Cabinet has now put Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka in charge of unity building. Tshabalala-Msimang, long a thorn in the side of Cosatu and whose Aids oddities make her an easy target for Zuma’s team, has effectively been sidelined.

It was left to ANC deputy secretary Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele on Thursday to declare that those who call Mbeki an “absentee father of the party” were wrong.

Mbeki has to deal with Zuma supporters’ continued efforts to embarrass and humiliate him. These have included carrying a coffin at Zuma’s last court appearance symbolising Mbeki’s death and the heckling Mlambo-Ngcuka while she was addressing Cosatu delegates at the federation’s congress two weeks ago.

Cosatu delegates also interrupted another Mbeki ally, Sydney Mufamadi, and told him to sit down. They were unhappy with his suggestion that they did not understand the ANC and its role as political leader of the tripartite alliance.

Despite many agreements within the NEC that Zuma and Mbeki should work together, there appears to be little communication. Zuma admitted on TV that Mbeki had not called him after charges were dropped against him.

A senior provincial leader and NEC member said he was disappointed that the 94-year-old movement, with its rich history, found itself hamstrung and directionless over the “Zuma issue”.

Another NEC member said the upcoming NEC meeting was unlikely to be heated and could once again paper over the cracks and project an image of unity.

However, the next meeting, in a month’s time, would deal with the controversial “hoax e-mail” saga. The party has set up a task team to investigate the origins and impact of e-mails that implicated senior ANC members in a plot to discredit secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe and Zuma.

But a member of Mbeki’s camp said some NEC members might ask the party to pronounce on the behaviour of those who claimed to be Zuma supporters.

Members of the legislature close to Premier S’bu Ndebele have alleged that certain ANC members of the KwaZulu-Natal Cabinet closely associated with Zuma were involved in organising the mob that demanded to be addressed by Zuma at Kingsmead, forcing provincial Community Safety Minister Bheki Cele to calm them down.

Cele is also ANC chairperson in the influential eThekwini region.

The crowd arrived in four buses with the express aim of embarrassing Mbeki and his ally, Premier Ndebele.

Claims that the disruption was organised by senior ANC leaders, some in the provincial cabinet, underscore how isolated Ndebele has become.

Merafong awaits president

2006-10-07T03:04:00.000-07:00

Residents of Khutsong in the North West say they are still waiting for President Thabo Mbeki to come and listen to their grievances. He is a little busy and they may have to wait a very long time.

Over 700 residents marched to the offices of the Merafong local municipality, demanding to be reinstated into Gauteng province. Merafong was incorporated into the North West earlier this year, when Parliament passed laws abolishing cross boundary municipalities.

The march is part of their continuing campaign to return to Gauteng. The residents say government should reverse the unfair decision taken by the demarcation board last year. Nkosiphendule Kolisile, the SA Communist Party (SACP) spokesperson, says community members have been paying tax in Gauteng province for the past 10 years of democracy and it is only now when projects like Gautrain are coming forward that they are being left out.

Kolisile says they are taking the matter to the Constitutional Court and they are hoping for a positive result. He says community members are disappointed in President Thabo Mbeki because he promised to come and address them but a year later he has not fulfilled his promise.

Propaganda from the regime

2006-10-07T02:51:00.000-07:00

The Minister in the Presidency, Essop Pahad, keeps a very low profile. It seems that he has been busy rewriting history. It seems that he is actually the minister of propaganda.

The second volume of a retelling of South African history, which includes the accounts of liberation movements and icons, was launched in Pretoria.

The book entitled The Road to Democracy in South Africa draws on evidence previously excluded from history books.

"It is a story of the past but it will be the foundation to tell us how to handle the future," President Thabo Mbeki said at the launch.

The book is the President's brainchild, emanating from his concern about the lack of historical material on the road leading to the country's democracy.

The book was compiled by the South African Democracy Education Trust (SADET).

The first volume, published in 2004, outlined strides by figures and institutions to achieve a new state.

Volume 2, (1970-1980) traces the history of Black Consciousness Movements (BCM), the trade unions and the underground activities of the ANC.

Minister in the Presidency, Essop Pahad, who also serves as chairperson of the Trust Board overseeing SADET activities, said the book would help tell the country's history as "it has not been told [but rather] the way it is."

He said the next two publications are expected to focus on the role of international movements and the contribution of African countries.

The first volume was distributed to schools throughout the country in August.

Smoking too much garlic

2006-10-07T02:48:00.000-07:00

Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka may have been smoking too much garlic and beetroot since taking charge of the war on Aids.

What other explanation could there be for her suggestion at last week's Western Cape launch of the Black Women's Association that women should learn to speak Chinese to give them the competitive edge in business?

It's a fine idea, of course - but next time Mlambo-Ngcuka touches down on the same planet as the rest of us, she might notice that most South African woman are facing more prosaic challenges.

Forget race, retain skills

2006-10-06T13:20:00.000-07:00

While Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka recently admitted the skills drain was costing the country dearly and expressed her desire to lure South African emigrants back from overseas, the attitude deriving from the highest office in the land was disturbing.

After initially taking care to present himself as a racial reconciler President Thabo Mbeki -- as well as his closest political associates -- had in recent years continuously called the bone fides of the white community and their commitment to change into question, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said in his weekly newsletter on the DA website.

Government needs to take a hard look at its “race-fuelled myopia”, and find ways to retain the skilled citizens needed for economic growth, the only way to reduce poverty and create jobs.

Recent reports emanating from the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) indicated about a fifth of white South Africans had emigrated over the past ten years.

There is no doubt that we can ill afford to lose such a substantial number of our citizens -- regardless of their race.

All concerned South Africans should be worried by the steep rise in white emigration.
The figures confirmed a distinct trend, whereby large numbers of productive and skilled South Africans had chosen to leave their homeland for good.

An overarching question suggests itself: why have they chosen to do so, and what are the likely consequences for the country? According to the IRR report, the main reasons given by emigrants were crime and affirmative action.

There is a third reason at a deeper level -- the level of citizens’ emotional stake in the country -- which explains why the other two reasons, instead of being issues worthy of debate and contestation in the public arena, become definitive.

This is the ANC’s disturbing attitude towards minorities, and the consequent perception this fostered among whites that their citizenship was undervalued.

Put bluntly: the ANC government is not merely indifferent to the lot of minorities, especially whites, but in many instances has frankly expressed hostility to their interests. This obsession with whites’ so-called racism is pursued with a relish and determination that can only be described as racist itself.

There was a disturbing message from government -- minorities, tolerated at best, actively resented at worst, should either put up or shut up. Is it any wonder that many South Africans, feeling excluded from our common future, have voted with their feet and departed for destinations where they feel wanted?

Unpleasant as government’s racial slurs may be -- both the direct brickbats and the more subtle innuendoes -- the truth is that the nation cannot afford to lose skilled and hard-working citizens of whatever hue.

Rather than allowing skilled citizens to vacate without a murmur, we need to retain their expertise to sustain the growth our citizenry as a whole so desperately needs. We have generated capital to spend on investment, but we don’t have the people to spend it effectively.

In fact, the pursuit of transformation at all costs, especially in the public sector, has incapacitated the state and seized up its machinery at the very point that most is expected of it.

Given a globalising world in which skilled individuals as well as capital investment are more mobile than ever before, and are maximising their careers by moving elsewhere, government needs to take a hard look at its race-fuelled myopia, and create the conditions that encourage productive South Africans to stay and contribute to growth - which in the longer term is the only real answer to joblessness and poverty.

In short: government needs to reassess its message so that all feel included and valued.
Foot-dragging at best and vindictiveness at worst undermines the futures of all.

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to

2006-10-06T13:02:00.000-07:00

President Thabo Mbeki has expressed disappointment at the poor turnout for the centenary celebration of Mahatma Gandhi's Satyagraha (non-violent resistance) in Durban, saying the truth will out.

Writing in his weekly newsletter on the African National Congress (ANC) website on Friday, Mbeki referred to the historic visit by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, during which they attended the celebrations in Durban and Pietermaritzburg.

"It will, for a long time, remain a black mark against our movement and our people that on October 1 we brought our esteemed guest, a comrade-in-arms and an outstanding representative of the sister people of India, Manmohan Singh, to a virtually empty Sahara Kingsmead Stadium at Ethekwini," Mbeki said.

"In time the full story will be told of what happened that kept our people away from Sahara Kingsmead on October 1," Mbeki said.

The truth would be told of who those were, who did what they did on the stands of the stadium to disrupt the prayers said by religious leaders of all faiths to open proceedings.

He knew as a matter of fact that the stadium did not inadvertently find itself "serving as a site for the perpetration of acts of national humiliation for the reason that the masses of our people have turned their backs on the noble values of Satyagraha, on the Mahatma and the country of his birth, on friendship and solidarity between India and South Africa, and on their own glorious history of struggle".

Skills shortage is a national crisis

2006-10-06T11:01:00.000-07:00

Jacob Zuma's criminal trials, fuel shortages, electricity blackouts - it's all proved too much for many and the number of skilled people wanting to emigrate has risen sharply. This exodus comes at a time when Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka has described the skills shortage as a national crisis impeding growth.

Emigration specialists said that various recent crises and the prospect of a Zuma presidency had rocked many people's confidence, causing a spike in their business.

There's no question that emigration enquiries are accelerating. There's no racial element. The ones going now are generally very concerned about the future for their children - their safety, education and future jobs.

And there's probably a bit of fear around the Zuma issue too. A lot of educated South Africans of all races are saying there is going to be damage (to the country) … and they will think of leaving.

As many as 3 million could now be living abroad - perhaps half of them in the UK alone. Most of these are white - representing more than a third of South Africa's official white population of 4.3 million .

Emigration experts said those leaving listed crime and uncertainty about their children's future as their two main reasons for leaving.

After the past 12 years, people are tired of living in cages. They want to live where they don't have to lock themselves in at night, where they can play in a park without being harassed or go to a shop at night - and walk there.

The SA Institute for Race Relations called on the government this week to try to stem the exodus of skilled people.

It's the young professionals that seem to be going now, with their young children. The important issue is not that they're whites … it's the fact that they have skills that are important for our economy.

The most recent research showed the white population had fallen by around 840 000 - or 16.1% - in the past 10 years. In contrast, the numbers of people of other races had grown: by 9.1% for "Asian/Indian", 15.1% for "Coloured" and 17.4% "African".

The burden of HIV/Aids in this (white) group is not enough to ac-count for this pattern of loss, The latest Human Sciences Research Council figures show just 1% of whites are infected.

Large gaps has appeared in the population profile of whites - between the ages of 25 and 35 and young children, suggesting that the youngest adults, who had their working lives ahead of them, were leaving in the greatest numbers.

I am an African

2006-10-06T10:33:00.000-07:00

Pretoria University students belonging to the civil rights group calling themselves 'AfriForum', will paint themselves black and submit a memorandum to the office of President Thabo Mbeki.

They are going to ask the president to reclassify them as Africans.

Kallie Kriel, the group's spokesperson, says though they generally accept the country's laws seeking to redress imbalances of the past to empower previously disadvantaged communities, they felt white South Africans are being excluded.

He says there was much hope of equality following Mbeki's famous 'I am an African' speech, but now that hope has faded.

SA supports Indian nuclear program

2006-10-04T07:20:00.000-07:00

President Thabo Mbeki has expressed South Africa's support for a controversial deal to end India's international nuclear isolation even though it has built nuclear weapons outside the bounds of the United Nations nuclear weapons treaty precepts.

Meanwhile, visiting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has offered India's strong support for South Africa's bid for a permanent seat on an expanded United Nations Security Council.

At a joint press conference after the two leaders met in Pretoria on Monday, Singh said he had explained to Mbeki India's recent deal with the United States which would end the current ban by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) on supplying nuclear technology to India.

The NSG is a club of more than 40 countries, including South Africa, formed to prevent civilian nuclear technology being exported to those who use it to make nuclear weapons.

It bans the supply of nuclear technology to India, Pakistan and Israel because they have made atomic weapons outside the bounds of the 1970 Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The NPT, which South Africa has so far strongly supported, decrees that only the five nuclear powers of that time, the US, Russia, China, Britain and France, may possess atomic weapons. India has always regarded the NPT as discriminatory and so has never signed it. It therefore does not regard its nuclear weapons programme as a violation of international law.

ANC will wait and see

2006-10-04T04:07:00.000-07:00

The ANC is taking a wait-and-see approach to Jacob Zuma's future. Much as they do with a whole lot of issues.

This follows a national working committee meeting in Johannesburg - the first since Mr Justice Herbert Msimang sent prosecutors back to the drawing board and gave Zuma and his supporters ammunition to argue that he was indeed a victim of a political conspiracy.

The ANC meeting lasted four hours and was attended by Zuma himself, but not by President Thabo Mbeki or Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

Cosatu's call for Zuma's re-instatement as deputy president of the country or, at least, for him to be given a full-time salary as ANC deputy president, was not even discussed, as the matter was sub judice, said party spokesman Smuts Ngonyama.

"Striking off the roll does not mean the end of the case. We don't know what will follow. We don't want to pronounce and talk about the matter."

Mbeki ups the stakes

2006-10-04T04:03:00.000-07:00

PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki has turned his attention to the succession debate by saying that a leader should not seek to gain cheap popularity by avoiding difficult issues and should “actively” fight against corruption.

These statements in his regular internet column, ANC Today, published on the party‘s website at the weekend, have upped the stakes in what is widely expected to be a titanic race for the ANC presidency next year.

Populist former deputy president Jacob Zuma is expected to go head to head in the race either against Mbeki or one of his loyalists.

Mbeki talks about the concept of leadership within the context of recent remarks made by Archbishop Desmond Tutu about the late Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko.

Studiously avoiding all reference to Zuma – who was replaced by Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka last year – Mbeki said: “A leader should lead by example. He should be above reproach in his political and social conduct – as defined by our revolutionary morality.

“Through force of example, he should act as a role model to ANC members and non-members alike. Leading a life that reflects . . . not only being free of corrupt practices, it also means actively fighting against corruption”. Corruption charges against Zuma were struck off the roll by the Pietermaritzburg High Court last month.

Meanwhile, Mbeki quoted Tutu as saying “we are indeed a scintillating success waiting to happen”.

Yet Mbeki lambasted the media for “the negative onslaught” that South Africa was “bound to fail” in the struggle to create a democratic and non-racial as well as prosperous South Africa.

Some of the media quoted Tutu as saying that South Africa was “losing its way” and “what has become of us? Tutu laments”.

Getting cosy with a nuclear power

2006-10-03T02:24:00.000-07:00

India can expect support from South Africa when its civil nuclear agreement with the United States comes up before the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), South African President Thabo Mbeki indicated in no uncertain terms to visiting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

While the restricted meeting between the two leaders and select officials went on for 50 minutes, several South African ministers, including the trade and industry minister, joined later for the delegation level talks.

They signed a joint declaration reaffirming the strategic partnership between South Africa and India. An agreement on education was signed by Indian Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma and South African Education Minister Naledi Pandor. The two countries were initially supposed to sign three agreements.

"After it (the deal) is passed by the US Congress, it will go before the Nuclear Suppliers Group of which South Africa is a member. I hope that when that happens, South Africa will take a sympathetic view of India's concerns," Manmohan Singh told reporters at a joint press conference with Mbeki.

Mbeki responded by saying: "We have discussed the matter. We are all awaiting the outcome of the processes at the US Congress."

"South Africa has no problem in that. When the matter is to be decided, South Africa will surely support it," he added, saying that the matter had been discussed by the NSG in its meeting in Brazil.

The alliance is tearing apart

2006-10-01T02:56:00.000-07:00

The travails of former South African Deputy President Zuma are tearing a once united ANC Tripartite Alliance apart.

Recent developments around ANC deputy president Zuma's corruption trial have put the spotlight on the largest labour federation, COSATU, as a bastion of support for his cause. When a judge in Zuma's home area of KwaZulu Natal threw the case out of court last month because the state was not ready to proceed, COSATU's congress was in progress and erupted into spontaneous celebrations.

Another populist leader who's been accused of fraud and has a bad relationship with Mbeki, Winnie Mandela, also drew massive applause at the congress and seemed to be throwing in her lot with the former South African deputy president. Mbeki was not even able to attend; so pronounced are the tensions between government and organised labour. Mbeki's close ally and government minister, Sydney Mufumadi, was booed off the stage despite his own trade union and communist party background.

The extent of polarisation in the trade union federation was demonstrated when Willie Madisha, the sitting president of COSATU, was re-elected by only 42 votes after incurring the wrath of the Zuma faction by meeting with President Mbeki and questioning secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi's use of the federation's credit card. Vavi is a key ally of Zuma, and is now being called shadow labour minister by some journalists. Either directly or through proxies, both COSATU factions accuse the other side of corruption, and of being motivated by the lure of cabinet positions.

The Communist Party is also deeply divided, although the pro-Zuma faction appears dominant - partly because fear has driven dissent underground. The Zuma camp displays an alarming degree of political intolerance, as evidenced by the unruly and outright thuggish behaviour of some supporters outside courtrooms where their hero has been on trial in the last year. There are whispers that general-secretary Blade Nzimande is turning the once-proud socialist vanguard of the late revolutionaries Chris Hani and Joe Slovo into a "Zulu" party.

Similarly, in the trade union federation, voting for president was said to have been decided on ethnic grounds: delegates did not want two leaders from the same region (the Xhosa-speaking Eastern Cape), apart from the fact that they are both Zuma supporters. Madisha is said to have won the support of Sotho-speaking regions. This kind of ethnic politics used to be anathema to the urbanised ANC cadre during the liberation struggle, and is still unacceptable in the non-racial, non-tribal Mbeki camp. Ethnic voting patterns by the Madisha support base should be viewed as a defensive reaction to the tribal mobilisation being practised by Zuma supporters.

The ANC itself is reported to be almost paralysed by mutual suspicion and pre-occupation with the Zuma campaign. Mbeki is said to be alienated from ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe. This is attributed to two factors: he never made the effort to keep the ANC head close (the same costly mistake he made with COSATU secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi); there are also allegations in the press that Motlanthe is compromised in some business dealings, charges that are not without foundation.

A conservative communist

2006-10-01T01:10:00.000-07:00

ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma has apologised “unreservedly” for attacking gays in a speech in rural KwaZulu-Natal at the weekend -- but the incident has reinforced his image as a cultural conservative.

Zuma’s lifestyle and public statements show a consistent pattern of traditionalist attitudes on matters of sex and gender.

On Thursday, he released a statement through the ANC apologising for the pain and anger his remarks might have caused, saying they “had been made in the context of the traditional way of raising children. I said the communal upbringing of children in the past was able to assist parents to notice children with a different social orientation.”

He did not intend this to be interpreted as a condemnation of gays and lesbians. He also conceded that the Constitution set its face against discrimination on grounds including sexual orientation, adding: “I uphold and abide by the Constitution of our land … I respect [gays’ and lesbians’] rights, in my capacity as an individual citizen and as a member and one of the leaders of the ANC.”

Zuma also said he “respect[ed], acknowledge and applaud the sterling contribution of many gay and lesbian compatriots in the struggle that brought about our freedom, and the role they continue to play in the building of a successful non-racial, non-discriminatory South Africa.”

The ANC deputy president reportedly told hundreds of people attending Heritage Day celebrations in KwaDukuza “in his personal capacity” and “as a man” that same-sex marriages should not be tolerated in a normal society.

“When I was growing up, ungqingili (a gay man) would not have stood in front of me. I would knock him out,” he said, to the approval of assembled amabutho (warriors). “Same-sex marriage is a disgrace to the nation and to God.”

His remarks drew the ire of gay and lesbian and civil society groupings, which pointed to the Bill of Rights’s enshrinement of freedom of sexual orientation and the Constitutional Court directive to Parliament to recognise and legalise gay marriage.

However, reports of Zuma’s speech are consistent with past evidence of his conservatism on sex and women:

Once married to Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Zuma is a polygamist with three wives, the latest being a Swazi woman.

At his rape trial this year he told the court his accuser had let him know she wanted sex by wearing a short skirt and sitting with her knees apart.

He referred to the rape accuser’s vagina as “isibaya senkomo zikababa wakhe” (her father’s cattle kraal), conceding he had entered it without a condom.

Zuma also said Zulu culture obliged him to have sex with an aroused woman. “I know as we grew up in the Zulu culture, you don’t leave a woman in that situation, because if you do then she will even have you arrested and say you are a rapist,” he told the court.

He has championed the traditional practice of testing young girls’ virginity, justifying it as a means of avoiding teenage pregnancy and Aids.

Two years ago he told a virginity-testing ceremony in Umtata that traditionally, girls knew their “virginity was their family’s treasure. They would only have sex when permitted to do so by their families after marriage.”

The speech also prompted the disapproval of his strong backers in the ANC Youth League. Distancing the league, president Fikile Mbalula said Zuma was not articulating ANC policy. The league stood by the “ANC position -- non-sexism, non-discrimination and equality”.

Zuma presidency would ruin economy

2006-10-01T01:07:00.000-07:00

A Jacob Zuma presidency will be disastrous for South Africa's economy and yet, the business sector remains silent on the issue, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said on Friday.

In his weekly newsletter on the DA's website, Leon urged business to speak out against the possibility of the ANC deputy president taking up the country's presidency as the "useful idiot" of the left.

With his fraud and corruption case struck off the roll, Zuma's presidential aspirations had been given a turbo-charge, underscored by the extraordinary events at the recent Congress of SA Trade Unions' (Cosatu) national congress.

There it was clear Zuma was the darling of the left, as tripartite alliance partners defied President Thabo Mbeki's closest associates.

Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka was booed, anti-Mbeki songs were sung on the floor, and Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi was so fiercely heckled while attempting to defend government's economic policies that he was forced to cut short his speech.

Leon said these events confirmed what had been known for a while — the left, for long left out of the ruling party's inner councils, was on the ascendant in the ANC.

Those who believed in sweeping and old-style Stalinist intervention in the economy were getting a grip on policy that was in danger of becoming a stranglehold.

The widely-held perception that Zuma would be a hostage of the left was given credence by Cosatu General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, who said he would remind Zuma, if he became president, "there is no such thing as a free lunch".

Vavi would expect the new president to nationalise "exactly what the Freedom Charter said. The mining industry, the banks, the leading monopolies... We want the state to play a much bigger role in the economy than it does now. That is the bottom line".

Leon said it was not unreasonable to view Zuma as a hostage to the left, and that as president he would be under enormous pressure to carry out their favoured policies.

This was reflected in the final declarations of Cosatu's congress, one of which urged "collective ownership through the state, worker control and co-ops, including nationalisation of mining and other commanding heights of the economy as provided in the Freedom Charter".

"These resolutions restate the kind of centralised command economy which, with the collapse worldwide of the Communist project, is no longer seriously pursued anywhere, besides in such isolated — and utterly unworkable — pockets as Zimbabwe and North Korea," he said.

"What makes the declaration all the more astonishing, however, is that these arcane ideas should receive such currency from Cosatu at a time when South Africa's economic competitiveness is waning."

According to the 2006 Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum, South Africa dropped five places to 45th out of 127 countries surveyed — now trailing emerging markets such as India, Thailand, South Korea, Chile and even Barbados.

"It should be obvious, then, that South Africa's economy desperately requires a long-term drive for growth, rather than Cosatu's short-term populism — a commitment to more labour flexibility, not less, with fewer burdens such as tax on business and a concerted drive to make our economy more, not less attractive to overseas investors.

"In the light of these troubling developments, it is disheartening to note that the spheres of society who would be most affected by a possible shift to the left are the most silent."

No notable private-sector leaders were raising their voices in protest.

They should stop wringing their hands in private, and be outspoken in their objections in public.

They should come out with all rhetorical guns blazing against this threat to South Africa's economic future.

Leon said market reforms that unleashed the potential that would make South Africa a winning nation had to be encouraged.

"Given our latent wealth in human as well as material capital, we should be aiming frankly and fearlessly to be the most competitive economy in the world," he said.

Mbeki’s mediation under fire

2006-10-01T01:04:00.000-07:00

Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade yesterday criticised South African President Thabo Mbeki’s mediation in Côte d’Ivoire’s political crisis, revealing splits among African leaders on how to reunite the war-divided country.

Côte d’Ivoire has been split since its 2002-03 civil war into a rebel-held north and a government-controlled south.

Presidential elections already postponed by a year are now certain to miss an October 31 deadline, raising fear that a fragile truce in the world’s biggest cocoa grower could collapse, returning it to conflict.

Wade said a peace mission by Mbeki to Côte d’Ivoire this week, which included talks in Burkina Faso, had failed. He questioned the legitimacy of Mbeki’s mediation efforts, and said he viewed elections as the key to solving Côte d’Ivoire’s problems.

“You know, I haven’t thought much of Mr Mbeki’s mediation efforts, even though he is a head of state as I am,” Wade told Radio France Internationale, speaking at a summit of French-speaking nations in Bucharest, Romania.

The African Union (AU) mandated Mbeki as a mediator, but Wade said he had a personal friendship with Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo. Gbagbo’s rebel opponents have rejected Mbeki as biased in favour of Gbagbo.

Gbagbo insists the Ivorian constitution allows him to stay in office until elections even though his original mandate expired last year. Last week he boycotted a meeting brokered by the United Nations (UN) to try to unblock his country’s political deadlock.

Wade said Mbeki should leave the Ivorian problem to west African leaders grouped in the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), which is due to hold an extraordinary summit on Côte d’Ivoire in Abuja, Nigeria, next week.

“Ecowas should be left to take care of this question, instead of people going round creating informal groups and subgroups, which may perhaps be able to express goodwill ... but have no legitimate value,” he said, referring to Mbeki.

Ecowas is due to refer its proposals to the AU and the UN Security Council by mid-October before a decision on a new deadline for elections and whether to further extend Gbagbo’s mandate beyond October 31.

New Forces rebels insist that Gbagbo step down to advance the peace process in Côte d’Ivoire, where about 11000 UN and French peacekeepers police a cease-fire buffer zone.

Gbagbo, whose supporters have protested violently against French and UN peacekeepers, accusing them of bias, said this month the peacekeepers could leave if they wanted to.

The head of Gbagbo’s ruling Ivorian Popular Front party, Pascal Affi N’Guessan, lobbied foreign embassies in Côte d’Ivoire for France’s withdrawal from the peace process.

What comes after Mbeki?

2006-09-28T03:23:00.000-07:00

The South African regime has entered its most difficult political period since 1994. At the heart of the crisis is the question of the future direction of the country.

President Thabo Mbeki will be stepping down in 2009, but the battle for succession has already begun. The political coalition that has supported him is on the verge of fracture. South Africa's political turmoil is a concern not only for South Africans. The country plays a pivotal role on the continent, and Mbeki has carved out a position as a regional peacemaker and global player. Pretoria also figures prominently in U.S. plans for Africa. How South Africa handles this watershed crisis, in other words, will have serious regional and global implications.

Left-wing critics portray President Mbeki as having lost his way—of pandering to international capital and the white elite, and of supporting economic policies that benefit them. Two years after the African National Congress (ANC) came to power, the new government steered the country toward an open, globalized economy. Critics severely criticized the ANC government for operating within this capitalist framework.

The unlikely champion of the left is Jacob Zuma. Having narrowly escaped charges of rape earlier this year, President Mbeki's former deputy now stands accused of corruption. The allegations against Zuma stem from an arms deal signed near the end of 1999 for contracts totaling $4.8 billion to modernize the South African defense force. The deal, which followed the lifting of the UN arms embargo against the country during the apartheid years, included the purchase of high-speed boats, submarines, light utility helicopters, trainer aircraft, and advanced light fighter jets. It was the largest arms procurement ever made by South Africa, and critics questioned whether the country needed this kind of equipment. The Cabinet announced the deal in September 1999, when it split the procurements among a number of foreign manufacturers.

A French arms contractor—Thomson CSF, or Thint as it is known in South Africa—allegedly made a number of illegal payments to Zuma to pay off his large debts and provide an annual sum from the company to support his expensive lifestyle, which included maintaining a number of wives and building a sumptuous “traditional” home village in KwaZulu-Natal.

The current case against Zuma has been dismissed. The judge has scathingly described the prosecution's handling of the case as having “limped from one disaster to another.” He criticized the prosecution for not being ready to present the case after years of investigation, and for its use of documents illegally seized from Zuma's lawyers. However, the former deputy president's troubles are not necessarily over, and a fresh prosecution could still be brought against him.

Zuma supporters believe that the whole case is political, with the president's office orchestrating these legal assaults on the former deputy president. Zuma's friends believe the Mbeki camp is determined to halt their champion for purely political reasons, and there is no doubt that President Mbeki believes Zuma to be an unsuitable successor.

President Mbeki has to step down in 2009 after serving two terms. His successor will be chosen at a party conference late in 2007, but potential candidates are already readying themselves. Aside from Jacob Zuma, others in the running include: the former mineworkers leader, Cyril Ramaphosa, who is currently among the wealthiest businessmen in the country; Finance Minister Trevor Manual, who is a “Colored” or of mixed race and therefore unlikely to win mass support; and Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka , President Mbeki's current deputy. Since none of these potential candidates has attracted more than 12% support from ANC supporters, the race is still wide open.

The whole sorry saga has dragged in the other members of the Tripartite Alliance that forms the core support of the ANC government. This alliance includes the party itself as well as the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the South African Communist Party (SACP). Neither is now backing President Mbeki, leaving him increasingly isolated.

In return for their support, the unions and the Communist Party were given a say in government when the ANC took power in 1994. Many key members took leading positions within the government. But the gradual move toward business, and the rejection of more radical policies, led to an erosion of the influence of both organizations. This more conservative economic policy has produced increasing tension within the alliance, but never on the scale witnessed today.

The SACP—once a truly Stalinist party aligned to the Soviet Union—is now more social democratic, although they have never fully thrown off the Marxist jargon or the Leninist structures of the party. It claims to have 40,000 members (up from 20,000 in 2002). Although a substantial rise, it is still way behind the ANC, which says it has 440,000 members. The Communist Party has influence, but certainly no control, over the ANC. The Party once thought it could infiltrate and take over the ANC but has ended up being swallowed by the much larger movement.

In the last few months, the SACP has strengthened its criticism of the ANC leadership. A discussion document released by the party said: “Unless the ANC is a mass-based democratic and self-styled disciplined force of the left and begins to assert a real revolutionary authority and discipline over its legislature caucuses, for instance, a petty bourgeoisie cadre focused almost entirely on commercial racketeering will swallow the organization.”

COSATU has echoed the stand taken by the SACP. On May 25, COSATU made the ominous prediction that South Africa and the ANC were drifting toward a dictatorship. “Dictatorship never announces its arrival,” COSATU general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi told the press.

The internal difficulties facing the ruling party come at a time when South Africa's role in Africa has never been more central. President Mbeki is continually flying around the continent, attempting to end conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, and Burundi, to name but three. The major blot on his international record is Zimbabwe, where he has been unwilling to take on the aging, authoritarian Robert Mugabe.

Cosatu is taking over

2006-09-26T23:36:00.000-07:00

IF THERE were any lingering doubts over where the power in South Africa's regime now resides, they have surely been eliminated by the Congress of South African Trade Unions' (Cosatu's) move to stamp its authority on the presidential succession race during its national congress in Midrand.

Cosatu has been acting with increasing assertiveness recently, publicly criticising state policies, chastising cabinet ministers and making no secret of the fact that it will in future demand a leading role in setting the national agenda.

After the corruption case against African National Congress (ANC) deputy president Jacob Zuma was thrown out of court on Wednesday, rising confidence has become a solid conviction that the left wing of the alliance will triumph, and that Zuma will be its figurehead.

This is in marked contrast to the first decade of SA's governance by the ANC-South African Communist Party-Cosatu alliance, which was dominated by the ANC to the point where its partners' often contradictory opinions were ruthlessly suppressed.

The extent to which the worm has turned, and President Thabo Mbeki's authority has been undermined, was illustrated most graphically at the congress on Tuesday, when Cosatu officials battled to persuade delegates to take their seats and allow Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka to make her speech. Rather than the traditional praise-singers, Mlambo-Ngcuka -- perceived by many to be Mbeki's favoured successor -- was greeted with songs in support of Zuma, the man she replaced after he was fired. As if she needed reminding that Cosatu remains convinced that Zuma is the victim of a political conspiracy (initiated by her husband) aimed at preventing him from assuming the presidency.

The tide has clearly turned against Mbeki and his approach to governance, but what does this mean for the succession race? For one thing, as long as he refuses to clarify where he stands in respect of the presidency of the ANC, the suspicion will remain that there is indeed a conspiracy within the presidency (if not the party) to keep Zuma from assuming the leadership of the ANC, and, therefore, of the country.

But the ambiguity of Mbeki's future role in the party hierarchy after his second term as president has expired is also serving to hinder prospective contenders other than Zuma from coming forward and proclaiming, in whatever way, their interest in the top job.

In the vacuum that has thus been created, Zuma has been given a free ride; he has been able to campaign for the presidency while coyly denying any such ambition -- and without having to nail his colours to the mast on critical issues such as economic policy, the call for labour reform and SA's problematic policy towards Zimbabwe.

There is only one hat in the ring, and the longer it remains untouchable the more difficult it will be for potential competitors to dislodge it.

Things did not have to be this way. Mbeki is a victim of his own puzzling sense of insecurity. Paranoia has a way of becoming self-fulfilling; the president's downfall started with a purge of perceived rivals early in his tenure and continued when he lashed out at the "ultra left", suppressed rational voices on the HIV/AIDS issue and rubbished anyone who dared question his highly questionable approach to the looming Zimbabwe crisis.

Historians will be kept busy for decades explaining this curious behaviour, but what the country needs desperately now is a way out of this mess.

A vital part of the way out of the party mess is that it does not spill over into the governance of the country. It already has, with the cabinet divided on succession, and whole departments (such as intelligence) being split by it. That has to stop and Mbeki needs, for all of our sakes as well as his, to be free to manage the country without constant political distraction until mid-2009 when he is most likely to call the next general election.

We believe that the president would be performing a great service to the country by moving to open up the succession debate, within the alliance and beyond.

He should consider removing himself from the equation by stating unequivocally that he does not wish to be nominated again for the presidency of the ANC at its national conference in December next year.

Mbeki loses his grip

2006-09-26T23:33:00.000-07:00

President Thabo Mbeki is off to make peace in Ivory Coast, while the ANC is at war at home. Mbeki, who arrived back from New York, faced unprecedented rebellion this week. In his absence, Mbeki's opponents made their boldest gestures of disapproval yet in his tenure as head of the ANC. And so far he has done little to counter the invective.

His deputy president, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, was publicly humiliated and insulted at Cosatu's congress, militant workers rejected his business-friendly policies in favour of wholesale nationalisation, and one of his senior cabinet ministers - Sydney Mufamadi - was heckled off the stage after an unstrategic intervention to defend the ANC.

More significantly, however, the National Prosecuting Authority blundered spectacularly, giving ammunition to those of Jacob Zuma's supporters convinced there was a political conspiracy against their icon, by, if not Mbeki himself, then by those aligned to him.

The sight of a coffin being carried outside the Pietermaritzburg High Court, bearing Mbeki's photograph, presumably by an ANC supporter, was a further insult to a president who appears more at home abroad than in South Africa.

Although charges can still be reinstated against Zuma, Mbeki has a major headache in terms of how to manage the fallout, including demands to have the man he fired on June 14 last year reinstated.

Zuma said on Friday that he never said he wanted to become the ANC president, and that comments made by Desmond Tutu that he should withdraw from the race given his sexual moral standing was irrelevant.

"The honourable archbishop was commenting on an issue that does not exist; I am not in a race, I am not campaigning..." Zuma said.

Even more disturbing for Mbeki and his allies is the Cosatu congress's call for the reopening of the arms deal investigation, in an obvious bid to try to expose those whom the Zuma camp believe should be in the dock for corruption.

With Zuma and others already making insinuations about Mbeki's own alleged role in the arms deal, it is clear that the fight will get dirtier - although Zuma will remain aloof, in line with his new image as the diplomat and statesman- in-waiting.

Predictably, Zuma's allies were celebrating this week.

One of the senior officials in the South African Communist Party confidently said they had smashed the state project, while celebrations at Luthuli House, in response to Zuma's case being struck off the roll, was a sign that Mbeki would face the toughest three years of his presidency.

Suddenly, the ANC has publicly stated the need for a meeting with Cosatu, to discuss issues and concerns, Given that Mbeki, on at least two occasions, has complained about people plotting to topple him, his paranoia may in fact be real.

Zuma used his first interview after his corruption case was struck off the roll to portray an image of a reasonable leader who is indeed presidential material.

For Zuma and his aides, the war will be won in the battle for public opinion, and his charm, openness and humour will be a strong contrast to the reserved Mbeki.

With all the hurdles being cleared for the presidential race, Zuma on Friday tried to tone down his public utterances, avoiding the semblance of openly campaigning for the leadership.

Whether Mbeki intends to meet Zuma before he flies out, or decides to take the nation into his confidence about his party's internal affairs, remains to be seen.

Perhaps Mbeki is counting on the fact that the Supreme Court of Appeal may dismiss Schabir Shaik's appeal and that another court will find that the Scorpions' search-and-seizure operations were in fact lawful.

Given the alleged evidence unearthed in these searches, Mbeki just might be laughing all the way to a third term as ANC president.

We have a problem

2006-09-26T23:30:00.000-07:00

Government has a problem in getting its message across. This was admitted yesterday by the Minister in the Presidency, Essop Pahad.

The minister was reacting to several speakers at the International Media Forum held in Johannesburg who complained about the difficulties in getting access to information in the public and private sectors in South Africa.

One of those was Barry Moody, Africa Editor of Reuters, who said his staff found it more difficult to get information out of South Africa than communist China. Not enough use is made of the communications media working in South Africa.

Even when reporting on positive news there is a reluctance of top businessmen to appear on camera.

Minister Pahad undertook to see what can be done about the problem. He said that the IMF had taught him the media is not just hostile and that the government would have to change its own mindset. There are newsmen out there who are positive and this provides a good platform to build on for the future.

Earlier the head of GCIS, Themba Maseko, said that Africa’s untold story is not heard. He also admitted to problems - lack of capacity, poor communications and the media definition of what news is. He maintained that good news is also news. There should be a balance: the bad should be reported but also what government is doing about it.

Artists dying as paupers (and drug addicts)

2006-09-26T04:38:00.000-07:00

The music industry has been rapped by the president for not doing enough to promote the lives of most artists, some of them who ended up dying as paupers. He forgot to mention that Brenda Fassie was penniless because she had spent all of her money on drugs and that she died from an overdose of cocaine.

This was said by President Thabo Mbeki, Sunday, when he officially opened this year’s Heritage Day celebrations in Cape Town.

“I appeal to the management in the music industry to do more in their powers to help improve the lives of musicians. On most occasions popular artists have died poor and their families ended up struggling to give them a decent burial,” he said.

Mbeki gave examples of Brenda Fassie, Moses Khumalo as some of the musicians who never enjoyed the benefits of their hard work even in death.

“We are baffled by the sad reality of our accomplished artists who die poor and their families can not afford a decent burial for their loved ones. It is wrong the music industry is making billions of Rands in profit, but that money is not paid out to artists,” he said.

What shit is this?

2006-09-26T02:48:00.000-07:00

One of President Thabo Mbeki's most trusted lieutenants has broken ranks and delivered a scathing attack on his leadership at a meeting of ANC leaders in the Free State.

Former Limpopo Premier Ngoako Ramatlhodi, once an Mbeki confidante and his chief speech writer, and now the ANC's head of policy, told a meeting of ANC Free State leaders yesterday that Mbeki was the main source of divisions in the ANC.

Ramatlhodi revealed to stunned delegates that he had personally challenged Mbeki on his autocratic leadership style, and had asked him in an ANC NEC meeting why was he "dividing" the ANC.

"What shit is this? People are being charged for nothing, look at Tony Yengeni, Zuma and Pat Matosa," Ramatlhodi said in his address to the Free State provincial general council yesterday.

Ramatlhodi last night denied that he had told the delegates that Mbeki was a source of division in the ANC -- but several ANC leaders present at the meeting confirmed that he had made the critical remarks.

Ramatlhodi admitted, however, that he said Yengeni, Matosa (the ANC's deputy chairman in the Free State) and Zuma had been "charged for nothing".

Ramatlhodi's attack follows a week of growing isolation for Mbeki. While Mbeki was addressing the United Nations in New York:

• Corruption charges against his rival Jacob Zuma were struck off the roll at the Pietermaritzburg High Court. Zuma supporters celebrated by holding aloft a coffin bearing a picture of Mbeki;

• Delegates at Cosatu's national congress sang anti-Mbeki songs which referred to him as a "dog";

• Mbeki's deputy, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, was openly jeered by delegates at the same congress; and

• Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi was forced off the stage at the Cosatu congress when he attempted to explain Mbeki's economic policies.

Cosatu also passed a resolution calling on Mbeki to reinstate Zuma as the country's deputy president. Zuma was fired by Mbeki from his Cabinet after Judge Hilary Squires found that Zuma had a "generally corrupt relationship" with his former financial advisor, Schabir Shaik.

In other remarks to the Free State ANC leadership yesterday, Ramatlhodi, who has recently been seen to be moving closer to Zuma, said he was one of the NEC members who was "not scared to talk about the current situation affecting the party".

He told the more than 700 delegates that he had also been investigated by the Scorpions, but never charged.

Ramatlhodi was initially earmarked to become Justice Minister following the 2004 general elections.

He was also tipped to take over from Bulelani Ngcuka as head of the National Prosecuting Authority before the Scorpions investigation into his alleged involvement in corruption.

Both Mbeki and Ramatlhodi were groomed in exile by the late ANC president Oliver Tambo. Their relationship remained close until Ramatlhodi was not given a position when his period as Limpopo premier expired in 2004.

The provincial ANC Youth League broke into Zuma's trademark Umshini Wam song after Ramatlhodi's highly emotional address.

ANC head of presidency Smuts Ngonyama said yesterday that Ramatlhodi was not deployed in the Free State and he did not know who had sent him to address the conference.

The economy under President Zuma

2006-09-26T01:23:00.000-07:00

Capital flight would follow Zuma becoming president, but for some this is not necessarily a bad thing. They are of the view that South Africa should decide its own economic policies without minding the irrational views of foreign capital. Capital flight is apparently a good thing, because then the currency would depreciate. These wishful thinkers seem to think that exports would boom as a result. They forget that exports only happen in a well-functioning economy.

Zuma’s bid to become the next ANC president, and the country’s next leader, has never appeared stronger. He still has not openly declared his ambitions, but in a speech to the Cosatu congress earlier this week, he hinted that he was ready to take leadership of the party.

There are even indications that the Zuma camp may be choosing its preferred Cabinet. One Zuma aide told a journalist that Zuma was eager for Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel to stay in his current position.

Judge Herbert Msimang’s decision on Wednesday to strike Zuma’s corruption case from the roll gave the “people’s candidate” at least a temporary boost, allowing him to reclaim the moral high ground. No other candidates have yet made themselves known.

Little is known about the former deputy president’s views on the economy, as he hardly ever voices an opinion on business policy. In public statements, he is careful to emphasise that he bows to ANC decisions and implements ANC policy. This week, however, he hinted that existing “well thought-out” ANC economic policy would probably continue if he was in charge.

“The ANC is a collective and he will express the policies of the collective,” explained businessman Don Mkhwanazi of the Friends of Jacob Zuma.

Mkhwanazi said Zuma could be expected to promote growth and development, based on equality and equity. He said entrepreneurship should be the cornerstone of growth policy, while “development” would include skills training, entrepreneurship development, African development -- “all kinds of development” he concluded.

“Human capital development is the most crucial issue … The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Zuma will articulate the ANC position.”

The real risk of a Zuma presidency would be the perception that corruption is tolerated. South Africans “could end up with a state where everything is for sale”. Cosatu believes it can control Zuma but there is no guarantee that he would continue to owe them. In a year or two, he can do whatever he wants.

The way in which Zuma manages his personal finances can be projected on to how he would manage economic policy.

Zuma’s move to align himself with the ANC’s existing policies may mean he is not the pro-poor candidate Cosatu was hoping for.

The ideological battle between pro-rich and pro-poor policymakers provided the real reason for the ANC’s present instability, and would determine who became the next president. Zuma, who until now has been punted as the candidate of the left, may not be as populist as he is often supposed.

He has nothing to say, nothing, really nothing

2006-09-24T10:45:00.000-07:00

South African President Thabo Mbeki had nothing to say about Pietermaritzburg High Court's decision to strike the corruption trial of his former deputy Jacob Zuma from the roll.

"He has nothing to say, nothing, really nothing," said presidential spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga. "There is no comment."

He said that Mbeki, who is in New York attending an African Union peace and security council meeting, had been informed of the judgment.

Last year, Mbeki announced to parliament that Zuma had been "released" from his duties after a Durban High Court judgment that Zuma and his financial adviser Schabir Shaik had a "generally corrupt" relationship.

Zuma's corruption trial centred on the accusation that he accepted a bribe from his co-accused, arms company Thint, with whom Shaik had interests, in exchange for protection during probes into a multimillion-dollar arms deal.

Zuma was replaced by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, wife of former national director of public prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka, who had said in August 2003 that he had prima facie evidence of corruption against Zuma, but would not win a court case.

Since Zuma left office, many of his supporters have rounded on Mbeki, often singing derogatory songs about him.

Judge Herbert Msimang struck the case off the roll on Wednesday, citing among his reasons that the prosecution's case depended on the outcome of appeals regarding controversial search-and-seizure raids, when documents were taken from Zuma's lawyers and from Zuma.

The dumbing down of South Africa

2006-09-24T09:50:00.000-07:00

The stupidity sweeping the nation is a good dress rehearsal for what life would be like under a Zuma presidency. If you think that the current regime is bad, hold onto your hat. A bumpy ride lies ahead for South Africa.

We find ourselves glumly staring into the future with trepidation. For the first time since that hopeful 1994 dawn, we are uncertain about what tomorrow may hold. Respected commentators have painted a gloomy picture of life under a President Jacob Zuma.

Scenarios of a South Africa in which the foundation that has been laid over the past 12 years will begin to crack; scenarios of a free-for-all South Africa that will be governed by a man who owes favours to dodgy arms dealers, back-street businessmen and all manner of disjointed lobby groups.

But will it really be that bad? Probably not. In a country of 45 million people, one would assume there will be checks against that slide.

Nonetheless, what we see through the prism is rather frightening. Through this prism we see thuggish shirt-burning, knobkerrie-wielding mobs who dislike the orderly society that the current regime has turned this country into over the past decade. We see crooked Western businessmen treating us like they do other developing nations.

We hear incoherent noises coming from the mouths of those who would most likely shape and influence policy if Zuma were to become president.

We see a nation descending into stupidity.

The past year has been a period in which a country once capable of intelligent conversation turned into a nation of babbling fools.

Take some of this week’s happenings at the Congress of South African Trade Union’s gathering in Midrand, Gauteng.

On Monday, as delegates broke into song in praise of the Cosatu leadership, general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi took the microphone and told them to change their tune.

“Sing that new song,” he urged them, “the one about the dog.”

And they did.

“Thina ngoZuma sobulala igovu lenja [We will kill this big ugly dog for Zuma].”

To Vavi’s disappointment, they did not sing it with gusto, but that moment set a tone for the entire congress. This big ugly dog, a thinly veiled reference to President Thabo Mbeki( or anyone seen to be close to him), was at the receiving end of much venom at the congress.

As was Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, who had been invited by the Cosatu leadership to speak about how she would carry out her new task as Aids czar. She told the delegates — or at least tried to — that she would devote her energy to ending the war between the government and civil society on Aids, and focus the nation’s attention on the job at hand.

Instead of applauding this fresh approach, the delegates only wanted to nail her for being the wife of Bulelani Ngcuka, the man who initiated investigations into Zuma’s “generally corrupt relationship” with Schabir Shaik.

They drowned her out with songs denouncing her husband. She left the stage humiliated and degraded.

The minister of Provincial and Local Government Sidney Mufamadi, a Cosatu founding father who is now perceived to be too close to the “big, ugly dog” that is the nation’s President, was also shouted down when he tried to present the ANC’s perspective on the transforming society.

The only ANC leaders who received rapturous welcomes were Zuma himself (at that point a corruption accused) and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, who has two common-law criminal convictions to her name.

And so it went, on and on. A trade union federation which has been the incubator for some of the country’s brightest leaders had been transformed into a noisy fish-market.

The scenes at the Cosatu conference were not out of kilter with the current climate in South Africa.

In recent months, we have heard a senior union leader denounce the Ten Commandments because they did not fit in with Zuma’s lifestyle, a youth leader call for university vice-chancellors to be beaten up because they dared question the integrity of the generally corrupt great leader, and a teenager being given a platform to demand of Archbishop Desmond Tutu that he reveal his sexual history.

It would be nice to regard these as dismissable quirks, foolish heat-of-the-moment statements. Except that they are not.

They are symptoms of the pandemic of stupidity that is sweeping across the land.

This is what the Jacob Zuma saga has done to us. It has caused us to suspend our thinking capacity.

How did we get here? Is it just a case of us mimicking the intellectual capacity of the man who would be leader, that has turned us into dolts?

Zuma’s supporters warm to the entertainer. In him they see someone they can have fun with. They see someone who will give the nation a great big street party.

As the sun sets on the Mbeki presidency, our High Courts become a theatre where the people look for light relief. And Zuma, the man who has turned those buildings into his entertainment stage, has become for them a reprieve from an intellectual presidency.

So maybe in Zuma we will get the president we deserve, a leader who, while not understanding the complex matrix that is governance and policymaking, will at least not make us feel intellectually inferior.

He will lead us in song, dance with us and make us forget our misplaced ambitions of wanting to sit at the top table of the world’s great nations.

That is why the stupidity that is sweeping the nation is a good dress rehearsal for what possibly awaits us in the next three years.

This week many South Africans began to make peace with the fact that this may be our future. Those with an aversion to order partied into the night, looking forward to a future in which shady merchants and confused leftists will form an unholy alliance.

Give Zuma's job back to him

2006-09-22T04:50:00.001-07:00

Jacob Zuma's hero's welcome at Wednesday night's Cosatu congress will be solidified by a special resolution calling for his reinstatement as the country's second in command. He certainly needs to earn some money, considering that his legal bills stand at R12 million.

It is not clear whether Zuma will also seek his seat back in parliament, which he resigned the day Mbeki axed him.

Delegates are expected to discuss the reinstatement resolution Thursday. It echoes one made by Cosatu's central committee last year which was ignored by President Thabo Mbeki.

Although the ANC's Smuts Ngonyama has said the latest call will be discussed by party structures, it is unlikely Mbeki will bow to pressure. Zuma has not received a stay of prosecution and the NPA might still opt to re-charge him.

NPA spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi said the prosecuting authority was obviously disappointed with the decision, but "the NPA wishes to stress that (this decision) does not detract from the strength of the state's case or the ability of the NPA to bring the matter to trial when the various issues delaying the trial have been resolved".

It is the president's prerogative to appoint and fire his executive, and with Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, heading the government's flagship Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa, as well as leading the government's anti-Aids campaign, chances of her being replaced by the man she succeeded are slim.

However, some delegates have suggested a compromise and said Zuma could become the country's second deputy president.

It would be back to the short-lived days when Mbeki and NP leader FW de Klerk were then-president Nelson Mandela's two deputies.

Zuma was axed as South African deputy president on June 14 last year, after his financial adviser Schabir Shaik was convicted of corruption. Judge Hilary Squires found a "generally corrupt relationship" between the two.

President Thabo Mbeki had nothing to say about the Pietermaritzburg High Court's decision to strike his former deputy Jacob Zuma's corruption trial off the roll, said presidential spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga. "There is no comment."

Blaming the West

2006-09-22T01:29:00.000-07:00

The president blames the rich for not giving big enough handouts to the poor. Callous wealthy nations are indifferent to the plight of the poor as they pursue selfish policies which enrich the few at the expense of the many, South African President Thabo Mbeki said.

"These billions of poor people are increasingly becoming impatient because every year they hear us adopt declaration after declaration and yet nothing practical is done to assuage the hunger pains that keep them awake at night," he told the United Nations General Assembly.

Mbeki said poverty was increasing "during an era of unprecedented wealth accumulation and technological advances" and pointed the finger at rich nations, who he said insisted on an unequal relationship with the poor.

"The majority of the human race is entitled to ask the question whether the rich are responding the way they do because the further impoverishment of the poor is to the advantage of the rich," he said.

Mbeki said the rich had directed an "uncaring declaration to the poor of today ... even when they are acutely aware that many in their neighborhood die of hunger, of preventable diseases and abject poverty".

Mbeki's South Africa is in many ways a microcosm of the global wealth divide, with some of the starkest income disparities in the world and widespread poverty.

But Mbeki himself has been accused by foreign and domestic critics of embracing market-friendly policies at home which have enabled a few blacks to accumulate vast wealth and some to enter the middle class while millions remain stuck in squalor.

Mbeki said the solution to increasing poverty is to reform the United Nations and thereby help overcome "the cold reality of the indifference of the many among the rich and powerful."

Chilly reception from the comrades

2006-09-22T01:24:00.000-07:00

Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, who faced a hostile reception at the Cosatu congress, appealed for a partnership in tackling HIV and Aids, but warned that government would not be dictated to.

When Cosatu president Willie Madisha introduced her to delegates, half the hall erupted into a song about how her husband - former national director of public prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka ill-treated ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma.

Madisha tried unsuccessfully to stop delegates from singing: wena ulawula amaScorpions awustshele ukuthi uZuma wenzeni. UNgcuka makaphendule (You who control the Scorpions, tell us what Zuma has done to you. Ngcuka please reply)

The deputy president showed no emotion and merely gazed down.

This was the song, sung during the Cosatu 2003 congress, which triggered a fierce public battle in the ANC's succession race.

Shortly before the deputy president took to the podium, almost all delegates rose to sing thina ngalo Zuma sobulala igovu lenja (with our Zuma we will kill the bulldog).

Madisha also had to intervene at the end of her speech as delegates rose again to attempt to sing the bulldog song.

However, Mlambo-Ngcuka continued to read her seven-page speech in which she defended government policy. The deputy president was cautious not to be too defensive, as Cosatu and other organisations had earlier adopted a declaration in which they said "the time for conflicting and confusing messages is over".

She said when "we fail to work together as partners the disease wins", but emphasised that the government would not accept preconditions, a tacit warning to the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC).

"I must add that we will not accept preconditions by individual stakeholders who seek to predetermine the agenda for engagement; we want to engage without prejudice in (the South African National Aids Council) and not in a fragmented manner".

TAC chairperson Zackie Achmat, present to receive a special Cosatu award, retorted that the government "has failed us".

"They have ignored many of our letters". However, "we are ready to talk", he said.

In contrast to President Thabo Mbeki's assertion that he was not aware of an alarming rate of infection in the public service, Mlambo-Ngcuka told delegates the impact of Aids was at cataclysmic proportions. "The impact of the pandemic is showing itself on both mortality and morbidity. The number of child-headed and granny-headed households is a big challenge we can't ignore."

She was careful to strike a balance between the importance of anti-retroviral drugs and nutrition, cognisant of the fact that Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi had told delegates vegetables were not enough. "It should be stressed that a healthy lifestyle and good nutrition are not alternatives to treatment. Equally anti-retroviral treatment is not a cure - it can prolong life and keep people fitter and healthy for longer but will not remove the virus from the body," Mlambo-Ngcuka said.

Zimbabweans are most welcome

2006-09-22T01:19:00.000-07:00

Here is some more impeccable logic from the regime. While there are a lot of illegal immigrants from Zimbabwe in South Africa, there was a "silver lining" to many of them being in the country, said deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka on Wednesday.

She drew a distinction between legal and illegal immigrants, and called for a balanced approach to the issue.

"I would like to highlight the fact that Zimbabweans play an important role in our economy, especially in the areas where we have a shortage of skills. The country has benefited from a lot of Zimbabweans who have high-level financial skills... most of the black actuaries that we have... are actually Zimbabweans. There are also large numbers in the health sector, where again there are skills shortages, as well as in tourism. We need to see the silver lining in the cloud," she told MPs.

There were a "great number" of Zimbabweans in South Africa illegally. There was no evidence they were responsible for crime in South Africa, except for "isolated incidents", she said.

Justice is served

2006-09-21T06:46:00.000-07:00

Former deputy president Jacob Zuma's corruption case was struck off the roll by the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Wednesday, boosting the popular politician's bid to succeed President Thabo Mbeki.

High Court Judge Herbert Msimang said the state's case against Zuma "went from one disaster to another" and had failed to follow proper procedure.

"There were clear guidelines which should have informed their decision to proceed. They ignored those guidelines at their own peril," Msimang said.

"This is the chickens coming home to roost."

The judge's ruling stopped short of completely dismissing the case, however, and prosecutors hinted they intended to refile charges at a later date.

Hundreds of Zuma supporters gathered outside the court broke out in cheers and dancing on news of the ruling, which was seen as a major political boost for Zuma who has made little secret of his hopes to succeed Mbeki in 2009.

Inside the courtroom Zuma supporters -- some of them dressed in traditional Zulu dress -- leaped to their feet and started chanting "my president".

Zuma (64) was fired from his job as South Africa's deputy president last year after a judge found he had a "generally corrupt" relationship with his financial adviser Schabir Shaik. Prosecutors later filed charges against Zuma himself, accusing him of receiving bribes from French arms company Thint in connection with a controversial arms deal.

The investors are not amused

2006-09-17T05:40:00.000-07:00

Crime and fear of a Zuma reign after Mbeki are frightening off foreign investors

CRIME and uncertainty over who will succeed President Thabo Mbeki could knock SA’s credit rating and investment flows over the next five years, international credit rating agencies agreed this week. SA has a BBB+ sovereign credit rating, which puts it in the company of Hungary, Poland and Thailand. But the rating agencies believe it is important that the country aim for the coveted “A” rating before the 2010 World Cup if it wants to raise its “sluggish” investment levels.

Ratings are an indication of how reliably a country can be expected to service its debt. Foreigners typically choose to invest in countries with higher ratings. “It will be difficult for SA’s rating to move up. SA could be stuck with its present rating for the next five years,” said Dave King, chairman of rating agency Global Credit Ratings. “Before we can upgrade SA’s rating we want to see tangible progress in bringing down crime and unemployment,” he said.

Fitch’s sovereign analyst, Veronica Kalema, said: “Now is not the time for an upgrade.” She listed the uncertainty created by the presidential succession battle, and by how much interest rates might go up, as factors that could hold SA back from achieving a higher rating. “Last time there was a transition, everyone knew that Mbeki would become president and the international community was confident of his ability to run the economy,” she said.

“From an international perspective, it would be negative for SA if Zuma ran for president because his name and reputation have been tainted with corruption and rape charges [and will continue to be] even if he is acquitted. The investor community will expect someone with moral standing.” A Fitch rating team was due to make its annual visit to SA but was unlikely to recommend the upgrading of the country’s status. “We’ll have to wait for the dust to settle before we move on SA’s credit rating.”

Bradley Hutchings, a sovereign analyst for Global Credit Ratings, agreed that a Zuma presidency would undermine SA’s credit rating. “If Zuma were to come into power there’s no doubt it would undermine perceptions … and if he did not follow sound macroeconomic policies we would downgrade SA’s rating — and it wouldn’t just be us, it would be all the credit rating agencies.”

Coface, a group that provides credit ratings on 152 countries, agreed that SA’s sovereign rating was unlikely to improve soon. “SA’s rating will stay stable for the next 12 months,” said Coface’s SA managing director, Garth de Klerk. “We haven’t seen indicators that would make it move up. The positives are being nullified by the negatives.”

He said he believed that crime, more interest rate hikes, a depreciating rand and political instability might tarnish SA’s image further and move the country to a lower credit rating. This, he said, would be disastrous in the run-up to the World Cup. It was crucial that SA enhance its image overseas if it wanted to attract foreign investment, he said. “Issues that affect credit ratings are based both on hard facts and on perceptions,” said De Klerk. “SA’s high crime rate is one of the main reasons for poor perceptions overseas. The political environment is seen to be no more than relatively stable.”

Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka’s warning that SA retailers who imported clothes cheaply from other countries could be slapped with treason charges added to the negative perceptions of this country and might scare off investors, said De Klerk.

“Some of the major concerns are what will happen if rates rise by another 1% next month. That would affect our rating of SA in the long term and the ability of companies to pay their debt,” said De Klerk. “Further rate hikes would put a lid on companies’ expansion and growth plans but exporters would reap the benefits of the weaker rand, those in manufacturing in particular.” He said the rand was driven largely by market sentiment and so the exchange rate was sensitive to highly publicised crime.

The battle of the presidents

2006-09-17T03:26:00.000-07:00

Insults have been traded, labels hurled at opponents and embarrassing personal information about leaders has been laid bare for all to know: The situation in Cosatu has degenerated into a free-for-all between those who support president Willie Madisha, and their rivals, who support general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi.

The question many have been asking is: What triggered the leadership crisis and why has it turned so vitriolic, particularly between the two leaders? Most explanations attribute the conflict to the ANC succession struggle between supporters of president Thabo Mbeki, on one hand, and ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma on the other.

The Cosatu leadership crisis results from a combination of problems within the federation and its tripartite alliance partners. First, the conflict is symptomatic of the crisis of the Cosatu leadership model known as "worker control".

According to this model, the president, as a worker and union member, is the head of the federation, and the general secretary, a full-time employee of the federation, is his subordinate.

But what we see with Vavi and others in the federation's affiliates is that the general secretary is the de facto head who has the resources to lead - an office and administrative infrastructure, staff, time and money. By virtue of his full-time position, he employs staff, he can give patronage to other full-time union staff and he is the official voice of the federation.

Madisha, by contrast, does not have any of these resources. He does not even have an office at Cosatu House. The faces and names of union general secretaries are easy to remember, but how many of us remember the names of union presidents?

Thus what we are seeing now is Vavi asserting his de facto leadership and this includes a claim to speak on behalf of the federation on issues such as the Zuma affair. He has now emerged as a classical example of the "union boss", a powerful leader whose longevity in office is no longer subject to decisions by rank-and-file union members.

Secondly, it is true that the ANC succession battle is also a huge factor in creating the crisis. Virtually all of Cosatu's top leaders are also members of the ANC and for this reason, any divisions in the ruling party are bound to cause ripples within the union federation.

However, the presentation of the division as simply as one between pro-Mbeki and pro-Zuma camps is something of a caricature and has been used conveniently by some to label and silence opponents.

The pro-Zuma lobby has been making it extremely hard for anyone to express reservations or concerns about the federation's support for the ANC deputy president. In this environment, anyone who meets with, let alone expresses support for "Mbeki the neo-liberal", is putting his or her union career in jeopardy.

At one level it is not difficult to understand the anti-Mbeki sentiments, given that some of the top leaders of Cosatu and the SACP have in the past been humiliated and ridiculed by ANC leaders close to Mbeki as "ultra-leftists" and "shop stewards".

Thirdly, at the centre of the Cosatu crisis is the SACP factor. The party is something of a paradox because it does not contest political power and instead relies on its parasitic relationship with the ANC and Cosatu.

It is heavily dependent on financial support from the unions, something which prompts it to manipulate internal union processes, such as elections, to ensure that its sympathisers remain in power. This makes the SACP an interested party in conflicts such as the one we see between Vavi and Madisha. Of course there are other factions within the SACP, but the hegemonic one led by general secretary Blade Nzimande depends on this parasitic relationship.

Fourthly, the conflict between Vavi and Madisha is an indication of a split within the tripartite alliance of the ANC, Cosatu and the SACP. Many commentators have operated on the notion that when the alliance breaks up, each of the three organisations will neatly disengage from the others and carry on with its life.

But what we are seeing is that the break-up of the alliance is splitting each of the component organisations. One does not have to be a prophet of doom to realise that the bad blood between various rival factions within all three organisations, and the acrimony and vitriol that stems from it, means that they will never work together again.

Add to this the overt ethnic mobilisation, the sexism, gender insensitivity and the charges and counter-charges of corruption, and you can see the gloves are off for real this time.

A question that has been raised constantly by some is: Is the conflict between the factions an ideological one? On the surface it would appear that it is, particularly because the pro-Zuma camp tries to present itself as a left faction that is battling a neo-liberal Mbeki camp.

This faction presents Zuma as a left candidate who emerged from the same class background as most Cosatu members. But on closer examination, it is clear there is no ideological difference between Vavi and Madisha.

Support for Zuma is not based on any political principles. All we have heard is that Zuma is a nice approachable guy, he is a former shop steward (there is no find evidence for this) and that he has been treated badly by the Mbeki group. But what he stands for politically that is distinct from the Mbeki group is not clear.

A popular catchphrase in Cosatu and SACP circles is that these organisations prefer "fighting for the soul of the ANC" within the alliance to leaving it. But none expected the fight for the soul of the ANC to be so acrimonious and bruising. More important, none realised that what was at stake was the soul not only of the ANC but also of Cosatu and the SACP.

They only invited the ANC

2006-09-17T03:22:00.000-07:00

To most people, the ANC political party and government are one and the same thing. Cosatu only invited the ANC to its congress. They sent but a man who was fired from his government job but still holds high office in the ANC.

Patrick Craven, National Spokesperson of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has confirmed reports that President Thabo Mbeki will not be addressing its national congress next week.
Cosatu had invited the African National Congress to attend the meeting and that the ANC had decided to send former deputy president Jacob Zuma as its representative. Zuma was "very welcome" and that President Mbeki would have been "equally welcome" had he been able to attend.

SA rely on judge to halt Zuma’s charge

2006-09-17T03:16:00.000-07:00

SOMETHING is terribly wrong in a country when a lot of people believe one court judgment means make or break for the future.

This is exactly what is happening in the corruption trial of Jacob Zuma. If Zuma is found not guilty, there is nothing to prevent him becoming president. And with “Bob Lite” secure in the presidential offices in Tuynhuys, SA will be on the highway to Harare.

It is not only whites who are scared. Some blacks say that if Zuma becomes president, they will emigrate to Australia. Yes, it is as bad as that.

Like a mouse fascinated with a snake, the whole country is focused on Judge Herbert Msimang’s courtroom in Pietermaritzburg. Prayers are being whispered. Please, judge, just find him guilty. This man cannot become the president of SA.

What a state of affairs! The future of a great nation is in the hands of a single judge. Of course Zuma should be stopped, but this must happen in the political arena. Not in a courtroom.

In any event, if the case against Zuma fails, it will be mainly the fault of Bulelani Ngcuka, for it was Ngcuka who decided Zuma would not be charged along with Schabir Shaik. This is what you get when you give a politician from the ruling party a post that requires absolute neutrality.

It was probably thought that the African National Congress’s (ANC’s) interests would not be served if Zuma was charged with Shaik. Ironically enough, that wrong decision of three years ago has left the ANC a nightmare of note today.

The state did not come out smelling of roses after the first few days of the Zuma trial. And it won’t get any better. The point is, it is very risky to assume Zuma’s attempt to become president will be derailed in court.

Zuma did not raise in his defence, that the court case was a political conspiracy against him, but says so to his supporters. And they believe him. Boy, oh boy, do they believe him.

Therefore, it will be better when the court case is over and done with, and Zuma is forced to fight on grounds of merit, not on grounds of conspiracy theories. Or because he knows people are tired of President Thabo Mbeki.

Because eventually the country and the world want to know whether there is something left of the character and integrity of the ANC, SA’s oldest freedom movement, which regularly reminds us that the movement survived for so long because it always did the right thing at critical moments.

If the ANC really is such a heroic movement, it must do the right thing and stop Zuma. The ANC must realise it is unthinkable that this man can govern SA. He does not have the intellect, the vision or the spiritual power to handle one of the most difficult governing posts in the world.

Zuma is a well-loved figure within the ANC. This makes stopping him and his ambition more difficult for the party.

The early indications are not reassuring. A loud silence greeted Archbishop Desmond Tutu a couple of weeks ago when he, in simple but strong church language, pleaded with Zuma to let go of his ambition. Sorry, there was a reaction. Those political tsotsis that trade as pro-ANC youth organisations swore at Tutu. A hapless Mbeki scolded them in his internet column, because they were disrespectful towards an older man. But he did not say: listen to the words of a Man of God.

Why is it so difficult for those in the ANC, who are truly interested in the country and its wellbeing, to stand up? Or is all their energy spent on repositioning, to make sure they will still have jobs when Mbeki is not the boss any more?

Zuma is locked in a courtroom battle in Pietermaritzburg. But his campaign to become ANC president is running countrywide and is winning ground. The ANC’s hands are not tied, but it is sitting on them, and is paralysed. Only its eyes are moving now and again. If I were Mbeki, I would be severely depressed.

Deputy president is accident prone

2006-09-17T03:13:00.000-07:00

IS THE Deputy President, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, serious when she suggests that it would be "treason" for retailers to try to circumvent the new restrictions on Chinese textile imports by looking to import from elsewhere?

It is hard to credit that so oafish a message could come from so high an office. It finally crosses the line from intervening government to interfering government. Retailers should not take her seriously.

It is not the job of a retailer to save the jobs of suppliers. The criticisms of South African retailers from both the unions and the government have an almost Victorian quality about them. It seems they imagine one greedy store owner making tons of profit and giving nothing back.

Actually, millions of South Africans (and their pension funds) and foreign investors have profited from the huge retail profits of the past few years. Millions of South African consumers have benefited from being able to buy quality clothing at stable, if not often falling, prices. Clothing has played a huge role in the downward pressure in inflation in the past four years.

The imposition of limits on Chinese imports, and, now, Mlambo-Ngcuka's threat to the retailers may have the rescue of local textile jobs in mind, but it is inflationary. And you cannot buy jobs in one sector of the economy at the expense of profits in another.

Textiles is a difficult business and SA has suffered the same pressures as many other large and small economies in the face of Asian and, particularly, Chinese exports. This was made worse by the strengthening of the rand, which made exporting difficult. But the rise of the rand was accompanied by applause from government and Mlambo-Ngcuka. When she was minerals minister, the strong rand suited her constituents. Now it doesn't, it seems.

What will save the textiles industry in SA is the creation of a competitive and efficient economy, something for which the deputy president is directly responsible for as the main driver of government's Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for SA (Asgi-SA).

The deputy president is accident prone -- treason now heads a list including jokey but approving land grab remarks to Zimbabwe's leader, tiaras and a flight with friends to the Middle East. But surely even she would, on reflection, understand how destructive her "treason" remark could be? If she is going to fix textiles, she at least needs friends and not enemies on the other side of the negotiating table.

This is getting ugly

2006-09-13T23:49:00.000-07:00

The regime is washing its dirty laundry in public as it tries to sort out who will succeed Thabo Mbeki as South African president. In the one corner is Jacob Zuma, currently on trail for corruption. In the other corner is Tabo Mbeki and his as yet unnamed successor.

POLICY issues — instead of personality issues — are beginning to take centre stage in the ugly succession debate within the ruling African National Congress (ANC).

This signals an intensification of a potentially bruising face off between President Thabo Mbeki and his detractors, which is likely to come to a head at the ANC’s policy conference in July next year: a curtain raiser for the party’s elective national conference in December next year. The outcome of these conferences will have a decided impact on who succeeds Mbeki as ANC president, and could determine the future political and economic path of SA.

While Finance Minister Trevor Manuel insisted, when he addressed the Johannesburg Press Club last Thursday, that government’s macroeconomic policy framework remains intact, even he had to concede a willingness to relook economic policy in some respects.

On their own, Manuel’s comments hardly suggest a radical policy U-turn, but taken together with the loud noises being made by powerful ANC national executive members, and an increasingly critical attitude toward government policy from Mbeki’s rival Jacob Zuma, it’s clear that the leadership race is going to be about much more than who takes over the ANC next year.

Observers have often said that the battle between Mbeki and Zuma has very little to do with policy issues. However, developments over the past few weeks suggest a more pronounced policy rift developing between the contending factions coalescing around the two men. While it is always prudent to be wary of what politicians say publicly, it is clear that a subtle change has crept into the succession dogfight. It is instructive that Mbeki’s administration has come under attack not only from the usual suspects on the left within the alliance, but also increasingly from other senior figures within the national executive committee of the ANC.

ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe used a keynote address at the 62nd anniversary of the ANC Youth League, which is highly critical of Mbeki’s handling of the Zuma saga, to call for the formation of a state-owned mining company to enable government to pay for the provision of “free basic and compulsory education”.

It comes soon after a decidedly left-leaning speech by Zuma. Addressing the annual conference of the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union, Zuma launched a scathing attack on Mbeki’s economic, education and health policies, despite the presence at the conference of Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota and Education Minister Naledi Pandor.

ANC Youth League president Fikile Mbalula also wasted no time in lambasting government policies on youth empowerment. “Nothing about us without us,” he said to loud applause from senior cabinet ministers, ANC backbenchers and other party bigwigs. The mood at the youth league shindig was decidedly rebellious and restless and signalled that the battle lines between the ANC’s contending factions were being drawn sharply along ideological lines.

Those leftist forces that have amassed behind Zuma’s bid for the ANC presidency have wised up to the fact that even if Zuma wins, it will not necessarily be a victory for the left. The direction of SA post-2009 will be contested, regardless of whom the ANC nominates for the post of president.

While the motley crew assembled behind Zuma’s bid to take over the ANC leadership includes disgruntled elites and those who have fallen out with Mbeki, the left has now positioned itself behind Zuma in such a way that it is slowly beginning to exact some concessions.

A moving tribute to Julius Nyerere

2006-09-11T13:39:00.000-07:00

Nyerere implemented a socialist economic program and introduced a policy of collectivization in the country's agricultural system, known as Ujamaa or "familyhood". Nyerere had tremendous faith in rural African people and their traditional values and ways of life. He believed that life should be structured around the ujamaa, or extended family found in traditional Africa. This ujamaa system failed to boost agricultural output and by 1976, the end of the forced collectivization program, Tanzania went from the largest exporter of agricultural products in Africa to the largest importer of agricultural products in Africa. With the realisation that the Tanzanian economy did not flourish, Nyerere willingly announced that he would retire after presidential elections in 1985, leaving the country to enter its free market era. With unusual frankness for a politician, he stated in his farewell speech, "I failed. Let's admit it."

Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka says South Africa is particularly indebted to leaders with stature like that of the late Tanzanian President, Julius Nyerere.

She said humility and solidarity were one of the greatest lessons Tanzanians and Mr Nyerere bequeathed South Africans.

She was delivering the third annual Julius Nyerere Memorial Lecture at the University of the Western Cape on Wednesday.

"Indeed we are very grateful to him for showing us the important role of education in development and nation building," she said.

Turning to skills development, Ms Mlambo-Ngcuka highlighted the importance of education and its relevance to South Africa's economy.

She reiterated the need for a "skills revolution" in terms of life-long learning initiatives and a focus on teacher training, as their skills were a priority which was becoming scarce.

"I am referring here mainly to teachers of mathematics and science, technology and language teachers [including African language teachers] in public schools. But in general the culture of teaching which has been significantly eroded," she said.

Ms Mlambo-Ngcuka said the country had missed many opportunities due to the shortage of priority skills.

"We import artisans, welders even for regular scheduled activities such as statutory shutdowns of oil refineries.

"Our lifelong learning interventions must deal with these distortions, in policy, in a proactive and ongoing manner," said the Deputy President.

She said sectors which had been identified as those in which inadequate service provision constrained growth were tourism, agriculture and agro-processing, cultural industries and bio-fuels.

In addition to teaching skills, other priority skills were identified as potential contributors to the country's 6 percent economic growth by 2010, as set out by the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa (AsgiSA).

These identified skills include engineering; planning and management skills, especially for Local and Provincial governments; artisans such as welders, plumbers and boilermakers; and Information and Communication Technology skills amongst others. - BuaNews

It is treason to exploit the loopholes we left open

2006-09-11T12:57:00.000-07:00

Realising that it had left a huge loophole by only banning clothing imports from China, the regime now labelw anyone even thinking about exploiting this as traitors.

DEPUTY President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka has thrown down the gauntlet to SA’s clothing retailers, warning them that importing clothing cheaply from other countries to cushion the blow of restrictions on cheap imports from China would be viewed as “treason”.

Mlambo-Ngcuka told the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) summit at the weekend that substituting Chinese goods with cheap goods from other countries would be a slap in the face for the poor and the unemployed.

“Government, manufacturers and retailers must work together to use this as an opportunity to invest in the stability of this industry,” she said. “This is not a punitive measure. We can bring back some of the jobs but only if we work as partners.”

The issue of import duties dominated the summit in Midrand, held annually by Nedlac partners representing government, business and labour.

Deputy chief commissioner of the International Trade Administration Commission (Itac) Itumeleng Masege said the commission had the capacity to administer the import controls. While the process would require 10000 import permits being issued in the next three weeks, Masege was confident Itac would be able to meet demand.

“By Friday we will start issuing these permits,” he said. A call centre had already been set up to deal with a surge in inquiries and a task team had been established between Itac and the South African Revenue Service to co-ordinate the monitoring of imports.

The import restrictions were published recently in the Government Gazette. Restrictions will be imposed on 31 categories of textiles and clothing, encompassing 200 items imported from China from September 28 to end 2008.

It is the first major measure taken by government to stem job losses in the textile industry.

Business maintains government should seek an alternative way of helping the industry.

In a terse statement issued after the summit, Business Unity SA (Busa) said it had sought an urgent meeting with government to discuss business concerns on constraints on imports of Chinese clothing and textiles. Busa said it believed there were “better ways to manage the economic difficulties that had developed in these two industrial sectors” and regretted that the trade agreement with China, which would have significant economic consequences, was reached without consultation in Nedlac.

“While the memorandum of understanding now appears to be finalised, its implementation at a practical level could take several alternative routes, which Busa would like to explore with government.”

Congress of South African Trade Unions general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said labour was particularly concerned about the massive imbalance in SA’s trade with China. Last year, SA had a trade deficit with China of about R23bn.

“The agreement will give the industry some breathing space,” he said. He called on government not to be swayed by the “alarmist” claims and lobbying by retailers.

“These retailers have made enormous profits over the past four years, as imports have swelled and workers have lost their jobs,” Vavi said.

Retailers have urged government to scrap the quotas, warning that they will create chaos and hurt consumers.

In a joint statement last week, Edcon, Truworths, Woolworths, Foschini, Pepkor and Mr Price said the restrictions would have an expected inflationary effect of 20%-25% or more on prices of some categories of clothing.

Several retailers have already indicated that they would look to other countries for imports. It is believed that two leading retailers have already approached suppliers in neighbouring Lesotho in a bid to source cheaply from them.

Mlambo-Ngcuka also took a swipe at sector education and training authorities, saying they would have to provide the necessary skills or the plan might be doomed.

Very modest $3 million home

2006-09-07T13:02:00.000-07:00

Who is paying for this house? Must be the government. The president only earns about $150 000 per year. It will take him a very very long time to pay if off. If he is paying for it himself he has some explaining to do about where he got that kind of money.

The government must let the public know exactly what perks presidents are entitled to when they retire, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Friday. This was after reports that the government was funding a R22-million retirement mansion in Houghton for President Thabo Mbeki.

Motheo group construction executive Gavin Munro said the company has a contract with a Ms Dlamini, otherwise known as First Lady Zanele Mbeki.

Flanked by high white walls topped with electric fencing, the driveway has a guard house with bullet proof glass between two sets of black wrought-iron gates. It is a three-bedroom house, each bedroom with its own bathroom.

It has a lounge and entertainment area, a dining room, a kitchen fitted with melamine cupboards and granite tops and servants' quarters. There is a small chairlift for someone on a wheelchair to reach the upstairs bedroom. The L-shaped house has a double garage. Mrs Mbeki has not started interior decorating yet.

As far as the opulence of other homes in the area is concerned, Munro described the Mbeki house as "very mediocre". "It's very modest. Mrs Mbeki is a very modest person."

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Yengeni keeps his job in ANC national executive

2006-09-05T14:28:00.000-07:00

Outside Yengeni's Milnerton home, minister in the office of the presidency Essop Pahad said Yengeni would remain a member of the ANC's top national executive committee (NEC).

He described Yengeni as "a very old friend" who had fought side by side with him in the liberation struggle for about 20 years.

"I am very sad that Tony is going to prison and I am here to wish him well as a friend, but also as a member of the national executive committee of the ANC," said Pahad.