Numsa Media Monitor A daily compilation of articles dealing with labour related issues

Wednesday 16 November 2016

South African workers

Cosatu welcomes recommendation on salaries

Heidi Giokos, The Star,14 November 2016

Johannesburg - Cosatu has welcomed a recommendation by the Independent Commission on the Remuneration of Public Office Bearers to freeze all salary increases for political and public officers due to the current economic situation.

The federation said in a statement on Monday the decision was long overdue and political leaders needed to show solidarity with the struggling working class.

“The huge salaries and benefits that are paid to political office-bearers and senior bureaucrats are the source of the existing inequalities and unacceptable income disparities that currently exist in the public service,” said spokesman Sizwe Pamla.

Cosatu also said it hoped the government would reduce salaries paid to MPs and cabinet members.

While the federation welcomed the reduction, it cautioned the government not to use this as an excuse to freeze or moderate the salaries of public servants during wage negotiations in 2018.

“The lowly public servants are the ones who are at the coalface of service delivery. It is totally unacceptable that police officers, nurses and teachers will have to work for nine years before earning an annual salary of a director-general,” said Pamla.

http://www.iol.co.za/business/news/cosatu-welcomes-recommendation-on-salaries-2089822

Concourt takes firm stand against racism

Safura Abdool Karim, GroundUp/ Daily Maverick, 14 Nov 2016

The crux of a case before the Constitutional Court concerned how should one respond to racism. Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng ruled to the effect that racism can no longer be glossed over, accommodated or excused.

"[This case] bears testimony to the fact that there are many bridges yet to be crossed in our journey from crude and legalised racism to a new order where social cohesion, equality and the effortless observance of the right to dignity is a practical reality.” – Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng

On November 8 the Constitutional Court delivered a unanimous judgment in the case of South African Revenue Service v Commission For Conciliation, Mediation And Arbitration and Others.

To the court, this case was about more than an unfair dismissal; it was a reminder of the gap between the goals of our constitutional democracy and the remnants of our painful and divisive past. It was also a moment for the court to reflect on why racist language was still openly practised by some in our country despite it being unconstitutional and illegal and what role the court ought to play in changing this.

The judgment begins with a reminder that the United Nations declared the system of apartheid to be a “crime against humanity”. Mogoeng then discusses the history and meaning of the word kaffir and its status as hate speech before affirming the court’s responsibility in the eradication of racism under South Africa’s constitutional order.

“Are we perhaps too soft on racism and the use of the word kaffir in particular?” the Chief Justice asks and then answers, “My observation is that very serious racial incidents hardly ever trigger a fittingly firm and sustained disapproving response.”

The case concerned Jacobus Johannes Kruger, a SARS employee who referred to his superior as a kaffir on two separate occasions in 2007. Following these incidents, Kruger was subject to a disciplinary hearing where he pleaded guilty and admitted that he had used racist remarks toward his superior on both occasions. Kruger did not apologise or show remorse for his conduct. The chairperson of the hearing imposed a 10-day sanction and a final written warning which would be valid for six months. The chairperson also ordered Kruger to undergo counselling.

When the SARS Commissioner at the time, Pravin Gordhan, became aware of the decision of the enquiry, he amended the sanction to dismissal.

Kruger challenged the fairness of his dismissal at the CCMA. He also challenged the commissioner’s authority to convert the sanction. Kruger also denied having made the racist remarks he had admitted to in the inquiry and alleged that he was forced to plead guilty at the inquiry.

However, the CCMA proceedings were ultimately restricted to the issue of the commissioner’s authority to alter the chairperson’s sanction. The arbitrator ultimately found that the commissioner did not have the authority to alter the sanction and ordered Kruger’s reinstatement as per the original sanction imposed by the chairperson.

SARS unsuccessfully appealed the decision in both the Labour Court and Labour Appeals Court.

Following the Labour Appeal Court’s dismissal, SARS initially decided not to appeal and advised Kruger of this decision. Kruger was also told to make arrangements to return to work. However, three days later, SARS reversed this decision and informed Kruger that it intended to appeal and the case eventually came before the Constitutional Court.

Kruger challenged the appeal on the basis of SARS’s initial decision not to pursue an appeal and argued that SARS had effectively abandoned its right to appeal and was therefore unable to pursue an appeal. The Constitutional Court found that though SARS had abandoned its right to appeal there were constitutional considerations which justified the court overriding this abandonment and allowing the appeal to proceed.

The appeal SARS brought before the Constitutional Court was slightly different to those in the lower courts in that it sought to set aside the arbitrator’s decision to reinstate Kruger on the ground that the decision was unreasonable.

To decide this issue, the court had to answer one question: Was the arbitrator’s decision one that no reasonable arbitrator would have made in the circumstances?

When making an order, an arbitrator of the CCMA can grant three remedies: reinstatement, re-employment and compensation.

In terms of the Labour Relations Act, an order for the reinstatement of an employee must be made unless one of four circumstances exist:

1. The employee does not want to be reinstated or re-employed;

2. The relationship between the employer and employer has become intolerable;

3. It is not reasonably practicable for the employee to be reinstated or re-employed; or

4. The finding of unfairness was only based on the employer’s failure to follow a fair procedure.

As a result, the arbitrator needs to consider whether one of the four exceptions applies to his or her case before making a decision on the appropriate order.

SARS alleged that this second exception applied – that Kruger’s racist remarks constituted misconduct that was so serious it rendered his continued employment at SARS intolerable.

SARS had advanced evidence on this issue in the proceedings at both the CCMA and Labour Court. However, Kruger alleged that SARS had failed to prove that the employment relationship was intolerable as a result of his racist remarks.

The Constitutional Court found that Kruger’s comments expressed the “worst kind of contempt, racism, and insubordination” and proper reflection on these statements alone should have led to the conclusion that reinstatement was not an appropriate remedy.

The court did note that this conclusion is not absolute and that in certain, exceptional circumstances, the use of the word kaffir may not render the working relationship intolerable. However, in those circumstances, the employee would have to explain why the relationship was not intolerable.

The court stressed that an employer did not carry the burden of explaining why the use of the word kaffir as well as all the extreme racist connotations associated with it would render an employment relationship intolerable.

Mogoeng also stated that Mr Kruger’s arguments demonstrated insensitivity – or, at best, desperation. The Court noted Mr Kruger’s dishonesty and lack of remorse for his actions, something that could not be overcome by “[Kruger’s] assertion that he has African friends and that he is a pastor”.

The court ordered that instead of reinstating Kruger, SARS must pay him six months of his salary at the time he was dismissed.

In this judgment, the Constitutional Court sent an uncompromising message that racism has no place in South Africa’s democracy and that our judiciary has a responsibility to eradicate racism.

“Conduct of this kind needs to be visited with a fair and just but very firm response by this and other courts as custodians of our constitutional democracy, if we ever hope to arrest or eliminate racism. Mollycoddling cannot cut it.”

http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2016-11-14-groundup-concourt-takes-firm-stand-against-racism/#.WCsWSE3lrIU

Primedia top exec quits in Times Media row

Dineo Faku, Business Report, 15 November 2016

Johannesburg - Primedia Broadcasting CEO Terry Volkwyn resigned on Monday amid continuing minority shareholder dissatisfaction with the planned takeover of the company by the Times Media Group (TMG).

Volkwyn said she would step down at the end of June.

Primedia group CEO Roger Jardine could not expand on reasons for Volkwyn’s decision to quit after 30 years of service.

Jardine said that Volkwyn would become the chairwoman of Primedia Broadcasting from January and would be replaced by Omar Essack, the deputy group chief executive at Kagiso Media in February.

“Terry will take on the role of chairperson of Primedia Broadcasting from January 1, and work with Omar on a smooth handover until her departure at the end of June 2017,” Jardine said.

“Terry’s absence will be profoundly felt. However, after 30 years of dedication to Primedia Broadcasting she deserves the rejuvenation that comes with time out and fresh opportunities.”

Last month Business Report reported on minority shareholder dissatisfaction over pending talk that TMG was planning to acquire the advertising and communications company for an undisclosed amount of money.

In March Primedia announced that it had sold its 365 Digital and Dash Of ­Lime businesses to digital media sales company Mark1 Media for an undisclosed fee.

Financial interests

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which owns a 100 percent of the Mineworkers Investment Company (MIC), blamed the union’s investment arm for putting financial interests first.

NUM general secretary David Sipunzi said the union’s opposition to the MIC plans fell on deaf ears.

Sipunzi said the union, through MIC, had decided to venture into the media space to promote media diversity.

“We were made to understand that Primedia was loss-making. We could see that the MIC had the intention to offload its interest in Primedia. We do not know why. It may be to spite the NUM’s new leadership,” he said.

Volkwyn first joined the company as a direct account executive at Talk Radio 702 in 1986 and was influential in making every single brand in her stable a leader and game changer, including 947, 702, Cape Talk, KFM, Lead SA and Eyewitness News Service.

In addition to radio stations, Primedia also owned the ­cinema chain Ster-Kinekor, the largest movie exhibitors for ­Africa, with sites in South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, as well as Zambia.

Lobby group Media Monitoring Africa director William Bird said on Monday that the timing of the resignation was interesting.

Bird said that Volkwyn had managed to steer Primedia through a difficult time.

“For her to announce her resignation now raises the question of why now rather than when the sale has gone through,” Bird said.

“Her resignation is much like the resignation of Whitey Basson, the chief executive at Shoprite, who was with the company for more than 40 years. Her loss will be felt in different sectors.

“In 30 years you cannot say she has not made an impact in the industry, especially being a woman in that environment. She would leave a powerful legacy.”

Bird previously raised the lobby group’s concern that talk of TMG’s acquisition of Primedia would concentrate media ownership in South Africa even further.

The National Broadcasters’ executive director, Nadia Bulbulia, acknowledged yesterday Volkwyn’s “remarkable” contribution to the country’s broadcasting industry.

Bulbulia said Volkwyn had played a remarkable role in the broadcasting industry and her resignation would be a significant loss.

“There are lots of shifts [happening] in the media industry,” Bulbulia said.

http://www.iol.co.za/business/companies/primedia-top-exec-quits-in-times-media-row-2090111

Spring Queen winners wow factory workers

Bronwyn Davids, Cape Times, 15 November 2016

OPPORTUNITIES that arise are what being part of the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (Sactwu) Spring Queen 2016 royal entourage means to the second princess.

Production lines at six factories came to a standstill yesterday as well-wishers hooted at being paid a visit by the Sactwu Spring Queen Marilise Pedro, 1st princess Candice Caswell, and 2nd princess Maria Afrika.

They were accompanied by winner of the Best Dress title Jocelyn Adams, Miss Personality Nicole Fredericks and Junior Spring Queen Liche’ Johnston, 16, a pupil at Settlers High School.

The Spring Queen extravaganza took place at the weekend in Athlone Stadium, where 47 women from the clothing, textile and leather sectors proudly modelled local fashion in one of the largest fashion shows featuring workers.

About her crowning, Pedro, a layer-up at Seagull Industries, Atlantis, said the achievement was overwhelming and it meant she could realise her dream to follow a career in drama.

For Afrika, a knitter at Falke Europe Socks, the opportunities she is looking forward to include continuing with learnership advancement at the company.

Sactwu co-ordinator Felicity Andrews said: “The annual fashion extravaganza was about being proud to buy local products and for workers to celebrate their pride in their industry.”

She said the crowning of the Spring Queens was the culmination of three months of in-house competition, semi-finals and months of life-skills training, which includes stage presence, modelling, dancing, deportment, charm, etiquette and projection.

Andrews said the Junior Spring Queen Liche’ Johnston was chosen from a group of 10 young girls, who are dependants of union members.

http://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/spring-queen-winners-wow-factory-workers-2090053

Eskom

Staff urge Molefe to stay on at Eskom

Lutho Mtongana, Business Day, 16 November 2016

Outgoing Eskom CEO Brian Molefe has turned down staff pleas that he remain at the utility after his surprise resignation.

Staff members called an impromptu meeting on Tuesday at Eskom’s Megawatt Park headquarters in Sunninghill, Johannesburg, at which they asked Molefe to stay on.

Eskom spokesman Khulu Phasiwe said the meeting was organised by "guardians", who are part of Eskom staff and belong to various unions.

The National Union of Mineworkers, the National Union of Metalworkers of SA and Solidarity said they were aware of the meeting but were still gathering more information about it.

Molefe, who had to cancel an appointment to attend the meeting, addressed the group about his reasons for resigning.

He made the same utterances he had put in a statement released on Friday, in which he detailed why he had to step down from Eskom.

Molefe again said he was not resigning because of wrongdoing but felt he had to do so in the interest of the company. He also wanted to clear his name.

Molefe was dealt with in former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s State of Capture report, which sketches a picture of the Eskom CEO’s close ties with the Gupta family.

Phasiwe said the workers wanted him to stay as "he was able to turn around the company and they had high hopes he was going to stay on and continue to change the company".

The group said it would write a letter to the board, which would send it to Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown, asking her not to accept Molefe’s resignation.

However, Brown and the board have already accepted Molefe’s resignation. No board member attended the meeting.

Matshela Koko, Eskom’s group executive for generation, said he had spoken to Molefe after the meeting and the CEO was adamant about his decision. Koko said he hoped Molefe would at least consider the staff members’ request.

https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/companies/energy/2016-11-16-staff-urge-molefe-to-stay-on-at-eskom/

Another high-profile Eskom resignation follows State of Capture report

Carol Paton, TimesLive, 16 November, 2016

Mark Pamensky‚ the Eskom director most directly linked to the Gupta family‚ has resigned from the board‚ Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown said on Tuesday evening.

Mark Pamensky‚ the Eskom director most directly linked to the Gupta family‚ has resigned from the board‚ Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown said on Tuesday evening.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2016/11/16/Another-high-profile-Eskom-resignation-follows-State-of-Capture-report

Molefe falls from hero to zero

Sechaba ka’Nkosi, Business Report, 16 November 2016

The shenanigans of the Gupta-owned family empire last week claimed their first real victim in Eskom chief executive Brian Molefe, writes Sechaba ka’Nkosi.

Poor ol’ Brian took a fall from his position on Friday just days after former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s investigation into state capture told of an unbecoming relationship with the family.

According to the report, aptly named “The State of Capture”, Molefe was often seen around the infamous Saxonwold compound where some of the scariest decisions were made about our future.

The report said cellphone records placed Molefe around the compound and showed that he spoke to the family patriarch, Ajay Gupta, more than 40 times in seven months.

It claimed that Molefe and Ajay, the eldest and most vocal of the Gupta brothers, made 58 telephone calls to one another between August last year and March this year.

Now there is nothing wrong with two friends exchanging pleasantries every now and then to discuss matters of national importance such as the devastating drought that has ripped our agricultural industry apart, children’s birthdays or the prospects of Kaizer Chiefs winning the Champions League.

Oakbay questions

After all, Molefe has always made it clear that his relationship with the Guptas was nobody else’s business.

But what is worrisome is that some of these calls took place at the time when Oakbay, a company that is owned by the Guptas and in which President Jacob Zuma’s son Duduzane held shares through his firm Mabengela Investments, used its subsidiary Tegeta Exploration & Resources to launch a determined bid to buy the Optimum coal mine and six other target firms from Glencore for a total consideration of R2.15 billion.

Amid an outcry from other bidders, who felt that Oakbay had received preferential treatment on the transaction, Molefe arrogantly and at times combatively defended the deal.

When the Competition Tribunal finally gave the deal its blessing after weeks of bickering, Molefe seemed to be vindicated and emphasised that all was above board.

That was until the report revealed that the deal was not so innocent after all and that Oakbay was paid in advance for coal to guarantee supplies to a power plant before winter.

It also emerged that Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane allegedly facilitated the company’s relocation of billions of the mine’s rehabilitation funds out of the country without following proper channels.

But when pressure mounted on how the Guptas were able to do this without being held to account, Molefe said the board and politicians, such as Zwane, should not be held responsible for the problems.

He said he took full responsibility for the Glencore deal and publicly wept before telling South Africa that his whereabouts near the Gupta compound could be blamed on a mythical shebeen that Saxonwold folks often visit to quench their thirst.

He said he could neither admit nor deny ever visiting the shebeen.

So when Molefe beat a shame-faced resignation from Eskom last Friday, it was a case of a man falling on his sword, cheating the country of one of the most efficient chief executives to come through the ranks of the ANC’s deployment policy.

It was a rare act of honour from what was until then a squeaky clean servant of the people in our scandal-prone civil service.

While some saw him as abrasive and irascible (which is not quite untrue), his arrogance helped him fight entrenched cultures that had made Eskom the laughing stock of the state-owned entities, closely behind SAA.

While others saw the global economic meltdown as the reason why Eskom was able to keep the lights on, Molefe saw an opportunity to concentrate his efforts on the maintenance of the utility’s ailing power stations.

He correctly analysed the problems at the utility and assembled a new executive management team that he believed would help him navigate through most of them.

The result was that under Molefe, the country had its first winter season without any power cuts last year since 2007.

The utility improved the performance of its power generating units and added more capacity from new build projects.

Yesterday, Eskom paid tribute to its outgoing chief executive praising him for the improved liquidity position, which saw liquid assets increasing 81.6 percent from R24.1bn a year ago to R43.8bn at the end of September, in a subdued economy.

Eskom said it now had access to adequate resources and facilities to continue as a going concern for the foreseeable future.

And that happened under Molefe when many of his predecessors had spent much of their time at the helm in territorial battles with the board.

In a way Molefe is, therefore, a victim of his own doing.

His ability to turn dysfunctional state entities around and his business acumen made him so power drunk that he believed he owed the world no explanation about his relationship with shady characters like the Gupta family.

When people whispered in his ears that something was not tallying up on the Optimum Coal deal, Molefe said they should all take a hike.

Accountability

Molefe told them in no uncertain terms that he was not answerable to anyone other than Eskom’s principal shareholder - the government.

He fought with the Treasury when it tried to scrutinise Eskom’s coal power supply deals and tried to hoodwink the National Energy Regulator of SA to give him more than what he deserved.

So his dramatic downfall from the helm will now be counted among many others who left state-owned enterprises in utter disgrace.

But to his defence, Molefe did what most people in the country's civil service have failed to do.

Communications Minister Faith Muthambi has clung to her position despite the chaos that has characterised her leadership of the SABC and the digital migration programme. She has reduced her bubbly deputy Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams to nothing short of an administrative secretary in the department.

Zwane remains a minister despite being implicated in what normal people could call money laundering and the mining charter, which has yet to benefit hundreds of communities in mining towns.

The less said about another recipient of the benevolence of the Gupta family, Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Des van Rooyen, the better.

So as we mourn the unceremonious departure of what is one of the most brilliant minds ever to emerge post apartheid, we should also shudder to remember that accountability goes a long way in the public service.

It allows the country's citizens a chance to interrogate decisions that are made on their behalf.

It says that, however powerful and brilliant leaders can be, they should not leave the people behind. They should always try and be sensitive to their concerns and be willing to engage on these.

For if we fail, we will still produce dozens of other Molefes only to laugh at them when powerful charlatans use them for their own selfish needs.

And their names will forever be associated with the shambles that is our civil service.

http://www.iol.co.za/business/opinion/sechaba-kankosi-molefe-falls-from-hero-to-zero-2090393

South Africa

Zuma is the linchpin in the ANC and Cosatu's future

Govan Whittles, Mail & Guardian, 16 Nov 2016

Last week the Mail & Guardian reported how affiliates of trade union federation Cosatu are preparing to push for their highest decision-making body to take a public stand on the scandals involving President Jacob Zuma. At the same time, the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) looked set to defend Zuma from calls in the party and civil society for him to step down.

The next two weeks will prove crucial for the unity of the ANC and Cosatu as their respective NECs and central executive committees (CECs) meet. The presidents of these organisations are indicative of where they are heading, with the Zuma-led ANC steering the party towards its seemingly intractable fate and Cosatu’s president, S’dumo Dlamini, seen to be firmly in Zuma’s corner.

On Monday, Cosatu’s 17 affiliates will meet at the federation’s headquarters in Johannesburg where the public protector’s damning State of Capture report will be up for debate. The report recommends a judicial commission of inquiry be established, with a judge chosen by Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, to investigate the alleged undue influence over the president by the controversial Gupta family.

Dlamini is to blame, according to dissenting voices in Cosatu, for the federation’s reluctance to challenge the ANC leadership. He has appealed to the unions to unite behind the ANC, but the affiliates have confirmed that their branches are fiercely debating Zuma’s fate. Dlamini believes that joining the public debate on Zuma’s leadership is unwise – a view that’s counter to Cosatu’s public statements.

The National Education Health and Allied Workers Union and Communication Workers Union have already called for Zuma to step aside and for his deputy, Cyril Ramaphosa, to take his place. Others such as the National Union of Mineworkers will hold their NEC meetings after Cosatu’s CEC and are unlikely to consult all their members about whether to join the call for Zuma to resign.

Cosatu’s CEC will put the federation and Dlamini at a crucial crossroad. Under his watch, the federation has lost more than half a million members through the expulsion of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa and Food and Allied Workers Union’s decision to leave the federation. Now, the SA Football Players Union and SA State and Allied Workers Union are also threatening to withdraw over internal divisions in Cosatu.

Dlamini will have to tread a fine line between appeasing unions who fear Cosatu has lost its independence and a decision that does not further polarise, or split, the federation.

Last week Dlamini told the M&G that the tripartite alliance is “pulling in different directions”. Over the past two months the South African Communist Party has openly disagreed with senior ANC leaders over the persecution of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and claims that the Gupta family has captured the state.

The Cosatu president’s insistence on placing the unity of the ANC and the alliance ahead of that of the federation will prove to be a double-edged sword.

If he successfully prevents worker leaders from pronouncing on Zuma’s fate, he risks destroying Cosatu. If he is forced to confront Zuma’s leadership as a result of a popular vote among affiliates, his usefulness in the dominant faction of the ANC’s NEC would have all but expired.

The top leadership of the NEC is facing a more daunting task – defending Zuma against a move by a growing faction intent on having him unseated. Yet the ruling party’s apparently unbreakable intent to have Zuma serve out his term of office sets the ANC on a dangerous path to losing power in the 2019 general elections.

The release of former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s State of Capture report should serve as sufficient ammunition to sway undecided NEC members that Zuma is a liability to his party and should be recalled. The M&G contacted 40 NEC members for their views but most refused to comment.

But Minister of Public Service and Administration Ngoako Ramatlhodi did state his intention to raise his concerns “without fear or favour”.

The likes of Eastern Cape MEC for co-operative governance and traditional affairs, Fikile Xasa, and the ANC’s head of economic transformation, Enoch Godongwana, had called for an urgent meeting in the wake of report being released but will now have to wait until next week to air their grievances.

The NEC meeting is set to take place on November 25. Sharp criticism from prominent ANC leaders such as Mathole Motshekga, who called on the party to choose between the ANC and the country, appears to have fallen on deaf ears. Already the ANC’s provincial structures have sent signals that Zuma’s stranglehold on power will not be wrested from him.

“We believe that he must finish his term; there is nothing that requires the organisation to recall him,” said the party’s KwaZulu-Natal chairperson, Sihle Zikalala, who, with others, was instrumental in helping Zuma retain the presidency at the 2012 ANC Mangaung conference.

Other ANC provincial structures were vague about their views on the State of Capture report but remained resolute in their support of Zuma completing his term of office.

The uproar among South Africans over Zuma’s conduct and the calls for him to step down as president of the country mean nothing without the balance of power shifting in the ANC. As long as the president has the support of a majority of the party’s provinces – and by extension the regions and branches – he is safe.

The so-called Premier League (North West, Mpumalanga and the Free State) has saved the president’s skin time and time again and will do so again.

There may be murmurs of NEC members being lobbied to turn against Zuma at next Friday’s meeting, but the faction that opposes Zuma’s leadership has a track record of successive failures.

The next two weeks will be crucial for the ANC and Cosatu. Both organisations face a battle to unite their ranks and prevent splits; both scenarios hinge on what these organisations decide should happen to the country’s president. With Zuma’s detractors in the ANC not significant or strong enough to change the status quo, and the cult of personality still so prevalent, it is the ruling party and the labour federation that will suffer.

http://mg.co.za/article/2016-11-16-00-zuma-is-the-linchpin-in-the-anc-and-cosatus-future

Parties protest outside court ahead of 'coffin case'

TimesLive, 16 November 2016

Members of the African National Congress (ANC)‚ Democratic Alliance (DA) and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) gathered outside the Middelburg Magistrate Court on Wednesday where two white farmers accused of assaulting a black man and putting him in a coffin were to appear.

“#Yes to integration. #We are one‚” said a poster carried by an ANC supporter.

“The DA rejects discrimination‚” read another.

“We don’t need to apply to picket against a white racist‚” graced the placard of an EFF member.

The EFF’s secretary-general Godrich Gardee had on Tuesday called “a mass protest to the farm of the JM de Beer Broedery to do what he did to this black African & occupy it @afriforum”.

The mention of Afriforum is a dig at the organisation which laid charges against EFF leader Julius Malema and led to his appearance in a Bloemfontein court on Monday.

Gardee also said products from the “JM de Beer Broedery farm should be boycotted. Willem Oostheizen & Theo Martins should be found & taught a lesson”.

“This white racist in Middelburg should be made to undergo same experience‚” he added.

This white racist in Middelburg should be made to undergo same experience #coffinAlive JM De Beer Broederyhttp://bit.ly/efftoattendcourt pic.twitter.com/uQVHiNF9ht — godrich gardee (@GardeeGodrich) November 15, 2016

The EFF said in a statement on Monday that the pair “took a video and put it up on social media for amusement after humiliating” Victor Rethabile Mlotshwa.

“This humiliation can be based on nothing else but his blackness‚ which means it is in actual fact a humiliation of black people as a whole‚” the statement added.

“The incident took place at JM De Beer Boerdery next to Komati Power Station. They are charged with kidnapping and assault with intend of grievous bodily harm.”

Malema on Monday used the incident to attack members of the clergy who were critical of his controversial statements‚ asking “where are statements from pastors and bishops condemning what white farmers did to this black man?”

The Bishop of Johannesburg Dr Steve Moreo had reprimanded Malema for his vitriolic attack on fellow white South Africans following a court appearance on charges under the Riotous Assemblies Act a week earlier in Newcastle.

“We are not calling for the slaughtering of white people – at least for now‚” Malema told supporters last Monday.

Such language‚ said Bishop Moreo in a statement published by the Anglican Communion News Service last Wednesday‚ had no place in a free democracy.

“Malema's vitriolic attack on his fellow white South Africans is sad and a stark reminder that the naked sin of racism is alive and well in South Africa. It is a reminder that racism is as damaging whether articulated by black or white and is no different to the corruption and greed of many in our country - all of which is decaying our land right now‚” he said.

“It is particularly shameful to see it manifest in a person such as Malema.”

https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/2016-11-16-embattled-abrahams-at-odds-with-hawks-head/

Embattled Abrahams at odds with Hawks head

Franny Rabkin, Business Day, 16 November 2016

National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head Shaun Abrahams and Hawks head Berning Ntlemeza were at loggerheads over Abrahams’s decision to drop fraud charges against Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, court papers reveal.

Abrahams was widely criticised after he announced in October that Gordhan would be charged with fraud, sending the rand into free fall.

The announcement just weeks later that the charges had been withdrawn led to calls for Abrahams’ resignation and a court case for his suspension.

The court papers — filed on Tuesday by Abrahams in the High Court in Pretoria — also revealed that President Jacob Zuma had written to Abrahams and senior prosecutors Torie Pretorius SC and Sibongile Mzinyathi, asking why they should not be suspended, pending inquiries into whether they were fit for the offices they hold. Zuma recently sent similar letters to two other senior prosecutors — deputy national director Nomgcobo Jiba and head of the specialised commercial crimes unit, Lawrence Mrwebi.

National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head Shaun Abrahams and Hawks head Berning Ntlemeza were at loggerheads over Abrahams’s decision to drop fraud charges against Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, court papers reveal.

Abrahams was widely criticised after he announced in October that Gordhan would be charged with fraud, sending the rand into free fall.

The announcement just weeks later that the charges had been withdrawn led to calls for Abrahams’ resignation and a court case for his suspension.

The court papers — filed on Tuesday by Abrahams in the High Court in Pretoria — also revealed that President Jacob Zuma had written to Abrahams and senior prosecutors Torie Pretorius SC and Sibongile Mzinyathi, asking why they should not be suspended, pending inquiries into whether they were fit for the offices they hold. Zuma recently sent similar letters to two other senior prosecutors — deputy national

director Nomgcobo Jiba and head of the specialised commercial crimes unit, Lawrence Mrwebi.

https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/2016-11-16-embattled-abrahams-at-odds-with-hawks-head/

Senior SARS employee involved with Zuma family-linked company

Angelique Serrao, News24, 16 Nov 2016

Johannesburg - A senior SARS investigator who leads an “undercover” probe into the so-called rogue unit is himself linked to underworld figure and Zuma family associate Jen-Chih “Robert” Huang.

News24 can reveal that Yegan Mundie, a senior South African Revenue Service (SARS) investigator, is linked to the South African-based Taiwanese businessman (Huang) through his wife, who was employed by Huang’s Mpisi Trading 74 while SARS was investigating the company.

Huang is a business partner of President Jacob Zuma’s nephew Khulubuse, and has used Zuma’s legal advisor and lawyer, Michael Hulley, to defend him in cases brought against him by SARS.

Forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan has now opened a case of corruption against Mundie, his wife Diane and Chetty Vengas, a director of Mpisi Trading and former disgraced SARS employee.

'Undercover' task team

News24 revealed the existence of an “undercover” task team in SARS earlier this week. According to six inside sources, the unit is tasked with digging up dirt on Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and former SARS employees linked to the National Research Group (NRG) investigations unit dubbed the “rogue unit”.

SARS has denied the existence of the unit and said the officials mentioned by News24, including Mundie, “are all members of a SARS internal investigations team tasked with investigating tax related offenses and misconduct by internal employees as per SARS mandate”. According to News24’s sources, the unit is led by Mundie and senior KwaZulu-Natal SARS employee Gobi Makhanya.

O’Sullivan opened the case of corruption at the Bedfordview police office this week and sent affidavits detailing his allegations against Mundie to the Hawks and SARS.

In an affidavit by a panel beater who owns a business in La Rochelle, south of Johannesburg, it is alleged that Vengas was requesting quotes to fix Yegan Mundie’s BMW 3-series car which had been involved in an accident early in 2013.

The Mail & Guardian previously reported that Chetty received bribes whilst working for SARS and was slapped with a correctional supervision sentence for corruption in 2003.

In an email attached to the affidavit with the subject line “Quote for Mundie”, “Chetty” asks the panel beater for a second quote for the car.

The panel beater said that they never carried out the work on the car.

In a separate affidavit O’Sullivan reveals that Diane Mundie worked for Mpisi Trading at a warehouse in City Deep.

O’Sullivan alleges that Mundie was part of a SARS team in charge of investigating Mpisi Trading.

A separate independent source confirmed to News24 that SARS, under the anti-corruption and security unit, conducted an investigation into Mpisi Trading, a unit under which Mundie fell.

Affidavit

“Although no work was carried out in respect of the quotation it is clear that Huang’s co-director of Mpisi, Chetty, was seeking a quotation for repairs to a car owned by a senior investigator at SARS, whom was supposed to be investigating serious crimes of Mpisi,” O’Sullivan’s affidavit states.

In an email to SARS, the Hawks and the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID), O’Sullivan requests that a thorough investigation be undertaken into the allegations against Mundie.

“I feel a public statement on SARS’s position viz the investigations (or lack thereof) into the Mpisi customs and tax fraud, may help clear the air. Especially if such public statement sets out what will be done about the relationship between Mr Mundie and Huang / Mpisi,” O’Sulllivan said.

The investigator said he had copied IPID in the email because he was concerned the case would be squashed after he received a call from a Colonel at Bedfordview police officer who told him that as a civilian he was not allowed to open a corruption case against state employees, and there was not sufficient evidence in the docket to open a case.

The Mpisi group is no stranger to controversy. According to Netwerk24, Mpisi, Robert Huang and his wife were at the centre of an investigation worth over a billion rand by SARS.

Mpisi Trading 74, a clearing agent, was involved in importing almost 20 000 ANC T-shirts shortly before the national election in 2014. The T-shirts were confiscated by SARS pending the payment of customs duties and Huang solicited Hulley's services to negotiate with SARS for the release of the T-shirts.

Khulubuse Zuma and Huang have had close business ties in the past, according to the Mail & Guardian. Khulubuse was, among other things, the unofficial chair of Mpisi.

No comment

Mundie and Diane both indicated they were not interested in hearing what the allegations were against them and refused to comment.

Vengas also refused to comment.

SARS defended Mundie saying he was not involved in the tax affairs of Mpisi Trading.

“Upon joining SARS in 2008, Mr Mundie informed his management of his relationship with Mpisi Trading and as such a decision was taken not to expose Mr Mundie to any of the tax affairs of the taxpayer, as per SARS policy.”

However, the tax body then indicated that they had not been aware that Diane had worked at Mpisi.

“SARS was not aware of Mr Mundie’s wife working at Mpisi Trading but has been informed that her working relationship with Mpisi Trading ended more than two years ago.”

SARS said that Mundie confirmed to them that at the time of his wife’s employment at Mpisi Trading, a vehicle owned by Mpisi Trading collided with the vehicle his wife was using.

“As such Mpisi Trading took liability and responsibility for the repair of the vehicle. According to Mr Mundie, an accident report was filed at the Bedfordview Police Station.”

SARS said they were not aware of any corruption charges laid against Mundie, but would co-operate with any investigation launched by any law enforcement agency.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/senior-sars-employee-involved-with-zuma-family-linked-company-20161116

The secret Derby-Lewis did not take to his grave

Zelda Venter, Pretoria News, 16 November 2016

Pretoria - The “truth” behind the killing of SACP leader Chris Hani did not go to the grave with Clive Derby-Lewis after all.

Hani was killed to make the country ungovernable so that the conservatives could take over.

This is according to Derby-Lewis, who revealed “the truth” two months before his death during his only interview since his release from jail in June last year.

In an exclusive interview with Forum Films, Derby-Lewis told interviewer and head of the film company Ernst Roets that Hani was a hardcore communist who could not be controlled by the ANC.

Two parts of the four-part interview were released this week on the company’s website. The complete package will be released by Thursday. Roets said it was Derby-Lewis’s wish that the interview be released after his death.

Derby-Lewis, 80, who died on November 3 of cancer, spent 22 years in jail for his part in the 1993 assassination of Hani. The man who pulled the trigger, Polish immigrant Janus Walusz, is still behind bars and embroiled in legal proceedings to secure parole.

Many believed Derby-Lewis never told the truth behind Hani’s assassination. But in the interview, Derby-Lewis maintained that it was a simple discussion between him and Walusz that Hani should be killed.

However, Derby-Lewis was adamant that he did not tell Walusz to kill Hani, but that the Pole offered to do it. “I suggested we should take out a well-known profile figure and he said he would be prepared to do the shooting. I could not instruct him to commit murder; he volunteered.

“As far as I was concerned it was a political objective and it was justified. I accepted his offer. I said ok, if you want to do it, but keep me out’.” Derby-Lewis said at that stage he was not even sure whether it was the right thing to do.

No dates or places were planned, but Derby-Lewis said he instructed that it may not be done over the Easter weekend, as families were then together. The assassination was also to be abandoned if anybody else apart from Hani was around. Derby-Lewis said he made it clear he wanted no other casualties.

He gave Walusz an unlicensed firearm, and the plan was to give him the bullets to use, but Hani was killed before this could be done.

Derby-Lewis said he was visiting a friend in Krugersdorp on April 10, 1993.

“We were having tea when the phone rang. My friend’s wife answered and she came back saying Hani had just been killed. I had such a tremendous feeling of relief, because I knew it could not have been Walusz as he had not yet had the ammunition. When I found out it was him, it was quite a shock.”

He said no preparations had yet been made at that stage. “He was supposed to change the car registration and I was going to organise a big purple wig for him, so people would not look at his face. The only instructions I really gave him was that no one else but Hani should be harmed.”

But as it turned out, Walusz saw his “golden opportunity” when he spotted Hani alone in front of his home in Boksburg.

The staunch Conservative Party member said in the interview that Hani was a hardcore communist who was determined at all costs to lay the country to waste to achieve his political goals.

“He was a radical. He was uncontrollable by the ANC’s higher authorities. As far as we were concerned, he was enemy number one.”

Asked why Hani was the target and not President Nelson Mandela, Derby-Lewis told Roets it was because of Hani’s hardline approach and the support he had of the “radical yes in the country”.

He said “we” wanted South Africa to become ungovernable, which would lead to the security forces declaring martial law.

“Once order was restored, elections would have been arranged. According to all the fundis we (Conservatives) would have won; we would have become the new government.”

Derby-Lewis said the country was in a state of war at the time, but unfortunately the security forces controlled it so well that the ordinary man on the street was not aware of this.

“One of the big problems was that Hani was a hardened communist. He did not believe in God anyway. I saw him as part of the anti-Christ,” Derby-Lewis added.

http://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/the-secret-derby-lewis-did-not-take-to-his-grave-2090402

International

Top Putin aide caught with $2 million in Russian bribery sting

David Filipov, Washington Post, 15 November 2016

MOSCOW — A high-profile corruption case shook Russia’s establishment and appeared to shed light on rifts within President Vladi­mir Putin’s inner circle on Tuesday, after authorities detained the country’s economic development minister on suspicion he took a $2 million bribe over a controversial privatization deal.

Alexei Ulyukayev became the highest-ranking official to be charged with corruption during Putin’s tenure as Russia’s leader, and the first national minister to be arrested while in office since Joseph Stalin’s ex-security chief Lavrentii Beria was detained in the Kremlin in 1953.

Authorities said that Russia’s Federal Security Service had been listening to Ulyukayev’s phone conversations for months, and Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters that the Russian president had been aware of the investigation all along.

“These are very serious accusations, and only a court can pass a verdict,” Peskov said, according to news agencies.

Russia’s Investigative Committee, the state agency that probes major crimes, said Ulyukayev was caught “in the act” of receiving the $2 million bribe in exchange for signing off on the $5 billion acquisition last month by the state-run oil giant Rosneft of a 50-percent stake in a smaller state-owned company, Bashneft.

The sale was reported in the Russian media to have caused dissension between rival factions in the Kremlin. Rosneft’s top official, Igor Sechin, a close Putin confidant, pushed for the right to purchase Bashneft. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev headed a second group that believed Bashneft should be sold to private investors, not a state-owned company.

Ulyukayev served in some of the earliest post-Soviet Russian governments, which sought to privatize state-owned companies to kick-start a transition to a market economy, a process that was marred by massive corruption among Kremlin insiders.

As a minister in Putin’s government since 2013, Ulyukayev has been overseeing a new sell-off of state assets. Initially, he opposed the Bashneft deal on the grounds that a state-owned company purchasing a state-owned company is not privatization.

But he eventually signed off on the deal, which was pushed by Putin as a way to close the country’s widening budget deficit in the face of low oil prices.

Russia’s political leadership lined up to cheer the arrest as a sign that the top officials of a country long associated with official corruption can no longer operate outside the law with impunity.

“All are equal before the law,” the Interfax news agency quoted Vyacheslav Voloshin, the former head of Putin’s administration and currently the speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament. The arrest, Voloshin said, means that there are “no untouchable people” in Russia.

Others took the case as a sign of political tension.

“For me it's a sign of a terrible weakness at the top of the executive power, unbelievable even for me since I thought that it was weak before,” Gleb Pavlovsky, a former Putin strategist, told TV Dozhd.

Pavlovsky pointed out how odd it was that Putin apparently knew his minister was under investigation for months, but let him stay in office instead of simply firing him.

“This proves that things are very bad at the top,” he said. “Very bad.”

Others pointed to the oddities surrounding the investigation.

The Investigative Committee emphasized that while Ulyukayev had been arrested on charges of taking money to facilitate a deal, the deal itself had been completed legally and was not subject to investigation.

Another oddity: The man Ulyukayev would’ve been shaking down, evidently, was Sechin, arguably one of the most powerful people in the country, and someone who has Putin’s ear. No special investigation would’ve been needed for that; Sechin could’ve just told his boss he was being shaken down.

“One would have to be crazy to extort a bribe from he most influential person in the country,” Alexander Shokhin, who served with Ulyukayev in the Russian cabinet in the 1990s, commented.

Shokhin, who currently heads Russia’s biggest business lobbying group, also pointed out how odd it was that Ulyukayev would’ve asked for a bribe when the company sold at market price.

“If Aleksey Ulyukaev had been charged with hitting an old babushka while driving his Mercedes G Class at high speed at night in Moscow, it would've looked more plausible,” Shokhin told the Meduza news agency.

Many in Russia’s political ranks hold the old “reformers” like Shokhin and Ulyukayev in contempt, in line with the larger attitude in Putin’s Russia that the country was sold out to the West after the Cold War by so-called reformers who actually hated their homeland.

That sentiment pervaded the comments by lawmaker Nikolai Kovalyov, a former head of the Federal Security Security, who referred to verses Ulyukayev wrote for his son: “Go my son, go from here; On this globe you will find many places; where one

step forward does not mean 500 steps back; Where they don’t say everything backward all the time.”

“I am not surprised” by the arrest, Kovalyov said. “I expected something of this kind to happen when I read his verses calling on his son to leave Russia.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/top-putin-aide-snared-in-2-million-russian-bribery-sting/2016/11/15/25467010-ab0d-11e6-8410-7613f8c1dae8_story.html