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Zuma setback: Court orders review of 783 dropped corruption charges –‘irrational’

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PRETORIA, April 29 (Reuters) – South Africa’s High Court ruled on Friday that a 2009 decision to drop 783 corruption charges against President Jacob Zuma was irrational and should be reviewed, another setback for the scandal-ridden leader who faces calls for his resignation.

The decision in April 2009 to set aside the charges allowed Zuma to run for president in elections the same month.

Protesters call for the removal of South Africa's President Jacob Zuma as the country commemorates the anniversary of the country's first democratic elections in Durban, South Africa, April 27, 2016. REUTERS/Rogan Ward
Protesters call for the removal of South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma as the country commemorates the anniversary of the country’s first democratic elections in Durban, South Africa, April 27, 2016. REUTERS/Rogan Ward

National prosecutor Mokotedi Mpshe’s decision at the time was based on phone intercepts presented by Zuma’s legal team that suggested the timing of the charges against Zuma in late 2007 may have been part of a political plot against him.

However, Judge Aubrey Ledwaba said Mpshe’s thinking and behaviour was irrational, especially his failure to disclose his decision to prosecutors until the moment he announced it to the nation at a news conference.

“If the decision had been rational and above board, why the secrecy?” Ledwaba said.

The ruling adds pressure on Zuma, who has faced calls for his resignation even from within inside the ruling African National Congress since a damning constitutional court judgment against him last month.

South Africa’s rand rose towards a four-month high after the ruling, while government bonds also firmed.

“Mr. Zuma should face the charges as applied in the indictment,” Ledwaba said, summarising the unanimous ruling.

It was not immediately clear whether Zuma would appeal.

The judgment does not automatically reinstate the charges against Zuma, a decision that can only come from the prosecuting authorities.

Shaun Abrahams, head of the National Prosecuting Authority, told Reuters he was studying the ruling.

Opposition Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane, whose party brought the court application, demanded the charges against Zuma be reinstated.

“Jacob Zuma is not fit to be the president of this country,” he told reporters.

“The decision that they took was irrational and we still maintain that Jacob Zuma is corrupt. Jacob Zuma must face the full might of the law. He has already violated the constitution. There is no debate about that.”

The hundreds of corruption charges relate to a major government arms deal arranged in the late 1990s. Zuma said last week that an investigation into the deal had found no evidence of corruption or fraud.

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Uganda blocks social media, clamps down as Museveni extends rule to 35 years

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KAMPALA, May 12 (Reuters) – Uganda blocked social media sites including Twitter, Facebook and Whatsapp before the swearing-in ceremony on Thursday of President Yoweri Museveni, whose re-election sparked protests and a crackdown on dissent.

President of Uganda Yoweri Museveni
President of Uganda Yoweri Museveni

Museveni, 71, officially won 60 percent of the vote in February, allowing him to take on another term and extend his rule to 35 years. The opposition cried foul and protests broke out, leading to some clashes with police and dozens of arrests.

On Wednesday, police arrested opposition leader Kizza Besigye after a street protest. Besigye, who heads the Forum for Democratic Change party, won 35 percent of the vote in February. He has been under house arrest on and off since.

Godfrey Mutabazi, executive director of the telecommunications regulator, said security agencies had requested the move as “a measure to limit the possibility of terrorists taking advantage” of visits by dignitaries.

Uganda is hosting several heads of state for the ceremony.

In the preceding days, the authorities have placed more security patrols on the streets of Kampala and residents said there was a strong presence of military and police personnel on Thursday.

The authorities blocked social media during voting and shortly afterwards, a move criticised at the time by the United States and rights groups, who said it undermined the integrity of the process.

EU monitors said the election was held in an intimidating atmosphere and the electoral body lacked independence and transparency. Ugandan officials said it was free and fair, and dismiss accusations that they have clamped down on free speech.

The government had also banned any live television or radio coverage of protests.

Opposition to Museveni is strongest among youths in urban areas, where frustration has been fuelled by unemployment, corruption and crumbling public services.

Museveni has been credited with restoring order after years of chaotic rule since coming to power in 1986. The economy has been growing, but experts say it has failed to keep pace with the rising population.

Critics also complain about Museveni’s failure to stem corruption and a clampdown on opposition voices.

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Africa’s #1 challenge: corruption. But words sans deeds lets evil flourish.

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ISS head Anton du Plessis penned this strongly worded attack on corruption from Kigali, the Rwandan capital currently hosting the World Economic Forum’s annual African regional meeting. Members of the Biznews community will doubtless appreciate the irony. In both the public and private sectors, corruption flourishes in direct proportion to a leader’s hold on power. After 16 years as Rwanda’s First Citizen, earlier this year President Paul Kagame reinforced his grip through changing the Constitution so he could remain in office for another 18 years. His justification being “the people” wanted him to continue ruling. The same words despots have used through history.  Among challenges for those attacking corruption is the public’s short memory – and how, as plundering becomes more sophisticated, perpetrators are emboldened. Consider the local example. Had the Guptas not over-reached by trying to acquire control of South Africa’s Treasury, would they still have been forced into their midnight flit to Dubai? But not that these so obviously exposed crony capitalists are out the picture, many related actions are soon forgotten. Like allegations by Mcebisi Jonas and Vytjie Mentor, mining minister Zwane’s bizarre support of Gupta negotiations with Glencore – and the wholesale replacement of Eskom’s directorate and simultaneous installation there of Gupta mothership director Mark Pamensky. Fighting corruption needs not only exposure but concerted action and follow-through. Without that, good men are effectively standing aside and doing nothing, allowing evil to continue flourishing. – Alec Hogg 

By Anton du Plessis*

DAVOS/SWITZERLAND, 24JAN15 - Anton du Plessis (C), Managing Director, Institute for Security Studies (ISS), South Africa; Young Global Leader; Global Agenda Council on Fragility, Violence & Conflict discusses during the session 'Davos Insights on Crisis and Cooperation' at the Annual Meeting 2015 of the World Economic Forum at the congress centre in Davos, January 24, 2015. WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM/swiss-image.ch/Photo Valeriano DiDomenico
Anton du Plessis in Davos earlier this year. He is the MD of the ISS.

What is the biggest threat to peace and development in Africa? It’s not terrorism, drought, HIV/AIDS or malaria.

Africa’s biggest threat is corruption. Corruption is also Africa’s biggest terror risk, and its biggest brake on development. It is arguably one of Africa’s biggest killers.

Yet the moral and financial investment in fighting downstream consequences of corruption – including terror, drug trafficking and organised crime – is much greater than the investment in stopping graft. Too many developed countries tolerate the export and enabling of corruption by their corporate and individual citizens.

Controlling corruption should be Africa’s number one security priority.

Despite well-worn stereotypes, Africa does not compete in corruption’s premier league.

But the effects of corruption are often much more devastating in Africa, due to institutional weakness and fragility of states and cities.

What separates thriving countries from failing ones is the strength and integrity of their institutions. Corruption devastates Africa not only because it bleeds the fiscus, but because it undermines institutional capacity. This in-turn destroys trust and the social contract that lies at the heart of sustainable peace, security and stability.

Read also: Is corruption flatlining? SA jumps 6 places in 2015 but score stays the same.

In a country like the UK, corruption may impact the fiscus without affecting the society’s overall coherence and success. In developing countries, corruption halts the flow of medicines and school books, enables state capture by organised crime, erodes the rule of law and contributes to conflict.

Taking responsibility

There is a well-established stereotype of African leaders using ideology and historical legacy to mask corruption and greed.

But things are changing. In the post-ideological world a new generation of African leaders is taking a different approach to the failed models of their aging and out of touch predecessors. These leaders came to power on anti-corruption tickets. They understand the need to partner with the private sector to promote investment and innovation. They know that increased transparency and accountability are prerequisites for this.

But there are two sides to this coin. As African leaders get their own house in order, developed nations should support them by ensuring the world’s poorest countries do not bear the injustices and excesses that can be a downside of global capitalism.

Read also: Time for talk over: Archbishop – start acting against corruption

Africa’s many forms of corruption are matched by the multiple ways that Western companies are complicit in them. Dodgy arms deals and illicit financial flows could not succeed were it not for the legions of international lawyers, banks and accountants who bend the rules to give corrupt practices a veneer of legality. A myriad of technically legal actions add up to massive theft.

A conundrum for London and Kigali

This is a conundrum which must be tackled this week by African leaders and business meeting in Rwanda at the World Economic Forum on Africa, and at the UK Anti-Corruption Summit in London. The summit is an opportunity to fix blind spots in the global anti-corruption architecture, and for governments to commit to responsible investing in fragile economies.

David Cameron’s government has said the London summit will deliver practical commitments to expose and drive out the culture of corruption. Documents circulated by UK authorities show a determination to increase access to information on beneficial ownership of companies, and to advance fiscal transparency and accountability.

The UK is also proposing to launch an Anti-Corruption Innovation Lab and create a community of anti-corruption innovators from government, business and civil society. This is all to be welcomed.

Read also: Transparency International: SA is now leading Africa’s new corruption surge

The World Bank is expected to scale up its role in tackling illicit financial flows, with increased technical assistance on anti-money laundering and asset recovery. Also, the UN is expected to present proposals for stronger delivery on the UN Convention against Corruption.

Africa bleeding

What David Cameron and other world leaders at the anti-corruption meeting might like to consider is that the Tax Justice Network ranks the UK in the world’s top 20 tax havens. (Switzerland is top, followed by Hong Kong and the US). Recently Gabrial Zucman, of the London School of Economics, estimated that $7.6 trillion of global cross-border wealth is being held in tax havens. This figure includes only financial assets. If it also accounted for assets such as art, jewellery and property, it could be two or three times that amount.

According to Oxfam thirty percent of rich Africans’ wealth – a total of $500 billion – is held offshore in tax havens, costing African countries an estimated $14 billion a year in lost tax revenues.

Africa loses more than US$50 billion annually to illicit financial outflows. A joint report by the African Development Bank and Global Financial Integrity found that up to 65% of this lost revenue disappears in commercial transactions by multinational companies.

Much of this crookery would be impossible without the help of those able to deploy a range of financial instruments to make corruption look credible.

HSBC, for example, knowingly facilitated banking for international and African blood diamond traders, and in 2006 banked US$10 million for a South African arms dealer.

Read also: Shell SA chair – Leaders failed ‘Rising Africa’ narrative, can’t blame colonisers

For too long there has been a tacit acceptance of illegal money passing through global systems. It’s time for global leaders to walk their anti-corruption talk.

The OECD must enforce its Anti-Bribery Convention

The OECD Anti-Bribery Convention is a good place to start. It needs to be more rigorously monitored and enforced because its signatories are responsible for approximately two-thirds of world exports and almost 90 per cent of total foreign direct investment. The convention, adopted in 1997, requires each signatory to make foreign bribery a crime for which individuals and enterprises are responsible.

Yet according to Transparency International more than half of the 41 OECD anti-bribery convention countries have violated their obligations by failing to investigate or prosecute any foreign bribery case during the last four years.

Transparency International’s 2015 progress report shows that only four of 41 signatories are actively investigating and prosecuting companies that bribe foreign officials. Six countries have moderate enforcement, while another nine have limited enforcement. The remaining 20, accounting for 20% of world exports, do little or nothing to ensure their companies and individuals don’t export corruption. This is simply not good enough.

Ending corruption will require greater political will and ethical leadership than we have witnessed to date. But recent developments provide a glimmer of hope. Indeed, as Africa’s middle class expands, and demands for transparency and fairness grow stronger, Africa’s promising new leaders will have no choice but to take corruption seriously. Hopefully private sector and Western leaders will do the same.

The world must work together to stop Africa’s biggest security challenge.

  • Anton du Plessis is executive director at the Institute for Security Studies and a World Economic Forum (WEF) Young Global Leader. 

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Paul Whelan: August D-Day – Will growing opposition lay a marker?

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The biggest conspiracy may hit South African shores come August, as there are murmurs that the municipal elections may be delayed. Apparently because some registered voters have not, as the banks would say, FICA’d themselves. But some may the possible delay may allude to something bigger. The election is expected to be one of the hardest fought, as the battle for Mandela Bay, Tshwane and Johannesburg hots up, as a by-election trends analysis suggests. So will this give the ruling party more time to look at possible quick fixes? In the piece below Paul Whelan suggests it’ll be the ANC’s most vulnerable moment. But will the opposition capitalise? – Stuart Lowman

By Paul Whelan*

Paul Whelan
Paul Whelan

In a democracy, government and opposition co-exist openly, if not comfortably. Since people differ in their views and interests, it is accepted that government without opposition is impossible and that opposition will always find something to oppose.

South Africa is a democracy that is getting used to being one. After enjoying two decades of deference as ‘the ruling party’, the African National Congress looks vulnerable, no longer certain to rule till Jesus comes again as prophesied.

This novel idea is difficult for the new South Africa to manage. It is not being spread by a ‘white’ media, as the party always assured the faithful in the past. The storm of criticism comes, undeniably now, from a broad public that includes ANC supporters, well known and unknown.

People are not concerned firstly with ‘corruption’: Nkandla, the Guptas, President Zuma breaking his oath of office. They are protesting over government’s failure to provide adequate housing, health and education, plus many other ‘classless’ benefits that are popularly included under service delivery: freeways that are free; trains that run on time.

The problem is no longer confined to government; the derelictions of unchallenged ANC rule are obvious at local and national level. The problem is what to do about it. Can political parties change things or will people take matters into their own hands? The other half of the democratic equation is fully involved now: opposition.

Read also: An ‘unmitigated’ local disaster: Dysfunctional democracy or disengaged politocracy?

People who have voted ANC for a generation have little to guide them on the subject. Doom and gloom merchants point out there has been ‘opposition’ for years. SA is a multi-party democracy – it says so in the constitution. The Democratic Alliance is even called the official opposition. What good has that done? Nothing changes. The ANC do what they like. Politicians are all the same, only out for themselves.

SA politics too has always misrepresented opposition. Either its aim was to bring back apartheid, an evident impossibility since 1990, or it was there to ‘keep the ANC on its toes’. This notion, like the denial of an effective role for voters implicit in the term ‘ruling party’, has been common among commentators who should know better. Opposition that is worthy of the name is not there to help out the ANC government: it is to provide an alternative to it.

ANC_LogoThe coming democratic elections are different from all others to date. They are the first in which the outcome is not a foregone conclusion; the first to be so bitterly fought; the first to take place in such a heightened atmosphere of political and economic crisis: a discredited ANC president and a fiscus under extreme pressure.

They will also be the first to provide solid data about which way the democratic wind is blowing, to show if there is yet a discernible direction. Will they mark the beginnings of a genuine transformation in SA?

Read also: Donwald Pressly: Zuma ‘on notice’ – who would replace him?

Until very recently, opposition was seen as all of a piece. There was no segmentation of what was referred to as ‘the masses’. You were either for or against the ANC and ‘the masses’ were for the ANC. Opposition did not count.

This was confirmed by a plethora of tiny political parties going nowhere and others that came and went exactly as the ANC predicted: the PAC, Cope, Agang. The DA was more tenacious, but otherwise standing proof that opposition did not count.

The party had no chance of early popular success. It was a ‘white’ party – read counter-revolutionary, against transformation. It had a white leader. Analysts, white and black, generally agreed the DA had reached a ceiling of white racist support. When the number of DA voters continued to rise year on year, this view was adjusted: the DA would ultimately reach a ceiling of white racist support. When Mmusi Maimane replaced the white leader, he turned white overnight; blacks would reject him. Also, he would inevitably cause the party to lose its white racist support.

All this is settled belief because of a supposed governing factor in South Africa called ‘identity politics’ – as if politics elsewhere is not identity politics and identity takes only two possible and permanent forms: poor black and rich white. In August, SA’s middle class vote may or may not endorse that scenario.

Exploding with everything else in the Big Bang of opposition are the Economic Freedom Fighters, already ‘the third largest opposition party’. The billing somewhat glosses over the fact that the EFF secured 6% of the vote in the 2014 national elections. The party claims to have doubled its support since then, but its debut in the coming local elections will be judged very critically. As a precaution, Commander-in-Chief Julius Malema has already warned that the elections might not be free and fair.

As with the DA, there are many questions about EFF opposition. Has it succeeded because any opposition to the ANC at present is better than none? Will that still work when President Zuma goes?

How are we sure ‘the youth’ support the EFF? ‘The youth’ is an undifferentiated abstraction like ‘the masses’, ‘the poor’ and ‘students’, all also said to be supporters of the EFF. In reality, youth is a bundle of identities and passions that segment along lines not only of colour but of gender and class, background, beliefs and aspirations that are in turn shaped and re-shaped by events. Who can say how young people will vote, or if they will vote in significant numbers?

Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema (C) arrives with members of his party for President Jacob Zuma's State of the Nation address in Cape Town February 12, 2015. REUTERS/Nic Bothma/Pool
Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) members.

Julius Malema swears his allegiance to the SA constitution one day and goes on international TV the next threatening to remove the country’s elected government at the barrel of a gun. Are the 94% of SA voters who did not vote EFF relaxed about that?

One explanation is that Julius Malema need not be taken seriously. That is a mistake. Julius Malema needs to be taken very seriously, not for what he says, but because people believe him whatever he says.

That leaves the wounded but by far the biggest contender for power, the ANC. The party is hardly likely to surrender without a fight. The opposition is growing and formidable, but it has serious weaknesses and is divided. The ANC has impressive human and financial resources and an ability to close ranks and survive that has been tested and proved many times.

Forewarned of danger, the party will be getting its act together. Perhaps it will mount a brilliant election campaign. Perhaps it will find a way of getting President Zuma, the millstone round its neck, to retire. Perhaps ANC supporters will turn out to vote in greater numbers than ever before to defend the party they love.

In a democracy, opposition co-exists with government; the two contest and influence each other continuously and outcomes defy prediction.

You can see why you must get out and do your bit in August.

  • Paul Whelan is a political analyst and freelance writer. He is a graduate of the London School of Economics in international history and politics.

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An expert’s solution – A plan to regenerate SA from bottom up

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By Greville Wood*

Society cannot remain stable when 80% of its people aged between 18 and 35 years will never find a job and history shows that the white minority will become the scapegoat to cover-up government’s incompetence, corruption and failures. As we have the business leadership and engineering ability, I propose that engineering, with business finds a way out of this mess, and, this is how we can do it.

From Ford’s vehicle design office, in 1984, the manufacturing director at Ford asked me to engineer a plan, which could develop industries in squatter camps. GM and Goodyear joined with funding.

The plan presented teaches low skilled communities how to manufacturing bondable houses and schools at a cost of about 40% less than brick equivalents. House manufacturing would teach people at least fifteen portable skills, whereas the construction industry provides about seven skills, most of which are not portable. Non-portable skills trap people in poverty as sustainable development cannot occur from these skills. Joe Slovo’s’ plan was to use RDP housing to create jobs and economies in low skilled communities so that they no longer financially burdened the State. Because government used the construction industry, after spending over R200bn on RDP housing, his job-creating plan proved to be a 100% failure.

Summary of the 2015 GWD project

However as manufacturing skills are portable, product engineers can use them to transform house factories into general manufacturing and South Africans are very good product engineers.

In 1984, black communities needed extra income to be able to afford housing, as building society bonds were not available to them. I outlined a farming plan based on modifying Ford’s assembly line management systems to suit farming and provide the management for long term farming success in low skilled communities. Consequently, the extra income from farming would justify the introduction of house manufacturing.

Soon after completing the manufacturing Proof in 1985/6, the three manufacturers left SA and funding to transfer from Proof to factory was no longer available.

Siemens Medical Engineering joined the team in 1993, which also comprised the three Ford directors who stayed in PE. The plan was presented to government in 1994 and by 1995 the National Research Foundation (NRF), the CSIR, the Medical Research Council, Wits School of Mechanical Engineering, the PE Technikon, Potch University of Ecology Reclamation and Pretoria University Department of Research Support all supported development and the NRF approached government on implementation. Instead, the dti asked the Sociology of Work Unit (SWOP) at Wits to evaluate the plan. SWOP admitted that they did not understand the plan but “felt” that it could not work and implied that sociologists could do a better job than science and engineering. They also advised not to create jobs in squatter camps.

This became governments view up until 2009 when a joint report to parliament’s Science & Technology Portfolio Committee, from Dr Mehlomakulu, now CEO of the SABS and the CSIR, confirmed the plans viability. This stopped officials acting against the plan’s development and allowed the European Union to fund the recreation the 1985/6 manufactured housing Proof. In a report to the CSIR on the 2011 Proof, consulting engineers confirmed that the plan could have prevented the R50billion RDP housing repair bill. In 2012, agricultural experts at NW University advised the DTI to incorporate the farm management systems and prevent another R4bn wasted in farm failures.

The Magareng job creation plan

Because of policy changes, I can now and am currently applying to the Land Bank and the Industrial Development Corporation for start-up funds to develop a R350m farming, houses manufacturing plan that will create around 1800 permanent jobs for Magareng (Warrenton) council, near Kimberley. This Warrenton plan is the same as the 1984 plan, the 1985/6 Proof, the 1995/6 Proof for the NRF, the 2011 EU funded Proof, and the same that government rejected since 1996. The only conclusion I see possible, is that government never intended to support development from the beginning and that is still the case at the DTI.

Driving the country into poverty and social unrest is not what I as an engineer want for my family’s future. Whatever the political reason government has for rejecting these plans, the jobless community at Warrenton rejects them. They served a Constitutional Court Order on Warrenton ANC councillors who were trying to hold up this plan for dubious reasons. Those councillors soon got the message after receiving the Order and soon afterwards signed the Magareng/GWD agreement.

The economic and social chaos we face, business and engineering have the remedies. Let us bypass government, do the job ourselves, using the Warrenton plan as a base, and with the support of the jobless communities, develop the industries and businesses needed. Please let Biznews know your views and if there is sufficient support, a meeting can be arranged where the team and the plan can be grilled. As I know how to mobilise the jobless, let us take the plan to the next step, a rollout plan and implement it where everyone then scores, business, the jobless and engineering and to hell with this corrupt, incompetent government.

  • Greville Wood is owner of GWD Manufacturing Engineering Consultants

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Zuma’s uneasy weekend. NPA review of 783 corruption charges due Monday.

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JOHANNESBURG, May 20 (Reuters) – South African state prosecutors will respond on Monday to a court ruling ordering the review of its 2009 decision to drop 783 corruption charges against President Jacob Zuma, a spokesman said on Friday.

South African President Jacob Zuma addresses supporters of his ruling African National Congress (ANC), at a rally to launch the ANC's local government election manifesto in Port Elizabeth, April 16, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings      TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
South African President Jacob Zuma

The High Court ruled last month that the April 2009 decision to drop the charges, which allowed Zuma to run for president in elections the same month, was irrational and should be reviewed.

“We said initially that we’re applying our minds (on the ruling) … We’re going to be briefing the media on Monday on the way forward,” the National Prosecuting Authority’s spokesman Luvuyo Mfaku said.

The hundreds of corruption charges relate to a major government arms deal arranged in the late 1990s.

Zuma said last month that an investigation into the deal had found no evidence of corruption or fraud. Critics denounced the findings as a cover-up and said they would continue to campaign for justice.

The ruling to review the decision to drop the charges was yet another blow for Zuma, who has been dogged by controversy for much of his presidency.

The Constitutional Court, the country’s top court, found in March that Zuma breached the law by ignoring an order to repay some of the $16 million in state funds spent on renovating his private residence.

Zuma leads his African National Congress party to local elections in August, where he is facing a strong challenge from opposition parties seeking to capitalize on what they see as the president’s missteps.

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Unrepentant Malema says unfit Zuma “will never find peace in Parliament”

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The world is getting a clear message through the rise of Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, Jeremy Corbyn and others with ideas that would previously relegate them to the outskirts of mainline politics: Voters believe the business of governance requires an overhaul. Not least in South Africa, where the pre-democracy negotiated system of proportional representation is proving to be deeply flawed. It has reached a level of extreme dysfunction where representatives are anonymous to those who voted them in, and power has become concentrated in a supreme leader. Little wonder South Africans are reminded daily of how power corrupts, absolute power corrupting absolutely. It is also fertile ground for a feisty entrepreneurial politician like Julius Malema of the EFF who, having judged SA President Jacob Zuma unsuitable to lead the nation, is applying Parliament’s outdated rules to make it impossible for him to do so. The trouble with this approach is that should the EFF succeed in getting Zuma dispatched, what would stop them using the same tactics against his successor? Or, indeed, anyone else with whom they do not agree? – Alec Hogg      

From AlJazeera

The battle lines in South Africa’s politics have been drawn after security guards forcibly removed members of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party when they tried to prevent an address by President Jacob Zuma in parliament.

About 20 EFF members, who were wrestled from their seats by plain-clothed guards on Tuesday, refused to let Zuma speak and shouted down Baleka Mbete, the speaker of the National Assembly.

Julius Malema, leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters party, raises objections before being evicted from Parliament during President Jacob Zuma's question and answer session in Cape Town, South Africa, May 17, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings
Julius Malema, leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters party, raises objections before being evicted from Parliament during President Jacob Zuma’s question and answer session in Cape Town, South Africa, May 17, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings

The EFF argued that Zuma was not fit to address the house after recent court decisions against him. They said they would repeat their disruptive actions until he resigned.

“These bouncers must know that if they give violence, we will respond with violence. We are not scared,” Julius Malema, the EFF leader, said outside parliament.

“Zuma will never find peace in this parliament. Every time he comes here, the same thing will happen.”

Al Jazeera’s Tania Page, reporting from Johannesburg, quoted the EFF as saying: “It is simply doing what its voters wanted it to do: holding the president and parliament to account”.

Read also: Democracy rejuvenated: SA politics now competitive thanks to Malema’s EFF

As Zuma looked on impassively inside the parliament building, the EFF politicians – dressed in their uniform of red workers’ overalls – fought to try to remain in the chamber until they were physically removed through a side door.

He asked political parties to behave with decorum in the assembly and deal with national problems.

“This house needs to do something about itself … I believe that there is a lot that we have to do in this country to fight poverty,” Zuma said.

‘Disgraceful actions’

In a statement, Zuma’s governing African National Congress (ANC) said it wanted the EFF to face charges for its “disgraceful actions” in the assembly.

The actions piled pressure on the ANC in advance of local government elections in August when the party will face a tough challenge from Zuma’s rivals seeking to take advantage of his missteps.

In April, he survived an impeachment vote in parliament launched by the opposition after the constitutional court ruled he had ignored an order to repay state funds spent on his private home.

Later that month, the High Court overturned a previous decision seven years ago to drop 783 corruption charges against Zuma when he was still the country’s deputy president.

Concern over report

In a separate development on Monday, South Africa’s rand hit a two-month low against the dollar and government bonds weakened after a report in the Beeld newspaper hinted that Pravin Gordhan, the finance minister, faced arrest.

The report raised concerns of a repeat of the run on the rand and bonds in December after Zuma changed finance ministers twice in a week.

The government strongly denied the report.

Beeld, citing several sources it said were close to Gordhan, reported that he was aware of the plans to arrest him and was unfazed.

South African news media quoted Mmusi Maimane, South Africa’s opposition leader, as saying: “If finance minister Gordhan is arrested, that would be a profound threat to the economic stability of South Africa.”

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NPA to appeal High Court ruling to reinstate Zuma’s 783 corruption charges

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President Jacob Zuma answers questions at Parliament in Cape Town, March 17, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings
President Jacob Zuma

PRETORIA, May 23 (Reuters) – South Africa’s state prosecutor said on Monday he would appeal against a High Court ruling which could lead to 783 corruption charges being reinstated against President Jacob Zuma.

The ruling will bring some relief to Zuma as he faces mounting calls to quit from the opposition and even from members of the ruling African National Congress after a damning constitutional court judgment against him in March.

A decision by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in April 2009 to set aside hundreds of charges allowed Zuma to run for president the same month.

The NPA’s decision at the time was based on phone intercepts presented by Zuma’s legal team that suggested the timing of the charges in late 2007 may have been part of a political plot against Zuma.

But the High Court last month ordered a review of the NPA’s decision.

“I have decided to apply for leave to appeal against the judgment,” the National Director of Public Prosecutions Shaun Abrahams told a televised media conference on Monday.

He said the law allowed the prosecutor a discretion that can be exercised at various stages of the an investigation, and that the court ruling could dilute the NPA’s powers.

“It is also a matter that seriously affects the separation of powers. This is an important matter of principle which affects all prosecutions, it is so important. I believe it needs the decision of an appeal court,” Abrahams said.

The hundreds of corruption charges relate to a major government arms deal arranged in the late 1990s.

Zuma said last month that an investigation into the deal had found no evidence of corruption or fraud. Critics denounced the findings as a cover-up and said they would continue to campaign for justice.

The post NPA to appeal High Court ruling to reinstate Zuma’s 783 corruption charges appeared first on BizNews.com.


Fact-checking ANC’s election manifesto – is ruling party advancing people’s power?

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Africa Check is a project of the AFP foundation, which prides itself on sorting fact from fiction. And in the fascinating contribution below, 16 key claims in the ANC’s local election manifesto are fact-checked, and the outcome is a mixed bag. The verdicts range from – misleading to unproven to mostly correct – and some will surprise. The organisation will also tackle the Democratic Alliance and Economic Freedom Fighters’ manifestos in the lead up to the municipal elections, to be held in August. The article was first published on the Africacheck platform. – Stuart Lowman

By Liesl Pretorius and Lebohang Mojapelo

The African National Congress’ 32-page local government election manifesto is titled “Together advancing people’s power in every community: Local government is in your hands”. In the foreword, President Jacob Zuma wrote that the “ANC remains best placed, together with the people, to make qualitative change in people’s lives”.

Here are 16 key claims in the manifesto about the ANC’s past performance in local government that we fact-checked. (Note: We aren’t able to fact-check promises but will keep an eye on whether they are fulfilled.)

Supporters of South Africa's ruling ANC party cheer as South Africa's President and party leader Jacob Zuma (not seen) arrives for the launch of the party's election manifesto at the Mbombela stadium in Nelspruit, January 11, 2014. REUTERS/Ihsaan Haffejee (SOUTH AFRICA - Tags: POLITICS ELECTIONS)
Supporters of South Africa’s ruling ANC party.

Electricity

Claim: “The percentage of households that are connected to electricity supply increased from 69.7% in 2001 to 86% in 2014. This amounted to over 5.8 million households in 2014.”

Verdict: Mostly correct

According to South Africa’s 2001 Census, 69.7% of households used electricity as their main energy source for lighting then. Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) confirmed that this comprised 8,274,455 households at the time.

(Note: Stats SA’s General Household Survey, which only started in 2002, recorded that 77.1% of households – a total of 8,319,918 households – had access to electricity in that year.)

The latest data from Stats SA’s General Household Survey confirms that 86% of households (a total of 13,403,107) in South Africa were connected to electricity supply in 2014. The number is therefore more than double the figure of 5.8 million in the ANC’s manifesto.

What needs to be kept in mind is that the number of households connected does not reflect the quality of the service. The 2014 General Household Survey found that 66.5% of households rated the quality of electricity services as “good”.

READ: Zuma wrong on household electricity. About 50% of homes had access in 1994

Claim: “…figures show that 2,048,052 households benefited from indigent support systems for electricity in 2014.”

Verdict: Correct

Indigent refers to “households that qualify to receive some or all basic services for free because they have no income or low income”.

Statistics SA’s non-financial census of municipalities for the year ending June 2014 confirmed that 2,048,052 indigent households had received assistance for electricity, out of the 3,482,260 identified indigent households across South Africa.

The recommended amount is 50 kWh per household per month – enough for basic lighting, to power a small black and white TV, a small radio and to do “basic ironing and basic water boiling”, according to the department of energy.

However, Earthlife Africa, a non-profit organisation, has argued that 50 kWh is not sufficient and, in 2010, proposed a quantity of 200 kWh.

In 2014/15, 154 municipalities supplied 50 kWh and a further 18 quantities of between 60 kWh and 250 kWh.

Water

Claim: “Between 2001 and 2014, the percentage of households with access to piped water increased from 61.3% in 2001 to 90% in 2014.”

Verdict: Misleading

The 61.3% in the ANC manifesto seems to indicate only the share of households with piped water in their dwellings (32.3%) and in their yards (29%), as found by South Africa’s 2001 Census.

However, the figure of 90% in 2014 includes communal taps and neighbours’ taps, Stats SA’s General Household Survey shows.

The ANC is therefore not comparing like with like in its manifesto.

Their claim compares the percentage of households with access to piped water in dwelling or on site in 2001 with the percentage of households with access to piped water in dwelling or on site and communal and neighbours’ taps in 2014. This makes the increase appear much larger.

If the same measures are compared the increases are as follows:

2001 Census 2014 GHS
Access to water in dwelling or on site 61.3% 73.3%
Access to water including communal and neighbours’ taps 84.5% 90%

Again, having access to piped water does not reflect the quality of the service. The General Household Survey also found that 61.4% of households nationally rated water-related services as “good” in 2014 – a decline from 76.4% in 2005, the first time this question was included.

Claim: “The proportion of households benefiting from free basic water services increased dramatically between 2007 and 2013. Households receiving free basic water services increased from 7,225,287 in 2007 to 11,794,526 in 2013.”

Verdict: Incorrect

Stats SA says free basic water “is an amount of water determined by government that should be provided free to poor households to meet basic needs”. It is set at 6 kilolitres a month per household and should be available within 200 metres of where the household lives.

Statistics from the 2007 non-financial census of municipalities show that 7,281,862 consumer units received free basic water services at the time.

consumer unit is an “entity to which the service is delivered, and which receives one bill if the service is billed”. A block of flats, for example, could represent one consumer unit but multiple households.

This figure reduced to 5,269,475 in 2013 and 4,633,999 in 2014, according to the non-financial census of municipalities – significantly lower than the number contained in the ANC manifesto.

The decrease between 2007 and 2013 is the result of municipalities initially aiming to provide free basic water services to all households, Stats SA media relations officer Madimetja Mashishi explained to Africa Check. However, budget constraints have led them to narrow their goal to only providing for indigent households.

It appears that the figure of 11,794,526 refers to the delivery of water services to all consumer units in 2013, whether paid or free. It has been incorrectly used to indicate the delivery of free basic water services.

Sanitation

Claim: “Between 2002 and 2014, the ANC government increased access to basic sanitation services from 62.3% to 79.5%.”

Verdict: Correct

Stats SA’s General Household Survey confirms that the number of households with access to “RDP standard” sanitation services did increase from 62.3% in 2002 to 79.5% in 2014.

RDP standard refers to “flush toilets connected to a public sewerage system or a septic tank, and a pit toilet with a ventilation pipe”.

However, the report highlights the inadequate nature of some of the sanitation services. Problems with “poor lighting” were experienced by a quarter of the households as well as “poor hygiene”, while close to two in ten “felt that their physical safeties were threatened when using the toilet”.

Refuse removal

Claim: “In 2001, 55.4% of households had access to refuse removal and collection. By 2012, households having access to these services increased by 7.1% to reach 62.5% and further increased to 64% in 2014.”

Verdict: Mostly correct

South Africa’s 2001 Census showed that 55.4% of households had access to refuse removal at least once a week while data from the General Household Survey shows an increase to 64% in 2014, the same percentage it was in 2012. (Note: In 2013, it had dropped slightly to 63.5%.)

(Note: By the time of publication, Stats SA had not yet confirmed whether census data is comparable with the General Household Survey. The latter started in 2002 when 56.7% of households had access to refuse removal and collection.)

While the proportion has increased, the report showed that “households in urban areas were much more likely to receive some rubbish removal service than those in rural areas, and rural households were therefore much more likely to rely on their own rubbish dumps”.

A total of 90.5% of households in rural areas discarded refuse themselves. The comparable figure for urban households was 10.7% and 5.1% for metropolitan areas.

Health

“Average life expectancy increased from 53.4 years in 2004 to 62.5 years in 2015.”

Verdict: Correct

Stats SA releases population statistics annually in its mid-year population estimates. The 2015 report confirms that life expectancy has risen from 53.4 years in 2004 to 62.5 years in 2015.

Life expectancy for women (64.3 years) is higher than that for men (60.6 years).

Deputy executive director of the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute, Francois Venter, has previously told Africa Check that the general consensus was that life expectancy in South Africa had been driven up by the rollout of antiretroviral therapy.

Claim: “…in 2002, the infant mortality rate was 51.2 babies per 1,000 live births. In 2015, infant mortality rate decreased to 34.4 deaths per 1,000 live births.”

Verdict: Correct

The mid-year population estimates for 2015 confirms a decrease in the infant mortality rate from 51.2 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2002 to 34.4 per 1,000 in 2015. Infants refer to babies younger than one year.

However, according to the millennium development goals “the internationally set target… is a two-thirds reduction in child mortality between 1990 and 2015.”

South Africa’s target therefore was to reduce the infant mortality rate to 18 deaths per 1,000 by 2015, which has not been met.

Dr Neil McKerrow, head of paediatrics and child health in the department of health in KwaZulu-Natal, said a number of factors could have contributed to the country’s failure to meet the target, including South Africa’s late response to HIV and poor access to care. The latter does not only refer to geographic access “but the quality of the service and how this discourages mothers returning when they have had a bad previous experience”.

He said South Africa had chosen the right programmes to reduce child mortality “but the coverage and quality of implementation of these programmes is poor”.

McKerrow added: “At national level maternal and child mortality are recognised priorities but at the coalface clinicians and facility managers are faced with the full spectrum of health conditions – not just the priority conditions – and without ring-fenced funds are not able to take from one area to cater for another.”

Jobs

Claim: “Between 2004 and 2014, the EPWP created over 5 million work opportunities for poor and unemployed people.”

Verdict: Correct

President Jacob Zuma promised in his 2009 State of the Nation Address to provide four million job opportunities by 2014 through the second phase of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP).

work opportunity refers to any paid work offered to someone on any of the Expanded Public Works Programme’s projects. It can run for any period of time. Learnerships are also counted as work opportunities.

The 1-million target for phase 1 of the programme (starting in April 2004 until March 2009) had been exceeded: 1,674,425 opportunities were created.

In the programme’s phase 2 review, it was reported that 4,071,292 work opportunities had been created between April 2009 and March 2014, even though the programme’s target had been 4.5 million.

Therefore, 5.7 million work opportunities were created between 2004 and 2014.

However, as Africa Check has previously explained, someone can be employed on different projects in the programme at different times, with each work period counted as a separate job opportunity. This means that the opportunities do not reflect the number of people who have benefited from the programme.

Claim: “Of the target of 6 million between 2014 and 2019, 1.24 million work opportunities were already created by the end of March 2015. This figure surpassed the target of 1.04 million for that period. This is 119% achievement.”

Verdict: Unproven

The Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) provides temporary work to the unemployed.

In June 2015, the department of public works told parliament’s portfolio committee on public works that 106% of the programme’s target for 2014/15 had been achieved.

That is 1,103,983 work opportunities by the end of March 2015, against a target of 1,045,520. The achievement was repeated in a September 2015 EPWP newsletter.

However, these do not match the figures recorded in the ANC manifesto – that 1.24 million or 119% had been achieved – a claim that has been repeated on government’s EPWP page.

Kgomotso Mathuloe, director for communications: EPWP, could not immediately shed light on the apparent discrepancies in the results for the first year of phase 3, saying that updated figures would be available by the end of the week.

Nevertheless, independent municipal data analyst Michael O’Donovan considers the temporary nature of work opportunities to be “the real problem” of the programme. “Thus participation may be fleeting – the doubling of participants may well be at the cost of halving the average duration of employment.”

The department’s progress report to parliament noted that the average duration of EPWP work opportunities in the financial year 2014/15 was 87 days.
Claim: “Most importantly, the EPWP has surpassed its target of 55% and 40% for women and youth respectively, with 60% of participants being women and 50% being youth.”

Verdict: Correct

The manifesto claims that EPWP targets for both women and the youth had been surpassed. This is true for phase 2 of the project (2009/10 to 2013/14).

However, in the first year of phase 3, the programme failed to achieve the youth target: 51% was achieved against a target of 55%. For women, the target of 55% was surpassed (63%).

Claim: “Expanded community works programmes from 45 municipalities in 2011 to 196 in 2015 and increased the number of participants from 100,000 to more than 200,000.”

Verdict: Mostly correct

The Community Work Programme (CWP) – which falls under the EPWP – aims to provide “a job safety net for unemployed people of working age” by guaranteeing a minimum number of regular work days within a set period. The focus is work that benefits the community.

According to figures supplied by the department of cooperative governance, 45 municipalities participated in the programme in the financial year 2010/11. This number increased to 155 by March 2015.

The department pointed out that it reports in financial years (that runs from April to March) and not calendar years and therefore the 196 in the ANC manifesto might refer to the number of municipalities participating at the end of 2015.

This might also explain why 100,000 participants were claimed for 2011: the number of work opportunities reached 89,689 by March 2011 and was at 105,218 by March 2012.

The “more than 200,000” is correct as far as it refers to work opportunities: the programme had delivered 202,447 such opportunities by March 2015.

However, as noted before, the same person can be employed on different projects and therefore work opportunities and participants are not synonymous.

Housing

Claim: “We have provided about 3.7 million subsidised housing opportunities and thereby giving a home to about 12.5 million South Africans!”

Verdict: Mostly correct

Data from the department of human settlements shows 3,738,818 “housing opportunities” were created between 1994/95 and 2013/14. This is made up of 2,835,275 completed houses/units and 903,543 completed serviced sites.

Spokesman for the ministry of human settlements Ndivhuwo Wa Ha Mabaya, said full-title RDP houses, rental accommodation, hostel upgrades, and council houses where ownership was granted, as well as serviced sites provided, would be included in the 3.7-million figure.

“For each of these a subsidy is granted, either to upgrade a hostel into a family unit, to build a rental flat in town, to put infrastructure (electricity, water and sewerage) to a stand, and in (the case of) full title, a subsidy for services and the top structure (house).”

Wa Ha Mabaya said both houses and serviced stands are in some cases provided in isolation. For example, when a beneficiary owns the site, government would only provide a house.

Government would provide a stand, without a house, when someone doesn’t qualify for a house or decides to build their own house instead of waiting for government to build it for them. (Note: It is therefore incorrect to say that the ANC government gave people a home when a quarter of the subsidised housing opportunities were in the form of serviced states.)

When a stand and a house are delivered at the same time, they are counted as a house – and not as a stand and a house.

According to the department’s 20-year review, approximately 12.5 million people received “access to accommodation and a fixed asset” as a result of the provision of the 3.7 million houses and serviced sites.

Wa Ha Mabaya said that if one multiplies the number of housing opportunities with the average family size in South Africa “you will see the answer” as to how many people benefited. He suggested that more than 12.5 million people may have benefited.

That is true if the number of housing opportunities is multiplied by the household size from the 2001 Census (3.8), giving 14.2 million people, and also if the figure from the 2011 Census is used (3.6, as supplied by Stats SA), which gives 13.5 million people.

Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand school of architecture and planning Marie Huchzermeyer told Africa Check that while “no one disputes the general overall number of ‘housing opportunities’” an uncritical celebration of numbers should be avoided.

“This form of housing has placed enormous servicing burdens on municipalities, contributed to the further spatial fragmentation of South African towns and cities, have required ongoing expenditure on transport subsidies and have not met the vision of human settlements,” she said.

READ:

Minister Sisulu is right – SA’s housing delivery has almost halved since 2006/07

FACTSHEET: The housing situation in South Africa

Mr President, S. Africa is not the only country giving free housing to the poor

Claim: “Upgraded 95,000 households in informal settlements.”

Verdict: Incorrect

The department of human settlements’ most recent annual report shows that 74,017 households in informal settlements were “upgraded with improved housing conditions” in 2014/15. This means that individual informal households are provided with basic services, such as water supply, electricity and sanitation [moved out of shacks into formal housing].

The number fell short of its annual target of 150,000 households.

However, the target of 400,000 for the period May 2010 to April 2014 had been exceeded: 447,780 such households were upgraded in those five years.

In the latest five-year period for which figures are available, the 95,000 in the ANC manifesto was exceeded within a single year in both 2012/13 (141,973) and 2011/12 (100,000). The figure for 2013/14 was 71,766.

The 95,000 in the manifesto is therefore significantly lower than the number of reported upgraded households over the last five years.

Corruption

Claim: “The ANC government initiated investigations into 203 corruption cases involving 1,065 persons. A total of 234 government officials were convicted for corruption related offences since 2014.”

Verdict: Unproven

The National Prosecuting Authority’s chief director of communications, Bulelwa Makeke, confirmed these figures to Africa Check, saying that they were drawn from their annual report for 2015/16.

This report will only be available to the public at the end of August 2016.

However, conviction rates are a poor measure of success in the fight against corruption as it only reflects cases taken to court and not the true extent of corrupt officials.

The head of the governance, crime and justice division at the Institute for Security Studies, Gareth Newham, told Africa Check the statistics cited suggest that very few government officials are being convicted for corruption.

Claim: “Freezing orders to the value of R601 million were obtained by the end of the third quarter of the 2015/16 financial year. This means that government has recovered a total of R4.21 billion since 2009.”

Verdict: Unproven

A freezing order is a court order in an investigation that “ensures that the money/assets involved are not accessible to the owner until all the relevant legal processes//litigation have been completed,” the National Prosecuting Authority’s chief director of communications, Bulelwa Makeke, told Africa Check.

After a successful investigation or prosecution, the money that is recovered by the state from the freezing orders is referred to as the value of “completed forfeitures”, she added.

Makeke confirmed that the state had recovered R4.21 billion since 2009 in completed forfeitures. As mentioned earlier, this could not be independently verified as the NPA has not released its latest report covering 2015/16.

The NPA’s 2009/10 annual report shows that R185 million was recovered in that year. According to the NPA’s 2014/15 annual report over R2.7 billion was recovered between 2010/11 and 2014/15.

Financial year Value of completed forfeitures
2009/10 R185 million
2010/11 R212 million
2011/12 R164 million
2012/13 R119 million
2013/14 R296.4 million
2014/5 R1,939 million
Total R2,915.4 million

This adds up to R2.9 billion that has been recovered since 2009, with no official figures yet released for 2015/16. It would need to total R1.3 billion to square with the manifesto claim.

According to a parliamentary reply, however, only R45.4 million had been achieved by February 2016.

READ:

COMMENT: No accurate statistics for corruption in SA

Has SA lost R700 billion to corruption since ’94? Why the calculation is wrong

Additional reading:

ANC’s 2016 local government election manifesto

Has President Jacob Zuma’s government done ‘a good job’? (2015)

Mail & Guardian: How the manifestos stack up

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Concerned professional: Denying masses to enrich individuals – Time for alt. discourse?

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Getting put in the box, not only limits an individual’s action but also paints them with the same brush as those who define the box. It’s a gripe highlighted in an email sent by a member of the Biznews community who wishes to remain anonymous. The email seeks an alternative discourse, that may need to be introduced forcefully, so that there’s a better understanding of the situation South Africa finds itself in. Words, most of South Africa may take to heart as the select few enrich themselves, while the masses are bypassed. – Stuart Lowman

From a Biznews community member who wishes to remain anonymous

South Africa

The mainstream media directs our narratives, with many of us simply gasping at the regular onslaughts of the politically-driven agendas. Responding consumes our energy. But, I have been wondering if it is time for South Africans to be more proactive in more forcefully introducing alternative discourses. I believe that white South Africans have been disempowered in protecting ourselves as we feel guilt and shame about a past that many of us fought against (I certainly did during my teenage, student and other years of my life). The first democratic elections were enabled, so to speak, by the whites first having voted for democracy before the first truly democratic elections took place.

Further examples that upset me include: I have never stolen land and generations of my family have worked long and hard to purchase land, build houses, and gather resources (albeit from privileged backgrounds and circumstances). The ‘K word’ is abhorrent to all of us for very good reason: the word Mlungu is also abhorrent – to be referred to as the ‘scum of the ocean’ is unacceptable, but I never hear outcries about this. A sense of entitlement or demand were severely punished during my childhood. I worked two jobs while studying and had to take public transport and walk long distances to get to campus. From having grown up in a home where my parents worked hard and hardly ever took a day off, I grew to know about standard work ethics – I believe that this was one of the most important values that they taught me.

As a ‘lefty’ in the past, I am not unaware and am sympathetic to the harsh and dreadful circumstances that many people endure. When I think of Nkandla, all I can think of is the number of children requiring special educational facilities who are being deprived of basic rights. I do not think anyone wants a president to have no home, but it is the amount spent that needs to be forefronted, not so much the fact that he got a house. When I think of corruption and tenderpreneurs, I see the schools that do not yet have basic services or teachers in class on time, prepared to give interesting lessons. As an educated woman I do not really know what a million is, never mind hundreds of million. These quantities need to be converted to number of services that have been denied so as to enrich an individual/s.

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Ed Herbst: Censorship roots. SABC’s ‘Eureka Moment’– the Arms Deal

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Media censorship is not a foreign concept in the developing world, one only has to look at China as an example. But South Africa was on a different path. Following the regime change in the early 90’s, there was an air of optimism, as democracy and free speech took centre stage. But as Ed Herbst suggests, the tide did turn. The recent censorship of violent protests by the state broadcaster has again opened Pandora’s Box. One has to wonder if the leadership of South Africa will ever learn? Violent protests now includes opposition parties election adverts, and who knows what’s next. And while the privileged few have asked ‘who watches the SABC, we’re all on satellite or steaming’, the latest numbers may change that perception. A quick look at viewership demographics show SABC 1 has average weekly viewership of 22 million, SABC 2 18.8 million and SABC 3 14.9 million. Those are staggering numbers in a population of just under 53 million, and one can see where the majority vote comes from. Herbst, a retired journalist, winds back the clock and suggests the censorship roots go back to 2003 and the arms deal. Another fascinating read. – Stuart Lowman

By Ed Herbst*

“Let us look then at the many and various such statements Motsoeneng has made over time and, through them, develop a more complete picture of “the news” as it is understood by the SABC. Also, to place Motsoeneng’s most recent instruction in its proper context.” Gareth van Onselen How Motsoeneng has subverted the news Business Day 30/5/2016.

Gareth van Onselen has provided a useful timeline on what amounts to censorship by omission at the state broadcaster during the Hlaudi Motsoeneng era.

SABC_Sea_Point (1)

I would argue that this process has much older antecedents and can be traced back to the early manifestations of Arms Deal corruption and what I call the SABC’s “Eureka Moment”.

This matter first came to light in March 2003 when former SABC broadcaster, Pat Rogers, complained to the SABC and the Broadcasting Complaints Commission that the Corporation was censoring by omission a story that was then dominating the headlines in other media including E-TV – that the Scorpions were investigating Jacob Zuma on the grounds that he was implicated in the Arms Deal scandal.

The crux of the matter was crisply summed up by the chairman of the BCCSA, Kobus van Rooyen. “The Mail & Guardian broke the news in November (2002) and the SABC only broke the story in December.

Bribery allegations

“A complaint against the SABC for failing to report bribery allegations against Deputy President Jacob Zuma in November (2002) was a first of its kind for the Broadcasting Complaints Commission.

“Pat Rogers, a programme and product manager for Veritas, a catholic community radio station in Johannesburg, complained to the Commission early this year (2003) that the SABC had ignored the Scorpion’s investigation of Zuma allegedly soliciting a bribe of R500 000 a year from the French defence company, Thiessens CSF.”

“Rogers said the Commission first rejected his complaint. ‘They told me that the complaint didn’t fall under their jurisdiction. They later agreed that the complaint was something they needed to look at.’

“He said the SABC told the hearing it had it had covered the story on its website, but did not report the matter on TV because reporters could not get hold of Zuma for comment. ‘But a story appearing on the website quoted Zuma,’ Rogers said.”

The entirely truthful and accurate response of the BCCSA to Rogers’ submission was that the current legislation only allows it to adjudicate on news items that have been broadcast and not what, in this case, had deliberately been censored by omission.

The BCCSA released a statement that said: “A general duty to broadcast matters of public importance does not exist in terms of the Broadcasting Code. A broadcaster must decide for itself whether an event is newsworthy.”

The fact that censorship by omission contravenes article 16 of the Bill of Rights and denies South African citizens their constitutional right of access to information which affects them was a matter of no importance or significance to those that then and now controlled the “transformed” SABC.

Eureka moment

This was the Eureka Moment that the ANC-controlled SABC had been waiting for – the astounding and cathartically-welcome revelation that there could be no sanction if they simply refused to cover any news story that embarrassed the party or, more specifically, the ruling faction within the party. The rot started then because censorship by omission has been the SABC’s stock-in-trade ever since – as the latest 99.9% good news move by Motsoeneng proves.

Veteran journalist Ed Herbst
Veteran journalist Ed Herbst

In a letter to the Cape Times on 26/8/05, Mr Rogers wrote: “The grounds they (BCCSA) gave were that they could only deal with what had been broadcast, not what had not been broadcast; that there was no empowered body in South Africa to deal with censorship; that the SABC had more weighty considerations to deal with than a local newspaper and that there was an important ANC party meeting coming up.”

Former CEO, Peter Matlare, through the notorious Judy Nwokedi memo, then sought  to further suppress discussion of Zuma ’s involvement in the Arms Deal scandal on all SABC programmes saying that any such discussion could only take place with the approval of Pippa Green and Jimi Matthews, who were then in control of radio and television news respectively. He justified this by saying that this was part of the SABC’s “upward referral” policy. There is no indication that Green or Matthews ever expressed concern about the fact that one of the most widely-used mediums of communication in South Africa – phone-in talk show radio programmes – were being suppressed for party political reasons on a subject that has been the subject of several books, dominated headlines for  more than a decade and still does. Incidentally, Nwokedi apparently felt that her name had been unfairly tarnished because she had, it seems, merely been the messenger carrying out an order and she resigned shortly afterwards.

Matlare, with the apparent approval of Green and Matthews, then withdrew the live parliamentary broadcasts from the country’s most listened-to radio station, Ukhozi FM, which has almost seven million listeners “to prevent abuse of the airwaves and centralize editorial control of political content under the heads of radio and television news respectively”.

Mail & Guardian bombshell

The real reason, of course, was that politicians like Patricia de Lille of the Independent Democrats and Blessed Gwala of the IFP were going to raise the Mail & Guardian bombshell in parliament and Luthuli House did not want the voters in Jacob Zuma’s heartland to hear about it or to discuss it.

The Media Institute of South Africa (MISA) expressed widely-held concerns  the censoring of the parliamentary broadcasts in its weekly media brief (Vol 1 # 9) published on 5 September 2003 but Green and Matthews not only remained silent then but subsequently defended Matlare in newspaper letters and articles.

Green later left the SABC to write a book about Trevor Manuel for whom she had previously worked but Jimi Matthews is still the head of news, remains silent about the latest censorship and in 2013 told the Mail & Guardian’s Glynnis Underhill that ‘all the checks and balances’ were in place to prevent the SABC from becoming an ANC propaganda tool.

Since the 2003 Eureka Moment, the SABC has unconstitutionally, illegally and  unethically used censorship by omission to routinely silence opponents of the ruling faction and to keep the nation ignorant of happenings that adversely impact on the image of that faction – think of the SABC’s three-day silence after the Sunday Times front page lead on the story of Jacob Zuma ’s child by Sonono Khosa on 31 January 2010. (There was nothing new in this and the ANC is always happy to ape the NP – PW Botha issued a decree after Judge Anton Mostert blew the Info Scandal wide open on 2 November 1978 that any reporting on this press conference would contravene security legislation and, while all other media ignored this, it took the SABC three days to pluck up the courage to defy the Botha embargo.)

Confirmed schizophrenic

Furthermore, think of the censorship of Jacob Zuma being booed at the FNB Stadium on 10 December 2013. eNCA covered this news truthfully but the state broadcaster censored the booing. It also did not, and with deliberate intent, interview the deployed cadre of a deployed cadre, Thamsanqa Jantjie the confirmed schizophrenic who, without security clearance,  was able to view angels from a vantage point just aft of Barack Obama’s left shoulder.

The censorship by omission of the booing of Jacob Zuma at the Nelson Mandela memorial service at the FNB Stadium in Soweto on 13 December 2013 was an abuse of media influence on an industrial scale and it did incalculable damage to South African’s reputation as a country which values and promotes media freedom and the freedom of expression. Every major reporter from every major country in the world was in South Africa for the world’s final farewell to an icon. Each and every one of them was desperate for a new angle and when City Press broke posted an online story of this censorship by the state broadcaster, this news was, within hours, communicated to more than a billion people throughout the world.

In the case of National Media Ltd v Bogoshi the Supreme Court of Appeal held that:

‘We must not forget that it is the right, and indeed a vital function, of the press to make available to the community information and criticism about every aspect of public, political, social and economic activity and thus to contribute to the formation of public opinion …. The press and the rest of the media provide the means by which useful, and sometimes vital, information about the daily affairs of the nation is conveyed to its citizens…

“In Khumalo and Others v Holomisa the Constitutional Court made the following statement:

‘The print, broadcast and electronic media have a particular role in the protection of freedom of expression in our society. Every citizen has the right to freedom of the press and the media and the right to receive information and ideas. The media are key agents in ensuring that these aspects of the rights to freedom of information are respected. The ability of each citizen to be a responsible and effective member of our society depends upon the manner in which the media carry out our constitutional mandate…

Legal challenge

It would seem, then, that the decision by Motsoeneng to ban all political discussion on phone-in radio talks shows in the run up to the 3 August municipal election and last week’s decision to end protest coverage could well be unconstitutional and thus open to legal challenge.

There is an election coming up so, unsurprisingly, Motsoeneng’s latest power grab has been praised by Luthuli House.

The ruling faction of the ruling party is not bothered at all about the fact that eNCA has double the news audience of the SABC’s flagship evening TV news bulletin without costing taxpayers a cent or that the SABC’s own censored research shows that South Africans overwhelmingly believe that these bulletins are politically tainted.

Given the fact that no preventative maintenance has been done at the state broadcaster for more than two decades and that it faces a R2 billion rand bill as a consequence you would think there were more important matters to worry about but there is, of course a less than subtle irony in all of this …

“If the SABC is to play a constructive role ahead of our country’s first experience with democracy, informing the electorate rather than attempting to persuade them to vote for a particular political party, it is necessary to replace those who currently control the SABC with others who are committed to democracy and to an electorate empowered by accurate and impartial information.”

That was what Cyril Ramaphosa said in 1992, two years before the ANC succeeded the National Party and took control of the country – and the SABC.

Ed Herbst worked as a television news reporter at the SABC for 28 years – from 1977 until 2005 –  when, because of pervasive news and general corruption and unacknowledged abuse of staff, he asked for early retirement without other employment in prospect.

  • Ed Herbst is a pensioner and former reporter who writes in his own capacity.

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SARS warns against tax ‘debt clearance’ scams. Targeting small businesses.

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SARS media statement

SARSThe South African Revenue Service (SARS) has noted a few incidents of scam artists that pretend to be representatives from SARS that have approached unsuspecting small businesses enterprises to demand ‘outstanding payments’ on undeclared taxes.

Over the last few months, there have been a few incidents that have been reported to SARS of scam artists that have demanded money to wipe off debts.

Taxpayers and traders with outstanding accounts must directly resolve the matter with SARS.

Those with queries are encouraged to contact the SARS Contact Centre at 0800 00 7277 (0800 00 SARS) to validate their status for SARS to engage them. Also, tax payers should report any suspicious activity at our Anti-Corruption and Fraud Hotline at 0800 00 2870 toll free.

All outstanding tax, VAT or duties must only be deposited directly into SARS bank accounts.

No money should be paid over to debt collectors or self-proclaimed SARS officialsIn fact, collectors who want money to be handed over to them must be immediately reported.

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Splintering of Nigeria threatened as minorities increasingly turn violent

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Nigeria is a country of 300 identifiable tribes and almost 600 distinct languages which colonialism consolidated into a single geographic unit. After the honeymoon of gaining independence in 1960, pressures have grown against this artificial construct – witness the Biafran War in the late 1960s and succession of brutal military dictatorships which followed. But since the 1998 murder of perhaps the worst of them, Sani Abacha, Africa’s most populous country has pursued a democratic path. Economic stresses created by a collapsing oil price have exposed deep cracks papered over during the recent good times. Quite apart from the well publicised claims by Boko Haram, other minorities are now using force to publicise their own grievances. This raises questions about whether Nigeria will survive in its current form and if so, at what cost? If not, what might are the implications for business, investment, law and order? It is not only in Europe where serious questions are being asked of the status quo. – Alec Hogg

By Dulue Mbachu and David Malingha Doya

(Bloomberg) — Just as Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari appeared to be gaining the upper hand against the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency, more rebellions have exploded across Africa’s most populous nation while the government grapples with the worst economic crisis in decades.

They range from renewed attacks in the southern oil-rich Niger River delta that have cut monthly oil shipments to the lowest in about three decades to attempts to revive the secessionist state of Biafra in the east.

Civil society organizations march to show solidarity after soldiers from Niger and Nigeria were killed in a Boko Haram attack, in Niamey, Niger, June 4, 2016.  REUTERS/Tagaza Djibo          FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES.
Civil society organizations march to show solidarity after soldiers from Niger and Nigeria were killed in a Boko Haram attack, in Niamey, Niger, June 4, 2016. REUTERS/Tagaza Djibo FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES.

A more than 60 percent decline since June 2014 in the price of oil, the source of two-thirds of state revenue, has hamstrung the government’s ability to deal with the crisis. Buhari, 73, took office a year ago pledging to defeat Boko Haram, end corruption and spur growth in Africa’s biggest economy. It hasn’t gone as planned.

“Dealing with multiple challenges of a complex nature has stretched resources of a state already reeling from a once in a generation economic crisis,” said Antony Goldman, head of London-based PM Consulting that specializes in West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea countries.

While the government has made some progress in weakening Boko Haram in the northeast, the insurgents are still capable of carrying out bombings and kidnappings. And with attacks on oil facilities intensifying, the government has been forced to deploy troops on two fronts.

The Indigenous People of Biafra separatist group, campaigning for an independent state in the southeast, said more than 40 people were killed in the city of Onitsha when security forces fired on protesting members on May 30. The group was marching to mark the anniversary of the failed declaration of independence in 1967 that led to a civil war in which at least a million people died.

Read also: Nigeria loses shine: Dithers on Naira, forex trapped, airlines pulling out.

Security forces in Onitsha responded in self-defense to attacks that included the use of small arms and “volatile cocktails such as acid and dynamite,” the army said in an e-mailed statement. Five pro-Biafra protesters were killed, eight were injured and nine arrested, it said, denying the figures claimed by the separatist group.

Ethnic Clashes

In March, mainly Muslim herdsmen who’re moving south to escape the advancing Sahara Desert attacked the mainly Christian farming town of Agatu with which they’ve had disputes over grazing land, leaving at least 300 people dead, according to the Benue State Emergency Agency. A raid a month later on the southeastern farming community of Nimbo by the ethnic Fulani cattlemen killed another 20 people. Buhari is an ethnic Fulani.

“The Fulanis may get a sense and feel he is part of them, and will even become more confrontational,” said  Clement Nwankwo, executive director of the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre, based in the capital, Abuja. “Those who are attacked will also think the same and have to find means of protecting themselves.”

Buhari ordered troops to pursue the suspected herders, whom government officials have said are mostly from neighboring countries.

Read also: Nigeria’s economic tragedy: If you think education expensive try ignorance.

Still another religious crisis erupted after troops responded to the stoning of the army chief’s convoy by members of a Shiite Muslim organization in December with a two-day assault on the group’s buildings in the northern city of Zaria. More than 300 Shi’ites were buried in mass graves and no one has been held accountable, according to Amnesty International. The group’s leader Ibrahim El-Zakzaky and his wife, who were both shot in the attack, remain in detention.

Power Supplies

It’s in the delta where Buhari faces potentially the greatest danger because of its importance to power supplies and oil exports. Attacks by militants on oil and gas installations are compounding the nation’s problems. Without gas flowing to power plants, electricity generation has been cut by more than 70 percent, leading to more blackouts.

When the delta was rocked by an even bigger campaign of violence between 2006 and 2009, then President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua subdued the militants by offering them pardons and monthly payments. His successor, Goodluck Jonathan, agreed to pay rebel commanders to protect the oil installations.

Buhari ended all pipeline security contracts and reduced the monthly stipends. In a wave of attacks this month, the militants responded by blowing up key pipelines, pushing oil output to a 27-year low of 1.4 million barrels a day.

“Failure to manage issues in the delta has cost Nigeria,” Goldman said. “Until a sustained solution is found to deal with the root causes of issues in the delta, we are going to always see crisis after crisis.”

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Herbst: It was worse under apartheid… ANC soft on corruption

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It’s a staggering amount of money, despite it not all falling under government. In 2015, the Internal Institute of Auditors calculated that South Africa had lost around R700 billion to corruption since 1994. Off the back of this Ed Herbst winds back the clock, and looks at how internal government criminal activity was dealt with by the National Party and now the ANC. The examples pre-1994 are numerous but when looking at post 1994 convictions, Herbst can only find two. And if one’s leadership is soft on corruption, don’t expect things to be any better on the ground. Do as you want others to do. – Stuart Lowman

By Ed Herbst*

Ed Herbst, former television journalist
Ed Herbst, former television journalist

Well, yes…

… if you were a National Party politician involved in criminal activity.

Here’s a brief timeline to prove the point

  • 1988: Hennie van der Walt, deputy minister of co-operation and development and MP for Schweizer-Reinecke. Sentenced to 10 years in prison, five suspended, for 15 counts of theft involving trust monies of R800 000
  • 1989: Leon de Beer, former National Party MP for Hillbrow. Jailed for two years for 70 counts of electoral fraud.
  • 1993: Pietie du Plessis, former National Party cabinet minister, sentenced to nine years in jail for 17 counts of fraud involving R300 million

Tony Leon wrote a thoughtful article, “When crooked politicians were not tolerated” about this in Business Day three years ago and its prescient concluding paragraph sums up the current status quo: “We should hardly mourn the loss of that political system. But in celebrating the democracy which replaced it, we should not avert our gaze from the undertow that came in its wake: the rapaciousness of public life and the lack of consequences for leading transgressors. Unaddressed, these might soon capsize the ship of state itself.”

Systemically corrupt

So, given that the ANC has repeatedly acknowledged in position papers and from countless political platforms that it is pervasively, indeed systemically corrupt, how many of its politicians has it sent to jail in its 21 years in power?

I can think of two and they both provide fascinating case studies.

The obvious one that comes to mind is Tony Yengeni but as I wrote in a Media Online article, “The Leak Wars” there was a disturbing factor in his case and this section from that article sums up my concern:

“Thirty three people, most with links to the ANC and none of them poor, benefited from the Mercedes discounted to them by one of the companies that benefited from the Arms Deal, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS).

“In fact the first beneficiary was the then head of the SANDF, Siphiwe Nyanda and who, according to newspaper reports, got not one but two Mercs discounted at 17 and 15 percent.

“Later, billionaire Tokyo Sexwale issued a statement acknowledging that he was also one of the recipients of these discounted vehicles.

“Yengeni got his Merc which retailed at the time for R349 950 for R182 563 – a 50% discount – but why was he, then, the only one to be relentlessly investigated by the Scorpions, prosecuted and sent to jail?”

Supporters of South Africa's ruling ANC party cheer as South Africa's President and party leader Jacob Zuma (not seen) arrives for the launch of the party's election manifesto at the Mbombela stadium in Nelspruit, January 11, 2014. REUTERS/Ihsaan Haffejee (SOUTH AFRICA - Tags: POLITICS ELECTIONS)
Supporters of South Africa’s ruling ANC party.

Yengeni spent only four congenial months of his four year sentence in jail and my conclusion was that he was made an example of by the Mbeki faction for making it clear very early on that he was switching his allegiance to Jacob Zuma.

In short, rightly or wrongly, my subjective perception was that his incarceration, albeit brief, was because the ruling faction of the governing party wanted to make an example of him in its bitter internecine war with Zuma.

I would argue that exactly the same motivation – making an example of someone – pertained in the second case of an ANC politician being jailed for criminality.

Read also: Corruption at highest level: Will ANC vote of confidence translate into election support?

Feral looting

Cynthia Maropeng, who stole a paltry million, was sentenced in 2001 to seven years in jail after an investigation lasting little more than year – whether she served the full term is moot. In her defence she truthfully testified under oath that she was small fry,  a rank amateur, a junior trough snouter whose ill-gotten gains – a “minor irregularity” as she put it – literally paled into insignificance when compared with the feral looting of her fellow ANC comrades. It availed her little but, unlike Allan Boesak and Tony Yengeni, she was not borne aloft by rapturous compatriots when she presented herself for incarceration. The difference between her and your average, common-or-garden ANC tenderpreneur, comprador and rent seeker – the bottom feeders in what Zwelinzima Vavi has called the “Hyena State” – was that she did not steal from the tax payer-funded trough which seems – de facto if not de jure – acceptable to the ruling party. No – she stole from the ANC itself!

“The theft was first revealed by the Ngobeni commission, which traced leads indicating that Maropeng (36) had misused money allocated for ANC constituency offices.”

The ANC needed to send out a very swift and clear message that while it has a laissez-faire attitude to stealing from the fiscus – i.e. the Travelgate MPs – stealing from the ANC itself would be swiftly and harshly punished.

Credible defence

Accordingly, her robust and entirely credible defence availed her nothing.

“Maropeng told the court during the trial that Mpumalanga’s administration and its ruling ANC government were so corrupt that she should not be singled-out and blamed for ‘minor’ irregularities.

“Insisting she was being victimised for falling out of political favour with powerful ANC colleagues, Maropeng alleged that far more serious crimes were being committed with impunity by far more important politicians.

“She also insisted that she was merely emulating techniques used by political colleagues for setting up front companies and winning government tenders.”

Read also: Africa’s #1 challenge: corruption. But words sans deeds lets evil flourish.

After a comparatively brief investigation and trial, Maropeng was jailed for seven years.

To make sure the party’s deployed cadres got the message, her house was auctioned by the Asset Forfeiture Unit and in June 2003 Justice Minister Penuell Maduna and public prosecutions director Bulelani Ngcuka flew to Nelspruit to hand to provincial authorities the R177 000 realised from the auction. This took place at a press conference to ensure maximum publicity.

And that, as the saying goes, was that.

Five years ago Willie Hofmeyr, then head of the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) told parliament that corruption cost the country between R25-billion and R30-billion annually.

Despite this, Maropeng was the last ANC politician to go to jail.

Sordid revelation

Not a day goes past that we are not battered by yet another sordid revelation in what I have given the nicely alliterative title of the ANC’s “Tsunami of Sleaze”.

The ANC’s “Broad Church” has morphed into a whitened sepulchre where the contemporary versions of the biblical moneylenders are not only welcome in the temple they actually run the place. They choose the Pharisees and try to suborn the tax collector.

Twenty years ago Mark Gevisser wrote “Portraits of Power – Profiles in a Changing South Africa” and it is fascinating, with the wisdom of hindsight, to revisit its 41 interviews with the movers and shakers of that era.

One of them was Eugene Nyati and here’s an extract: “‘Gravy Train’ scandal hit the broadsheets in September 1995, when it was alleged that Eugene Nyati – a consultant with the Mpumalanga Government – had pocketed R1.2 million’s worth of state money. Nyati, whom I went to see in Nelspruit shortly thereafter, was not an easy interview. In fact, he so infuriated my good natured colleague, Henner Frankenfeld, that I found myself physically having to separate them. Following the publication of my interview Tribute published allegations that he was not even South African, that his real name was Albert Nina, that all his qualifications were false and that he had been expelled from the University of Zimbabwe for political reasons.”

You have to shake your head in retrospective bemusement. He chowed little more than a million – today the average tenderpreneur would regard that as small change.

To paraphrase Justice Malala: “What a loser!”

Hennie van der Walt, Leon de Beer and Pietie du Plessis clearly got a bum rap – but things were different back then.

  • Ed Herbst is a pensioner and former reporter who writes in his own capacity.

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SAPO CEO: Toughest job in SA? Mark Barnes – Adapt or die

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Having ditched his banking career for entrepreneurial endeavours that brought lows (Capital Alliance with Mzi Khumalo) and highs (growing Purple Capital with Charles Savage), Mark Barnes is now in what some believe to be the hardest job in South Africa. He’s been in the CEO role at the South African Post Office for over four months now, so how does he plan to overturn the odds that are so heavily against him? Dave Tootill attended a talk at GIBS, where Barnes was a speaker. And while Barnes laid out some workable proposals, Tootill wonders if transparent metrics, like improved delivery days, or shortened queues wouldn’t be better published. It’s an uphill task Barnes faces, and maybe the real test will be if overseas Christmas mail reaches its South African recipients before the 25th of December. – Stuart Lowman

By Dave Tootill*

Mark Barnes, CEO of SAPO, was introduced to a full house at a GIBS Forum as the one appointed to the toughest job in SA, although since relegated a place by Nenegate. He is well known as blunt, never one to mince his words. He said that once the plea for finance requested to pay for years of corruption and incompetence at the top level of management were approved, hopefully in the near future, signs of improved customer service should appear within even six weeks of that. This year’s overseas Christmas mail may not have a lead time of somewhere between two months and infinity.

Mark Barnes, new CEO of the South African Post Office
Mark Barnes, new CEO of the South African Post Office.

Perhaps most of us have just assumed that militant strikers, plus thieving employees videoed on Carte Blanche, blocked deliveries to a level of suffocation for customers. The detailed case study is a bit more complex. The strategy for procurement, or supply chain management as some term it, involved outsourcing the selection of suppliers to third parties.

The Public Protector criticised this as wasteful, though not illegal in terms of the Public Finance Management Act. Barnes commented that, in a similar way, internal procurement structures had no capability to calculate fair prices. In contract negotiations, they were generally on the back foot. So, inevitably, cash ran out, and suppliers could not be paid, never mind the staff, who were publicly lied to.

At head office, employees had to bring their own toilet paper. The entire supply chain was broken by stockouts of items like ink and paper, and other suppliers such as the logistics sector, anyone from Avis to SAA, who were not being paid. Apart from these operational issues, big money disappeared on office leases and labour broking deals where co-workers earned a quarter of someone next to them.

Read also: Mark Barnes’s burden: New SAPO chief battling to beat the curse of Kahn

After four months in, Barnes proposes:

  • Communication – he was the first executive to go to Witspos in Aeroton in living memory to listen. When a union leader arrived to meet him at HO with intransigent demands as an opener, he said change your tune, or get out, I’ve got less to lose than your members have.
  • Productivity – speed up by 20%, rather than dragging out tasks in order to stay employed.
  • Business strategy – there are numerous global parallels such as India of how to evolve into e-commerce and so on. SAPO could offer pricing 90% lower than big name couriers when it has its act in order.

Fair enough.

The questions I ask are: how many white collar criminals are in jail (the SIU is apparently on the job at SAPO), and which landfill did those tons of undelivered mail go to? How to replace Cresta misery by Linden satisfaction? And why not publish some transparent metrics such as delivery days or queue length?

  • Dave Tootill is owner of ESCM Technology and a director of the not-for-profit Supply Chain and Logistics Group professional society. He’s had a long career in supply chain management and manufacturing industry systems.

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Treasury calculations: Zuma must pay 3.6% of Nkandla upgrades (R7.8m of R216m)

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By Amogelang Mbatha

(Bloomberg) — South African President Jacob Zuma should refund taxpayers for about 7.81 million rand ($510,000) spent on upgrading his private rural home, the National Treasury said.

South Africa's President Jacob Zuma speaks during an African National Congress youth rally in Durban, South Africa, June 25, 2016. REUTERS/Rogan Ward
South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma

The Constitutional Court ruled March 31 that Zuma “failed to uphold, defend and respect the constitution” when he refused to abide by graft ombudsman Thuli Madonsela’s directive to repay some of the 215.9 million rand spent on renovating his home at Nkandla, in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province. The court ordered the Treasury to determine the extent of the president’s liability for non-security-related features, including a swimming pool and cattle enclosure, within 60 work days.

“The reasonable percentage of the estimated costs of the five measures that the president would have to pay personally would be 87.94 percent,” the National Treasury said in the report filed with the court on Monday.

Zuma, 74, has 45 days to make payment once the proposal is approved by the Constitutional Court. While the president apologized for the frustration and confusion the scandal had caused, he said he never intentionally did anything illegal. The costs also relate to payments for structures including an amphitheater, visitors’ center and a chicken run.

Zuma, a former intelligence operative who’s ruled Africa’s most-industrialized economy since May 2009, has been implicated in a succession of other scandals. Prosecutors spent eight years probing allegations that he took 4.07 million rand in bribes from arms dealers and brought 783 charges of fraud, corruption and racketeering against him.

On June 24, the High Court denied the National Prosecuting Authority permission to appeal a finding that it erred when it decided to drop the case against him just weeks before he became president, opening the way for the charges to be reinstated.

Nkandla: How the R7.8m that Zuma must pay back was calculated

A general view of the Nkandla home (behind the huts) of South Africa's President Jacob Zuma in Nkandla in this August 2, 2012 file photo. REUTERS/Rogan Ward
A general view of the Nkandla home (behind the huts) of South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma in Nkandla in this August 2, 2012 file photo. REUTERS/Rogan Ward

Cape Town – President Jacob Zuma must pay R2.3m for the so-called swimming pool, R1m for the amphitheatre and R1.2m for the cattle kraal at his Nkandla home, among other things, according to National Treasury.

A panel of six experts from two quantity surveyor firms helped the National Treasury determine how much Zuma had to pay for the upgrades to his Nkandla homestead.

In its report to the Constitutional Court on Monday, National Treasury said Zuma must pay R7.8m for the non-security upgrades to his Nkandla homestead.
This also includes just more than R250 000 for the chicken run and almost R2m for the visitor’s centre.

This was determined using 2009 prices, when the upgrades to the visitors’ centre, amphitheatre, swimming pool, cattle kraal and chicken run were done, the report said.

Treasury was tasked with determining a “reasonable amount” for the non-security upgrades to Zuma’s homestead.

The panel was of the view that the only element of the five components in question that could be considered to be of a security nature was the control centre at the ground floor of the visitor’s centre, the report said.

National Treasury took into account the current use of the lower level of the visitors’ centre, it said in the report, and calculated accordingly.

“As a consequence, the reasonable percentage of the estimated costs of the five measures that the President would have to pay personally would be 87.94%. This percentage corresponds to R7 814 155 as at June 2009.”

The report stressed the independence of the two groups of experts, who each visited the Nkandla homestead on separate days, and did not share reports.

The National Treasury said these two organisations had volunteered their services on April 12, 2016, without charge, to assist it in fulfilling the tasks assigned by the Constitutional Court.
“The National Treasury accepted their offer of assistance, as it was thought prudent to bring on board the breadth of expertise that resides in these two institutions.”

Finance Minister Pravin Gordham said the report was submitted shortly before 15:00 on Monday.

“The work of the National Treasury has been completed in respect of the order,” he said. – News24

Source: http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/nkandla-how-the-r78m-that-zuma-must-pay-back-was-calculated-20160627

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Who’s footing Zuma’s R7.8m Nkandla bill? What of fringe benefits tax?

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Just how much is enough? The Public Protector office pegged the costs for non-security Nkandla upgrades at around R10 million, so National Treasury and its team of experts weren’t far off. And while the amount and actions that led us here will be debated into the night, the outcome has to be seen as a small win for South Africa’s Democracy. But the big question is how will President Jacob Zuma pay back the money? And if he can’t do it personally, who will he call? Money should never come between friends and the Gupta connection may be tested while the Friends of Jacob Zuma Trust’s Don Mkhwanazi has already given him assurances of support, and they’ve previously helped the President. Other names that were thrown into the hat in March were Durban businessmen Vivian Reddy and Greytown’s Philani Mavundla. President Zuma’s office will still comment on the findings and will have 45 days to make the payment once approved by the courts. But loyalty to the flawed sometimes carries a huge price. And will National Treasury do anything to ensure SARS gets Zuma to pay fringe benefits tax– Stuart Lowman

by Amogelang Mbatha and Mike Cohen

(Bloomberg) — South African President Jacob Zuma should refund taxpayers about 7.81 million rand ($510,000) that was spent on upgrading his private rural home, the National Treasury said.

The Constitutional Court ruled March 31 that Zuma “failed to uphold, defend and respect the constitution” when he refused to abide by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s directive to repay some of the 215.9 million rand spent on renovating his home at Nkandla, in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province. The court ordered the Treasury to determine the extent of the president’s liability for non-security-related features, including a swimming pool and cattle enclosure, within 60 work days.

nkandla-homestead_slider

Two firms of quantity surveyors were used to help determine a reasonable cost of the upgrades and what percentage should be paid by the president, the National Treasury said in the report filed with the court on Monday.

The Presidency received a copy of the report and will comment after studying it, Zuma’s office said in an e-mailed statement.

“Of course the amount that he’s going to be required to pay is not going to match the extent to which the state is out of pocket,” Daryl Glaser, a politics professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, said by phone. “But symbolically, its very important that the Public Protector should have been seen to get her way and that her recommendation should have been taken seriously and enforced. Provisionally, it is a victory for democracy.”

Corruption Charges

Zuma, 74, has 45 days to make payment once the proposal is approved by the court. While the president apologized for the frustration and confusion the scandal had caused, he said he never intentionally did anything illegal. The costs also relate to payments for structures including an amphitheater, visitors’ center and a chicken run.

Zuma, a former intelligence operative who’s ruled Africa’s most-industrialized economy since May 2009, has been implicated in a succession of other scandals. Prosecutors spent eight years probing allegations that he took 4.07 million rand in bribes from arms dealers and brought 783 charges of fraud, corruption and racketeering against him. On June 24, the High Court denied the National Prosecuting Authority permission to appeal a finding that it erred when it decided to drop the case against him just weeks before he became president, opening the way for the charges to be reinstated.

While pressure on Zuma will ease once he pays back the money, it won’t disappear, Glaser said.

“People can argue that he didn’t do what he should have done in moral and constitutional terms,” Glaser said. “There will be continued pressure on him and on parliament to impeach him on the grounds of past behavior. The story has now gone beyond simply the question of whether Zuma pays back some of the money. It’s become a story about the integrity and credibility of Jacob Zuma as president.”

South African Treasury: Zuma should repay $510,000 for upgrades to private residence

JOHANNESBURG, June 27 (Reuters) – South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma should pay 7.8 million rand ($510,074) for non-security upgrades to his private Nkandla home, the National Treasury said on Monday.

In a stinging rebuke that hit the scandal-plagued leader financially and politically, the top court in Africa’s most industrialised country in March ordered Zuma to pay back some of the $16 million of state money spent upgrading his private home.

Record unemployment and a looming recession have exacerbated discontent with Zuma’s leadership, ahead of local elections in August. Zuma has managed to hold on to his post with backing from the ruling African National Congress (ANC), which has been in power since the end of white-minority rule in 1994.

The court gave the Treasury 60 days to work out a “reasonable cost”. Zuma has said he would pay back some of the money used to refurbish the Nkandla residence, which is in KwaZulu-Natal province.

On Monday Zuma’s office said it would comment on the Treasury report after studying it.

In 2014, Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, whose office is a constitutionally mandated anti-corruption watchdog, identified a swimming pool, cattle enclosure, chicken run, amphitheatre and visitor centre as non-security items that Zuma must pay for.

Estimates from Madonsela’s report had pegged the bill at around 10 million rand.

The unanimous ruling of the 11-judge Constitutional Court also said Zuma had failed to “uphold, defend and respect” the constitution by ignoring Madonsela’s recommendations.

In April, Zuma survived an impeachment vote in parliament after the court’s ruling thanks to backing from ANC lawmakers. In December he was widely criticised for changing his finance minister twice in a week, sending the rand plummeting.

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Mugabe vs WhatsApp: Texting citizens to be arrested for “causing” unrest

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Power corrupts. But even in the most repressive of Regimes, cracks exist through which truth can shine, lighting up the gloom by exposing reality, stimulating hope. Zimbabwe’s worst unrest in almost a decade has had a predictable reaction from the State as it applies the force of tear gas, attack dogs and indiscriminate arrests against the power of a disgruntled people. While that might be contained through sheer numbers, those surrounding the country’s 92 year old President-for-Life have also identified social media as a potentially bigger threat. Yesterday the free texting tool WhatsApp was shut off for some hours. The Regime has now warned that anyone sending a text which could be interpreted as sedition will face arrest. Which shows that although Mugabe’s elite might have a fear of social media, they have little appreciation of how it really works. WhatsApp is the most secure, virtually unbreakable mass communication vehicle on the planet. Its users are aware of this which is why they use the tool in preference to SMSes or even phoning – both of which are accessible to those wanting to tap into private communication. So the latest scare tactics are likely to fall on mostly deaf ears. A better approach would have been to engage openly and honestly with those now driven to the last resort of the people in African dictatorships. But history shows such enlightened options don’t come easily to Regimes with Politburos. – Alec Hogg

By Memory Mataranyika

Harare – Zimbabwe’s telecoms regulator has threatened to disconnect mobile subscribers it says are spreading information via WhatsApp about the protests that have rocked the country.

Zimbabwe is battling to contain public outrage over economic mismanagement, alleged police heavy handedness and delayed salaries for civil servants.

A tyre burns on a street in Mufakose in Harare, Zimbabwe, July 6, 2016. REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo
A tyre burns on a street in Mufakose in Harare, Zimbabwe, July 6, 2016. REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo

Public workers and other citizens called for job actions, stayaways and protests on Wednesday and Thursday via WhatsApp and other social messaging platforms.

However, there was an outage of WhatsApp early on Wednesday with accessibility to the service only restored later in the day.

The Posts and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe has now taken a swipe at those sharing and spreading information about the protests, saying they will be disconnected from mobile networks inside Zimbabwe.

“All SIM cards in Zimbabwe are registered in the name of the user. Perpetrators can easily be identified,” Potraz said in a public notice on Wednesday.

The notice further stated that “any person caught in possession of, generating, sharing or passing on abusive, threatening, subversive or offensive telecommunication messages, including WhatsApp or any other social media messages” will be arrested.

Zimbabweans now have to be wary over arrest for any social media or telecom messages that “may be deemed to cause despondency, incite violence, threaten citizens and cause unrest,” according to the state telecom industry regulator.

Potraz said it had noted the irresponsible use of social media and mobile telecommunications services in the past few days.

Social media in Zimbabwe has splashed pictures of protests in Beitbridge and Harare over import restrictions and outrage in the public transport sector over police roadblocks.

Zimbabweans took to Twitter and other social media platforms on Wednesday to complain over the gagging of over the top services.

The government has previously hinted at moves to regulate usage of social media platforms in Zimbabwe, saying it would lean on technology from China.

This has however, been criticised, with campaigners saying this infringes on rights to the free flow and access of information.

Meanwhile, mobile companies in Zimbabwe have recorded surging revenues from internet usage via mobile platforms as voice revenues continue to slow down.

All of the country’s mobile operators, Econet Wireless, Telecel Zimbabwe and state controlled NetOne have bundle options for social media and internet access through smartphones and other mobile devices. – Fin24

Source: http://www.fin24.com/Tech/News/zim-taps-sim-cards-in-whatsapp-clampdown-20160706

From Reuters

By MacDonald Dzirutwe

HARARE, July 6 (Reuters) – Zimbabweans stayed at home on Wednesday and foreign banks and most businesses in the capital shut down, in one of the biggest protests against high unemployment, an acute cash shortage and corruption for nearly a decade.

Evan Mawarire, a pastor whose social media movement #ThisFlag organised the “stay-away”, demanded that President Robert Mugabe fire corrupt cabinet ministers and scrap plans to introduce local bank notes or face a two-day shut-down next week.

Wednesday’s protest followed violent clashes between taxi drivers and police on Monday that led to the arrest of 95 people. It also coincided with a strike by doctors, teachers and nurses whose salaries had been delayed.

A devastating drought has compounded economic hardships including high joblessness while an acute cash shortage has angered Zimbabwe’s citizens.

In a story quoting John Mangudya, the governor of Zimbabwe’s central bank, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday that the African Export-Import Bank was arranging a seven-year loan of $986 million so Zimbabwe could pay back arrears to the World Bank.

The FT quoted Mangudya as saying Zimbabwe hoped to pay off its arrears before the September board meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the African Development Bank, paving the way for IMF assistance to alleviate its cash crunch.

Afreximbank and IMF officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Campaign attracts thousands

The 39-year-old Mawarire started the #ThisFlag campaign in April to protest against corruption, injustice and poverty.

The campaign has attracted thousands of followers who have been speaking out against government excesses. Wednesday’s protest was organised via Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp.

Mawarire’s campaign includes a series of demands: for Mugabe to fire and prosecute “known” corrupt ministers, for government salaries to be paid on time and for police to remove roadblocks which most people say are posts for bribe taking officers.

“The ball is in your court,” Mawarire said on his Facebook page. We are ready to close down again and this time we will add another day, Wednesday and Thursday. We are not playing and we ask you to take us seriously.”

Mugabe’s spokesman, George Charamba, was not available to comment.

State telecoms regulator POTRAZ said in a statement it would arrest people sending “subversive” messages that cause unrest.

Mugabe, who has held power since Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain in 1980, was attending a scheduled meeting on Wednesday of his party ZANU-PF’s politburo, the party’s top executive organ. Party spokesman Simon Khaya-Moyo declined to say whether ZANU-PF would discuss the protests.

In the volatile township of Mufakose, to the west of Harare, hundreds of youths barricaded roads to keep people from going to work, Reuters witnesses said.

More than 40 people were arrested across Zimbabwe for blocking roads and disturbing the peace, said Charity Charamba, a police spokeswoman. Among them was a Belgian tourist held in the resort town of Victoria for unlawful protests, she said, correcting her earlier statement that an Australian had been detained.

There was no need to call out the military, Charamba said.

“The military is not there because in our assessment, for now, the situation has not deteriorated (enough) to warrant the presence of the military,” Charamba told reporters.

Local units of Barclays and Standard Chartered shut their branches in central Harare. Clothing retailers Edgars Stores and Truworths closed stores.

Siyaso, one of the biggest and oldest informal markets in Mbare township near central Harare, was also shut down. Few vehicles were on the roads of the capital. Supermarkets like Pick’n’Pay, Ok Zimbabwe and Choppies reported little business. Government departments were open.

Local private media said Zimbabweans in other major cities had also stayed at home, with most businesses closed. Zimbabwe last witnessed such a protest in April 2007.

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Mugabe Regime 20 year jail attempt for #ThisFlag Pastor thrown out of court

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Faith is the belief in a Higher Power who will shield us against evil. Zimbabwean Pastor Evan Mawarire possesses that kind of faith in barrel-loads. Thrown into jail on Tuesday by the increasingly nervous acolytes of President-for-life Robert Mugabe, Mawarire was yesterday set free as a Magistrate threw the State’s case out of court. Mawarire sparked the creation of a movement called #ThisFlag after posting a video on YouTube (embedded below) where he laments the state of his country.  Though consequent postings on FaceBook this humble preacher has inspired hope in a country where abuse of power and economic mismanagement by a political elite has turned the one-time bread basket of Africa into a poverty-ravished disaster. Mugabe, and South Africa’s ruling ANC, may be right when they say an external power has instigated this action for regime change. But they are wrong on its identity. This is not the work of “Western capitalists.”  Given its messenger, a man of God, the power behind #ThisFlag is far more powerful than mere mortals could ever conceive.  – Alec Hogg

By MacDonald Dzirutwe

HARARE, July 13 (Reuters) – A Zimbabwean court on Wednesday dismissed charges against a religious leader accused of trying to overthrow the government through an internet campaign that inspired rare protests against President Robert Mugabe.

Pastor Evan Mawarire appeared in a packed Harare courtroom draped in the Zimbabwean flag after spending the night in police cells as officers searched his house, church and office.

Magistrate Vakayi Chikwekwe said prosecutors presented different charges from those read out to Mawarire when he was arrested.

“It’s my finding that the National Prosecuting Authority cannot charge the accused for the first time in court without charges being read out to him,” Chikwekwe told the court.

Mawarire’s lawyer Harrison Nkomo said his client initially faced charges of inciting violence before prosecutors changed the charge to attempting to overthrow the government, which carries up to 20 years in jail in found guilty.

Hundreds of Mawarire’s supporters gathered outside the court, waving the national flag and singing protest songs, as anti-riot police kept a watchful eye.

“We are here in solidarity with a man of the cloth who is standing against a system that has impoverished the citizens of this nation,” Harare resident Pastor Ellard said.

Though Mawarire had called for further “stay at home” protests on Wednesday, queues built up as normal at bus and taxi ranks to ferry people to work, while most businesses were open.

God's Hand

Teachers reported for duty at most public schools, which are conducting mid-year examinations, while nurses and doctors were at work at state-run hospitals.

Mawarire last month posted a video online, that has since gone viral, venting his anger about deteriorating social and economic conditions in Zimbabwe and urging citizens to hold government to account.

“I am angered by the poverty and day to day struggles. The economy is not working and there are no jobs,” Zimbabwean activist Maureen Kademaunga told Reuters.

The preacher’s social media movement has rattled 92-year-old Mugabe’s administration, leading to accusations by the state against Mawarire of inciting public violence.

Anger is rising in Zimbabwe over high unemployment, corruption in government and shortages of money, which has seen people spending hours in bank queues to withdraw their money.

Zimbabwe’s government warned protesters on Tuesday they would face the “full wrath of the law” if they heeded Mawarire’s call, after his #ThisFlag movement organised the biggest anti-government demonstrations in a decade last week.

After his arrest, Mawarire supporters released a pre-recorded video urging Zimbabweans to stage another stay-away protest on Wednesday.

Amnesty International said Mawarire’s arrest was a calculated plan by Zimbabwean authorities to intimidate activists ahead of Wednesday’s protests.

“Instead of suppressing dissenting voices, Zimbabwean authorities should be listening to protesters like Evan Mawarire,” said Muleya Mwananyanda, Amnesty International’s deputy director for southern Africa.

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Updated polls: DA is comfortably ahead of ANC in key metros of Jhb, Pta, PE

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By Mike Cohen

(Bloomberg) — South Africa’s African National Congress has failed to erode the lead of the main opposition party in Pretoria, the capital, and Johannesburg, three weeks before the nation holds local government elections, the latest eNCA public-opinion survey shows.

Picture: Twitter

The ANC dropped a point to 25 percent in the Tshwane municipality, which includes the capital, Pretoria, while the Democratic Alliance remained steady at 39 percent, according to the poll, which was compiled for the broadcaster by research company Ipsos. The Economic Freedom Fighters gained a point to 13 percent.

In Johannesburg, the commercial hub and South Africa’s biggest city, the ANC had 31 percent backing, while the DA dropped 1 point to 35 percent, and the EFF rose by an equal margin to 13 percent.

The ANC did lift its support in a third key municipality that it controls, Nelson Mandela Bay, which incorporates the city of Port Elizabeth, where it gained 6 percentage points in the past week to 27 percent, according to the poll, compared to 42 percent for the DA and 8 percent for the EFF.

The poll is the sixth commissioned by eNCA that shows the ANC is facing a serious challenge to maintain control of the three municipalities, as a 27 percent unemployment rate, a lack of basic services and a succession of scandals embroiling party leader President Jacob Zuma takes its toll. The ANC has won more than 60 percent of the vote in every election since white minority rule ended in 1994.

“What Ipsos is basically saying is we have lost the election,” Paul Mashatile, the 54-year-old chairman of the ANC in the central Gauteng province, said in July 7 interview. “I’m not sure how they are doing their research. We are quite confident that in many of our municipalities” the ANC has 50 percent support or more.

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