Suddenly there is a lot of (artificially whipped-up) hysteria about the media doing the rounds amongst certain politicians. They want to muzzle the media by introducing a Media Tribunal “with teeth” and are also hell bent on passing the Protection of Information Bill which will criminalize much of what goes for investigative journalism in this country.
When these politicians (who pretend to be hysterical about media “excesses” and “mistakes”) refer to the media, they usually mean those sectors of the printed media who sometimes carry articles that contain allegations of corruption, tender rigging, high-handed and heartless incompetence by politicians and senior officials, the wasting of tax payers money by Ministers who stay in 5 star hotels for 6 months because they are not happy with the bed in their official residence, the fathering of children out of wedlock by our President or articles that do not seem to endorse the National Democratic Revolution as interpreted by Julius Malema and his woodwork buddies.
They do not usually refer to the tabloids (who are now more widely read than the so called “serious” newspapers). This is of course because tabloids seldom report on the alleged work done by politicians, but often print stories about “moffies” who tricked men into having sex with them by wearing dresses and were then stabbed in the gat, church ministers who had allegedly raped congregants, women who allegedly tricked men into buying them expensive presents before running off with their best friends, alleged drug dealers who are terrorizing communities, tik addicts who had sold their mothers gold teeth to buy some drugs and gentlemen of a certain age who allegedly molested young boys.
Some of these stories in the tabloids are published on the basis of the flimsiest of evidence and often reek of bigotry, sexism, homophobia and other attitudes and values not in line with our Constitution. These tabloids sometimes indulge in the most unprofessional and destructive journalism, but as far as I know, not one politician has attacked the journalism practices by these tabloids – although the stories in the tabloids often destroy the lives and reputations of ordinary (often working class or poor) people on the basis of very shoddy journalism.
But because tabloids seldom report negatively on politicians or on party politics at all, they are never mentioned when politicians talk about the need for a media tribunal and the “excesses” and “mistakes” of the media. (Strangely they also do not refer to incidences where the SABC news had failed to report accurately on the booing of a Minister or had wrongly implicated a DA member in some wrongdoing – must have slipped their minds.)
If proof were necessary, this is proof enough that this absurd talk about how evil the media is and how it needs to be regulated for the sake of our democracy has absolutely nothing to do with any principle and everything to do with the most blatant and dangerous forms of self-interest on the part of some politicians. It is a bit like saying we need to stop people eating because they are starving. For the sake of our democracy we need more information and less regulation – not the other way around. Do not believe a word of this talk that the media is the greatest threat to our democracy. We all know that the greatest threat to our democracy is posed by the politicians and senior officials who are stealing our money and failing to address the poverty and vast discrepancies in wealth between rich and poor.
But hey, some people will believe almost anything. So the politicians are trying their luck in the hope that enough of us voters will be so stupid and lazy that we will believe their stories about the evils of the media and that we will not see through their hypocrisy. After all, how many members of the elite really cares if a working class gay man’s life is destroyed by a bigoted and untrue report in a tabloid that he is a child molester? That guy is just an ordinary person, does not drive in a BMW, never stays in the Mount Nelson, has no bodyguards, must do with the bed that was bought 30 years ago, and earns less in a month than the average Minister spends on one dinner party.
When the politicians talk about the need for the media to respect the dignity and privacy of people, they mean that they want the media not to report on scandalous and embarrassing behavior of politicians – even if it is true and in the public interest to do so. The politicians obviously do not care about the dignity and privacy of anyone reading a tabloid or anyone being reported on in a tabloid.
The hypocrisy inherent in these attacks on the “serious” media is therefore breathtaking. Politicians who look like plucked, boiled, turkeys are pretending to be proud, plumed, peacocks.
Of course the media sometimes get it wrong. They make mistakes, they have a tendency to get hysterical and see everything as a constitutional crisis or the end of the world as we know it, they can be sensationalistic and have the tendency to adhere to the motto: “when it bleeds it leads”. If they make mistakes they need to correct this, must apologise and in the most extreme cases must pay damages for defamation.
Some politicians say that the present legal avenues for redress are too expensive and cumbersome and that is why one needs a fast, cheap and efficient mechanism like a Media Tribunal to hold the media to account. Of course this can be said of almost any legal mechanisms to redress harm. At present it is rather expensive to prosecute corruption, so why don’t we just appoint a corruption tribunal to deal with the charges of corruption against President Zuma and dispense with this innocent until proven guilty stuff? Not going to happen, is it?
If the politicians were principled (I know this phrase might sound hilarious and unreal, but I am trying to keep a straight face while typing these words) and were not acting out of naked self-interest and greed, they would have insisted on other tribunals to deal with other excesses and mistakes in our society – most notably the excesses, mistakes and illegal behavior of politicians and senior officials.
It is very difficult to get a politician or a senior official to admit to a mistake and even more difficult to get that politician to correct the mistake. The difference is, of course, that while media reporting can arguably affect the dignity and reputation (if any) of one or two politicians or officials, the corruption, greed, laziness and sheer callousness of politicians and senior officials affect the lives of millions of South Africans. When politicians and officials do not do what we pay them to do, people go hungry, people become homeless, people get sick and die.
We can vote out the politicians, of course (just as we can decide not to buy a newspaper), but by the time the politicians have been kicked out, well 300 000 people might have died of Aids related illnesses or a hundred babies might have died because of a lack of hygiene in our hospitals. Yet the people responsible for these outrages are never going to be brought before any tribunal, are never going to be punished and, in all likelihood, will be given a promotion or at worst a pension for life.
So, please, before politicians start talking about the need for a Media Tribunal – as if this is the most important thing for our democracy – they should clamor for the institution of a Tribunal for politicians and officials where ordinary citizens could go to get these people fired and maybe thrown in jail when they fail us. I propose that such a tribunal should be staffed or appointed by members of the print media (as the ANC is proposing the Media Tribunal be staffed or appointed by members of Parliament). That should ensure that it is independent and impartial!
Now imagine anyone actually seriously making such a suggestion. Imagine the howls of protests from politicians and officials. Now see how these same politicians want to impose on others what they will never accept for themselves and smell, yes smell, the stinking rot of corruption and greed and know that this talk of a Media Tribunal is no more than the hypocritical maneuverings of an elite wanting to protect themselves from being exposed as heartless, greedy and out of touch with the needs of the people they claim to love and profess to want to serve.
Oscar Wilde would agree wholeheartedly with a lot of what has been said here about the Press .
(see Nimrod says:
Somewhere in the wild, wild, East
August 9, 2010 at 17:38 pm
” The Soul of Man Under Socialism ” )
@ Pierre
“We can vote out the politicians, of course (just as we can decide not to buy a newspaper)”
No, Pierre, this is part of the problem — the politicians do not, as a rule, get voted out. That is in part because the PR system renders it difficult for voters to hold individuals to account. More importantly, because most South Africans will continue for the indefinite future to vote for the ruling party.
You can be sure, for example, that the press control measures that so exercise we of the chattering classes will not lose the ANC many votes. The spectre of a Media Tribunal “with teeth” inspires little terror in the hearts of people with no job, and no prospect of ever getting one,
Hi Prof
I like your idea but you need to share it with the media houses/reps before their meeting with gineraal Cele and the rest of the ANC thugs tomorrow. Its a stunning concept – imagine the ANC actually meeting them half way…
The irony! This whole argument and fiasco reminds me of times in the 80′s when the A.N.C. were saying precisely what is now being said by the press! As a strategy, I’m certain the A.N.C. are starting their ‘protection’ campaign in the run up to the elections next year by trying to muzzle the press. People need to wake up now, more than ever.
In Uganda, Richard Kavuma, during May 2010, reported on the media bill over there: “A newspaper could lose its licence if it published material that the Media Council deems to be harmful to national security, stability, unity, the relationship with friendly countries or material that amounts to economic sabotage.” A government minister said that “the government would not tolerate media … that incite people”.
The ANC should see the dangers of the liberation evangelism it preaches. They are busy with an extremely dangerous and stupid game. As a direct result SA’s research, manufacturing, industrial, educational, health, military and almost every single sector in SA is declining. Our next generation of school leavers are functionally illiterate and almost half the population is unemployed. The proposed media bill is a knee jerk reaction to a very unpleasant reality. While the media tribunal will protect individual boiled chickens it will also cause irreparable damage to our society.
this cartoon in the Times sums it up quite well:
http://www.timeslive.co.za/multimedia/dynamic/00915/ditwits1008_915146d.jpg
Prof: you still don’t answer the main question of journalists, media and opposition parties inciting violence against foreign nationals. Should we accept this as freedom of expression and press freedom? I see you do. Last week I watched ETV news on the Xenophobia report. It was stated that foreigners are now moving back into the areas they come from and they say that the looting and burning of shops was done by criminal elements. I asked myself: Didn’t the media swear that locals were killing foreigners? They even wrote stories about the looming threat of attacks. Didn’t the media criticise the government for saying these were criminal acts? Why did the media publish articles about rumours of xenophobic attacks? Why did they go into the townships interviewing foreigners, asking them about rumours that they would be attacked? What did they think foreigner’s response would have been? Why did they do anything possible to convince people that there were impending attacks? To me this action by the media indicates to me that the media tried to incite xenophobic attacks in order to sell papers. Why did South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) not get together and look at the repercussions of releasing such stories. I attached a story on this very blog about a journalist who called foreigners “Illegal and Criminals”. In a local paper Nigerians were called drug dealers and bringing crime to our country. What kind of reporting is this? It is one thing reporting about corruption, I don’t care whether the report is right or wrong: even if when wrong the reputation of the individual is damaged but to incite people? I really feel the media overstepped its mandate and Sanef is an irresponsible organisation.
Secondly, most of what we call investigative journalism is not at all. We have headline news about unproven allegations from sources that are unknown. Months after the allegations we do not get a confirmation of the stories what so ever. What kind of investigative journalism is that? I also think you are being naïve or hiding from the truth when you say most corrupt stories come from the media. Most scandals, mismanagement and corruption stories actually come from the public protector and parliament. Peruse your media and you will see that the media prints mostly stories from committees and the public protector. There have been media allegations that have been disproved by the public protector in the past. Do you think that if the public protector and the different over site committees in parliament will stop doing their jobs because there is a media tribunal? Who will the media tribunal haul when the print media print information from a committee or the public protector? The media, the public protector or parliament? What is the media really afraid of? Isn’t it the fact that our media publishes opinions as fact? If the DA says the ANC is corrupt, the headline will be: “ANC found to be corrupt”. The article will go on and on about unproven allegations from the DA.
@Cross – I assume you mean that the ANC is now doing exactly what the Nats were doing in the 80′s?
Why did Apartheid and the Nat rule last so long? Because the Nats controlled the media! Remember the only broadcaster was the SABC , otherwise known as “his Master’s Voice”. Even though it was understood to be biased there was no where else for the average voter to find out what was really happening.
The Newspapers were progressively silenced, journalists were harassed or banned. The average white person who grew up under apartheid was led to believe the separate = separate but fair!
As an example, it was only when as a mature UCT student in the 80′s that I heard a credible voice for the other side. When Steve Biko’s death was reported I had never heard of him, and I had no idea what his position on Black Conscientiousness was. If I had heard anything other than “His death leaves me cold” (the then Minister of Justice), I would in all likelyhood had mourned his death and the loss to our nation. BUT I didn’t and couldn’t – because of the Nat equivalent of the proposed Media Tribunal!
On a lighter note, this from Hogarth in The Sunday Times 8 Aug:
“Heavies handed
Why did it take eight policemen to arrest Mzilikazi wa Afrika? In PW Botha’s time, security police moved in threes – one who could read, one who could write, and one to keep an eye on the two intellectuals.”
@ Pierre,
“the printed media who sometimes carry articles that contain allegations of corruption, tender rigging, high-handed and heartless incompetence by politicians and senior officials, the wasting of tax payers money by Ministers”
The noise making seems to have worked.
There’s not much that has been reported on since the heat was turned on.
@ Thomas
“Why did [the media] go into the townships interviewing foreigners, asking them about rumours that they would be attacked?”
This is such a good point, Thomas. The media should not ask questions, if the act of so doing tends to engender that which is feared.
I always discourage people from asking “How are you?” The very question causes me to focus of my health, and reminds me of ailments that I may otherwise not have notices.
In my country, we say: “WHAT YOU FOCUS ON EXPANDS.”
notices = noticed
Your best article yet by far. A brilliant and to the point stating of the facts.
The real scary part though is that given the recent illegal abuse of power by the police, they will be able to whisk you off in the middle of the night, hold you without detention, and nobody will be allowed to report it.
This is conclusive proof that blacks and whites are all the same. In fact I would say that blacks are no better than whites when it comes to power.
Thomas says:
August 10, 2010 at 10:09 am
“To me this action by the media indicates to me that the media tried to incite xenophobic attacks in order to sell papers.”
Hmmm.
Many South Africans probably get up each morning wondering what retard thing they ought to do for the day.
Articles containing “xenophobia” incites them to kill some foreigners.
So Thomas, do you think that headlines saying “hug a foreigner” will work?
A good article, Pierre. Thomas, it must be a bitch trying vainly to defend the indefensible.
@ John Roberts
“I would say that blacks are no better than whites when it comes to power”
I do not think it is necessarily helpful to defenders of press freedom to racialise the issue. In fact, it plays right into the hands of people like Kenneth and Thomas.
Maggs says: So Thomas, do you think that headlines saying “hug a foreigner” will work?
Not necessarily. but as they say if you send enough positive news about something then people tend to believe it. Otherwise why advertise?
Although the sarcasm, the media is known to have started genocides in africa and eastern europe.
I still cant understand why the media is said to have exposed allegations of corruption, tender rigging, high-handed and heartless incompetence by politicians and senior officials, the wasting of tax payers money by Ministers most of these come from parliament and the public protector and no one has disputed this.
Politicians, journalists public officials and business people are all drawn from the ranks of society and they are driven by our values, culture, aspirations etc. Here is a simple illustration, our response to death is something that I find hard to explain. The way we respond, cover, comfort, respect, investigate, compensate (taxi, bus, Aids, TB,bicycle accidents vs Plane crash, cancer, Jet Ski, Titanic etc). The number of lives lost becomes irrelevant and what is more important is who is involved. The taxi or Bus drver is found guilty on the spot whilst we wait for the “Black Box” and Aviation Authority to pronounce on the Plane Crash. The response of the state to a murder of a farmer is different to a murder that involves farm workers. The ET murder is a good example here. In Africa, leaders go to the west when they are sick and avoid the health services they provide to the masses. In SA we are even better we have our own Private Clinics in the country and Military Hospital for the political elite.
Today unions are going on strike for a legitimate demand of a decent salary and this strike is supposed to be national. I can bet all White kids plus those of the elite are at school whilst the kids of the hopeless poor are not at school. These and others are the true charecteristics of our society. We accept greed, callous, selfishness, theft and elevate questionnable characters to leadership positions in business, politics, churches and expect them to lead with integrity. Others think they are better off because of the colour of their skin or lineage and hope wealth will cushion them from the clear and present danger facing our society.
We have the leaders we deserve!!!!!!!!!!
Thomas says:
August 10, 2010 at 11:24 am
Hey Thomas,
“the media is known to have started genocides in africa and eastern europe.”.
The media may well have played a role in the genocide in Rwanda, Bosnia, Nazi Germany or other countries where evil prevailed.
We should learn lessons and not allow the free media to be usurped by politicians and/or political forces.
How many articles have you come across that are blatantly lies?
5, 20, 100, 1000?
If we allow our freedom, that was hard fought for, to be taken away today when the political power lies in the hands of those we approve of, how will get it back if those forces change?
@ Thomas
“I still cant understand why the media is said to have exposed allegations of corruption, tender rigging, high-handed and heartless incompetence by politicians and senior officials”
I can’t think of any significant scandal exposed by the media.
Thank goodness for our fiercely independent PP and Parliament.
Thomas says:
August 10, 2010 at 11:24 am
Hey Thomas,
“I still cant understand why the media is said to have exposed allegations of corruption, tender rigging, high-handed and heartless incompetence by politicians and senior officials, the wasting of tax payers money by Ministers most of these come from parliament and the public protector and no one has disputed this.”
The ANC and its alliance partners clearly take issue with all of that – check the Polokwane resolutions or the Election Manifesto.
The ANC has even taken serious issue with news blackouts in some Middle East areas – that’s not only wrong there, it’s wrong here.
Or read the media – high profile leaders have been issuing strong statements.
The issue is not who gets the credit for noticing, rather whether or not the media are able to freely able to report on what is already widely known.
The attempt to muzzle the free media and to control what we are informed of is bad news.
As for journalist and their shareholders, I have no doubt that they can gather more sympathy by just fixing their problems rather than digging heels. The public is watching both politicians and journalists, so far none of them seem to have a solution. Again the public here will get what it desesrves.
I hope these vocal editors will one day deal with some within their ranks who created stories such as “Sale of Waterfront”, ” Mbeki pocketed R30 mill from arms deal” “Thugs to shoot World Cup tourists” and others. These are just examples of stories that were poorly reported and SANEF never dealt with the respective editors.
A good analytical article PdV with a lot of unwanted truths and propositions to the ruling party. The danger with the current black Nats (ANC) is that they are using the majority and arrogance while the previous white Nats used minority plus the barrel of the gun.
We are surely running forwrad to the past and by the time the blind supporters of the `Ngoku’ administration wake up to the troubling reality we are facing, irreparable damage would have been caused and SA would be no less than Uganda under Idi Amin.
SHADOWLANDS
Many there are who are prisoners of Plato’s Cave , who are condemned not to emerge therefrom .
Love the suggestion for the Corruption Tribunal – and I hope Vavi reads this blog so he can take it forward, given that they didn’t “indict” him last time around. Has Cosatu come out publicly on this Media Tribunal yet?
Focusing on the real mass print media’s approach to integrity and quality of reporting (and the damabe it causes) is an interesting approach, I certainly hadn’t thought of that angle. I was thinking that the need for the Tribunal (the need as seen by its proponents) surely means that the SABC has singularly failed to be “his master’s voice”? If you can’t win the battle for the hearts and minds whilst controlling the sole media access for some 80% of the population, you really don’t belong in the 21st century. (Just like if you had 85% of your MP’s who don’t know how to use a computer, really)?
But prof, let’s entertain “their” argument for a moment. Let’s use the example referred above, inciteful reporting on the xenophobia issue, which turns out to have really been a criminal attack on a vulnerable group (not sure whether that felt practically any different to the Somalis, but anyway). What would be the recourse to poor journalism that leads to incitement under the current rules. What would happen? Or when someone leaks something really significant (for instance, if we had our own Wikileaks moment on the arms deal, just hypothetically, or on the criminal intent around HIV, or protecting Selebi, or claims that a minister of health is a criminal drunk, or whatever). Is the current media self-governance an adequate mechanism in your view? How should it work?
Rewind to Zuma announcing his cabinet, these were some of the comments that were made.
Fast foward to now, how many will be able to repeat their statements given the good and examplary performance by Minister Motsoaledi and poor performance on the other hand by Babra Hogan.
Motsoaledi is an example of what an ANC cabinet minister should be.
http://www.cabsa.org.za/book/export/html/3159
Thomas is right.
The ANC is reviving its proud historic tradition of scorning “bourgeois liberties” like press freedom, etc, so often used by counter-revolutionary tendencies to undermine peoples’ democracy.
Quite rightly, the ANC went out of its way to express support for the Soviet’s crushing of liberal “freedoms” in Prague and Budapest. And the ANC has continued to show solidarity with Castro’s Cuba, where the aspirations of the people are channeled through state media. Let us learn from Cuba, the PRC, and Democratic Republic of Korea, the importance of focusing the masses on the needs of our national democratic revolution, and not tolerating the liberal impulse to undermine the state that is the instrument thereof!
Thanks.
@ Mayimele
It has been a while.
What is a Ngoku administration?
less = better
Yes, Gwebe. I have been quiet for a while.
By Ngoku administration I refer to the administration formed by the “ngoku” group that Chikane refer to in his “The Chikane Files”. Have you read them?
Yowser Pierre!!! What a poke in the eye. Well written!
@ Gwebecimele,
I’m sorry, but I’m not sure how you can state that the Minister of Health’s performance has been exemplary. The state of our health system is diabolical. While he certainly has some interesting initiatives, there is a crisis of massive proportions in our health care sector – under his watch.
Deaths of babies in hospitals all over the country, mismanagement of funds, a pharmaceutical system that is failing, critical staff vacancies, shortages of ambulances etc. etc. The list is endless.
Please, cite some of the things he has done that qualify him for the accolades you give him.
SA’S CONSTITUTIONAL EDIFICE IS COLLAPSING , IS IT NOT ?
Matthew 7:21-27
“Not every one that saith Unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name have cast out devils? and in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I
profess Unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.
Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth them, I will liken him
unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the
floods came, and the winds blew, and heat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was
founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth
them not, shall he likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and heat upon that
house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.”
I am not sure if I am missing something, but my understanding of the Protection of Information Bill is that is unconstitutional in that it limits the right to access to information contained in the Constitution. The right, under section 32, does not appear to hold any internal qualifiers except inasmuch as new legislation should ease the legislative and administrative burden on the State. To my mind, this is completely overridden by the new Bill.
Furthermore, the Promotion of Access to Information Act does provide for the State to prevent access to information that it deems in the interest of national security, so surely this Act already covers what they are trying to do with the new Bill?
The new Bill, therefore, seems to be superfluous and redundant, other than the fact it appears to have punitive measures embedded in it and to give broader powers to the government to withhold information.
So, why not amend the existing Bill to meet some of the confidentiality issues, as opposed to promulgating a new Act, in conflict with the Constitution and supposedly, repeating existing legislation?
@ Mayimele
LOL!!
There are many names flying around, Ngoku, Dedel’abanye, Makutyiwe etc.
@ Samantha
The new Minister never denies problems or engage in intellectual gymnastics about simple problems. He has ushrered new approach, namely
1. Implemented OSD (Hogan & OTHERS avoided it)
2. Admitted Infant and maternal mortalility problems with no reservations or spin
3. Admitted hiv/aids challenges and implemented new approach
4. Implementing NHI despite resistance from DA and others.
5 Your MEC Botha said, ” He is the best thing to have happened to healthcare in his country”
6. He is implementing a 10 point plan on hospitals including non-negotiables with hospital ceo’s such as cleanliness. Only those hospitals that pass will be part of NHI
7. He is a qualified doctor and he engages with the details of his work and make informed decisions
8. His name, never appears in tenders, luxuries, camps and foolish statements.
@ Gwebecimele,
Thanks so much for that feedback. I guess that I am more mired in the Health issues at Provincial level, so was really not that well informed as to what was being done at a National level.
I just hope he can get them implemented properly at provincial level, where they are actually needed and where the health system is failing the people.
http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/business/2010/08/10/zuma_s-son-involved-in-r9bn-bee-deal
@ Samantha
Most problems in health are caused by inefficient provincial leaders such as Eastern Cape, Guateng, KZN etc. Gauteng decided to centralised procurement & recuitment under GSSC that has nothing to do with national. The Premiers must act on their respective MEC’s. Motsoaledi changed relevant national policies, set guidelines and renumeration and now Provinces must implement. NHI, if implemented properly will boost our healthcare system for ALL.
Gwebecimele says:
August 10, 2010 at 13:45 pm
So I guess that Mittal steel is unlikely to get nationalised.
Unless it starts running into heavy. sustained losses that is.
Any chance now of export parity pricing for steel being dropped?
Samantha says:
August 10, 2010 at 12:53 pm
Hey Sam,
“I am not sure if I am missing something”
The Protection of Information Act (if it becomes that) is to ensure that we are protected from information which may be obtained under the Promotion of Access to Information Act.
That ought to clear up any confusion!
I am realise why so many people do not want ANC to have its own newspaper, considering that everyone is supporting the creation of lies and deception and benefiting from brown envelopes,that since that extention will be extended to the “future” established ANC newspaper. some editors are said to have unaccounted millions in their bank accouts. and nobody is willing to accept that we have a problem.
Spot on, Pierre.
Someone should add up the total weekly _readership_ (not circulation) of the broadsheets and then compare that with
a) the tabloids
b) the SABC’s i) radio and ii) TV viewership
And then ask what it is that they are wanting to do. The ANC pwns the SABC already (His Master’s Voice, as it was in the 1980s: I still have an old set with a ‘SABC news is biased’ sticker on the front); and it does not care about the tabloids.
What they are after is the chattering classes…. And their core constituency would not give a f*** if the ANC went after them.
Pastor Niemoller, anyone?
kenneth says:
August 10, 2010 at 14:32 pm
Hey Kenneth,
“I am realise why so many people do not want ANC to have its own newspaper, considering that everyone is supporting the creation of lies and deception and benefiting from brown envelopes,that since that extention will be extended to the “future” established ANC newspaper”
It sounds like you are saying that the ANC will establish a newspaper for the creation of lies and deception and benefiting from brown envelopes.
If that is the purpose of an ANC newspaper then it is most unwelcome.
Gorvenment in the past, was attacked for not opening up the market and few years ago 4 licenses were issued for pay tv.
The strongest bidder with lots of cash Telkom Media promised the viewers big things to come. Everyone thought they would make a quick buck from these licenses without carefully evaluating the market.
I hope this a lesson for us to continue implementing Strong Regulatory Frameworks on all sectors and ignore noises from opportunistic individuals.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article593907.ece/Super5-Media-goes-belly-up
@ Kenneth
“I am realise why so many people do not want ANC to have its own newspaper”
My only problem with the idea is that such a paper would be financed from ANC funds. If, indeed, the newspaper is to be an objective and unbiased counterweight to the lies of the current media, I think it warrants being financed by National Treasury, in the broad public interest.
I propose that the financing model of Pravda or Iztvestia be looked into.
Thanks a lot.
@magg
what i mean is that the current atmosphere allows the abuse, so if ANC newspaper was to come it would benefit on that abuse
kenneth says:
August 10, 2010 at 14:46 pm
You want an ANC newspaper that “would benefit on that abuse”???
A black capable woman set up for failure.
http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=117526
Gwebecimele says:
August 10, 2010 at 14:58 pm
Hey Gwebs,
Nice pic of her in the article.
Perhaps she has been whitewashed!
And quite honestly Gwebe, ba ya tya labahlekazi. They really did not join politics to be poor.
Lol
SAMANTHA ASHMAN, BEN FINE, SEERAJ MOHAMED and SUSAN NEWMAN: Answers needed on Bank’s ‘policy by stealth’
AS MUCH as 23% of SA’s wealth went abroad in 2007, according to research from the Corporate Strategy and Industrial Development Programme at Wits University.
Published: 2010/08/10 07:24:18 AM
AS MUCH as 23% of SA’s wealth went abroad in 2007, according to research from the Corporate Strategy and Industrial Development Programme at Wits University. These outflows amounted to more than R450bn that could have been used for domestic investment, job creation and economic development.
Capital flight from SA is not a new phenomenon. Successive apartheid governments turned a blind eye to illegal capital flight by big business. Total capital flight between 1970- 88 was about 7% of gross domestic product. The evidence is that it has only worsened post-apartheid.
It is surely time for the government to address the issue of capital flight, both in terms of the expatriation of wealth as well as lost revenue through tax evasion by the super rich. But recent announcements from the Treasury and the Reserve Bank show the government is doing the opposite.
On July 1, the Bank published details of a new “voluntary disclosure programme” on its website, to be implemented on November 1. The proposed programme amounts to an “amnesty” to businesses that had illegally taken capital offshore before February 28 this year.
Bank officials have said the proposed programme should be interpreted as part of the gradual liberalisation of exchange controls. In other words, the programme seeks to “regularise” the past practice of illegal capital outflows before the full liberalisation of exchange controls makes capital flight fully legal. For a flat fee of 10%, the amnesty excuses those who have acted illegally.
More resources have left SA than have been retained for investment and job creation. It is outrageous that such economic crimes should be pardoned for a 10% fee, with no open public discussion of their scale, their effect, the appropriate levels of retribution and the implications for macroeconomic and financial management in uncertain global conditions.
After more than five decades of capital flight, the Reserve Bank has announced just one month in which South African individuals and entities can respond to the proposed programme, which is part of a larger overhaul of exchange regulations. Freeing up capital outflows is not only at odds with the developmental strategies of the Department for Trade and Industry and the Economic Development Department, but is in conflict with the government’s more recent indications that it will open up discussions about managing the exchange rate.
Even the International Monetary Fund has recently accepted that there can be a case for capital controls, in a move that Harvard economist Dani Rodrik described as a welcome revolution in its thinking.
The way in which the Bank has offered this amnesty raises important issues about economic governance, transparency and accountability, quite apart from the substance of policy itself. Is the Bank preempting an important discussion in the government and society and implementing financial policies by stealth? The Bank has been opaque in giving the economic reasoning behind its decision to propose the programme.
There needs to be open public debate before the programme and amendments to exchange control regulations are passed.
At the very least, the Reserve Bank needs to answer the following questions: Why is it proposing the programme now? Why the programme in addition to the amnesty offered to individuals alone, as opposed to corporations, in 2003? Is this a revenue trawl on corporations to buffer the fiscal crisis, in return for which past misdemeanours will be condoned and those of the future made legal?
Has the Bank estimated the amount of money that has left the country illicitly? How will the bank pursue those who do not disclose now, and why should they disclose — having acted illegally in the past and got away with it? Why is this information not made available to the public as part of a reasoned account for the measures that are being proposed?
- The authors are based at Wits University and the School of Oriental and African Studies in London
@ Maggs
She is a very fine woman indeed, probably the most beautiful CEO in the JSE.
Lucky is the man he goes home to, everyday.
Gwebecimele says:
August 10, 2010 at 15:17 pm
Hey Gwebs,
From the pic she sure looks transformed!
Whilst we make noise about minor issues, all are quiet on the most important issue in this country parties, individuals, experts and all.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/business/article594852.ece/Adcorp–Employment-down-8.1-
Gwebe, despite the revelations by Samantha about the state of health in SA, I honestly think Motsoaledi is one of the good ministers we have in the current administration. He impressed me even the time he was the MEC for health in the former Northern Province. He may not be perfect but I like his professionalism, respect for the public, honesty and effort to do the right things as per his mandate as the minister of health. However, the good part of Samantha’s post which challenges yours as I hereby do too, is when he seems to me to be trapped in grandstanding and symbolism such as you have listed in your post – doing a lot of admission of mistakes and less in addressing them. This type of symbolic service delivery has now trickled down to the provinces. Look at the death of children in Gauteng. All the MEC for Health could do in an eloquent manner was to take the blame and provide very little corrective measures.
So Samantha is correct, the Minister must do little of talking good and admitting mistakes to putting a lot of effort in correcting the wrongs in the department. It is unfortunate that the majority of SA seem to be more interested in useless issues such as JZ’s constant laughing, attending unnecessary gatherings and kwaito dancing than the real service delivery issues. It is against this background that our leaders such as Motsoaledi tend to think that their admission of mistakes in public will be equated with service delivery. Unfortunately, to a right thinking person, this is not enough, hence the state of our health as depicted by Samantha above.
@ Brett
You once claimed that media is majority owned by blacks. Here is some views from Mr Jackson Mthembu.
He said Media24 had a 15 percent historically disadvantaged individual (HDI) ownership and Avusa had 25.5 percent.
‘Caxton and Independent Newspapers has no HDI participation,’ said Mthembu.
As South Africans we know the full meaning of unregulated power and unbridled capitalism of the barons experienced by other societies through time. The abuse of positions of power, authority and public trust to promote narrow, selfish interests and political agendas inimical to our democracy.
Sounds as if it has been taken from the Prof’s article but
it is from Item 59 of
http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/ngcouncils/2010/media.pdf
And for light entertainment see the rest at (bullshit baffles brains)
http://www.anc.org.za/show.php?doc=/ancdocs/ngcouncils/2010/index.html&title=NGC+2010
I think the ANC is feeling the pressure from the broader public on their “media clampdown” and that there is going to be some resistance to the media tribunal idea and the Protection of Information Bill (shock and horror!!). So, it appears they are going to use every means at their disposal to put pressure on the media. Not only are they now using the “transformation” argument, but they also have this to say:
“The ANC proposed that the Competition Commission “investigate the anti-competitive dynamics in the print media value chain, that is paper, printing, publishing, distribution and advertising”.”
http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article595019.ece/ANC-questions-print-media-rsquo-s-commitment-to-transformation
Despite their protestations, methinks the gloves are now off!!
@ Mayimele & Samantha
Health at Provincial Hospitals is a provincial competency unlike SAPS. Let us take the death of babies as an example. Cleanliness and contamination of baby feeds have been reasons for these events. Now you have, a nurse who looks after the babies & the ward, Sister/Supervisor for the ward, Matron, Hospital CEO, Regional Director, Provincial Dept of Health, Premier who should be able to deal with these matters. Beside the fact that she is good looking woman, I like Qedani Mahlangu but he handling of the latest complaints has left a bad taste and I hope the Premier will act on her and others involved. An investigation has been reopened by Mokonyane after the spin by Qedani.The issue of babies in the Eastern Cape cost a Deputy Minister her job and the then Premier did not act. I cant remember facts at KZN.
I have no doubt that if you ask Motsoaledi about these, you will get a straight and decisive response but he cannot act until the Premiers have exhausted the matter. His challenges are similar to those of Angie Motsekga who suprisingly pitched at a school and found chaos but cuold not act but refer matter to the MEC.
I would support provision for national Ministers, Deputy President, President to fire incompetent officials on the spot and refer matter to Prov Admin for endorsement.
I have listened to him tackling difficult questions, he has nothing to hide and is very upfront. He leaves u with a feeling that we are in good hands, despite the challenges we have.
@ Gwebecimele,
The Health issue is also a municipal competency when you have municipal clinics in areas and it appears that there is very little communication between the 3 spheres on this.
One of the biggest problems I have with the government as it stands now is that there is no accountability. So, I agree with your statement about there being some way in which Ministers could intervene in areas where there are real problems. After all, they have overall responsibility for the portfolio.
Unfortunately, even the code of conduct for local councillors does not have any accountability measures in place, so I doubt it is any different at the other levels of government.
Many people keep saying that we can hold our government to account at the polls by voting them out, but I believe that 5 years is too long to sit on the sidelines and quietly accept incompetence and corruption. Something has to be done to allow the public to hold the government to account where things are patently wrong. But I can’t see this happening too soon!!
How Things should be done :
An excerpt from :
PUBLISH AND BE DAMNED
By Hugh Cudlipp
Chapter 22
LETTERS FROM DOWNING STREET
(TO THE PROPRIETOR OF THE TABLOID DAILY MIRROR )
From Churchill to Cecil H. King.
5 February, 1941. Dear Mr King,
Thank you very much for your letter and I was glad we had a talk. All this fine thought about the rising generation ought not to lead you into using your able writers to try to discredit and hamper the Government in a period of extreme danger and difficulty. Nor ought it to lead you to try to set class against class and generally “rock the boat” at such a time. Finally I think it is no defence for such activities to say thatyour papers specialise in “vitriolic” writing.* Indeed throwing vitriol is thought to be one of the worst of crimes. No man who is affected with “vitriolism” is worthy to shape the future, or likely to have much chance of doing so in our decent country. There is no reason why you should not advocate a statement of war aims. I wonder that you do not draw one up in detail and see what it looks like. I see that Mr Mander has tabled his war aims which seem to me to bear out what I ventured to say in the House, namely “that most right-minded people arc well aware of what we are fighting for”. Such a task would be well-suited to the present lull.
Yours sincerely,
Winston S. Churchill.
From Cecil H. King to Churchill.
11 February, 1941.
Dear Prime Minister,
Thank you very much for your letter dated February jth. As I cannot emphasise too strongly, all of us here wish to give you personally all the support possible and it has come as a great shock to learn that you have been so distressed at the line these papers have been pursuing. I am afraid I had assumed that if anything published by us should cause you serious annoyance you would send a message through one of your secretaries asking us to be more moderate.
However, thanks to your very full and frank letters and the talk we had, we now have your point of view clearly before us. The staff have had their instructions and you may have already noticed a marked change of tone. If in the future you have any fault to find with our contribution to the nation’s war effort, I hope you will let us know at once.
Yours sincerely,
From Churchill to Cecil H. King.
13 February, 1941.
Dear Mr King,
Thank you very much for your letter. I take the greatest possible interest in the Daily Mirror and Sunday Pictorial with which I have been associated since their foundation in 1915. I
* The Premier was referring to King’s letter of January 24,1941, which mentioned Cassandra as “a hard-hitting journalist with a vitriolic style”.
shall be very glad to see you at any time. Do not hesitate to propose a visit.
Yours sincerely,
Winston S. Churchill.
* * * *
Alas, the rapprochement was short-lived.
Hey Nimrod,
Whatever happened to Matthew?
Thomas, in the 1980ties PW Botha and his Minister of Information Stoffel Botha used exactly the same argument you deploy here to justify state of emergency media restrictions. They claimed that by reporting on violent protests the media were inciting violence. So your post sort of proves, rather than disproves, my point, I think. The media, being as underresourced and reactive as it sometimes can be, reported on threats of xenophobia because NGO’s and people working in communities told them about it. THere was a good column in Business Day by Jacob Dlhamini in which he reported on the xenophobic threats made by members of a specific community where he was doing research. Claiming that the media incited violence against foreigners is therefore like claiming the anti-apartheid media endorsed apartheid and incited violence by those fighting the apartheid regime. It makes no logical sense.
Did anyone read the article (in today’s Cape Times) by Chief State Law Adviser Enver Daniels? I couldn’t quite fathom whether the warm, fuzzy feeling I got after reading it was due to genuine reassurance or from having the wool pulled over my eyes. “Bill upholds our right to information”, the headline bleated. An excerpt:
“Access to information is a basic human right which should only be limited under the most compelling of circumstances. The Protection of Information Bill will provide greater access to information, make it easy to challenge arbitrary decision-making in respect of the classification of information and delicately balances the need to occasionally maintain some level of secrecy with openness and transparency.”
Well, that’s allright then, isn’t it, hehehe. I believe this bill, as well as the so-called ‘media tribunal’ affair, will have to be passed in Parliament by a two-thirds majority, which the ANC doesn’t have. Maybe there are a few ANC MPs who could be persuaded not to give their assent. Hope springs eternal …
Clara, at least one ANC member of parliament (that I am aware of) has come out in opposition to the passing of the Protection of Information Bill; there is hope.
What I am more worried about is the clear centralisation of power that the ANC has, for a while now, evidenced desire for.
In an article in The Times today, Athol Trollip is described as saying that:
“…many of the [Bills up for vote] are aimed at ensuring the continuing power and influence of the ANC despite its continuing loss of power in municipalities around the country, and [provinces] too.”
The DA objected to Bills such as the Protection of Information Bill, the South African Post Office Bill, the State Security Bill, the Division of Revenue Bill, the National Development Agency Amendment Bill, and the Public Service Broadcasting Bill (which wants to align SABC priorities with “the development goals of the republic”, and grants wide ranging powers to the minister and Parliament to intervene in the affairs of the broadcaster).
While some ANC members of parliament give the people of SA hope, the party’s general direction seems to warrant a far less positive emotion…
The link to the Times’ article:
http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article595330.ece/DA-warns-of-ANC-centralisation
@ a.a. tenner,
The full speech given by Athol Trollip is located on Politicsweb:
http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71654?oid=192417&sn=Detail
On SABCs Interface tonight (Dworky’s favourite news channel), Mathatha Tsedu quoted Enver Daniels as having said at the hearings, that the Bill would, if enacted, make the journalists job more difficult.
Daniels denied having said that.
It would be interesting to find out who lied!
Listening to Mr Daniels on Interface makes me think that it must have been pretty easy for the apartheid era judges to do the jobs that they were “employed” to do and sleep well at night.
As dull Brett would say, these are defining moments in our democracy.
I am saddened to hear that there may be individuals in Parliament willing to sell out the ANC for fifteen minutes of media attention. But we have seen this all before. Visceral liberals like Andrew Feinstein (arms deal), and Pregs Govender (so-called HIV-AIDS), were ultimately not willing to submit themselves to the collective wisdom of the party.
I am confident that, as before, the vast majority of our MP’s will stand as disciplined cadres against the blandishment of white liberals, coconuts, and their baying media lackeys!
Thanks.
@ Gwebecimele
Funny this reference about the money outflows from South Africa. Reading the posts, and trying to follow the bullshit about the quality of our news, our hero cop, our youth leader, (…complete this list at will with your favourite crooks) – I trust no one is surprised this money is leaving, right? Anyone think you can make the money stay for, what, a noble charitable objective? That’s what kleptocracies do, dear friends, they make people and money go away, like magic.
Zuma’s son scoops more assets, new bunch at the trough, clampdown on the press – I trust at least no one pretends not to understand the cause and consequence here, right? And forget about regulating money flows, it’s easier to make water go uphill. Not gonna happen. Project Mandela is now truly over, and project Normal Country is underway.
So, when dumbass Jackson Mtembu and his cronies wake up sober, I hope they have enough stashed away. As for the regular apologists of the current political madness on this blog – see for yourself. You lose. Thank you for playing.
Quite right, p m!
A lot of the reactions to this blog are just plain stupid.
How can you guys allow Thomas to get away with the BS about the press inciting xenophobia when the coordinated response of NGO’s the media civil society and the SAPS are a shining example of the safety valves offered by democratic society. Its insurance policy.
Media freedom is the watchdog at the gate. 8 out of 10 for the SAPS response to the xenophobia threat.
http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=117520
FIONA FORDE: Press freedom
Secrecy law threatens SA’s democratic credentials
Published: 2010/08/10 07:21:34 AM
ONE would be hard pressed to find a government that would say it likes the press or enjoys the kind of scrutiny the press subjects it to. Yet it is equally difficult to find a democracy that is attempting to emasculate the media in the manner in which the South African government is doing with the Protection of Information Bill and the punitive media tribunal it wants to introduce. And although SA is not alone in fighting the free flow of information, it stands out as a country that is sliding backwards at a fast pace in its bid to make public information its own private property.
Consider some of the defining features of authoritarian tendencies in media law, which London-based author and academic Tim Crook writes about in his latest book, Comparative Media Law and Ethics.
A jurisdiction that leans towards authoritarianism practis es “absolute or near total secrecy and suppression of all information relating to intelligence, police”. Its “free- speech rights are qualified by rights of national security”.
It doesn’t believe in “guaranteeing public access to information collected and stored by government/state bodies”.
It is a country that imposes “criminal liability on private citizens and journalists who received state information where the classification of confidentiality and secrecy is broad and all-encompassing”.
And there’s more. Its “ruling elite” buys into the media market “to silence and discourage critical reporting”. It’s a place where “heavy penalties” are handed down to journalists who “try to protect their sources”.
It is also a country that grants “wide powers for state agencies to tap communications of journalists and collect surveillance evidence for the purposes of identifying their sources” and practices “overt and covert … attacks on journalists working for media institutions that publish critical coverage”.
If all that sounds familiar, it’s because it reads as if it was lifted chapter and verse from the latest government proposals.
The sad feature of Crook’s work, however, is that while SA sits firmly in the libertarian camp today, it will find itself lumped on the authoritarian side of the fence tomorrow if the government succeeds in clamping down on freedom of expression.
The other alarming fact, though, is that the South African proposals are the best kept secret in the international arena of media law experts, anticensorship groups or institutions that protect the purveyors of information themselves. When the draft bill was circulated last week among experts in Canada, Israel, the UK and the US, their reactions were not surprising.
“The proposed bill is draconian,” says Mibi Moser, a renowned media lawyer in Israel, where limitations on the media are already stringent because of the country’s geopolitics and the constant tension between the military and the executive. In comparing the South African bill and current Israeli legislation, he highlights SA’s broad definition of “state information”, as well as the reasons for not disclosing such information as enormous causes for concern.
Israeli law puts the emphasis on the right of the Israeli citizen to have access to public information, he points out. But the emphasis in the South African instance is the reverse “and it is frightening”. But “the most arousing cause for concern”, in his appraisal, are the proposed “severe penalties for obtaining, collecting, capturing or copying all kinds of ‘state information’.”
It’s a view echoed by Prof Klaus Pohle, a media law specialist at Canada’s Carleton University. “This is something you might expect in a totalitarian banana republic,” he argues. However, it’s the arbitrarily defined terms of “public good” and “national interest” that unsettle Pohle most. While Pohle concedes that most western democracies — Canada included — have legislation that errs on the side of national security, which is often poorly defined, it is never “as ill defined as (SA’s) description of the national interest”.
“Among the enumeration of what is meant by the national interest is the public good”, which is “vague and subjective…. This section should be the most worrying since it can include anything,” he says. “Any criticism of public policy, governmental activity or even private commercial activity may be seen as an attack on the public good.”
Imagine trying to debate the previous South African government’s so-called AIDS denialism under the proposed legislation, he suggests. It just wouldn’t wash because it would be undoubtedly seen as an attack on the public good. But would silence then have been helpful? Surely not.
Or take the example of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Had it happened in SA, “one could easily assume that assigning blame, however much warranted, may not serve the public good because it might disturb relations between the developer and the state” under the proposed bill, he points out.
“It might even be illegal to discuss critically the contents of this very bill,” he says. Or the arrest of Sunday Times journalist Mzilikazi wa Afrika, for that matter. Not to mention corruption on the part of public servants and government officials. Or the lack of service delivery. The list goes on.
But the question that rolled off most tongues was why SA would want to go down this route at this time.
The answer is quite simple. Our political elite is feeling very insecure and threatened, not by a lack of security, but by what the free flow of information might do to their ever- closing political system, and so has decided to drag the young democracy in the direction of such countries as China, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Russia.
Joel Simon of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists says governments everywhere are becoming more sophisticated about the strategies they use to control the media.
“Increasingly, legal pressure, advertising boycotts, punitive tax raids, libel suits and other less visible means are replacing imprisonment and state-sanctioned violence,” he says.
This is true of China, where a journalist is more likely to be fired than jailed for critical reporting, he says. “And in nominally more open countries, such as Russia, where the Kremlin has used tax raids to take over critical media outlets.”
(In SA, it seems, the preferred practice is still arrest.)
Simon balks at the proposed media tribunal, which he sees as a pathetic attempt to control criticism and dissent.
Yet if the litmus test of real political authority and power is the ability to withstand criticism, then why doesn’t “the African National Congress (ANC) muster the maturity and the courage that is required to lead without resorting to these kinds of measures?” Crooks asks. “Don’t they see that they would also amass a considerable amount of power in the world if they did?”
Clearly not. Instead, the ANC is about to dispose of all the political dignity it has left.
For the past few years, SA has found itself languishing among the flawed democracies of the world in the index of democracies compiled by The Economist’s Intelligence Unit (EIU), scoring just shy of what is required to join the world’s full democracies.
It was hoped that this year SA would crawl up into the category of the world’s best.
“But if these media proposals become practice, SA will be downgraded, not upgraded,” says Pratibha Thaker, regional director of the EIU’s Africa department.
- Forde is a freelance writer.
Sandile Zungu, the head of the Ayigobi consortium, which was given a 21 percent stake in ArcelorMittal South Africa, admitted yesterday that the R9.1 billion deal was “money for jam” for the consortium members, who include individuals linked directly to President Jacob Zuma.
‘Money for jam’ lapped up by cronies and kin of Zuma while steel maker coughs up R800m for ICT (consortium members, who include individuals linked directly to President Jacob Zuma)
According to Zungu, ICT shareholders directly hold 50 percent of the consortium. The other half is split between as yet unidentified broad-based BEE groups for women, youth and, possibly, the disabled (25 percent); Zungu and companies he owns (6.25 percent); the Gupta family-controlled Oakbay Investments (6.25 percent); and Mabengela Investments, led by Zuma’s son Duduzane (12.5 percent).
So, Mittal has to pay a R800M fine for not taking the nationalisation of mineral rights to the Constitutional Court.
Next? (OK, next is Lonmin, but I mean ‘Next’ after them and after that…)
OK, so the R800M goes to the protection racketeers not the state coffers.
Lets hope Lonmin have learned from this. As for South Africa’s image ? Well, WGAS?
http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=117596
@ Brett
There is no next. This is the Argentine scenario playing out – for different reasons, a crisis emerged (here we managed to create our own, quite deliberately) and the local elite-Mafia snaps up assets that foreigners want to lose on their way out. This feels good, for a short while. It’s a feast if you’re connected. We’ll be off the international investor radars for at least a decade.
Infrastructure starts crumbling, currency goes to ‘untraded’ status, MNC’s retain a sales office here only, and, presumably, Jackson has a choice as to who to blame (capitalists, foreigners, whites, whatever, anything but the kleptocrats). He then retires to his newly – cheaply -acquired farm (with bottle store) in Wilderness, and the cycle is complete. Zuma-lite has established the new royal family, and all is as it should be.
I work with investors all over the world. For the last 12 months, South Africa hasn’t been in the game, other than for a quick turn on the artificial exchange rate. Investors stand in amazement when they realise that the only thing, seemingly, between South Africa and a ‘pure’ kleptocracy are the trade unions. Then they ruefully smile, talk about how they have seen this movie in many Latin American countries (where the churches sometimes substituted the role of the Unions here) and the discussion settles on Brazil, India, Chile, Korea.
I don’t think many South Africans realise the damage done to our country by “deals” like the ICT, the Mittal deal (twice – first the suspect Iscor breakup and then the Mittal acquisition), the Lonmin story. You can count the job impact in the tens of thousands. But that’s just contra-revolutionaries speaking, right mr Dwork?
abidam says:
August 11, 2010 at 6:47 am
“Sandile Zungu, the head of the Ayigobi consortium, which was given a 21 percent stake in ArcelorMittal South Africa, admitted yesterday that the R9.1 billion deal was “money for jam” for the consortium members, who include individuals linked directly to President Jacob Zuma”
Maybe Peter L or some other economics expert will help unpack that one.
It seems, on face value, that Kumba lost the Sishen mineral rights to ICT and in the process it’s supply agreement to ArcelorMittal. ICT trades the mineral rights in exchange for shares in ArcelorMittal.
And we’re told that it’s just a coincidence that Pres Zuma’s son and other closely associated names are involved.
Zungu says “We have a vested interest in the share price of ArcelorMittal SA getting better” – so are we to expect increase in the price of imported steel products, state subsidies for steel, reduction in their electricity tariff. Whatever it is the one way for the share price to increase is if government “helps”.
@ Maggs
you’re missing one salient detail. The only reason ICT exists is through a suspect deal in the DMR. So, in the explanation in London: DMR facilitated the theft of potentially billions of Rands by some well-connected cronies (than called ICT). Arcelor caved in, (even while Kumba is challenging the DMR) and hasted themselves into a deal with the same thieves who constructed ICT to exchange the mineral rights in ICT for R800m, and than proceed to give them a quarter of Arcelor to protect themselves from further threats and challenge by government. No one in government is going to challenge Zuma-lite.
We will continue to pay fortunes for our steel and fund mr Zuma’s lifestyle.
Money for jam, indeed. The jam was earned (and I presume, rewarded) by some mid-level thief in DMR. Jam at R 800m, so to speak. Luckily the poor in South Africa don’t seem to want any jam. It’s all finished
Ombudsman web site now on most news websites: I wonder why.
http://www.presscouncil.org.za/pages/welcome.php
Reading through some of the findings from the Ombudsman I realised I never saw the apologies and some are using the wrong stories as evidence of corruption, mismanagement etc. Is the ombudsman effective, I don’t think so.
pekkil monta says:
August 11, 2010 at 8:11 am
I strongly suspect that is what happened. The cynical among us may even suggest that some among the ICT are merely there as a warehouse for more powerful political elite until their terms of office have expired.
This kinda reminds me of Cheney, Halliburton and the great war to democratise Iraq. Add to that the missing billions of US$. Only this is far smaller with no consequences as profound as with the war.
Re “No one in government is going to challenge Zuma-lite” – The same was said of the powerful figures in the Mbeki era. It seems that the privileged are only protected for the duration of office their powerful patrons.
Pierre…….congratulations, this is really good and probably your best ever.
Maggs, I am somewhat disappointed at your failure to mention that President Zuma has verbally committed to rooting out all corruption. Moreoever, I must caution that your willingness to equate Zuma with Mbeki is against the national interest, broadly defined.
You must not join the camp of whingers, liberals, reactionaries, racists, and anti-transformationist white-tendency types!
Where did this all started? The day we sold family asset Iscor to Mittal. All that has happened is just a manifestation of our self inflicted loss. It will not stop here, more to follow. The sale of SA good performing assets such as Vodacom, Iscor, Telkom, Sasol for the benefit of elite few is the worst robbery we had in this country. When the new elite takes advantage of the resistance to transformation of Mittal and Lonmin then we all make noise. I would rather have the money here(held by PDI’s) than let it go to London. We can call it money for jam but I guess jam tastes the same in London and JHB.
Having said that, it is unfortiunate that assets & profits that should have been utilised to improve on the lives of the majority of the SA is traded on a chess board by the elites.
The greed is amongst us (Citizens) and is well alive both in govt and business.
Mikhail Dworkin Fassbinder says:
August 11, 2010 at 9:06 am
Hey Dwork,
How’s the horse?
My concern of late is informed by spokesperson of our Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Ndivhuwo Mabaya (August 5, 2010 at 23:50 pm) who openly said that “some members cannot read Amendments Bills”.
If such is the state of parliament then we all, including President Zuma, have a lot to be concerned about.
http://constitutionallyspeaking.co.za/the-princess-and-the-moon/
Firstly, a brag: Not one multinational has fought off the principle of constructive expropriation as successfully as this country’s principled gun owners!
(OK, the corporations who had Seth Nthai given the chop might catch up.)
The collapse of the mining industry started with the nationalisation of water rights. Even Peter Bruce forgets some of the context. Remember the leaked ‘Empowerment Charter’?
Mittal did not ‘renew’ the nationalised mineral rights they owned? Why? Dunno. Hope it was a matter of principle.
Now it is Lonmin’s turn.
I wonder if the ANusClowns started the aggressive strong-arm extortion because they thought the MerryllLynch report was the-writing-on-the-wall, the death-knell for the industry?
I think the worst robbery we have ever seen was the demutualisation of insurance companies, gwebecimele.
(BTW, kudos for the way you predicted the Escom bonusses would have a domino/knock-on effect on labour relations throughout the civil service.)
Telkom is not a good example. The ANusClowns dithered throughout the global boom in telecomsoperators and went public after the crash. Symbolic, really.
Woops! Sorry! ‘G’webecimele.
@ Maggs
“My concern of late is informed by spokesperson of our Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Ndivhuwo Mabaya (August 5, 2010 at 23:50 pm) who openly said that “some members cannot read Amendments Bills”.
This is the elitism of the Cabinet’s “Princess.” Pay it no heed. Maggs.
Also, even if some MP’s cannot read the text, they will surely have an intuitive grasp of the essence, assisted by the Princess’ exegesis!
Following the lengthy debates in June on the FCA, these bills before parliament are not the tip of the ice-berg. That ice-berg has already crashed into the good ship SA and this is just more of it.
The type of legislation that is the FCA (whatever one may feel about the purpose) is worrying. The Prof has missed a big beat by not picking up on the legislative trend set there.
Prof: Write out 100 lines saying “I must read the entire piece of legislation”.
When old apartheid cops think its a fine piece of work, you gotta get scared!
Now we have the protection of information and media tribunal.
Folks, remember JZ’s origins are as a spy – and reportedly a pretty good one too. Giving the NIA access to the private lives of SA’s citizens and controlling them is his natural game.
Its only going to get worse from here on out. The ANC has abandoned following liberal democracies and instead hung onto the coattails of the likes of Cuba, Venezuela, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia etc. But this is also a natural progression – the ANC is deeply influenced by Lenin and Stalin and the centralist theory of state dominance. The ANC was never, ever, about the freedom of the South African citizen, whatever the excellent marketing said and what we all believed to be the Gospel truth.
The ANC has always been about obtaining and retaining power. Take those blinkers off. The proof is now in front of you, do with it what you will.
Mikhail Dworkin Fassbinder says:
August 11, 2010 at 9:52 am
“Also, even if some MP’s cannot read the text, they will surely have an intuitive grasp of the essence, assisted by the Princess’ exegesis!”
Whew.
And here I was thinking that the official position was that some MP are stupid!
Thanks for the clarity – I am feeling much relieved.
Zoo Keeper says:
August 11, 2010 at 10:03 am
“The ANC has always been about obtaining and retaining power.”
Er, isn’t that what political parties do?
@ Brett
This things do come full circle, what may seem as a simple globalisation exercise might turn out to be mortgaging of SA.Yes you can include demutualisation to the list and the irony is that the individuals who made these decisions are still amongst us siiting quietly.
The times have just posted a story of “Malema support declined” and the website crashed due to many requests accessing the website.
declined=declining
President in waiting or just a good activist
Sexwale supports media freedom
Aug 11, 2010 10:13 AM | By Sapa
ANC heavyweight Tokyo Sexwale came out in strong support of media freedom at a leadership summit in Johannesburg.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article596339.ece/Sexwale-supports-media-freedom
Gwebecimele says:
August 11, 2010 at 10:25 am
Hey Gwebs,
The figures are pretty high.
“The survey found that 21 percent of metro adults supported what Malema said and did”
Eish!
But as Dworky always he is young and has a lot to learn.
I think that many will be in danger of missing the point of what is actually going on. remember the saying that one should not wrestle with pigs because you both get dirty, and the pig likes it.
The process of debating and mudslinging (more mudslinging) is actually a battleground that is chosen by, and that favours, the ANC. They know that they are in trouble, and so will act to try and quell that trouble.
Power politics will always trump policy (this is something said to me by a close relative of a senior ANC office-bearer – genuine). The ANC has decided what to do, and they will marshall any and every means possible to achieve that end.
Pointing out the failings of the Press is a smokescreen. Somebody else has pointed out tha there is no outrage at the excesses of the abloids (who pose no threat to the ANC).
The fact remains that one cannot equate the government (and the ANC as the “ruling party) and the print media. One has formal power, and the access to all the resouces (our money) that come with that power. Government must necessarily give account for itself because it is supposed to be “by the people” and “for the people”. The media must operate within reasonable parameters, but theburden on them is never to be equated with that borne by government.
In any debate, never allow the equating of the two – the details will get lost, and the ANC will win. All of the criticisms in the world are not relevant to the key issues, or to the unconstitutionality of the Protecton of Information Bill.
BTW, I am not using my real name because I am afraid (having a family to support and protect).
hahahaha.
None so holy as the converted.
Outrage at the ‘brazen abuse of public office’ by officials
Aug 10, 2010 9:49 PM | By SIPHO MASONDO
Arcelormittal South Africa’s R9-billion black empowerment deal and R800-million purchase of a company with important mining rights, announced yesterday, has been described as “scandalous”. …
COPE spokesman Sipho Ngwema said: ”When the relatives and children of the president are direct beneficiaries of deals that can be traced to the government, it makes South Africa no different from the rest of the basket cases on the continent.
“The brazen abuse of public office to benefit personal relations leaves a bad taste and [is] a slap in the face to those who suffer every day from the lack of service delivery.”
http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article595730.ece/Outrage-at-the-brazen-abuse-of-public-office-by-officials
@ Maggs
I hope Mr Sexwale and others will make their views known in ANC structures and Parliament, hopefully they will explain what is meant by media freedom. Let us have rigorous debate inside the ANC and less venting on Leadership Summits with no accountability.
Gwebecimele says:
August 11, 2010 at 10:46 am
I reckon that the current top six must be regretting having allowed the recall of the Wise One and opened the way for all kinds of unsavoury tactics in the guise of democracy.
It’s difficult to escape the thinking that thugs have invaded the conversations in the ANC.
Unless and until the intellectuals resurface strongly and determinedly, it sure seems like the ANC is headed into some bad place.
Why our investigative jpurnalist who leave no stone unturned are not following on this one??? Is it because their paymasters might be involved? Have they been thretened not to follow this one? Are sexual activities of politicians more impportant?
Read Below.
At the very least, the Reserve Bank needs to answer the following questions: Why is it proposing the programme now? Why the programme in addition to the amnesty offered to individuals alone, as opposed to corporations, in 2003? Is this a revenue trawl on corporations to buffer the fiscal crisis, in return for which past misdemeanours will be condoned and those of the future made legal?
Has the Bank estimated the amount of money that has left the country illicitly? How will the bank pursue those who do not disclose now, and why should they disclose — having acted illegally in the past and got away with it? Why is this information not made available to the public as part of a reasoned account for the measures that are being proposed?
- The authors are based at Wits University and the School of Oriental and African Studies in London
jpurnalist=journalist
Explains why ArcelorMittal has done a deal with the people who seem to have high-jacked their mineral rights.
ALEC HOGG: In this special podcast we speak with the chief executive of ArcelorMittal South Africa (JSE:ACL), Nonkululeko Nyembezi-Heita. Nonku South Africa is a strange place to do business in. This transaction that you did today with Imperial Crown Trading (ICT) – for the outsiders it looked like some prominent Kimberley citizens and one, Jagdish Parekh, had somehow high-jacked your mineral rights which had then led to all kinds of other knock-on effects. Now you’ve dealt with them – you’ve gone and done a transaction with them. Talk us through it.
NONKULULEKO NYEMBEZI-HEITA: I have to say that from our perspective we look at these things fairly dispassionately and the crisp facts are that ArcelorMittal lost its mineral rights over its portion of Sishen Mines when it didn’t convert. The question becomes what do you do post that event – and you go about searching for solutions. You go and talk to people who typically could assist in moving you towards that point – it would be hard not to have at least looked at ICT – clearly they have the prospecting rights, we have to still have to assess whether this was lawfully given. We believe at this time that it was and we did put out in our statement that we are still in the middle of a due diligence in that regard. There are some legal hurdles that still have to be overcome, but essentially if – and I know there are a lot of ifs – but if we overcome all of those, then we could at the other end of this transaction, be sitting in a position where we’ve restored our 21.4% share of Sishen Mine as a mineral right, and that is why it makes very strong commercial sense for ArcelorMittal South Africa to at least attempt to acquire the rights.
ALEC HOGG: Before we go into how you valued it at R800m, how much money will you save if you do get those rights back?
NONKULULEKO NYEMBEZI-HEITA: It’s quite a bundle and it’s a very quick arithmetic to do – in fact it would get us to a place that is better than what we’d lost because what we lost, supposedly according to Kumba (JSE:KIO) and according to us clearly not, but what we lost was 6.25 million tonnes at cost plus three. An acquisition of these rights, and assuming they get converted to the mining rights, gets us 21.4% of Sishen which is not actually 6.25 million tonnes, it’s something to the north of that – somewhere around eight million tonnes. So you do a quick calculation between that eight million tonnes at the commercial rate today of say $150/tonne versus costs – and Kumba put out a cost at their results announcement of something around $15/tonne. OK, we were paying $30/tonne and the difference is massive – it’s in the billions.
ALEC HOGG: Why then would ICT only sell for R800m – if it’s worth billions to you?
NONKULULEKO NYEMBEZI-HEITA: Because of the risks attached – the price is a negotiated price reflecting the risk still attached to that mineral rights. As I said before, the first hurdle will be to have this prospecting right transferred to ArcelorMittal South Africa by ministerial consent. The second hurdle is to overcome the review process that has been launched by the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) into their own processes of awarding the rights. Thirdly there is a legal process in court that has been launched by Kumba, again challenging the way in which the prospecting right was awarded. So there are quite a few hurdles to overcome and clearly therefore the value that ICT can derive from selling at this stage is to reflect that.
ALEC HOGG: So you’ve almost got a back door in a way, if those other three things don’t go in the way that you would like them to, and then at least you end up owning these mineral rights for R800m.
NONKULULEKO NYEMBEZI-HEITA: Correct – and I have to say that we’re still pursuing the arbitration. The arbitration is not necessarily anything to do with the restoration of mineral rights – it is the restoration of our commercial agreement with Kumba, which we contend, remains irrespective of the ownership of the mineral rights. So that process will continue – if you think about it carefully enough, what ArcelorMittal is doing in this action, is making certain that we’ve got a number of irons in the fire – and whichever scenario ultimately plays out successfully, would find us well positioned in relation to that. That is really all that we’re doing.
ALEC HOGG: And as you say you’re looking at it dispassionately – you’re not looking at it from a moral or any other kind of soft perspective – because that’s who you are – you are a person who comes with a high reputation and high morals and to deal with people who seem to have high-jacked your mineral rights in the first place, it does beg a belief in some quarters.
NONKULULEKO NYEMBEZI-HEITA: What I will say is that dispassionate does not equal not paying attention to the law. There will be a process where we satisfy ourselves that nothing unlawful has taken place because if it did, then it would render that prospecting right defective – I’m not suggesting that the end justifies the means – not by any means. We are bound as a company to comply with anti-corruption legislation in South Africa and as ArcelorMittal Group we are also bound by the Foreign Corrupt Practice Act out of the US – therefore there is no suggestion at all that we are going to cut corners. But we cannot make business decisions based on speculation or allegations printed in the media. We have to base it on facts which is basically what we’re doing now – establishing the true position as told to us by the protagonists …
ALEC HOGG: That’s fair enough, but these protagonists, these individuals – Jagdish Parekh and some of the ‘Kimberley Kids’ as we call them here at Moneyweb – they are also participants in your R9.75bn BEE transaction that you announced today.
NONKULULEKO NYEMBEZI-HEITA: This is correct. Now go back to the value question – while the two transactions – the BEE and the acquisition of the ICT shares are not financially linked – you can well imagine that at a strategic level, they are. Then there is a sense that there is more value in this than ICT rightly believes or to derive, and that can also be achieved through them participating in our BEE deal.
ALEC HOGG: Lets get things straight here – in other words if you were going to pay them – if you didn’t include them in your BEE transaction, you would have had to pay more than R800m…
NONKULULEKO NYEMBEZI-HEITA: Yes…
ALEC HOGG: And how did the Gupta family become BEE participants, or how does one justify their participation in this, given that they are Indian nationals?
NONKULULEKO NYEMBEZI-HEITA: The Gupta family is not really participating as a BEE participant so much as they were a major facilitator in the transaction between ICT and ArcelorMittal South Africa. And this really just becomes a way to compensate them for that – now this is a tried and tested method where facilitators get to participate in the equity deal as a recompense for their efforts.
ALEC HOGG: But black economic empowerment is meant to empower those who need empowering. In this case, your transaction today – there are very wealthy people who are going to benefit from this. How can you look at a person in the street who is struggling to make ends meet, and say to them: “yes we are empowering you through this transaction” or is this too, just a commercial deal?
NONKULULEKO NYEMBEZI-HEITA: Well you get different models of empowerment, but all of them ought to have something in common and that something is a broad based element. So we have not tossed the broad based element out completely and in fact have made an allocation that goes to 8,500 staff of ArcelorMittal South Africa. We also have an element ring-fence within the Ayigobi Consortium itself where 25% of their share allocation will also go to the broad based elements of BEE groupings, which we have targeted, or we’ve said we will target women, youth and our new entrants into the empowerment…
ALEC HOGG: Have you seen the detail?
NONKULULEKO NYEMBEZI-HEITA: As ArcelorMittal South Africa we will actually be involved in the final selection process of those groupings – that is something that we have insisted on doing, and therefore we will make sure that those happen, they’re verified and they’re audited and the benefits flow to those parties…
ALEC HOGG: But there is still three quarters of that transaction and this is a massive transaction, going to Sandile Zungu who is a member of Zuma’s BEE Council – Duduzane Zuma who is obviously a member of the President’s family, the Gupta family, etcetera – I just wonder when you look back on this maybe in time to come, whether you wouldn’t have wanted to have done things differently or whether you were forced because of the commercial situation.
NONKULULEKO NYEMBEZI-HEITA: I think the driver is definitely the very strong commercial requirements for us to solve the problems that we face as a company. If you cast your mind back three weeks ago and remember the announcement that ArcelorMittal made and the sheer mayhem that could be unleashed if we don’t find a way to solve this thing – it says the stakes are very high – not only for ArcelorMittal South Africa, but for South Africa as a country in terms of potential closures of plants, potential losses of jobs – so in thinking about this, this became quite an arresting feature that we have to find a solution for this, because it’s important and it’s urgent.
ALEC HOGG: But why call it a BEE transaction because it clearly isn’t empowering those who need empowerment?
NONKULULEKO NYEMBEZI-HEITA: As I said before, you do get models of BEE that are almost en masse a broad based deal, which is great. But you do get other models where that is simply not achievable – and you’ve seen in South Africa, over time, models where strategic investors play a very large role and that typically is where a company needs assistance in a particular area that they are trying to pursue. So if all ArcelorMittal was efver going to do was produce steel in South Africa, probably the strategic element wouldn’t be so important, but given that we’re striking out into an arena that we have staked out in mining where we do in fact need assistance, it makes sense for us to go and get around us other people who may be in a position to assist us in that regard – starting with the very serious and grave situation of Sishen Mine. So it needs to be looked at in that way – while the heartstrings could pull in one direction, commercial reality does dictate that we have to find a solution that fits our unique needs at this time in South Africa.
ALEC HOGG: A strange country to do business in…
NONKULULEKO NYEMBEZI-HEITA: Your words Alec, not mine. I’m just paid to find solutions to problems, and sometimes you do things that under other circumstances you might not do, but it is what it is.
ALEC HOGG: I hope our children judge us favourably because in this kind of a transaction wow, it doesn’t look terribly empowering, but Nku you’ve laid it out and we appreciate your honesty, as always, and best of luck going forward
Hey Gwebs,
NONKULULEKO NYEMBEZI-HEITA: I’m just paid to find solutions to problems, and sometimes you do things that under other circumstances you might not do, but it is what it is.
Between a rock and a hard place lies bread buttered on both sides.
And while the Communications Minister is looking for a bed, the artists can suck eggs, from the 5 star hotel or the fancy BMW2
“The SABC is being hauled to court for refusing to pay more than R28-million in music video royalties. ”
http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article595735.ece/SABC-owes-R28m-royalties
Nonkululeko is nothing if not honest!
She could tilt at windmills like we do – go to the Constitutional Court to protect Mittal’s property rights…Or…
There goes the rule of law, people! The fix is in.
SNIP
NONKULULEKO NYEMBEZI-HEITA: I have to say that from our perspective we look at these things fairly dispassionately and the crisp facts are that ArcelorMittal lost its mineral rights over its portion of Sishen Mines when it didn’t convert. The question becomes what do you do post that event
AND
ALEC HOGG: Why then would ICT only sell for R800m – if it’s worth billions to you?
NONKULULEKO NYEMBEZI-HEITA: Because of the risks attached – the price is a negotiated price reflecting the risk still attached to that mineral rights. As I said before, the first hurdle will be to have this prospecting right transferred to ArcelorMittal South Africa by ministerial consent. The second hurdle is to overcome the review process that has been launched by the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) into their own processes of awarding the rights. Thirdly there is a legal process in court
Gwebecimele, do you agree that, in principle – if governance is a disaster in most spheres – people should enjoy the liberty to pack up their possessions and run?
ZooKeeper, a lot of people live in denial. All through my adolesence I looked at white South AFricans and asked myself: How can these people who call themselves Christians be so blind?
It is a survival strategy, a coping mechanism. The answers are all very painful.
Why does the ANC have so much invested – emotionally and otherwise – in disarming what they think is white South Africans (the ANC realised very late in the game that more than a million black SOuth AFricans own registered handguns)….despite the obvious shambles, the Billions down the drain?
What did the ANC plan to do that might peeve white South Africans – who faithfully, on average, pay 60cents out of every Rand they earn in tax – to the extent that the ANC reckons it is safer to disarm them?
@ Brett
Many do not have options to exercise neither do they have the resources nor the capacity to migrate.
@ Brett
Please don’t take us back to guns. Your tax claim might just open another can of worms, I suspect it might be succesfully contested.
@ Brett
Thanks you so very much for taking us back to the all-important gun issue. But, to be honest, is not so much the god-forsaken anus party’s expropriation of small-arms that bothers me. It is the fact that my plan to establish a small private artillery regiment have been utterly waylain!
As I sit here and read all the articles and posts about Mittal and Lonmin I am getting that strange feeling when you know something is not right but you don’t quite know why. At face value it does not appear that anything unlawful has been done in the 2 matters but it is just not sitting right in my stomach. It is a bit like going for a run after you had your breakfast and not before. You feel all sick and uncomfortable but can not do much about it, except wait for the feeling to pass. Just reading what the lady CEO of ArcelorMittal says about the structure of the BEE deal, come on who is she fooling. She can spin it any which way she wants, it is never going to sound right. The daylight robbery that has taken place in these 2 instances is mindboggeling and astounding. The damage this is doing to ou international brand name as an investment oppertunity is unmeasurable. That is the only reason why I wish we already had the media tribunal. So that the tribunal can block the publication of any story on the matter so that the international business community can never become aware of this fiasco.
Then again how I wish I was as clever as the chaps from ICT. They will be pocketing R800million for doing absolutely nothing productive. They moved a few papers around and did a feel deals and just like that, instant millionairs. How nicely they must sleep in their expensive beds.
@ Deloris Dolittle
Until we start apply the same values and standards to profits and taxes dont expect any change except for the faces around the table. There is more deals to come and there is enough money to fly around and all we do is pray to be next in the queue. As for FDI, it has no morals.
So Mittal didn’t convert their mining rights when they were supposed to?
The mining rights then became fair game.
This bunch snapped them up and sold them to Mittal who are now paying for not doing their due diligence on their licence. Mittal are not so much victims as idiots.
Nobody “hi-jacked” the mineral rights, the rights went onto the open market.
(Of course, if Mittal had tried to convert and this bunch had hi-jacked their application by the back-door then different story altogether)
From what I can see this bunch saw the opportunity and made a packet.
My opinion: Well done. Excellent eye for the gap. Good on you and have a bottle of some good stuff on me. To Mittal: you didn’t convert, pay up because this is your fault.
I think this whole media tribunal and protection of information bill is the ANC revealing its biggest weakness. The ANC has become isolated from the media out of scorn and have lost touch or forgotten why the media is so important in this country.
They no longer understand the purpose of the media because they refuse to engage with the media. I guess this bill and tribunal are signs of desperation…
Perhaps if more resolutions were made to stamp out patronage, careerism, corruption and abuse of powers; ineffective management (as noted but not addressed here – in point 8: http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/conf/conference52/resolutions-f.html) none of us would be sitting in this position!
All this will do is solve their problems in the short run – but it’s opening up a macro-sized can of worms in the long-run!
I predict the Bill will not be enacted in its current form. A win/win solution all round:
1. The press will remain free to cause trouble.
2. The ANC will derive credit for forbearance and loyalty to the Constitution.
3. The media will have been duly warned that it must not push its luck.
ZooKeeper – before mineral rights were nationalised – say, the day after the Constitution became law:
Were mineral rights property?
@ Gwebecimele
Sure, because it is you asking! If it were Maggs or the Mossad guy…
@ Zoo Keeper
Lonmin and Mittal have been avoiding to do a BEE deal which is a requirement to convert mining rights. Gold Fields signed three deals recently because this administration (especially Minister Shabangu), unlike the perevious one, is taking action.
This is clear evidendce that White businesses are sabotaging AA and BEE. I hope other Ministers will also crack the whip in other sectors.
@Gwebecimele: Ask yourself why they don’t want to do business with BEE companies. Is it pure racism? Anti-revolutionary behaviour?
C’mon! The ANC is interested in BEE for only 1 reason – sharing the spoils but THEY DON’T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT THE QUALITY OF SERVICE. Nothing in their 52nd national conference resolution talks about ensuring a level of quality within these BEE companies. You can’t transfor BACKWARDS!! Thats Stupid!!
transfor = transforM
Brett Nortje says:
August 11, 2010 at 14:11 pm
“the Mossad guy…”
LOL!
Dworky’s gonna nuke you.
@ Sky
Then we all gonna pay dearly. If you let your anti-ANC cloud your judgement on genuine BBBEE and AA efforts then you are assisting the opportunists to ride the inequlaity anger.
Well back to journalism.
Now that Ramphele and Sexwale support “media freedom” what ever that means, I would like to know who is against it?
This another incomplete story with no substance.
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Media-gets-another-ally-in-Ramphele-20100811
More boiled chickens coming home to roost!
Slain mining magnate Brett Kebble paid to have corrupt former police commissioner Jackie Selebi “make his troubles go away” and ensure the now-defunct Scorpions were disbanded, the High Court in Johannesburg heard on Wednesday.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=nw20100811131619533C936388
“I never saw Mr Selebi without Mr Agliotti, I know Selebi didn’t eat meat and didn’t drink … Both Brett [Kebble] and Selebi were Zuma supporters and Brett was supporting Selebi with the Khampepe Commission”.
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-08-11-kebble-depressed-and-troubled-before-his-death
What is the relevance of this statement, in the article.
Read below
“Minaar, a slightly-built man, answered questions in a soft, measured tone”
“I never saw Mr Selebi without Mr Agliotti, I know Selebi didn’t eat meat and didn’t drink …
Well, it is true that comrade Selebi saved his S&T money and only ate bread in his hotel room on obverseas trips.
This info will be valuable during the appeal process.
@ Gwebe:
“Now that Ramphele and Sexwale support “media freedom” what ever that means, I would like to know who is against it?”
Count me as one who is firmly opposed to “media freedom” — if that entails that the liberal white media is licensed to manipulate public opinion against the ANC, ignore the rancid odour of corruption emanating from DA quarters, discredit the government with flagrant lies, and ride roughshod over the dignity and privacy of selfless men and women who have devoted their lives to public service.
Thanks very much.
I don’t think that Me Sexwale has come out against the Bills. Watch to see whether he engages in some Newspeak and declares the measures (or perhaps slightly watered-down versions thereof) to be the very thing that will guarantee media freedom (like when a country has “Peoples” or “Democratic” in its name).
Come to think of it, is this not perhaps the ANC strategy – scare us with the whole shbang, and then water it down slightly, so that we are grateful for any “concessions” from our masters.
Close your eyes. Imagine there are Ministers who flay their sectors like the mining industry has been flayed.
Open your eyes.
Look at what is left of the mining sector. Project that scenario onto the rest of the country.
Aurorazania?
@ Brett
Aurorazania. HAHAHAAHAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thats a good one, I am glad its nothing but a dream.
@ Dworky
Thanks for clarifying your position but I am more interested in the ANC leaders that can pronounce on ANC position.
By A Spath
If you ask people what the causes of our environmental predicament are, they typically come up with one or several of the following:
- human greed and selfishness,
- corporate greed and selfishness,
- a materialistic consumer culture,
- aggressive rivalry over natural resources among individuals, companies and countries,
- a philosophy that values financial profits over people and planet, and
- a preoccupation with competition rather than co-operation.
Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t these some of the defining characteristics of capitalism? Then why don’t we identify capitalism as the culprit? The fact that capitalism, as a dominant mode of organising our human interactions, might be at the root of the dilemma is entirely absent from the mainstream discourse in the media and elsewhere.
It’s as though capitalism is the new über-expletive. The C-word that can’t be mentioned in polite society.
Capitalism is predicated on continuous and expanding growth accomplished by the exploitation of human labour and the natural world, which are converted into commodities to be turned into profit and capital. Everything – air, soil, ore, plants, oil, genetic blueprints, indigenous knowledge – has a price and if it doesn’t, it’s of no value and can be trashed with gay abandon. Nature is seen simply as a repository of raw materials. On a local and global level, capitalism depends on deep inequalities between wealthy elites and a working multitude, between resource-extracting humans and resource-yielding nature and on market mechanisms that have proved to be too slow and unresponsive to environmental crises.
It doesn’t take a brainiac to realise that on a finite planet a system like that can only have one final destination: collapse.
@Gwebecimele:
are you suggesting that South Africa ought to become a communist state?
Gwebe, that author you quote is right in identifying the characteristic flaws in capitalism.
This cannot, however, be the source of the problems with the ANC.
The ANC has firmly rejected capitalism.
It is the DA that supports capitalism.
Always remember that.
Thanks.
@Gwebecimele:
My question still stands…
If the ANC has rejected capitalism, have they not embraced ‘State monopoly capitalism’? With much trouble created for themselves (e.g. Eskom, Telkom, etc…)
Prof, way too much ‘us’ and ‘them’. Its the media versus the the big bad government.
I do not believe in a tribunal. But our media is lazy and mistakes gossip for analytical investigative jounalism.
So, Prof is Redi Direko, the current 702 media journalist and host of a TV Talk Show, an objective person a good illustration of the media in our country. Was she a bad person when she was Ebrahim Rasool’s spokesperson in and around 2004?
@ Sky
Real ANC supports a “Developmental State” and not Capitalism which is what has caused problems for Eskom and Telkom. If these were not run purely for profits but for efficient& affordable energy and communication we would be much better.
Mikhail Dworkin Fassbinder says:
August 11, 2010 at 16:15 pm
Hey Boiled Mossad Guy,
Stephen Hawkins wants us to colonise space.
How capitalistic is that????
@ Gwebe
“Real ANC supports a “Developmental State” and not Capitalism”
The original “developmental states” — South Korea, Singapore. etc, remain demonstrably “capitalist” in nature.
Gwebecimele says:
August 11, 2010 at 16:46 pm
Your points are well described and difficult to fault. As Churchill said, or word to the effect: Democracy is not the best form of government, but its better than all those others.
In the same vein, Capitalism is not necessarily the best from of economics, but its certainly better than all the rest.
The problem here is not Capitalism (which produces jobs, growth, advancement and income), it is failure of government to utilize the benefits for all the people it is intended to serve and which tax payers have paid for.
There is a middle path, but your government has to be honest and dedicated to the people, principles and ethics. Check out Canada and Sweden, not to mention other true Democracies (which all have Capitalism).
Blaming greed on capitalism is like blaming your wife for your own unfaithfulness.
Michael Osborne says:
August 11, 2010 at 19:08 pm
Hey Michael,
“Real ANC supports a “Developmental State” and not Capitalism”
It’s pretty hard to work out what the ‘real ANC’ supports now.
Despite the recent assurances from Ishmael, it sure seems like the lambs have been silenced.
In any event, is a developmental state in your view not capitalistic in nature?
Cast your mind back exactly one month. July 11th 2010.
Where were you then? Where was South Africa, then?
Viva ANC! Viva!
Assclowns!
@ Maggs
“is a developmental state in your view not capitalistic in nature”
Yes, of course. That path has been tried many times. Sometimes with a degree of success, albeit at the expense of democracy. (See Korea, Malaysia.) More often, the developmental state has led to disaster. (See the “corporatist” neo-facists of Latin America, 1950-1985.)
Michael Osborne says:
August 11, 2010 at 21:32 pm
Surely it’s not the developmental state policy that led to the disasters but other factors.
The best example of a successful developmental state may well be post war Japan (under US administration of course).
In a letter to The Star of 20 August 2002, Anglo’s Michael Spicer stated: “The facts of the impact of the “draft charter” on the value of South African mining stocks are…quite unambiguous……Not only did Anglo lose some R35-billion in market capitalisation directly as a result of the draft charter, but the savings held by the average South African through institutions (and 50% of these are historically disadvantaged South Africans) lost an average of R2 900 in value”
Connect the dots. ANGLO…..Lonmin.
Maggs, yes, one would class Japan as the original Asian Tiger. Its economic success was undeniable; but it was also, as SA now is, a de facto one party state, for 50 years or so.
@ Brett
I am told that poor blacks are delighted to sacrifice a little for the sake of BEE. In fact, I read somewhere that, even shivering in their windswept iron shacks through the long nights of the Highveld winter, families of laid-off miners derive a little warm glow just from thinking of the glittering riches to which Cyril, and Tokyo, and Patrice have laid claim.
Friends in High Places
http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71654?oid=192709&sn=Detail&pid=71616
The NDPP Adv. Menzi Simelane is continuing to restructure the NPA and to decapitate and disband the Specialised Commercial Crimes Unit in defiance of President Zuma’s instructions.
We all know that the media has faults (sensationalist, lazy, willing to publicise carefully planted leaks, … sorry guys), but we are seeing classic bullying tactics here. Accuse, accuse, accuse, until either the media gives in, or the rest of us accept the media being muzzled.
And yet the ANC brushes off far worse criticism of itself all of the time. Come to think of it, many in the ANC are precisely the ones who have subverted the media to serve their own factionalist ends.
No compromise, guys. Stick to your guns and watch out for underhand tricks. The ANC has their backs against the wall (in terms of truth and credibility).
And if anyone doubts that the ANC is willing to engage in subversion of law, truth and constitutionality, just remembers the names Mpshe and Simelane…
Someone once wrote: “Liberated media is fundamentally crucial in genuine democratic societies because it practices the theory of including the public in governmental affairs, and commemorates the democratic idea that reality can only be relative and truth and facts are to be deemed authentic by individuals, not administrators.
The average man is discreetly unconnected in a democracy, his opinions and beliefs have no real influence on anything. The only real reason there is journalism in a democracy is so the average man is aware that there is an election, so he can vote! And to vote for whom, largely depends on which newspaper and journalist he subscribes to. While politics might make up less than a quarter of a newspaper, make no mistake, journalism is the advertising agency of politicians. The rest is simply marketable brain fodder.”
It makes sense the ANC would crack down on print media as the majority of their supporters have little-to-no internet access…
(sorry for the copy & paste)
Michael Osborne says:
August 11, 2010 at 23:40 pm
Post war Japan certainly had advantages over many countries, including being prevented from establishing its own military for many decades.
South Korea is a pretty good example of what a developmental state can achieve if determined to do so. It may well be that their focus on proper and strong education from kindergarten to university and beyond perhaps is among the major contributors. I read some while ago that the competition is extremely high, so much so that the difference between first and second places is frequently computed in fractions of a percent.
It’s unlikely though that we will get there or even remotely close. As I understand it, teacher training at universities get the least government subsidies and of that the undergrad studies is the worst off – it’s almost like there is a deliberate attempt not to produce teachers of the caliber required to really transform our nation.
Mikhail Dworkin Fassbinder says:
August 11, 2010 at 23:57 pm
Hye Boiled Mossad Guy,
“In fact, I read somewhere that, even shivering in their windswept iron shacks through the long nights of the Highveld winter, families of laid-off miners derive a little warm glow just from thinking of the glittering riches to which Cyril, and Tokyo, and Patrice have laid claim.”
Like these?
20 miners executed
Aug 12, 2010 | Luzuko Pongoma | comments
EXCLUSIVE: Security guards allegedly went on a killing spree at a mine owned by the nephew of President Jacob Zuma and grandson of Nelson Mandela.
http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2010/08/12/20-miners-executed
Good News!!!
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Schabir-behaves-well-gets-reward-20100811
Shaik has been well-behaved since the incident in December, which is why he regained some privileges, Maelisi Wolela, spokesperson for the department of correctional services, said on Wednesday.
abidam says:
August 12, 2010 at 8:29 am
Hey abidam,
“Shaik has been well-behaved since the incident in December, which is why he regained some privileges”.
What’s so privileged about being terminally ill????
How does one define ‘in the interests of our nation’ or ‘a threat to national security’?
The hypocrisy of the ANC is breathtaking:
http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71654?oid=192456&sn=Detail&pid=71616
And the DA’s response:
http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71654?oid=192665&sn=Detail&pid=71616
Who should be muzzled, I ask?
Interesting how the BEEE debate has been going on in this blog and other forums. I grew up in Zambia and watched as a country was stolen under the feet of the natives. The problem with Zambia was that the private sector, mostly British companies did not play ball with the government policies of the time. Instead well meaning economists suggested that if the economy was left to flourish indigenous people would be assimilated into the economy and the country would benefit from business. Somehow this did not happen. Because “white” business, especially mines, were not interested in empowering black Zambians, the country decided to foolishly nationalise the mines thinking that they could get revenue to kick start the economy and be able to empower their own. Many other countries have gone this route. South Africa is going through the same pains (dilemma). How do you force the economy to change and to benefit the majority when every year the Commission for Employment Equity report says that we have not moved a step in the right direction in 16 years. What is the alternative to BEEE? Why is it that we complain when the Tokyo Sexwales, Cyril Ramaphosas etc get BEE deals? Why do we complain when politically connected people get BEEE deals? What is the alternative: take a security guard from Soweto give him 49% shares in your company and pay him R1500 per month for owning these shares. I have tried to understand and work out what power black people had after the 27 April 1994. Not many if any were rich, they did not own companies, were not directors of companies etc. What did they have? They had political power and that was their only bargaining power. So they (politicians) used it to get business deals, what other alternative did they have. Which other black people could have had the clout to get these deals? Security guards? Business has been very good at making sure they are pleasing their new politically connected “business friends”. What else can business do? Don’t they expect something from these relationships? 16 years down the line business still cannot identify black people who they can jump into bed with, without being pushed into that direction. They then do what they know and trust to be working; Sleep with politically connected people. Do we really expect business to go into deals to empower black people because they feel they are doing it for the good of the country? These are the same business people that can’t change the demographics of their companies 16 years on. Detractors must come with an alternative to what’s happening now. The other thing government can do is go the Zambian way, Nationalise, Nationalise, Nationalise.
Blah blah blah Thomas!
Everyone wants to be CEO of Anglo. Well, Anglo has left the building!
You’re fixated on the wrong end of the economy. The SBDC, Urban Foundation and others had a far better idea of how to develop SMME’s to provide jobs and income for the poor than does the ‘Batho Pele’ government.
And, that was during the twilight-days of apartheid.
Great! The nationalisation debate again. I am still owed answers!
Thomas says:
August 12, 2010 at 8:54 am
Hey Thomas,
That’s a very interesting take.
Paste it in the next post and we can pick it up there.
http://constitutionallyspeaking.co.za/what-do-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-transformation-2/
Samantha says:
August 12, 2010 at 8:47 am
“Who should be muzzled, I ask?”
Nobody!
Provided that they abide by the provisions of our constitution that is.
@ Michael
Well I try and avoid the rigid definitions of Capitalism, Socialism, Communism and others since there are many variations in between these concepts.
Let me concede that most scholars do clasify Developmental State as Capitalism.
My understanding of the “Real ANC” choice of Developmental State is a state led macro-economic planning coupled with strong regulatory agencies for most sectors and decisive intervention to correct market failures, price fixing, monopolies etc. SA unique transformation needs add another dimension to this definition and channel it away from Capitalism and more towards Socilasm.
In reality thes are not “Out of the box” solutions hence each country picks up what is relevant to them and their voters.
From FIN24.COM
Liberty starts the censorship games couldn’t help but stir the pot a bit considering all the jabbering on about media freedom in South Africa:
Apparently JSE listed Liberty Holdings has taken to censoring access to Fin24.com after some of the company staff started trading insults in the comments section of a story run on Thursday last week.
Fin24.com has learnt via sources within Liberty Life that access to News24 and Fin24.com sites were blocked on Tuesday by IT management. Ironically the story where the initial comments were placed was around the positive results from parent Liberty Holdings, which delivered a R1bn profit.
This was a significant turnaround from the R1bn loss the company reported for the first six months of the 2009 financial year.
“Just heard that Liberty Life has stopped the entire fin24 site from being accessed by its staff. And, no, it’s not a network issue – it’s deliberate censorship. Big corporate scared of a few negative comments hurting staff morale, or possibly finding the truth a bitter pill… And we’re supposed to trust these people with our money,” commented one user on Fin24.com.
Approached for comment on the allegations, Liberty responded in a media statement saying: “Late yesterday an overzealous employee in the IT department unfortunately blocked access to Fin24.com for a brief period of time – without authorization. Once this was brought to our attention, the site was immediately opened again early this morning. Appropriate internal action is being taken to ensure this situation does not happen again. Liberty employs an open stance on access to information in the media.”
Liberty as a group has not enjoyed the most positive media coverage over the last 18 months. Apart from its large mark-to-market loss in the first half of 2009, its asset management business Stanlib has been critcised for a number of high profile management changes and reports of poor morale.
When presenting Liberty’s results on Thursday last week, CEO Bruce Hemphill leapt to the company’s defence pointing out that while it had been criticised in the media, Stanlib remained South Africa’s largest unit trust manager in the retail market by market share.
Dworky, if you do eventually find that nuke you are looking for please launch it in the direction of Stanlib!
Peter Leon podcast on ICT/Mittal and Lonmin
http://www.fin24.com/Podcasts/MetalHeads/Metal-Heads-Aug-12-10-20100812
AUBREY MATSHIQI: Media must admit they are a centre of power too
SURELY not all the people and sectional interests that have come out in support of, or in opposition to, the idea of setting up a media tribunal are driven by snow white motives.
Published: 2010/08/13 07:38:27 AM
SURELY not all the people and sectional interests that have come out in support of, or in opposition to, the idea of setting up a media tribunal are driven by snow white motives. This, I suspect, is why the debate has been characterised by scaremongering and fog.
What we have here is a clash between the nature of politics and the nature of news, the blurring of the fine line between the two, and how both have the capacity to engage in egregious forms of Orwellian manipulation when the stakes are high enough.
That is why I am not surprised that Polokwane has featured prominently in the reasons given by the African National Congress (ANC) when they explain their appetite for a media tribunal.
There is no doubt in my mind that partisan political behaviour afflicted both the warring Zuma and Mbeki camps in the ANC, as well as those sections of the media that were seized by visions of a preferred conclusion to the Polokwane battle for the presidency of the ANC. This partisan political behaviour later became the sub-theme of the battle between the ANC and the Congress of the People.
In the media, as a site of political warfare, even political commentators became foot soldiers of factional interests as well as primary definers of political reality.
It is for this reason that there are times I refuse to see news as nothing but a social, ideological and political construct. News is not valueless, and because it is value-laden, its character as a political construct has provided some of the backdrop against which the ANC is opportunistically flirting with the idea of a media tribunal.
In short, this is partly a battle between two sides with hidden agendas disguised as a defence of media freedom and the public interest on the one hand, and the national interest on the other.
The fog will clear only when those on both sides of the debate — who are genuinely interested in freedom — stand up to drown the opportunism of those with hidden agendas.
Solutions must come from the middle, and those who are in the middle are among us in the media and the ruling party. It is time for the dwarfs to rise in defence of Snow White.
On the other hand, spare a thought for the ANC, because the media tribunal may be one out of only a few things that will not divide ANC delegates at its national general council next month.
And this is precisely what scares me. If a show of unity becomes a critical deliverable, this, together with an overly defensive media that suffers from selective perception, might give wings to an idea that should not survive the rigour of democratic ideals.
But we must be open to the possibility that sense will prevail at the national general council because the country is faced with challenges much greater than setting up a tribunal for incompetent or malicious journalism. This would be like shooting a mouse with a bazooka, since most of the journalism we have been exposed to since 1994 has been a good advertisement for democracy.
But it is not enough for the media to put up a defence. It must also posit an alternative that is based on acknowledging the limitations of its self-regulation architecture. For me, there are several alternatives to choose from:
n The ombudsman should be retained, but complainants must be able to seek relief by other means when they are not satisfied with his findings.
n The ombudsman must be a journalist or non- journalist with the requisite skills, experience and expertise.
n Each newsroom must have an internal mechanism for dealing with complaints.
n The involvement of non-journalists must happen at the first point of dealing with complaints.
n Punitive measures must include hefty fines that must be paid into a fund established for the promotion of media diversity.
Ultimately, we must become critical consumers of news, and journalists must improve their capacity for self-reflection and stop pretending that power resides exclusively in, and is abused only by, the ANC.
- Matshiqi is senior research associate with the Centre for Policy Studies
Mr Matshiqi would do well to remember that we can choose and discard newspapers according to their competence, integrity and commitment to democracy. We can not do the same with the ANC.
@ Anton
The message here is, the media can achieve more by fixing their backyard and not pretend that they are perfect. He also warns that defensive media might achieve the opposite when the ANC takes this to its NGC.
Your deduction of who is easier to discard might give you a “warm fuzzy “feeling but that was not the intention of this author.
anton kleinschmidt says:
August 13, 2010 at 13:00 pm
“We can not do the same with the ANC.”
In the words of BO, “yes we can”.
Gwebecimele, the M&G story in the link you posted really deserves to be posted…
Spin doctor red-faced over fake letter
JUSTIN ARENSTEIN AND SYDNEY MASINGA | JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – Aug 13 2010 12:30
Mpumalanga premier David Mabuza’s spin doctors seem to have played a central role in circulating the fake letter that led to the dramatic arrest of Sunday Times investigative journalist, Mzilikazi wa Afrika, last week.
Mabuza’s chief spokesperson, Mabutho Sithole, reluctantly admitted on Thursday that he personally tipped off journalists about the existence of the letter, in which the premier purportedly confirms his resignation to President Jacob Zuma.
He also emailed a PDF copy of the letter to at least two journalists at the same time as the premier’s office was lodging criminal charges of fraud and defeating the ends of justice against “conspirators” Wa Afrika and Mbombela (Nelspruit) councillor Victor Mlimi. The charges were changed last week after the two had been arrested to fraud, forgery and “uttering” — which is knowingly circulating a fraudulent document.
The letter came from a confidential source and was faxed, via Mlimi, to Wa Afrika, who received it on July 21. Wa Afrika then passed the letter on to another Sunday Times journalist, who followed it up with the premier’s office by sending it to Sithole for verification.
Letter received
Sithole has confirmed receiving the PDF version of the letter from the Sunday Times on July 24. “I knew immediately that it was fake. The signature is nothing like the premier’s real one. I told them it was part of a plot to destabilise the province and smear the premier,” said Sithole.
Based on Sithole’s response, plus denials from the presidency and ANC, the Sunday Times decided against publishing a story on the issue.
Sithole nevertheless phoned Sowetan journalist Alfred Moselakgomo the following day, July 25, to tip him off about the “rumours” and the existence of the letter.
Sithole then emailed a copy of the PDF letter to Sowetan’s Mpumalanga bureau chief, Riot Hlatshwayo, and Sowetan reporter Kingdom Mabuza on Monday July 26.
“We hadn’t even heard rumours about the issue until the tip-off on the Sunday, and would not have had enough evidence to publish anything if we hadn’t received the letter from Mabutho,” says Hlatshwayo.
Other journalists
Hlatshwayo co-wrote a story about the allegations and then forwarded the PDF letter to City Press, Beeld, The Witness, Jacaranda FM and investigative news agency African Eye News Service (AENS). He also tipped off colleagues in the SABC’s local radio and TV news teams.
The SABC and City Press subsequently ran stories on the rumoured resignation and Mabuza’s insistence that the publicity was part of a political plot to oust him and to topple the provincial administration.
Sithole refused to say why Wa Afrika had been targeted for arrest when he had not circulated the letter or written about it, or why journalists who had circulated it and written about the controversy had not been charged.
“Regardless of how the journalists got the letter, there is a plot, and journalists are part of it. We have evidence. But this whole matter is now sub judice and I will not comment further [out of] respect for the legal process,” said Sithole.
He refused to confirm or deny whether the evidence against Wa Afrika was based on surveillance of the media by intelligence agencies. Mabuza has previously boasted about receiving weekly classified reports on “troublemakers” in the province, including reports about “people who say things”.
“I checked with [Mabuza] and he will not tell me yes or no. He said he is not going to tell me, because the information is classified,” said Sithole.
No charges?
He also refused to say why the province had not pressed charges in the case of another high-profile fraudulent letter — one purportedly used by project management company, Lefika Emerging Equity.
Lefika, whose owners include Kaizer Chiefs general manager Bobby Motaung and Mpumalanga tycoon Herbert Theledi, allegedly wrote a fraudulent letter to First National Bank. The letter, on the Mbombela municipality’s letterhead, requested an overdraft based on the claim that it had submitted a sizeable invoice to the council in December 2008 for its work on the Mbombela stadium.
Mbombela speaker Jimmy Mohlala, who announced publicly that he intended lodging fraud charges with police, was killed in front of his teenage son in January 2009, two days before he was scheduled to meet investigators.
Lefika and Motaung were not immediately available for comment, but both repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. Mbombela mayor Lassy Chiwayo said at the time that the murder was an assassination to silence Mohlala and said he and other council officials had received threatening calls.
The Sunday Times confirmed on Thursday that Wa Afrika had been investigating why no fraud charge had been lodged in the case and why no one had been arrested for the killing.
The paper’s legal spokesperson, Susan Smuts, also confirmed that Wa Afrika claimed that he had been followed and narrowly evaded a possible kidnap attempt in the province in April. Another journalist who has started looking into the case, City Press’s Sizwe samaYende, is currently under 24-hour protection after dodging a gunman who ambushed him at his Mbombela home last Friday night.
No comment
“Both these cases, Wa Afrika’s matter and Mohlala’s murder, are active and ongoing investigations and as such I cannot comment on them,” said Hawks spokesperson Musa Zondi on Thursday afternoon.
Wa Afrika and Mlimi are both out on R5000 bail each, pending further investigation by the Hawks. They have had to surrender their passports and are scheduled to reappear in the Nelspruit courts on November 8.
Wa Afrika’s attorney, Eric van den Berg, meanwhile confirmed that the Hawks had agreed to return Wa Afrika’s notebooks and research files, which were seized from the journalist’s home without a search warrant immediately after his arrest last week and were turned over to crime intelligence officers in Mpumalanga for “analysis”. They include material stretching back 11 years, including notes on his investigations into the arms deal, Travelgate and other scandals.
Media freedom organisations, including the South African National Editors’ Forum, have expressed concern that the identity of whistleblowers and confidential sources unrelated to the fraudulent letter case may have been compromised. — African Eye News Service
Gwebecimele says:
August 13, 2010 at 15:31 pm
“The message here is, the media can achieve more by fixing their backyard and not pretend that they are perfect.”
Hmmm, I’m not sure of the logic here. This is fraud with intention to manipulate the law to support a political agenda? Not sure what the ‘lesson’ for the media is. They are subordinate to politicians?
hehehehehe.
Boiled peacocks and plumed chickens!
Zuma slams press calls for debate on media’s role
http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article601347.ece/Zuma-slams-press-calls-for-debate-on-medias-role
Zuma calls for debate on media’s role
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-08-14-zuma-calls-for-debate-on-medias-role
LOL
The Emperor is wearing no clothes (chuckle)…
Will we be able to read such news is the Information scandal Bill is passed into law?
Water prices for South Africans could in the near future quadruple as a result of the escalating pollution of the country’s water resources by the country’s mining industry.
http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5603744
[...] Further reading: Journalism.co.za article on the nitty gritty of the proposed media tribunal and the arguments for and against. The Ashley Smith scandal and how the Cape Argus investigated and exposed the revelations. How and why the Auckland Park Declaration was signed. Constitutional-law expert Pierre de Vos on why the media tribunal is a case of “Boiled chickens pr… [...]
[...] investigated and exposed the revelations. How and why the Auckland Park Declaration was signed. Constitutional-law expert Pierre de Vos on why the media tribunal is a case of “Boiled chickens pr… “Would Media Appeals Tribunal be constitutional?” by Pierre de Vos. The Press Ombudsman’s [...]