Monday 16 September - DAILY NEWS SUMMARY
Pretoria News (www.pretorianews.co.za) Page 4 – R17m spent on feasibility study
Page 11 – SA slipping down economic freedom table Page 12 – Numsa in three-year wage deal
Page 14 – Global market interventions overshadow SA political drama
The Star (www.iol.co.za)
Page 1 – Juicy’ coal deal for CR17 funder
Business Day (www.businesslive.co.za)
Page 1 – Mkhwebane challenges ‘unfair’ high court ruling Page 3 – How will history remember Buthelezi?
Citizen (www.citizen.co.za) Page 1 – ‘Keep your sorry, Cyril’
연합뉴스 (www.yonhapnews.co.kr)
세메냐 없는 세메냐 시상식…도하에서 2011년 金 시상식 예정 짐바브웨 전 독재자 무가베, 국가영웅묘역에 안장 예정
R17m spent on feasibility study
Moloto Corridor Rail work to start once funding is secured after repriotisation by state
• Pretoria News
• 16 Sep 2019
• MAYIBONGWE MAQHINA
African News Agency (ANA)THE so-called road of death, Moloto Road, links Gauteng with Mpumalanga and Limpopo. Government has spent million of a feasibility study for the Moloto Rail Development Corridor Project.
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IT HAS cost the taxpayers to the tune of R17 million to undertake a feasibility study into the development of the Moloto Rail Corridor Project, Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula has said.
In a written response to a parliamentary question, Mbalula said R10 199 673 was spent in the 201314 financial year and R7 680 457 in the 2014-15 one on the feasibility study that was concluded in October 2014.
The project – which involves building a railway along the dangerous R573 Moloto Road to ferry commuters between Limpopo, Mpumalanga and Gauteng – has been in the pipeline over the past few years.
In 2016, it was reported that South Africa had signed a co-operation agreement with the People’s Republic of China to build the Moloto Rail Development Corridor.
Mbalula said the feasibility study on the Moloto Rail Corridor project was undertaken in terms of Treasury Regulations and the Public Private Partnership Guidelines.
“The feasibility study considered the main axis of commuter movements in the study area along the R573 Moloto Road and R568 serving the numerous settlements located between Moloto village and the Siyabuswa area,” he said.
“The feasibility study came to the conclusion that the preferred solution is a 117km Rapid Rail line on the line-haul section, a fleet of 226 40-seater buses to provide the feeder and distribution services and 46 train sets to reduce the current four hours peak to two hours at operating speeds of 120km/h on a Cape gauge network,” Mbalula said.
The department had appointed a consortium with SMEC as lead consultant and transportation expert, Deloitte as financial experts and DLA Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr as legal experts with assistance from environmental experts SiVest and Demacon as demographics, mapping and economics experts.
The minister said the feasibility study was endorsed in October 2014.
Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa was directed to submit an application to the National Treasury for funding considerations.
He stated that the feasibility study had not been made public.
“Access can be requested via the provision of the Promotion of Access to Information Act.”
Mbalula said the construction and design of the Moloto Corridor Rail project would start once funding was secured following reprioritisation within the government.
He also said rapid rail provided the most feasible long-term solution to address the transport challenges being experienced in the Moloto corridor.
“For the department to pursue the implementation of the Moloto Rail Corridor project, funding will have to be reprioritised within government.
“The construction of the rail line can only be undertaken once the detailed design of the rail line has been concluded and the required funding has been secured for construction,” he said.
Mbalula also said no funding had been transferred to the transport departments in Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Limpopo for the development of the project.
However, seven public engagements in the form of Imbizos were conducted with the Siyabuswa, KwaMhlanga, Moloto and surrounding communities.
“These were conducted as part of providing progress on the planned Moloto Rail Project and the overall exposure of service delivery by government and the Department of Transport’s public entities.
The department did not spend any money on hosting of the public engagements as the costs were covered by the SA National Road Agency, Road Accident Fund and Prasa. THREE men were shot dead in Kanana near Klerksdorp, North West police said.
The victims were socialising at a house in Chris Hani section in Kanana on Friday when the shooting occurred, Lieutenant-Colonel Amanda Funani said. “Police on patrol heard gunshots.
On investigation, they found two men with gunshot [wounds] lying in a pool of blood. The third suspect, who was trying to escape, was found lying outside the house, also with [a]
gunshot wound,” she said. All three had been shot in the chest and died. The motive for the shootings is still unknown. | African News Agency (ANA)
SA slipping down economic freedom table
Country has fallen 54 places in 19 years
• Pretoria News
• 16 Sep 2019
• SIZWE DLAMINI [email protected]
| APFINANCE Minister Tito Mboweni
stated in his strategy document that the combination of low growth and rising unemployment meant that South Africa’s economic trajectory was unsustainable.
SOUTH Africa’s economic freedom has dropped 54 places in only 19 years to a ranking of 101 out of 162 countries, according to the Economic Freedom of the World (EFW) 2019 Report released on Friday. The country is reeling from a bloody nose dealt on Thursday as business confidence plummeted to a 20-year low in the third quarter, as revealed by the Rand Merchant Bank and Bureau of Economic Research Business Confidence Index.
The country’s 101st ranking is effectively a decline of two places from last year, but still a far cry from when South Africa achieved an enviable ranking of 47 in 2000 and was in the top 30 percent of economically free countries.
The EFW index measures the degree to which a country’s policies and institutions support economic freedom and is the premier measurement of economic systems. There are five main components: size of government; legal structure and security of property rights; access to sound money; freedom to trade internationally; and regulation of credit, labour and business.
Neil Emerick, an associate of the Free Market Foundation, said South Africa’s nosedive had predictable consequences. The unemployment rate was the highest and the country was witnessing dramatic human and capital flight, as individuals sought to invest and live in countries with greater levels of economic freedom.
“South Africa’s government continues the reduction of its citizens’ economic freedoms.
Followers of this index will not be surprised to see falling investment in South Africa, lack of business confidence, and increased scrutiny from international agencies,” said Emerick.
The report, produced by Canada’s Fraser Institute, stated that countries that scored highest on the EFW index were among the most prosperous, healthiest, cleanest, and safest places to live.
The lack of economic freedom condemns countries to lower incomes, greater poverty, more inequality, reduced life expectancy, fewer political rights and liberties, and bleak prospects for the quality of life.
All eyes are now on Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s economic transformation, inclusive growth and competitiveness plan, which was described by Solidarity as a step in the right direction as it welcomed the overall nature of the document.
In his document, Mboweni stated that the combination of low growth and rising unemployment meant that South Africa’s economic trajectory was unsustainable.
“The government should implement a series of growth reforms that promote economic transformation, support labour-intensive growth, and create a globally competitive
economy… We estimate the economy-wide impact of the proposed interventions over time, based on when they can realistically be implemented, and find they can raise potential growth by 2 to 3 percentage points, and create more than 1 million job opportunities,” reads the document in part.
Morné Malan, a senior researcher at the Solidarity Research Institute, said: “We welcome several aspects of the plan that we believe will promote economic freedom. The fear, however, is, firstly, that even these limited aspects will not be implemented, and secondly, that should they be implemented, it will simply end with implementation.”
Solidarity urged the state to look at other countries that had experienced economic recovery and to investigate how those countries managed to improve their situation.
“With countries such as Spain we see that they had an unemployment rate in 2013
comparable to our country’s current unemployment rate, but that it has dropped by more than 10 percentage points by 2019. Because of this, their economic growth has recovered.
Economic freedom, in broader terms, has led to uplifting several million from poverty around the world, and it can do the same for South Africa – provided that South Africa implements it,” said Malan.
Mboweni, when addressing the 2019 Banking Summit, said there were hints that the country’s ecomonic situation was gradually getting better.
“After contracting by 3.1 percent in the first quarter of 2019, growth rebounded by 3.2
percent in the second quarter. Unfortunately, these two quarters have cancelled each other out.
Growth on a year-on-year basis was subdued at 0.9 percent after registering no growth in the first quarter,” he said.
The minister highlighted that real gross fixed-investment posted a positive growth of 6.1 percent after contracting by a revised 4.1 percent quarter-on-quarter in the first quarter.
“We need to get the economy moving. We need new ideas to solve old problems,” said Mboweni.
Numsa in three-year wage deal
Workers in these plants benefit: BMW, Mercedes Benz, Ford, Isuzu, Nissan, Toyota and VW
• Pretoria News
• 16 Sep 2019
• EDWARD WEST [email protected]
THE NATIONAL Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) has reached a new three- year inflation-beating wage deal with the vehicle manufacturing sector body, the Automotive Manufacturers Employers’ Association (Ameo), setting the tone for further talks in the industry.
Ameo represents the automobile manufacturers based in South Africa: including BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Isuzu, Nissan, Toyota and VW.
The last three-year agreement had run out by the end of June 2019, and formal negotiations had started in July.
Numsa has some 300 000 members in the automotive industries,
In the final agreement, workers will get a 9 percent increase in year one, and then 7 percent in years two and 3 percent, or increases equal to inflation, whichever is greater. Inflation in July was at 4 percent.
National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa’s Mike Mabasa said they were “very pleased” the talks were resolved and a strike had been averted, because the industry now stood a good chance of meeting its production targets for the year.
“Remember that we are 40 000 units ahead of where were were last year,” due to stronger export vehicle sales offsetting the lower sales in South Africa due to the weak economy, he said,
National Association of Automotive Component & Allied Manufacturers (Naacam) executive director Rene Moothilal said the conclusion of the talks was important for the continued stability of the vehicle manufacturing industry, because the sector was the biggest customer of Naacam members,
In addition, the talks would serve as a benchmark and set the tone for vehicle component manufacturing sector wage negotiations, which were just starting, he said.
Numsa started the talks initially demanding a 20 percent wage increase for one year; with other demands including morning, afternoon and night allowances of 10 percent, 20 percent and 30 percent respectively, six months maternity leave and transport allowances of R5 000 per month.
Bosses started negotiations with a 4.5 percent wage increase offer.
In the final agreement the transport allowance has been increased from R1 540 to R2 500 and by 7 percent in years two and three, or in line with inflation, whichever is greater.
An increase in the amount to be paid to workers during times of temporary lay-off was also agreed.
The parties also agreed to establish two focus groups to develop an industry medical aid, and a skills-ased grading framework.
Global market interventions overshadow SA political drama
Business confidence is dwindling, but local financial markets have one of their best weeks
• Pretoria News
• 16 Sep 2019
• CHRIS HARMSE Chris Harmse is chief economist at Rebalance Fund Managers.
BHEKI RADEBEBHEKI Cele speaking at the funeral of UCT student Uyinene Mrwetyana in Abbotsford Christain centre in East London. President Cyril Ramaphosa intends to announce an urgent joint sitting of Parliament this week as the ANC government appears to be in crisis. | African News Agency (ANA)
ONE WOULD not have expected, in a week of domestic political drama and further evidence that business confidence in South Africa is dwindling, that local financial markets would have one of their best weeks this year.
The Alsi on the JSE had increased by more than 2.7 percent, the rand exchange rate
appreciated by 1.6 percent and the R186 government bond rate had decreased to 8.16 percent, one of the lowest levels this year.
The crisis for the ANC government after the backlash of students and the public over yet another rape and murder, that of young UCT student Uyinene Mrewetyana, as well as the latest crime statistics had put public opinion on the warpath.
In the light of these developments, Khusela Diko, President Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, said in a cellphone message on Friday that the president intends to announce an urgent joint sitting of Parliament this week.
This will be the first urgent joint sitting of Parliament since the end of the apartheid era. On the economic front, the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci) had
announced that the Business Confidence index declined to 89.1 points in August – the lowest since the height of the Angola-South Africa war era in August 1985.
Despite these negative sentiments domestically, the effect of global geopolitical and economic optimism, South African financial markets improved drastically last week.
The US-China trade war fears started to ease even more last week as optimism over a trade deal this week is growing. Risky assets on global stock markets also became more in-demand after the European Central Bank had cut interest rates by 10 basis points and plans to buy back government paper worth €192 million (R2.09 billion).
As a result of these policy statements, treasury yields on global markets are heading for their highest levels in 10 months.
The news that US retail sales had increased by 0.4 percent in August, doubled the expected 0.2 percent, also contributed to equity prices on world markets to have ended Friday on a third consecutive gaining week. The S&P 500 on Wall Street had broken once again through the 3 000-point level and is now within 0.5 percent from its all-time high.
On Friday afternoon, the Alsi closed on 57 124 points, or 2.7 percent higher than the previous Friday close. Despite the stronger rand the Resources 10 index as well as the heavy and hedging Industrial 25 index had surged by 2.6 percent.
The stronger currency supported financial shares and the Financial 15 index had increased by 4.2 percent, while the listed Property index had improved by 0.6 percent.
The strong recovering of the rand against the major currencies continues. The currency ended last week on R14.54/$. This is 65 cents stronger (4.2 percent) than the end of August. Against the pound the rand moved sideways, despite a spike in sterling as signs emerge that progress in Brexit negotiations are possible. The rand ended last week 19 c stronger against the Euro at R16.11. THE LONDON Stock Exchange (LSE) emphatically rejected the Hong Kong
bourse’s $39 billion (R568.53bn) take-over offer on Friday, opting to stick with its planned purchase of data and analytics group Refinitiv. The LSE told HKEX in a letter that it had fundamental concerns about key aspects of the proposal which it said had no strategic merit, and that HKEX’s relationship with the Hong Kong government would “complicate matters”.
HKEX’s valuation of the LSE falls “substantially short” and the “ongoing situation in Hong Kong” adds to uncertainty for shareholders, the London bourse added, a reference to weeks of pro-democracy street protests in the former British colony. “Accordingly, the board unanimously rejects the conditional proposal and, given its fundamental flaws, sees no merit in further engagement,” the LSE said. HKEX, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, had no immediate comment. LSE shares were trading up 1.3 percent at 7.352 pence (R1.34) after the statement, little changed from earlier levels. LSE’s blunt rejection letter said the Hong Kong Exchange’s offer did not meet its strategic objectives. It said it was sticking with its core strategy of expanding into data with the $27bn Refinitiv deal, rather than taking a “significant backward step” by bulking up on market transactions in the HEX proposal. HKEX’s offer had required the London exchange to ditch the Refinitiv acquisition. I Reuters
‘Juicy’ coal deal for CR17 funder
Calls to interrogate mining takeover mount
• The Star Early Edition
• 16 Sep 2019
• BONGANI NKOSI [email protected]
PRESSURE is mounting for closer scrutiny of a business deal that could result in a mining company owned by a President Cyril Ramaphosa backer becoming Eskom’s majority coal supplier.
Seriti Resources, whose chief executive Mike Teke donated large sums to the CR17 election campaign, is on the verge of acquiring South African Energy Coal (SAEC).
Owned by Australian group South32, SAEC supplied 14% of coal that Eskom used to produce electricity.
SAEC’s mines were in eMalahleni and Middelburg in Mpumalanga.
Seriti, an 84% black-owned mining company, already supplied 20% of Eskom’s coal.
Its takeover of SAEC, which was still to be approved by the Competition Commission and Eskom, could see it deposing Exxaro Resources as Eskom’s largest supplier.
South32 announced last month that it had entered into exclusive negotiations with Seriti for the transfer of SAEC assets. Seriti was preferred out of 50 other companies.
Parliament has been asked to “interrogate” the transaction before it can be approved.
The Star has seen a letter by the South African Youth in Mining (Sayim) voicing opposition and asking for an intervention in the transaction.
Sayim chairperson Thato Abrahams said in the letter that it would be unjust for one company to enjoy the coal-supply dominance which Seriti sought.
“As young people operating within the mining industry, it’s our collective view that the South32 divestment presents an ideal platform in the mining sector to catalyse genuine economic transformation through changing the ownership and control patterns of the mining sector in the country fundamentally,” Abrahams said.
“It is deeply unjust that in this country that we continue the pattern of the same groups being the ones who are given the opportunities while the rest watch on as spectators.”
Sayim said that Seriti would in effect supply more than 44% of Eskom’s coal after approval of the deal.
This was a combination of the 20% that it already supplied plus SAEC’s 14% and supply by the New Largo Coal, a mining group in which Seriti had a stake.
“It is our view, ultimately, that the young people of this country must refuse to participate only on the periphery on all matters of the economy,” Abrahams said yesterday.
Speaking independently, energy expert Ted Blom told The Star the Seriti deal should be scrutinised. “I think they need to be scrutinised because there is talk of irregular meetings between them and the mining ministry,” said Blom.
Mkhwebane challenges ‘unfair’
high court ruling
Judge’ s damning findings are strong ammunition in the calls for public protector’ s removal
• Business Day
• 16 Sep 2019
• Karyn Maughan
Reuters (See Page 5)Drone strike: Fires burn in the distance after a drone strike by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi group on Saudi company Aramco’s oil processing facilities, in Buqayq, Saudi Arabia. Foreign ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation have condemned the drone attack, which the US has blamed on Iran. /
Public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has launched a fightback against one of her detractors’
most powerful pieces of ammunition against her the scathing high court ruling that found she had “failed the people of this country” by turning a blind eye to irregularities in the Gupta- linked Estina dairy farm scam.
Mkhwebane is facing the prospect of a parliamentary inquiry into her fitness to hold office, and the damning ruling by judge Ronel Tolmay is very likely to be used as a strong basis to argue for her removal.
Tolmay not only found that the public protector’s conduct in her Estina investigation
“constitutes gross negligence” but also ordered her to personally pay 7.5% of the legal costs of the successful legal challenges to that report.
Business, the DA and ANC alliance partner the SA Communist Party (SACP) have all called for Mkhwebane’s removal, as her credibility has been dented by the various adverse judicial findings. The SACP has also accused her of being the “hired gun” of the fightback against President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration.
In an application filed earlier in September for leave to appeal against Tolmay’s ruling, Mkhwebane insists that the judgment was not fair to her.
She says Tolmay “erred in her extreme censure of the public protector because the
circumstances of this case do not justify such extreme censure”, and strongly suggests that the judge went too far in chastising her “dereliction of duty”.
“The public protector, liked or disliked, must be treated fairly with due regard to all circumstances of the case,” her lawyers state.
They argue Tolmay “erred” by finding that Mkhwebane “acted inappropriately [and] in an egregious manner”, was derelict in her duties, was unable to “comprehend and accept the inappropriateness of her proposed remedial action” and that this “constitutes ineptitude”.
In May, Tolmay ruled that Mkhwebane’s Estina investigation report was unconstitutional and invalid, as the public protec
tor “did not address the major issues raised in the complaints” made about the project, “nor the numerous indications of irregularities”.
Mkhwebane’s first report on Estina — which was based on an edited version of a draft report compiled by Thuli Madonsela — sparked public outrage after it failed to make any findings against former Free State premier Ace Magashule and Mosebenzi Zwane, the MEC of agriculture at the time of the Estina project.
Magashule is now the secretary-general of the ANC, and analysts consider him a key cog in the anti-Ramaphosa faction because of the position he holds in the party, which is akin to that of a company CEO. Leaked Gupta e-mails strongly suggest both men had links to the project, R30m of which was allegedly used to fund a Gupta family wedding. They have denied any wrongdoing.
The public protector had not investigated alleged links between the project, which was intended to benefit black dairy farmers, and the Gupta family, on the basis of alleged financial and resource constraints. She is now conducting a second investigation into the project.
In July, the Constitutional Court slammed Mkhwebane for dishonest, “grossly unreasonable”
and “flawed” conduct in her discredited SA Reserve Bank investigation, in which she proposed that the Bank’s monetary policy target be changed.
Her report was later overturned in its entirety and her conduct of the investigation — which included “secret” meetings with the State Security Agency and then president Jacob Zuma’s office — was slammed by both the high court and the Constitutional Court.
Tolmay, however, found that Mkhwebane’s conduct in her Estina investigation was in fact
“far worse and more lamentable” than her conduct in her Reserve Bank investigation, and demonstrated her failure to execute her duties both in terms of the Constitution and the Public Protector Act.
“In this instance,” Tolmay wrote in her judgment, the public protector’s “dereliction of duty impacted on the rights of the poor and the vulnerable in society, the very people for whom her office was essentially created.
“They were deprived of their one chance to create a better life for themselves. The intended beneficiaries of the Estina project were disenfranchised by the very people who were supposed to uplift them.
“Yet the public protector turned a blind eye, did not consult with them and did not investigate the numerous irregularities that occurred properly and Mkhwebane objectively.”’ s lawyers argue there is “neither factual nor legal basis for these findings”.
MKHWEBANE IS FACING THE PROSPECT OF A PARLIAMENTARY INQUIRY INTO HER FITNESS TO HOLD OFFICE
R30m the amount allegedly used to fund the lavish Gupta family wedding at Sun City
How will history remember Buthelezi?
Former IFP leader wants to ‘ set record straight’ on relationship with ANC
• Business Day
• 16 Sep 2019
• Carol Paton
How will history remember former IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi? Not in the way he would like.
At 91, having stepped down as head of a party he founded and led for more than 50 years, the prince — a direct descendant of the great Zulu king Dinuzulu — says he believes history has treated him unfairly. For a peaceful death, he wants the chapters in which he featured to be revised.
It is a long, bitter and bloody story, stretching back to the 1950s when Buthelezi — like Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and chief Albert Luthuli — was a committed member of the ANC.
After the banning of the ANC in 1960, with Tambo in exile, Mandela on trial and Luthuli banned and confined to his home town, Buthelezi — an ANC Youth League member, a devout Anglican and a traditional leader — remained free.
“After 1960 there was nothing. It was so quiet that noone could even cough,” he said, in an interview at his parliamentary office earlier in September, which still bears the signage of
“IFP leader”. Though he has stepped down as IFP leader, he remains a conscientious MP.
With political opposition suppressed, Buthelezi’s church involvement opened up
opportunities for contact with the wider world. In 1963, while en route to an international gathering of the Anglican
church, he visited Tambo’s wife, Adelaide, in London.
Adelaide got in touch with Tambo in Lusaka immediately and a meeting between the two was arranged.
It was the beginning of almost two decades of undercover co-operation between Buthelezi and Tambo during which Buthelezi, acting on instruction from “his leaders”, revived the Zulu cultural organisation Inkatha Yenkululeko Yesizwe as a cover for legal political activity. But over this time, though Buthelezi consulted with Tambo every step of the way, Tambo, it appears, was careful to avoid any public association or contact with Buthelezi.
HOMELAND SYSTEM
It was on getting the OK from Tambo, he says, that in 1972 he entered the homeland system in the first place, despite the ANC’s stringent opposition to the policy. All the while,
Buthelezi shunned full independence but used the political freedom it brought him to travel internationally and speak out against apartheid.
And travel he did. As well as visiting African heads of state in Tanzania and Zambia — the most generous hosts of the ANC — Buthelezi was soon feted by Western leaders, who saw in him the prospect of a more moderate leader for SA.
Buthelezi is proud of the reception he got from the likes of Margaret Thatcher, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, and says that: “I took the government at their word and used my freedom of speech.”
He concedes that while this took place, a greater geopolitical war played out above his head
— the West looked for moderate alternatives to the ANC as it and the SACP drew inexorably closer to the Soviet Union — but he insists today, as he always has: “I was never an agent for the West.”
That Tambo supported Buthelezi’s endeavours to use the guise of Zulu cultural pride to keep the spark of African nationalist resistance alive resonates with the ANC’s version of the history of the time. Buthelezi says that when the idea of forming a membership organisation was first suggested to him by Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda at a meeting in 1974, he was in a dilemma.
“I thought to myself: now how do I do this? How do I start an organisation to compete with the ANC? So I consulted with Tambo and he said go ahead. So I assumed that this was a front for the ANC. We adopted the colours; we said that this organisation was built on the principles, as articulated by the founding fathers of the ANC. All along I was in
communication with Tambo,” he says.
Tambo also gave his support to Buthelezi when, on his first fundraising mission to
Scandinavia, donors rebuffed him until Tambo stepped in and urged the Europeans to fund the new organisation.
After 1976, though, the political terrain began to change. The ANC was infused with new blood and new militancy as young people, part of the black consciousness movement, flooded its ranks. These youngsters had been at the coalface of confrontation with apartheid authorities, particularly the urban version of the homeland system that governed township areas.
The ANC stepped up its offensive. A visit of the leadership to Vietnam in 1978 was seminal.
From there emerged the ANC’s famous Green Book, a comprehensive strategy of militant resistance as well as international pressure and the beginning of the “people’s war”.
He said that in 1979, as their strategies diverged, Tambo suggested to Buthelezi that they meet in London.
“We talked for two and a half days,” says Buthelezi. “They wanted me to change my stance on economic sanctions, which I opposed; and wanted me to accept the armed struggle. Of course, we did not agree, but it was not acrimonious,” he said.
While Buthelezi says he was under the impression that they had agreed to disagree, it was not long after the 1979 meeting that the political attacks on him began. First came Soweto leader Nthato Motlana, who called him a traitor.
Next came ANC secretarygeneral Alfred Nzo in 1980, who called him a careerist.
The former IFP leader says he was still reeling in shock from this turn of events when a story appeared in the Sunday Times, exposing the fact that Tambo and Buthelezi had met up in London.
“To my shock, Tambo issued a statement that no such meeting ever took place. He accused me of leaking it to the Sunday Times.
“Then I was attacked in Sechaba (the ANC journal) and on Radio Freedom where ANC NEC member John Nkadimeng called me a snake that must be hit on the head. I was vilified all over the world.”
As resistance to apartheid grew inside the country, ANCaligned activists launched the United Democratic Front, “which all anti-apartheid organisations were welcomed to join except Inkatha”, he says. These were some of the seeds of the bloody war of KwaZuluNatal, which during the 1980s and 1990s left an estimated 10,000-20,000 dead — more than those who died at the hands of the apartheid state fighting for liberation.
As in all wars, there were no innocent parties. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) report describes atrocities and culpability by both sides in the conflict.
When the ANC launched the people’s war and the township youth of KwaZulu-Natal
mobilised against school and local authorities, they invariably came into violent conflict with the IFP.
Buthelezi proposed the training of a paramilitary force for KwaZulu “to deal with riots” as early as 1980, says the report. In 1985, after threats of assassination, the IFP requested help from the apartheid government to covertly train and equip a battalion in the Caprivi, later implicated in numerous killings.
Throughout the war and still today Buthelezi is adamant he has never contravened his deeply held principle of nonviolence. “The ANC imposed that war.
“My response was that it was the inalienable right of people to defend ourselves.
“I stuck to the 1912 [ANC founding] principles of nonviolence; everything was done in self- defence. Yes, there was violence, there was counterviolence and there was pre-emptive violence, but it was not orchestrated by myself.
“Not a single meeting of the IFP ever called for violence.”
But that view is not the one that emerged from the TRC, in which Buthelezi and the IFP declined to participate, until just before its very end. The commission found that Buthelezi and the IFP had “institutionalised violence”; “had dramatically escalated the conflict” with the Caprivi trainees; and that “the SA government had provided Inkatha with a hit squad”.
In his final speech as president at the IFP congress in August, Buthelezi made no reference to the IFP-ANC war, but traversed his history with Tambo, lamenting: “I am left with only one regret. What was done to me by one of my leaders, Mr Oliver Tambo, opened a wound that has yet to be healed.”
His wish, he said, was to “achieve reconciliation between the two organisations”.
By this he does not mean the ANC and the IFP should turn the clock back to 1979 and merge into one movement. He is not looking for acknowledgment, he says, but for a common understanding of history.
“They should just be honest about the history of our country. Although I became chief
minister of KwaZulu as a cadre of the ANC, instructed by Luthuli, the way they portray me is not right.”
As not many today know Buthelezi was once an ANC cadre, loyal to Tambo and Luthuli, his complaint is not entirely without grounds. But, as many other protagonists in history have discovered, it is not your choice to determine how you are remembered.
‘Keep your sorry, Cyril’
EXPERTS: SPECIAL ENVOYS SENT TO APOLOGISE TO NEIGHBOURS QUESTIONED
• The Citizen (Gauteng)
• 16 Sep 2019
• Eric Naki – [email protected]
Picture: AFPRESPECT. President Cyril Ramaphosa bows on Saturday as he says a final farewell at the casket of former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe at the National Sports Stadium in Harare.
There has been mixed reaction from experts to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to send a high-profile delegation to at least seven African countries to explain the recent xenophobic violence.
‘Ramaphosa doesn’t know what he is doing. We owe nobody an apology.’
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s unprecedented decision to dispatch a high-profile delegation of envoys to at least seven African countries to explain the recent xenophobic violence, has solicited mixed reactions from political analysts.
Ramaphosa issued a thinly veiled apology on Saturday, while addressing mourners at the funeral of former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe.
Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Khusela Diko, said the special envoys – Jeff Radebe, Ambassador Kingsley Mamabolo and Dr Khulu Mbatha – would deliver a message from Ramaphosa regarding the recent violence which had manifested in attacks on foreign
nationals and destruction of property. “The envoys are tasked with reassuring fellow African countries that SA is committed to the ideals of Pan-African unity and solidarity. The envoys will also reaffirm South Africa’s commitment to the rule of law.”
Diko said they would brief the governments in the identified African countries about the steps that the SA government was taking to stop the attacks and hold the perpetrators to account.
The African Diaspora Forum Vusumuzi Sibanda described the deployment of envoys as
“interesting” and wondered why Ramaphosa did not approach the local victims themselves.
“By sending his envoys to these countries, he is acknowledging there is xenophobia in South Africa. The message is a mix-up,” Sibanda said.
“This is a PR exercise so that there is no retribution or backlash from those countries. The president is concerned because those countries might retaliate, but he has not said anything about us who are victims in SA.”
But political analyst Zamikhaya Maseti said the purpose of the visit was wrong, if it was for SA to apologise for the attacks on foreign nationals.
“What is the apology for? If the intention is to apologise, Cyril doesn’t know what he is doing.
We owe nobody an apology. But if the visit is about conveying a certain message, he is on the right track,” Maseti said.
He said for SA to go to the other African countries to beg for mercy was nonstrategic because South African citizens were not xenophobic, but reacted to acts of criminality by some
foreigners.
Due to lack of government controls and policies, some foreigners were offered jobs by the private sector and others illegally occupied government RDP houses. All that caused envy among South Africans who were unemployed or had been on government subsidised housing lists for long.
The political analyst, who specialises in policy and governance matters, was adamant many of the foreigners were illegal and some were involved in criminal activities.
Their countries should take responsibility for their activities and apologise to South Africa.
Maseti asked if these envoys went to apologise, would they be apologising for Timothy Omotoso in Nigeria and Shepherd Bushiri in Malawi. He was referring to the two faith
healers who faced criminal charges after allegations of sexual assault and fraud they allegedly committed in SA.
However, South Africans should embrace immigrants who came through proper channels, with correct documentation, and who had skills that could contribute to the country’s economic growth, Maseti said.
He dismissed the justification often made by some in the ANC that foreigners must be allowed to stay because the ANC members who went to exile were never ill-treated in the host countries.
“It should not be blown out of proportion, because the ANC exiles was controlled by the laws of the host countries and international rules governing political refugees. They were not all over those countries like now in SA,” Maseti said.
But analyst Ralph Mathekga commended Ramaphosa for the envoy deployment. “It’s good efforts to communicate our responses to neighbouring countries. Reaching out is a good initiative,” Mathekga said.
“It shows SA leaders are taking ownership. I hope it is met with constructive engagements across the continent.”
Many of the foreigners were illegal
세메냐 없는 세메냐 시상식…도하에서 2011년 金 시상식 예정
• 기사입력 2019/09/12 21:19 송고
러시아 선수 도핑 양성…2011 년 대구 대회 여자 800ｍ 金 수여식 세메냐는 '성호르몬 논란'으로 2019 세계선수권에 참가하지 못해
국제육상경기연맹과 법정 투쟁 중인 세메냐[EPA=연합뉴스 자료사진]
(서울=연합뉴스) 하남직 기자 = 카타르 도하에서 캐스터 세메냐(28·남아프리카공화국)가 참석하지 않는 '세메냐 금메달 수여식'이 열린다.
남아프리카공화국 육상경기연맹은 12 일(한국시간) "국제육상경기연맹(IAAF)이 2019 도하 세계육상선수권 기간 중 2011 년 대구 대회 여자 800ｍ 금메달을 세메냐에게 수여하는 행사를 연다고 전했다"고 밝혔다.
세메냐는 2011 년 대구 세계선수권 여자 800ｍ 결선에서 1 분 56 초 35 로, 1 분 55 초 87 의 마리야 사비노바(러시아)에 이어 2 위로 결승선을 통과했다.
그러나 2017 년 세계반도핑기구(WADA)가 사비노바의 2011 년 샘플을 재검사했고, 금지약물 성분을 검출해냈다. IAAF 는 사비노바의 2011 년 대구 대회 금메달을 박탈하고, 세메냐를 1 위로 공식 인정했다.
홈페이지 기록 등에서 세메냐는 대구 세계선수권대회 여자 800ｍ 우승자로 공인받았지만, 아직 메달을 받지는 못했다.
IAAF는 27 일 개막하는 도하 세계선수권에서 사후 도핑으로 뒤늦게 메달리스트가 된 선수들에게 메달을 수여하기로 했다.
2011년 대구 대회 남자 20 ㎞ 경보에서, 경기 당일에는 6 위를 했으나 앞순위 선수 3 명이 금지약물을 복용한 것으로 드러나 동메달리스트가 된 한국 경보의 간판
김현섭(34·삼성전자)도 도하에서 8 년 늦게 메달을 받는다. 김현섭은 이번 도하 대회에서도 경기에 출전한다.
세메냐는 경기에도, 시상식에도 나타나지 않는다. IAAF 는 일반 여성보다 남성호르몬(테스토스테론) 수치가 높은 세메냐의 여자부 800ｍ 출전을 금지했다.
세메냐는 이에 반발해 법정 투쟁을 시작했지만, 7 월 31 일 스위스 연방법원은 "IAAF 의 주장을 받아들인다. 세메냐가 재판이 끝나기 전에 여자 400ｍ, 400ｍ 허들, 800ｍ, 1,500ｍ, 1마일(1.62 ㎞) 경기에 나서려면 약물 투여 등의 조처로 테스토스테론 수치를 5n ㏖/L 이하로 낮춰야 한다"고 결론 내렸다.
세메냐는 "곧바로 성명을 내고 "매우 실망스럽다. 세계선수권대회 800ｍ 챔피언 자리를 지키고 싶었는데 출전할 수 없게 됐다"며 "그러나 나는 싸움을 멈추지 않겠다. 여자 선수의 인권을 위해 싸우겠다. (남성호르몬 수치를 낮추지 않고도 뛸 수 있는) 장거리 종목에는 나서지 않겠다"고 밝혔다.
짐바브웨 전 독재자 무가베, 국가영웅묘역에 안장 예정
• 기사입력 2019/09/13 22:02 송고
무가베 유족, 정부 계획 수용하기로 결정
(카이로=연합뉴스) 노재현 특파원 = 아프리카 남부 짐바브웨에서 37 년 동안 철권통치를 행사한 로버트 무가베 전 대통령의 시신이 '국가영웅묘역'에 안장될 예정이다.
무가베의 유족은 13 일(현지시간) 시신을 수도 하라레의 국가영웅묘역에 안장하려는 짐바브웨 정부의 계획을 받아들이기로 했다고 아랍권 매체 알자지라방송, 로이터통신 등이 보도했다.
무가베의 조카 레오 무가베는 이날 기자들에게 "나는 그(무가베)가 국가영웅묘역에 묻힐 것이라는 점을 확인할 수 있다"고 말했다.
거대한 동상과 조형물이 있는 국가영웅묘역은 북한 건축가들이 설계와 조성에 참여한 유공자 묘지다.
최근 짐바브웨 정부는 오는 14 일 국립스포츠경기장에서 무가베의 장례식을 엄수하고 15일 시신을 국가영웅묘역에 안장하겠다고 발표했다.
그러나 짐바브웨 유족은 그동안 시신을 고향 즈빔바에 안장하고 싶다고 밝히며 정부와 대립했었다.
즈빔바는 하라레에서 85 ㎞가량 떨어진 곳이다.
짐바브웨 전 대통령 무가베의 시신이 안치된 수도 하라레의 루파로 경기장 근처에 모인 군중[AP=연합뉴스]
무가베는 올해 4 월부터 싱가포르에서 치료를 받다가 지난 6 일 95 세로 사망했으며 시신이 지난 11 일 짐바브웨에 도착했다.
12일에는 무가베의 시신이 안치된 루파로 경기장에 군중이 대거 몰리면서 부상자가 몇 명 발생하기도 했다.
로이터는 14 일 예정된 무가베의 장례식에는 시릴 라마포사 남아프리카공화국 대통령, 우후루 케냐타 케냐 대통령 등 여러 국가의 정상이 참석할 것으로 보인다고 전했다.
무가베는 1980 년부터 37 년이나 짐바브웨를 통치했고 41 살 연하의 부인에게 대통령직을 물려주려고 시도하다가 2017 년 11 월 군부 쿠데타와 의회의 탄핵 절차 등에 직면한 뒤 사임했다.
